So, first things first. Yes, it's another Tony Hawk skating game. Yes, Neversoft developed it (at least the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions). Yes, it's next-gen ... but will also be appearing on the Wii, PS2, and the DS. We love the note included with the press release on those "NOTE: gameplay/content may vary." Well, we sure hope so.
Basically, the gameplay isn't that different from Tony Hawk's Project 8, although since Nail the Trick was such a huge hit, they now have Nail the Grab and Nail the Manual. They act similarly, but for instance in Nail the Grab your analog sticks control your hands instead of your feet, allowing you to manipulate the board in funky ways. They've also added some "attacks" that allow you to interact with NPCs. You can now Aggro Push and Skate Check them, and it's admittedly fun to send a random pedestrian flying for no reason. Grand Theft Auto meets Tony Hawk.
Also new this year is a World of Warcraft (their comparison, not ours) type RPG system. You can choose from three classes of skaters: Career (skaters who want sponsors, trophies, and bling), Hardcore (skaters who skate for the sake of skating, no rules style), and Rigger (they adapt the world around 'em, like sawing skate guards off a bench, nailing a ramp together, planting a pipe somewhere to grind on, etc). It's more of a Fable approach than Warcraft, because what you choose to be affects your appearance. For instance, if you're a Hardcore skaters, you'll get scars and bruises from your run-ins with security guards, Career skaters will be outfitted in bling, and Riggers have a more grassroots look (including a hammer shoved into their outfit).
You'll also have a Skate Lounge that you can outfit however you want. It's basically a huge warehouse that you can build in, dress up with plasma screens, fountains, helicopters, limos, bleachers ... you get the idea. You can also change the "theme" of the Lounge, the ones we saw were "Club" and "Dojo." If you take things online, you'll be able to invite people back to your space to check things out and skate, or you can visit theirs to see what pieces they've been able to unlock.
The world of this Tony Hawk title is, "the biggest" they've ever created in a game. You start the game in Philly, and can eventually travel to Washington D.C. and Baltimore. We're not sure how it adds up to some of the other titles, which all seemed huge to us, but from the bird's eye view in this one there are a ton of places to skate. We were shown the interior of the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, which looked pretty amazing. You can even skate in the Moon Room, trippy.
Easily the biggest addition is the video editor they've included in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. It's pretty robust, and allows you to capture clips of yourself skating, and edit them together in a non-linear editor that includes transitions and filters. The videos can be up to two minutes in length, and you can post them online (via the leaderboards somehow) for other people to watch. We'd love to see them go straight up on YouTube, but the ability to edit your videos is fairly sweet. Think of it like a very dumbed down version of Final Cut Express.
Rounding it all out, what did we think? Well, if you liked Tony Hawk's Project 8, you'll love this ... but if you haven't ever played a skating title yet and are looking to, you need to check out EA's Skate as well. Graphically, Skate has the upper hand, but as far as the sheer amount of things to do in the game, THPG is your buddy. Ultimately, it will break down to if you want to pursue a more realistic style, or play something more arcade-like. We were demoed the game on Xbox 360 systems, but they've told us the PS3 will look "pretty much the same" and that the online features will be "somewhat similar to the Xbox 360's." Sadly, no online for the Wii owners out there.
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground comes out in Fall 2007.
