Tony Hawk's Project 8

I love my video games and my all-time favorites are the Tony Hawk games. But the new one which will be released tomorrow is so sick, I can't believe I ever liked the old ones.

Tony Hawk is back with his newest game, Project 8. One of the added features is called "nail the trick" and it really brings this game to a whole new level. I got a chance to play a 20 minute demo a few weeks ago and I knew immediately I would sell my right arm to be able to buy this game. "Nail the trick" allows you to decide which direction your board flips and how many rotations it makes so that you are essentially creating your own tricks. Instead of hitting a combination of the control pad buttons, you can enter "nail the trick" mode off of a jump and use the joysticks to determine what your board does and when you land it. Unless of course you hit the ground first. While you're in air and have initiated "nail the trick" the whole game slows down to a matrix style slo-mo so you can concentrate on how your flipping your board. It's totally awesome.

Of course, the pre-designated tricks that are accomplished with the control pad buttons are still there and they are just as tight as ever. The demo I played didn't allow me to leave the one small area I was in, but in just that area there were several objectives and challenges to complete, so it will feel like the old games in that respect.

And then there are the graphics. All I can say is WOW! You can check out some trailers of the game in action (including "nail the trick") here. Don't forget it comes out tomorrow and anyone who wants to buy me a copy will get the privilege of watching me play it at my house on the 50" HDTV. And I might let you play it for a minute too.