skateboard

Tony Hawk shows us how to Ride

Activision invited us to check out a handful of upcoming titles last night in midtown New York City. Among all of the titles we had hands-on time with, Tony Hawk: Ride certainly stood out. Not only was it fun to play, but the fact that Mr. Tony Hawk himself sat in to tell us about the game added another dimension to the experience.

Jeff: I thought I had heard someone say "Tony Hawk is here" as Scott and I entered the Activision demo, but I just brushed that off as "Oh, the new Tony Hawk game is here." Sure enough, the legend himself walked into our private game demo room and explained to us the process in which Tony Hawk: Ride came to be.

Hawk was honest, saying the franchise had run its course with a conventional controller. Now that game peripherals are becoming much more commonplace, it was clear that a skateboard controller needed to be introduced as an obvious evolutionary step.

After hopping on the board for the first time I was immediately transported back to 1994 when I had a brief stint with the sport. The accessory itself is simply a skateboard deck without trucks or wheels. It feels solid, though it may take a minute or two to find your balance.

The board is an impressive piece of hardware that's loaded up with motion sensing technology and four infrared sensors. When your hand breaks one of the IR beams coming out from the board, the game interprets that as a grab. When you've stopped, a drag of the foot on either side will get you moving again. The motion sensing comes into play when you want to do spins in the air to increase trick points. … Read more

'G.I. Joe' promo fails at looking cool

A couple of weeks ago I got to attend a press screening of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" a week before the general American release. There was only one trailer before the film, and that was for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which launches August 6.

I have been to many press screenings, but I've never heard professional movie critics--my colleagues--heckle a trailer before. The movie looks amazingly bad in every way. That's why I'm not surprised Paramount is taking the viral route to try to gain public interest in what will no … Read more

The 404 383: Where it's so bad it's good

Maybe we should have used "So bad, but so good" as our show motto instead of "High Tech, Low Brow!" Today's show is a good example of that, and we kick it off with Wilson's brief and spoiler-free review of Bruno. We also talk about the rise of the Twitterns, Apple breaking the Pre-iTunes lovefest, and Jeff meeting Tony Hawk!

Check it out! Jeff was invited to an Activision event last night to preview Tony Hawk's new game, but he was pretty surprised when Tony Hawk himself showed up to show him around! As you can see, the game comes with an actual "skateboard" controller to jump, ride, and pop up to do tricks within the game. Jeff tells us that the game is very realistic, but popping up the board feels more like a snowboard than skating. Check it out for yourself when it comes out on October 13 for $120.

In other news, The 404 has decided to hire a young Twittern to update our Twitter. Social media, whether it's in short or long form, is super time-consuming...anyone out there want to be our Twittern? We're only half-joking...

In more important news, Apple has finally broken up the love affair between iTunes and the Palm Pre: the smartphone no longer works with the popular desktop software. Jeff owns a Pre and figures that the only thing to do now is to refrain from upgrading to the latest software, lest some savvy developer use the latest SDK to somehow crack Apple's padlock.

Also, start getting amped for tomorrow's episode where I, Justin Yu, will debut yet another band in a segment we like to call...deep breath..."The 404 Semi-Weekly Audio Draft Sponsored by Beck's Beer in conjunction with Last.FM, a subsidiary of CBS Interactive and CNET News and Reviews." Jeez.

EPISODE 383 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

E3 Game trailer: Tony Hawk Ride

Tony Hawk himself showed off his new game, Tony Hawk Ride at E3 2009. Gamers will use a wireless skateboard controller to jump, turn, and do tricks. Ride is expected this October for PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii.

Tony Hawk gets a new skateboard

This article was updated on 5/19/09 to add the info that you actually CAN "ride" the board. Thanks Cravers for pointing this out.

The last Tony Hawk game I played was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 on the Dreamcast. Getting good enough to pull off trick after trick in succession in that game was close to gaming nirvana for me.

Since then, the series has had its ups and downs and with strong competition from EA's Skate series, and Activision--publisher of all things Tony Hawk--needs to find new ways to get players excited again … Read more

Vestalife Ladybug speaker: Not as cutesy as it sounds

If you have a favorite animal, chances are you can now find it in the form of an iPod speaker. We've seen everything from pigs and pandas to cats and dogs. Heck, even insect lovers don't get left out in the cold, thanks to Vestalife's Butterfly and Ladybug speaker docks. The Ladybug goes for $110 and rather outshines its cousin in design and sound quality. For those who are after a different-looking portable speaker with a reasonable smattering of extras, this unit could fit the bill.

Read the Vestalife Ladybug review.

Your own skate jam!

TouchGrind is good game for anyone who likes skateboarding or fingerboarding, but it could use a little work to make it a great game. Pick a board and either practice your moves in your backyard (Warmup); practice tricks and attempt your single-trick high score at the main park (Jam Session); or go for the high score in a timed format at the main park (Competition). TouchGrind lets you use two fingers on your touch screen to control your board for turning and performing tricks. An easy-to-understand How To section helps you get used the controls. The physics are very good, … Read more

Shaun White tells The 404 about his new snowboarding video game

Be sure to check out Friday's episode of The 404 where we welcome pro snowboarder and skateboarder Shaun White to the studio. He talks to us about his new game from Ubisoft coming out on Sunday called Shaun White Snowboarding.

The title will be available for all major gaming platforms and allows you to roam freely on various mountains. Shaun talks to us about his role in the development of the game and what it was like recording voice-overs and motion capture. We talk about his other input on the game, including compiling the title's very respectable soundtrack. … Read more

The 404 228: Where Shaun White helps us verbally abuse Wilson

Big thanks to snowboarding and skateboarding phenom Shaun White for dropping into the studio to help us beat up Wilson...verbally. He sticks around to introduce his new video game and tells us what it's like to wear a skin-tight motion-capture suit. He also spills about the perks of being a pro athlete, considers the possibilities of Olympic skateboarding, and recalls fond memories of massive 26 ounce steaks.

Everything that we've accomplished before today's show is total garbage, and now that Shaun White has left the studio, it can only go downhill from here, but we're satisfied to hit our peak at 228 episodes. Just kidding, folks, but we are super psyched to welcome Shaun White to the show! He kicks off the show talking to us about his new video game Shaun White Snowboarding. Jeff actually had a chance to play the game and he definitely gives it his seal of approval, so be sure to check it out! It's not very often we have a professional snowboarder at the CNET offices, so we ask Shaun a few pressing questions: What's his favorite hill? Did he choose the music for the game? Why doesn't he hate Sublime? These are just a few of the hard hitting bangers we throw at Mr. White.

Unfortunately, Shaun's a busy guy so he jets during the break, but we had a great time with him today, as evidenced by our total broner for him after the interview. Keep listening to the show for a chance to win a copy of Shaun White Snowboarding signed by the man himself. After all the dust settles, we finally get into the weekend box office with a lot of talk about the new Bond and the Resident Evil movie. Note that Jeff Bakalar will not be present throughout next week's shows, so prepare yourself for lots of weird Asian news and maybe even a special appearance from THE V.*.G.!

Be sure to stream or download the podcast below for the entire show!

EPISODE 228 Download today's podcast … Read more

Crave: A comb that helps you grow hair?

Brian Tong is back and he brought Hawaii with him. Bonnie Cha tells you how to customize your skateboards. And a comb that's supposed to help you grow your hair back.