Review: Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 is a ok game. I nearly drove myself mad in an attempt to figure out why it would not keep my controller setting. one would think hitting 'done' after changing settings in the options menu would save the changes. My only real complaint is the draw distance. the game is very clean and sharp, with relatively simple geometry. making the average pc more than capable of letting you see to the edge of the level. the wall of grey is simply not possible to ignore. although the textures themselves are above bland, it a console [port] and nothing more is expected, nor necessary. the characters are nicely done, and the animation quite fluid. yet, even in games today, we still have the 'slow motion' characters. for instance, when he does the little stutter step on both sides of the board after a minor spill, his legs seem to defy physics. anyone losing their balance on a board is going to be making some quick steps to stay on his feet.
on the sound front, all is good. except perhaps the awfully deep thud coming from his head vs. the concrete. I just don't think skulls have that much bass. everything else sounds like what it is, metal grinding on metal, wood bouncing, even the groans and moans of gravity winning the war. the music is one thing i cant honestly comment on. I only listened until I found the magical save button. I have never left the music on in any game, but what I hear fit just fine for the most part. 
    I will say the multiplayer was a pleasant surprise. I did not have any of the seemingly terminal problems as so many others, even through my dsl router. the game does crash instantly when trying the in-game gamespy, but going through gamespy directly worked without a hitch. the variety of game types was impressive considering the basic premise of skate boarding itself. my personal favorite being graffiti, a nice twist on domination from unreal. nearly every piece of the map can be assigned a color (ie, yours) and performing tricks on the particular rail, ramp, pool, etc. will change its color to yours. you are scored by how many things u have tagged, while everyone else is doing the same thing and stealing others 'graffiti'.
I have but one problem with multi. a big one in my eyes. the nature of the game being what it is, games just don't last very long. nearly twice as often as I found a game that let me join, I would have to choose observe while they finished their run. then when they were done, they quit. I spent about 20 min of that watching 5 games of other people playing only to have the host leave when they were done rather than remake or change the game type. the game could seriously use some dedicated servers and larger maps to handle either many more people at a time, or more realistically, multiple games running continuously, ie unreal :).
overall, the game is what it is. a fun console game that may or may not hold your attention. I wont say it belongs on the pc, but it does not have the sort of depth that made me a pc gamer. I do have fun with it and will spend some time playing and enjoying myself, but even the thought of going through the career 20 times to unlock all the secrets does not occur to me as a complete gaming experience.

I have heard that 4 and 5 are already announced. I cant possibly imagine what else they can do with the series to keep it going. but o well...


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