Sonic Unleashed?

[FlashTHD]

Go Gamespot for being an integrity beacon in all of this. They're only willing to take the screens and the video at face value for now, and even slyly called bull on Dread's sourceless shenannigans and traced events straight back to the ESPIOkaos poster. Bravo.

[gr4yJ4Y]

Assuming that Sega retreated its press release and both "(1) Weresonic is playable and (2) Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are playable characters" is true, how do you reason that Tails and Knuckles can transform into were-animals? (And isn't a "werefox" a bit redundant?)


My thoughts:

-The game looks like a sequel to Secret Rings (which I really enjoyed) with 2D parts added in.

-While still in development, the game looks like it was probably built for the Wii and ported over to PS360 with better graphics. They showed the PS360 build because it makes more marketing sense to show off the better looking version first(?).

-The video is too disorienting to tell when to make Sonic jump and whatnot possibly due to the low quality. In the final version I would hope that it'd be easier to see what's going on. (Unless there's a higher version of it out there I haven't seen.) The panning of the level at the beginning leads me to think (against all other logic) that all the camera changing is due to the video being something like watching a replay.

-The camera is changing a lot in the video because it's skipping around to different parts of the level. This doesn't look like a complete level. It's especially noticeable when he jumps on the spring and is suddenly on the rail. The area around Sonic is not consistent. This is also seen when Sonic runs off a step and the camera jumps to a behind-the-back "cut scene". (EDIT: After reviewing the video again, I might be wrong about this point...)

-Sonic's jumps are odd.

-I'd rather have had Shadow than the werehog.

-Sega seems to be keeping its promise not to do another traditional 3D Sonic game for PS360 for some time, seeing as this is more of a spin-off in the vein of Secret Rings and Sonic Rush. I'd had much rather seen a polished sequel to Sonic '06 though.

-The level shown seems too empty (not enough enemies and stuff going on) so far. This might be due to being on the Wii. I wished the levels felt more alive and weren't just roller coasters for Sonic to run through, that sprang to life as he zoomed by a certain staged event.

-It's strange to see Super Sonic in the first set of screens released for a game.

-My anticipation for this game is that it will be on-par or slightly better than Secret Rings.

(Sorry in advance if I don't reply back to any replies to this post, as I've been pretty busy as of late.)

[Majestic Joey]

yeah the levels remind me a lot of sonic rush. pretty much it's just a lot of running forward and not enough platforming.

[Ngangbius]

Doesn't it seem like...SEGA made them retract it..."?

That's what I'm going with until we're told otherwise.

It was confirmed to be a photoshop.

[G.Silver]

Confirmed by who?

[Yami CJMErl]

That was an AWFUL good photoshop, if that's the case.

[Ngangbius]

Confirmed by who?

Well, the same site that mentioned in previous posts and who that got the 'screencap' in the first place: SegaON

The following is fact:

1. All assets leaked over the weekend belong to one game: Sonic Unleashed.
2. All assets could be found on SEGA’s FTP, but everything’s got deleted as of now.
3. SEGA plans to show Unleashed at some Gamer’s Day event in May.
4. Unleashed is currently scheduled for a worldwide release in November, right for Christmas.
5. The original screens are very high-res and show no indication of “Photoshopping”.
6. As you can see, Unleash will take place in 3D environments.

This is speculation:
1. There is no info about the plot and the actual gameplay. A press info that appeared on the net came to life in some Sonic Fanboy’s mind.
2. The platforms for Unleashed are currently unknown, but it is expected to launch on all three platforms.
3. A possible confirmation by SEGA towards SEGA ON is also pure speculation.

Listen, I don't doubt that we will probably see the rest of the Sonic cast(and a new character), but whether Tails, Knuckles, and possibly some others are playable or not are clearly up for speculation for now.

[FlashTHD]

Feh. They have said too many million other things, i'm waiting for the press release. Still,

4. Unleashed is currently scheduled for a worldwide release in November, right for Christmas.

If there's truth in that, *groan*

[DackAttac]

This has got to be the messiest unveiling in the series' history.

[Zeta]

Someone needs to teach Sega that not every videogame ever has to be released for the holiday season to sell well. They could try, you know, making a game so good it would sell no matter what the season . . .

[FlashTHD]

That, and it's already become a prescribed ritual.

[K2J]

I'm gone for a weekend and this is what happens? That's it; everyone on GHZ should go on a week-long sabbatical and see if any news happens in the interim.

I am not going to lie; this looks sweet. Sonic Rush as a console game? If it's on Wii, I just hope they have the option to use classic controls. The storyline doesn't really matter to me. Riders 2 had an awful storyline, yet it was one of the more enjoyable Sonic titles in a while.

