Tony Hawk's Project 8
Recently we were blessed with the first actual gameplay footage of Tony Hawk's Project 8. Two days before, I previewed it at Activision; let's just say they have plenty of work left. When the teaser trailer hit Xbox Live during E3, the animation and improved graphics certainly wowed even the stiffest of upper lipped individuals. The well synced music (c/o Kasabian) certainly helped. The fact is, that's just not the game; it's motion capture. As I played the game, I immediately became aware of the new focus feature. With a simple flick of the analogue stick in focus mode, you kick the board from every conceivable direction... sort of like Fight Night. The biggest issue I found is that no matter how good that teaser looked, the game still has that canned animation feel. The player doesn't react realistically to physics or gravity, they still just float a millimeter off the ground. No matter what animations you capture Neversoft, you still have to have decent physics. The other beef I had with the build I played was the way-too-bullet-time approach to focus mode. The camera spins around to the same boring angle and you stay up way too long kicking the board around. While cool, it doesn't look cool in the least bit. I much prefer the casual low camera angles and speed moderation from the E3 teaser. Other issues are bad frame rates in areas, the still manic speed of gameplay (making every action a reaction) and the occasionally blinding bloom lighting. It's still a long time off from release, but they should keep those glaring issues in mind. It's still shaping up to be the best Tony Hawk yet.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 22, 2006 at 11:54 PM.