How Skater XL and Session Got Me Back on a Skateboard

Over the past half dozen or so years I've defended the majority of that time to video games. While I've had some really neat memories and met some amazing people through that dedication, I've ever felt unsatisfied. Something was missing. Really, anything you dedicate yourself to yous end up near unhealthily obsessed with it. So, as a upshot, a lot of other hobbies I had brutal by the wayside.

For those who don't know me, I've always liked video games just I never became "knowledgeable" in this realm until I started writing about them. In fact, the only reason I started writing my thoughts on video games was considering I wanted a playthrough of any given game to "mean something". What I mean by that is I didn't desire to just shrug my shoulders and move on to the next game. I wanted to channel all these feelings and emotions into something, and writing seemed to be the thing I was all-time at.

However, before I started writing well-nigh video games, I was really into writing music (I've played drums since I was 7 years old) and skateboarding (I rode a board for the first time effectually 7 years quondam). In retrospect, I really lived and breathed those activities from boyhood up until I started my newfound obsession with gaming. Information technology was a office of who I was and how I expressed myself.

Then, why did I finish writing music and skating if they made me then happy? Well, like my venture into video game journalism, I was pretty obsessed with music and skating and wanted to pursue a career in 1 of those fields. After years of bad bumps on a board (and just not actually being all that cracking at skating) and a lot of creative differences in many bands, I stopped taking those hobbies seriously. To exist completely upfront, it started to brand me sad to play music or skate considering it but reminded me of my failure to break through into any of those industries.

Fast forrard to 2022 and the same feelings of failure had started to arise. This time, it was in my writing. I think if you were to ask my peers hither at DualShockers, they would probably say I wrote some pretty decent things. Nevertheless, relieve for a few articles I'm pretty proud of, I didn't experience the aforementioned style. From late 2022 to 2022, I started to just feel defeated and was probably at my unhealthiest both physically and emotionally.

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So, where do video games and skateboarding come back in? Dorsum in late 2022, I previewed Session, a skateboarding sim past Crea-ture Studios. For those who don't know, this is the game that was shown during the Xbox E3 2022 Press Conference and is essentially a spiritual successor to EA's beloved Skate series. The headline for that preview was "Skate Spiritual Successor Session Makes Me Want to Bound Back on a Skateboard Again."

First, that is a terrible headline. Second, while it totally fabricated me want to jump back on a board, I didn't at that moment. I did actually look at boards, but it was expensive, and I wasn't really at a identify where I can spend money frivolously. Especially on something that tin can potentially hurt me severely.

"Session is such a solid skate sim. Out of all the games that will become mentioned hither, I think the unmodded base version of the game is the best representation of existent-life skating I have ever played."

Regardless, Session is such a solid skate sim. Out of all the games that will get mentioned here, I think the unmodded base version of the game is the best representation of real-life skating I have ever played. Much of that notion is due to its gameplay. Rather than using an analog stick to turn, you use the left and right triggers; the sticks are used to control your anxiety with the left stick controlling your left foot and the correct stick controlling the right pes.

While the gameplay isn't all that dissimilar from Skater Xl, Session's physics in the unmodded base version of the game is way more realistic than Easy Day Studio'southward skateboarding sim. Information technology also has some legendary New York spots, similar the Pyramid Ledges, LES Coleman Skatepark, and the Brooklyn Banks. The side by side update, which is due to come out very soon, will bring the famous Love Park back from the expressionless. If you lot haven't, already, it's a game you should bank check out.

Something people don't really know most that preview is that I played Session on my blood brother-in-law's PC. I didn't really accept a computer that could play it at that moment in time. I played around 7 hours of the early on access version, wrote my opinions of it, and didn't touch it again for a while. However, even though I wasn't playing it, I was following its tumultuous development. I still do to this day with each update bringing more than changes, such equally customization, new physics, and more. Only throughout this past twelvemonth, information technology is clear the "ane.0" version of Session wasn't going to come out for some time.

That is where Skater XL comes in.

Just a few months after Session was revealed at the Xbox E3 2022 Printing Briefing, Skater 40 was released on Steam Early on Access. Not going to prevarication, even though I knew my laptop couldn't run information technology, I bought the game and tried it. Turns out I couldn't run it. Equally a result, I never really played it until I irresponsibly bought a computer with my stimulus bank check. Even then, it would accept to wait until I had moved in with my blood brother-in-law mentioned above. When I finally got my computer ready, the beginning affair I played was Skater XL.

It was both nostalgic and refreshing. I was constantly thinking of new clips to make and then spending hours trying to execute them.

Skater 40 is another skateboarding sim in the same vein every bit EA's Skate. While its base physics feel a bit off, I love how Piece of cake Day Studios' board physics work. Instead of using "canned animations" when you put in a specific input, it attempts to simulate how the board flips depending on how you pic the joysticks. Information technology is pretty incredible how realistic that facet of skating is in Skater 40. Like in existent skating, not every fox you do will look exactly the same.

