The Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Megathread

wat?

 

Based on what Sega has officially released, we don't know anything about the other zones.

 

Very true....But...almost all hardcore Sonic fans have seen all there is to see.
All the other super-casual Sonic fans probably haven't even been looking at the site, so aside from a few trailers, they may know nothing

 

Well, they did show off Jaws, but that was the last of the reveals before SEGA stopped doing anything due to the leak situation/delay.

 

Understandably.
Most people who even looked at the site probably saw the leaks (those who didn't probably had INSANE self-control or just didn't know).
What would be the point in trickling out info, when everyone has seen pretty much everything

 

People on the Internet who hover around gaming forums != total market audience.

In other words, the people who saw the leak are the relative minority versus people who didn't. There's also the whole "we're changing a few things... no, really, we are" thing that can be used to augment their current marketing strategy a little.

 

I never said we were in the majority. We aren't. There are less of us then there are "Them".
Which means, SEGA didn't need to delay this game. If the retro community didn't buy the game because of the leaks, it wouldn't mean very much, because, judging by the Screwattack reaction; almost anyone else who liked the classics, would have bought the game regardless. It would have sold in the millions, so a few thousand retro fans not buying wouldn't make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things (In fact most retro fans - even the nay-sayers - would have bought it anyway).
The fact that they did delay, suggests, to me anyway, that they are making more than just a few very slight changes.

If I'm wrong, then those who disagree can say "I told you so"...but in the end, what will that yeald us.

 

SEGA are fixing things to try and tide us over. They don't want to go full out and make a massive thing of S4, but they don't want to deter us even more than that. The site stopped updating because the rate that they were revealing things was suitable for the Summer release, but not the new Autumn one.

 

They also need to think about Episode II and onward, Scar. People who weren't turned off by the leaks for one reason or another may well be turned off by the actual product they buy, which could result in further episodes being less successful than they could be. So even if the delay might not appear to have been done with the "general public" as a high item on ye olde priority list, I think it's somewhere up there.

Granted, "damage control" is probably a bit higher up on ye olde priority list, but there doesn't have to be Just One Reason for it.

 

Okay people, I'm really sorry to burst all of tee bubbles, but the current true scenario of things is the following: It is a good thing that Sega delayed the game, and also put a hold on Dimps development, because there was a huge misunderstanding in Dimp's vision of their goals. Sonic 4 will have no any significative changes compared to the build that was supposed to be release. Hell, even the files of the E3 build have the same MD5 hashes, meaning there were no changes at all. Sonic 4 in it's current state has so many cheap and unfair traps that sometimes it looks like those japanese, kaizo games. Even Ken Balough and Aaron Webber acknowledges that, since they will use this uphold time to instruct the japanese development team into the right track, removing or tweaking these tricky spots. Outside that, the real modifications in the game, and physics, for example, will only be applied in later episodes. How do I know all that? Aaron and Ken themselves said so, in a conference with Polygon Jim.

Therefore, the delay to fix the game is going to be good as a marketing strategy, if nothing else, since in the end of the day, the jump will still be sloppy; the air halt will still be in effect; you'll still need to press 'x' or 'y' to transform into Super Sonic; Sonic will still bump at the Special Stages walls; etc.

But hey, Sonic 3 physics were tweaked in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, so yeah.

 

Not when you are not inside a tunnel.

 

I thought it was agreed on pretty much the moment we found out about it that Sonic having his transformation on a different button was a good thing? Y'know, so people who don't want to use it don't have to, and all that?

More to the point, Endri, if Aaron and Ken did indeed say those things—and they may or may not have, I'm not saying they did or did not—to Polygon Jim, then one might wonder why you're the one spilling the beans, rather than Polygon Jim. Then again, you've shown a certain lack of respect for the concept of private correspondence in the past, so I'm not terribly surprised by the possibility that you just couldn't be bothered to keep your mouth shut when asked.

 

I don't see the problem with going Super on the X or Y buttons, especially since (if you were to) not accidentally do such when wanting to use the homing attack.

 

Fix'd.


Also to clarify more, I pretty much asked a straight question about what was being changed and he just said the jump physics. Episode 2 from what he said will have proper improvements, which I doubt, but if they actually do hold true to that, Ep2 could have some form of fun in it unlike Ep1.

 

Did the E3 build get leaked or was this information provided by somebody else?

 

That's not the point. Though, for your information, it is no secret to anyone that these conversations have been happening. It was said at least twice in this very thread.

The actual point is: people, seriously get out of your fantasy world, that idealizes a game that is going to be different than what is already known. This is not going to happen.

This is my point.

 

So first the jump physics won't be changed, now they will, and apparently addressing problems of gameplay balance and cheapness is somehow no change at all, because apparently being able to run up slopes and verticle surfaces a bit too easily is somehow more game-breaking than alleged "kaizo" traps.

Well, that makes sense.

But did he speak of it as if he were saying "just the jump physics," or did he "just" mention the jump physics without actually implying himself that the jump physics were the only significant change? That's rather an important point, as it'd be rather poor form to read a meaning into his words rather than just reading the meaning in his words... know what I mean?

Oh, sure, no secret the conversations happened. Been a secret as to what was said, though, and there's a pretty obvious difference between saying someone was in a call with RubyEclipse and saying "this is what was said."

Considering said "point" was accompanied by a statement of "This is what is going to be different," it's a bit hard to take "the game isn't going to be any different" all that seriously.

 

Pretty much this exact line.

"So are you actually going to fix how shitty the game is?"

"We are going to change the jump physics so you don't lose all of your momentum when you let go of the D-pad, but the real changes won't happen until Ep2."

 

Alright, then, I guess asking for clarification never hurts, does it?

EDIT: Did the subject of uncurling come up specifically? If not, I wouldn't actually write that change out of the book either, since it's undoubtedly a much easier fix than programming the game to have proper jump physics.