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Sonic The Hedgehog Offical Thread
- Thread starter Christopher
- Start date
Guess what? The addition of guns and vehicles are NOT what made Shadow a bad game. That's right, despite what you'd think, those were not the issues that ruined the game.
Shadow is filled with dull levels that are not designed for speed. The second you gain any speed, an enemy will pop out and stop you. The game focuses too heavily on fighting enemies and each of those enemies have LIFE BARS that slow your progress down. Basically, you never gain much speed (outside of scripted sections) and are forced to combat hundreds of enemies that require too many hits. The scenery is ugly, the controls are floaty, and the mission structure is terrible.
It was not the themes that killed the game.
This new game is a HUGE step in the right direction after Shadow and follows the same path set down by Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 (which I didn't mind). The gameplay has returned the SA2 style action with most enemies requiring one hit, a focus on level navigation rather than combat, and straight forward goals for pulling off a good run. The game is unforgiving, but for those who can play it, the fun is there. It's a high speed action game based around creating a perfect line through a level in order to achieve a high grade. The scenery, the speed, the music, and the skill required all turn it into quite a rush. SA2's Sonic/Shadow stages were incredibly fun. This new game follows suit, but contains more complex levels with many possible paths available to the player.
The fact that there is a car in the game is not grounds for slamming it. At least this time, the vehicle present seems to have actual physics (which were COMPLETELY lacking in Shadow). If a few car based levels show up, that's not going to bother me. I'll take that over the Knuckles/Rouge style of gameplay of SA2 (which seems to be absent this time, thankfully).
goldenpp72
Member
I agree this is a step in the right direction, all they need to do is make the camera work and ill consider it passable.
Tell me, what problems are you having with the camera?goldenpp72 said:
Perhaps I'm immune to bad cameras. There exists only ONE game in which I could not deal with the camera and that game is Dino Crisis 3. I just can't figure out what people are doing wrong.
Christopher
Member
dark10x said:
Me too...I found the cameras in Kingdom Hearts, Sonic Adventure one and two both standard, sometimes I would have to adjust but nothing to the bitchfest I see on here.
I admit that Sonic Adventure 2 had a few issues relating to the Knuckles/Rouge levels. You were supposed to hunt for something, but could only rotate the camera left and right AND it would immediately snap back when you tried to move. The action stages were not an issue, however.
This new game follows the action fine, for the most part, but you have more adjustment control and can snap the camera behind your character Ninja Gaiden style.
This new game follows the action fine, for the most part, but you have more adjustment control and can snap the camera behind your character Ninja Gaiden style.
goldenpp72
Member
The camera in sa1 and 2 worked fine, but in the XBL demo for this sonic, the camera moved slow and would jerk around oddly in order to be more 'cinematic' while ruining the game. whats worse is if you manipulate the camera it just goes back to its normal posistion so its almost useless.
You don't NEED to adjust it, though. It follows the action well AND if you pull the left trigger, it will center on your character anyways.goldenpp72 said:
There is NO REASON for you to be using the right stick for camera adjustment while running through the level. I found it to be useful only when scoping out the area (looking for a new path, an item I missed, etc.). While actually moving, I never touch it.
goldenpp72
Member
I didnt, example. I was running straight and all of a sudden the camera jerks left on its own to show a stream of rings to the side, causing me to die. Thats poor design.
Pimpbaa
Member
Fight for Freeform said:
There never was a whole lot to explore. The old games had alot of levels that were all about speed (plus some slower paced platforming here and there). The 360/ps3 seems to be more like the sonic adventure games, which were IMO a step in the wrong direction. Crash Bandicoot on speed would indeed be a more appropriate direction for the series
SonicMegaDrive
Member
The word 'bastardization' just become irritating. Geezus.
That's fairly rare, but I do know exactly what you are talking about. That isn't good design, I agree, but I am able to look beyond it. I tend to play and replay these levels many times over, so there are no surprises while I'm going for a high grade. However, even on my first playthrough, I was able to react quickly and hit that path of rings. The game demands fast reaction time and an understand of the controls. I know that I can change direction immeidately, jump towards those rings, and hit the proper button to ride the rings. Piece of cake.goldenpp72 said:
Not for everyone, though.
goldenpp72
Member
I got all the emblems in sa1 and got all A ranks in sa2 twice (dc and cube) so, I know my sonic, and I also know a bad camera when I see it.
Im hoping they improved things from that demo, but I will be buying it either way.
Im hoping they improved things from that demo, but I will be buying it either way.
goldenpp72
Member
Its not so much 'trouble' dark, as much as it its unacceptable design. I will still S rank the hell out of this game im sure, but id like to do it without having to fight things I shouldnt be fighting.
