PlayStation New Free Game is a Sequel We've Waited Years For

A new free-to-play title has landed on PlayStation consoles, and you don’t need a PlayStation Plus subscription to enjoy it.

Finally, Skate has made its grand return.

The EA skateboarding franchise first made its debut in 2007 with the original version of Skate; that was followed by Skate 2 in 2009 and Skate 3 in 2010.

With that said, we’ve waited 15 long years for this latest instalment which aims to act as a soft reboot for the franchise.

This time around, it’s Full Circle handling development duties after the former developer, EA Black Box, was shut down in 2013.

For years, many of us assumed that meant that the Skate franchise was gone for good but alas, it’s pulled through.

As I said, this latest entry, also titled Skate, is free-to-play and boasts a number of unique features including improvements to ‘Flick-it’, a system that allows players to execute tricks.

You can customise your own skater and traverse a large open-world setting, competing in various challenges as you do so.

This time around, that open-world - San Vansterdam - will be filled with other players as Skate has opted for an interesting (and controversial) online-only approach.

Throughout your exploration, you’ll therefore encounter fellow players, discover new areas, earn new cosmetics, and rise the skateboarding ranks.

You also have the option to hop off your board and just walk through the streets of San Vansterdam, if you prefer.

Everywhere you go, there’ll be opportunities to progress with activities, challenges, and events allowing you to test out your skills, earning sweet rewards in the process.

There’s also the chance to build new skate locales or try out other players’ creations in Community Parks.

All in all, there’s plenty to keep you busy in Skate which has now officially launched across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Mac, Windows PC, and mobile.

This is in early access, I should stress, so you should expect a few kinks to be ironed out by devs.

To reiterate, the game is totally free-to-play so you don’t need a subscription to access it.

It’s a tad early for there to be a critical consensus but it appears that players have left mixed responses over in the Steam reviews.

“Where is Hall of Meat? Where is S.K.A.T.E.? Where are the competitions? Where are the Pro Skaters? Where are the death races? Where is the skate culture? Where is the story mode?” wrote one player.

“After playing this game over the course of several earlier playtests, I can say I don’t really like this game. Sure, you can try it out, since it’s free to play, but that’s where the biggest issues come from,” added another.

Oof. Well, as that person said, it’s free so you may as well try it out.