Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing

Why dose that tune remind me of a crappy 90's kids sitcom montage, like kids building a gokart for a pushkart derby lol

 

Something I didn't notice till like my 9th time playing the demo. NiGHTS is the flagman. You see him/her/it. flying after the race finished with the checkered flag waving it about. Thought that was a cool little tidbit worth mentioning.

 

Been through the demo a good dozen times.

Hm. I think I like it. I'm excited to get the final version. It still seems to be a little rough around the edges in spots and not quite up to Mario Kart par, but this really seems like it could be one of those games like Crash Team Racing where it's still a very good kart racer.

I hope they fix the framerate, though.

 

For some reason I didn't notice the frame rate dips, maybe my eyes are worse than I thought they are (I have a damn powerful glasses prescription). Though I heard some random guys going on about how you can alleviate some of the frame rate issues by clearing the cache. It sort of makes sense, I suppose, I remember the BioShock patch having serious issues until you cleared the cache. I think they fixed that though, didn't they?

 

I didn't notice much frame droppin' outside of what I'd expect from any video game. Most games have had lag and framerate dips since Mario 3 or so.

Demo is the shit. Game will be the shit. I'm truly excited. Can't wait to play 8-player online multiplayer with you guys.

 

I didn't notice the framerate problems at first, either, but the more I played, the more I began to notice it. I'd say a good 50% of the demo runs at below 30fps. There are scant moments where it feels as low as 10 or 15fps (in fact, I can open the video file I captured and count frames and there are parts where it is exactly 15fps).

Just because framerate problems are common does not excuse them. Unstable framerates are the worst thing about this latest console generation. I hate seeing a 30fps game that occasionally shifts up to 60fps or down to 15fps randomly. It takes me out of the experience and makes me think about the technology behind the game in a way I shouldn't have to.

More games need to lock their framerates down. Racing games especially need to keep a smooth, locked framerate. It's essential to a sensation of speed.

 

Didn't you say you were running it from a DVD? Would there be any dramatic differences in the framerate between that and running it from the HDD? If not, then...well shit I guess. I do remember someone mentioning that this demo is based on an older build or something, so who knows, maybe it will have improved for the retail version.

 

From what I can tell the game is supposed to run at 60fps. Take you racer to an empty part of the track and look out towards the ocean (on the bend after the big jump by the palace is a good spot)- the framerate will zoom up to 60. As soon as there's a little more action though, it will plummet again. If you ain't noticing the framrate drops, it's probably because it's nearly always dropped.

 

Well, yes and no. I've been told that the initial loading time getting in to the track takes 2x-3x longer on my video (loading it off a DVD) than it does loading it off the HDD. But the game is going to ship on a DVD, and part of the reason for that loading time is because it's copying game data from the source location in to the console's memory. Once the initial load is over and its in the track, one would think that regardless of whether it loaded that data from a HDD or a DVD, it would run the same speed.

But there are also games, most notably Unreal Engine 3 games, that have their behavior change based on whether or not the game is installed to the Xbox HDD or if it's streaming off a disc. A few games, like Infinite Undiscovery, practically require being installed to the HDD, otherwise you suffer horrific framerates, awful pop-in, etc. But that's Unreal Engine 3. ASR runs on Sumo Digital's in-house "Sunshine Engine" or whatever.

And, considering the framerate problems start within seconds of leaving the starting gate, I don't think it would have much to do with not streaming data off the DVD fast enough. When the demo goes up for XBL Silver users, I'll download it and see if it's any smoother off the HDD, but I don't think it will be.

A lot of games do this. I've noticed in the Condemned 2 demo, if you get up close to some of the walls, the game will shift in to 60fps because it's basically displaying nothing but that wall. I think FEAR 2 does it, too. I know in the original SKATE, if you did a glitch that sent your skater high enough in to the air, once the world below him dropped out of sight it'd switch to 60fps.

 

Either that, or we're not specifically looking for framerate drops. I can perceive motion clearly when playing. It's always above 15fps for me, which is all I need to enjoy the game.

It's like people complaining Unleashed only ran at 30fps instead of 60. If it went at HALF THE SPEED, there'd be a reason to complain, but really, there's very little difference.

 

It was confirmed by S0L that only the PC version runs at 60FPS, while the console versions run at 30FPS. Dunno if it was known/helps.

 

I already have one or two of you, but one of these days I'm going to go through and start adding some of you guys on XBOX Live; gotta get all prepped up for some supersonic racing.

 

Me and a friend played through the demo last night, and we've already found some problems.

First off, I discovered that its pretty easy to 'snake' through the track just like in Mario Kart DS. Its probably even easier, since its possible to keep a fairly straight line while drifting.

When playing multiplayer, me and my friend discovered a few spots where you get stuck in the geometry. Such as the bridge after the first big jump. Plus we've both fell through the floor on the corkscrew for...absolutely no reason whatsoever. We'd be stuck against the wall, then we'd be outside of the corkscrew, only to be placed back on seconds later.

Oh man, I had fairly high hopes for this game, and it looks like its not really going to be worth a purchase when it comes out...

One thing that bothers me about the game is the character animation. Characters seem to have a hard time sitting in their vehicles, and it looks terrible when they start hopping out of their cars while you drive over terrain. I've even had a moment where the trick animation froze. Caused me not to be able to get a boost.

 

This isn't their 6th Sega characters racing game. It's going to be a bit rough around the edges.

 

Watched your video, and when I played the demo, the loading time was nowhere near as long as you had dealt with, and the framerate was actually smoother. I'm not sure if its my 360 or not, I bought it refurbished, so, yeah.

Sporting away from my opinion. Anyone here want to do tournaments when some of us own the game? I might buy it, or I might wait 2 months for the price to drop down by like...20 dollars like unleashed did. Lol.

 

If a game has a stable frame rate, there's nothing wrong with it. However when a game has constant fluctuation with the frame rate it can severely fuck you up, especially in games where you have to make quick inputs. A frame dip in an FPS can fuck you up man.

I think those complaints mainly came from the PS3 version, where it was at 60fps, but it also dipped a lot. Unleash is pretty stable until you reach Jungle Joyride where it just drops all over the place and it not only fucks up timing of certain areas but also really takes you out of the experience.

 

So, I've been meaning to mention how Sonic's stats are in this game are so hilarious but correct. Having a lower normal top speed but a more powerful boost means that driving as Sonic means that you won't be the fastest if you just try and drive, having a high average speed requires a bit of technique. We already knew that Sumo had a better handle of making Sonic environments that people liked, but I didn't expect Sumo to have such a better handle of how to make Sonic fun. Bonus: the springs on the track don't cancel your momentum, meaning they work more like the springs from the Genesis games.

Oh, and the model from this game doesn't have such a wide, for lack of a better word, bridge between his eyes, so I like it more. The best place to see it is on the title screen, the renders are of the Sonic Team model.

 

Yeah, I did find it a bit funny that Banjo had a higher top-speed than Sonic, but even that makes sense thinking back to Diddy Kong Racing (where he had a higher top-speed in exchange for lower acceleration and harder control).