actually i didn't purchase this game, and Im thankful every day that I didnt. I did however rent it recently. Right off the bat I found the first flaw of the game. The Intro. Not only was it that same boring trailer I had seen months before over and over, but I could not skip it. I had to watch the whole thing again. finally I began a new career and found myself stuck in a limited create a skater mode that seemed to be built upon stereotypes and had some of the worst clothes/style collections I have seen in pretty much any game. Finally after choosing the Hip hop guy (not becuase thats me necessarily but because it was the only character I could picture actually riding a board) I began the game itself. The game starts you off in Suburbia which is not, much to my dismay, similar to the original suburbia in THPS 3 at all. the original featured skate sets, and some relativly logically placed ledges. this one contained a koi pond and some uninspiring houses with next to nothing that an actual skateboarder would skate. the only good ledge was surrounded by grass. Nice work neversoft I can see the level designers are really earning their keep. After about 10 wretched minutes of gameplay, I finally got out of suburbia and spent about 2 hours opening the rest of the levels. in the whole game (capitol excluded) I found maybe 10 spots that someone would actually skate. The worst level was without a doubt the car factory is the worst level in the game with next to nothing being intuitave or fun to skate. The best level was by far the capital. it had oodles of pretty marbled ledges that reflected the shiny happy next gen graphics. I probably spent more time in this level than in all the other levels combined. the only other remotely well designed level was the school. this is pretty much a staple of every THPS game, since they all feature a school, and schools are usually the first place I look for skate spots in real life. This level featured some impressive stair sets and a really nice ledge over a gap. This level would have been my favourite if only for one thing that these level designers dont seem to get. Kinked rails are not that fun to skate. every level in this game is riddled with kinked hand rails that would have been much funner to skate if not for that. one of the things we were promised in this game were improved tricks. after seeing the monstrositys in THAW, I was very optimistic. fortunatley, mo capping tricks makes them look more natural. unfortunatly, the tricks still lack the style that they once had. Look at THPS 3. thats what a kickfliip should look like. this inconsitancy is unacceptable from neversoft. still, I was pleased overall with most of the tricks. i was very happy that they finally included proper nollie 360 inward heelflips, nolie lazerflips, and nollie 360 hardflips. Ever since THPS4 I have been waiting for them to fix this and it took them 4 games to do it. The grinds are still looking pretty good, but I noticed several glitches. I could not fs bluntslide a rail for some reason. i would go over to nosebluntslide. There are plenty of other glitches that shouldn't be there. The manuals by themselves look great and natural.... the freestyling not so much. I noticed that neversoft screwed up again on its trick naming. what it calls a 360 fingerflip is actually a 360 shovit. once again Neversoft is getting sloppy.
The story is so rediculous that I don't even want to talk about it (lets just say that it ends in a funpark) Even Jason Lee can't save the preposterous plotline. Nice try neversoft, but Tony Alva didn't save THAW and Jason Lees not gonna save THP8. if this is supposed to introduce the younger generation to skateboarding legends, then I fear for the future of skateboarding. Finally, I will review the most hyped new feature of this game, Nail The Trick. NTT is very fun, and hard to learn. I spent hours perfecting doing normal tricks in it such as hardflips. once you get used to it, however, It gets pretty boring pretty fast. much like the rest of the game, this feature lacks the replayability of past games in this series. While certainly a visually attractive game, the gameplay, story, level design, and soundtrack leave much to be desired. This game is a pretty big improvement over THAW, but its just not worth the price tag. If this is the best neversoft can come up with for the next gen market, then I don't believe i will continue buying their games. I have bought every TH game in succession (even THAW) but I just couldn't bring myself to buy this shoddy, buggy travesty of a skateboarding game. With EA getting into the skateboarding genre, maybe there will be enough competition to revitalize a once great franchise, but I doubt it.
Tony rides again in the next Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game from Activision. The game challenges players to experience the intensity and pressure of skating against some of the world's top pros in true to life competitions ... Read Full Review
Tony hawks has created all kinds of skate boarding game but this one is definitely not the best. Like I said Skate is better than this game. If you are a real tony hawks fan then go ahead and get it. Don't get me wrong... Read Full Review
