Tony's Ollie to the nex-gen isn't as great as you would expect. While the game-play is fun the graphics are a let down.
At first when you start off with a new game, you may select you're character which is a major step back according to me because in the previous two games you could make one yourself (al-tough this feature is included in the Classic Mode and create-a-modes). You start off as a wannabe pro that want's to build a way up to the top. But thing's arn't going as it should be and you meet up with Mindy a girl that want's to publish her magazine American Wasteland. She tells you about a Skate Ranch and so you meet up with another few skaters and start to build on it.
The missions in the game are quite the same. Most of the times some dude yells tricks for you to nail down in a certain amount of time. But you also have to do other things like impress a pro-skater and shooting balloons to some swimming people. There are also side-missions for you to earn money like helping to tag a place or again to do tricks. With the money you can buy clothes, stuff for your board, tattoo or a nice haircut.
It's nice to have this new feature so you can always change your appearance but it's just a copy of what Rockstar had with GTA San Andreas. Also the new feature to ride a bike is fun but needs a bit more perfection to make it more enjoyable.
Another fun feature is that there are no loading times between the different areas. But you can't just go from Hollywood to Beverly Hills in one step because the loading times are just ignored by letting you go to a tunnel or long corridor to pre-load the next area.
The Classic mode contains some different maps with goals like collecting the S-K-A-T-E letters and get a High Score within 2 minutes. You can also search for Stat-coins that you can spend to upgrade your Stats or collect the C-O-M-B-O letters in one combo. Here you also can use you're created skater or select one like Tony Hawk himself or one of you're unlocked skaters.
The Create-A-Modes explain them selves. Here you can create you're own skater, deck graphic, tag or skate ranch.
Overall the game is quite good but then there are those graphics. In some cut-scenes they are okay but in the most there is no lip-sync or well used animations. In-game the frame rate will sometimes slow down and the NPC's and you're character look quite ugly from a close-up. The in-game world sometimes is blocky and some textures only show up if you're close enough.
In short, the new Tony Hawk game has great game-play and a story that's good (but only gets a move on at the end) but has bad graphics and sometimes bad voice-work. The Classic mode isn't something new but nice to see again and the create-a-modes are still a nice add on to keep you busy for a while. And with the next real nex-gen Hawk game coming up I just can't wait to see it.