Let's group some teams, shall we? The following list makes no sense: Spoiler Groups of 3: [Sonic]+[Tails]+[Knuckles] [Eggman]+[Orbot & Cubot]+[Infinite] (<- Forces) [Amy]+[Cream]+[Big] (<- Heroes) [Vector]+[Espio]+[Charmy] (<- Heroes) [Jet]+[Wave]+[Storm] I can't imagine someone liking the Babylon Rogues, but that doesn't mean we have to ignore them. They could act as 'Mid Boss Battle #1'. (So far so good.) [Tikal]+[Chaos]+[Gamma] (<- SA1) I have a lot of fond memories of these characters and I'd pay money to play as them. Others: [Shadow]+[Rouge]+[?] [Silver]+[Blaze]+[?] (It begins...) I never liked Omega as the third member of Team Dark. He's surrounded by the aura of a mercenary. Sorry Omega, but I think you're better off when you're on your own: [Omega] (Mid Boss Battle #2) [Zavok]+[Zazz]+[Zomom]+[Master Zik]+[Zeena]+[Zor] (Mid Boss Battle #3) [Eggman]+[Metal Sonic] (Mid Boss Battle #4) Unlockable characters: [Werehog] [Sticks] But it has every character on it. I'm starting to think that Team Sonic Racing has strict rules?
He's pretty popular actually. I think a lot of people just like his design and powers. I know my nephew loved him and hadn't even played 06.
Silver, when written well, is actually pretty endearing and his angst comes off sympathetically without being too thick. His powers are also pretty cool and his design is memorable. Him being popular despite his lack of starring appearances makes complete sense. As for the team, I'm coining "TEAM DISPLACEMENT" for them. Blaze, displaced from her dimension. Silver, displaced from his time. Vector, displaced from his team. Makes sense at least for me.
If Silver ever played like his boss encounter in Generations I'd love him for sure. He just has the misfortune of being playable in games that are either meh or bleh. I like him as a character though. But that being said, plot wise he really should be dead. He just keeps coming back but his future no longer exists.
Silver and Shadow both suffer from the exact same problem of having been written into the canon with arcs that explicitly demanded their exit to complete their stories. Those arcs and stakes are a part what made them so standout popular in a series of generally episodic adventures. Then that popularity demands that they stick around, despite it actively weakening the weight of the stories in their debut but whaddyagonnadooooo. Could you even imagine if Shadow had stayed dead.
You kidding? I wish they had a role in the main games, they were the last genuinely cool character designs. Mildly titillated at Vector's continuing odd placements since I only discovered recently that Team Rose in Free Riders was hilarious. He and Amy have this comedic synergy I never would've imagined and it caught me by surprise seeing some actual personality from Sonic characters. Silver and Blaze always had potential, they just desperately need the humility Vector brings. Plus they kinda look cool together?
I kinda love how odd Team Vector is. :v: Looking forward to the possible explanation in the story mode.
Team Sonic Racing has a playable public demo at Gamescom....but with many things Sega/Sonic, there's a catch! Video recordings of the game in action have been banned by Koch Media. (Photography is still allowed, though.) The reason? "Team Sonic Racing is currently not in a project state where it is ready to be filmed." Oh...well, surely the game's performance can't be that bad! Maybe Sega's just being tight-lipped about the game, like in recent years. I'm sure impressions from those who played the game will be more upbe- "The biggest disappointments were Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Team Sonic Racing. PowerPoint slideshows and tons of other issues. ... [The PS4 version] did not perform well. Sub 1080p with heavy, heavy framedrops, and given the graphics I don't really understand why." ~ @Tawmy "[I also] played it, I think the Xbox One Version? Perfomance [sic] was really bad and it doesn't even look that good in person." ~ @Nirbion "The version of Team Sonic Racing that I played at Sega was still in absolute development. Neither did the racing game run smoothly on the standard PS4 nor was it free of bugs. Here and there, when the band came in contact with rollovers, the sound was not completely mixed - the vehicle sounds were almost unnoticeable." ~ GamersGlobal.de (German site, quote roughly Google Translated) (Should note that this preview is otherwise positive about the game itself, however.) Oh.... I don't mean to twist the knife further here but recall TSR is being developed by a new team, rather than the staff who made the ASR games.... And aren't Sumo Digital also busy trying to bring Crackdown 3 out of its notorious development hell (multiple studios are working on the game, but SD are the lead development studio)?
