XBLM getting Proving Ground demo tomorrow

by Dustin Burg { Sep 9th 2007 at 5:15PM }

Eager to show what they have to bring to the skating genre, Activision announced that they'll be releasing a Tony Hawk's Proving Ground demo to the XBLM Monday, September 10th. We're guessing good ole' Acti wants to prove to loyal Tony Hawk supporters that the latest installment not only lives up to its predecessors, but will eclipse them with new features like a video editor and a skate lounge. Good news for us is that there's already a skate demo on the Marketplace, so now we'll get a chance to test both skating games and award our seal approval to the best. Let the Marketplace demo war begin!

[Thanks, Darkstar]

Tags: activision, tonyhawk, tonyhawksprovingground, xblm

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Tim @ Sep 9th 2007 5:20PM

Finally we can deliberate whether if THPG has what it takes to match up with skate had to offer.

Jonah Falcon @ Sep 9th 2007 5:47PM

I'm getting neither. I've burned out on skating games. Burned out since TH3, really...

julio @ Sep 9th 2007 5:58PM

How many fanboys like skate? I can't stand it . I think the controls are too akwardly placed. I cant stand having the go buttons so close to the trick stick. To me this is the worst part of the game.Also,the camera (although the game says it will be adjustable) is awful. But those are really the only complaints i have, althoug it is from EA which means Microtransactions will be outrageous. Unfortuneatly Tony Hawks for me (after 10 yrs. of playing them) just get too old too quick.

Jeff @ Sep 9th 2007 5:58PM

Noice, we get to see how much it sucks compared to skate.

David @ Sep 9th 2007 6:07PM

skate is a sick game, but where are the snowboarding games at?

OmegaIXIUltima @ Sep 9th 2007 6:50PM

I personally love skate, can't stop playing the demo. But tomorrow Xbox Live is supposed to be down for a bit, don't remember the times though, so either get this early in the day or later.

zourskittles @ Sep 9th 2007 7:00PM

skate has won me over, i wont bother downloading this.

Jake @ Sep 9th 2007 7:45PM

sweet! i've been aching to launch a 30ft 1080 Christ air off a curb cut

skunkworks @ Sep 9th 2007 7:54PM

Tony is gonna have a hard time dragging me away from Skate. I usually only play a demo once or twice, but with skate I've been playing it almost every day. hell I prolly have more hours into the skate demo then I had in THP8 or THAW.

ericdrum @ Sep 9th 2007 8:26PM

I love skate. I will be buying it on day one. I've played every TH, but project 8 really wore me out, even though it was a lot better than the previous 2 TH games. So for now, Skate is going to get my time. I think the Skate controls are brilliant. I can't think of how to translate really skating any better to a video game that would still be fun to play. Skate can't come too soon.

Anticrawl @ Sep 9th 2007 8:53PM

I can't stand how ollie isn't a mapped button since you need to ollie to do many tricks. The run buttons should have been on the shoulder or triggers. Having to move from A/B to the thumb stick is awkward and annoying.

Anticrawl @ Sep 9th 2007 8:54PM

The animations for the skater when he falls in skate. are terrible as well, humorous in a sad pathetic sorta way. Maybe proving grounds will be better, but I'll probably pass on both.

janus_666 @ Sep 9th 2007 9:01PM

yeah lol, when he fells this looks so much like a dummy-doll or so.. could be more human-like but i dont think they will change that.... very sad.
THPS 2 was imho the best, after part 3 it sucked. well lets see...

iRoy @ Sep 9th 2007 9:10PM

Love how no one has spotted the fact that Live will be down for at least part of tomorrow. (Monday September 10th from 0200-0600 PT, 0900–1300 GMT)

So not the best day to launch a demo to show of your franchise that has some decent competition!

janus_666 @ Sep 9th 2007 9:24PM

so....?

Maybe every user of live got this announcment via xbox live mail?..

janus_666 @ Sep 9th 2007 9:30PM

ah never mind my last comment, understood something wrong. Im wondering what the update will bring...

rockeranimefreak @ Sep 9th 2007 10:49PM

I buy skating games once every few years...like: tonyhawk's pro skater 2 back then on the ps1 about 3-5 years later Tony Hawks Ungerground or THUG on as some people call it on ps2... i enjoyed these games because they have cool unlockable characters like Spiderman and Iron man, and that dude from Kiss... so i'll prolly get tony hawks proving ground or THPG as the people will prolly call it since it might have cool unlockable chars... and i dislike the skate control scheme and camera... so maybe thpg if the demo is good.

Sam @ Sep 9th 2007 11:05PM

Poeple that complain about the ragdolls in Skate have CLEARLY been playing games too much.

You're expecting a simulation of a lifeless corpse falling off a skateboard. What you actually get is a human falling off a skateboard.

Have you ever seen somebody fall off a skateboard at slow speed? Do they instantly become lifeless ragdolls the second they leave the board?

NO

They land, usually on their hands and knees (depending on how they fall) and as long as they aren't some how dead from that failed kickflip, they retain some bodily form.

He even grabs onto nearby rails as he's falling and uses them to lift himself up.

Would you be happier if your skater went flying off his board and span around like 8 times then landed in a crumpled heap on the floor, breaking 17 bones and becoming basically dead? (THPS style)

NO!