[Frieza2000]

I think that Sonic Team has learned something, if not from experience or listening to their fans then from the TV and movie industry. It's easier and more effective to reference good memories than it is to create new ones. In other words, nostalgia sells. All they've needed to do for a while now is shove gratuitous amounts of retro into their crappy games and many of their critical and financial woes would be soothed for several years. Superstars Tennis, NiGHTS 2, and the long overdue port of NiGHTS suggest that they may be catching on to this (and getting better at it than their last attempt in Heroes).

I don't think that's what this is, though. This seems more like them finally implementing one of the many fan suggestions. It won't work, of course, because in order to design a grand, highly detailed 2d Sonic game on a major console, you need to be able to design a small, simple one on a portable console. Sonic Rush Adventure seems to be your only ray of hope in that regard from what I've heard.

I think Locit called it on Weresonic. Whoever shoehorned that concept into this is sitting outside the circle. It's probably the same person(s) that gave us a princess, parallel dimensions, turning people into cards, and all the other seemingly random ideas we've seen since Shadow: Iizuka, a marketing team, or a mystery writer that they apparently can't replace.

Anyway, I can see some of you already have your hardhats and goggles on, so I'll just go fetch the cameras before the train wreck gets here. Would anyone care for a beer while I'm up?

[G.Silver]

I actually am sort of keen on werewolf possibilities, so long as it's under the player's control. The biggest knock against Super Sonic lately is that he just comes out at the end of the game, and you never have that awesome "I just turned into Super Sonic and am shredding up this level" feeling anymore. What would be really cool is if the werewolf form is pretty much under the player's control (like the tension gage in Rush) and whenever the mood strikes you you can turn into a badass monster and throw cars at people for a limited time. On the other hand, if, as was suggested in the fake press into, there are just preset areas where multi-hit enemies show up and you basically just turn into Knuckles from Sonic Heroes and punch everything until it dies, well, that's not so interesting.

[FlashTHD]

I think that Sonic Team has learned something, if not from experience or listening to their fans then from the TV and movie industry. It's easier and more effective to reference good memories than it is to create new ones. In other words, nostalgia sells. All they've needed to do for a while now is shove gratuitous amounts of retro into their crappy games and many of their critical and financial woes would be soothed for several years.

Looking at how easy to woo most parts of the fanbase (and Kotaku editors) are, that's about right.

[Isuka]

This has got to be the messiest unveiling in the series' history.

You know, I still remember Adventure's and all the hullabaloo that came after a single, extremely low quality shot squeezed its way through and to the media.
Now happenings like these barely moves anyone. And Adventure sold like crazy, on a doomed system.

About the vid, of course it is of an in-development beta as you can tell from the way the enemies are blasted away after Sonic attacks them, which looks a lot like '06, which was already unfinished enough (I know, it sounds retarded). There's a chance that the game may look quite different when it launches... or, you know, whatever.

I'm gonna go fetch the beers.

[DackAttac]

Groovy. Don't forget the stout.

[Opa-Opa]

in-development beta

Hah. This is the same lie we always tell to ourselves before every recent Sonic game.

I recently aquired an Xbox 360 and the ill-famed Sonic 2006. Still couldn't get around to it though. I played Secret Rings the other day and it really was a pain, I can't believe that was the best next-gen Sonic game (apart from Brawl, of course).

But I've been enjoying Sonic Rush a lot, so far. I'd like to see more of that.

Anyway, I'll get the icebox.

[Zeta]

I wouldn't be surprised if these days they only took 3 months making the game and spent the next 3 months just waiting for Christmas to shovel it out instead of working on it.

[Brazillian Cara]

Since I don't feel like being the third to say "this kind of crap only happens when I'm away", and someone already mentioned Twilight Princess, I guess I should ask: wasn't Sega/Sonic Team supposed to take a break from developing next-gen Sonic games? I think I read something about it months ago.

[b_boult]

I read that somewhere too, but I suppose they just couldn't resist the big money.

[FlashTHD]

I give, Sega PR is apparently too convincing to everybody to bother reminding anymore that they seldom know shit about what anyone's doing.

Case in point...

[Yami CJMErl]

Case in point...

Haha, holy crap! That's got to be the biggest and/or most hilarious security hole I have EVER seen.

[Locit]

It's pretty clear that the developers aren't that far along, whomever they are. They should release a complete, representative test level early in the development cycle via XBLA or PSN (or WiiWare, whatever) to test the waters and get feedback before they draw up the final format of the entire game. Make it free and include a feedback option and you instantly have more testers than one could dream of and genuine, interested input from an awesomely huge group that is probably representative of the game's intended demographic. It would break down the barrier between the developers and their target audience that has plagued virtually every Sonic title in recent memory, and serve as a wakeup call for what they want instead of impressions from a few games journalists that don't seem to care much for the series or care deeply and are ignored anyway.

They won't, but they should.

[G.Silver]

I dunno, if experience has taught me anything it's that games rarely change from their first appearance, intentional or otherwise. I would bet that what we're seeing is final and the game is far enough along to go for that November launch date that wasn't really announced, but you know how Sonic games are. Which means, of course, that the game isn't really that far along at all. xD