Sonic Racing CrossWorlds Coming Sep. 25, 2025

Someone should report to SEGA those weird rings teleportation lol. They're probably most noticable glitch of the game, so far.

 

I'm more surprised the warp rings and teleportation aren't glitchier, to be perfectly honest.

 

Something that is a shame is that I don't think the lighting method theyre using here is anywhere near as good as the Sumo games, or even their own in house HE2 games. Ocean view and dino jungle especially get kind of neutered because of it, some shots just look incredibly flat.

Theyre clearly using baked lighting, the shadows have too much depth for that not to be the case, they're just not taking very good advantage of UE's atmosphere system, which is weird because Frontiers literally used that exact system to handle lighting and skyboxes, they implemented it into HE2, so they should already be fairly familiar with it. Here are some example shots of the flat lighting I'm talking about:

I sincerely hope they improve it upon the full release, but I doubt it as the art passes seem to be fully completed.

 

Man I swear the conversation was the other way around like a week ago or something. HE2 haters, care to explain?

 

We don't know the benefits and downsides of using Unreal compared to HE2 since we don't work at Sonic Team. But if using Unreal makes the game development easier and/or means they can make more game content I'm happy for a lighting downgrade.

 

I'm just happy for the game's performance on base PS5 and PS5 Pro. I don't have any monitoring tools but from what I saw my wife play, it looked like a solid 60fps the entire time. TSR couldn't hit a consistent 60fps and the other 2 games targeted 30 on console. Hopefully that remains true to the final release.
I'm curious on how the game will handle on Switch though.

 

As a self-professed HE2 truther, I’ve already said I think this game looks very good and, while that has been blemished as we’ve seen the game in a less controlled setting, I think Sonic fans are once again falling victim to only dealing in extremes. I think HE2’s lighting is still better in terms direct light from a source (compare the boost sparks on the exhaust in the above posted screenshot to basically anything in Shadow Generations, for example), but CrossWorlds is still doing a very good job of matching the look of the CG used in the trailer.

I don’t particularly think that we’re seeing people row back on things said before in most cases, just that more people are expressing their opinions thanks to the additional footage we’ve seen from the network test.

 

It's over That was a blast!

And don't worry @MrMechanic, I saved evidence of your victory!


Can't believe we got matched for the final race before the game went offline. I was in second place hot on your tail until monster truck spam on the final bend. Lol!

I wish I had gotten more time to play this weekend, but I already had plans to be away from home, so I only got to play on Saturday morning and after arriving home at 9pm tonight for the final 3 hours. It was a great time though. I'll be picking it up day 1 for sure. Really excited to see how the feverish act upon the feedback. Surely they're going to rebalance items in some way.

 

My final Dub of the beta dedicated to you pal

​

What's everyone's progress report cards?

A- 1060
Amy
Speed Kart

• Ring Limit UP
• Ring Range UP
• Double Rings

 

OH HOLY FUCK! That was you!?

Ok so... I'm not just saying this for the sake of it, I'm working on a video about this game because... There's a lot to talk about... But this and virtually only one other race I did... Was the most enjoyable.

I have this entire race on video, I've re-watched it a few times now to try and figure out why... and from my perspective, I didn't once see a drill or Monster Truck during that race. For me, the battle between 1st and 2nd was virtually down to our skills with the car, yes there were some item exchanges, but it was literally the most basic stuff, no over-powered trucks or other nonsense.

It felt as exciting as some of the highs in Transformed, and it's a similar story for the other race footage I have.

When for what-ever reason the Trucks and Drills don't proc, the races become A LOT more enjoyable.

If you ask me, the best way to fix the online... Ban the Monster Trucks and Drills from it.

 

I remember TSR couldn't hit a consistent 60fps on PS4, but it should be fine on PS5, no?

Either way, it's not that impressive for a game that runs on Switch to hit a smooth 60 FPS on PS5—especially a game like Cross Worlds, which has low-res textures and low-poly map models compared to other PS5 titles. There would be a serious issue if it wasn't hitting that framerate all the time.

 

overall that was pretty fun, will be interesting to see how the final product turns out when the game is in a more polished state. I only got up to rank C+ and was a few points away from B- I think. The skill that lets you do air tricks in rapid succession was great, I pretty much left that on the entire time.

I'm trying to be more frugal with my money this year so idk if I'll buy this game at launch but will definitely keep my eye on it. I really want to see how the extreme gear plays, hopefully if this game is successful it can inspire a new standalone Riders game. I remember in 2020 Kenjiro Morimoto, the director of the Riders games, said he still really wants to make a new one lol.

also my three year old niece helped me design these badass cars

 

Honestly, the worst bit of performance I saw... Was during the Sega Logo start up animation.

Not sure about anyone else, but it tended to lag like hell on my machine.

But don't forget, a lot of things were disabled for this test... *looks over at that frozen NPC in Ocean View*.

 

Start checking the Emails you used to sign up for the CrossWorlds Closed Network Test, they've begun to send out the survey.

I haven't gotten it yet myself, but I've been told that it's very "detailed" and allows for personally written responses, however THERE IS a word limit.

I really think with the right feedback, this can be made better

 

"Ban the Drill and Monster Truck from online play"

Pretty much that.

 

PS5 wasn't out when TSR hit. I'm also always skeptical about game performance on console games in general. I didn't think TSR looked that great for a PS4 game either and that wasn't doing so hot on base PS4.

They just need distribution reduction and some counterplay. There's no reason for truck to be in the rotation 30 seconds into the lap or for it to be given out to almost everyone that's trailing. If someone is holding on to Truck in their inventory, then no one else should be getting it. You can deal with one, but having two on your ass is an impossible task.

I honestly don't have an issue with drill as that is stuck to a fixed route. It can't fuck you over like Monster Truck can. However, I think it's redundant with the existence of Laser which accomplishes a similar function. Get rid of one or the other. No need to have them both. Same rules apply about reducing its distribution though.

 

this is fucking awesome

 

I'm now realizing I don't have as much feedback as I probably should for this process. oof.

 

Literally, just "Improve the Renders Presentation across the Menus and UI" and I feel like that'll be the bare minimum to suggest that would have such an improvement for this game

 

I got the entire race recorded too. But to clarify, I'm not the guy who was trading first place with for the whole race. I was languishing in the back of the pack until the final lap. Haha!


Looking forward to comparing our perspectives. The end of the race was an absolute barrage of items. I know I grazed a wall but holy end the items came in fast and thick. I stood no chance! Hahaha!

If you do any videos covering this game, obviously you're welcome to use this footage in addition to your own. We're lucky to have footage of the same race from multiple perspectives.