Session: Skate Sim Isn't Bad... You Just Suck. 

I started playing Session and also began skating last summer(2023) at age 42. Just got the last of the historical challenges and the last 2 achievements. This is with manual catch and left/foot right foot. I am soooooo glad I can just play the game and have fun now with no pressure to complete challenges.

This game also has a rewarding factor to it that I can't get with other skating games. I can spend a good chunk of time doing a line and once I complete it it feels so amazing.

the learning curve in Session is so similar to skating in RL

The glitches when actually trying to do the tricks are kinda frequent, definitely one of the best skating games since skate, but it’s definitely clunky. Satisfying as hell when you finally hit the line you wanted

i just love how it looks and how it feels for the controls, yes they are hard to master, but after time it gets easier. yes they might be hated or whatsoever, but its kinda fun.

So glad you are saying this, you earned a sub! As a skateboarder myself, Session is the best skating game ever in my opinion, but when I first played it I still preferred Skater XL for years, but I was subconsciously just enjoying how much easier it was! After several periods of getting a little jaded about XL after playing it for hundreds of hours and getting bored, I would try Session again and again, slowly learning more each time before getting frustrated and going back to XL. Eventually after the 3rd or 4th time, it all started to "click" in my mind. When I started having epiphanies about board control and how to apply pressure for certain grinds and started opening my mind to the higher skill possibilities of the physics and how the game represents it through mechanical skill I realized I was having the closest simulation to the feeling of skateboarding that I have ever felt. Just like with skateboarding, learning one trick linked to another, and then another, and eventually I was making insane montages of ridiculous creative grind combos, lines that lasted for entire minutes, and physics-bug-boundary-breaking 1-in-1000 tricks to hit an even higher level too, like figuring out how to wallride on many surfaces when the game doesn't even have wallrides properly implemented. Learning how to tweak flip tricks and get the slowest possible flip for the maximum steeze and having your own personal style, etc. The fact that it's difficultly allows you to really push what seems possible is a huge attraction for me and keeps me coming back to Session to the point I have 500 hours now! Just posted a new montage right now! I hope to see this games community grow even more!!!

I can’t even imagine non skaters trying to play this 😂 I been skating for years, played the skate series, and have hundreds of hours playing skater XL and the learning curve on this was still steep, and some challenges were still hard asf even with my knowledge of tricks

I honestly can’t get enough of this game

I’ve started play last month with true stance, and honestly for me it wasn’t too bad, i would recommend for other people who are struggling to practice and with time you will get better!

I tend to direct these people to JL Nightmare's video on how to make session easier. Either that or I show them a few montages either mine or someone else's so they can see what is possible to do in session. Rebirth by Ocular FS is a really good one because not only is he a really good player, dude also mastered the replay editor so his montages are fire emojis.

Originally I thought session wasn’t that good, then I dumped a lot of hours in to actually get good and started filming realistic tricks and lines, I now realize, much like real life skating, it becomes more fun the better you get

Around 6-7 min mark you couldn’t have said it any better. The comments i see on here and reddit make me scratch my head and then I realize they probably played it once and gave up. I fucking sucked for 4 months straight until something clicked and now I consider myself better than most with 900+hours in lol

personally i am someone who grew up on tony hawks pro skater, and skate franchise. i recently bought session about a week ago, and ive completed every single mission now. and now im just going around different spots hitting some lines and sick tricks. i personally love session and i think its a very well made game

I got it two weeks ago, and I just spent time in the skate park map repeatedly attempting ONE grind rail until I was able to nail it repeatedly. Then I skated in the other maps and felt comfortable doing missions, and watching videos made me think of the seemingly empty maps as a IRL skateboarder would see an endless land of opportunity. The random falling off the board is annoying when it happens too much, too pointlessly, but I just say I tripped on a pebble. 😅

You can change day/night time (sick visuals). You can change settings which make gameplay super easy. Clothes and skateboard gear looks really cool. If you skate in irl the skating feels satisfying bc its very realistic. They have irl spots in game like the nyc LES park. New playstation's don't have skate 3 ( which I really love ), so session is pretty much all we have. These are the best things about this game. I learned like 50% of all tricks in 2hours too, because I used to play skate 3 religiously. Session is really worth it!!

