During a Party Play session of Tony Hawk: RIDE, someone made the keen observation that the best-looking part of the game had more to do with product placement than anything related to the actual gameplay. This is true: from the T-Mobile Sidekicks to all the shameless plugs for Stride Gum, TH: RIDE beats you over the head with all of its sponsors. Outside of the product placement, this game suffers in the visual department. The environments are dull and vacant, the "extreme moments" have about as much impact as a whoopee cushion, there are numerous anti-aliasing and clipping issues, the load times are slow, and worst of all, the physics are laughably, absurdly bad.
The sound doesn't suffer quite as much as the visuals do, but it's got its share of problems. The licensed soundtrack's quality is simply a matter of taste, so I won't get into that. I will get into the performances of the professional skaters, however. All of them are difficult to watch. It's bad enough that a light bloom filter renders their features into a blinding eyesore, but the lines and delivery are simply horrid. During an uncomfortable moment with Screech-lookalike Dustin Dollin, Stevie Williams makes a pandering contribution by suddenly shouting "Holla!"
