This is a damn good article and considering this is more of a "tradtional" sports website, it makes me so very happy that people here can appreciate the intricacies of a game like skate.
I as well use to be a skater punk rollin from spot to spot, gettin harrassed by mall security, and riding my friends homemade halfpipe that was so sturdy you'd think the army corps of engineers built it
Recently I had a terrible skateboarding accident about two years ago and dislocated both wrists and broke my hand in two places. I still have the metal plate in there to prove it.
Since I'm 25 now and realize I'm not as indestructible as I once thought, damn you father time, I decided to take a break from skating to avoid a break from skating. That last sentence is like a phrased palindrome....I digress.
With skate on the horizon though and sheer amount of depth we have all witnessed from a thirty minute demo in a tiny skate park!.... you start to appreciate that there are still developers out there for us, the gamers.
And please dont put all the praise on EA, rather applaud them for allowing Blackbox the time and resources to make the game they wanted as skaters and we as skaters wanted ourselves.