Everything runs at 60fps (dunno how the GC handled it, but the DC dropped frames plenty of times, especially during cutscenes). But everything does not come in 16.9. All CG cutscenes are still 4.3 and some non-CG ones were left at 4.3 as well.
I had not played this game in literally 10 years and thus it feels considerably more difficult than I last remember it. Well, if I'm not mistaken, when I was enveloped in it on the Dreamcast, I was trying to get an A rank for all missions - didn't happen. Probably A ranked a lot of them, but not all of them. The overall challenge in the game is fairly fair. Fairly fair? Yes, because this is the Sonic Adventure series where the collision is downright terrible. I had collision that reminded me of SA1 where you're running through a long narrow curve, run into the side of the wall and your char is literally running in circles from colliding with the sides.
I'm unaware if there were any improvements made to the game (1-player only), and if there were, I'm oblivious to them.
Before I dive into my "adventure" running through the game from Hero to Last, I want to say that while I found most of the game fairly challenging, the most challenging thing that I had to do back in the day... only cost me 1 life (Shadow vs Biolizard) and it wouldn't have cost me any lives (and maybe not even any rings) if I was aware that you could lose a life sitting in the water. Haha, I don't remember that ever happening before in the past. For the record, I want to point out that particular battle in all Sonic games that I've played feels iconic. It's a battle that literally stood out from the entire game where you have the usual David vs Goliath theme, but the track during the battle, is EPIC. The lyrics (hard to hear during the actual game FOR ONCE, granted it's the song that does that) are literally telling Shadow's turning point in this silly story. It's a really nice touch. That and the final battle are similar in that regard. It's such a powerful presentation that helped the game end on such a high note.
Throughout the game, nothing's really changed, I mean, I can point out that after you finish a stage with Sonic, instead of showing off his profile, he's staring at YOU (former was better, IMO - the latter just reminds me how wrong the in-game artwork was for him). The Sonic & Shadow stages for the most part are still the best and I MIGHT even speed run a Sonic and Shadow stage. White Jungle is easily my favorite Shadow stage thanks to it's EPIC MUSIC, the sense of SPEED you get from watching Shadow swing on vines. With Sonic, my favorite is Final Rush, and if you know how I enjoy playing Sonic by now, then you would know that Final Rush is probably simultaneously the fastest and the slowest Sonic stage. Rail grinding in this stage is SO AWESOME, and it tends to be high risk/high reward. I really dislike how Sonic runs in this game and spin dashing is so derpy with the herp derp collision. (Side note: I realized Sonic's voice in this game sounds similar to his current Japanese voice.) Oh, and unlike Generations, you get to use all sorts of Sonic's moves through the main stages! Rouge & Knuckles' stages... either I got lucky a few times (finding emeralds that weren't on the radar a few times) or it wasn't as annoying as I remembered. My scores were low, but I was expecting a 20 minute run in Meteor Herd, but did it in maybe 5. One small thing that I didn't get to experience before was the exclamation mark that pops up when you're pretty much next to the Emerald Shard. Still, not very replayable. I do very much enjoy the presence of Knuckles and Rouge in this game, but this gameplay design... if not just the level design itself, sometimes comes off as a bit extreme. Last but not least, Tails/Eggman stages. To some extent, I've enjoyed this gameplay, granted the targeting does seem a bit nerfed from SA1. It might just be me, but I found some of the stages to be too drawn out and it doesn't help that the gameplay itself is pretty linear. It's not always easy, though. Even though I may be able to target enemies quickly, I often forget that the ones with projectiles/or long range attacks are targetting me and I can't just sit and point and shoot.
And YES. PLENTY OF CAMERA ISSUES. Overall, I don't regret getting this game, but I've run into a bit of a problem. You see, I have gotten into raising Chao and doing that requires simply playing the game and there's not a lot I want to do. I just might find myself not playing the game for some time again, but now that I think of it... I just might have a solution to this issue. Last but not least, I hope this game outsells Sonic 4 Episode 2. Why? Just for the lulz... seriously. I don't want Sega to go back to Adventure style gameplay because everything that's wrong with the Sonic/Shadow gameplay just makes me want to play Unleashed and Generations more because Unleashed and Generations - make sense!
