Tony Hawk: American Wasteland (and skate games in general.)

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Take away the guns from C.J. in GTA and make him skate. And oh yeah, it's the eighties. The biggest boast from Activision on this is that there are no load times - you're just always in Los Angeles. And that's about all I know.

Has anyone else heard more about this game? And what about Tony Hawk games in general? The first ones were pretty cool, but I wasn't crazy about the goofy skits in the last one and having to skate as the Jackass dude or as a shrimp fry guy.

Then again, I'm currently playing Grind Session, so what do I know?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 16:53 (twenty years ago)

There's trailers & gameplay footage(set to "California Uber Alles") up at gametrailers.com

Oh man, i so hope that they really do go for the GTA-style/era-specific soundtrack, and get D.R.I. tracks on there. It'd be kinda funny to see a new generation of kids exposed to late '80s skatepunk/metal...

I wonder if it'll have refs to Gleaming the Cube (which featured tony hawk!)

also, i think the new game has bikes.

― kingfish superman ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

I loved THPS3 and especially 4, and liked the parts of THUG1 and 2 that weren't cutscenes. I will certainly pick up the new one when it comes out.

If I ever had to play a game against Death to prolong my life, I would definitely pick a Tony Hawk game. God made me to play these games.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 17:07 (twenty years ago)

I fucking love these games. Was THUG2 any good?

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 17:52 (twenty years ago)

It was real cartoony. One pivotal joke focused an opponent's head being being inserted into the antagonist's rectum. Lots of lame "driving" challenges. Lots of animal excrement. Burnside gets hit in the balls.

That said, the actual skating parts were pretty smooth. The graphics were all right. And the levels that you get to skate after beating the main storyline rocked.

And yeah, Ben Franklin was born in Boston, but he ran away at the age of seventeen. He was more or less a Philadelphian for most of his life.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 18:08 (twenty years ago)

I liked THUG2 more than THUG1 despite too much Bam.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 18:15 (twenty years ago)

I like that you can play THUG2 in the same level based way that you could play the thps games. I never got into the storyline stuff in THUG1

― Greig (treefell), Thursday, 29 September 2005 12:57 (twenty years ago)

Oddly, I was just googling to see whether there was another game due in the franchise. I guess I should have come here first.

THUG2 was fine, as long as you weren't the shrimp guy or driving (the aborigine in particular being a nightmare to control). It was a bit too easy to beat, but has a lot of ongoing playability. Classic Mode gets very difficult, very quickly, but is a lot of fun with the new tricks added.

I enjoyed THUG1 an awful lot, but how difficult was that final line?

It's hard to see how Classic Mode on American Wasteland will work, since THUG2 mopped up all the former levels. I'm also not hugely excited about the bmx addition, but time will tell.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 29 September 2005 13:30 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

THUG1 was so easy it was lame. I finished it in 6 hours and the underground series is sans cheats, right? well, you get cheats if you finish everything but then what do you need cheats for? THUG2 was a little goofy in terms of storyline but i think its just a really pretty game environment. the new orleans level ruled and berlin with the church and the blue neon sparks flying out of the signs.

Im still mostly a fan of the classic mode because i kick ass with a combo line. What im starting to notice, though, especially with american wasteland, is that a bunch of the old pro skater levels have been reused and renamed. they didnt even bother to try to make it look different and a lot of the objects you need to find (secret tape etc) are in exactly the same place. if neversoft could release a story mode game and like THUG1 that was a lot trickier and then put the same effort into the classic mode, id be really happy. or maybe easy, normal and sick story modes should do more than just up the high scores you have to get. they could be completely different stories in the same environments so those of us who are on our 7th tony hawk game dont have to waste time on challenges where we learn to kickflip.

i finished the story mode of american wasteland (pleasant plain's copy) a few weeks ago. it kind of pissed me off that i had to be a guy, but not really. It was ok. really easy. its kind of pretty too but it feels real small. all this no load time talk is bullshit. tunnel trips and bus rides between the parts of LA are just disguised load times.

― sunny successor (he hates my guts, we had a fight) (katharine), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 20:45 (twenty years ago)

-- sunny successor (he hates my guts, we had a fight) ([email protected]), November 29th, 2005 2:45 PM. (katharine) (later) (link)

(And so it begins!)

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

I personally think this one is easily the worst of the series.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Thursday, 1 December 2005 08:35 (twenty years ago)

Is there a new innovation in the skate mechanics in this one, like manuals, reverts, focus and whatev? I feel like they were already kind of reaching putting a new one into every game.

― antexit (antexit), Thursday, 1 December 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

I posted about the soundtrack here: Using classic 'alternative' tracks in adverts - Classic or Dud

― 'you' vs. 'radio gnome invisible 3' FITE (ex machina), Thursday, 1 December 2005 15:40 (twenty years ago)

The tricks are about the same, with slight adjustments, throughout the series. However, as unoriginal THAW is, at least it doesn't have that awful Bam-Margera-documentary-aboroginee-skater's-head-up-a-guy's-butt storyline that the last one had.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 1 December 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)

yeah, jon, there seems to be a lot of bad covers on that soundtrack. also the soundtrack plays like a radio at some points with tony hawk as the DJ giving updates on the storyline to the people of LA. this wouldnt be so annoyingly queer if it were like GTA where you can choose from a bunch of radio stations by genre.

The soundtracks of the Underground series are really odd too. like a badly thought out mix tape - the doors next to johnny cash next to dead kennedys etc

xpost

― sunny successor (he hates my guts, we had a fight) (katharine), Friday, 2 December 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

antexit, there is a new move that makes life real easy where high scores and combos are concerned called a rail stall. basically its just balancing on a rail and you can change to another variation of the trick, while in the trick, like you can for lip tricks and rail slides.

Also, the natas spin now has a whole bunch of variations that work the same way as the stall above.

lastly, theres a bunch of new walking stuff you can do like wall runs and backflips and frontflips so you can get to high places. even high places behind you if you do a wall run + back flip + grab ledge combo. its kind of lame though.

oh and theres the bike too which is crazy easy.

― sunny successor (he hates my guts, we had a fight) (katharine), Friday, 2 December 2005 18:07 (twenty years ago)

The tricks are about the same, with slight adjustments, throughout the series. However, as unoriginal THAW is, at least it doesn't have that awful Bam-Margera-documentary-aboroginee-skater's-head-up-a-guy's-butt storyline that the last one had.
-- Pleasant Plains /// (pleasant.plain...) (webmail), Yesterday 12:02 PM. (Pleasant Plains ///) (later)

oh youre so wrong. you just havent reached the part where margera stands on a short wall so he can fart directly in a homeless guy's face.

to be fair, it was the outcome of a bet the homeless guy willingly agreed to.

― sunny successor (he hates my guts, we had a fight) (katharine), Friday, 2 December 2005 18:16 (twenty years ago)

so annoyingly queer

hahaha i wish all IGN reviews used this line when needed

― kingfish hobo juckie (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 2 December 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

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