Tony Hawk's Proving Ground

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground returned the series to a sprawling open city, this time split between daytime New Jersey and nighttime Washington D.C. The main novelty is a system of three paths through which the player works their way to fame - as a Rigger who builds their own obstacles and modifies the level's surroundings, as an Aggro skater focused on pure trick virtuosity, or as a Hardcore rider who risks injury and broken gear for a higher score. The choice affects not only the available special abilities but also how you approach the story of a professional skateboarder and which missions the world offers you.

The Xbox 360 version (identical to the PlayStation 3 edition) was created directly by Neversoft, the longtime developer of the main Tony Hawk series, making it the full-featured, most technically capable form of the game with all the aforementioned systems, an open world with no loading between missions, and the full range of game modes including online multiplayer for several players at once. It was precisely this version that defined how a Proving Ground game was meant to look and play, with other platforms adapted to it with varying degrees of compromise, as seen in the Wii, PS2, and Nintendo DS editions.

The structure of three paths with different abilities and approaches to the city also became the template for how Neversoft built missions and unlocked new areas - players could try all three styles on the same character over the course of the game and switch freely between them depending on which type of challenge they preferred at the time, something the openness of the world and the absence of loading screens only reinforced.

Why play it: The Xbox 360 version is the most complete form of Proving Ground - with an open world, three distinct playstyles, and the full technical package of the generation - making it the natural choice for anyone who wants to experience the game the way Neversoft's developers originally designed it, without the limitations required on older or handheld hardware.