Oh, shoutouts to Sachiko Kawamura... PLEASE HAVE MY BABIES... if not, I'll be your lover forever - I just want to watch you draw Sonic. :3
Overall, SA2 is still mediocre at best. It has it's highs, but it has it's lows which are just as prominent and unfortunately more frequent. Speaking of highs and lows, why the hell didn't Sega fix the volume? The music plays over the voices, especially Shadows and Eggmans.
I almost want to play Sonic Heroes. Apparently, I don't think I've ever mentioned that game in my blog as I haven't labeled it. Honestly, that was... the 2nd worst Sonic game I've ever played (Ep1 being the worst). No, I think I'm just curious or retardedly nostalgic... or both. It must be this Adventure gameplay I've been diving into lately. Before SA2, I was playing SA1 for a bit (which reminds me, SA2 doesn't make me feel like shit, unlike SA1). So I suppose my brain is just reminding me of what was next in line. I still own Heroes on the PS2, but I think I would rather play the seemingly better XBOX version of the game... providing I can find it. Probably not worth it. There is nothing wholeheartedly memorable about Heroes.
My tone in this blog has shifted. Been feeling more energetic lately, but - that's for another blog~
Monday, October 8, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
Derp, Microsoft. Derp.
Seems like the download for SA2 doesn't work directly through consoles, so... it is possible to download it on xbox.com. Just remember the DL will start after you log in on your console.
Day 1 purchase? Man, it's Friday... I ain't got no job... and I ain't got shit to do...! Sure, why not. I just hope that I don't have the same issue with SA2 as I have with SA1, and that is... SA1 gives me splitting headaches when I stare at it over time. Don't know why. Do you?
Day 1 purchase? Man, it's Friday... I ain't got no job... and I ain't got shit to do...! Sure, why not. I just hope that I don't have the same issue with SA2 as I have with SA1, and that is... SA1 gives me splitting headaches when I stare at it over time. Don't know why. Do you?
Thursday, October 4, 2012
YEAH, SA2. YEAH.
I'm honestly not excited about the re-release of this game. Sure it's deserving of it... and there is a great chance that I will grab it once it becomes available next week. But to me... it's just SA2 in 16.9.
On the other hand, there is the Battle DLC upgrade, and the 2-player mode, which is probably... probably... something in a Sonic game, 90% or more people can say, "Fuck yeah!" about. I never owned the GC version of the game, so after seeing it as I had the DC version... well, I felt somewhat, just somewhat shafted with the whole Chao aspect of the game.
The Dreamcast pretty much forced you to use it's Tamogachi-like memory card to play with your Chao. It was also the only way you could view your pets stats, but the biggest drawback I experienced was simply the memory cards having a rare to occasional case of amnesia when abandoned. Not necessarily talking about losing a Chao, but losing your save files. Mmhmm.
Sonic Adventure 2 for me, did many things right and many things wrong. Now, I'm actually not going to go into the wrong, but I will go into the right, starting with what I feel was SA2's greatest strength and that would be:
-The Soundtrack. The reason why I am going to get this game is because of the amazing soundtrack, lead by Senoue, but I give a lot of credit to the other people who contributed tracks here such as Kenichi Tokoi. I mean, where Senoue is literally THE MAN with a guitar that will rock your world, Tokoi's music is great at being soothing or very mid-tempoed. His work in SA2 really makes me think of how I'd expect Sonic music to sound through his stage themes for Rouge. With Unleashed and Colors, I felt like he was able to bring those games alive, and though his music often sounds as if he literally wrote it while within the real-life atmosphere which inspires Sonic stages (such as Unleashed), I feel like his sound comes with such a dynamic feel to it. If I hear Planet Wisp's theme and I'm playing Sonic Colors or Generations - yes, I am in Planet Wisp. But if I am outside on a mid-late sunny afternoon where the grass is very much a dark green, under a cerulean sky, while this theme is playing... then I am very much outside on a mid-late sunny afternoon where the grass is very much a dark green under a cerulean sky... with my eyes open or closed. That is what makes Kenichi Tokoi's music special. His sound can be as much of a fantasy as it can be a reality. However, I felt like most of his work after SA2, though excellent... was leaning a bit more towards reality... just a bit... and moreso in Unleashed than Colors.
