Yesterday I got the chance to try out the latest in a long line of Tony Hawk's skateboarding games – Tony Hawk:RIDE

Unlike all the games that have gone before, this is the first to have a dedicated board peripheral, and as you might guess you operate it much like the real thing, only without such a high danger of shattering bones or crushing soft bits when you fluff a handrail grind. Though I'm sure there will be plenty of gamers sharing living room-based injuries online soon enough...

So what's it like? Well let's start with the controller, because to be honest, that's the bit you're really interested in. It's not far off the size of a real skateboard deck, and sits on the floor like a skateboard with no wheels or trucks. It comes with a few velcro strips to stop you scratching up your nice wooden floors, and is equally at home on the carpet.

Down the side are all the usual controller buttons, including an extra large start button which you'll have to kick when you're setting up your riding style as regular (right-footed) or goofy (left-footed).

There are also four infra-red sensors – one each side and one at each end. These are used for activating grab tricks (by reaching down towards the sensor) and also for building up speed by kicking your foot along the side of the board, just like pushing a real board.

Unseen on the inside are two accelerometers just like inside a Wii remote that sense the motion of the board. You'll get used to tilting and ollie-ing your way through the menus pretty quickly.

When it's time to play there are three different difficulty levels: casual, confident and hardcore. In casual mode the steering of the board is taken care of, so you just have to concentrate on timing your ollies, grinds and other tricks.

The game is split into a series of diffent sections: Speed Run, Tricks, Challenge and Free Skate. So you can blitz your way through a level, hitting the speed powerups and avoiding the powerdowns, try to get the highest score from your tricks, complete a series of set moves over different obstacles, or just explore the levels at your leisure.

Controlling the character was a little trickier than I expected, but just like the real thing there seems to be a steep learning curve and it takes a while to get your balance while tilting the board around.

We're all really looking forward to giving the game a thorough play-through. It'll be out in the shops 4th December for around £100, for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. It'll be on my Christmas list for sure.

See more pics below and look out for a video soon in our Watch + Listen section