Tony Hawk's Project 8

Tyrants! Anti social undesirables of the grimy under scrapings and wilted dregs of society. Nothing to occupy their puny minds but to push a wheeled splintered chunk of wood with devilish speed - taking big chunks out of our curbs and making ramps out of perfectly decent pieces of wood. Our Council taxes, robbed of their goodwill, bear the cost of the repair and the damage is righted. All is well again, well again that is, until they make their return. They make their return because their enthusiasm is re-ignited like the fires of Beelzebub - Tony Hawk wriggles back on his slimy belly to sully our consoles once again with his merry devilment.

Can I shock you? I like the Tony Hawk games. I'm not a great fan of him per say, he's not a great man, more like Peter Pan a boy that never grew up - and an irritant that deserves a pasting. But his games: they're okay by me if you can forgive my distain for adolescent tomfoolery. Alongside Pro Evolution Soccer, this series kept me away from the more detrimental distractions in life. Yes, while smoking something unsavory, and pad in hand, I managed to stay well clear of work, family and food. Times have unfortunately changed. A regular job and healthy relationship steer me clear of my preferred methods of spending my recreational time. Alas Tony Hawk's Project 8 is on its way and how good it is will determine whether my missus will be out the door and my job down the pan. There's a lot riding on this.

And from the first truck stop like a tadpole on a whaling harpoon I'm reeled back in. What should be immediately crystal is that Neversoft has taken Project 8 back, back to the old skool. They've created a game closer to the gritty realism of the original Tony Hawk's game Pro Skater than the indecisive and slightly lost Wasteland. Certainly Wasteland was a step back as the franchise began to run out of ideas. Neversoft have responded by developing a game that is set to focus on the way it plays and the accuracy of recreating the object. As such something had to give and the narrative will be of less importance. This time you'll have a clear goal: to make your name and skate for Hawk's Project 8 skate team. While an argument could be made for the caning of writers so inept as to indulge in such a cliche, I reckon I like its simplicity. It should also mean that we'll be free of the annoyingly linear mission system that blighted the last few games - it was all a rather dreary go here, do this affair.

As the end goal is clear, your task throughout the game is to raise your reputation to the point that you're on the radar. Once a constant green blip Tony will stick his grubby little oar in and make a B-line for your kick-flipping feet. The clever bit though is the way you raise your cred - around the map are dotted mission points. Obviously the odd narrative driven missions are included, but the majority of tasks are more challenge based - pop shuvit the gap between the two toilets, land a 720, that sort of thing. Competitions also litter the area so scoring highly and generally being the nuts makes people pay attention.

And the straight line of clarity has affected the Project 8 arena too. Now, the Tony Hawk world will feature one locale, with no loading screens. While next-gen sandbox games are expected to be loading screen free, there's something intensely satisfying about having a complete open world to skate through that makes this more than just perfect for the impatient. Just skating around wherever you want to go without the phony no-go areas that were usually cordoned by an insurmountable brick wall makes a massive amount of difference.

Project 8 has some neat little online features also. While most of the traditional multiplayer games are included - Graffiti stands out. More intriguing is the leaderboard system, which will remember every score you take from the challenges you complete during the game. Given that you can go back at any time and retake a challenge this means that you'll have ample opportunity to fine tune and score highly. This should increase the replayability something chronic. So landing that knarly trick and getting a 'sicko' score needn't be forgotten, the whole world can now mince over your abilities.

Neversoft's ace is the shiny new 'Nail the Trick' mode that sees your homely console work it's little bollocks off - whenever you catch some big air you have the choice to enter slow mo and perform a trick. This means that the two analogue sticks effectively become the skater's feet. In order to perform a kick flip you must move 'your feet' in a manner that will influence the board correctly. It's a feature that is a little off putting, but it stands to be an attribute that should set Project 8 apart from other Tony Hawk's titles.

The demo for the 360 version is available now, so should you have the delights of Microsoft's machine and Xbox Live at your disposal... well then you're luckier that those who don't. Although there is one thing before you mosey over to the Marketplace - leave the skateboard at home when you're done with the demo. You don't want me to go medieval on your arse.