Can EA re-invent the skating sim - again?

Skateboarding sims have always interested me not because I'm a skater myself but because they usually attempt to capture the socio-cultural elements of the sport/pastime rather than just the raw mechanics. The original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater set the agenda here managing to emulate the seamless non-linear essence of freestyle skating - and it was fun to do with mates.

It's this element that seems to be the guiding force behind Skate 3 which EA announced today for a May 2010 release. "Skate 3 breaks new ground by taking all of the camaraderie and competitive excitement of real-life skateboarding and brings it to the hands of gamers" boasts the press release. "Whether online or offline players can now team up to build the ultimate skate crew in the definitive skateboarding co-op experience. In SKATE 3 players take part in team-based challenges compete against rival crews and leave their mark on the all-new skater's paradise Port Carverton."

While plenty of skate games - like many urban racing titles - have allowed you to build 'crews' of non-player characters Skate 3 wants you to do the same with online gamers. You complete challenges together and help build each other's careers. There's also a level design feature so that you can construct a personalised skate park.

It's not a particularly innovative tactic; creating a broad social experience is essentially what Ubisoft was trying with Shaun White Snowboarding. However it is interesting that Activision seems to have gone in a different direction with Tony Hawk: RIDE. Due out later this year this one is based much more around the actual experience of controlling a skateboard - hence the inclusion of a Wii Balance Board-style controller which you stand on and tilt to simulate actual skating moves. Here the social emphasis is based around an offline 'hot swapping' mode which allows players in the same location to take part one after the other.

But are either of these doing enough to make the skate sim relevant again for a new generation of console users who have seen only diminishing returns from the genre of late? Are these evolutionary steps comparable to say the introduction of open-world online racing in driving games like Test Drive Unlimited?

Certainly the one thing both of these 'franchises' are missing - if the activities at my local skate park are in any way representative - is a dating mode.