What I'm hearing about Episode 2, Day 1.

Well... all that really can be said is, "I told you so."

Even though it's only been some hours since it's release and players have gone so far as to unlock Super Sonic, the physics have not changed.  He still has Ep1 physics... and those physics exploit every script put in for normal Sonic.

The only noticeable changes are the two issues Beta 8 had which was a graphical error in the first stage and the 1 button 99 ring glitch.

There is no anti-aliasing option with upscaled resolutions, so unless you own a computer that can force the option, you're pretty much playing with Ep1's issue.

No 1080p option... on a PC game.

Red rings don't do anything, just like the beta.

There's no "ending," per se.  Or rather, it hasn't changed from the leaked beta 8.

I have a feeling that the release of Diablo 3 is going to contribute a lot less to why this game is likely to fail


Okay, let's talk about the good things about Episode 2.  The graphics look nice.  And that concludes the discussion of all that's good about Episode 2.  Actually, let's not until I actually get my hands on the demo.

And yes, I'm sorry to say as a hardcore Sonic fan and supporter of Sega, I hope this game does fail.  Why should it succeed when it's just Ep1 with a worse level design that works with poorly designed forced gimmicks, terrible physics all governed by an over-hyped/false PR?  Everything about Episode 2 screams cheap to me.  It just... really makes me wonder for the first time what is going on over there in Japan with Sega (because I wasn't paying attention to Sonic during Shadow->06 years).  I come back, hear how Sega wants to "increase the value of the brand."

(Of course the value of the brand is based on metacritic, nothing more, nothing less.)

But how is this increasing the value of the brand?  The most profound issue with Ep1 were the physics and Sega addresses them with some patches and scripts.  Automation was an issue and they add more of it.

I really see this game falling off faster than Ep1.

Well, I'll be back doing the whole Generations thing, and I definitely look forward to trying out the ported Unleashed stages.  More on that later.