Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Skate Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

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What's up and welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, October 8th, 2025. Of course, I'm your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by Snowbike, Mike. Tim, what up, Big Dog? What a big dog? So is it Pickman or not? Okay, now we just add pigment into the video. What's the deal?

What does that mean, Mike? What's the deal? What could you possibly mean? Is it Pikmin or not? It's Pickman. I didn't see it come from the Nintendo video, though. What do you mean? Nintendo YouTube.

Well, because they posted it on their new set. Today. Today, today. I'm not on that app. Mike was getting the stream ready during games. I'm not on that app, bro. Get the fuck out of town. Oh, you didn't see this.

New Pickman. New Pickman, baby. Oh, man, baby. I'm in. Oh, man. We also have Greg Miller. Hello, Timothy. How are you?

I'm good. How are you? How's doing great as always? How much portal play are we getting these days now that you are more of a ally boy? You've been getting a lot of portal play. Skate. Yeah. I mean, if I'm doing skate.

I had done my. raw as we've been talking about the xbox ally too much on shows so the rog ally x is what i have right uh i booted that originally when skate dropped and installed skate wasn't happy with uh low settings on that and trying to go up i wasn't thrilled with how it looked so i've just been doing portal for uh skate and i've been doing a lot yeah i like that and we hear about it's what we're talking about today yeah yeah exciting it is i was playing with mike last night i was portaling wow i was in bed I saw the invite come in I had to join We had to join me and bear were already out there harsh in the

NAR, I saw snowmike mics online I'm like let's go new season new man I love that I hope you do too because this is the kind of funny games cast Can I address a comment that's going to be in the comments Right away. Sorry I know you're just getting going Yeah A lot of people out there

Are going to yell at me and say Greg It finally happened You're not using your animal crossing mug I am using Pumpkey the old standby Poked mug The problem here I was having a rough morning you can hear all about it on Greg Way. So I stopped at McDonald's to eat my feelings.

And I got a ginormous iced coffee there. And I've been, it's turned my day around, all right? It's turned my day around like a turkey leg, turns a Disneyland day around. And the problem was, though, it was starting to taste like paper

because they gave me a paper cup. And so I had to get it out of the paper cup, but my Animal Crossing mug too small for the amount of coffee I'd left. So Pumpkin got put in a service today. The Animal Crossing mug still remains. Nobody get mad to me. Don't get mad at him, everybody.

I'm sure it was on the tip of your tongues. Each every weekday, we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics and video games live on YouTube, Twitch, and podcast services around the globe. Speaking of those podcast services, we are having a lot of podcast issues. I'm trying to get to the bottom of them. Something changed with the distributor's backend channel that we use.

So pocketcast seems to be getting an issue, and there's a couple Spotify issues specifically with episode 2000. If you have other issues, please let me know. contact me somehow. I'm at Tim Getty as on all social. 415. No, don't do that. But just at Tim Geddes. Let me know if you're having any podcast issues because I'm trying to nip this shit in the bud

because I'm going to be real. I'm annoyed and I don't like it. But we'll get to the bottom of it. I hope. If you love we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, or Apple podcast to get all of our shows ad free. Watch us do them and get a daily exclusive show. For chance to be part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube

super chats as we go. Another thing I always say, if you are having podcast issues, the first thing you should try, unsubscribe, resubscribe. And that hopefully will do something. It seems to what it does? I don't know. Maybe it pings the system. You know, doesn't that sound right, Mike?

It'll ping the system. I do that all the time, Tim. All the time. You got one ping only. Nice, Greg. This guy listens to the kind of funny content. A little housekeeping for you. We are an 11-person business all about live talk shows.

Games Daily was all about Nintendo TV. picking man. Again, now it's like more confirmed. It's actually the picture. They're there. The fact that anyone who's questioning the pickman part of it is the land. I was questioning it.

But I mean, what, yeah, what it turns into? But then I believe it now. Now I'm going to believe it. Now I'm going to believe it. Now give me,

give me Picman 1 through 4 in an ultimate bundle. Oh, no, no, $160. I'll buy it. I don't care. $160.

I don't care what you do. Oh my God. After this for streaming kingdom come deliverance, too. You excited about that? I'm pandering to the audience. Of course you are. Get them, kids.

Here's a deal, because Andy won't do it for you, audience. I'll do it. I'll be the one to play kingdom come deliverance to. Greg started the trend because he was like, yo, we got to get talking about this game. And I said, Greg, I'll follow up. I'm 12 hours in, and I'm only getting deeper. Okay, I got mutt.

I got my buddy mutt. You got mutt. You got it. They know what he's talking about. And I'm getting money. I was very poor. in the game. You have to get a 9 to 5 job to get money.

What's your job? I'm a blacksmith apprentice. Okay, you feel good about that? I'm just pounding horseshoes. I'm making some bad swords. I'm sometimes making axes. And then I sell it to the guy. And it says that it should sell for like 38 to maybe 42.

He offers me 12. And I'm like, deal. I got to do it, Tim. I need money. You got to deal it, everyone. If you're a kind of funny member today's Gregway is an 18-minute epic to mental breakdown from Greg. Hey, everybody, it's me. going around, isn't it?

Oh, man, thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Obamacin' Buster, and the lady the sob, and twasper. Like, what scares me is that it's a mental breakdown, and, like, KF podcast yesterday wasn't a mental breakdown? Like, is this a real one? That was a fun one. This was the not, it's, it's just me venting about a million different things and then going to McDonald's.

Oh, what did you get out? You got a lot. You got a little out. I don't want to go to therapy. I have a podcast for that called Gregway. What did you get? I do the, I do the two sausage, uh, burritos.

Oh. Because you get one off the dollar menu then. But the coffee was the addition to it. I really just needed the giant ice coffee. Got it.

And it's the easiest one on my route once I decided that this would turn my day around. And I was right, everybody. Eating your feelings works. Today we're brought to you by Factor, but we'll tell you about that later.

