Tony Hawk's Project 8

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Our first review of the year was actually released before the festive season, but with there being very few new games hitting the shops ready for Christmas rush; we had to go back a little time.

I must admit to not being a fan of this type of game; however after the initial few laborious intros’s the game showed its true colours.

What you are presented with is the usual myriad of gaming options; free ride, career mode, multiplayer etc. And although each mode is well presented, it is only in career mode that you see the new additions to the series. Nail the trick mode has to be the greatest thing to hit the Tony hawk franchise for 6 years (yes time flies) where the manual was introduced to Tony hawk pro skater 2.

It involves the player to move both analogue sticks as your 'feet' for example ‘ollie’ off a ledge and press both sticks in and then the slow mo kicks in and the camera zooms into your feet allowing you to control them. Insanely addictive it may be, even though it lacks realism, I say this because I don't know any skater who can triple impossible - triple kick-flip - 540-shove it, off a 6 foot ledge. It’s just not right. But who cares, really?! If you could do that in real life there would be no point in the game.

Also another unrealistic but highly addictive add-on to the series enables the player to bail/stack/fall over anywhere, at anytime, whenever you feel like it, even when you aren't on your board.
All you have to do is tap all four top buttons and then laugh at the skater as the rag-doll physics take over.

This alone is awesome but Neversoft have decided to put hospital bills in, AND the ability to break bones, don't panic however as this doesn't effect your skater and is all just for laughs. During the review of this game I had a crowd watching my feeble attempts to pull off unimaginable stunts and each time I missed the trick plunging the skater into walls, posts and every other object imaginable, the groans from the crowd where at times quite deafening. I have managed to break 14 bones in one stack, the hospital bill for that totalled up to 69,000 dollars!, which is still below the sick rating for the game.

The graphics are tremendous and the sound track is great, sorry this bit is short and sweet, but I got carried away earlier and have run out of space.

Rating: 8/10 Available across all platforms, be aware however some features are unique to the 360.