The Sonic Center
Welcome Center => News and Updates => Topic started by: Rolken on September 27, 2006, 09:12:09 am
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Title says it. I don't have a 360 myself to try it out, but reactions from the Penny Arcade guys are more or less that the music is good, but the gameplay is meh - basically Sonic Adventure 3. Not a big surprise, but now there's confirmation.
edit: OK, 'Sonic Adventure 3' is probably giving it too much credit. More like 'Sonic Adventure .5' or alternatively 'digital abortion', if the opinions I'm hearing are any indication. Oh well, we'll still rank it.
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The demo is gorgeous, but short.
ITT post your times and scores
1:12:166
43650
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I gotta get a 360. I might not get it and Xbox Live before the demo is off, but I definitely will get a 360 before the game is released.
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If only it was coming out on the Wii.. the console I AM getting. :(
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Time: 1:04 something
Also after playing it, Im not impressed tbh D:
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According to a user on GameFAQs, that's one of the earliest demos of the game, earlier than E3.
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It doesn't make sense. Why would a pre-E3 demo to a game that's nearly finished be released when it would make better sense to release a demo of gameplay at the TGS (Tokyo Game Show) phase of development?
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The demo is gorgeous, but short.
ITT post your times and scores
1:12:166
43650
Who'd have thought egg'd like it? I mean he doesn't like new-school Sonic does he? >_>
I'll have to wait till I get a PS3 to give an opinion, not shelling out for a 360 and a Wii this Christmas and there's only one winner (wiinner? ok maybe not then) there.
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According to a user on GameFAQs
That should clear things up magnum
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Even if it's an early build, the chances of them actually bothering to fix any problems, especially if (as I'm assuming), they're the same ones that have plagued the series since Sonic Aventure, are zero.
Not surprised at all.
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Regardless, I'm still getting the game when it's released.
And hopefully the camera isn't as bad as it was in SA2.
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Demo impressions to follow.
First, the good parts. They did think about level design a bit and made things a little bit interesting in there. Some shortcuts are really easy to take, while others, you have to be a master to look for, like homing attacking up the 'nik's on the wall. Speaking of those things, I found about a dozen different robots to fight in the entire level. They had pretty good aim too up close, unless they were the missle robots.
Also, the game looks pretty nice and has a slick interface as well. There weren't many options or anything to choose though, but that was to be expected since this is just a demo. The textures seemed diverse enough; the enviroment changes at the end of the level from the hill-esque level to the edge of a castle, and I thought that was somewhat interesting. The music was okay during the stages... I haven't found an invincibility powerup yet, so I'm wondering what that music sounds like.
Now, for the bad. There's one thing I didn't mention yet- the most important part. The controls, AKA the gameplay. I'll be honest and say this about it:
-Sonic is slow. At first. When you start picking rings/getting a higher score, you get faster. How dumb is that?!
-The homing attack has a pause on it now; it's Phantasy Star Online styled now, which means you have to wait a specific amount of time to push the button back in, or else you homing attack slower.
-The spindash is utterly useless now. Not only is it faster just to run, but you can't spindash unless you're 100% stopped now, unlike previous games, and you can't jump while you're rolling either.
-The sliding crap is annoying when I'm trying to light dash.
-The collision engine is somewhat eh.
-The camera is bogus. It immediately switches to wherever it wants now, so if you're in control and that happens, your control gets wonked up.
-Nitpicking maybe, but it's weird how the robot pieces just disappear instead of the usual fading away deal.
Good parts about the gameplay? Well, they did try to add a lot of diversity to how you can handle Sonic... but they didn't do a very good job of that. If you play the level like they wanted people to play it, there's a lot of fun to be found in this demo, and they spent a bit of time designing some of the game objects; for example, some of the glowing orbs that you homing attack can open two grinding routes if you hit it again.
Overall, this felt like a mediocre Sonic game as a result of the gameplay crap. To be honest, I think they just whipped out the buggy E3 demo and threw it on Xbox Live. Who knows, but it had the same trailer as then. Overall, I think this'll turn out around the same place as Heroes did, probably better than that since it has "a story", and a "lot of ways to play". This is definitely going to beat the crap out of Shadow the Hedgehog though, I can gurantee it.