For now, I'll start with. Speaking, eating your feelings. Let me tell you about factor. The topic of the show. Tots, Tots, Tots,

Tats, Tats, Sats, Sats, Sats. Skate, Baby. This is the review by Greg Miller. It's our review period. We didn't review. day. And he's like, yeah, you're trying too hard. Just call it skate review. We never reviewed it. We did first impressions.

Like, oh, brilliant, because me and Mike, we're not there. That's true. Yeah. We're there day one. We miss Greg's thoughts and we're excited to hear about him. Well, yeah, I want you. Now you get to score it too, Mike. I want to hear where you're at with his early access, baby. Before you get into all that, I want to give you some little facts here and read a little bit of the review so far of this video game. The developer's full circle publisher, electronic arts. The Steam description is as follows. Experience improved flicket controls.

the rich physics-based skateboarding gameplay that provides those only in skate moments and off-board exploration for full freedom in the online multiplayer world of San Vansterdam. Early access began on September 16th, 2025. Season 1 dropped yesterday, October 7th. More than 15 million players have dropped into skate since the game launched into early access

less than three weeks ago. We have some upcoming events, Skate-O-ween, come in October 21st through November 11th, then the seven-ply, Maple Harvest from November 18th to December 2nd. That's some lore drop for you. Yeah. That's the big deal on the lore.

You read that about the dog? Of course I did. Of course I did. I of course built this document for you and dropped you this in there because I think if you're not paying attention, it's interesting how committed they are to skate being a living, breathing world already with a season and then two events already. Like they're actually doing stuff. I mean, I'd hope so, right?

A month in, not even a month in three weeks in. Right? But I mean like I remember Avengers where they just promised stuff that was going to happen and never did. Gotcha. How many other battle rails drop and like they have a season but they're not doing it.

Anyways, I'm just pointing out. That dude is not like somebody's coming through the roof. Yeah, I don't know. There's no Metacritic score. It's TBD because of early access, but some highlights so far. Steam reviews are mixed, 66% positive. Dominic L. at the 6th axis says,

Skate's about vibes. It always has been and that's immediately the most compelling thing about this new version out in the city of San Vanserdam you can do whatever you like. Want to find the best line through an interesting set of benches and plinths? Go for it. Want to climb to the top of a skyscraper and launch yourself off?

You can do that too. Want to just poodle around? We're just dropping words here. This motherfuckerucker said he said plinths and poodle in the same review. Good for you, dude. That's awesome. You don't want to hear Lucy James. What's a plinth? Listen to music and make your character look cool. That's also an easy

and welcome option. Skate's always acted as the antithesis to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Time constraints, ridiculous combos, blast furnace locations are plenty of fun, but they only capture a very slim and utterly unrealistic vision of skateboarding. Skates always aim to capture the lifestyle, focus on one trick, hanging out with friends,

the sheer difficulty of pulling off that one trick, and that's what you're getting here. IGN gave it a four out of ten, calling it bad. Youch! Riley wrote, If I said there weren't times while playing the new early access skate when I found myself hooked on clearing a task or engaged in an impromptu line,

challenge myself to make, I'd be lying. Thanks in large part to its smooth controls, it's true that cruising around its skate does have the capacity to tickle the dusty part of my brain that still delights in booting up skate too every now and then just to turn back the clock, noodle around, and unwind. However, these moments are fleeting. Skates just so aggressively different in tone, style, and spirit from its ancestors that any brief trance I found myself in was constantly broken by its embarrassing dialogue, trite art style, and sterile mobile game style progression. Arming skate with a faithful facsimile of the incredible feel of the old games means little if the rest of it's constantly turning me off. Unfortunately, skate is so fundamentally irritating and unsatisfying in every other way that there's currently no appeal here whatsoever for me to play this over any of the originals, old and creaky as they may be.

I don't know what skate will look like in 12 months time or when it's no longer in early access, but it's left a horrible first impression. The fortnightification of skate may well be the most disappointing thing to happen to skate culture since Razor Scooters. All right. All fucking right, okay? You'll stand for the slander of the game, but not erase a scooter. There's an age process. You know what I mean? Get the kids in, get them to the skate park with the scooters. Dude, don't even get me started.

I'm sure we're going to come into the skate culture arguments that are happening here. We're talking about how much a fucking old's mad at this game. Christian Donnellin at Eurogamer in an unscored takes. I love a lot about skate than more I suspect than a lot of people. But even I can sense that there's something missing here. How can I explain this? Okay, I don't get upset. But skates perhaps the least cool game I've ever played.

And I mean this in the main as a compliment. What? And I mean this in the main as a compliment. Skate isn't trying too hard. And it wants to be friendly to a large audience. And I suspect it's also made by people who have lived enough of their lives to know that you miss out on important stuff in the pursuit of being cool for the sake of being cool alone. But skate is set in a city that everyone loves. The city that's basically designed for skating.

That means that some of the punkier side of skating, the repurposing of an environment that's built as if you don't exist or don't matter is absent. I'm sure there's a really good point being made there. I don't fully understand it. I love it. Pretty much making the counterculture, the culture in like this weird corporate homogenized setting, which I understand. It's the idea that so many people are drawn to skating

because, of course, it is the renegade cool, whatever thing. And this is a world built around skating. So then it's fundamentally just like, you make your character look like whatever you want. So an old lawyer could be next to whoever skate. You know what I mean? Like this isn't like the cool thing to do in this city that you're rebelling against. Yeah.

I don't want to say. There's a lot of Franklin. There's a lot of arguments here. Who do I start with Mike? Greg. Hi. Let's start with Greg because we haven't heard. We've heard from me before.

I've streamed it a bunch. But Greg, you know, you've been playing a lot of this. I have. And I do need to know, like, what is your vibes with this game? So yeah, I've probably put in since getting back 30 hours into skate. PlayStation clock says 25. I've had, I've been on the Razor Blade 16. I've been on the allies.

