Tony Hawk's Project 8 (PS2)

Another Tony Hawk game, each one expected to exceed the next with capabilities. For some reason this one doesn't. The story-line is probably the worst yet - the goal being to become one of the best 8 skaters in the area to become part of Tony Hawks "Project 8". The only problem being, once you get to the best position, nothing in particular happens. You work through the levels (which arent continually streaming like in Amerian Wasteland) trying to do these stupid goals like "Try manualling about 200m around this impossible track with many corners".

They used motion capture on the real skaters for the "realistic" look. However realistic the actual kickflip looks, the continue to use the traditional "ollie as high as a house and more" attitude towards things, and when your ollie becomes better you can stay in the air for so long it's just stupid.

Additions like "Nail the Trick" mode (means that you can manually perform a trick in slow motion), and the new Am - Pro - Sick difficulty modes, at first seem a good idea but are generally a waste of time when you consider that the basic areas need improving. The graphics are pretty similar to the games before, some of the levels seem improved but the skaters remain ridiculously quickly made with very bad shape.

They have removed the Create-a-park mode, and have extremely limited the create-a-skater mode with 3 skin choices, and 3 faces to choose from. If you're looking for a complicated person maker, think again. Although the basic Tony Hawk game essence is there, it really is quite a dissappointment. Worse than the last few titles in this series, it seems like a quickly made, bad designed game with many repetitive tasks, boring levels and lack of story. This game was probably made quickly with a big focus on making the new PS3 game better.

Another good installment to the Tony Hawk's series!

I emphasize the word good, the game hasn't improved that much.

The graphics are same as ever, looking good.

Tony Hawk has come to your town as he has heard of some very talented unknowns out there that he wants to put into his new team sort of thing, "Project 8". You work your way up in the ranks doing goals.

There is no start difficulty setting, in each goal you have to do more to get to a higher rank. The difficulties range from Amateur - Pro - Sick. The higher the difficulty, the more ranks you go up.

In this new installment, I would have hoped they would have improved on the realness of the game, but yet again they've failed.

You start off being able to do any trick, just imagine this; an 11 year old pulling a 900 mctwist off a building, yeah that's what you can do in this game.

Now for "Nail The Trick". It's a nice tool, and adds even more flexibility to the engine, well thats's what I thought at first.

You use the left analog stick to control the left foot, and the right analog stick to control the left one. When I first tried it out I thought "Yay! I can make up my own trick and pull a different one in every ollie!", well that's what I thought. You seem to be limited to the kinds of tricks you can do. I thought this was flexibility but really, it isn't. You also get 10+ seconds air time from a single ollie when you're in this mode, it may be in slow motion but this is so unrealistic.

If you're a Tony Hawk's virgin, buy this game. The series are great but this game won't impress any Tony Hawk's veterans like myself.

As a Tony Hawk's game fan from the very beginning, back (when I were a lad) when player movement was unbelievably stiff and unresponsive, graphics were abysmal (compared to today's standards) and the tricks were few, I had always expected the spectrum of things to do to only increase. Unfortunately, thanks to this installment in the Tony Hawk's line, I have been let down. The game has been virtually stripped of many of its great assets that had been built up over the years:

The park editor has disappeared (though for some reason there are a couple of goals in career mode that you can place various pieces in the levels)

The option of riding anything other than the skateboard has gone, none of the cars of THUG, the various vehicles of THUG2 and the BMX of THAW have been included.

The create a skater is rubbish, with very limiting options, making it impossible to create many different sorts of people.

The board smack/apple or tomato throwing feature has gone. Yeah, I never really actually used either, but it would have been nice to have the option.

The brilliant idea of no loading screens that was introduced in THAW has gone, and could easily have been included.

The great tool of parkour has been forgotten; it really helped getting around the level.

There really isn't any story. It's just a bunch of stuff that happens, and then you improve your status enough to skate with Tony Hawk.

The classic levels have gone. It was brilliant being able to play in the levels that we all know and love in better graphics with little extra bits and of course, a hell of a lot more tricks.

Manual can also be done with square this game. That's not how you manual! It's a brutal gesture to those of us who had practised tirelessly in THPS2 to do the updown thing. Updown. Updown. Sheer THPS blasphemy.

The craziness inherent in every Tony Hawk's game really has been dumbed down in this one. There are no zombies. There are no aliens in Roswell or Skate Heaven. There is no mindless and ridiculous destruction that we all loved about THAW. The only point at which any of this is apparent is in the Classic goal movie sequences. This just isn't enough.

As it happens, Shaba had helped out with this game. The last time they were involved, Tony Hawk's 3 happened, which also was a dissapointment (though I have not played on the PS2 version of it).

The game in it's own right is not a failure. Many of us had been a bit disappointed by how easy the goals were in previous games, the only thing keeping us playing being the gaps and the fact you had to keep completing the game on various difficulty levels, but this time, the goals are a lot more challenging thanks to the introduction of the system in which grades are awarded (am, pro and sick) depending on how well you complete the goal. This also means that you don't have to keep trying a goal until you can move on.

The introduction of the gap videos were a godsend to those of us who aren't able to read the minds of those who thought of the names of the gaps. Now we don't have to print off pages and pages of gap guide, or run between PC and playstation in order to complete it.

The nail the trick is relatively fun, though there's no real reason why you would want to keep doing it, besides, it doesn't seem to work most of the time.

The levels are just as big and original as ever, they are all great fun to skate around.

The videos are just as sick and are now more accessible! They can now be viewed from the pause screen.

And of course, the game will still make you as angry as all the others when you can't do something, or it seems to do something completely different to what you want. Yeah, that's what we want from the Tony Hawk's series.