E3 Sonic Next-Gen trailer on XBOX Live Marketplace

FlashTHD · Post by **FlashTHD** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 1:20 pm

And the linear level design? It's clearly too much of a task for them to handle. I wouldn't be surprised if the main reason the past titles went with this motif was because an open environment wasn't capable on the hardware of the time. And even though it's more than possible now, they don't seem too willing to change. And I don't blame them, making a 3D stage with the scale of the classic games is quite a daunting task, and judging by Classy Bloke's recount on the development of Shadow, they probably don't have the time to invest in such a thing.

Um. It's proven fact that Next will have more diverse and branching level designs looking at some of the Kingdom Valley videos posted. I don't know about lacking hardware being to blame for more straightforward stages...SA1 had plenty of places to break off the main drag and look around.

Ritz · Post by **Ritz** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 4:29 pm

Next has a few branching paths, yes, but from what I can see in the available videos, they don't offer too much variation. To clarify what I mean, my definition of a true alternate path is "The main path continues through the canyon to your left, but there's a massive castle on the other side of the hill to the right", not "A trail of objects over there will take you to a few spare platforms just off the main road. They're delightful, I guarantee it".

Sonic Adventure, on the other hand, did offer a few opportunities to deviate from the main path (Speed Highway in particular), but they never strayed too far from it. In the classic games, half the time, you couldn't even tell which path was the 'main' one. A stage of that scale would require a huge amount of polygons, probably more than the Dreamcast could've handled. The latter systems probably could've pulled it off, and I'm sure these Nextgen consoles can, but they still feel the need to restrict themselves.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 4:33 pm

One Classy Bloke wrote:
Professor Machenstein wrote:Anyway, Sonic 2K6. Amy is in the game it seems. I hope she is a little more mature this time, not all psychotic like we know her now. I wonder what she'll look like in this game, considering all these "redesigns".
No, she's just as psychotic. Almost to the level of pure evil.

Fuck.

MiraiTails · Post by **MiraiTails** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:36 pm

One Classy Bloke wrote:...the art for this guy sucks massively... The game is not due to come into test for another two months ... I am open for questions, barring "Can you get this document for me?".

Just in case you're still taking questions:

1) Do any characters have decent art, or does it all suck like Silver's?
2) Is it CG or drawn?
3) I guess the game testing will start any day now?

BlazeHedgehog · Post by **BlazeHedgehog** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 3:01 am

Ritz wrote:So yeah, once you get past the problems that stem from blatant laziness and ignorance, there's still a slew of issues that simply can't be fixed when Sonic Team is working at such a breakneck pace.

That's one thing that's always bothered me; that Sonicteam always works so damn fast on these games. A large portion of what was wrong with Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes could've been easily fixed with just six more months of development time, and I doubt anybody would've really minded the delay.

And now, we've got Sonic 2k6 coming this November, when the game was reportedly only 40% complete at E3. That's ludicrious! Compare this to, say, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. When shown at E3 2004, it was 70% complete - almost twice as far along - and they released at around the same date Sonic 2k6 is going to land (Nov 15th).

Shadow was the worst. The game was first unveiled, what? March 2005? and it was released that fall?

Professor Machenstein · Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:36 am

I don't think games start development as soon as they are announced. They probably have to take a few months of development to be previewable before anything.

As for the 40% build at E3, I'm curious about that too. Who knows how far along they are with the game after roughly three months? When was the E3 '06 demo made anyway? For all we know, the demo could have been made approximately five or six months prior to E3 when the game was then 40% complete. Still probably not far along enough though.

BlazeHedgehog · Post by **BlazeHedgehog** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:24 pm

That's silly, though. Most of these demos you see are made specifically for E3. It wouldn't make sense to stop development, make a demo, then showcase an outdated verison of the game at E3 (with similarly outdated information).

j-man · Post by **j-man** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:42 am

But that's exactly what you insinuate by saying the demos are specifically made for E3. Are they supposed to work to a point, stop, wait for E3-goers to give opinions, then rush back to the office and try and get it all done? Nigga please. They'd be working on it solidly even when E3 was taking place, so the demo would be "outdated" anyways.

BlazeHedgehog · Post by **BlazeHedgehog** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 6:40 am

j-man wrote:But that's exactly what you insinuate by saying the demos are specifically made for E3. Are they supposed to work to a point, stop, wait for E3-goers to give opinions, then rush back to the office and try and get it all done? Nigga please. They'd be working on it solidly even when E3 was taking place, so the demo would be "outdated" anyways.

But the changes made during E3 would very likely just be bug fixes; you know, to prevent the game from crashing or to stop the player from falling through the floor. That sort of thing.

What Prof was suggesting, is that the "40% done" estimate was based on a build made way prior to E3, when that just doesn't make sense. Demos are made for E3 specifically. "40% done" wasn't some random figure floating around from six months earlier that they decided to use, because that would be dumb.

