First impression only, not bad
I must also bring up that I just recently finished Skate and as good as that game was it was LONG!!! By the end of it I still didn't feel like I was in control of the flip tricks at all, it was just random patterns on the analog stick...
Anyways, enough about skate, the first thing I did when I popped this baby in is... I played Guitar Hero 3 Demo.... yes that alone is probably the best reason to get this game, just for the Tenacious D! Hahahaha anyways I WAS a big Tony Hawk fan back in the day, the 2nd one was intense. And I"ve played Project 8, finished 3rd in the town and had enough of it.
Problem with this one is that I still feel like I'm playing Project 8 with minor changes some good some bad. The Aggro Kick and Nail the Grab's are fun, the nail the manual is stupid. Another thing that's stupid is that you gotta do the missions in order to "learn" them, yeah that's right you can't do them until you do the tutorial missions.
The graphics are pretty much like Project 8 which was fin, but it's time to upgrade, Project 8 was really a nice leap foward, the new animations were nice and they're in here again, the problem with the animations is that you can barely see them. Anyways you get clipping all over the place, like last years version.
The gameplay is what's been good with the series forever, and I still think for now that this formula is better then Skate's... For now anyways, Skate 2 only needs to improve a few thing over the original to be better, like the flip tricks, god, I never felt like I was in control over them, kickflips wouldn't work oftenly, like c'mon! But yeah, gameplay in Proving Grounds is pretty much like every other Tony Hawk since Underground, except you get "3 story branches" in this new one, basically it's just 3 branches of missions... one hardcore which is the ones who just skate for themselves, so pretty much just hitting the sickest stuff and doing insane stuff. The career branche which is mainly you just getting famous, getting sponsored by deck, shoe, truck and any other company you can think of. Then you have the builder branch which makes you place things in the world with the usual editor that's been in there since like 3, so WAY out of date, which is a big problem in some cases, like try to place something on a roof or ledge.
So overall I agree with the gamespot review so far, skate is technically better, but tony hawk has the better gameplay by little right now. Any hawk fan will find enjoyment in this, I did anyways. Stay tuned for my full review later on.