Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 Preview
Tony Hawk 3 is poised to become the game of the century. Neversoft is devoting all of their resources and staff to developing the follow-up to the smash hit Tony Hawk 2, which electrified skateboarding around the world and promoted a renewed interest in the sport. The main question on everyone’s lips is “will the transition between Tony Hawk 2-3 be as big as Tony Hawk from 1 to 2?”
By the looks of it, it will be all that and more. Traffic flows by you smoothly, pedestrians walk around performing different tasks; you can basically watch life pass you by as you 5-0 down a thirteen stair rail. You can even feel tremors from the San Andreas fault as you demolish Los Angeles.
The previous versions always had technical limitations, such as space, graphics, etc., but now with a next generation multi-platform release, Neversoft has enough resources and virtually unlimited technicalities to make this game look and play great. The real challenge, however, will be to give THPS fans something new and refreshed, and not a rehashed version of the same thing that is so abundant these days. Fortunately, Neversoft understands this, and has made it their number one priority to give everyone something new and exciting to the fans, the very same thing that makes the THPS series great in the first place.
Neversoft is paying attention to all the details, so nothing will be overlooked. From a guy peering out of his transparent office window to the plumes of dust raised after you crash down a telephone pole, everything is complete and exact.
Everything is being refined and expanded. The Create-a-Skater mode is going to be even more in depth, and allows for a more diversified skater that you can mold into your image. The one thing that remains up in the air is the Park Editor, since the level of detail is so advanced, it will be hard to recreate a level matching Los Angeles, for example.
As hard as it is to believe, the control has actually been improved, and the minor details have been taking care of, such as the very un-realistic balancing act in THPS 1-2. The manual game in itself has also been revised, so now you’ll be able to link tricks out of vert moves. The vert game is also being revised, so instead of a move-grind-manual-move point system, you’ll be able to link vert tricks easier and rack up a ton of points.
The visuals are stunning, breathtaking, whatever you want to call them. Each model skateboarder has roughly over 3,000 polygons, and all of the animation is completely redone. The screenshots show it. The level of detail is so advanced that there is no hint of fog anywhere. Even if you have a bird’s eye view of the level, the detail remains consistent. Neversoft is planning on making 8 to 10 new levels which are twice the spize of the largest level in Tony Hawk 2, and this is being done with twice the animation artists, designers, and programmers.
Tony Hawk 3 is shaping up quite nicely, and Neversoft is doing their best to make sure that eager fans won’t have to wait too long. In fact, they are actually ahead of schedule, but I say to expect some delay as they finish perfecting off what could be the best thing ever.
Final Score: 8