"We're going to say it's 40% done because that's what it was six months ago, but now, it's 55% done - but don't tell anybody that!"

Jack Bz · Post by **Jack Bz** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:25 am

I have one question; can Sonic do spin dash in this game? I haven't seen him do it.

Professor Machenstein · Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:48 am

Okay, I wouldn't say six months ago, but I'm pretty sure the demo didn't just poof out of thin air within the month E3 started. When SEGA heard word of E3 months prior to the event they had to prepare, to set up the booth and everything. During this process they had to make a demo for each of their games. I don't know how long this process took... and it really doesn't matter. I wonder how far SONICTEAM is on the game in present time. Instead of a dubious answer based on an event two or three months ago, how about one of those straightforward "in the now" answers. Besides, we'll find out more when TGS '06 comes.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:54 am

Anonymous wrote:
One Classy Bloke wrote:
Professor Machenstein wrote:Anyway, Sonic 2K6. Amy is in the game it seems. I hope she is a little more mature this time, not all psychotic like we know her now. I wonder what she'll look like in this game, considering all these "redesigns".
No, she's just as psychotic. Almost to the level of pure evil.
Fuck.

Question: Is she(Amy) in the new game:
-Sonic Adventure series/Sonic CD/Sonic Riders/Shadow the Hedgehog psycho?
Or
-Sonic Heroes psycho?

FlashTHD-forgottologin · Thu Aug 03, 2006 9:19 am

Professor Machenstein wrote:Okay, I wouldn't say six months ago, but I'm pretty sure the demo didn't just poof out of thin air within the month E3 started. When SEGA heard word of E3 months prior to the event they had to prepare, to set up the booth and everything. During this process they had to make a demo for each of their games. I don't know how long this process took... and it really doesn't matter. I wonder how far SONICTEAM is on the game in present time. Instead of a dubious answer based on an event two or three months ago, how about one of those straightforward "in the now" answers. Besides, we'll find out more when TGS '06 comes.

About time someone says it. That 40% could mean anything. If I were to guess (heaven help me because this debate reeks), it refers only to how much of the game they've made yet and the state of the engine/control programming.

Frieza2000 · Post by **Frieza2000** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 9:40 am

Anonymous wrote:Question: Is she(Amy) in the new game:
-Sonic Adventure series/Sonic CD/Sonic Riders/Shadow the Hedgehog psycho?
Or
-Sonic Heroes psycho?

Her shotgun-wedding plans in Heroes could be construed as insanity, but I think it was just really lazy writing. Everyone else's motivations were about as haphazard and her general attitude during the game wasn't that psycho. I'd say Riders was her craziest moment.

Locit · Post by **Locit** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:37 am

I never played Riders, was she really that much of a nutbar?

Frieza2000 · Post by **Frieza2000** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 2:30 pm

Looking back at the script, I think it had more to do with the actress than the writing. Amy's old actress made the lines sound a bit cuter. The scene at the end of Riders with her screaming and chasing Sonic with a hammer (for attacking Eggman while he was trying to use her as a shield) left me feeling that her descent into madness was steadily progressing, though she'd been pretty docile during the rest of the game.

SegaSonic · Post by **SegaSonic** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 5:19 pm

The new amy VA doesnt have the soul.

Brazillian Cara · Post by **Brazillian Cara** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 6:51 pm

Sure she doesn't, kid.

Tsuyoshi-kun · Post by **Tsuyoshi-kun** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:02 am

Amy's never had a good English voice. Even her Japanese voice isn't all that special...high-pithced, squeaky voices aren't exactly uncommon in Japanese video games.

SegaSonic · Post by **SegaSonic** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 2:55 pm

The old VA had attitude atleast, the 4kids VAs are OVERUSED!

Ritz · Post by **Ritz** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:24 pm

'Overused'? They've only been used in one game so far.

Blue Blood · Post by **Blue Blood** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:27 pm

I think he means the VAs are overused in all 4Kids stuff. Like the same people do the voices for different character on different things, but sound the same. (Max from PKMN and Charmy)

Frieza2000 · Post by **Frieza2000** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:47 pm

Ritz wrote:'Overused'? They've only been used in one game so far.

2 actually. Shadow and Riders.

Gaz · Post by **Gaz** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:51 pm

3 if you count Sonic Rush but there's not much voice acting in that one.

BlazeHedgehog · Post by **BlazeHedgehog** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:20 pm

Blue Blood wrote:I think he means the VAs are overused in all 4Kids stuff. Like the same people do the voices for different character on different things, but sound the same. (Max from PKMN and Charmy)

Correct. 4KIDS employs roughly 10-20 voice actors and re-uses them for every single show they produce. Thus, Knuckles from Sonic X sounds like Yami Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh, etc.