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Reminder: DS Fanboy Tony Hawk contest
With only a short time left, we felt it was our duty to remind you that the time left to you for entering our contest is shrinking to a few mere days. Now, we don't want you to feel pressured or anything, but if you do not enter something by the deadline of 12:01AM Wednesday, November 29th, with which we absolutely, and almost immediately, fall in love with then we might be forced to take these games and give them away to someone totally undeserving. Don't you feel like, maybe, you deserve free stuff? Like one of these games are your property? Prove it and send something in!
DS Fanboy contest: Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
We've reviewed his games, now it's time to give them away! We've got another contest for you guys, demanding you open up that copy of Photoshop you have and play around with the above image. Insert funny captions, thought balloons, or incredibly ridiculous backgrounds. You know, whatever you think will help you win (bonus points for implementing something to do with Thanksgiving)! The first prize winner will receive Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam on the DS and the runner-up will receive Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam on the GBA. The winning entry will be chosen one week from today on Wednesday, November the 29th at 12:01am EST. Submissions should be sent to dsfanboy [dot] contests [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject Tony Hawk Contest. Failing to follow the rules, or submitting something pornographic, will automatically disqualify you and cause us to wag our fingers in disgust as we give your game away to someone else.
DS Fanboy Review: Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (GBA)
Just about everyone has heard of Tony Hawk. Whether you're a fan of skateboarding or gaming, the man has made an impact, often considered equal, in both cultures. With his first game being released way back when on the original Playstation, folks have had plenty of time to learn how to bust kickflips and grind massive rails in his games.His games on the GBA have been no joke, either. Featuring an isolated bird's eye view, previous games featured excellent 3D graphics and gameplay on the portable system. But where the old games were all about busting big lines and tearing up the course to your heart's content, this game is more of a racing game and, as such, you're limited in the tricks department.
DS Fanboy Review: Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (DS)
Just about everyone has heard of Tony Hawk. Whether you're a fan of skateboarding or gaming, the man has made an impact, often considered equal, in both cultures. With his first game being released way back when on the original Playstation, folks have had plenty of time to learn how to bust kickflips and grind massive rails in his games.Then, upon the launch of Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connect service, a little Tony Hawk game by the name of Tony Hawk's American Sk8land released. Not only taking full advantage of Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connect service, the single-player and local multiplayer experience in the title were also excellent. Now, we receive the game's successor in Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam.
Activision's CoD3 and THP8 not hitting 720p
Someone call Activision and let 'em know that 720p means 1280x720, please. Games-Aktuell, a German gaming outlet, has discovered that Call of Duty 3 and Tony Hawk's Project 8 are not running at a 720p high-def resolution. When the tests were run, CoD3 was shown to be running at 1040x620 pixels and THP8 at 1040x584 pixels. The pixel drop reflects a resolution drop of 30% and 34%, respectively. The resolution drop could be assumed to help keep framerates up, but THP8 reportedly has framerate problems. So what's up? Activision Germany told Cynamite.de that they weren't aware of the problem and are looking into it. Lower resolution is not something that normally just happens by accident, but given the recent quality assurance problems with CoD3, these resolution problems may just be another woeful mistake. If intentional, why the resolution drop in THP8 when the 360 is clearly powerful enough to handle something like Gears of War just fine? We've included a machine-translated link of the original German post.
Target hooks us up yet again
One of our readers was visiting his local Seattle, WA area Target store recently and stumbled upon a DVD for sale at the low cost of only a penny. This DVD, which features game trailers for both Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam for the Wii, is titled Living the Game with the Wii and Activision. With the combination of the Wii gift card, it seems like Target has caught the fever the rest of us are suffering from.Anyone else see this in their local Target? Can anyone confirm how many trailers are on this disc?[Thanks mykie!]
Wiimote vs. Sixaxis, Round 1: Downhill Jam vs. Project 8
While Downhill Jam and Project 8 are two very different takes on the Tony Hawk license, they share enough commonalities (ollies, grinds, rotations, grabs, etc.) to warrant a Wiimote vs. Sixaxis comparison.Downhill Jam (Wii) and Project 8 (PS3) both feature motion-controlled skating, providing the gaming public with an ideal opportunity to judge the Wiimote and Sixaxis against each other. We'll have to wait until after November 19th to conduct hands-on trials, but a handy clip (see embedded video) has been spliced together giving us a preview of the showdown to come.
Downhill Jam vs. Project 8
With the upcoming November retail battle between Sony and Nintendo as they release their respective consoles just days apart, it's truly a wonderful time to be alive (and a gamer). With Sony's cheap knock-off motion-sensing Sixaxis controller, will Tony Hawk's title be superior on the PS3 to the legendary skater's Wii installment in Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam? Why not take a look at the side-by-side comparison of each title's gameplay in the embedded video, available after the break, and let us know![Via NeoGAF]
Still no Project 8 demo, what gives?
