"Polished" is the best way to describe THPS4 for the Xbox. The visuals, the sounds, the gameplay, the interface, everything is about as good as it is going to get in this generation. The environments and skaters are all much more natural looking, and the control is just even more dead on solid than previously. The game doesn’t look a whole lot better than THPS3 on the Xbox, just more refined. The game sports an absolutely rock-solid 60fps framerate (even with some of the special effects cheats enabled), and even better animation and transitions. The huge environments feel more like virtual cities than just “levels”, and they hold together perfectly without any glaring draw-in, or clipping errors to be found. Overall, the textures appear to now be reaching photorealism, though there are some odd low resolutions ones here and there. Even the FMV DVD videos included in the game are well put together and interesting.

The real difference in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 lies in the way the Career mode is now handled. Gone are the cut and dry “goals”, and in are more involving “missions”. All the missions (which are still referred to as Goals in the game), are given to your skater by non-player characters, which you must meet up with inside each environment, not unlike a Role-Playing Game. While some of the goals are similar to before, such as collect SKATE or smash 5 items, most are more involved and interesting. Even those old-style goals are still usually setup in a more interesting way and integrated into some weird situation. Some of the goals can be completed in a matter of seconds, but others may take a few minutes due to needing to restart over and over, or failing many times. A few are frustrating, but most are fun to try to complete. Completing the goals can provide you with some combination of Pro Points, Stat Points and cash. Pro Points help unlock other environments to skate in; Stat Points allow your skater’s abilities to be upgraded; and Cash can be used to buy new items, such as decks, various forms of clothing, or unlock some special levels and cheats.

Control is excellent, and as mentioned before, more solid. The physics model has definitely improved, and I found it helped the game flow a little better. Some of the animations are less robotic feeling and smoother, and that also lead to a slightly more responsive feel than previous games. The set of moves has not changed much either, though several new specials and a few new standard moves have been added to all the skater’s repertoires. If you’ve played THPS3 then you should have no problem jumping right into the game, and easily racking up some of the same unbelievable scores as before. I personally found wallrides and wallies much much easier to pull off. It’s kinda like playing Street Fighter Alpha 2, and then playing 3.

The modes should also be familiar to any fans of the series, and both the skate park creator and the multiplayer modes are improved and more fun. I still have to shake my head at the lack of online play, via Xbox Live. It’s not like Neversoft doesn’t know how to code for ‘net play, and it is most likely a result of Activision’s reluctance to commit to Microsoft’s structure. The PlayStation 2 version will most likely score higher as a result, since that is the only version with online functionality.

Last but not least is the soundtrack. While I did like the BGM selections in the previous titles, they were beginning to become more grating on the ears. This time around, THPS4, like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, features a nice set of old school music. Classic rap, rock and metal tunes from Run DMC, AC-DC, and Iron Maiden made the soundtrack the best yet. Sounds effects and voices are nice, and 5.1 audio is used to nice effect. The surfaces that you skate over are nicely reflected by the audio, and cobblestones, concrete and wood sound very distinct.

What else can I say about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4? It’s easily the best version yet, and is as solid and polished as I would expect. I’m not really sure how much new ground they can cover in the next installment, as I really feel the series has plateaued. Maybe the next next-gen iteration will have more photorealistic visuals and perfect online play, but for now, THPS4 is probably about the best an extreme sports game can get.