We were talking briefly for that night and then the port, whatever doesn't matter. I've been all over the place with it. The stuff you're hearing is all great criticism, but for me it comes down to how skate feels in the sticks. It feels fucking awesome. It is a blast mic as you nod your head to run around and skate in skate. It is an early access game. There are plenty of pain points. There are plenty of things that are missing, lacking, whatever.

I think they've already been, to some respects, interestingly tweaked. coming into this next season and what they've added there. In terms of a score, I've gone back and forth a lot on it, where it's like, for me, personally, is it a 6-5 or is it a 7? And that might not sound like a big difference to people, but for me, am I saying it's okay or am I saying it's good? I feel when I start making excuses for why I want to make it a 6-5, I'm really bringing in other people's arguments that I don't share with it.

So I'm giving this a 7 out of 10. I'm saying this is a good video game. I think the skating is so good. I think the skating is probably great, if not even better. in this game. It is what you're doing with it, how much there is to do, how quickly maybe that wears out or doesn't as you go, and how much freedom you have to find your fun. There's a whole bunch to talk about in this reviews, I'm sure we will. But skating and skate is great. The sound of the skateboards is phenomenal. The clicking, the clacking, me grinding, what it sounds

like my wheels hitting pavement. It immediately takes me back to what I loved about skate one, two, and three, and why I was so obsessed with those games. And every night I am, you excited to turn it on, whether it be for, all right, I did whatever redacted for review. I'm going to get a couple of challenges in and I'm going to do my dailies or whatever. Or if it is, I'm going to sit there and just play for four hours, whether it be on the TV or the portal or whatever. Like, I am so happy to be skating in it. I totally get why other people are turned off by it.

But I also think we're at a risk of, and I'm sure we'll get into the deeper thing. So many people reviewing this against what their expectations of a skate four were. And I think a lot of people what escaped four would have been versus what this is as they've tried to restart this and make it a free to play game, which inherently is going to change a whole bunch of stuff. I think criticisms are all fine, but like I do think the IG and four out of ten is kind of crazy. Again, it's video games reviews. Everybody can have their opinion. And I'm not saying Luke doesn't back it up for why he's coming at that. But I really do feel like if I can take you on a walk, Tim.

Take me. As you know, I was the grand poohba of the antlers at Missou. the crazy sports fans at the university doesn't want to exist that scream very mean things at players in prank phone caller hotels and yada yada yada at the end of my junior year I passed the baton to a very nice gentleman named

Michael Booth who I love to this day of course he was now the new poohba of the antlers the leader and I my senior year was you know just hanging around still doing it you get mid year reviews as an antler which are basically you're getting roasted in an email and all this stuff and I remember my mid year review was

booth going Miller what happened to you? You don't come to this thing. You don't drink anymore. You don't drink at the giant... I was still drinking my fucking face off. But, you know, I wasn't at the party or whatever. But basically, he ended it with,

you're still good at games, I guess. And he meant going to the games and being an antler. And I remember reading that review. I'm like, what the fuck am I being reviewed on if I'm good at... I'm still great at being an antler at basketball games, but I'm not doing the ancillary hanging out fun stuff. I feel a lot of those reviews are falling in here. Skate is still great to skate in.

It is still so much fun. to skate in this game that I can't see coming in and dogging on it because I don't like the visuals because I think V is annoying, which I do and have turned her off. Like there's a million things going on, but especially for an early access game where we are going to be seeing this, I can't wait to see what it looks like in six months, what it looks like in a year, what it looks like when Saudi Arabia comes in and shits all over it and definitely ruins it. There's a lot to love here right now despite the many flaws. And so I say it's a seven out of ten. But Mike, how much of you played and what would you support? So real quick, I want to know, is it free to play?

It is. It's great. Cool. Yeah. 15 million players. Jumped in. Greg, you said that so well, and I echo everything you have. I'm very excited to get more into the pain points because I can go from a six to an eight at any given moment. The problem is, is when I'm playing the game, and I have my favorite album on. I'm on Spotify with the best soundtrack, cranked all the way up, and I'm skating. It's a great game. It's one of the greatest games around. It's one of the great

greatest feelings ever that they somehow captured in this skate franchise. It is so much fun to play moment to moment and just get lost in it. There are a lot of pain points now on the free to play, early access side that makes it go from, man, I could spend eight hours here and I just want to attack this giant open world and all these checklists, all of these moments that I used to have from skate one to skate three. Now I get hit with kind of a wall and I question, well, what am I doing now when I can't

progress X amount of story or where I want to go, right, with all the challenges. And that kind of brings me down a little bit. I'm at a flat seven good is right. That's where I go. I could give you six okay with some of the pain points, some of the vibes. I really do not like the over the top off the board flying from skyscraper antics. At first, I was kind of into that. I liked that.

After a couple of weeks with this game, that has definitely gone to the wayside. I don't really care for the challenges that make me Superman three blocks down the road and fall into a planter or a tree planter fly into the docks. Like it's just not really that fun. But when I'm on the skateboard and I'm doing grinds, I'm doing manuals, I'm doing fun tricks on the ramps. It's an absolute blast to play. I do wish we somehow found Hall of Meat. We don't quite have that. It is more, hey, just fly over there, fall into a tree.

We're close enough, you know. And so. people who don't remember, Mike, what was Hall of Me? Hall of Me was a really fun mini game in the skate franchise where you would huck yourself off of the skateboard off of these giant jumps and then you would fall down and crash land and the point totals where how bad you landed.

We had the fun. How many bones you were breaking? And the bones would break. And so like that was really cool of like that was fun. It felt skater culture back then, right? When we talked about NFL Blitz, the league. And we had those moments of like, oh, wow, Moral Combat.

That guy ripped his heart out. Well, now I'm skater. you know, coach Frank over here and I've snapped my leg in five places. It's really fun to see that. We're not there anymore, right? It's 2025. We're in a different world here. And so it just doesn't feel the same.