The hours keep ticking by and the promised Project 8 demo is still a no show. Plenty of companies have gotten into hot water (here's looking at you 3D Realms) for missing promised demos, but this one had its own press release and everything. We would have figured that all the certification and whatnot was already taken care of, especially if someone authorized a press release. Still, there are many hours left in the day. Keep the faith, fanboys.
Downhill Jam screens
Yep, that's right. Spankin' new screens from Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam for the DS. What did you expect, fields of frolicking bunnies? Now if they were on skateboards, you might have something there ....Check after the jump for five new screens. No bunnies allowed.
New Wii boxes, just like the old boxes [update 2]
The boxes for three more Wii games have been finalized -- Metal Slug Anthology, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam and Monster 4x4 World Circuit all got the stamp of officialized boxart love from IGN. Since none of these games are unique to the Wii, the boxes are no great revelation, but they're pretty because they're ours.[Update 1: Seems there are multiple versions of the Tony Hawk box floating around. Some have the WiFi logo and some don't. Could the logo be a mistake from someone putting the boxart together and not paying attention, or is it a sign of things to come? We're looking into it.][Update 2: Spoke with our Activision rep, who indicated that any boxes floating around with the WiFi logo must be placeholders -- nothing has changed in regard to the lack of WiFi support for the Wii at this time. And we were so excited. Beware, beware of placeholder boxes! Thanks to our eagle-eyed readers on this one.]
Confirmed: Downhill Jam to feature in-game voice chat
That's right, you read the headline correctly. In an e-mail that was sent out to Sk8land community members describing the game's final features, it's revealed that the title will feature in-game voice chat, something sorely missed from a certain game featuring a female bounty hunters and energy-absorbing life forms. Among that bomb, other Sk8land community features in the final game include: 50 graffiti and skate decks drawn by SK8Land's best community artists have been included in every copy of Downhill Jam for Nintendo DS! Community Moderator AgoraKenny worked with Vicarious Visions as a Designer on Downhill Jam DS Some of the game's other features include: Create custom shirts and pants as well as graffiti and skate decks for your skater Fully customizable RGB color scale - use any colors you want! Zoom in for pixel perfect precision Upload your art and share it on the Downhill Jam Community Site 4 player Head to Head over Nintendo Wi-Fi Live voice chat with friends during gameplay Global score rankings Replays Sk8 Crews 100 Downloadable Goals
BIH content, 9/28: big sweaty men edition
The Bringing It Home content train just keeps a' rollin'. Today we are blessed with another demo, Smackdown Vs. Raw 2007. The full list goes a little something like this:Tony Hawk's Project 8 trailerWheelman trailerFrontlines Fuel of War trailerX06 Game Montage videoCrossfire trailerWWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2007Fable 2 theme (150 points)X06 theme (free)Also new today, Europe can finally download all Oblivion content packs (insert obligatory horse armor joke here). Oh, and we missed it last night, but there is now a Halo Wars theme (150 points) and picture pack (80 points) available.
X06: Mini-impressions -- THP8, Lumines, Fuzion Frenzy 2
A quick round up of some of the other games at Microsoft's X06 party tonight: Tony Hawk's Project 8: The marquee new feature, already well-known, is the ability to slow down time to perform individualized tricks, using an analog stick to control each leg. The timing takes a bit of getting used to, but after a few minutes you'll be busting out some ridiculous combos -- and actually understanding what goes into the tricks to boot. Besides that the game seems like the same old Tony Hawk, though being able to choose the desired difficulty of each goal on the fly is a nice improvement. Lumines Live: The Xbox Live version of the PSP puzzler is actually significantly harder to control -- neither the analog stick nor the digital pad are precise enough for quick moves. Playing on a big screen is nice, but it actually makes it harder to take in the whole playfield with one quick glance. And the new mission mode seems intriguing, but there are only five levels available unless you purchase an additional mission pack. Yikes! Fuzion Frenzy 2: Only three mini-games were playable, though there were 43 listed in-game. My favorite was Sumo Paint, featuring rolling, bumping spheres battling for position and control of floor space. Seems like a decent enough drinking game with friends in the room, but not as appealing over Xbox Live. Look for more impressions from the X06 show floor soon.