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-Sonic is slow. At first. When you start picking rings/getting a higher score, you get faster. How dumb is that?!
-The homing attack has a pause on it now; it's Phantasy Star Online styled now, which means you have to wait a specific amount of time to push the button back in, or else you homing attack slower.
-The spindash is utterly useless now. Not only is it faster just to run, but you can't spindash unless you're 100% stopped now, unlike previous games, and you can't jump while you're rolling either.
-The sliding crap is annoying when I'm trying to light dash.
-The collision engine is somewhat eh.
-The camera is bogus. It immediately switches to wherever it wants now, so if you're in control and that happens, your control gets wonked up.
-Nitpicking maybe, but it's weird how the robot pieces just disappear instead of the usual fading away deal.
-That's real dumb!
-I really hope that's not in the final version as well.
-Very similar to the spindash in Shadow, but you could jump as you were rolling.
-Again, similar problem in Shadow.
-Nothing to say.
-That was also a problem in Shadow when you activated a checkpoint. Depending on where the camera was when you activated one, the camera would just instantly jerk forward, which would ruin your speed.
-*gasp* It's like Sonic's in the Twilight Zone!
Anyway, those things I mentioned are based on facts from past Sonic games and what you said, since I don't have a 360.
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Thanks for the coverage; at least I'm not TOTALLY out of the loop for not having a 360. :P
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No problemo. :P
Also, I got 0'59'850 on the demo level 8D
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Could someone who can record & upload videos and has played the demo show a video of what the demo level is like?
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You read my mind!!
And P.S, at least now I know that the time's are recorded very specifically - this will make for good competition once it appears on the site; I only hope Rivals will have time attacks for competition here at TSC (as indicated by the Dinosaur Level video I saw for Secret Rings, I think TA is possible for that game :D).
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I concur wholeheartedly on the 'Sonic is slow' things.
Also it would've been nice to let us try a level with Silver as well or something but eh
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Rivals doesn't seem like it will have many competitors. I mean, it's on the PSP. And I don't think anyone here has 1. Or maybe like 2 people do. And time to move on.
Well hey, at least there's nothing surprising about it. Some of the common complaints...are what we've been hearing for months. At least Sonic Team is consistant. Though I must say, I thought the game had promise at first. Until it became clear that it was absolute crap.
And the E3 build theory sounds like it's designed to make people think that the game is better than the demo. Was it on a pro-PS3/360 (speaking of which my avatar is great amirite) board? Maybe from the people who liked Shadow? I call b(ia)s.
Anyways, there's always Secret of the Rings :/
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0'55'455 now
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Funny you should say that...
(Refers to "Competition Suggestions" topic)
Lol. Just kidding.
But seriously, I didn't check if a lot of people had a PSP, I'm more concerned of whether or not Times will be incorporated that could eb considered competition-worthy but let's get off this topic as you said.
I hope Secret Rings will be a great game too cause I'm hoping to get it and seems like a good game. But if I had the opportunity to get a 360, I'd rent it just to try this.
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man, and by the looks (with my eyes!) of this game I thought they were going with a good pace. Well I guess since they still have Shadow doing stupid things from Shadow and Silver with no reticle at all for his telepathic powers (when he wants to throw something)...goodness the things that should be put in dont. And they still haven't put the light dash for a separate button of its own! Do they not realize how many people get screwed from having to time that mess so they wont slide into oblivion (if the path is over a pit....which is 90% of the time for specific dashes).
Both of these next-gen sonic games are showing me nothing I want out of them....but I bet I would still find a way to play these for what they are.
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Here's a YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DuYna6WDIM) of someone playing.
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I noticed in the video that Sonic Team might be keeping the Shadow-style ring loss, where if you get hit, you lose some rings, but not all.
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I noticed in the video that Sonic Team might be keeping the Shadow-style ring loss, where if you get hit, you lose some rings, but not all.
Yeah, I noticed that too, even before the video. As you can tell, this is also the case in Secret Rings. They may implement this into Rivals and future games as well but I may be strecthing it a lil'.
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I really hope that wasn't the entire stage and instead did like with Heroes (but even with seaside hill, it was the entire stage for sonic)
anywho, some things stook out and I feel more paths can and should have been implemented instead of such linear paths but with some form of change (OMG, instead of hitting the ramp and flying to that platform, I can use the rails to get more rings and end up in the exact same spot!) yeah, even SA1 does this and its the most linear of the 3-D games.