But when I'm skating and I'm with friends and we're doing challenges or we're just vibing around, I have a good time. You know, here's a crazy one for you. We're going to go back and forth on this. The store is really fucking good. The prices are outrageous. The prices are outrageous. but man oh man.

How much would you pay for a Dead Space bundle, Timothy? A Dead Space bundle. Isaac Clark, kind of. It's like cardboard versions of it, so it's not like, you know, the suit. It's made to look like it kind of money. You're really selling me here. Oh, man. It fits for the record.

Legerri. For the record, I'm not trying to sell you. I'm trying to give you the honest appraisal of what. Can you Google Justin Lagary Dead Space? Well, this is what it looks, right? It's Dustin LaGerry. I love it. I think it's great.

I think they nailed it. And so the story has been fantastic. The character creator has been fantastic. I've really enjoyed putting on different outfits. I really wish that the micro-transaction side of things was not priced the way it is. I do wish a lot of this was just in the game. Like we used to have one through three, right? And so there's just an odd one that we'll get back into on that one.

You know, a lot of the tricks, there's tricks that are missing that I am surprised that are not. there, right? Like, where the handplants? Where's the dark slide when I want to flip the board upside down? There's just like some odd moments here of like we had one through three. I know this is early access. It's free to play. But like, how do we not have certain tricks in the game that were like staples of the franchise? Like it's just very odd that we chose a couple of these moves that like just clearly not in there. What happened here? I mean, I think it was the early access. Let's get it out right. Because they have they have said they're adding moves. skate moves? They're adding more moves they've said and they are confirmed.

Yeah, but they're happy to charge me $35 for a bad looking dead space skin. Yeah, why I'm not? Put the dark slide in there. They're going to, they say, and they're going to do it for free. All the moves will be free to everybody. You don't have to worry about buying those off the stores. So, okay, I'm a little, a little confused, Mike, because you started saying that it's a great store. Tim, the brands so far that they've brought in from girls to creatures have been very good, vans as well.

When you see the cosmetics, you look at it and you, go, fuck, I could wear that. I want to wear that. Oh, shit. That's a really dope hat that I would love to put on my outfit. Oh, man. Like, I would love that board. Those are some great wheels. Here's the issue. The trucks, those are $3. The wheels, those are $2. That orange flannel t-shirt that you've seen Snowbike Mike Rock, I would love that. That's $5. That Isaac Clark, Clark bundle is $35. Wait, wait, wait, yes. $35? And it gets you some real. really good stuff. I was going to say the one thing, no, no. That's bad. It is bad. It's very bad. The one thing, it is bad. I just want to make sure

we're representing it correctly because it is a board. It is trucks. It is wheels. Like everything you see to the left. It is a gesture. At no point am I saying it is worth it, ladies and gentlemen. I am not saying it's worth the $30 or whatever. You said there's some great stuff here. So what's the great stuff? The gesture is fantastic. They do the skeleton stump. And it looks very good compared to all the other gestures. The board is sick to him. There's a profile icon that is super nasty in this. This whole package is so well done, but this should be $17 to $20 maximum.

Fortnite lowered everything to where it's like, that's the right number. $33. This is $5. This is $5 and I'd still bid. That is $15. Says the man who freaked out when he bought Leonardo and Fortnite. I mean, real talk.

I'm here now with the K-pop demon hunters in Fortnite. And like, I really want them, but I'm also, I haven't been motivated to turn it on to buy it. I'll let you know. I turned it on because Ben saw it and I looked at the prices and I was like, oh, I think we just helped them in the mode, Ben. I was like, I'm not paying $30 for the K-Benz. Is that what it is?

For the three of them together. And it might be more than that. I forget. And so here's the deal. The store is very good. The battle pass is very good as well. And so I am sitting at a six to eight at any moment. I'm having a great time playing.

Just the one thing to come in on to the store aspect of it. Let's take away even the buying things with actual money. I think they do a great job of that what you're doing is you look at your map and have all these icons. You go out and you do the challenges, you do the thing right, and you're rewarded with the orange points.

I forget what they fucking call those, which are the in game currency, which you then can go and you have these loot boxes, but it's, you know, you know what you're going to get and you can get, if you put it in all 10 items, you're going to get all 10 items. And, but what you're unlocking in those free loop boxes or whatever is, you know,

like, now you have a green board. Oh, now you have a black shirt that's rare for some reason. For the record, if you're not, I don't fully agree with Barrett. Like that, yes, that's accurate, but then that's where I got my slime board, my Ghostbusters caution tape top. It's not like it's all, first off, we all have different wants

and needs out of any costume we want. If you, Barrett, if you want to toss up the, my final form thing, this is all from the boxes. I didn't pay for this stuff. Maybe I paid for the book of the Redd glasses, I forget. But like, I was able to make a goofy ass Greg Miller. This is what I wear when I'm fucking on stage doing stupid stuff at packs, right?

And my Ghostbusters board, like, I got all of that out of the boxes. Now, you know, like, there's plenty of, I, there's an overwhelming amount. And I think this, I think this does work for everybody. An overwhelming amount of shit in all of these boxes where it's like, never going to wear that, never going to wear that, never, oh, got this, cool. Like that kind of thing of like, but it's also the, that spigot of outfits has kept me from spending too much. I bought the van sweatshirt store because I wanted a normal sweatshirt when I started the game.

and I bought the shades in the store. I'm on both sides. I am with Barrett on a lot of this part. It's like the free stuff is great. I have a whole free outfit that I wear a lot of the time, right? I like to change the outfit on the fly quite often. It's really, really fun. Can I jump out here too?