"NO SKATING ONLINE" for PS3's Tony Hawk
In another setback facing the PS3 launch, Activision and Neversoft confirmed to Joystiq last week that there will be no online gameplay in Tony Hawk's Project 8. While the Xbox 360 version will feature up to eight players online, as well as persistent leaderboards and possible future downloadable content, the PS3 is getting no joy.Possible reasons for this: Neversoft had gotten final hardware from Sony less than three weeks ago and they have yet to receive final software libraries. Hard to build a house when the lumber ain't there yet.With Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam having already been confirmed as not having online play on the Wii, the Xbox 360 version is your only option if you want to kickflip with your buddy in New Jersey while you sit comfortably in Topeka.[Thanks for all the reminders, readers]
Red Steel: better things to come
Yesterday, we told you about a nasty, nasty rumor concerning the graphics of the Wii games we've seen so far. Could it be true that the "real" versions of some of the most anticipated games were being withheld so that the Wii, when revealed in full at last, could make a bigger splash than even we could hope for?Seems silly ... but according to an IGN blog, that could be the case. After they posted videos of Red Steel from Leipzig, Ubisoft apparently contacted IGN to let them know that the footage still didn't reflect the latest build of the game. What we saw at E3 was version 1.0. Let's call LGC v1.5, then, with the amorphous v2.0 still unseen. Why haven't we seen it?If this is true -- and according to the same post, other tweaks are being considered for Activision's Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam as well -- then this begs the question of what, exactly, is going on with the Wii? Here, in the tag end of August, with Nintendo's Fusion Tour just around the corner, and the event on the 14th, as well as the release date coming in November at the latest ... isn't it time to let us know what the real deal is?[Thanks, vidGuy!]
Extreme airtime in GTA:LCS
Weekends aren't usually filled with breaking news, so it's usually the time we look back and reflect on the cooler aspects of the PSP community. I'm not too interested in the musings of an illiterate fanboy, but I am totally awe-inspired by the crazy things that people have been doing in GTA:LCS. The cheat devices for GTA have come a long way since the first time PSP Fanboy reported on it. People are now defying all logic, performing gravity-defying tricks, riding on walls, spawning helicopters and even creating trick ramps for those that want Liberty City to be one giant level of Tony Hawk. Here's some of my favorites from the GTA cheats and trick community.
Hands-on with B-Boy
Marco, regular PSP Fanboy reader, wrote in our comments section: "It is something nobody has done before (as far as I know)... I think people are jaded about any game being about Hip Hop... but at least I do know that there are people who do make the genre respectable."Very true, Marco. It's pretty easy to get jaded over games that don't seem authentic, but B-Boy seems to be the real deal. It's a game that deserves a bit more attention than it's getting, if only for its unique premise: you play as a rising star of break-dancing, and you battle other b-boys to try and become the best. It looks pretty new and different, and according to IGN, it "doesn't play quite like anything that's come before." The D-Pad controls movement, and the face buttons are used as the building blocks of moves. You string things together, and maintain balance using the L and R buttons a la Tony Hawk. There are transition moves, and increasingly complicated moves which require greater button combinations, and that's where a surprising amount of depth can come into play. Like extreme sports games, you can build up some impressive combos.B-Boy promises to mix music rhythm and sports gameplay into an innovative combination. The game is currently UK-exclusive, but hopefully we'll see it branching out soon.
Motion Sensor Add-on for your DS?
You know the rumors that you hear that come from so many people it's hard to take it seriously? You know, the ones that are like "I heard this from my sisters cousins aunts dog" kind of thing? This is one of those. 1Up came across some news from Nintendogossip about a possible motion sensor add-on for the DS. Think, Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble meets Wario Ware Twisted. Supposedly this new device will work with Tony Hawk Downhill Jam forcing you to decide which way your skater goes by tilting your DS. Yes, it is a bit of a stretch. But think of the possibilities! If someone isn't already working on this, they should start. We would love to see some type of racing-fighting-running-jumping-climbing trees type of thing to add to our collection of totally ridiculous games.
Activision slip-up points to October Wii release
Informants come in many shapes, sizes and trenchcoats, but those who approach us under a veil of secrecy and threaten to bend our limbs in unnatural ways should we reveal their identities are usually the best ones. Claiming to work for an independent video game site on a distant continent, our latest informant (we'll call him Mr. Informant Fronzel Neekburm) lends even more weight to the ongoing theory that the Nintendo Wii launches in October. At this point, said theory could probably kill a passerby if dropped from a balcony.Fronzel explains that his outlet received a detailed release schedule from Activision, one that listed Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam with an October release, followed by Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Call of Duty 3 in November. Shortly afterwards, a hasty re-issue dropped in his inbox, with the only alteration being to the Wii release dates -- they'd been replaced with a more vague "Upon Wii launch." Had Mr. Neekburm just witnessed Activision in a drunken stumble, grabbing and pulling back a velvet curtain in an attempt to avoid an unpleasant impact with the floor?Both documents were forwarded to us and we were able to ascertain that the last person to modify the second document is part of Activision's international media relations team. The presence of LucasArts titles on the list had us puzzled for a bit, but it turns out that Activision publishes George's games in certain territories. The last question in need of an answer, of course, is "would Activision already know the launch date?" Considering that they're working on a highly publicized launch title, we're going to go with "yes."Admittedly, that part is pure speculation. Activision may have just been eradicating a date they pulled from the ether, for fear of people getting the wrong idea and writing deeply entertaining, mercilessly captivating blog posts about it. We'll let you know if we hear anything else.Note: In the picture above, we edited the spreadsheet a bit in order to highlight the relevant information. [Thanks, uh, Fronzel!]
