Tony Hawk's Project 8 - Discussion Thread

Trist

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I’ve looked for a thread on this game and I couldn’t see one. Feel free to send abuse my way if I’ve been a doughnut and missed it.

Anyway, I thought the E3 trailer was excellent and it’s nice to see them doing something slightly different with the brand. There’s an interview with Brian Bright (Project Director) and Chris Parise (Senior Producer) up on teamxbox that I thought people interested in the game might like to take a look at.

Here it is…

http://interviews.teamxbox.com/xbox/1701/Tony-Hawks-Project-8-Interview/p1/

Tony Hawk's Project 8 immerses players in the definitive skateboarding experience using ultra-realistic graphics, enhanced physics and extremely responsive controls that simulate the feeling of skating with every trick and bail. The game challenges players to experience the intensity and pressure of skating against some of the world's top pros in true to life competitions as they aim to become the #1 skater.

Recently, we spoke with Brian Bright, Project Director, and Chris Parise, Senior Producer, to bring you more insight into this next-gen skater.

How will THP 8 change the way that next-generation gamers think about extreme sports titles?

Chris Parise: The combination of a fully streaming world, advanced pedestrian and skater AI, revamped animations, and next gen graphics combine to create the most immersive experience ever seen in an extreme sports game. Project 8 is going to open up the genre to gamers of all interests.

Can you run through some of the pro skaters that have signed on to skate in Tony Hawk’s Project 8?

Chris Parise: For this year’s game we brought back some of the usual suspects such as Bob Burnquist, Mike V., P- Rod (Paul Rodriguez), Rodney Mullen and Bam Margera. Oh yeah and don’t forget Stevie Williams who has one of the coolest moments of the E3 trailer. There is also an influx of new blood like Dustin Dolan, Lyn-Z Adams, the first pro female skater since THUG and Nyjah Huston, the 11-year-old skater who does some crazy tricks for someone his age. There are a few other characters that we have planned to make available that will hopefully have everyone saying ‘ Oh ****, I can play as that character…. “

We’ve seen a lot of changes in the focus of the series, mainly focusing now on a story-like mode. What game modes can we expect in Project 8?

Brian Bright: “Nail the Trick” is a new mode where time slows down, the camera zooms into the board, and the analog sticks control the skater’s feet. By controlling the feet you can flip and underflip the board, creating new tricks on the fly. This allows for an entirely unique experience because the board is flipping by physics and not animation.

Has Classic Mode been scrapped or will old school skaters be able to re-experience locations like The Mall, Warehouse, and Venice Beach?

Chris Parise: Since everything in the game is brand new, you will not see “classic levels.” However, “Classic Mode” goals such as collect the Skate and Combo Letters, Secret Tape and Hi Score challenges are a part of the game progression and are located throughout the world.

Will we see the implementation of the California Long Board style anywhere in THP 8? How about off-the-board action?

Brian Bright: You will be able to get off the board, climb, and shimmy in Project 8.

How will going back to the “roots” of skating (refining trick animations, general physics, etc.) energize the Tony Hawk franchise?

Brian Bright: We are out to make a statement for the new generation of consoles. Where THAW was a port of a PS2 game Project 8 is made specifically for next-gen. Going back to the roots was natural for us and it allowed us to focus more on taking the leap forward and less on extra features that few would use.

Will we see the return of BMX bike riding?

Chris Parise: With the daunting task of rebuilding our animation system this year, we felt that we could not spend the same amount of effort to make the BMX bike look and play just as well as the skating. Because of this we are concentrating our efforts on making this the most realistic skateboarding game ever.

The E3 06 trailer was one of the best trailers of the show. We were amazed by the shadow of the skater projecting on the board while it was flipping around in the air, the background out of focus, the lighting - everything look next-generation. What can you tell us about the graphics engine that powers Tony Hawk’s Project 8?

Brian Bright: The render engine for Project 8 is a complete rewrite from what we used for THAW on the 360. To make the game look and feel as realistic as possible, we now have rendering support for normal, environment, specular, and ambient light maps. The next-gen engine also gives us shaders such as metal, grass, water, and glass. These shaders provide depth and resolution to our textures, so you can see every crack in the concrete and every nick in a hand rail. Additional full screen effects such as bloom, depth of field, and radial blur give the game an entirely new look for the world.

It’s obvious that the use of slow motion in the trailer helped emphasize not only the next-gen visuals, but the amazing physics and animation as well. Elaborate on the physics system for this eighth installment of the series.

Brian Bright: On the physics front, we have altered the momentum so that players will look for down slopes and banks to extend their combo lines. Pumping vert to gain speed is also a must, and changes the way you approach big combos. The addition of the havok physics engine allows us to have ragdoll bails that blend with animation. We’ve incorporated this into a controllable bail feature that is totally bitchin to play. There’s nothing like aiming your flailing skater into a crowd of security guards and taking them out like bowling pins!

The animation on the E3 06 trailer was stellar, leading us to believe it was all mo-capped. Are you relying primarily on motion capture and if so, can you provide more info about the mo-cap technology used for Tony Hawk’s Project 8?