One of my biggest pet peeves for going forward in early access, give us fucking loadouts. I hate the, I should be able to go up on the radio wheel and select from 10 different, I want to look like this with this board right now. I hate the fact of like, oh, last night when we all teamed up,

I was like, oh, shit, I'm going to go make my board look like the kind of, kind of funny board and I made it the blue top and the pink bottom and the blue wheels and I was like why can't I just quick save this? They'll probably work to that. I don't, that seems like a lower priority thing. I just don't like the loopboxes

of like it is my, I've earned this through playing your game. I don't like that. It's like, hey, here's 11 items in a loopbox. We're not even going to show you 10 out of the 11. We'll just show you one and you're rolling the dice, right? And like, sure, the whole point of the game is I'm going to play a bunch of this. and lock them all. But there's like tiers to it where there's probably eight pages

and there's like six to seven different loop boxes that contain eight to 11 on each one. And I'm having to pick and choose which one I kind of guess I think I might like. And then go through a bunch of items. And you can see everything in the loop box. So you know what you're looking for. Well, then I get, you know, six of those items I don't care for, right? Sure. I don't need that odd downrail to build off of.

Now, here's the interesting thing. If you wanted to just go in and pick and choose what you want, then the entire what you're doing in this game in terms of progression would be gone. Like the entire point of this game right now, Tim, is to increase your rep level, which then gives you access to the different boxes to then go and try to get these boxes. Well, that's the early access free-to-play problem of all of this. And it's not an interesting progression, I think, for this game overall. Gameplay overall, I think is very solid just to jump in here.

I would personally give skate early access so far, 86.5. I think it's okay. That foundational gameplay that we have known in love in Skate 1 through 3, like they were able to bring it into the modern day and setting and make it feel as good as we remember it feeling. I think everything around that presentationally is struggling. I think they have definitely improved a little bit on the music since we first started playing, like since a launch of early access.

Like we're rocking to some 90s music last night. were, you know, I'm listening to... Yeah, like, I'm listening to Jane's Addiction and Sonic Youth and all this stuff and not, like, a bunch of stuff that feels very, like, generic in terms of soundtrack. I think the store sucks, and I think everything around the progression of this game being based around either the free part of the store or the store itself is just not very incentivizing because the whole progression is just, you know, you unlock it. clothes in skateboards, which I know is just the free-to-play kind of season model of these type of games,

but I just fundamentally just don't find that very interesting for a game like this. I think, like, Mike, you bringing up, oh, the store is great because of all these brand stuff. I get that, but, like, that should be the baseline for any skateboarding game is to have, you know, vans and to have all of these skateboarding brands that should be part of just like the basic stuff, you know, and have the store itself be more of the maybe not all, you know, brand deal dead space type of things, but other goofier things that we can bring into that world. Yeah. And, you know, I have not, I've turned off all voice stuff and story stuff.

since like day two because it's so bad. It is so... Use your skater eyes as you go through here. We got to get our... The footy. The writing in this game in this world is abysmal. The voice acting is not good

and it's like really... And to know that these are actual real-life skaters voicing fictionalized characters, it makes me question, like, why not just have them voice themselves and introduce a bunch of... new people to a newer generation of skateboarders, right? Why not, why is Tim Robinson not in this game as a new coach Frank, right?

Like, there's just so much around the solid core gameplay that while I'm playing it, you know, you know, we had our session last night and it was really fun. We found some lines that frustrated me to no end, but it was still fun to try to learn them. Yeah. But then everything around it, whenever I'm away from skate, I am not thinking about skate, which is unfortunate, but I hope, I hope. they maybe get there at some point. Okay, sorry.

I want to keep talking about all this. We've got some super chats. We have some other things. And Greg's going to say something. But right after, in a word from our sponsor. This episode's brought to you by Factor. Ball always feels like there's just so much going on,

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Offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase. Gregi, what you got for me? Nothing. I want to piggyback off what Barrett was saying with a bit of a contrarian take of like, for me and just the kind of gamer I am, I guess. The rep level and unlocking the boxes and chasing a piece of clothing does work for me. Right now I'm, I just want to get the skeleton sweatshirt from Gilcrest's box seven or eight or whatever it is, right? But I'm still working my rep up to unlock that box to do the thing, blah, blah, because I keep getting distracted and getting pulled into other missions and yet, da-da-da-da. I think there's an interesting takeaway, too, of what people wanted out of skate.

And I think when we were talking about it leading into it, right, and it being free to play, one of the things I said was, hey, I'm not necessarily against it just because it's free to play. I hope it's not, you know, ruin my good time being money grubby, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was like, I hope there's dailies to go do, and then I hope it's just fun to skate or whatever. So the amount of times I've turned it on and I find myself not doing the missions to get the rep tokens,

and it is just exploring, it is just finding a line, grinding down this. Oh, can I do that? Oh, I never know. Like, there's a vibe, back to the reviews that we're talking about the game being a vibe. I feel like there's a definitive vibe here

that I know so many people like Luke were like, yo, this isn't skater culture. I hate this fucking vibe. For me, the neon just rolling around skating vibe is that nice palette cleanse back to what Mike was saying too of like in Barrett you know I went in there and I had such a better time once I turned off VEO

and I then also turned off their music which is better now with the 90 stuff they got ice cube you gotta yeah Nathan Robinson in the chat says they removed 25 songs when they added the new eight songs oh interesting well I mean I do wonder if it's gonna be a seasonal thing though where it's like they they pay for you know licensing for a certain amount of time but it's also just the fact of like for this kind of game and to vibe around and do it for me it's so easy to kill the music turn on spotify on the play station and play what i want to play and like i'm not giving it credit for that or anything i'm just saying like what i'm looking for of like i'm just gonna do this and be chill and vibe and go do this it works for me and right now checking with me in a month and a half of i'm still grinding on boxes or whatever even though that hollinois shit you know i'll be all about i gotta get all that hollewing crap when i drops i'll be it but yesterday dropped the battle pass in the battle pass i do think is one of those like we had founder pass

right so and there's a free track to the battle pass then there's a paid one uh we had founder passes which gets us the battle pass to begin with when i looked at it yesterday i went through every page of that battle pass this as much as i love skate and love skating this would have been a battle pass i never would have spent money on because for me looking at it i look at him like other than the the it's one of it's just like fortnight where you play it you unlock the bucks as you play so it's like i'd be making you could make money back from it or whatever same thing with hell divers there's nothing in this that i would want and so i think that's to what Barrett's kind of talking about

on the current loot boxes they have in there for me to be able to identify things I do want and those keeps me going. But then for a battle pass, I'm not going to give next season two. I'm going to have to look at that battle pass. I'm going to actually want this and it's worth going for.

