Given that this is the ninth game in the series (yes, it scares us too), it's no surprise that there are a few online-only additions. For starters, you can take any cash you've accrued in the solo game and bet it online against other people in any of the game's familiar challenges like HORSE, Graffiti, Zones (the Tron lighcycle-like mode that first showed up in the last game), Trick Attack and so on, but there's also an online version of Nail-the-Trick (called Net-Nail-the-Trick, naturally) and something called Skate-the-Line, which lets the host set a start point, then tag objects that must be hit in sequence throughout the world, then an end point. The person that can hit all pre-set objects in that line and bank the highest score walks off with the bragging rights.

Of course, everyone has always had that moment when playing a Tony Hawk game where the stars aligned and the jolt of pot or booze or good ol' sodie pop hooked up with your brain and made sweet love to those muscles to produce a miracle string of moves or pulled-off goals, but of course they never really have any evidence of it. Now, you can quiet all the chumps who said it didn't happen by kicking off Proving Ground's Video Editor.

Again, accessed through the pause menu and riding on top of the basic single-player game, the Editor lets you start recording, dumping the last 30 seconds or so to "tape" at which point you can save the clips to be used later, or just jump in and start editing your current clip. Though a handful of play speeds, screen effects and customizable camera options, it's possible to whip up a skate video-style presentation of your sickest moves in just a few seconds. We literally positioned a rail camera that focused on the board and tracked with it along a street, threw a couple of zooms and pans after setting the camera option to literally record our camera movements as we went and threw some grain filter and tattered paper effects on the thing after fumbling around for just three or four minutes. The whole actual process took about 30 seconds to put together. Once you've got all your various angles and shots down, you can set the whole thing to music. Swanky, no?

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is littered with tweaks and upgrades, and though it may not be a completely new experience, it's certainly packed with more than enough little bits and pieces to keep us entertained. From the new manual system that fills the whole screen rather than just the player to online that actually -- gasp -- works on the PlayStation 3 to a storyline that is less "rarrrgh xtreem nutshots!" and more about painting a different picture of a skateboarder's path, Proving Ground actually looks like a solid (and familiar) next-gen entry for the series.

We'll have more, so check back soon!