Although I cant help but see that in some spots the camera didn't shift entirely to the direction they wanted you to take so maybe there is some hope. other than this I want some more footage of Sonic Wii as the ones I seen didn't really do it for me to make a good judgement.
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Its been confirmed that the downloadable demo was at pre-E3 stages. This hands on impression of the game when it was shown at an event in Barcelona paints a different, better picture.
http://www.gamespot.com/events/x06/story.html?sid=6158924&pid=929717&tag=top_stories;title;1
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I've heard the pre-E3 argument a lot, but I'm not convinced. If you compare the HUDs in videos from various dates, you find that anything over a month old has the counters split on opposite sides of the screen, whereas the TGS/X06/XBLM demos all have the counters stacked on the left - and also, videos from X06 still have Sonic falling to his death right and left.
Who knows, maybe it is or will be fixed. But I've learned not to fill in the blanks positively anymore where Sonic Team is concerned.
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That reminds me
44380.
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Who knows, maybe it is or will be fixed. But I've learned not to fill in the blanks positively anymore where Sonic Team is concerned.
It's so true (unfortunately)...
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I just don't know what to think anymore. The demo is nothing short of magic.
Anyway...
1:07:600
64600
Rivals doesn't seem like it will have many competitors. I mean, it's on the PSP. And I don't think anyone here has 1. Or maybe like 2 people do.
Well we could /get/ a PSP to play it.
That's what I'm considering . If Rivals turns out well.
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I'll let you know: I have a PSP and I'm planning on getting Rivals.
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I just don't know what to think anymore. The demo is nothing short of magic.
what. Its bloody awful.
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I just don't know what to think anymore. The demo is nothing short of magic.
what. Its bloody awful.
Did you honestly expect him to say anything else?
Bottom line: looks like the gameplay's no good and I'm all about the gameplay for games like this. Think I'll be passing.
If it's the case that it is a pre-E3 demo, SEGA have pulled one of the worst marketing decisions I've ever seen - you should never put a sub standard product into the mass market, you trash your reputation and even if the final product is brilliant, those who disliked the demo won't buy it.
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Probably just as well that Sega already trashed their reputation when they stopped making good games, then.
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Does anyone want to make wagers on how bad the camera is going to be in the final version? (For fun, nothing serious) Categories are:
1. Blatently homicidal (SA2/Drake and the 99 Dragons)
2. Half-baked (Ninja Gaiden, SH, Castlevania Lament of Innocene's camera when platforming)
3. Moderately incompetent (ShtH)
4. Good (Castlevania LOI's camera in battle, mostly against bosses)
5. Excellent (LOZ: Ocarina of Time, Kingdom Hearts 2)
My wager's on result 2.
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My mind's set on in between 3 and 4.
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0. The camera will actually come OUT of the TV screen, taking physical form, and will then bludgeon you to death.
(I never actually had as much of a problem with SA/2's camera as everyone else did)
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I also have very few problems with SA2:B's camera
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I also have very few problems with SA2:B's camera
Same. I wasn't that picky about it as others were.
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0. The camera will actually come OUT of the TV screen, taking physical form, and will then bludgeon you to death.
(I never actually had as much of a problem with SA/2's camera as everyone else did)
ROFL. In all seriousness, SA:2's camera was the worst camera I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with with its constant refusal to cooperate, sudden snaps to a bad angle during the middle of a jump, and other mischief. It also doesn't help that I'm really picky when it comes to a game's camera since I believe that 3D cameras should have been perfect by 2001 (five years after the major shift to 3D gaming started by the N64 and PS1).
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I was kinda picky about Heroes' camera, more so than SA2B, I guess.
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It's great how Super Mario 64 had a pretty solid camera but most games have only done worse since.
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That's because SM64 wasn't trying too hard to make people think it was fast.
(I read about SA's development. It was going to have a decent camera, but it looked too slow.)
SA's camera is really bad (turning around in the middle of a jump), although holding both camera buttons down helps.
SADX's Free Camera would be pretty good, if it didn't keep turning itself off between levels and at certain places.
