When you've taken Tony Hawk as far as Activision has, where else is there to go? The answer: everywhere. That's exactly what Neversoft is doing with Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, the newest installment of the iconic series that lets you roam free across a vast, skateworthy landscape. PGC recently had the opportunity to get an early hands-on playtest, and found it to be comfortably familiar yet intriguingly fresh at the same time.

Veterans of the Tony Hawk series will know that it has evolved from a strictly level-based affair into a more open-ended style of mission-based gameplay. THAW takes it to the next level, offering you one giant streaming world (meaning no load times) instead of sectioned-off levels. That world in this case is Los Angeles, where your character gets mugged seconds after stepping off the bus that brought you to the big city. Left with only his skateboard, he'll explore Downtown, Hollywood, East L.A., and other areas on a quest to become skate royalty.

While its non-level-based gameplay may turn off some purists, I found THAW to be instantly engaging. Even though I hadn't played a Tony Hawk game in quite some time, it quickly came back to me and soon I was ripping Benihanas like a pro. The GameCube controls took a little getting used to, as I had to figure out how the GC controller's buttons were mapped to the PS2 originals to which I'd become accustomed. Once the learning curve was out of the way, I got down to some serious shredding.

There are several new moves in THAW worth mentioning. The most prominent is the Bert Slide, a maneuver that has your skater planting one hand on the ground and then quickly rotating around it in a circle. There are also mid-air flips and rolls. These moves look cool, but they also come off as utterly ridiculous because they're so physically impossible. Hey, I'm not looking for realism from a game that lets me grind on the edges of two-story buildings, but at least that could be done if somebody was stupid enough. I doubt I'll ever see somebody launch off a vert ramp and then magically do a 360-degree flip (in the opposite direction of their momentum, no less) at the top of the jump.

The ability to get off of your board and walk around is also exploited; you can now run up a wall and flip off of it, executing moves in the air and creating a whole new range of combos. The Natas Spin has also been expanded to include handstands.

In addition to new moves, there's a new vehicle in the form of a BMX bike. Controls for the bike are completely unique, but you can grind and take ramps just as you would with your skateboard. There are also bike-specific "whip" moves that you can pull off in mid-air, keeping the bike's front fork stationary while "whipping" the body of the bike around in a circle. This adds a new element of experimentation, and doesn't have so extensive a move list as to distract you from the main skateboarding action. A cool part of the game's "perpetual level" design is that you can get off the bike, walk around the block, come back and it'll be right where you left it.

The heart of THAW is undoubtedly its Story Mode. It has you roaming around Los Angeles looking for missions, talking to the game's crazy cast of characters and generally trying to rise through the ranks to the level of skate god. Early missions include outfitting your skater with new clothes, getting a skate shop to sponsor you by completing a set of tasks, and getting a haircut. Later on you'll do crazy things like letting your friend's dog drag you around to different places while you smash signs with your skateboard. Your ultimate goal is to help Iggy, a gruff skate legend who spurned celebrity to remain true to the game, turn his run-down Skate Ranch into a state-of-the-art skatepark. Completing certain missions earns you areas of the skatepark to arrange as you see fit. In this sense, the skatepark itself is a visual representation of your progress in the game. The more missions you conquer, the more of the skatepark you'll assemble.

If you get tired of all of that, you can always play Classic Mode. It features several selected levels from previous Tony Hawk games, allowing you to exercise your skills in classic level-based fashion. Fans of the older Pro Skater games will certainly appreciate this feature being carried over from Tony Hawk Underground 2.

Graphics are solid and on par with the rest of the games in the series.. The levels that I played were fairly confined, consisting of a downtown street surrounded by buildings. I didn't see any slowdown, but I'd like to see what would happen if I launched high in the air and pulled off some moves with the entire city in the background. The style of character models is mostly realistic with a little bit of exaggeration. The motion capture is particularly nice, with skaters walking and pulling off moves in a fluid and realistic manner.

Story Mode is moved along by humorous cutscenes that really fit in well with the game's irreverent personality. The real-time 3D of the cutscenes is punctuated with comic-book style 2D art, often displayed when characters are reacting to something or getting screwed over in some way. For example, if a character gets angry, you might see a quick flash of a caricature of him with smoke coming out of his ears. It gives the game a unique style and takes the presentation above and beyond your typical cutscenes. The voice acting is also excellent.

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland seems to have a little bit of something for everyone. Fans of Tony Hawk Underground can check out Story Mode, while devotees of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater can check out Classic Mode. Casual fans of the series will probably like it all. This may be the version in which Neversoft gets everything right and makes everyone happy – but that's a tall task, even for The Birdman.