been playing the new ea skate the last few days. its free to play but also VERY free to play with cash stores galore and all cosmetics are in random loot boxes you open by playing the games challenges. Gameplay wise it plays almost exactly like the skate games from like 15 years ago and I was so bad at those controls after playing Skater XL for so long with its 2 stick foot controls. I will say though that its the first skateboarding video game to finally have a good animation for running and throwing your board down instead of just pushing to get speed from a stop.

I also got into the '83 playtest (cold war gone hot fps game made by the ppl who did rising storm 2: vietnam) but was approved just as the current playtest was ending so I didnt get a chance to try it. reading what others have said about it it sounds rough and not looking good if they really want a q4 2025 release.