Overview
+ Estimated achievement difficulty: 7/10
+ Offline: 800
+ DLC: 500
+ Online: 200
+ Approximate time: 24+ Hours
+ Minium number of playthroughs needed: 1
+ Glitched achievements: 0
+ Cheats: 0
Introduction:
Before you start playing this game is a little different to some of the other skateboarding games out there. If your new to the skate series you will need to get used to using the thumb sticks. Primarily all the tricks are done using the sticks and triggers rather than pressing random buttons to pull off tricks.
The game is made up of film challenges, general skater challenges, races, tricks and contests. You have to progress through the game to become the best skater in San Van. This includes earning the cover of Thrasher and Skateboard magazine, these come with progression through the game.
Challenges in this game are rather hit and miss, sometimes you will do them straight away and others will drive you crazy. There is one challenge to watch out for called "Can you spell GIRL?", this challenge is rather hard as the skaters pull the worst tricks and can be hard to beat. There are videos illustrating how to do this without to much hassle.
You will also be required to take part in a rather lengthy multiplayer ranking system which involves you playing games of S.K.A.T.E, Races, Best Trick and Hall of Meat. Ranking up takes time and you need to earn you badges in each event type to progress.
In addition to the 1000 retail score there is an extra 500 to earn through DLC. These are fairly straight forward and carry on from the current games events, videos and photo challenges. These shouldn't cause you any issues, if you do have any trouble the achievement guide will direct you the easiest way to earn them.
Breakdown:
You will only need one playthrough for this game but it comes with dedication. Most challenges are straight forward enough but may take a few attempts depending on how skilled you are at the game. Remember this game is built around you become a better player and not ranking up your players stats.
Challenges:
There straight forward enough but there are a few tricky ones such as "Can you spell GIRL?". This is by far the worst challenge in the game next to "BLOAW!". Most challenges just require you to either practice or to find ways around them. There are some very helpful videos in the guide which will illustrate how to beat "Can you spell GIRL?".
Your going to need to learn how to pump, grab, finger flip and pull off combinations of grinds and fliptricks. One trick to watch out for is the 360 flip. This trick can be really touchy as the thumb stick is mapped with so many tricks.
Story:
The story is simple enough, progress though completing the magazine/video and photo ops. You will need to do some other side missions such as drain pools and beat contest to progress. If you ever get stuck without any progression check your bonus challenges from the challenge map. Sometimes you need to complete games of S.K.A.T.E and other pro challenges to progress.
Hall of Meat:
As an addition to all the challenges and events you need to compete in the hall of meat is a rather fun side game. Basically you need to trash your player to break bones and limbs to earn a score. This will take a little while to complete as some of the things you have to do are a little time consuming. You will probably earn half of the 4 lists without even knowing while playing through the game.
Multiplayer:
You will either want to get good at the game or just play online for fun, either way it's going to take you a while to rank up to the legend rank. If your a intermedate at skate I suggest playing races and hall of meat games as they will be the easier modes to rank up in. You will still be required to earn silver and gold medals in other game modes also but do the events your comfortable for the grind to 5,000xp.
If you have any Downloadable Content while working towards the online challenges you may need to remove them once you get to the end of your challenges. Users have reported that the DLC blocks the achievement, there isn't a patch but removing the DLC and replaying a challenge will unlock the achievement. I suggest you avoid DLC if you want to complete the full retail 1000 without any hiccups.
Downloadable Content:
There isn't much to say about these apart from they are straight forward enough. There are a few odd misc achievements which are listed below, they consist of beating the pros at events and completing a few video/photo challenges. They have no relation to the games retail story so you can do these whenever you want.
Conclusion:
Working your way though the career isn't much of a challenge but may be for newer players. Keep practicing and take your time with some events and challenges as they can be frustrating. Multiplayer is long winded but just find events you enjoy and play them more often than other events.
Earning the DLC achievements will take you no longer than 40 minutes to complete, maybe even sooner if your a more experienced player.
[x360 would like to thank DefJamV for this roadmap]
[x360 would like to thank Fizzmatix for the DLC additions]