Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (PS2)

Tony Hawk is thirty-nine now and yet already nine of those years have been spent appearing in Activision's yearly skateboarding sims. As such he has nothing at all to prove any more but in this game you do, as the series takes a turn away from the action adventure gameplay of previous titles and recalls the glory days of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. Not only does it include real world landmarks from the older game, such as FDR Skatepark and the Love Park, but it also sees the return of favourite features such as Create-a-Park.

In the main single player mode you create your own skater and then follow their entire skateboarding career in one of three classes: hardcore, rigger and career. Hardcore skaters aren't interested in competitions or trophies, career skaters are and riggers prefer to invent tricks and layouts out of ordinary environments. The control system expands on the Nail the Trick concept from the last game, which essentially creates a kind of slow motion bullet time that zooms the camera in closer to your board. Proving Ground adds in Nail the Grab and Nail the Manual which work in a similar way. New moves include the turbo boosting Aggro Kick and Skate Checking, which basically amounts to knocking people out of the way. Like many new game at the moment the online community will allow you to upload videos of your endeavours as you attempt to prove you're the best, at the best new Tony Hawk's game for years.