-The Interface: Although this isn't something I feel is super serious, can we just... look back at the main series games for a sec. All of them, from Sonic 1 to Sonic Generations. Sonic Adventure 2's interface was beautifully dolled up in a variety of colors and simple shapes and awesome character art of course. It makes SA1's interface look like something out of a 1980's Atari game. Combined with an epic soundtrack, it might sound strange, but it was a pleasant experience just... going through the options of this game before beginning to play it, and it seemed even better in Battle.
-Sonic/Shadow Stages: Yeah... a huge improvement over SA1, but I just want to point out my favorite aspect in this game - rail grinding. It has a sense of challenge when it came to balancing (now Sonic is so leveled up, he perfectly balances on it in Unleashed and up) and you get the most sense of speed... because just about everything else in SA2 feels pretty slow. (I will add that the GC version felt like it played faster than the DC version).
-Chao: Sega may have deprived fans of a hub world, but I feel like the Chao gardens were a good enough escape from simply throwing a character into a stage and having to go through that stage that may or may not have feel interesting enough to replay. Either you loved it, or you hated it.
Last but not least...
-Characterization: Because the story sucked, but... this was a nicely fleshed out cast and most people felt like Sonic in this game was more "Sonic" than he's been as of late. In short, he acted his age and had the attitude down vocally. Two main series games before this one, he didn't need a voice to express his attitude, but it does seem like the current Sonic has... in comparison to SA2's... softened up a bit... okay, a lot.
... and everything else in SA2 is pretty much mediocre or bad... ! You know, I can honestly say that the only thing I'm really looking forward to from playing this (outside of Battle and 2-player) is... everything moving at 60fps from start to finish. But I think I'll wait for some reviews... hmm... *goes to metacritic*
Score: 1- Bad experience over again... -terrible collision (you can bug this game many times). -Inconsistency in soundtrack (pure rock + vocal) - don'
Score: 10 - i lyk plin a sanic i tink itas fun rolling in ball and runn fast through stages and i clear every act gam is in hd high definitnietion you can
i think sanic adventures 2 is a pretty cool guy, eh goes fast and doesn't afraid of anything GOTTA GO FAST GOTTA GOT FAST GOTTA GOT FAST GO
On the other hand, there is the Battle DLC upgrade, and the 2-player mode, which is probably... probably... something in a Sonic game, 90% or more people can say, "Fuck yeah!" about. I never owned the GC version of the game, so after seeing it as I had the DC version... well, I felt somewhat, just somewhat shafted with the whole Chao aspect of the game.
The Dreamcast pretty much forced you to use it's Tamogachi-like memory card to play with your Chao. It was also the only way you could view your pets stats, but the biggest drawback I experienced was simply the memory cards having a rare to occasional case of amnesia when abandoned. Not necessarily talking about losing a Chao, but losing your save files. Mmhmm.
