I truly don't understand the haters. This is a fine game.
That seems to be the only reason that people say skate is better. "It has a realistic, innovative control scheme." Sure, I played the demo, and the scheme was innovative, but the realism is all too real some times, with the thousands of bail tries etc.
Tony Hawk doesn't have all of that. I'm a bit annoyed about the grittier, more realistic take on the series this year, as neversoft should stick to their guns. They have a fantastic ARCADE skating game, they should make it like an ARCADE skating game. Sometimes, people don't want all the fuss of constantly retrying on different spots, they just want to skate.
And contrary to popular belief, that is what this game is all about. The branching storyline is nice, very nice, but it truly is just a fun way to level up your character to how you would like to. Even more fun is taking your fully levelled character online, or making your own videos with him/her, or setting the wildest combos ever.
And that, is inherently fun. Just skating, not caring about the consequences, like bailing and having to start the spot again. But when you get past that level of skill, there is a lot of depth: combos go for miles, you don't just randomly press the directional pad and X, and you can make awesome videos with your skater.
With the branching storyline, there are 3 styles, and unfortunately, "rigger" is not good. Its really not that fun, I can't do those goals, so I gave up. It didn't matter, I just carried on skating. Its not that big of a deal given the choice in your style of play in this game - some people may like rigger, some people may go online and battle for the biggest combos, and some people may just skate and maybe make some vids. Its all up to you.
The presentation of this game is pretty good, it has a distinct style, I only wish it was a more colourful, more arcadey sense of style. The soundtrack is quite good, not up there with burnout or GH3, but its good none the less. It would be a very bad thing if this wasn't the case due to the way you edit videos to the beat of the music. Graphics are good, with a great draw distance, but many glitches can get annoying. (My skaters emo hair and sunglasses).
So, its not realistic, you could argue it has no skill, but its deep, its got choice, and its just fun.