Thpg Full Review. Options

[BGOAT wiz]

BLACK = General Review stuff
BLUE = Things that need improving


As some of you know I have had the game for a few days now. (since friday the 12th) and I have had plenty of time w/ the game. If you haven't played it yet I suggest that you do.

Story mode: The story mode is quite emense. theres a ton of things to do. you have career, rigger, and hardcore. You can choose just one path or you can do all 3 it doesn't really yet seem to matter. each has there own special features.
Hardcore allows you to aggro kick and aggro push as well as skate check perhaps one of my favorite things of all time to do in this game.
Rigger allows you to put objects into the level any where you want and also to modify the level using the hammer tool. another great feature.
carrer lets you do the nail the w/e's I haven't spent much time on these but it is a good part of the game.
The good thing w/ the career is that you can do it at your own pace in any order you want when you want. the bad thing is that if you want a special feature like lets say the nail the manual you have to learn it first. for vets of the game re learning things like climbing and nail the trick and such is kinda redundent and frustrating.
Also it would be fun to be able to play as a pro skater in story mode or online but neither seem to be possible. the only time you can use a pro skater is on the hawk machines and then you can't use your story mode skater. (makes no sense). or in multiplayer.

The skate lounge:
The lounge is huge and theres plenty to put in it. the main thing that ercs me is that each object cost hard earned money. The other thing that kinda stinks is that you can't lower or raise objects. but I bet thats coming for the next game. The good thing however is that it is no longer grid based and you can turn the objects a degree at a time. overall I haven't spent much time on this either but it is a welcomed back feature. The other cool thing is there are chalk challenges in your lounge. you have to figure out how to place pieces to accomplish these challenges.

Online/ Multiplayer:
Online is as good as ever you have your regular games like in the past trick attack combo mombo graffiti etc. This time how ever you can see who is hosting how many people are in that room etc. I haven't yet played online for the PS3 but I assume it's basically the same. I haven't yet tried the multiplayer so I can't yet comment on that. The only bad thing from what i can see is that besides the host you can't tell who else is in the room. Also once in the room there isn't a map to tell you where the other people are. another oversite I assume. there is however an indicator next to the player that shows what color they are and what type of comboe there in. a circle is an AM combo rather small amount of points a diamnod is a pro combo and a star is a sick combo. not sure how this is judged wether by over all score or multiplier but it's a cool feature.
Another kinda bad thing is there still isn't any CTF or KOTH and sometimes when you host the world playing games like Graffiti is boring.


Sim Mode:
This mode allows you to push your skill to the next level it doesn't have a balance bar and the increased physics are decent. if you like hawk games and all they have to offer but want to add a bit of realism and acheivment then this is for you. you can go thru the entire game like this how ever a lot of the goals are going to be just about impossible to pull off. it's a great addition to the game but other then being able to look and feel more real this mode serves no purpose. I mean if you want to be bored and go for relaism go grab Skate.

Video editor:
The video editor is amazing and has a ton of effects that you can use and lots of features which will allow for some sick videos. the only bad thing and perhaps the biggest oversight is that you have to choose when to record. This is bad because sometimes you do things on accident and you want it on video. there should atleast be some kind of memory or backlog or something. choosing to record and going from there is kinda lame. but besides that the video editor is sweet. it will how ever take quite sometime to get it down and start making decent videos.

Rigger abilities:
This should of been introduced a long time ago. being able to add things to the levels is pretty cool. would be better if you could use all the pieces from the skate lounge but then what would be the point of the lounge. The only thing bad about this is the camera tool. you have to place the tripod line it up etc etc just to take a pic. what if I wanted to take a pic on the fly. this is another oversight IMO. Overall the rigger kit is cool and opens up some possibilites and sometimes you can use it to make the chalk challenges a bit easier. especially w/ booster kickers and the distance chalk challenges. Another bad thing is if you place an object you better remember where you placed it because once you get close to 30 pieces and you want to place more have fun finding where you placed other pieces to delete them. from what I see there isn't a delete all pieces option or a view placed pieces etc.
I have some pieces in glitched areas and lord knows I can't find them now.

Hardcore abilites:
Perhaps the most fun in the game is skate checking people. I mean who wouldn't get a chuckle out of skating by someone and just launching them 100+ feet w/ a good ole shoulder thrust to the chest. Find a cop or a women chilling just skate near em and BOOM they go flying. it's especially fun if you get them into a corner. you can get 10's of thousands of points just by beating them to a pulp and they keep asking for more. the aggro kick makes good if you want to get from point a to point b faster. over all some good features and no complaints except maybe a super skate checking mode.... oh wait theres a cheat code for that. The one thing I wish they had for this is a stat record. I would like to know how many people I have checked the firthest distance I checked and the overall distance of said checked people. They have a stat for just about everything else how come not this. would of been cool.

Career abilities:
Last year they had Nail the trick which was a decent feature which slowed down time like a focus mode and zoomed in on your feet and you use the left and right analog stick to control your feet to pull off unique moves. this time they still have nail the trick but have expanded it w/ nail the grab and nail the manual both great features. basically you go into nail the trick mode by pressing in both analog sticks from there you can move the sticks to do regualr flip tricks if you want to switch to grab you hold the LT button and you will go into a grab and from there basically do the same thing as in nail the trick only this time it's your hands. and of course nail the manual. haven't honestly down this yet but I will say that if you start it to early it does seem kind of akward because your in mid air in bullet time and all ready in a manual stance. over all very good features I just don't use them much.


