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I am a HUGE fan of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games on both XBOX and PS2. I just picked up Tony Hawk's American Wasteland for XBOX on Friday and pretty much played it all weekend. I'm still just not sure what I think of it yet. It has a lot of great new features but it also has a lot of bugs.
I think that the story mode of play is an insult to anyone that has ever played a THPS game. Starting off story mode, you have to go and do little instructional challenges just to be able to perform basic tricks like manual, revert and spine. It takes quite a while before you finally get the ability to do special tricks and once you do there is no way that I have found to edit your tricks while in story mode to change button assignments for them. A new feature is that you can move from one area to the next without any loading screens which is quite cool. But as a big fan of the THPS games I am a bit let down with this effort.
Classic mode of play reminded me a lot of THPS4. Challenges are high scores and other treasure hunt type challenges. Pretty much just like THPS3 and 4. You start out classic mode will all trick abilities and can edit all of 12 special trick slots with pre-made and custom made specials.
Don't get me wrong this is still a decent game, all the two player activities are still there and the addition of BMX is cool. (Controls for BMX take some getting used to if you're accustomed to using the skating controls. Trick commands are performed with the right analog stick instead of buttons) While skating they have relocated the focus ability from the white button to pressing on the left analog stick. Bad choice in my opinion.
So anyway, I guess if I were to rate it I would give a 7 out of 10. Have you played it yet? What are your thoughts on it?
BTW, I'm looking for a "perfect manual" cheat code for THAW. I hate to use them but this is one challenge that I have so far found nearly impossible.
-------------------- "I'm looking over your shoulder, but only because I've got your back" -Stephen Colbert Posts: 468 | From: Raleigh, NC | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I'm waiting for the price to come down a bit. I have all of the other THPS games for GameCube. As long as it is better than Underground 2, I'm happy. The "storyline" in that game was highly annoying and a couple of the missions didn't make any sense until I looked them up online. Plus, Bam Margera and his crew were just irritating.
I don't mind the the basic challenges at the beginning of the game. It gives me a chance to remember what all the buttons do, which can be a pain after I've been playing another game for a while. I thought it was nice in Underground that I could up my stats via practicing and nailing each of the little challenges, and the instructonal ones helped out there. I can see how they could get repetitive, though.
Wonder what secret characters you can unlock in this one?
-------------------- This has been yet another... USELESS POST. Posts: 6105 | From: Mississippi | Registered: Sep 2001
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I liked THUG2 but you are right that Bam was annoying. I think that the stat building challenges from THUG and THUG2 was the right way to go. It's a bit different in story mode of THAW where you have to go to a skate shop in each area and accept and complete 3-4 challenges there before it gets to be 12 midnight when the challenges change. As you play the game it turns from day to night and in some spots you can stop and rest for a few hours to get the next set of stat challenges.
In THAW thay make use of the tagging feature again except that this time they are lame-ass challenges that should have been thought out better.
They did make great use of the pier from Lords of Dogtown and the Z-Boys. A new trick that you can perform by pulling the left trigger is the Bert Slide which is one of the tricks pulled off in the movie.
-------------------- "I'm looking over your shoulder, but only because I've got your back" -Stephen Colbert Posts: 468 | From: Raleigh, NC | Registered: Aug 2005
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