I picked it up on ps plus and I love it. As someone who use to actually skate , it’s almost just as rewarding landing difficult tricks irl. I love that it’s challenging. Sure it could be a bit more polished but it’s a great game

downloaded the game the other day and blew my brains out. now im back as a brilliant skater and gonna try it out again.

in real life A skater will attempt a trick or line multiple times until they land or get it perfect, session captures that process really well. If you are struggling with landing tricks, remember that when you do eventually land it you will be able to move on from that trick feeling satisfied. getting tricks down after multiple attempts and practice is how the game is intended to be played.

0:54 the reverb of that impact had me dying! Haha

Yeah session does have a learning curve, but when you take time to learn how to play it much more satisfying when you land tricks. Skateboarding in real life is hard, so yeah I like how session made this more realistic.

I am really enjoying session right now, I've always been into DIY spots and the blackriver dlc objects are perfect especially as I own a few irl.

you were right with everything u said, lots of game reviewers(even some skaters youtubers) that tried out the game said that the game is bad, but they barely played few hours, lots of people nowadays wants every game to be arcadey or easy.. its says sim in the title, skating is hard, skating sim game should be hard too

I played skate 3 for all the 7-8 years I had my PS3. Now that it’s gone, I decided to try this game and honestly it’s addicting. I love the realism, the physics, the maps and everything. Both Skate and Session are amazing games

New ps player here, yeah the controls are a little hard but that’s what makes it fun. It feels better then skater XL to land a trick or just ride around in general.

Like with skateboarding irl there is a learning curve. Many people don't get past the initial stages. That's okay. For those who do it's all love, for those who don't and want to send negativity, it just turns into more fuel for the rest of us. Like T-Funk we monsters out here, that love each other 💚

aphex twin hat in session is so fire

People love to b*tch and moan and act so entitled, this is a passion project to be the closest to actually skateboarding and thats not a easy feat. This game is so much like skateboarding in real life such as it weeds out the people who says its too hard... so if you don't like it, then its not for you.

i feel the learning curve part for session, but the game is soo fun to casually go back to with the auto/easy mode equivalent for the game from time to time. however I should probably get use to manual catch because the game looks a little wonky with auto everything turned on lol. good video though guy! I see your points

My first encounter with Session went like this - Bought the game in early access when they still had you running around as a prison inmate, tried skating around a bit got insanely frustrated, uninstalled the game and refunded. Then about a year later I went back to it and they added SO MUCH GOOD STUFF. Watched some videos on it and how to actually play it and spent hours getting into it myself. Conclusion - It's a really fun game (especially since the stats menu) but the learning curve is pretty hard haha

I love “session” and the custom setting to make it more difficult is dope I wish the board would snap on the nose though that would make a good clip for a video part

I am someone who picked this up with PSplus this month and I came from SkaterXL and I was reeeeeeeeally struggling with this at first but much like when I learned to skate I had to practice. Once I got some practice in I began to learn and I'm having a TON of fun with this game. I still prefer the "flow" of SkaterXL but Session is absolutely a better product. Easy Day Studios wishes they had a game as complete as Session (or rather, they don't care I'm pretty sure).

Bro ur settings vid help me get so much better THANK U😂

Idk how many people will understand this comparison but i would compare skate 3 to something like forza horizon, older nfs games, or grand Turismo and skater xl and session to i racing. Its difficult, different, and doesnt do a lot to give a welcoming vibe but once you learn the game and start to get better its by far and away one of the most rewarding games to get better at and see your progress

I played on ps5…I bought skater XL cause I thought it had skate 3 controls.. nope.. bought session skate sim.. same thing. Little while later I sat down spend about 3-4 hours to figure out how to play it then .. 400+hours later I love it and im decent ❤

This game targets real life skaters. Extremely small Target audience. Everyone else should not even touch it. It's obvious that they can't comprehend it

personally i found the game easy to learn, but challenging to master, its quite fun just skating doing a the same trick in many different variations and speed and is probably what pulls me back to it when it get tired of it, in comparison to skate where every tre flip is the exact same as the first one... If u find this game hard, u should mby practice ur motor skills a bit more, try tapping the top of ur head with ur right hand and moving ur left hand in circles around ur belly button

200 hours into session, when i first bought it it took me like 30 minutes ( with auto grind on ) to just learn to jump on rail. Now i use manial catch etc and game doesnt feel hard anymore, but i still get stuck like 30 minutes on single line :D

Took me a while to learn it but nothing is more satisfying than landing a trick!! I just hope they add at least some co-op option!

