At this juncture, it is safe to assume that no polls are needed to confirm the following; the bulk of fans out there (if any left) don't, won't and can't take this title seriously. Which is ironic considering that all previous installments handled every single skating aspect in the most absurd ways possible, making it the cult, pot pourri experience we have so thrillingly enjoyed in (and out of) its prime. Not that game titles should ever be read into that much, but RIDE suggests nothing more than a gimmicky attempt, not at rebooting a franchise but establishing a new one to a new, bigger demographic. I know i won't put down a hundred bucks on the table to Ride a board except a real one, and how unfair and one-sided a view it may be, i don't want this to fail, but i know i shouldn't exactly expect a cameo by Officer Dick either.  
 
I don't care for Ride in its own respect, but i care for Ride because it's the only Tony Hawk game i'm gonna get. In the teaser trailer, Tony Hawk refers to the game as "the most virtually real skating experience" or some such nonsense, which i really can't help but to translate as "we focused on basic peripheral moves, which means we took all the insane fun out of it, forgot to put any effort in having amusing secret skaters, as for the graphics we like our ps2 polygon models just fine, our soundtrack is a mishmash of awful music which i don't even have a name for, emo-evolved perhaps, and ow yeah we're also totally not into international levels anymore, wait what kind of game did we make?"   
 
TIMES CHANGE 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_w3nV-vAqE&feature=fvw  
 
The first four Tony Hawk games seemed to come out of an enormously creative team that really wanted to make the best each time. You could feel the passion when you played it and that's really what is was all about. It really went downhill when Bam Margera basically got Carte Blanche and the games were heavily overshadowed by a giant jackass. In all installments though there was a special something to find, except for Proving Ground. A game i bought for fifteen bucks, played through once, just because this nostalgic hearted boy in me was glad to "skate" again.  
 
Speaking of which, I myself am not anti Skate. EA has done a great job at making an original, non-tony hawk game, and has this way acquired a well diserved, albeit humble audience, and i respect that, but i don't look for realism, i look for skating in space with spiderman and a narrator telling me I suck when i fall balls first down a ramp and spill some afwully pixelated blood over the skate park, and while i'm at it i love flying above the levels and getting stuck in undesigned spaces, visting aliens, slowing down time, land 20 some tricks before being launched into a canon over a TNT rigged bridge. On the way i might hold up a basket under a bird's ass and collect its eggs as fast as i can. Yep, tony hawk at its best was basically an LSD trip. 
 
I can't really say i have a point writing this, i don't think i really wanted to make one, i feel like 1999 is a million years ago, and there's no turning back. To end with a question, as to keep the conversation going, would you rather get a re-release of your favourite tony hawk game with achievement/trophy support and graphicly enhanced features for 20 bucks, or get Tony hawk ride for free? 
 
thanks for reading :) Take care