Tony Hawk Ride

Right then, this is my first review in a long time but I would like to share my opinion of this game. When I bought it I really wanted to like it, and did manage to see the positives for a while. One of the problems though is that in trying to compete with the realism of Skate, they've pretty much failed. The skateboard controller was a good idea and has been made really well material-wise, but it's sensors/motion-recognition is incredibly poor. So now I shall talk about the negatives:

Despite being well-built, the sensors seem to be terribly inaccurate and it's actually this that makes the game challenging. Even more annoying is that you can't seem to stand anywhere near the sensors without it thinking your hands are grabbing it. Basically your goal in challenge mode for example is not only to do the trick it tells you to do, but to also make the controller recognize that you're doing them. Another big problem I found while using the control is the steering. There's simply not enough subtle detection in the sensitivity of your tilting. Not only that but trying to stop turning was quite difficult as well without turning the opposite direction. My general point is that the controller works pretty poorly.

Now on to the positives... The game is pretty good despite what I had initially heard. It has gone in a completely new direction but has an enjoyable arcade sort of feel to it which I enjoyed playing. The game's main mode seems to be broken down into 5 different cities, with about 5 locations each, which are then broken down again into three categories of speed (time trial), trick (high score), and challenge (a set of 5 different challenges). It is really fun to play but does have some graphic glitches and there is an issues with the lack of information provided causing you to have to quit the game to see if you've done everything you need to do.

If you're thinking about buying this game then I would highly suggest that you wait for the price to come down and be prepared to deal with a controller that is more difficult to learn than an actual skateboard. It may also be worth knowing that this is the first game I have ever taken back for a refund that wasn't faulty. I have completed virtually every other tony hawk game, but this one just isn't worth the grief. I welcome challenging games but not ridiculously challenging controllers.

Product arrived quickly and was easy to set up. Board has a solid feel and information is fed quickly to X-Box360 so slight movements are in time with screen action. My son loves it. Hours of fun!

This game seems to have a lot of mixed reviews, this is going to be the next one.

At first I found this game to be very frustrating a lot of problems seem to be down to the use of the controller, the problem being it is a lot like a Skateboard so Myself and a lot of people are trying to use it like one in truth you need to be a bit gentler than that, youtube have some very good Tutorial videos helped me a lot.

The Skateboard seems to work OK, but it is not without a few problems I had left it on the settee with two of the sensors covered I then must of started the game when I got back in the room My Skater was busy doing tricks etc, he done so well I won 30 Gamerpoints for the longest grind ?.
The game itself Doesn't differ much from other Tony Hawk Games Ride around, Pull of tricks, Complete the Challenges etc. Graphically it looks a little bit 6th Generation (Xbox, PS2 ETC). The Skateboard Controller is very well built feels solid, Gameplay is good But nothing new certainly not enough to warrant the price I managed to pick this up SecondHand from a well known Online/Highstreet retailer if you can get it cheap enough I would say buy it but at nearly £80 its not wort it hence only 3 stars.