Project 8's other big breakthrough is its fully next-gen nature. The most obvious manifestation of this is the graphics, which feature the obvious next-gen upgrades like bloom and depth-of-field effects. All of the environments look sharp, if not overwhelming, while the skaters are starting to enter the uncanny valley. Mr. Hawk in particular looks worryingly zombie-like; perhaps he didn't survive the Wasteland.
The real graphical dividends are paid in the character animations, which feature extensive motion capture that really sells each jump, grind and trick. (Previous Tony Hawk games were entirely animated by hand.) Even the physically realistic flex of the skateboard is rendered, if you look for it. Neversoft notes that a skater can show up to 20 animations at one time, all blended together with a proprietary animation system for maximum realistic effect. Long story short, it looks good.
The other distinctly next-gen aspect of Project 8 is its extensive online capabilities. Sure, you'll be able to play online, and that's great fun. (I actually played an interesting mode called Paint, where you leave colored ribbons behind your character that knock over other players who blunder into them.) But the really impressive thing to me is the extensive, highly integrated leaderboard system. Remember those environmental challenges? Each and every one of these will have its own online stat tracking. As soon as you grind that long line you'll be able to check that challenge's latest high scores, drawn from every other player of Project 8. In effect, every little challenge in the game is up for tough, international competition, and it's integrated so well that you don't even have to think about it. Good reason not to suck, eh?
Is the Hawkmonster back? We'll find out around November 7. Only time will tell if Tony Hawk's Project 8 can achieve the phenomenon-like status of its early ancestors, but things certainly look promising so far.