A. Gideon says it's 21 new songs that just spread around different stations. So not eight. That battle pass hurts me. I really like the battle pass. I'm on the opposite side. I love the battle pass. I think there's some great cosmetics

that fit my vibe. I really don't like seeing whether like, we're going to give you real world money back. And it's like, here's 25, which is 25 cents. Here's a dollar 25. And you're like, what are we doing here? But when you money back? When they remove the actual amount of money, you look, you go, oh, 70 sand van bucks.

That's pretty good, I guess. I'm making money playing. 25, like 25 is 25 cents in the real world item. Here's what I've been trying to figure out. Help me out on this. Help me do. I need your help right now, Mike, to do math. which I've never been good at.

Yeah. Yesterday they dropped this dead space bundle. Yeah. 33, whatever, right? And I'm like, oh, fuck, I like- Streets were clamoring for this one, by the way. Well, I mean, they liked it a lot in Skate 3 when it was free, but that was a $60 game, but I digress.

I saw that and I was like, oh, man, that's so fucking dumb. And I looked at how much money I had. And I was like, you know what? It's from, I have the money from the founders pass or whatever. Fuck it, buy it. I bought it. Then I had money left over. And then everybody's bitching about the prices,

understandably so. myself included. And I was like, wait, so I did this math. I went on Xbox where it says the Founders Pass came with 2,800 Sand Van Bucks. Okay? I've put no real money into this game. So how did I have 2,800 Sand Van Bucks to start? Last night bought something for 3,350 Sand Van Bucks and still have right now 1,525 van Bucks.

That's how much you have right there. Yeah. I'm the purple one. You see that 25 slap in the face. The purple or the pink. It's a lot of the face. Pink purple, whatever. Just don't get caught in space.

25 cents doesn't deserve screen space. Yeah. But my question, I don't understand. Were we from the missions getting San Van Bucks somewhere? Not that I've seen now. I thought we were. From those intertorial missions you were getting it?

I thought a couple of them gave you. They gifted 500 at the start. I've already given them a lot of money. I've been paying. I've been paying a lot. I've put no real money into this. I might be. So I don't understand how I had.

What? That might be 60 to the 80 in. 60 to 80 in money. I mean, I like it. The problem is I like this game, and I like some of the outfits that they're selling. I have a question here. If the problems with this game

seem to just be a lot of the, like, the new modern stuff, why not just play the old game? Is this game play significantly better than the old game? That's a question. I understand that there's a lot of things of those old games are great, but bear right,

maybe you are the best person to answer this. Like, gameplay, why? You're saying you like the gameplay of this new skate. Does it modernize in ways that like the old games are just too old and they need to update? I mean, it's tough to say like the last time we played skate three was work from home era, uh, backwards compatible on Xbox. So I think it's one of the,

it's a tough thing where I think that's the only way you can play that on a modern system. Corrects me if I'm wrong, Mike, uh, with, uh, with Xbox backwards compatibility. Yeah. With skate three. So I don't, if you only own a PS5 or, have you, like, I think this is the only way to play a skate right now is this. So that's where it's like, if you're really jonesing for that, it's free to download and it's free to play around and fuck around for a couple hours.

And so, like, I think there's that there. But if you do have access to, like, the, you know, backwards compatible skate three and you're looking for more of that experience, like, I don't know if this does anything, like, super significant to, like, make it feel. Two things from the chat. Olive Party says, yes, it's better because the speed now

is what you remember it being. Old skate games are too slow now. That's Olive Party who we know so of that. And then the other one that went through was to this, my, where's all this money coming from that I have? It's getting your level of rep. I get you get there.

So my point being that like, it is one of those games you can, you could have bought Dead Space for free if you didn't put into the Founders Pack based on what I had because I have, what I wrote here, I've, yeah,

somehow I've made 2075 Sanvan Bucks or whatever the fuck they're called. So obviously they're focusing on the micro transactions in the stores and like that is what this game is. They made that decision. There's no going back from that at this point. Do you think that there is saving the game from a gameplay perspective of like, do you think that they're going to be adding things that are worthwhile, Greg, to keep you playing this game or is the fun that you've had now,

the seven that you gave it now kind of your journey with this game. No, I'm going to still be around tonight. And I, you know, maybe I'm too, uh, Maybe I'm being naive. Stuff like Skateaween, which is a terrible name, but a Halloween skate event, like I'm going to be all about that because I love that holiday and I'll be back for the seven ply festival or whatever. I don't know. Sounds goofy.

I imagine there'll be a Christmas activation, all that jazz. And maybe hopefully the season two battle pass. And not to mention, season one added new stuff to the world. I don't think it's like, you know, something insane, Tim, that would grab your attention and make you go play it. But if they're going to be changing the world, that level, I would imagine, it'll, and I do expect. a, you know, people are bummed. There's no career, which of course, me too, right? But I do expect there's mission chains right now as annoying as they are.

Use your footy. Do this thing. I imagine there'll be new mission chains that are added. I wouldn't be surprised if they do guest skaters there and do something like that as we all bitch and moan about what we do and don't like. Like, I expect to be brought back into this game beyond what I expected to also be, which is I put it down for two months for reviews or whatever. And then one night I'm like, oh, man, let's just grind.

and I get back into doing whatever, or season two battle pass has something I really want on there, a Ghostbuster shirt at the very end. I'm going to fucking go crazy for or whatever. Do you think Ghostbusters makes into this game, legitimate question? No, I don't. No? No. Do you?