Tbh Pigeon I like the more discussion type videos of just talking about the state of the game or something like this while just skating around

I hope that everyone has an amazing 2024 and safe travels throughout the year.

You should make a video about the easiest settings to use for people who are new to the game It would help people getting better with the game and learn how to use the settings menus

just downloaded it i loved skate 2 and 3, yes i suck sat session ol but i enjoy this game just gotta practice and play more!

I started playing this game recently and first I was like "I really suck at this game" but I still kept going cause already failing in the tutorial would be to much of an ego hit. And yeah some stuff took me over 30 minutes, but I do notice that I'm getting better at it. And it's a nice distraction.

how have they not fixed the animations yet it still looks so stiff and wonky compared to every other skate game

Where do you get the cosmetics mods?

Kearney street has become 1 of my fav go to spots...

I never stayed and played ANY skate games other than Tony hawk games, but this one drew me in cuz how clean the tricks are. This is a good game and it gets better once you learn to play it, on a side note how do u fix the spagetti legs? when I hop off a grind the legs look all stringy and warped. This wasnt happening before I messed with the settings tho so Im guessing I did it somehow in the settings menu.

lmao when first playing Session the simmer (and competitor) in me wanted to go full unlocked manual catch etc from the get go.. i quickly resorted to auto-catch and kept it that way for the first 2 weeks, then went back to manual catch.. These 2 weeks of auto catch really helped me get accustomed to the game itself, albeit it was fresh on steam back then / very early access.. However the level of frustration / difficulty is +/-0 to current version i'd say. EDIT: Of course there's a lot to criticize with this game, so much so that at one point after the 1.0 release i just stopped playing all together.. But did i stop caring because "the game is bad"? Apparently not, i'm here watching every Session video you pump out, and am still hoping the game will reach the level of polish and bugfixing it deserves.

Don’t get me wrong I was one of the guys that played all those Tony hawk franchise games plus with all the skate franchise games when I hopped on to skate Sim I do admit it was frustrating for about a whole day but now is the best game I’ve ever played to tell you the truth in my opinion, it’s better than the Tony Hawk and skate it feels a lot more relaxing and more realistic. The fact that I could have will flat spots have my board with wear and tear and all the other little features are just amazing.

its a learner curve for sure, but when you hit your first line its really addictive.

Ill say, I dont skate but love Session. I love it cuz I cant skate n this makes me feel a lil cooler at least lmao I could always "skate" but could never do tricks really. Why I always give a shout out to ppl that can cuz its not an easy sport. It was always a great workout too

Does someone know where to get that gear (pants, hoodie, etc.)? It's not on the pigeon thief discord, or is it? Thanks

Here’s the thing abt session, it’s hard as hell, UNTIL you mess with your settings a bit, then it’s mad fun

Just like skating in real life it takes time dedication and patience, this game is amazing.

i feel like anyone who actually likes skating and not just skating games will enjoy session. the only real problem wit the game to me is not enough clothing options... i thought i would unlock more stuff as i played through the story but nope lmao everything u can c at the beginning of the game in the shop is all ur options for the rest of ur experience unless ur modding.

This is by far my favorite game, I've never had a more rewarding gaming experience.

I went from skate to session and hated it , stuck with skater xl for 2 years then got sick of the lack of content on Xbox, tried session again and now I won’t go back to skater xl or skate … after I changed the controls a little bit I fucking love , slower flips and all the flick control is nasty. But the lack of grabs and little things are lacking . I’ll take session over the competition any day now … IT WAS DEFINITELY A SKILL ISSUE TO START

Been playing for 4 days and I had to do 215 nollie backside heels and somehow got it and I can do nose grinds, crooks, lots of flip tricks, five o’s board slides and all that stuff I am not that good but I can at least skate a handrail but that’s a lot of progression in 4 days!!!!