Brian Bright: In previous Tony Hawk games we would play one animation at a time with minimal blends. This was functional and looked good, but we now have the power to run a more complex animation system across multiple processors. We wanted to create the most dynamic and fluid animation system possible, one that would depict skating in its purest form and complement the amazing player control. To get realistic motion to drive this system we had all of the pro skaters come to Neversoft and we recorded their motion capture data on a variety of setups: mini ramp, rail slides, and primo boxes. To motion cap Tony Hawk we went down to Birdhouse Industries and captured Tony on his 14 foot ramp. This mo-cap data powers a real time animation system that can play up to 20 different animations on the skater at once. What this means is that the skater now dynamically reacts to the environment.

By the time the game ships, Xbox Live Vision will have been released. Do you have plans to support the Xbox 360 camera and let users put their face in the game?

Chris Parise: Unfortunately with all the work that we are putting into rebuilding our graphics, trick animation and physics systems we were not able to add support Live Vision this year.

Any other additions to the Create-A-Skater mode that you can talk about?

Brian Bright: This year you can play as a male or female and we also have a kid body that adds to the variety of Create-A-Skater choices.

With a series that spans three generations of consoles with a total of seven games, how do you continue to innovate while offering a compelling experience for the avid Tony Hawk player, in addition to someone new to the series?

Brian Bright: For Project 8 we have a redesigned goal system provides each goal with an AM, PRO, and SICK difficulty level. This will make the game both accessible to the novice and super challenging for the advanced player.

What kind of music can we expect in THP 8? Are y’all sticking with the same soundtrack theme?

Brian Bright: The soundtrack will kick ass. A new mix of genres, less punk than THAW, but just as good.

Any insight on what the Game Achievements may be, or what types of Marketplace DLC are being discussed?

Brian Bright: We’ve got some achievement types that have never been done before. I can’t comment on them yet, but I’m sure all you achievement whores (like me) out there will be pleased.
 
I am really looking forward to this! I have enjoyed all the TH games so far, 3 is my fave though!

I enjoyed THAW, but played in on xbox 1 and not the 360. But if this is a whole new direction, I hope they don't over complicate things.

I also hope you can d/load other peoples levels they have put together, if there is a park edit mode!
 
Does anyone know if it will be region free like Wasteland?
 
Anybody seen or got their paws on this yet?
 
I really wanna finish THAW before I play this... really... Not sure I will though.
 
The demo is due today isn't it? Anyone know if it's up yet?
 
Don't forget the Splinter Cell demo was also due last Friday and ended up being released at 2am PST
 
I just checked my UK, US and Jap accounts and cant see it on any of them. No doubt it will be at some point today though. Really looking forward to the full game so I hope the demo is a good indication of what it's like.
 
Found it!! Go to your US account, select Games, then all games and it listed in there twice!! And it only 350mb!!

No sign of Mortal Kombat, I had an advert for it on the home page, but clicking on that just gave a empty download screen! Somebody at M$ isn't on the ball this morning!
 
check the game demos by genre, look in action, then it`s there at the bottom
 
Anyone else with ntl (10mb) getting very slow speeds at the moment?

I started it as soon as it went up and its only at 29% :(
 
Demo is now available to download from UK marketplace if anyone's interested.
 
It plays really well and looks great, I'm totally crap, but my 14 year old step son think it rocks and it racking up some really high scores, the only thing I can do on it better than him is rack up a large hospital bill with the worst wipe outs ever!!
 
I've kind of gone off the tony hawk series, it was always good fun but got a littlebit too gimicky

but with the "control the trick" or whatever its called feature i found this very enjoyable

will make it onto my (never ending) to buy list!
 
Hell Yeah!!!! downloading now, been looking forward to this badboy for ages played every game up to this point and the previews have looked and sounded awesome.
 
I've kind of gone off the tony hawk series, it was always good fun but got a littlebit too gimicky

but with the "control the trick" or whatever its called feature i found this very enjoyable

will make it onto my (never ending) to buy list!

I totally agree. That and the improved graphics. I played the 'original' THAW on the 360 (having already played the REAL original THPS 1 and 2 on the PS1) and was very disappointed. This one looks utterly awesome and controls very well too, although I do still suck at it.

It goes straight on my 'must buy' list.
 
I'm loving this demo. Just pre-ordered it from play-asia. Seeing as the US is getting it 10 days ahead of the rest of the europe we should know if it's region free pretty early, giving plenty of time to cancel :thumbsup:
 
Wel as an avid Tony Hawks fan i was a bit unsure about a few of the changes they were making with the slo mo and the changes with more realistic physics. After playing the demo i dont know why i ever doubted Neversoft ;)

Im impressed with the overall realism of the game ,the graphics are superb, and while they have made the physics more realistic, its still possible to get some nice combos if you just think about your line a bit more, im not missing the more ridiculous parts of the game from THAW (nadas spin, double backflip etc). There an awesome feeling of weight, its hard to explain but the skater just feels heavier.

Whle i was dubious about the nail the trick mode its actually quite addictive at first i couldn't work it out but after a while i was "nailing" some awesome tricks.

This was a sure fire buy for me anyway, the demo just gave me a much needed an early taste.
 
Very impressed with this. Graphics are great, the animation in particular and the new new parts are spot on. Another one for the shopping list then :rolleyes:
 

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