Those of you living on another planet and never heard of this franchise are in for a lot of fun, so I'll try to put myself in their shoes. For them I can even be brief: go out and get this game! This is by far the best skategame on offering. You'll need a bit of time getting used to the tricks, but the Story Mode will help you out. This mode will run you through the different moves and tricks. When you get used to the tricks there are extra missions available in the different levels, to be played on your rolling board or BMX bike.

The Classics Mode was kept 'simple': a collection of different objective-based maps of previous games. Those I have tried, I already knew (yes, I admit, I did not finish the game...). If you haven't played the previous incarnations this is a fun alternative to the story based mode. You have two minutes to finish one of the objectives, ranging from getting high-scores to gathering the SKATE or COMBO letters. You can't finish all the objectives in one go - thus expanding the game's play-time.

For the creative gamer there is the 'Create-a' mode. You can design your own skater to a graphic which can be used later on. As in the Story Mode you get to give your skater a cool outfit (a bit too 'sponsered', but not annoyingly enforced) and matching hairdo. 'Create-a-Park' is as always the most fun and your own insane park can be saved and used in the online mode.

Now that we've ventured in online, there is a feature that I have to mention. You can use your own face on a skater. There are two ways to get the job done: those of you owning an Eye-Toy cam can use that to take a snapshot and put it on your skater. Those that don't have Sony's PS2-cam are able to use a digital or webcam to take their picture, which they have to mail to Activision, who will place the pic on their servers and provide you with a code you can use in-game to get it. I'm sorry to say there's no skating AlterEgo to be found: I don't own an EyeToy and my webcam isn't that good...

Online gaming happens without using Sony's PS2 Central service (which doesn't really work all that well in my opinion): Activision have their own servers. Several gametypes are available for Classic or home-made maps. I've tried this and have to say it works well, even playing against somebody living halfway across the globe in Australia (the poor chap just got the game himself, and wasn't really all that impressed...)

The big sales argument for this game is "no loading screens". Indeed: in Story Mode they are gone. This was solved by using some corridors where you can do some grinds and tricks. The length of these in-between bits do offer some game flow but not clever enough to hide the obviously needed time to load the next setting.

Just like the previous Tony Hawk titles, the graphics are great and the soundtrack is huge! Lots of punk, hip-hop and rocktracks are available, even some for older gamers like me - I was surprised to hear The Doors! I'm sure you'll find something you'll like. If you keep the sound level for the music low it doesn't even distract, something that generally bothers me in games...