I mean, I've learned that to never say no. Ghostbusters always finds a way. Anything that's in Zumi's or Hot Top is finding a way. It's one of those things. If this game can maintain, and if this game can be still relevant next Halloween, maybe they figured it out. Maybe that's how they do it.

We've got some super chats. I want to get to. Ozzie Olivo says, I think the reason OG skate fans are upset because we're the reason skates come back. Skate comes back in the first place for us barraging EA and comments. And then they gave us a microwave version of Skate with no soul. Obviously, very valid thought there.

You're not wrong. And again, I'm not trying to do this. I would toss out, I'm an OG skate fan too. I was just not a, I'm not a skate culture fan, I guess,

where that's what draws me to it. For me, skate was always about being the skater and doing the thing and it was fine to be surrounded by you know these skaters in the real life whatever but that wasn't what it was all about for me for me it was the game feel if that makes sense where i was more there for the video game the skateboard video game the skateboard life i just also think that like with all due respect you saying you're the reason it's back it's like well no like we took a long time off of this where you didn't get skate for and it had to be that no they're they're back because of fortnight and because

they think they found an angle to get this everywhere everybody But I don't believe that though. Like when they announced it, the micro transaction free to play stuff definitely felt like a pivot, right? Like when they first announced this game, it was skate four. It was going to be skate four. And then somewhere along the line, they're like, eh, it's not going to be profitable enough for us. So we need to take. I mean, and that's the thing, of course, is as soon as EA, it's 2025 right now, of course.

But even EA announcing this in 2021, 20, whatever it was, when they do that, it's EA. The company you voted the worst company in the world every year running. for five years. It's like, did we expect this to buck the trend of them, like not do it, to give you this game that was blah, blah,

yeah, absolutely. I did because we're talking about an EA at that time that was starting the haze light situations and making Yarnie unraveled or whatever it was. And like focusing, I mean, and respond. Yeah,

I know. We all know. But no, I do think that like that when they announced skate, that really felt like, hey, we're giving y'all this one. Dragon Age,

Mass Effect. It's like, yeah, that was all the same. And here we go. Yeah. And so it's, I do think that the,

it's, the story of skate to me fell off a clip immediately once it was like, oh, it's just called skate and it's going to be this free to play thing. I was like, there's no way this like pants out for making the long term fans happy for what this is going to be. And it's not skate four.

It's like, I think that they are even admitting. Hey, this is not that. Oh, they are very clear. They have a FAPU where they're like, this is not for. Yeah,

that's a choice. Yeah, and I think, but again, like I think, EA would have canceled skate for and killed it in the crib. Like this is the way to get to it. And the fact that it is still the skate gameplay, awesome.

The fact, like, you know, this is going to sound crazy, probably. But you can go back and watch the games dailies where skate would come up in conversation, right? This is, beyond a shadow of the doubt, the best case scenario for a free to play skate. Like, they could easily be doing. Yeah, oh, you want the handplants.

It's in the battle pass and you got to pay the money. Oh, you want this. We are going to nickel on time. You want closed period there on the store. start as just a Jonesy skin from Fortnite and that's all you get. Like they could have been super super shitty about it. Right now, it is a free to play skate game that feels awesome. If you just wanted to skate and jump in and go, you could go do that.

You could unlock a bunch of shit without ever giving them a dime, which I, again, I hate microtransactions. I don't love that everything's paywalled. But we are talking about the fact they are giving you a free to play skate game that is a skateboarding game that is fun to play. and I think that is very impressive that they didn't fuck this up beyond that where it's like not fun to play and it's egregious and it doesn't work and da da da da da like especially again for the seven of what I think this is of here's the foundation

now what they're going to build on this and what it's going to look like in a year and where we're going to be in two years like who the fuck knows I'm not going to do that but for what they've done I'm like oh man like I've seen every manner of video game company fuck something up like this and they didn't fuck this up it might not be the skate four you want but they didn't fuck it up And then for the 6-5 that I would give it, like, I still, like, again, the word, okay. Like, I don't think this is terrible. Like, oh, my God, they've ruined what skate means or what have you.

You know, this is a solid podcast game. Like, I was selling Greg this morning, you know, it's one of those. I had like a video essay or something on last night on my phone, so I didn't want to pull up a video game that was like story-based or anything. So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to boot up skate. And that is what it is. to me right now. I'm just bummed that I don't have a sense of real progression pulling me into it outside

of cosmetics. And I think that's the big thing. Missing for me, you know, like those original games that was about building up your, you know, you being a pro skater, you know, shooting pictures for the covers of magazines. Yeah. Even if you don't have the license for, why am I black on. Yeah, like something made up to do something like that, you know, filming. like you doing a line, but like filming and cutting footage, not footy footage for like a, like a video compilation or something like that.

Like those kind of missions and that structure and that progression is something that I miss. And I don't know if that will ever be realistically put into a free to play. See, I'm not. I didn't throw that right now. You tell me footies footage. Yes. Yes. Oh, you didn't know that?

Again. I want you to know. Hold on everybody clear comments for one second. Yeah. Tim, you need to know that they talk about it in the game. the way I do the BS, that's blue sky Kim. Hey, get the footy. That's footage by the way.

Like, we fucking understand it's footage. Tim, the writing is abysmal. Yeah, I need you to watch like some of the tutorial missions where they're walking you through stuff because it's like what? What are we doing? Greg, sorry to cut you off there. Oh, no, you're fine. I'm with the points long gone

for whatever I was trying to say. I don't know. Deshawn says the story about being a court building a city for skaters feel so antithetical to skate culture. which has always been very counterculture to me. Heard skateboard says, hey guys, appreciate all you guys do,

loving my forever game. Greg and Mike sent you both friend requests in hopes of skating with y'all. KFBF community session soon. Loved everyone at KF. Who was it? I accepted every friend request, and it's awesome that friends just join me all the time.

