After reading the recent thread about shooters, I got to thinking about that feeling of “Zen” and what other games I experience it in. The only ones I came up with right away were Tony Hawk skateboarding games and the SSX series.
So I was curious if anyone else here has an interest in these. The Project 8 demo out on Live right now is awesome. It’s a small skatepark with only a few goals, but I can session that thing all day long. For the most part, flipping from one trick to another has become engrained in my muscle memory. I think the addition of balance controls using the SIXAXIS might be really cool. So I’m opting for the PS3 version over 360. Truth is, I’ve played very little Tony Hawk online anyway. So the only thing I’ll be missing out on might be the whole achievements thing.
I also wanted to know if anyone’s tried out that new “Nail the Trick” mode where things go into slow-mo and you get to control your board as a physics object. From my limited experience with it, I can already see that it’s going to be a lot of fun. I notice that this new mode sort of pulls me out of the Zen state for a moment and focuses my concentration on landing the complex board manipulation.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on skateboard games? Are you interested or excited at all by what’s to come? Do you think Tony Hawk is bullshit and await that new “Skate” game coming down the pipe?
For good measure, here are some videos of Project 8 in action:
I used to completely “zen out” in the first couple Tony Hawk games. I haven’t played one of them in a while, but I was hardcore addicted to the first 3 of them or so. If I end up getting one of the newer consoles I’m sure I’ll add the newest version of it onto my buy list because it looks damn sweet.
Yeah, I was hardcore addicted to the games up to THPS4. Once they started with the linear story elements I started tuning out. The developers have been saying that Project 8 is more based on the THPS4 model. The story has been replaced by lots of spot challenges and objectives, along with a truly streaming open world environment. They’ve done away with the “hallway loading” system. So I’m psyched.
They’ve always intrigued me, but I didn’t really start enjoying TH games until I got the manual down. Once I did, I could rack up 100,000+ combos and the game started being fun. It’s rare to have that sort of “breakthrough” moment with a genre of games.
My brother and I played the original THPS demo on PSOne for hours and hours - just sessioning inside the huge warehouse was awesome enough for us and when the actual game came out we were blown away.
I did fall into the trap of not really understanding how to do the massive point combo’s which affected my enjoyment of the later games though.
Huge, huge Pro Skater addict here.
Like Kryten, I sessioned that warehouse in THPS on a demo disk I got out of Apple Jacks and was hoo-oooked. Spent countless hours maxing out all the characters in 1-3.
I thought the purity of the first game was great. The manual-to-massive combo focus of the third one smacked of developing towards the powergamers to me, and I thought it messed the zensibility up a little (although I’ll admit to trying for hours to run from the start of the plane terminal to the end in one continuous manualling, flourescent-light-fixture-grinding run in #3). Picked up 4 for PS2 but couldn’t really get into it for some reason.
That slow-mo nail it doohicky in Project 8 looks bonzer.
I enjoyed the 360 demo a lot. I loved THPS3 on my GC but the series got dumber and dumber which made me lose interest fast. This one looks to be more of the same with a little Matrix twist. I’m also intrigued if the Sixaxis tilt control will be of any benefit or not.
I love the Tony Hawk series. I spent over 100 hours playing TH 2 multiplayer with my roommate. Which game introduced the revert, was it 3 or 4? Whichever it was was the last Tony Hawk that needed to be made.
While I appreciate the new Nail the Trick mode, I share the concern above that it will have a negative impact of the flow of the game. It is fun though. I’ll probably pick it up. Here’s hoping they bring back awesome hidden characters instead of crappy story line characters that I already hate.
I enjoyed the Project 8 demo quite a bit considering I haven’t played a skatboarding game since THPS2. It was fun to just noodle around with the missions and objectives lying around for the taking if you feel like it. I also dug the soundtrack. Primus’s “American Life” ftw!
I just hope they either randomized or eliminated the title music. Because of THPS4, “Dirty Deeds” is a permanent resident of my psyche. Bummmmmm, BUM-bummmmm…
The whole Tony Hawk series is awesome. I have all of them on the XBox from TH2 up to THAW. In my opinion TH4 and THUG2 are the best among them. THUG2 and THAW (on the XBox) had a slo-mo mode where you would hit the white button and go into what it called “focus” and bust out some crazy tricks. The problem is the white button is unintuitive to hit in the middle of mashing out four or five things otherwise. Best to finish with a revert into a manual and keep it going instead. :)
One of the big assets of the Tony Hawk series has been that the developers haven’t been afraid to screw real physics when appropriate. But they’ve only been able to get away with that because the physics cheats have never been particularly noticable. Looking at videos of “nail the trick,” it seems as if the whole purpose of the feature is to get in my face and scream FAKE PHYSICS.
The skater’s feet never actually touch the board. The board’s center of gravity is always in the exact same place relative to the skater’s. There’s no acceleration, just instant change in rotational velocity. I’m sure that none of this is actually new, but Neversoft’s need to make me painfully aware of it certainly seems to be.
I’m hoping the feature is mostly optional. The way they’re hyping it, though, I worry that it won’t be.
I’ve never liked skateboard games, or skateboard culture - and even I really enjoy the THP8 demo. That ‘create-a-trick’ mode is just really, really fun, and incredibly intuitive, once it’s explained to you. I may pick this up at launch.
