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Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 Preview
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
The all conquering Tony Hawk comes back for more...
The Tony Hawk series could be considered a phenomenon, not only making skateboarding cool again, but bringing new faces to the video games world and single-handedly doing more for the Hawk manās career then any 900° could ever hoped to have achieved. Literally the whole video gaming world knows not only who Tony Hawk is, but Bob Burnquist, Karem Campbell and the others, ask most gamers three years ago who they were, and in all likelihood the best youāll get is a mystified glaze and the tones of Mario kicking back in. Tony Hawk changed the video gaming scene for one reason; itās a damn good game.
Unsurprisingly heās coming back on a host of new machines, however the true sequel is being developed by the original coders, Neversoft for the Playstation2, and let me just say firstly, the game has changed.
Yes shock horror, Neversoft have decided against the appealing idea of a straight cash-in and modified the gameplay, no longer do you simply race around arenas, trying to beat the clock or collecting a list of items, now thereās a story to the whole affair.
Before you worry, donāt, the developers havenāt gone crazy, thereās no strong character relations or shadowy conspiracy theories, instead each level has a theme, along with objectives and set-pieces. For example, in the Los Angeles level, a certain sequence of moves will activate an earthquake, which transforms the level, opening up new areas that were previously inaccessible. From these new areas, new challenges are opened, and thus the story continues.
Levels are densely populated with pedestrians in TH3, however theyāre not just there to watch the man strut his stuff, instead youāll be able to interact with them, finding out clues and directions, some of them will need help, such as the guy locked out of his house and the one with his tongue stuck to a frozen pole (I guess Neversoft are Farrelly fans).
This addition may upset the TH purists out there, so you can just enter levels on score based challenges akin to the original. However theyāve been implemented extremely well, never feeling like itās detached from the TH gameplay that we all know and love.
The game offers a wide variety of levels, asides from the LA level, youāll be grinding your way around Tokyo skate parks, Skaterās Island in Middleton, Paris, Canada and Rio, to name but a few, each offering a different set of objectives, story and set pieces.
US gamers will benefit from a four-player online battle mode first displayed at E3 earlier in the year. Players will be able to compete in the classic trick attack and graffiti modes against three other competitors, via the imminent PS2 broadband connector. Unfortunately European gamers will have to make do with the admittedly brilliant split screen mode.
The moves roster has been tweaked to allow for a greater emphasis to be played on ground moves, spicing up the dull journeyās between ramps. Each character now has greater diversity, which is reflected in the missions. A character that is better in the air will have more opportunities to find ramps, whilst a ground skater will find more grind opportunities in the level. No longer can you just play as Tony, youāll have to play as all of the characters to see everything in the game, which is definitely a joy rather then a chore.
TH3 looks the business; environments are complex; packed with pedestrians, cars and objects to trick from. The game runs smoothly and more importantly thereās a great sensation of speed. Topping off everything is some incredibly detailed textures, and effects such as weather changes and motion blurring. Character models benefit from a heavily increased poly count and some wonderful animation, ensuring you feel the joy of every move and equally the pain of every crash.
