What Skater XL is
Skater XL is a skateboarding game built around physics-based board control instead of pre-programmed tricks. Each thumbstick is tied to one foot, so the board responds to how you move the sticks rather than to a list of button combos. That means you can push for a clean line or just skate around freely, and the same input can produce different results depending on how you approach a ledge or a ramp. The levels are built for continuous flow, so you can link spots together instead of restarting after every attempt.
The places you skate are based on real-world spots: Downtown LA around the Staples Center and the LA Convention Center, the sprawling Easy Day High School campus with the Wallenberg Big 4 and the Leap of Faith, and the huge Big Ramp for getting serious air. Community-made maps like Grant Park, Hüdland and Streets round out the selection. You can skate as Tiago Lemos, Evan Smith, Tom Asta and Brandon Westgate, each with their own gear, or build your own skater with tees, hoodies, hats and shoes from more than 30 real skate brands.
Playing together
Multiplayer Free Skate lets you link up with friends in groups of up to 10 players, skate the same spots and shoot replays together. Since the levels are open and built for flow, a session works well as a shared skate rather than a structured match: everyone picks a line, trades attempts and films each other. Trick Challenges give you hundreds of tasks with progressive difficulty, so a group can work through the list at its own pace or compare what each person has cleared.
Before you start
The game requires a controller that works with Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 or PS4 — there are no keyboard controls at all. It also needs a DirectX 11 or newer graphics card. Expect a control scheme you will need to spend time with: because nothing is pre-mapped to a button, consistency comes from practice rather than memorizing combos. The soundtrack runs from Modest Mouse and Interpol to Animal Collective, Future Islands, Band Of Horses and Getter. Modding is a big part of the game, with community maps and mods shared through the Skater XL modding hub, so extra content is available beyond what ships in the game.