Sonic The Hedgehog (360)

[JamesS]

Wasn't sure whether to post in the demo thread or start a new one, so please merge if I've got it wrong.

Anyway, I got this today, and have played it for an hour and a half or so, so I thought I'd post some initial impressions.

Compared to the demo, the framerate is better (though not a solid 60 all the time), the controls are a lot tighter, and the camera hasn't annoyed me yet.

It's not exactly been the best start I've ever had with a game, however. The first hour went more or less like this (very minor spoilers for the first area):

- Watch very nice FMV.
- Load.
- Watch in-game cutscene.
- Load.
- Wander around a town talking to some people.
- Load.
- In game cutscene.
- Load.
- Talk to some more people and find out I need to buy some shoes.
- Talk to man near shoe shop and agree to test his shoes for him(!)
- Load.
- Read one sentence of text.
- Load.
- Run through some hoops for 30 seconds.
- Load.
- Buy an item from the shop with the money I got from testing shoes.
- Finally get to the entrance to a real level.
- Load.
- Run around, jump at enemies, collect rings. Hey, this is like a Sonic game!
- Die. Get kicked out into front end.
- Find game hasn't saved any of my progress so I have to repeat all of the above. Brilliant.

Oh, Sega, why do you hate me so?

The loading times are all 15-30 seconds, and are really quite annoying. Hopefully, they'll calm down a bit as the game goes on.

Despite the above, the game is actually showing promise. The brief bit of game I got to play was good fun, and the whole game feels a lot like Sonic Adventure 1, which to me can only be a good thing (the first level is very similar to Emerald Coast, even down to having the whales and whatnot). There are some nice setpieces in the first level, too, and there look to be a fair few shortcuts to find in order to get the S rank.

It does have that problem from all the 3D Sonics that if you go too far off the track, you're pretty likely to die, but it's all much, much tighter than the demo version.

I'll post some more impressions once I'm a bit further in.

[Silvergun X]

Good to know!

[Shumpaloompa]

loading times is bad

[MarioMark]

I got it today only done the first level and so far it's crap, I really want to like it but it's just not good.

[Iron Z]

will the PS3 version have HDD-cacheing?

[Tig]

- Watch very nice FMV.
- Load.
- Watch in-game cutscene.
- Load.
- Wander around a town talking to some people.
- Load.
- In game cutscene.
- Load.
- Talk to some more people and find out I need to buy some shoes...

BWAHAHAHA!! This is as far as I got before I started laughing

That totally sounds like a parody of what Sonic games would be like, if one day Sega sold the IP to somebody clueless.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I've been playing this tonight and I can sum it up with one word - rubbish.

The control and camera are every bit as screwed as they were in the demo. It's still absolutely full of instant death drops, packed with bugs and glitches, and it also manages to have a shoddy frame rate and very mediocre visuals. The level geometry and texturing is so simple it wouldn't stress a Dreamcast.

We may as well just declare SEGA dead once and for all.

[Team Andromeda]

and it also manages to have a shoddy frame rate and very mediocre visuals. The level geometry and texturing is so simple it wouldn't stress a Dreamcast.

Fair enough on all the other stuff, but I really don't see how you can make out this looks like a DC game. Its leagues above what the DC could do (even the visuals in SA II) the texturing is sound in my eyes
with nice textures and colours everywhere , the game is more vast than Sonic Adv II ever was , then add in things like real time relections and to me Sonic The Heghog looks one of the better loking 360 games and miles above anything I've seen onthe DC.

I'm not defending the gameplay here , I like to make that clear, but I really do like the graphics in this and there are miles better than anything I've seen onthe DC and a lot of the 360 games . Mind you I'm one of the few that thinks Lost Planet looks better than GOW

[JamesS]

I think the graphcs are quite uneven. The initial town area, for example, is pretty poor with boxey buildings and obviously tiled textures (especially if you go up on top of the buildings), but then in other places it looks fantastic. Some of the in-engine cutscenes are really nice, too.

I'm actually quite enjoying the game, FWIW. Did the first Silver/Blaze level earlier, and that was great fun. Especially Blaze's bit. The two boss fights I've done have been pretty decent as well. I just wish Sonic Team could sort out the obvious problems that have plagued 3D Sonic games since Sonic Adventure. I was hoping this game would be a bit more of a rethink, rather than just reimplementing more or less the same gameplay on new systems.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Fair enough on all the other stuff, but I really don't see how you can make out this looks like a DC game. Its leagues above what the DC could do (even the visuals in SA II) the texturing is sound in my eyes
with nice textures and colours everywhere , the game is more vast than Sonic Adv II ever was , then add in things like real time relections and to me Sonic The Heghog looks one of the better loking 360 games and miles above anything I've seen onthe DC.