Sonic Adventure 2 for me, did many things right and many things wrong. Now, I'm actually not going to go into the wrong, but I will go into the right, starting with what I feel was SA2's greatest strength and that would be:
-The Soundtrack. The reason why I am going to get this game is because of the amazing soundtrack, lead by Senoue, but I give a lot of credit to the other people who contributed tracks here such as Kenichi Tokoi. I mean, where Senoue is literally THE MAN with a guitar that will rock your world, Tokoi's music is great at being soothing or very mid-tempoed. His work in SA2 really makes me think of how I'd expect Sonic music to sound through his stage themes for Rouge. With Unleashed and Colors, I felt like he was able to bring those games alive, and though his music often sounds as if he literally wrote it while within the real-life atmosphere which inspires Sonic stages (such as Unleashed), I feel like his sound comes with such a dynamic feel to it. If I hear Planet Wisp's theme and I'm playing Sonic Colors or Generations - yes, I am in Planet Wisp. But if I am outside on a mid-late sunny afternoon where the grass is very much a dark green, under a cerulean sky, while this theme is playing... then I am very much outside on a mid-late sunny afternoon where the grass is very much a dark green under a cerulean sky... with my eyes open or closed. That is what makes Kenichi Tokoi's music special. His sound can be as much of a fantasy as it can be a reality. However, I felt like most of his work after SA2, though excellent... was leaning a bit more towards reality... just a bit... and moreso in Unleashed than Colors.
-The Interface: Although this isn't something I feel is super serious, can we just... look back at the main series games for a sec. All of them, from Sonic 1 to Sonic Generations. Sonic Adventure 2's interface was beautifully dolled up in a variety of colors and simple shapes and awesome character art of course. It makes SA1's interface look like something out of a 1980's Atari game. Combined with an epic soundtrack, it might sound strange, but it was a pleasant experience just... going through the options of this game before beginning to play it, and it seemed even better in Battle.
-Sonic/Shadow Stages: Yeah... a huge improvement over SA1, but I just want to point out my favorite aspect in this game - rail grinding. It has a sense of challenge when it came to balancing (now Sonic is so leveled up, he perfectly balances on it in Unleashed and up) and you get the most sense of speed... because just about everything else in SA2 feels pretty slow. (I will add that the GC version felt like it played faster than the DC version).
-Chao: Sega may have deprived fans of a hub world, but I feel like the Chao gardens were a good enough escape from simply throwing a character into a stage and having to go through that stage that may or may not have feel interesting enough to replay. Either you loved it, or you hated it.
Last but not least...
-Characterization: Because the story sucked, but... this was a nicely fleshed out cast and most people felt like Sonic in this game was more "Sonic" than he's been as of late. In short, he acted his age and had the attitude down vocally. Two main series games before this one, he didn't need a voice to express his attitude, but it does seem like the current Sonic has... in comparison to SA2's... softened up a bit... okay, a lot.
... and everything else in SA2 is pretty much mediocre or bad... ! You know, I can honestly say that the only thing I'm really looking forward to from playing this (outside of Battle and 2-player) is... everything moving at 60fps from start to finish. But I think I'll wait for some reviews... hmm... *goes to metacritic*
Score: 1- Bad experience over again... -terrible collision (you can bug this game many times). -Inconsistency in soundtrack (pure rock + vocal) - don'
Score: 10 - i lyk plin a sanic i tink itas fun rolling in ball and runn fast through stages and i clear every act gam is in hd high definitnietion you can
i think sanic adventures 2 is a pretty cool guy, eh goes fast and doesn't afraid of anything GOTTA GO FAST GOTTA GOT FAST GOTTA GOT FAST GO
Oh, Internet...~
Friday, September 28, 2012
The hardest Sonic Unleashed day stage.
Know what the hardest daytime stage in Sonic Unleashed is, even if you're not speed running it? Savannah Citadel Act 2, LOL.
This stage brings me back to when this game first had my attention and I didn't know anything about it. On YouTube... (unfortunately...) I saw someone run the stage and I was aware the point of getting through it was to drift, and the player who was playing it was pretty much like, "Drifting is useless in this game." ... and this is why you shouldn't take the comments on YouTube seriously from random people.
Yeah, I'm seriously exaggerating that this is the hardest stage to speed run, but the stage... as simple as it appears, pretty much just laughs at you if you drift this stage wrong. As far as from what I've seen done by the heavy hitters that speed run Unleashed who make it look easy (I still have yet to understand how they drift with precision in this stage), it doesn't seem like a nail you can miss once you've learned how to hit those turns fast without falling off the stage.
