Sonic Forces Thread

Yeah to be honest this belongs in the Forces megathread and didn't warrant a separate dedicated thread of its own. This would have worked much better as an update to that thread.

As for the subject at hand I'd say it's the Switch's specs that may be forcing the downgrade as opposed to Sonic Team being wilfully incompetent.

 

Sonic Forces his game onto the Switch

:v:

And to the above it's probably both. The downgraded specs don't help but Sonic Team doesn't know how to get it to run well either, and it's not like they have a great record with optimization (at least not with Unleashed, Generations had some hickups on consoles though. Lost World only worked because they really downgraded everything)

 

Really hope this gets HDR support on PlayStation as well. For me, HDR is a way bigger deal than 4K, and even if it's not super standardized, I feel it's something more games should have. I think Xbox One X having HDR more or less means it's coming to the others as well, so yay.

 

Yeah I was about to make an edit and add that it's probably both factors. Sonic Team not giving the port the time and attention it needs in tandem with trying to force a PS4/Xbox One level game on to a much weaker console. They need to be careful here because Sonic does well on Nintendo platforms, Sonic Mania is a big hit on the Switch so they need to release a decent version of Forces on the platform to which the game might even sell the most. Echoes of Sega saying they're willing to delay games to ensure quality seem so distant now.

Sounds like Forces (at least on Switch) needs a delay and one is not happening. Guess they think the holiday sales period is too crucial and important for them to miss it.

 

Nintendo has almost always been behind everyone else when it comes to hardware specs. The Wii, Wii U, and now the Switch have all been behind Sony and Microsoft's consoles of the same generation. As others have said, part the problem is Sega's fault for not optimizing the port to the best as possible but I doubt it would be possible to get 60 FPS game play with no slowdowns at all.

 

That does explain some things. Porting is a troubled thing to begin with, but I haven't considered them going into it kinda blindly at the start as it can be a bit more problematic in the porting process.

 

Yeah, this. Many of those stages have files for Sun/Moon medal placement despite DLC stages obviously not having medals, so it's a safe conclusion indeed.

 

Because this is the...... Wait for it,,,,,,,,, Mega Topic - Mega Thread!! ( Mega cool ?)

 

I don't think SEGA cares too much about the quality of the port to Switch and that may be related to the failed exclusivity deal that resulted in poor sales (because of the sales of the Wii U) and some of the most critically panned games in the franchise (Lost World 3DS and Rise of Lyric, and Lost World Wii U to a lesser extent). The are just relasing it on the Switch to have more sales, sort of what happened with Heroes on the PS2. IIRC the Switch port of Mania wasn't handled by the devs, it was contracted to Tantalus Media so I don't think the Switch has a high priority for SEGA.

 

I think I can recall Heroes on PS2 being on a different or modified engine all together (correct me if I'm wrong)

 

I feel like it's as if the Switch port is playing the role of a PS Vita port at this point - Portability at the expense of Framerate and Resolution. That's the best 'glass is half full' way I can look at it right now.

Then again with a 30fps framerate, you'd think at worst it would be on par with the Xbox 360/PS3 Generations, which was still very much fine! (providing you've not spoiled yourself with glorious 60fps. It's hard to return to Generations console after that )

 

I think it was just a port of the GCN version, but with worse framerate, simpler circle shadows, more glitches, ect. because the PS2 was the weakest of the consoles of that generation and it was rushed. I may be wrong but wasn't Heroes primarily developed for Xbox and Gamecube, and then ported over to PC and Playstation 2 respectively which is why those were the worst versions? I only have experience with the PC version and it wasn't a good one, maybe because I was using integrated graphics.

 

I think the PC version was because it was an earlier build of the game than what the Gamecube/Xbox release. But yeah, the PS2 version was a sloppy, outsourced and rushed port, and it probably could've been done better. Forces for the Switch on the other hand is attempting to run a game half a generation past it if not more so, isn't an outsourced port, and is seemingly being more "lazy" by merely tempering performance costs rather than modifying the port itself in various ways to accommodate. Presumably it'll be content-complete since it is a direct port, which is more than Sonic can say for most Nintendo-system ports of games in recent years if they're multi-platform, but still, when your competitors have 60FPS and short load times in comparison it isn't looking good for this one port off to the side.

 

It probably has something to do with the priority they have of the port. Considering the game itself (from what has been seen) is rushed, reuses assets, has simple/bad level design, has Classic Sonic, it's just another thing that makes this game feel lazy and uninspired like it's just put out there for the anniversary and nothing more. They are just doing the Switch port because they had announced it, like marking a checkbox. Maybe the failure the exclusivity deal may have contributed to them not giving it too much importance.

I currently don't have a way to play this when it comes out as I don't have any console (although I'm interested in the Switch) and my laptop is not powerful enough to run it, but even if I had wouldn't get it anyway. At this point I just want to see where this is going and how the "story" of the game goes, though it's still disappointing how little they seem to care.

 

I have the ability to buy it immediately if I please, but I am waiting to word of mouth and reviews since games like these often get street dates broken and I'd rather hear hands-on consensus. If it comes down to it, i'll completely ignore the pre-order since odds are the PC version would likely be able to unlock / mod locked clothes in effortlessly. And if the game's a giant dumpster fire, then hey, good thing I waited it out.

 

I actually do think it's important that none of us buy Forces. And if you really must, please buy it pre-owned.

This is a crucial time for the Sonic brand going forward. If Mania sells considerably better than Forces, SEGA may go full on with Team Mania in the future. If you all buy Forces, then bitch about how much it sucks on here, you really have no right to complain. You are just feeding incompetence.

This isn't like a boycott, because Mania is a realistic chance for Sonic to be revitalised as a brand going forward.

So to everyone here who's been bitching about the game for the past year, please put your money where your mouth is.

 

That's actually a smart idea!

That doesn't make it a less valuable game. Sonic Unleashed was bigger than Generations with all that. It's a shame it had a really bad 'unlock' system.

 

There are plenty of people excited for Sonic Forces, mostly kids and teens who grew up with modern sonic and don't "get" the classics the way we do. My kid didn't like Mania, he liked playing with debug mode but thats it, he's crazy excited for Forces though. Sonic Retro is a small, yet vocal minority within the fanbase, if none of us buy Forces it won't send them any message because they weren't counting on any of us to buy it anyways.