First and foremost, a demo for “Skate 3” is still available on the Xbox Live Marketplace (a demo for “Skate 2” is also available). It offers access to the game in 20-minute increments, and two or three sessions ought to provide a good idea of how accessible the game is for you. I strongly recommend downloading and trying the demo to get a better idea of the gameplay. I will also note that parts of the demo seemed significantly more difficult to me than the actual game. And while “Skate 3” feels like a vast improvement over “Skate” and “Skate 2” in accessibility, it still presents challenges.

One of the most prominent accessibility concerns is the control system. Since the game uses sticks to initiate and control most tricks, it requires precision, it requires reasonably quick reflexes and it virtually requires using both hands. For gamers with use of only one hand, “Skate 3” may be nearly impossible. For gamers who have concerns about precision or twitch reflexes, “Skate 3” will likely be difficult. Moreover, “Skate 3” is a vast improvement over its predecessors in this respect. In addition, due to the trick control scheme (to wit, moving the sticks in various directions to initiate and perform tricks), not only are controllers not re-mappable, there are no options to change the controllers for left-handed or right-handed players. It’s an unavoidable consequence of the gameplay, but it’s still unfortunate that alternative methods don’t exist.

Deaf players may have an easier time of it in single-player modes because the subtitling is reasonably well done, using white text on a letterboxed black background. The text is a little small, but fairly readable on a standard definition television set. This is a significant improvement over previous games, which used light-colored text on backgrounds that were frequently light-colored, making the subtitles almost impossible to read. However, the only text that seems to be subtitled is mission-specific information – environmental chatter appears to be left out.

Finally, while most of the game shouldn’t impact gamers with a form of color blindness, “Skate 3” tracks objectives during a goal using green text for completed objectives and red text for objectives which haven’t been completed, or that the player failed. This is consistent with “Skate” and “Skate 2,” and may present a problem, despite check marks next to objectives that have been finished.

At A Glance

Precision: You will need a significant amount of precision to play this game. Players perform tricks by moving and positioning the right and left sticks, as well as using right and left triggers. On easy mode, the game seems fairly forgiving and while you may not kill spots, you may be able to accomplish the objectives. Recommend rating of 3 out of 10 for single-player and 0 out of online multiplayer. Online multiplayer in “Skate” games is very different due to skill levels of experienced players who can easily score thousands of points with a single sequence of tricks.

Deaf Gamers: Subtitles can be activated in the Options menu. While chatter is not subtitled, objective-related subtitles appear in white text on a black background and are relatively easy to read. Recommend rating of 5 out of 10 for single-player.

One-handed: This game is highly difficult for one-handed gamers to play since tricks can require using both sticks, both triggers and so on. While simply using the left stick performs ollies and nollies, as well as their variants, it’s possible, but the right stick controls spin while the triggers control grabs. Recommend rating of 0 out of 10 for single-player and online multiplayer.

Subtitled: Subtitles can be activated in the Options menu. While chatter is not subtitled, mission-related subtitles appear in white text on a black background and are relatively easy to read. Recommend rating of 5 out of 10 for single-player.

Color Blind: Skate 3 uses green to indicate parts of a mission that have been successfully completed and red to indicate which parts have yet to be completed. Unfortunately, it uses both colors at the same time in a checklist, presenting challenges to gamers with color blindness. Recommend rating of 3 out of 10 for single-player and online multiplayer.