Humans dont ever become "ragdoll" esque in an accident while they're still conscious. Their body automatically reacts to the environment and surroundings and tries to protect itself according.

Seriously, look at the ragdolls again and you will see what i mean. These are from a technical stand point, the most human-like ragdolls ever made...because the ragdoll still maintains some resistance and even hints of animation.

Anticrawl @ Sep 10th 2007 1:02AM

Noone ever said they should become ragdoll. I haven't skated in years but they have a kid who skates all the time next door and I've seen him fall plenty. He doesn't experience any sore of rigamortus like those characters in "skate." do. No need to get defensive Sam, just pointing out the shoddy work. Apparently you've never seen someone fall off of anything period. The falls are cartoonish at best, reminds me of stuff you'd see on wrestling or in a dog cartoon.

ogvor @ Sep 10th 2007 1:10AM

I can't stop playing the Skate demo and I've never liked skate boarding games. If you can bring totally new players into your genre with new innovative controls then you've obivously got a good game.

OmegaIXIUltima @ Sep 10th 2007 2:29AM

@ 14 I already mentioned that in 6, but I forgot the times.

Captain Gears @ Sep 10th 2007 4:05AM

So, Wheres The Demo Lol?

sixbarrelshotgun05 @ Sep 10th 2007 5:54AM

I don't care what anyone says, these games are too different too compare. Skate. is the more real of the two. Whenever you have an urge to just shred something, you pick up Skate. But at the same time, you may want to just cut loose and have some random fun. That's what TH is there for. I'll be getting both, because I love skating way too much.

MDJ2010 @ Sep 10th 2007 7:51AM

Skate was an interesting demo simply because of the TH domination for about a decade, but for me this will rock, I loved Project 8 for going back to what made the Tony Hawk franchise great and cant wait for Proving Ground. I dunno about anyone else but when it comes to addictiveness TH has always taken some knocking off!

Nieker @ Sep 10th 2007 8:47AM

I've played the skate demo for at least 10h now and I'm totally hooked. I don't think tony will see me back any time soon.

xTEETERx @ Sep 10th 2007 9:18AM

where the hell is the THPG demo?

DirtyVonDutch @ Sep 10th 2007 10:55AM

I am reading the "skate demo is great" comments and i have the same thing with the THP8 demo. I have that demo on my xbox 360 for several months now while other demo's only last for a few minutes. I am gonna download both skate demo an THPG tonight to see if they can replace the THP8 demo (which is pulled from the marketplace for some reason!?!?!).

Dex @ Sep 10th 2007 12:11PM

Yeah i second the 2nd comment, skating games were done after tony hawk 3 and shouldve stayed there too. There are too many gimmicks in skating games to where they get traded in or shelfed in like 2 months. Games should not be about gimmicks, it should be about quality and competiton, and last but not least...FUN

harma41 @ Sep 10th 2007 12:34PM

Skate sucks. The controls are way too complicated, and make skating not fun. I had high hopes, but they were dashed by the overly diffcult stick mashing that you need to perform to do just anything in the game.

And there is nothing more annoying than not making a trick, and having a guy with a new york accent tell you the same thing repeatedly, every time you miss.

thumbs down.

The PC @ Sep 10th 2007 1:24PM

Harma, seems to me like instead of "stick mashing" in skate you'd prefer button mashing on THPS. haha The appeal of skate is its like real skate boarding. If a kickflip boardslide was easy in real life, then why would skateboarding be fun at all. But apparently your view of skateboarding is a "link 50 tricks together along an entire city" kind of perspective.

Dont diss a skateboarding game for actually being about skateboarding

mike @ Sep 10th 2007 2:21PM

I played THPG and I ddint like the new blanace bar which is a giant transparent bar across your screen. IT makes it so much harder to balance despite the fact it suppose to make it easier. I still am going to buy THPG since I bought every THPS game to date. I like the collecting aspect of it (like collect skate, tapes, etc etc). I have liked it ever since THPS 2 for the n64.

I tried the skate demo and while I did play it until the demo expired on me (I wanted to perfect the controls) I will not be buying it. Skate is too much of a skateboarding game. Personally I dont even like skateboarding in real life lol. So Ill stick with THPG

Mike show! @ Sep 10th 2007 2:39PM

theres no THPG demo for me!?
wtf.

Loc @ Sep 10th 2007 6:12PM

I think skate is awesome. It really is like real skating, which makes it great. Instead of skating around as fast as possible trying to combo like mad, I find myself actually stopping to line up properly and trying to get my speed right for a trick. I spent about half an hour the other day just trying to skate halfway up a bank, pop over the rail in the middle and ride down on the other side fakie. Sounds really boring, but it parallels real life, which makes it a lot more interesting to me.

outforprophets @ Sep 10th 2007 7:19PM

@18

No, actually the rag doll is not convincing at all. He doesn't try to fall on his hands and knees, he only "holds" onto rails if he gets his arm pits caught on them. There is resistance in his rag doll reactions because he is kinda stiff in his reactions (though he can do the splits), which adds to the realism of a totally lifeless doll but also looks unbelievable. He doesn't even clutch any injured parts of his body, as if every fall knocks him out. He does however, have facial expressions, which is pretty cool.

btw where is the THPG demo? I'm in love with skate but I wanna compare the 2.