I'm one of those new PS Plus players but I knew what I was getting into and I've had a fun and frustrating experience in my almost 30 hours of playing, I did beat most of the missions and went pro though so that was cool, the hardest stuff for me was anything involving manuals, especially that damn Daewon Song one at the playground, holy shit was that mad annoying lmao

Bro I subbed today and have been loving the content. Just noticed the Nothing Left To Love hoodie and we just became best friends

The game is good, I’ve just played it for 1hr and I’m getting good at it, the only problem for me is that you (necessarily) have to turn your body with L2/R2 because otherwise you end up doing tricks just before a gap or just falling down. I miss Skate 3 so much, but I guess this is the closest I can get.

If you skate irl and have real skateboard knowledge this game is mad fun and easy to learn, if you have zero skate experience this game will piss you off.

Realism doesn't always equate to more fun. That being said, I picked up session for just that! The realism. It's hands down the closest thing to irl skating, especially when compared out the box against SXL and the EA skate franchise. I'm fully into the game now, took a couple days or so to really get the controls into my head. But thinking about the sticks as individual feet, and being a skater myself, it really just clicked! Such a moment of joy when I went from failing to catch tricks, to stacking lines easily and knowing what I wanted to do for every trick. The hardest part isn't the controls per say, but more so unlearning decades of muscle memory by this point. It really does make sense though and is my personal favourite dual stick system for a skateboarding game. Flick-it controls were revolutionary, but limited. Session adds a new ingredient to the mix and it just works so well. My biggest gripes are limited maps and gear on console (get a pc, scrub - I have one, just prefer gaming on console as it's more comfortable to me). The darn wheel bounce glitch. Lastly, it's the sadly dated engine it's on. It makes filming clips, or certain spots nearly impossible to work with due to awful shadow culling, screen space effects like water flowing or reflections for example. But it just feels a bit dated already and has done since release. Despite looking gorgeous, it doesn't feel overly optimised. Big asks for an indie team, but they were so transparent before, they're very quiet now and only seem to pop up with more paid dlc. That said, they have done a filming video lately. So fair play to them for getting more players involved in the most engaging part of the game. Stacking clips! That all said, you have the best style when it comes to session. Your flow and trick selection has always been captivating to watch. Just really hope to see you make another session edit! The last one was beautiful. But I get that it's very time consuming and not profitable. Just another selfish desire. You're absolutely ridiculous at this game and I can't get enough! All the best dude.

last night was rough.. there was plenty of cursing and almost a surrender. Tonight, I'm obsessed. This game is really dope, even better than skate. It's mainly the movement with the triggers that trips me up I keep wanting to steer with the L stick. It is a super enjoyable challenge which makes it all the more rewarding when you do nail something. The thing I had to realize about it is it's more about planning lines and using the session marker rather than just rolling through the map skating everything like in THPS and Skate. I came to youtube to find all the mafs who are really good and see some crazy lines.

My thing is, people wouldn't be caught off guard if they just looked up a game and few different perspectives on it and decide if they wanna try it or not 😂😂

Although its a lot different, the difficulty is on par with thrasher skate and destroy. I remember that game being just as much a pita.

Session is so unforgiving. I just played it for the first time the other day, but i had fun, falling or not 😂

This game rules. The replay editor is incredible i just keep making skate videos on share factory

This game is definitely worth the patience to learn , best skate sim we got out right now .

I got this on pc and i swear everyones animations look better and physics feel different from mine... Like your flick tricks feel faster and grinds feel flatter. If i do a nose or tail grind the voard wiggles up and down ? Instead of being a solid foot plant no matter what i do

I downloaded the game yesterday and had it mastered within 3 hours. It seriously doesn’t take much to learn it. I had one friend who just like everyone else couldn’t get used to the controls and never took the time to tweak settings so they said it was a horrible game. I freaking love it. It’s called “skate sim” for a reason😂

I think one of the things that needs changed is ragdolls. Like, the game has these ultra real graphics but when you bail you just kinda turn into a wet blanket. I think if they added some active ragdoll animations so it actually looks like a bailout it would look amazing. Also multiplayer pls it would make this game ultimate and is the reason i go with XL instead of session

wait people say this game is bad? i played like last year because i havent been able to play skate on my pc and this was that game for me just satisfying chill skateboarding game with good controls

People saying it's a bad game are non skaters IRL. This game is made for skaters, and it shows because people will complain about the controls, yet the controls are the most realistic setup I've played. The drop off from steam achievements is huge from the first one to the second one. I beat the game on normal and now playing on hardcore and its the best skating game out there.

