Never been a big fan of the scoring system in the THPS games , then again 99% of all real skating is like what you see on the intro video. No scoring, just tearing up the terrain.
THPS3 balances free roaming with scoring/goals quite nicely and it always has, not much has changed in that regard.
The controls are tight as usual, and the addition of reverts has made it possible for expert players to string together some insane tricks.
I will be the first to admit, that I never have been and never will be an expert THPS player. I can not seem to get the hang of linking 6 tricks together via manuals. Not to mention IMO the manual is probably the least interesting trick in real skating anyway.
Regardless there is something insanely fun about the Tony Hawk games. THPS3 is a little easier than #2 and obviously has far better graphics and more moves.
Running on the renderware 3rd party graphics platform, THPS3 manages to play at a nice fast framerate, have good draw distance and enough character/level detail to be very convincing. The animations are tight and realistic and the level design has nice draw distance and a sweet layout.
The customized character creation is pretty deep and offers a lot of funky choices for appearance. It took all my willpower to not select snorkle mask for glasses, it was such a cool look but I decided to go for the stylish sunglasses instead ;)
Or you can simply choose one of the many pro skaters who all have various strengths and weakness, some are olie masters, others are ramp skaters with big air. The chick seems the most balanced, and its always cool to have chicks in a game :)
If you have played a THPS game before, you can jump right in and know exactly what to expect, play a level , earn goals, open up new level.
Replay levels, open up secret areas , interact with the environment etc...
However as much as people try to deny it , THPS3 is "just a skateboarding game". Defenders of the 10 score always scream about this, and quite frankly it doesnt suprise me to see so many 10s for this game, both here and in "professional reviews"
It really is top notch in every area that counts. Except for 1 area to me that prevents the 10
Innovation. THPS3 is about as innovative as the original NFL2k game with its online play, sharp graphics and tight controls.
In order for the next version to score a "10" I think it needs to add more life to the levels, I know the renderware engine can handle it since we see it in GTA3.
Maybe even 1 huge lvl with different areas to skate , or just 1 big GTA3 style city broken into 3 areas that you can simply free skate around in tearing up whatever you want.
IMO that would be 10 score innovation, bringing the place alive, instead of invisible barriers around the levels or places that just make you restart because there is "no skating on the snow" etc...
They could put in various skate parks in the cities, and you simply skate street or hit a park depending on what you want to do, you would have to get certain rankings to open up other sections of the city or gain access to new parks etc...
Anyway THPS3 is a fantastic game, but it doesnt really feel all that different from the others, just better , which is enough to earn a very high score, but not perfect.
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