I've also been dabbing in the Rooftop Run stages, and... I'm having the same experience with daytime Act 2-2 as I had with Jungle Joyride 1-2, and that is... the DLC act is easier than the original. As I've mentioned before, a lot of the DLC stages in this game are pretty good, INCLUDING the Werehog stages (although the majority of the ones I've played are actually harder than their DLC counterpart such as Arid Sands 1-2... holy shit...). But I've got to say, I'm really impressed with Rooftop Run 2-2. It is probably the most fun in this game I've had. Act 4 is quite challenging, but I haven't spent much time in it. Act 5 was another challenging yet very fun (and funny) stage. Funny because game logic says that if Sonic falls to the bottom of the stage, he "dies." But here... he clearly hits the ground and walks forward for a bit... and stands until the game fades to restart the stage. We all know Sonic is virtually indestructible because as you know, in Sonic Adventure 1, he jumped from a FREAKING AIRSHIP, like 30,000 feet from the ground! And in lolSonicX (I actually like Sonic X even with it's inconsistent artwork) he fell from outer space and survived, earning nothing but a week or two of sleep after the impact. This character can survive falls from infinite heights and he dies from a measly 20 story fall, lol. But he has to "die," for how else will he get back up? I think Sonic Team should've at least killed off his dying voice or say "fail" if they knew he was going to hit the ground.
Great... now I sound like a true, nit-picking Sonic fanboy, lol.
But honestly, I have no idea what I want to do next for a speed run (maybe Rooftop 2-2). I could run Skyscraper Scamper 3 again and go for a faster time (and mayyyyybe try out the glitch), but nah. Oh, before I forget, I also figured out how to get a ridiculous time in Windmill Isle Act 3. Man... this game... lol. It's not such a big deal now, though. Been talking to Craig about increasing the quality of my videos and I will be looking into it deeper. Shoutouts to him! Here's his run of Rooftop 2-2.
I'm going to play Unleashed for a bit. I hope I can get better at this game.
This stage brings me back to when this game first had my attention and I didn't know anything about it. On YouTube... (unfortunately...) I saw someone run the stage and I was aware the point of getting through it was to drift, and the player who was playing it was pretty much like, "Drifting is useless in this game." ... and this is why you shouldn't take the comments on YouTube seriously from random people.
Yeah, I'm seriously exaggerating that this is the hardest stage to speed run, but the stage... as simple as it appears, pretty much just laughs at you if you drift this stage wrong. As far as from what I've seen done by the heavy hitters that speed run Unleashed who make it look easy (I still have yet to understand how they drift with precision in this stage), it doesn't seem like a nail you can miss once you've learned how to hit those turns fast without falling off the stage.
I've also been dabbing in the Rooftop Run stages, and... I'm having the same experience with daytime Act 2-2 as I had with Jungle Joyride 1-2, and that is... the DLC act is easier than the original. As I've mentioned before, a lot of the DLC stages in this game are pretty good, INCLUDING the Werehog stages (although the majority of the ones I've played are actually harder than their DLC counterpart such as Arid Sands 1-2... holy shit...). But I've got to say, I'm really impressed with Rooftop Run 2-2. It is probably the most fun in this game I've had. Act 4 is quite challenging, but I haven't spent much time in it. Act 5 was another challenging yet very fun (and funny) stage. Funny because game logic says that if Sonic falls to the bottom of the stage, he "dies." But here... he clearly hits the ground and walks forward for a bit... and stands until the game fades to restart the stage. We all know Sonic is virtually indestructible because as you know, in Sonic Adventure 1, he jumped from a FREAKING AIRSHIP, like 30,000 feet from the ground! And in lolSonicX (I actually like Sonic X even with it's inconsistent artwork) he fell from outer space and survived, earning nothing but a week or two of sleep after the impact. This character can survive falls from infinite heights and he dies from a measly 20 story fall, lol. But he has to "die," for how else will he get back up? I think Sonic Team should've at least killed off his dying voice or say "fail" if they knew he was going to hit the ground.
Great... now I sound like a true, nit-picking Sonic fanboy, lol.
