I'm unimpressed with skate, it's missing way to much in terms of actual moves, and gameplay features. That said, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground looks to be even worse, it litterally seems like Project 8 1/2. Horrible showing be Neversoft IMO. They need to realize you can't make a game realistic, and cartoonish at the same time it doesn't work. Also, it seems all the annoying, make no sense, repetitive goals will still be there, and with way too much focus on boring features like nail the trick, nail the flip, nail the grab, be hardcore, be a rigger.... yawn. Also, the game is ugly, does every level have to be void of color to make the game feel "mature?"
I'm always going to be a huge fan of the Tony Hawk series, 1, 2, 4, THUG, and American Wasteland are some of my favorite games. Project 8 was total garbage, and Proving Ground looks to be even worse. So for now Skate is the only option if you want a fresh skating game. I'll wait until it hits $30, or Skate 2 comes out with more features. As for Tony Hawk games... they seriously need to start over from the ground up. Build better levels, make the game look and play good. Cut out the annoying goals, get a good storyline in there, have a decent Create-A-Skater, and decided whether they want to make an arcade game, an adventure game, or a sim skateboard game and then focus on getting that down right.