Tony Hawk's Project 8
Oh Birdman, who clipped your wings?
Published: November 28, 2006
Though Neversoft has never been a developer known for having absolutely dazzling visuals in their games, Project 8 doesn't quite feel as smooth as previous games. Most of this is no doubt chalked up to the fact that they're still learning the PS3 hardware, though it's something that plagues both next-gen versions. The PS3 one is just more obvious. Since all the pre-canned moves were ditched and replaced with mo-capped tricks and animations, the game almost instantly has a more realistic feel. You can adjust the skater speed from the main menu, but even the slightly speedy default feels more like the older games rather than the ADD twitch-fest of the more recent ones.
Still little things like HDR popping in as you move from interiors to out into the open and during Nail The Trick, the rich texture work that went into the skater models and the world they're inhabiting, great lighting and some nice depth of field effects show that Neversoft is indeed getting to know more advanced techniques that the increased horsepower provides. Shame about that framerate, though, oh, and the fact that I can't skip the effing intro movies. Seriously, guys, I know who made the game, I don't need to see it every time I start it up.
I also have some serious issues with the fact that the game doesn't use Dolby Digital for sound. It's strictly Pro Logic (or in some crazy format that my receiver doesn't understand, but it does fine with the other 13 launch games), and it's a bummer -- especially considering the amount of time that was put into the effects work. Board sounds, ped chatter, pro skaters talking to you in cutscenes, all of this sounds wonderful, it just doesn't properly surround you.
And then there's the soundtrack, which is awesome. Broken down in to Rock, Hip-Hop and Punk. For perhaps the first time in any game's soundtrack, I don't think there was a single song I didn't like. Given that there are 56 songs, from The Cure to Wolfmother to Gnarls Barkley to Slayer to freakin' Kool and the Gang, that's saying something. I just wish there was some support for custom soundtracks, but alas, no dice. I have the sneaking suspicion that that's because of Sony, however.
I know I keep coming back to this, but the online part of the past five Tony Hawk games has been the thing that keeps me coming back after I've played through the single-player game. Now granted, the goals this time around mean that I'll probably never completely finish the game, but I miss me some Trick Attack. Yes, I can do some local multi-player, but if I can't be beaten by some six year-old calling me a fag, I'm not really living the online experience, y'know?
Thanks to some technical issues and a complete lack of one of the main parts of the game since it debuted on the PlayStation 2, Project 8 on the PS3 feels a little half-baked. Yes, it's here, it's on the PlayStation 3 -- and there on day one -- but if it means getting a stripped-down version of it, is it really worth playing the same $60 it given that there are so many good PS2 ones? Oh, wait, our only other PlayStation option of the game is the PS2 one. Yeah, we'll go with the PS3 one, thanks.