Also Dead Island 2, but they have hundreds of employees. They're not a garage studio, they should know how to manage that workforce well. However, none of this is promising for a winter release. There's 4-7 months left of development. Hopefully the builds get better quickly so we can see what to expect in action.
It seems to me that if it's in too early a state to be filmed, they really should deem it too early to offer a playable demo.
I would bet money that it was the same demo from E3. It would take way too much work to crank out a different demo this soon.
I'm getting nervous. I was banking on Sumo's track record being more than enough to ensure this game would at least be "okay." But it's starting to look like it may end up closer to the neighborhood of mediocre. It's a sad day when the character renders are the thing I'm looking forward to most. I think it's safe to say now that Sega's new Sonic strategy is purely budget titles from here on, which is worrying me a lot. The drop in quality that is getting reported compared to All-Star Racing Transformed is mind-boggling and given Sumo's aforementioned track record, I'm not thinking the blame should be put at their feet for this.
Yeah to be perfectly honest this worries me greatly too. Forces was a budget release. This seems to be a budget release without (after Yeow's interesting revelations) being developed by the core talent at Sumo Digital. Like what the fuck is Sega's strategy here? Generations was a full priced triple AAA release and it sold very well. Not show-stopping sales but decent. Sonic can do the same again providing the right title with heart and effort put in to it comes along - so what's with this very undesirable change in trajectory? Did the previous Sonic bombs (Boom, Lost World) shake their vigour and faith that much? Last thing Iizuka said is they're looking at the reception of Forces and Mania and having a bit of a think about what to do next. I hope that leads to something good but these signs are worrying.
I would say they are still trying to recuperate the costs from the failure that was Sonic Boom to which playing things safe and cheap would be the right way to go. Remember, this game more than likely has been in development alongside Mania and Forces, both of which are also budget titles. From a business perspective, a brand coming off of several failures (Boom and Runners) shouldn't try anything to rock the boat (hence the return of the 3d boost in Forces). Another thing that plays into this is the lack of tie-ins to supplement development costs. No Banjo-Kazooie, Wreck it Ralph, or Danica Patrick.
I think Forces having over half of its content being returning stages is more likely a creative decision made by Sonic Team, rather than a financial call by Sega. I mean, if they were really serious about saving money, the Avatar/Custom Hero playstyle would had never been such a focal point of the game to begin with, and Classic Sonic likely wouldn't had been shoehorned in either. Sonic Team had up to this point been absolutely fine with making Sola Sonic games since 2006 as it is. Other than that, I'm in agreement that TSR might be affected by a rollback on finances being applied to the brand. I've already mentioned in the past many of the past Sonic spinoffs that Sega was churning out alongside the mainline games have pretty much been shelved--Storybook games, Riders, original handheld titles (as well as their replacement--Dimps' hick cousin versions of ST games), the Sonic 4 downloadable series, the Boom games, even the Mario and Sonic Olympics games. Sega's also expressed interest in looking back at their (old) catalog of IPs as it is, which is likely getting the funds that normally would had been funneled into Sonic--Yakuza remasters, the Shemnue 1 & 2 re-releases, the new Sakura Wars project, etc. (Which is honestly a good thing so a. they can stop devaluing the Sonic brand as it is and b. they can stop relying solely on Sonic to keep their games business afloat and shine a much-needed spotlight on their other IPs). To say nothing of the low sales for recent Sonic games as it is--Mania's the only game since Generations (seven years ago!) confirmed to sell over one million copies; and both are still behind Colors--the last game to sell over two million, and just barely. Although with all that said, the last thing you would give to a underperforming IP that's being pushed back financially would be to give that IP a (likely) multi-million dollar live-action/CG theatrical motion picture adaptation...in which case, the pressure on the Sonic movie to succeed could honestly make or break the brand in a huge way, far more than even the worst Sonic games ever could...
