I suppose this isn't really news, but did you hear that Activision will debut a brand new Tony Hawk game at E3? Of course, if you've been paying any attention at all you already know that this is the company's MO. Last year they debuted Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, a couple years before that it was Tony Hawk's Underground, and so on so forth. Smart money is on Activision announcing a new Tony Hawk game next year, and the year after, and heck; you might as well just put your money down on all of the years until 2015 (when Mr. Hawk's contract runs out).

Believe it or not I am a fan of the Tony Hawk franchise (although I didn't care much for American Wasteland, no matter if it was on the PlayStation 2 or the Xbox 360). I look forward to the new levels and tricks. But after eight different Tony Hawk games even I'm getting a little warn out on the formula. So what are they going to do this year to make it different? If the early word is any indication, then they are going to make the game (currently titled Tony Hawk's Project 8) extremely easy, y'know for the kids!

I'm not sure how much easier they can make this game. American Wasteland can be completed in less than six hours (trust me, when I went through the Xbox 360 version I ended up getting 900 achievement points all in one short afternoon), it's just not a very challenging game. One of my biggest issues was that it always felt like a tutorial, even at the end of the game you were still being taught how to do new tricks (and forced to practice them), and that just isn't my definition of fun. So how are they going to make the game easier??

Questions like this will be answered in due time, for now all we can do is bitch about another annual sequel. Last year around this time we did a Feud about the impact of annual sequels and wouldn't you know it, Tony Hawk was right in the middle of our target. I can't say I'm surprised by the announcement of Tony Hawk's Project 8, but you have to wonder how much better these games would be if they just spent and extra three to six months on them. How about a new Tony Hawk game every other year, or maybe every 18 months? With profits down I have to wonder if Activision will see the writing on the wall. I suspect they'll go the opposite direction and give us two Tony Hawk games a year. Mark my words on it.