Graphics/ animations:
Graphics in this game are great as far as the skaters and environments go. but when it comes to things like the cars or other little things the graphics are not even par. but you won't notice unless your really really looking. The animations are good except for one crucial thing. (not crucial to me I personally don't care about it). People are complaining like little babies about the fact that there isn't a crouch animation when you ollie. I didn't notice until people pointed it out but most of those people are skate fanboys anyways so it doesn't matter. overall the animations and graphics are great. I mean what other skate game allows you to walk and climb and do things like that and offers this much attention to detail. oh wait there isn't one. The one thing I forgot to mention was the detail of some of the things in this game. ya the cars aren't that great and such but you also have weather. ya it's only rain but it adds to the environment. it makes the roads wet it makes puddles etc. also on some manhole covers steam actually comes out and you can also see things blow by in the breeze. The attention to detail on these things are great. I dunno what happened w/ the cars. The bad thing is no day or night feature. most everyone loved the day to night feature. add that in w/ the weather and it's amazing. besides everyone knows that more skating happens at night then in the day.

Soudtrack/ Sound Effects:
The sound track in this game is quite large and it shouldn't get boring to fast w/ a wide range of music. The other cool thing is the sound effects and the attention to detail. if your skating on bricks it sounds like bricks if your skating on dirt it sounds like it. Perhaps my favorite thing to do is turn the music volume all the way down and the effects all the way up. there are quite some interesting conversations going in through out the world. one part in Philly theres a person sometimes laying down on the ground w/ 2 cops looking at the person and they carry on a couple different conversations. another example is the bums near the Goat. sometimes if you just sit and listen you will hear some interesting things going on and this is yet another aspect that makes this game so great

Other Stuff:
The levels are quite large and theres tons of hidden areas to find. Theres lots of pedestrians walking around and plenty of action. cars get into accidents cops pick on skateboarders theres a drum guy near the water walkway and theres lots of things to mod and change. This time IMO Neversoft took out a lot of stops and put out a great game.

Replayability:
There is a ton of things to do in this game tons of goals tons of chalk challenges and tons of little hidden nooks and crannies to find. mix that w/ the online play and the Hawk machines w/ Hawk man and old school goals and this game should have you occupied for atleast a few months. and if you get bored switch it over to sim mode and try to beat it that way. plus if you want all the acheivements your going to be playing online for quite sometime if you want the play 1000 games online achievement.

Final thoughts:
People are saying that Hawk is getting old it's the same old thing w/ just a few new tricks and that skate is gonna take it over. well I don't believe so. Tony Hawk and skate although the same genre are 2 different games ones a sim ones more of an arcade. it's like comparing need for speed w/ gran turismo or forza w/ burnout. Only thing is guys THPG has the sim mode so it's a little bit of both worlds. Plus hey you can walk in THPG lmao. If you haven't played this game you should so you can realise for the most part it might be the same game but it offers enough new stuff to keep the fun level up there. The game has so much in it and the levels are so huge if you get bored of it then your a boring person. Tony might be and old dog but he's got some new tricks and besides the older you are the wiser you you are.

GO BUY THPG.
8 out of 10

10 Things to think about for the next game:
The tony hawk series has always been a decent series and although in my opinion Thug through Thaw were kinda meh it still turns out to be a decent game each year adding just enough to keep people interested. Here's a list of things that need to be added/ inproved upon for next year.

1. The skate lounge is great but we need more themes and different areas not just the same layout in different colors. The lounge also needs to allow you to lower and raise objects and perhaps merge/stack certain objects. If it could be done like a sims game were you can use tools to raise and lower the ground and such that would be amazing.
2. The create a goal should be reintroduced also being able to make your own chalk lines would be sweet as well.
3. The video editor should have atleast a 1 minute backlog/memory so you don't have to go to record to start recording. this is my biggest gripe w/ the editor.
4. All features from previous games should be open to you at the start of the game. if you know how to do them from previous games then you shouldn't have to re learn them. only new features should be locked until you learn them or leave them unlocked so if you figure out how to do them before hand you will be all set.
5. More online games. bring back capture the flag and koth those games are awesome and would be great to play in these new levels. also being able to tell who is in a room would be a decent idea as well. not just the host.
6. with the rigger kit being able to place any piece from your skate lounge collection would be cool also a clear all would be a nice addition as well. going back to try to find out where you placed an object is killer. perhaps expand the amount of objects you can place as well.
7. stats... if your gonna have stats then go all out. I want stats on how far I skate checked someone, how many people I have skate checked, the furthest distance I skate checked a single person, and the overall total distance of those people checked. don't have stats on some things but not others.
8. Animations/ skins. make sure theres atleast an ollie animation so all the skate fanboys will stfu. I must admit though that is kinda a big oversite for a skateboarding game. also if your going to go all out on the graphics go all out on all of them. even the cars. make them look better.
9. The weather thing is great but bring back day and night as well. it was a decent feature and added to the overall feel of things.
10. more create options like create a deck and such. these things were great from Thug and most people want them back.