H.R.D. I don't like doing challenges with friends because it just becomes a mess. Yeah, it's weird. Yeah, it just doesn't feel like, it's not fun.

I disagree. I had fun with you guys last night just watching. It's fun to do together, but there's something about, like, it not tracking, like, everybody doing shit in, like, a way that makes sense. Like, we were playing with Uncle Death last night, shout out to Uncle Death. And there was one line that was, like, pretty tough, and they cleared it first, and they mastered it first. But then on my screen, it showed, like, everything that Uncle Death had done as checked off. But I was like, but I want to see what I have and haven't done yet.

It's just, like, weird little presentational stuff like that that I. I think they need a tweak. That's fair. Yeah, I wish I would be able to watch people as well. Like I completed and then I just kind of stand around and I just skate aimlessly. Can you not spectate? Maybe, but like I'm not, it just, there's something about like having a group in a multiplayer sesh where this is just doing challenges.

I want skate. I want own the spot. I want us to be rallying around each other. This just feels like we're just doing challenges, but like separately at the same time. You're not wrong. feel like we're together at all. See, I, you're not wrong. I, I, I, I do feel together.

I felt together with you guys last night when I did see, oh, Uncle Death grinded. I'm like, oh, this we need to do or whatever. Yeah, I think there's no in-game chat, but again, in the world of party invites and Discord, I don't know how much, and I'm not the chatter, so whatever. But like, I felt together with you guys last night. Alex Jay Sandoval says,

can you say more about the experience of recording footage and cutting and editing a video to share? Can friends spectate and share different angles? You can spectate each other in your world. So I would imagine, I haven't tried in a co-op game to go spectate, but there's a trophy, which I got for spectating 50 people. And I just went through and spectated. So, yeah, it should be fine, but I'm not a thousand percent sure.

The video editor they have in there, it's clunky. Like, I use it for screenshots where I'll just do that. And then there's a trophy for exporting footage, which I find so cumbersome. I haven't even bothered with. But I've seen a lot of people complain about it. It's there. It's not great. And they did some update with it yesterday that people aren't happy with it.

Yeah. And people in chat are saying that the video. editor might be getting more updates soon. Yeah, it's not interesting. And again, like the video editor stuff in the original games was more for like the in game stuff that you were doing. For like the reels for your skate career or whatever. This feels very much of like them trying to capitalize off of, oh, a lot of kids were making skate three TikToks. Yeah.

Let's build something around that. And it just doesn't really feel fully fleshed out. Hmm. Any final thoughts on skates as it is current. and where you might want to see it, Greg. A seven right now at a 10, a good game. I think a game, though, I love a much better game. Like, again, I think every game you're going to come at

with your own perspective and what you want. This game is delivering so much of what I want out of a skate game. It feels great to skate. You know, when I am coming down the hill, I jump up, I grind down, I land it, I do a little 360 spin or whatever. My t-shirts, my little crop tops, flopping in the, flapping in the wind or whatever, and I have that, I feel the momentum of the turn. It's like, God, this feels good. And that's what I wanted out of this. I wanted a game that I could turn on and get lost in for 15 minutes or five hours or whatever.

They've delivered that. That said, I think, yeah, you know, you're bumping into a lot of different walls and things and just loot boxes. And once I get my skeleton t-shirt and how skittow-o-ween, what, like, what it keeps going for it, that'll dictate how often I'm turning it on and coming back for dailies and stuff, right? like I'm fucking swimming in the orange currency right now because I'm just saving up to get to the next box to drop a million. I don't know. But for a foundation, I'm in love with it. And I'm excited to see what happens and where they could go. I have optimism for where they could go. Again, even though this isn't Skate 4 and so many people are bent out of shape about a million things that it is or isn't right now,

I do believe that people working on this game and I think the proof is in how it plays, understand what Skate is. and I've seen so many people mad that this update didn't fix X1. It's like it's early access. It's update one. And this is the stuff you're working on long before it gets to public. I think give them the chance. I do think you see something similar to Hall of Meat. I do think you see something similar to,

hey, we need to capture foodie. Maybe they'll say footage for your skate cover or whatever. Like they know what skate was before this and they want to honor that as they go. Again, it is, will EA allow them? 15 million players is nothing to sneeze at. but let's see how many people stick around, how many people actually give them money. Mike.

I just love playing it, Tim. That's the problem. I just have so much fun playing this game. And it's not a problem. It's a really good time. And I like playing skate. I have always wanted skate for a long time since Skate 3. This is a game that just feels good to play.

It is my game. This is the game that I like to play. And I'm happy that it's back. I enjoy my time with it. I'm happy to come and go. I never feel bad about it. I am interested in the season past. and the things they're doing, it looks like they'll hold the season pass for me,

allowed to progress it into the next season, which is cool. That is cool. It's like the Hell Divers Battle Pass. You never lose it. Very interesting one there. I really, you know, if I had my finger on it all, I'm excited to see what you do with Skateaween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, these holidays, these fun moments that you can build in these living, breathing worlds.

I think Fortnite is a really interesting one of, like, what they do with moments like that. And I've always had a good time of like, man, this would be cool to put up a bunch of Halloween decorations. How do you really nail that, make that fun? I'm in on this game and I really enjoy it. Well, there you go, everybody. Let us know in the comments below. You have final thoughts? You can have a great time with an okay game. And sometimes I have a great time with an okay game. And it's free. Have a great time with an okay free game. There we go. Check it out. Let us know what you think in the comments below. Have you already played it? You're liking it. You're not liking it. What do you want to see? I want to hear it all.

We are about to do a kingdom come delivering to stream. Mike's trying to make some money. Could be game of the year. We'll find out people who know. We'll find out everybody. You told me it is. Love the pandering. Mike.

Until next time, love you all. Goodbye. I got this off the battle pass.