That little detail, along with its incredibly outgoing replay editor, made Skater XL my obsession for a few months. That obsession but increased when I began modding the game. I could non stop making clips. It is far and away, the most fun I'd had with a video game in 2022.

This is when the idea of skating started to surface once again. I was thoroughly enjoying my time with Skater Forty so much, both with the early admission version and the full release back in July 2022. It was both cornball and refreshing. I was constantly thinking of new clips to brand and then spending hours trying to execute them. So, what if I tried doing this in real life?

Still, that urge to really buy a board again was crushed. Not because of my financial situation but because of how physically unfit I was. I was the biggest I had ever been and I didn't really have the confidence to just jump on a board and kickoff riding again. Which was totally fine since I could just channel that energy into playing Skater Xl and living that dream through the game instead. So my other blood brother-in-law —from Florida— came to town with his skateboard.

I'chiliad non entirely sure why my brother-in-law came to town, but what I practise know is he came by with his lath and he wanted to skate. Then, myself, my two brothers-in-police force, and one of our friends decided to play a game of SKATE against each other in reality. And for the starting time time in what felt like twenty years, I would finally step on a board again.

The game lasted almost 30 minutes, with each of us alternating turns. In reality, I wasn't on the board all that much. But I came to two realizations during this session:

1. I am so terribly out of shape.
2. I admittedly missed skating and needed to get a skateboard.

About a week later on that game of SKATE, My brother-in-law and I went to a Vans shop in the closest mall and I got myself a complete lath. For those wondering, I got an viii.0" Aught deck (a variation of the iconic "Bloody Nose" graphic), Contained trucks 139, 53mm Darkstar wheels, Spitfire bearings, Mini Logo grip, Pig risers, and Shorty'due south hardware. This is far from what I now prefer, but it was definitely a good starting signal for me start this weird skateboarding journey.

I should note, at this point, I wasn't entirely on lath with getting dorsum into skateboarding fully. Yes, I "needed" to get a board simply it didn't experience essential nor did it feel similar the smartest thing to get during a pandemic. There are other things I could have bought that would have been more useful and didn't have the potential to hurt me, only my dear for skating was brewing. And had my brother in law non buy himself a lath at the Vans store, I probably would not accept got the lath I did.

In the same week, we went to the closest skate park and had a very quick session. It lasted a whole 30 minutes and I was dead tired. But for the first time in a long while, I was genuinely happy with an activity. Don't become me wrong, I honey video games, only sometimes playing them feels similar a task — and sometimes, it actually is. I have no career aspirations for skating. I just wanted to do something fun.

I wasn't really sure I would stick with skating. A part of me thought this was some sort of midlife crunch matter at the age of 29, which is nowhere near midlife I promise. I started to wonder if I would slowly drop the whole idea of skating afterwards a month or so. I didn't.

The thing is I am absolutely infatuated with skateboarding. I am constantly thinking well-nigh it. I think role of it is that it brought me back to my teenage years where I would go skate with friends after school then play Skate when I got habitation. I substantially do the same thing at present. I'll go out and skate with some friends for a few hours, and then I'll come up home and play Session or Skater XL for a few hours. It's nostalgic.

But nostalgia can just be great for a express fourth dimension. Truly, information technology was people's reactions to me picking up a board again that really got me hooked. When I first made a mail service on Instagram that I was skating once again, a bunch of old friends I haven't seen in years commented and wanted to go skate again. Some of my newer friends who I didn't even know skated also messaged me saying they wanted to go skate. And overall, anybody was so positive, which was a breath of fresh air to see.

I love video games, but sometimes playing them feels like a job — and sometimes, it actually is. I accept no career aspirations for skating. I just wanted to do something fun.

Something that became very apparent to me about a month after jumping back on a board was how fit I was getting. Not merely was I able to skate for longer, I was as well losing a ton of weight. In the first month, I think I lost x pounds. Now, six months later, I'one thousand downward forty pounds and am the lightest I take been since probably 2022 or 2022. It felt as if my weight was holding me dorsum from skating, then in addition, I started eating healthier and lowered my beer intake from two beers a day to one beer every other solar day.

I guess, in the end, I was clinging to something that gave me positive vibes during a year that was, quite frankly, absolutely atrocious. There's null bad I could say virtually skateboarding. Looking back, I think information technology was something I really needed for me to live a healthier lifestyle. Then, I just held onto it and I will probably continue to for the foreseeable future.

Without Skater 40 and Session, I wouldn't take reestablished my love for skateboarding. I wouldn't have changed my unhealthy lifestyle. I wouldn't accept bonded with some of the people that fabricated 2022 an okay year for me. More than whatever game I have played in the terminal 29 years of my beingness, these 2 legitimately inverse my life in such a significant and positive way. It got me out of this writing slump and made me realize I should do things considering I want to, not because I remember I accept to. My mindset on what I want in life fundamentally changed, and I'thou happier for information technology.

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Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/skater-xl-session-getting-back-into-skateboarding-feature/

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