Oh look, another Tony Hawk game. It's not going to be too long until Activision just starts naming these things like EA does. Look for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2004 next year!

I just love slamming this game and all its clones every year, but Neversoft shuts me up by developing a game that's even better than THPS3 (which was bounds ahead of THPS2 (which was lightyears ahead of the original THPS (which was a huge throwback to Skate or Die and 720))). It changes it all by allowing you the player to just do whatever you feel like doing at a time. Each level in the career mode is basically a free run atmosphere. If you skate up to someone and talk to them, they'll give you a goal to do in a set amount of time (usually the standard 2 minutes). Do the goal, you get some cash and then decide what to do next.

This makes the game much more fun than last year's, since you're not constricted to any time constraints. You can choose what you want to do, when you want to do it. It makes the game much more free-flowing and laid-back than last time, which is just a better way to play a game like this.

Of course, the graphics are better, the levels are bigger and have better design, and there are a plethora of skaters to choose from. Of course, it's the same control scheme, but it seems to control much tighter (if that's even possible) than ever before, because the trick animations are as smooth as silk. A revert off of a pipe face looks so natural you'll sometimes forget that you pressed a button to make it happen. Sweet stuff.

I'll just suck it up and say it flat-out: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 is going to be a must-own game if you've owned any of the previous three, including last year's. There, I said it. You win, Activision.