Skate

Skate was EA's 2007 answer to the long-dominant Tony Hawk's series - instead of overly stylized stunt combos, it bet on physics-based control via the right analog stick, nicknamed Skate.Flickit, letting the player mimic a skater's foot movements when pushing off, spinning, and landing. The game takes place in the open fictional city of San Vanelona and emphasizes a realistic riding style, falls, and character damage from a botched trick, an unusual approach for the skateboarding genre at the time. It also featured the so-called bail cam, which automatically replayed a slow-motion recording of the crash after a big fall.

Skate launched simultaneously for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in September 2007; both versions were developed in parallel from the start by studio EA Black Box, and it's practically an identical game - the same content, the same right analog stick control, and comparable graphical quality with no noticeable differences in frame rate or environment detail. Differences between the platforms were minimal and mainly concerned console-specific UI details, such as trophies on PS3 versus achievements on Xbox 360, or minor differences in each manufacturer's online services.

For players, it wasn't a choice between a better and a worse version, but purely a matter of which console they owned - Skate was among the titles where the Xbox 360 versus PlayStation 3 generational battle played practically no role, and both communities got an equally good experience. The game's success on both platforms subsequently led to two sequels, Skate 2 and Skate 3, which kept the same approach of simultaneous release on both consoles and cemented the series' position as Tony Hawk's main rival - the series then went quiet for a long time, until EA announced its return many years later, when players from both the former Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 communities came together reminiscing about a practically identical experience from 2007.

Why play it: Whether a player owned an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3, they got an equally good experience with no compromises - Skate therefore remains a great choice regardless of which console they preferred back then.