Session ftw 🤣... Btw, where did you get those pants? 😅

I just got it and i fuckin love it!! Already making clips left and right!!

man Ive only been playing it for a couple of a days and the first day and a half I kinda hated it, buuuut after messing with the advanced settings and making it feel a bit nicer for me Ive been enjoying it a lot more. Just give the game time and practice

It’s exactly what I thought it was. And frankly what I wanted. I’m having fun failing and getting better

Обе игры (session n skater xl) по своему хороши. В sxl меня привлекает большое количество мод карт, но некоторые аспекты управления отталкивают. Так же, вечная настройка всего, чтобы игру сделать лучше. Session может иметь недоработанную анимацию, баги, но управление там - идеальное, как по мне. (ждём grabs из 0.0.0.5а аххаахах. Зачем они вырезали..., лучше бы так и оставили в экспериментальном)

Dont hate on the game. Just put in the hours you need to get better at playing it. Just because you don't progress as quickly as other skateboarding games doesn't make the game bad. It is meant for people who are willing to dedicate themselves.

i like that modded hoodie with the beanie

Session def isn’t bad but this long in between waiting for mid content is bad

skating and session skate sim take time got to put in the time , the game is fire

People seem to shit themselves at the controls, but if you've skated in real life the controls make total sense anf become the best part of the game. With that said, the game can feel slightly shallow due to the lack of atmosphere and muted pay-off. It just feels lonely. For the game to really splash they could add; story, trans/vert, blood, weather, online league/tournaments, or maybe some sort of in-game podcast/radio station. Session is the best skateboard game in decades, but unless you're a perfectionist into uploading fake video clips (using replay editor), the game gets quite boring. Looking forward to future renditions with more immersive environmentd and story. Most of the basics are nailed at this point.

what map is this?

Your a real one Pigeonthief

Best skateboard game period

I just hope this game gets better anims

I personally prefer session over skater xl. But i still play skate 3 for nostalgia

How I can have that shoes? Pliiiiissssss :)

I love that it’s hard to play it makes it more challenging and when you do a mission that you have been trying to do for a long time it’s more rewarding.

Both Session & XL have their ups and downs but they both "look like ps3 games" with shader modes and that's main reason why people don't even wanna try these "skate 3 clones"! Session tried to become "realistic" skate game with slightly outdated graphics and unfinished skate mechanics! Seems like the devs decided to cut the development of the game and let the players change the settings MANUALLY instead of having them change AUTOMATICALLY based on board size, oppsticle, speed, weight etc... Example: Imagine you set up small pop for casual cruise, then forget about it and try to pop up to a bigger oppsticle. You'll fail over and over again until you'll remember to MANUALLY CHANGE THE SETTINGS that should have been AUTOMATED! Session is clearly more for people that like manual tinqering with their settings instead of actually playing the game! 🤷‍♂ XL folks on other hand wanna play out of the box, like skate 3 or tonyhawk pro skater. Nothing inovative, just a different package. P.S Hopefully Session will get all the NEEDED updates BEFORE Skate 4 comes out, so Session have build it's own fan base before skate 4 rolls over everything and everyone in skate scene :V

how do I get the vans on ps4??

Session is by the far the best skate game. I won’t even be bothering with skate 4s moon gravity and single stick controls. Session claiming to be a skate sim but not having proper animations for getting on and off your board is an absolute crime though.

I just wish the bails looked better lmao

the best game ive ever played and im 42

I play skate 3 on hardcore and i play session with manual catch settings enabled

Skate = CoD SkaterXL = Battlefield Session = ARMA

It's the animations that kill it for me. Somehow the devs managed to make the animations look stiff and rubbery at the same time. SXL looks and plays way more fluid, but it also comes with its own bag of issues. Fingers crossed that Skate 4 gets it right.

I have like 500h+ in session and im very All right with you