[Guess Who]

So I noticed a while back that the demo for Sonic 06 is gone from the Xbox Live Marketplace. I suspect this has something to do with them selling the full game through the Games on Demand service, but that's just a guess. The real problem here is that I had downloaded it before it had been taken off the Marketplace, and now I can't play it. Does anyone still have it in playable form, and can extract it from their 360 HDD? And if so, will it still run on a non-modded 360?

This post has been edited by Guess Who: 18 April 2010 - 02:42 AM

[Azukara]

This guy was able to get it in the knick of time off the Xbox Live Marketplace, and has put up a download for it in the video description. You can burn it to an ordinary CD, put the disc in the console, and when you search under your "Games" section on the 360, you'll find it "installed" to your console, even though it'll disappear when the disc is removed.

Maybe now this should be a discussion of Nextgen's early stages of development (or better worded, earlier?). The Homing Attack in the demo is notably better and gives you proper momentum rather than dead-killing your speed, and Sonic seems to be somewhat easier to handle. That's all pretty dang bad if you consider that the demo plays better than the final game.

This post has been edited by Azukara: 18 April 2010 - 02:28 AM

[JaxTH]

It's about time the demo got take off...All the DLC for it was taken out of site long ago. You needed the game to see it. But...They may have brought that stuff back up...

In fact...I wonder if it would be like that for the demo. I'll go check.

EDIT: Yuuuup. Taken off even if I have the game.

EDIT 2: Even the option is gone on Xbox.com.

This post has been edited by JaxTH: 18 April 2010 - 02:44 AM

[Guess Who]

This guy was able to get it in the knick of time off the Xbox Live Marketplace, and has put up a download for it in the video description. You can burn it to an ordinary CD, put the disc in the console, and when you search under your "Games" section on the 360, you'll find it "installed" to your console, even though it'll disappear when the disc is removed.

Maybe now this should be a discussion of Nextgen's early stages of development (or better worded, earlier?). The Homing Attack in the demo is notably better and gives you proper momentum rather than dead-killing your speed, and Sonic seems to be somewhat easier to handle. That's all pretty dang bad if you consider that the demo plays better than the final game.

Thank you, good sir!

Yeah, I know there's been lots of speculation into the development of Sonic 06. One theory I've heard is that there were two code branches - stable and unstable, as with pretty much every software project - and that the demo was based on a more optimized/updated unstable build; however, there was no time to finalize the unstable build before the game went gold (thanks, management!) and they had to ship an older, "stable" build for retail instead.

edit: fixed a small ambiguity

This post has been edited by Guess Who: 18 April 2010 - 02:52 AM

[Azukara]

Thank you, good sir!

You are welcome.

Yeah, I know there's been lots of speculation into the development of Sonic 06. One rumor I've heard is that there were two code branches - stable and unstable, as with pretty much every software project - and that the demo was based on a more optimized/updated unstable build; however, there was no time to finalize the unstable build before the game went gold (thanks, management!) and they had to ship an older, "stable" build instead.

Well, the "stable" build you mention of had the downward-curving homing attack, no voice sfx through the stages, somewhat better physics (of course, they're still practically nonexistant though), the camera angles are practically better and there are overall less glitches. Plus, the way you die on the demo is much more bearable than the version on the final (where you must wait for them to reload the stage all over again before respawning at the last checkpoint ).

I also hate the fact that some really cool ideas were sort of just thrown away. I really looked forward to having the day-night transition in Nextgen, and many speedy action scenes like the production video had shown.

You know, if Nextgen would've just stuck with what we were seeing in 2005 (Sonic only, new semi-photorealistic twist on Sonic's world, back-to-basics concepts, day to night transitions, and new Eggman and his awesome mechas), then built and improved upon those things, not making the story full of useless characters and narm, actually making the gameplay more back to the basics like they said with actual slope and gravity mechanics, and kept the same level design all the stages have now (minus the occasional super-loops and the overabundant dash panels)..... we could have had an absolutely awesome game. Too bad Sega wasted what I believe was great heaping amounts of potential.

This post has been edited by Azukara: 18 April 2010 - 02:50 AM

[BlazeHedgehog]

The demo and DLC is still "up", but only if you've already downloaded it before in the past. Simply go in to your download history (wherever that is located) and select it. It'll give you an option to download it again.

It's just no longer listed publically.

[JaxTH]

The demo and DLC is still "up", but only if you've already downloaded it before in the past. Simply go in to your download history (wherever that is located) and select it. It'll give you an option to download it again.

It's just no longer listed publically.

I was about to say that! :P

I'm now downloading it. If you can get your Download on the 360 then I've forgot cause I just did mine though Xbox.com.

EDIT: Actually all the DLC (demo excluded) is still up whether you've downloaded it or not. You just need the game to get to it.

This post has been edited by JaxTH: 18 April 2010 - 02:55 AM

[Solaris Paradox]

Interesting stuff. Odd that they removed the demo, though. I guess they're still trying to salvage some cash out of that catastrophe...?

[BlazeHedgehog]

Microsoft gives no reason for taking down old demos. They've done it for other games that were actually pretty good (Saint's Row 1 doesn't have its demo listed publicly, either).

[Solaris Paradox]

Microsoft gives no reason for taking down old demos. They've done it for other games that were actually pretty good (Saint's Row 1 doesn't have its demo listed publicly, either).

Oh, really? Well, then, I guess jumping to conclusions is a bit unwarrented...

[JaxTH]

So...I was going through my queue of game demos and some actually said "Item Not Available" and it's download date was "Unknown". So while you can still download this from your queue I wouldn't count on it being there for that much longer.

[TheKazeblade]

How ironic the demo worked better than the final product.... I would love to see if someone could rebuild Sonic 06 one day with a variation of the demo coding. I would love to play a good version of Sonic 06 sometime.

[Solaris Paradox]

How ironic the demo worked better than the final product.... I would love to see if someone could rebuild Sonic 06 one day with a variation of the demo coding. I would love to play a good version of Sonic 06 sometime.

"Better" and "good" don't really mean the same thing. It would take a lot more than a few minor physics tweaks and an angled air dash to make Sonic '06 "good."

[TheKazeblade]

How ironic the demo worked better than the final product.... I would love to see if someone could rebuild Sonic 06 one day with a variation of the demo coding. I would love to play a good version of Sonic 06 sometime.

"Better" and "good" don't really mean the same thing. It would take a lot more than a few minor physics tweaks and an angled air dash to make Sonic '06 "good."

That's true. But the demo would be a better place to start than the final product; any change in quality would be helpful.

[GeneHF]

We'd sooner get a Sonic 2006 Director's Cut.

Odd tidbit: the game is STILL selling. I find it readily stocked in several stores around here and it keeps selling out. Sonic Unleashed is non-existant -- not carried at all.