At EA’s November Showcase, we got some hands-on time with a few of Skate 3’s competitive 3v3 team play modes, and not only will you be able to face off against rival crews in the finished game, you can also enjoy playing with friends in co-op. Playing as Team Hesh, we faced off against Team Fresh in a Skate 3 battle royale!

Starting with Death Race – a manic downhill rush from a vertiginous summit upon high, all the way down precarious cliff-edge pathways (hopefully) to the finish line at ground level – we’re thrown straight into what proves to be a heated battle for first place, with players falling off their boards, plummeting to their deaths and getting knocked to the ground in a heap. It’s pretty frantic stuff, but somehow we manage to scrape fourth place on our first go. Second attempt? First place, thanks for asking.

Changing game mode is a simple case of retiring to the hub, where you can skate around, pop tricks and practice until you’re all ready to play again. Next up was Domination, a frenetic battle to tag the most designated scenery objects with the highest score combo before the allotted two-minute time limit elapses.

After an early lead, tagging almost every ramp, kerb, grind rail and box in sight, our collective scores prove too feeble and are quickly bested, meaning most of our tagged objects are snatched away by the opposition. We valiantly fight back, clawing back pieces here and there to even the score and as the dying seconds tick away, it seems we’re set at a deadlock. That is until one player on the opposing team pulls off an impressive combo, stealing away a hotly contested ramp at the very last second, losing us the match.

As fun as these last two modes undoubtedly are, the last we play – and our personal favourite – is 1-Up; a score attack challenge that sees teams take 20-second turns to simultaneously set a high score for the opposing team to beat. The pressure’s really on though, because if any member of your team should bail at any time, you lose your turn and score zero.

To begin with, everyone takes an overly cautious approach, pulling off safe kickflips and other unambitious tricks to avoid falling off. But as the scores rise and the stakes grow ever higher, taking risks becomes an essential factor in accumulating better scores. Soon, players are bailing out left, right and centre, tripping over attempted grinds, flying through the air and scraping their chins across the concrete. It’s frenetic fun that has us all shouting at the screens and wildly gesticulating, which bodes incredibly well for Skate 3’s multiplayer.

With various other multiplayer modes promised, Skate 3 is looking like it’ll successfully build upon its superb predecessor as well as attracting new players with its more accessible nature. A new skate school will help novices become acquainted with the stick-swivelling intricacies of Skate, while veteran players will already be well versed in using the series’ unique control system, which is one facet of Skate that happily remains unchanged.

Skate 3’s new focus upon online community is exciting, with the sharing and downloading of user-created content – presumably designed to include the enhanced video editor - forming an integral component of the overall experience. More importantly though, is Black Box’s dedication to ensuring Skate’s sublime core gameplay remains untouched, and despite our hands-on time being all too brief, we came away with the very distinct sense that Skate 3 will be every bit as accomplished as the first two Skate games, if not more so.

Skate 3 is slated for a May 2010 release.