I'm not defending the gameplay here , I like to make that clear, but I really do like the graphics in this and there are miles better than anything I've seen onthe DC and a lot of the 360 games . Mind you I'm one of the few that thinks Lost Planet looks better than GOW

Technically they are incredibly basic, with almost no shaders (just one on the water) and primate shadowing. No normal maps, no specular, no parallax, no bump, no HDR, nothing at all. Just blurry, very tiled textures smeared over crude geometry. It's technically a PS2 game pretty much.

Sonic himself has a decent number of polys but look at the scenery, it really isn't detailed at all. Plus there's pop up and tons of slow down. I also think the art style is completely messed up. It's a bizarre, disturbing mix of cartoony Sonic and Tails, with very realistic human NPCs. No direction to it at all, and the main town area (obviously based on Venice) adds more randomness to the whole affair. Sonic used to have an incredibly distinctive and unique art style, something you could recognise in an instant. That is now long gone, which is a terrible shame given how super stylised games (like SEGA's own Jet Set Radio, or Capcom's Viewtiful Joe, Killer 7, and Okami) can be done very well on modern hardware and look amazing. Even Sonic Team's Phantasy Star Universe has more style than Sonic does now.

Visuals, rubbish though they are are the least of this game's issues though. I'm amazed it even passed Microsoft QA to be honest, as it's so full of bugs.

[Team Andromeda]

Well for me Sonic is one of the better looking games onthe 360 with some of the best textures I've seen onthe system . To me its looks like Sonic Adv for the next gen , with the same sort of art direction . I think its just sheer rubbish to make out this is a DC or PS2 game .

I mean fair enough if this was PSU onthe 360, which the DC could more or less do and looks pants, but Sonic Next Gen looks stunning in my eye (gameplay is a diff matter ) I also like the music too, very Panzer Dragoon in parts . In saying that there's no excuse for the slowdown , and most games have a bit of pop up , GOW of war included (which has the same texture redraw problems as in PGR III)

[EvilBoris]

Well for me Sonic is one of the better looking games onthe 360 with some of the best textures I've seen onthe system . To me its looks like Sonic Adv for the next gen , with the same sort of art direction . I think its just sheer rubbish to make out this is a DC or PS2 game .

I mean fair enough if this was PSU onthe 360, which the DC could more or less do and looks pants, but Sonic Next Gen looks stunning in my eye (gameplay is a diff matter ) I also like the music too, very Panzer Dragoon in parts . In saying that there's no excuse for the slowdown , and most games have a bit of pop up , GOW of war included (which has the same texture redraw problems as in PGR III)

[Kotatsu Neko]

They should just release Sonic 1 on Marketplace as they promised and be done with it. Actually release all the MD and MCD Sonics on Marketplace, then announce Sonic is over and done with and there will never be another.

Let him have his rest before what little remains of his reputation is destroyed.

[Team Andromeda]

I think the game is great and can't wait for my Pal copy to ship next week . Sure its full glitches and the cheap deaths (which Sonic Team should be Ashamed about for their number one brand )
But its still fun and the level when being chased by the ship is great and pure SONIC Adv , as is the desert level soon after .
Its for me the best 3D Sonic since Sonic Adv, which while I know isn?t exactly hard , its still fun if you?ve enjoyed Sonic Adv . The real pain the butt comes from bloody loading time. Very nice music inthe this title too


But how anybody can make out that this
Sonic Vid

Looks like a PS2 or DC game I don't know.

[MarioMark]

I think the game is great and can't wait for my Pal copy to ship next week . Sure its full glitches and the cheap deaths (which Sonic Team should be Ashamed about for their number one brand )
But its still fun and the level when being chased by the ship is great and pure SONIC Adv , as is the desert level soon after .
Its for me the best 3D Sonic since Sonic Adv, which while I know isn?t exactly hard , its still fun if you?ve enjoyed Sonic Adv . The real pain the butt comes from bloody loading time. Very nice music inthe this title too


But how anybody can make out that this
Sonic Vid

Looks like a PS2 or DC game I don't know.

I agree with a lot of things you put on this forum mate and I have respect for you, but I wish you would just admit that this game is an absolute pile of ****.