I sincerely hope so, and if that's actually the philosophy that's being put forward in regards to Sonic games I'm actually really excited (not necessarily about this game, but potentially other future Sonic games I.e whatever the hell they have planned for 25 years. Looking for that Generations 2 esq game). Plus, Sonic's time as a Christmas big game title has passed, it's not happening. Release it at some point and if it's good, people will come.
If this plays out, and that's a very big if, then I'll be super impressed and very pleased. It would definitely apply to the Boom games so far that deadlines (and mismanagement in general) led to their lack of quality. But what about other games from Japan? From Unleashed onwards, the Japanese Sonic games haven't felt at all rushed or forced out for a deadline. It shows that the games are better, but the quality has still fluctuated quite a bit. Time will tell if things are going to change. As cynical as I am, nothing would make me happier as a gamer than consistently top-notch Sonic games. We'll see what the 25th Anniversary brings, I guess. + - Apart from Fire and Ice :v:/>
Not buggy != not rushed. While Sonic Team's games are somewhat more polished now, you can tell that a lot of the game's design is pretty rushed. Like in Colours half the levels are basically just other levels from the same world but with blocks and stuff placed around it to still make it different, and half of the bosses are only slightly different from earlier bosses in the game. In Generations, the amount of levels is pretty lacking for a full priced game, and most of the missions feel rushed and badly designed. And with Lost World it's pretty clear that a lot more effort went into the level design of the first half than in the second half, with them re-using level assets from previous worlds and it just being worse overall. Not that Sonic Team's games weren't heavily improved over what they made from Sonic Adventure to 2006. But it's more like they went from "incredibly rushed" to "pretty rushed but still pretty decent regardless".
Generations wasn't a full priced game though. It was $30 USD when it came out, half what a typical title costs. I would have paid $40, because it was better than most of their recent ones.
I payed $60 for Generations on release date. I think it was only $30 on Steam when it first got released on there.
On PC, yeah. On consoles it was full price, or at least close to full price. PC versions are always cheaper. And 50-60 bucks is a pretty high price for a game they takes about a couple of hours to finish.
My mistake. I just did a camel check on Amazon, it was $50 at launch, not $30. Still didn't launch at full price.
I don't mind if Sonic games are short as long as they have good replay value. I still go back to vanilla Generations from time to time. I'd rather a short, excellent Sonic game than a drawn out mediocre Sonic game any day of the week. Oddly I think the highest quality 3D Sonic game is Unleashed. Despite the lag and some of the annoying aspects of the game, it definitely appears to have more effort put into it than any other 3D Sonic game. Not that it's the most fun 3D Sonic game, but the amount of content and the overall polish of the game is rather impressive, plus it's one of the few Sonic games to have DLC, and the DLC it had was substantial.
Let's say "less rushed" then. Quality has noticeably improved and the games now are generally shorter with more filler content by way of gimmick levels. They're at least able to finish their games and get the basics working properly, which is more than can be said of ShTH and '06. Anyway, as far as Fire & Ice is concerned, it's not going to be the best show of what delaying a game can do. We've had no news on it since it's announcement, so whatever need polishing is a total mystery to us. Plus it's kind of a minor game anyway because it's tied to Boom and is a handheld exclusive. It'd be more interesting and telling if a major Sonic game got delayed. Though that said, I am a bit more interested to see just how this one turns out now. Delaying it has given me a reason to pay attention.
Well, It's time to finally make an upgrade of my PC (or rather buy a new one, because my current laptop doesn't seem to be too open for upgrading). Of course assuming, that new "big" Sonic release won't be another exclusive for Nintendo's console. Bleh. Since Generations (and two episodes of StH 4) I hadn't opportunity to play in any newer Sonic game (I'm not counting All-Stars Racing Transformed, it's a bit different thing). I've got an impression, that I didn't have contact with a big chunk of modern Sonic's history (after Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog many games were released only on PS3 and/or X360 and/or Wii/WiiU, mostly the last one) Not to mention about the newest releases (although probably many will tell, that I should be happy that I didn't experienced Sonic Boom). Are really Nintendo's console such a big thing in US and Western Europe?
Honestly I wish we could have a game that does both aspects well (good gameplay and extensive game length). I may be the only one here that actually liked that Colors tried to have more levels per world/zone than other Sonic games. Granted, that was because the level layouts for each zone were broken up into individual acts or were recycled, but I still appreciated the attempt all the same. Don't really disagree here. In terms of presentation, few of the 3D games come close, really. Generations might have if its story wasn't paper thin and the majority of its hub world wasn't empty white space.
So going by this Facebook post by Sanzaru, they're adding in features that couldn't have been added in if it wasn't delayed. So the delay seemingly isn't just for extra polish.
Nahhh. I'd prefer alternate character costumes if anything, such as Modern and Classic designs for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy (Sticks can get... something, or they could just bullshit some stuff for her instead).
I'd settle for better. I don't expect anything of the Boom series to do anything better than just "okay." The comic was the only thing that I felt had the potential to be genuinely great, but it was cut down before it could realize its potential.
Yes, but it was "back then", I was rather asking about current situation. I've thought that currently Sony and Microsoft are dominating the console gaming (I'm not too oriented though, I'm a PC player since, well, 1997, time flies!)
