Another new feature to gameplay is the "aggro kick". This is their name for basically pumping and pushing your skateboard around. "Kicking". In the previous games, you just magically went forwards all the time, and if you wanted to go fast you crouched down for an ollie and held it, then ollied when you got where you wanted to. Which, for me, felt kind of stupid that I had to ollie all the time if I didn't want to take my time getting somewhere. So now, you can kick, and get going really fast! And it takes skill and timing to get it right, just like on a real board. Well, close, anyway. It might sound like a lame new feature, but it really added a lot to the game play for me.
The best new feature though, in my opinion, is being able to add ramps and rails and whatever else you have learned how to use, all over the place. This is flat out fun. And, the pieces stay there! For good! Well, you can have like 30 or so, then you have to go erase some, but still, that's pretty cool. Not sure how to get somewhere? Build a ramp!
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground - Kodak Courage
Along with this is a cool feature where you can put a camera anywhere you want, and take pictures of yourself. You can save these shots and send them to friends through the game, too.Which brings me to video editing. This game has a crazy feature where you can turn on a video camera and just let it roll, and any time you do something cool you can stop and go look at the last 30 seconds, and keep a clip if you like it. You can then go into a video editor and splice all your clips together into a 2 or 3 minute skate video, adding music and video effects. AND THEN, you can upload your videos and share them with the world! But that last part is only true for XBox 360. Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is EXACTLY the same on XBox 360 and Playstation 3, graphics and everything, except this one thing.
Online play is another important thing to talk about. In Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, your character is auto saved all along, you never have to go "save" or anything. And, when you go to play online, you seamlessly take your character there. Just like that, with all the skills and abilities and clothes and whatever that you own. This is cool. You get to show off YOUR guy (and it has to be a guy, by the way. You can't play a girl. They did that for cut scene reasons...).
One drawback to this is if you want to play a "fair" game, because two skaters probably won't be at the same place with their skills. An idea for this is to make a second lame character with no skills to play against your buddies who also have no skills. That might work.
You also have your own "Skate Lounge", where you get to spend your money on ramps, TVs, trophies or whatever, and make a huge warehouse your personal playground. And, you can invite other players online to come in and skate in your lounge, and show off the place. Plus, certain parts of the world, say a statue, will only be available if you complete a challenge that has to do with it, so when people see what you have in your lounge they will know something of what you've done. And with the three very different paths, there's a good chance someone who is better than you will still not have the same stuff you've got!
And, finally, if you want to play as a pro skater, you can! There are stand up style arcade games sitting around the world, and you can hop on one of those and play as a pro in classic mode collecting S-K-A-T-E and C-O-M-B-O with a timer, Hawkman (it's like packman), or to get high scores while timed. And for all of these, you can play as one of 16 pros.
Should You Buy Tony Hawk's Proving Ground?
Yeah. It was a lot of fun, and I think most gamers and skaters will like it. The complaints are small, mostly. The lack of being able to upload videos on PS3 is Sony's fault, since their online service sucks right now. You can't play as a girl, and that's lame. With "next gen" systems and all, it seems like it should be easy to do, but I don't make games so I don't really know. You can only play 2 players on one machine, again, for the umpteenth Tony Hawk game now. I always complain about that, but I don't really know if anyone else cares. For me, I like playing with friends sitting next to me more than playing with people I don't really know across the planet. But that might just be me!And those are all of my complaints. Not bad, really. So, all in all, I'd easily say that Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is a great game. I had a lot of fun playing it, and am looking forward to getting my copy.
If you still want more info, you can check out the Tony Hawk's Proving Ground Info Page for information released from Activision, screenshots and a video clip.
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is rated "T" (Teen) by the ESRB and is available now on the Xbox 360R video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATIONR3 computer entertainment system for a suggested retail price of $59.99, the WiiT home video game system for $49.99, and the PlayStationR2 computer entertainment system for $39.99; the Nintendo DST version will hit shelves at a suggested retail price of $29.99 and carries a rating of "E 10+" (Everyone 10 and older).