SA2B's is just evil. (I remember complaining about it recently. Was that in the thread about 3-D Sonic games?)
And on top of that, the L+R trick doesn't work.
SH is kind of sloppy, plus it turns around sometimes or disables certain features at almost random times.
It's not as bad as SA2, though.
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http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/launchreview.asp?reviewid=736291
A new hands on impression of the next-gen Sonic game. Apparently, the build that was tested was drastically improved compared to the E3 version. Note: This is an impression of the PS3 version, which so far is turning out to be the weaker of the two versions.
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Plus the fact that the PS3 version of the game is delayed to "Holiday 2005."
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Things aren't looking good for you potential PS3 owners wanting Next-Gen. This must really suck for you all.
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"Holiday 2005."
Now that's an awful delay.
Also, sure it's looking weaker, that's because it is less complete so far. It is delayed for a reason after all.
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I hope thats true F-Man, this one is really looking good to me so far.
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While its true that the PS3 version seems weaker than the 360 version at the moment because it is less complete, we have to take into account Sonic Team's previous track record with multiplatform games. In both SH and ShtH, the PS2 version was of lower quality than the other versions (the GC version turned out the best both times), having slow down issues and looser controls. (Control inconsistencies like this are usually connected to the controller as opposed to the porting of the game for some strange reason.)
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While its true that the PS3 version seems weaker than the 360 version at the moment because it is less complete, we have to take into account Sonic Team's previous track record with multiplatform games. In both SH and ShtH, the PS2 version was of lower quality than the other versions (the GC version turned out the best both times), having slow down issues and looser controls. (Control inconsistencies like this are usually connected to the controller as opposed to the porting of the game for some strange reason.)
Maybe because the PS2 sucked? It was released a full year before the GameCube and Xbox. Graphically, it's very close to the Dreamcast.
We don't need this sort of speculation BS. The only thing we know is that Sonic Team are trying to make the game the same on both platforms as much as possible. If anything, the PS3 can perform even better than Xbox 360, so unlike their previous PS2 ports, slow down issues and the like are the last thing I'm expecting to see.
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Although I'm getting the 360 version, I hope you're right. I'm just a little skeptical right now. What I read from the article I posted does look promising. In all serousness, whoever decided it would be smart to release a demo that was of significantly lower quality than what they currently had needs to be sacked since that demo probably gave people who played it a really bad first impression of the game (really stupid move if you're trying to build up some positive "buzz" for your product).
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Although I'm getting the 360 version, I hope you're right. I'm just a little skeptical right now. What I read from the article I posted does look promising. In all serousness, whoever decided it would be smart to release a demo that was of significantly lower quality than what they currently had needs to be sacked since that demo probably gave people who played it a really bad first impression of the game (really stupid move if you're trying to build up some positive "buzz" for your product).
Quite, and more than that it was released too early in the development cycle - any enthusiasm will have petered out by launch I reckon. Unless they've taken the completely un-Sonic-Team-like step of actually seeking and taking on board criticism.
Anyway, having seen how nicely the Riders PC port plays I don't think there'll be a porting issue if they apply the same standards.
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The PC Port of Riders seems to be getting good feedback already, and it's just the demo! I'm impressed. :P
I really hope that one day, Next-Gen will be ported to another console but I doubt it'll happen.... but it would be a nice experience for me just to try it without having to by a 360 just do it.
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Sonic Team made a decent port???? Impossible!
We're talking about the company responsible for those Sonic games that looked terrible,
or at least worse than they needed to. Even the original versions don't look good.
Unless the PC version plays well, but looks bad. But still, even that's surprising.
Wasn't SADX's PC port really bad for controls? (I still haven't played it myself.)
Sonic 06/Next-Gen can be ported, but I doubt Sonic Team is capable of doing that.
SADX looked terrible, and they were porting to a more-powerful system.
They'd have to either downgrade Sonic06 slightly or do a better job than they did on the XBox 360.
And it doesn't help that they already said stuff about needing the XBox 360's power for that game.
(But then, most of what they said was untrue, anyway, like about the speed, and if they did the polygon counts.)
Anyway, they'd better learn how to program stuff, and then port it.
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The SADX PC port plays fine with an Xbox 360 controller. :P Although free look is wonky, I should add.