Christopher said:
New and fresh? It is retarded cliched KILL GOD bullshit. Also the game is obviously SERIOUS BUSINESS for you whenever you feel the need to militantly defend and hype the game despite all evidence pointing to the game being the same sack of shit I played at TGS/Live marketplace.
I usually don't give too much of a toss whenever people buy EA's garbage, because at least it is marketed well and is generally designed to appeal to a certain audience. This game, however, is a tragedy, because they have basically trod all over the elements that made Sonic work (excellent level design, remarkably solid game engine, sense of momentum) to try and tell people THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED ALL ALONG; HERE IS SONIC REBORN!
The only people this is appealing to are the idiotic fursonalities who got their kicks making fanart out of the bullshit Archie comics.
Oh, and for the record, Wii Sonic isn't going to fix things either, though it may prove to be a nice spinoff in its own right. Sonic isn't about flat out speed, its about exploiting the momentum of the character to navigate obstacles, whether at high speed or not. Someone here made an excellent little diagram explaining the physics elements of Sonic that Naka originally coded (and Yasuhara brilliantly expanded upon with his stage design), it'd be nice to see that again.
The first step to making 3D Sonic work is coding a proper physics/momentum simulation for the character interactions themselves, not hacking in some Havok physics on the robots on top of bloody Renderware.
MegaTen said:
The problem is that by the time you are putting out demos of your game you pretty much have most of the groundwork laid out for the game engine. Both demo versions I have played would simply require a complete rewrite of the game engine to satisfy me that this isn't the same bullshit I dealt with for the past 6 years with FIZZICKS! and GRAFFICKS! layered on top.
The fact that the level design of the demo barely changed (if at all) across each successive build of the game shows that they are content with the turd they squeezed out.
KingJ2002
Member
picked up the game an hour or two ago and have been playing it since. so far it's pretty good... the game reminds me of a mix between mario sunshine (in terms of getting to the acts and mini games within the city) and SA 2... i like the wave ocean stage... playing it reminds me of the good ol dreamcast days.
graphics look pretty good too... doesnt seem to be any slowdown.
my only gripe about the game is the loading... good lord it's bad. i mean... when someone finishes a conversation with you it goes into a loading screen... and not the noticably short ones... it's a good 15-30 seconds and it gets very annoying.
so far it feels very 8/10 ish to me. the demo doesnt do the final game justice. everything is refined from the demo. from ghosting through walls to freaky controls. I wish i can go into detail but im about to head to work now.
graphics look pretty good too... doesnt seem to be any slowdown.
my only gripe about the game is the loading... good lord it's bad. i mean... when someone finishes a conversation with you it goes into a loading screen... and not the noticably short ones... it's a good 15-30 seconds and it gets very annoying.
so far it feels very 8/10 ish to me. the demo doesnt do the final game justice. everything is refined from the demo. from ghosting through walls to freaky controls. I wish i can go into detail but im about to head to work now.
KingJ2002
Member
the game is fast to me... the sense of speed is there and depending on how quick you are to react (wall jumps, homing attack strings, etc.) you will blaze through stages.
so far the fastest part i've played is when you're chasing dr. eggmans ship on wave ocean. you go through the entire stage at super speeds and it's pretty damn cool.
so far the fastest part i've played is when you're chasing dr. eggmans ship on wave ocean. you go through the entire stage at super speeds and it's pretty damn cool.
Yep.
I also like it quite a bit so far. Still a bit glitchy, unfortunately, but good fun. The loading, though, is absolutely AWFUL.
Thankfully, the world area isn't broken up into small chunks like Adventure and the levels are large. It's when you deal with cutscenes and such that the problems show up.
First level was great (though the Tails part was a bit odd). The game feels just like a next-gen Sonic Adventure (though MUCH more polished than THAT). The second part of the first stage is REALLLLY fun, though. So fast and so awesome.
The town stuff is just like SA, though, so it's not that interesting. They should have ditched it IMO. It would have been better if there wasn't all that loading to deal with.
IF the PS3 release shows up with an install function, I'll trade this one away and buy that instead.
Framerate is mostly 60 fps, thankfully, and the game looks REALLY good (one of the best looking games on 360). The only thing that hurts the framerate are the physics (which result in small drops).
Argh, the loading...
Seriously, it's as if they built the game using only harddisk drives or something and then burned it to a disc only to find out that, whoops, the game loads very slowly. Feels like a PSP game or something.
It wouldn't be bad if they didn't place them in such bad locations. For example...
