Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 is currently on sale on the PlayStation Network. There’s just one problem: it doesn’t really work. If you were thinking about buying the most recent game adorned with the Birdman’s name, then it might be time to bail out and think again.

Currently on sale in the UK store for £7.99, the fifth entry in the main series was bad enough – even before the servers shut down. Now? Unless you want to pull the plug on any internet connection to your PS4, you can kiss goodbye to grinding your way through Activision’s final Tony Hawk’s game in its original state, with its core features locked behind its servers.

The story goes thus: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 was rushed out to take advantage of Activision being on the verge of losing the THPS license (or one last cash grab, depending on your point of view). Support for the game, inevitably, fell by the wayside and, sometime within the last 12 months, the online servers were shut down, essentially meaning you’ve just paid for some fancy-looking menus.

Everything is on the servers. Online modes, naturally, but also all single-player modes and even free skate mode. Want to grind to your heart’s content? That was online, sorry. Collect S-K-A-T-E in a 2-minute run like you could back in, say, I don’t know 1999? Well, you can’t It’s, you guessed it, all online.

While Sony are probably blissfully unaware of the game’s complete and utter uselessness, it’s probably going to need to be removed from the store at some point. As it’s on the UK side of things, there’s a good chance that – if you have bought the game – you’ll need to get in touch with Sony or, failing that, Trading Standards. For the rest of you: do not buy this game. Seriously.

We have reached out to Sony and are currently awaiting a response. The post will be updated should we receive a reply.

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