Spoiler-free Sonic Mania discussion thread

If its any consolation, you will enjoy the crap out of yourself on Tuesday.

I was (still am) in the PC delay crowd but since my buddy invited me over to demo his switch and allowed me a long playthrough, I got my fix in. Its made me want it even more because I needs to get those emeralds (and didn't get a chance to play the final zone). Its so good and so worth the wait.

 

"They [Sonic Mania developers] raised the Sonic up to the next level totally. :D"

~ Hirozaku Yasuhara (alias Carol Yas).

(His tweet includes a link to this Gamasutra interview with the developers about the game's development. He also sent his congrats to the team on the game's launch day, in reference to Mania's positive reviews.)

 

Anyone else spoil themselves for things because they've been stuck waiting for the PC release? I've accidentally spoiled myself for a couple things and it's only in a few days, but PC is the only way I can play so I'm jonesin' baby!!

 

I watched a lot of stuff intentionally. I just didn't feel like going through the tension of a second countdown period, so I thought it would be better to do something to control my expectations.

 

Makes me sad to know people are either caving or being accidentally spoiled. I appreciated so much more the parts I didn't know about beforehand. It's all seriously worth seeing blind.

 

Well, I knew two completely spoiler-free weeks were basically impossible, but some people are just inconsiderate when it comes to spoiling stuff.
Many of the things I've seen could've been avoided with some common sense on forums.
Well, I'll just have to deal with it, at least I don't know every level layout by heart like when Generations came out!

 

It's relatively easy to avoid news before release - I stuck a bunch of spoiler-filters on my browser and the only potential spoiler to slip through the net came from someone making a typo and me being able to put the pieces together. Nothing actually got spoiled directly, and it was still only a guess on my part. But once the game is out on three of four platforms? Fuck off. Avoiding spoilers will be virtually impossible, no matter how hard you try. People on message boards are still dicks who don't care to use spoiler tags, YouTubers purposefully put juicy details in thumbnails and video titles, and everyone has different definitions of what spoilers are (it's everything, not just story details). I only new of two of Mania's original zones (Studiopolis and Mirage Saloon) and a small handful of the returning ones before release. I didn't even know what the Special Stages were going to be. Having any of those things spoiled for me would have really sullied the experience that I've been waiting 20 years for. The delay was a real kick in the nuts to anybody who was limited to paying the game on PC.

 

I want to say "It was easy for me!", but I'm not as deeply involved in the fandom as I used to be. (Retro and SRB2MB are the only Sonic forums I lurk these days.) Heck, I prefer to follow speedrunners on YouTube, not Let's Players, and I've heard most runners are likely waiting for the PC release too. My daily Internet dosage of Sonic was pretty minimal up until Mania.

Haven't really thought about how hard it is for full-on Sonic fans to avoid spoilers; legit feeling bad for those hit by all the game's surprises. It's a good thing the PC release is two days away now, so those few going on social media fasts won't have much longer to wait.

Hopefully, this will be the last surprise delay. (Heaven knows the devs want to be finished with it as much as we want to play it.) Some console owners on Twitter were already really smug about the previous delay, as if I needed another depressing reminder I can't yet throw gobs of money on a PS4 to do more social things with friends and family than possible from PC-only. I would unfollow/block anybody who spreads more PC Peasant memes, for real.

 

You know what's good? Streamers who announce what they're about to play. I had several times were I was all "Oooh, Rap Critic is streaming a game, what is OOP NO" or "UpUp DownDown stream and it's woah, nope".

 

The main issue with this is that spoilers don't bother everyone. I have to forcefully remind myself that it's a thing because it doesn't affect me in the slightest...

So I'd argue that no, it isn't common sense at all, it's empathy, something that most humans lack.

 

It's not just empathy if you have dedicated spoiler and spoiler-free topics. You can't just go throwing around Mania spoilers, informations, level lists in Forces topics without even using a spoiler tag!
That's something that has happened more than once, not on here, but you know.
I think that is about common sense.
I mean, it can happen and I don't take it personally, but the "avoid spoilers" rule is plastered all over the community.

