American Wasteland is the messy, middle-child entry of the golden era. It isn't as tight as THPS2 or as clever as THUG1 . But it is the last time the series felt genuinely ambitious. It tried to kill loading screens and build a living world. It failed at both, but it failed spectacularly.
If you played the version from -Buka--ts.ru- , you know the struggle. The PC port was notoriously awful. You had to manually edit .ini files to get your controller to work. The audio would desync during the "Skaters Welcome" cutscene. And yet, there was a weird charm to it. It was our janky, unoptimized wasteland. It felt underground, even though Tony Hawk was a household name. Tony Hawk--s American Wasteland -Buka--ts.ru-
Have you played the PC port of Wasteland? Did you ever get the damn noclip cheat to work? Sound off in the comments. American Wasteland is the messy, middle-child entry of
7.5/10 (Skateboarding physics: 9/10, Voice acting: 4/10, Nostalgia factor: 11/10) It tried to kill loading screens and build a living world
If you see a dusty copy at a garage sale—or stumble upon that old rip on an ancient hard drive—give it a spin. Just remember to patch the audio drivers first.
The story. My god, the story. The "Rigger" (voiced by a pre-fame Lukas Haas) trying to build a secret skate park in the middle of the desert was cringe then and is hilarious now. The dialogue is peak "How do you do, fellow kids?" energy. Also, the BMX integration was clunky. Nobody wanted to ride the bike, Tony. We wanted to grind.
For the uninitiated, was the publisher that handled the PC port for the Russian audience. Finding a copy floating around the digital ether with that .ru suffix always felt a little sketchy, like downloading a virus from a LimeWire link named "Linkin_Park.exe." But back in 2006, if you wanted to skate through L.A. without a PS2, you took the risk.