You watch a cutscene with a boss showing up, then a 5 second boss intro, and finally you're fighting. Between each point, there is a load screen (basically 12 seconds per loading screen).
Really kills the pacing. Thankfully, the time trial mode is what I was really after and that is perfectly solid.
Seriously, it's as if they built the game using only harddisk drives or something and then burned it to a disc only to find out that, whoops, the game loads very slowly. Feels like a PSP game or something.
It wouldn't be bad if they didn't place them in such bad locations. For example...
You watch a cutscene with a boss showing up, then a 5 second boss intro, and finally you're fighting. Between each point, there is a load screen (basically 12 seconds per loading screen).
Really kills the pacing. Thankfully, the time trial mode is what I was really after and that is perfectly solid.
gutter_trash
Banned
thank you KingJ2002 & dark10x for being the first ones to give your impressions on the 360 version, I was getting tired of the haters continuous trashing without ever playing it.
I`m looking forward to more impressions from more people who bought the game.
like I said before, I almost bought a 360 just for this. But I will patiently wait for the PS3 v. and attempt to get a PS3 Friday
I`m looking forward to more impressions from more people who bought the game.
like I said before, I almost bought a 360 just for this. But I will patiently wait for the PS3 v. and attempt to get a PS3 Friday
I'm also liking the game. So far the regular stages are a blast to play and looks like the recent videos have been pretty accurate in showing that a lot of the bugs are gone, but some still remain, but really arent game-breaking. The music is awesome so far.. was it ever confirmed that Saori Kobayashi worked on it? Also, you guys are right about the loading.. it's really bad mainly in the town area.
Speaking of the town areas.. they really remind me of Sega back during the Dreamcast/Naomi days. The style of the people and town just feels really similar to games like Spikeout and Rent A Hero.
Speaking of the town areas.. they really remind me of Sega back during the Dreamcast/Naomi days. The style of the people and town just feels really similar to games like Spikeout and Rent A Hero.
Virgin Wii
Banned
Fight for Freeform said:
I'm actually a bigger Sonic fan than Mario (until 3D stepped in), but wasn't Mario able to turn around and go back before Sonic even existed, as early as Super Mario Bros. 3?
Yeah, it does feel kinda like those games. A whole lot, actually.
The city missions are a real loading nightmare, though.
Check it:
Gotta talk to the right guard to open a gate, right? Talk to the guy who triggers the event. Loading screen. He says about 3 things. Loading screen. Walk around find the guy. Messed up? Gotta wait for a loading screen for him to tell ya that and THEN you get ANOTHER loading screen bringing you back to the main map. Wanna do it again? That'll be another session of loading screens.
Really, though, loading isn't an issue for the action stages (thank goodness), but it destroys the town area.
JonathanEx
Member
MegaTen said:
Why do you think they got the exclusive?
Pimpbaa said:
And I still play Sonic 3 & Knuckles from time to time and beat it too many times to count with multiple characters.
I still remember how happy I was when I discovered the path with the least water. God how I hated the water.
Just look at any of the maps here -.-
http://qntm.org/maps
I spent a great deal of time exploring Sonic 3 & Knuckles. I never got into Sonic and Sonic 2 as much as I did S3&K. I look forward to Sonic Wii, but it's not going to let me explore or do anything. I'm hoping these impressions about Sonic 360 being like the Sonic/Shadow levels of Sonic Adventure 2 are correct because I loved Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.
I got the game today too, it is pretty good.
I totally agree on the loading. Like 100% agree.
The physics are a bit more interesting in this game than your average Havok game. It actually uses it REALLY well.
The game is VERY much like SA1/2
Also, the voice acting sucks, but not as bad as N3...
Finally the 'hub' areas we saw in SA1 are back in full force, but now there are questlike missions you get from humans.
8.4/10 so far from me.
I totally agree on the loading. Like 100% agree.
The physics are a bit more interesting in this game than your average Havok game. It actually uses it REALLY well.
The game is VERY much like SA1/2
Also, the voice acting sucks, but not as bad as N3...
Finally the 'hub' areas we saw in SA1 are back in full force, but now there are questlike missions you get from humans.
8.4/10 so far from me.
Virgin Wii
Banned
Some of the levels in Sonic 3 were freakin huge. Loved that game.
Only played through some of the first action stage so far. Feels a lot like when I got SA1. Control does seem to be better than it was on the demo (although I didn't have as tough a time as many seemed to-) Beatiful game with some minor slowdown in places. Nothing really jarring though.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Maztorre said:
http://www.playnow.com.au/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=012266
There you go my friend. The diagrams are down the page