 

If it was in a topic labeled Mania (no spoilers), that's one thing... But in the Forces topic? Again, that comes down to Empathy rather than common sense. They've played the game and want to mention something in relation between the two days and it happens to be a spoiler, well they aren't going to walk like they're on broken glass.
If they were to post spoilers here, then it can either be a malicious bit of spoilering or a simple mistake thinking it was the other topic. Youtube videos? Again, they've played the game (or in the case of streams, are playing it) and they simply don't care, they're getting their information out because it makes them feel good.

It's most certainly not common sense, standard human instinct is all about two extremes: Coveting all your information or shouting it out. It's most certainly all about a lack of empathy or consideration.

 

Sonic Mania was delayed for "for further optimization". Wow, just wow, Sega. I always thought, that optimization is aiming into lower requirements and better efficiency of engine.

 

Now that we're inching closer to the PC release, is it time to start speculating about what time exactly it will be released on the 29th?

 

Weren't they (SEGA) going to give some of those to Sonic fan sites?

Somebody please respond.

 

Optimization has nothing to do with lowering the requirements of a game (considering the requirements of Mania, making it run on even lower spec PCs is a effort with negligible effect). It is related to doing a better job with the hardware within minimal requirements.

Probably, if it was really optimization, it can be a optimization for either low-end PCs (like, making the game run stable at 60fps with those Core 2 Duo era integrated graphics) or high-end PCs (like, making the game not crash or behave in a weird way when played on a PC with a specific graphics card, or with a 240Hz monitor, among other things). We'll probably never know the reason (and I prefer not to).

Seeing how my smartphone always had issues with the Sonic ports (and considering that programming for Android is the closest example to program for PC, considering how much their hardware can vary), I think that performance issues on certain hardwares is a likely issue.

 

I would agree that's a better possibility than whether the game runs well on any ol' laptop; PC hardware does vary a lot. Something catastrophic must have forced the team to delay it. Maybe Nvidia GPUs were throwing a fit. :v:

Everybody here was mad enough about the delay. I can't imagine how much angrier people would've been if it had launched with whatever problems they wanted fixed. I'll take a short delay any day, versus what happened to Half-Genie Hero's PC launch. That was a mild disaster.

If we're allowed to preload it the day before, it should have a countdown timer for when it will unlock. (I'm not betting on it, though.) The exact time when Steam launches a game varies so much, it could be anywhere from 12AM to 1PM, or even midnight in my timezone. I'm just hoping it's at some time when I'll be awake.

 

Speaking of countdown timer, game's Steam page now shows the amount of hours left until the game is released. (It happens 8 PM in my time zone. GMT +2, by the way.)

Oh, and I managed to get PS3 controller work fine on my desktop, so I can enjoy Sonic Mania with a proper gamepad instead using keyboard. Fun times ahead.

 

Regarding spoilers, still holding strong here personally. Yeah I know it can be difficult because spoilers are everywhere, but with conscious effort and determination it is possible. I'm proof of that. Very invested in the games industry and Sonic fandom but I'm yet to be spoiled on anything. It's arduous, it's challenging - but it is very possible. As Lapper said about going in blind to maximise one's enjoyment, honestly believe that so I think it'll all be worth it in the end. Stay strong everyone.

As for Steam's countdown, yeah it counts down to 6PM BST here on August 29. Steam's standard release protocol and timing as I recall.

Looks like Tuesday night is Sonic Mania night then. Looking forward to having a blast playing it and finally joining the other Mania thread.

 

Quite right. Consider, also, that a common technique for determining minimum system specs is to just find the oldest box nearby and throw the game at it. If it runs at least reasonably well, you have a good baseline. The game might well run on even older hardware, but hypothetically nobody affiliated with the dev team had easy access to anything else.

Yes, this is an old style 2D platformer with low-poly 3D bits for special stages, but it's a whole new world now compared to the 90s. While you used to run just game code and nothing else on bare metal, as the saying goes, now there's a plethora of other things going on - wildly varying hardware, operating system quirks, drivers, other software running in the background, and so on. Consoles have all that crap to deal with now as well, but in stark contrast to PC they come in only a meager handful of configurations, hugely simplifying the QA/testing process.