skate.

I have been a fan of the EA Skate franchise ever since I was a kid. Growing up playing Skate 1-3 was one of the highlights of the time and always gives me a warm embrace whenever I come back to them As someone who has 100% Skate 3 on Xbox and got as many achievements as humanly possible on Skate 1 and 2, this game is a genuine insult to a franchise that was once great. Now if youre able to see my profile and my stats, I have the blue ribbon for this game. I've grinded this game since it practically released publicly, even before then after the progression reset. On Xbox, I have 128 Hours and 39 Minutes played into the game (with additional hours on PlayStation and being idle), doing everything and getting all of the achievements. This game is nothing more than a soul-devouring grind fest where if you want this or that, you either play the same goals everyday unless there's new ones across the map or you pay for it (in a sense where you get the Skate pass, get this or that, etc.) and waste money on things you could've gotten for absolutely free in older titles. Let me get off some or more of the good aspects of the game before i go off on the bads. The gameplay is fun, fluid and nice to go around but lacks a lot of mechanics that was already pre-existing in the past. The city is nice and fun as well, albeit not as fun as the games before it but still a good map regardless. I can't really rag on most of the things since they lost the original engine (or something regarding it) ever since Black Box Distribution closed. For what it's worth, it is a damn good reiteration or at least a good restructure. The object spawner is neat but lacks a lot there too. That's about it with the Pros. I've tried enjoying this game but I can't help but SEETHE when I log on and see so many things wrong with this, Microtransactions out the wazoo (Early Access and selling things that's overpriced as hell? for example; the Dead Space pack costing over $30 FOR IT), False statements regarding their development and how they're doing this and that ("not locking areas or maps behind a paywall" where they make you grind your ass off to literally do that + does a WHOLE MONTH early access to those who buy the Skate Pass), putting pre-existing tricks and other sorts of various things that was already in older games (Finger Flips, Dark Catches, etc.), the list goes on and on. How would I go about this? Skate 2025 is a good game GAMEPLAY WISE. You'll have this honeymoon phase with it and have a good time, but after that wears off, it's nothing short of EA's greed on a franchise and how they're pushing it more rather than hearing and solving their own problems. I suggest getting this game for the sake of gameplay, nothing more at that point. This review isn't to discredit those who are working behind this game, but it's a bit much to release a game like this with a bloated store and exhausting grinding after awhile? It's a shame how such an amazing franchise to me turned out to be this. It's fun, but only for awhile.