But honestly, I have no idea what I want to do next for a speed run (maybe Rooftop 2-2). I could run Skyscraper Scamper 3 again and go for a faster time (and mayyyyybe try out the glitch), but nah. Oh, before I forget, I also figured out how to get a ridiculous time in Windmill Isle Act 3. Man... this game... lol. It's not such a big deal now, though. Been talking to Craig about increasing the quality of my videos and I will be looking into it deeper. Shoutouts to him! Here's his run of Rooftop 2-2.
I'm going to play Unleashed for a bit. I hope I can get better at this game.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Under 30.
"HEHE."
I love Sonic's Japanese voice. I blame all of the speed runs for me falling for it. Otherwise, I'd be going WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! in English... though QSSing in English sounds weird.
But I digress.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Sonic Unleashed - Windmill Isle Act 1 (Daytime)
So, yeah...
I've been messing around with Unleashed lately. This game, I tell you... it feels so complex compared to Generations. Speed in Unleashed feels so... inconsistent sometimes compared to Generations. It's true. This game has a lot of speed caps and with that, even more ways to break the speed cap. I guess that's what makes it interesting. But getting the most out of speed in Unleashed is hard. Not that speed running Generations was easy - no. It's just that there are so many little things you have to factor in to keep Sonic's momentum. So many things that try to stop him from going fast - kind of like Crisis City Act 2, but worse.
The first speed run I did of Act 3's Skyscraper Scamper is probably one of my favorite stages because 95% of the time, it's really just Sonic moving at his uncapped speed with the Quick Slide Step + Boost. Most of it is just memorization. I think the last part is the trickiest because you must target the right enemies to get the goal ring up and then you must aim Sonic at the goal ring which for me is tricky. Why? I'm just not used to it. It seems simple but Sonic moves really slow when he turns and I usually expect him to be facing where I want him to when my thumb is pointing which direction I want him to go.
And that's what's going to be the challenge here - controlling Sonic. Memorization? Not so much, I think.
By controlling Sonic, I mean that I MUST be able to do EVERYTHING he is capable of doing to go faster (though I'm not too concerned about D-Speed, M-Speed, etc.) Quick Slide Step, yes. That's easy. Stomp-sliding... don't get it and I really want to. Gaining extra speed from speed boosters... straight line drifting... man... all of this may sound strange, but every time I look at Unleashed speed runs, I think of how awesome it would be to do most (if not all) of that stuff, so I'm gonna try.
Today, I decided that I would take this journey of controlling Sonic as slow as possible, so yesterday I was messing around with the very first daytime stage in the game. You know it. It's really short. My goal was sub 30 seconds and the current record was somehow 33ish To get the most out of the first part requires some straight-line boost drifting in between some rocks, or you can QSS it, but I found that was even more challenging. For now, I just boosted through it and after the last rock, starting QSSing and jumping over the speed boosters before the first 360 to get max speed in the loop. The next part is strange and tricky. If you simply run over the ledge, you will loose all control of Sonic until he lands, but if you side-step just before leaving the ledge (timing is important), you will be able to air boost over to the next area. If the side-step is mis-timed, it will kiiiiiiill youuuuuuu~ because you will fall into the pit. The air boost needs to be immediate so Sonic will land asap and can gain as much speed as he can on the ground so he can jump just before hitting the springs so he can reach the highest platform. I don't get how he should land afterwards but I always air boost and it seems to just throw him into a wall lol. The rest of the stage is really simple. The only thing I can really take note of is the after the side-step area, it's better to hop than hit the launcher, and after the corkscrew, you can either stomp slide or QSS for a bit more speed before the ring (just don't slide UNDER the ring.)
Because I made it to 29.66, I now have another stage to record. I will do my best to try and get Sonic through the first part asap. So far the fastest time I've seen was sobatsuyu100's run of the stage.
I've been messing around with Unleashed lately. This game, I tell you... it feels so complex compared to Generations. Speed in Unleashed feels so... inconsistent sometimes compared to Generations. It's true. This game has a lot of speed caps and with that, even more ways to break the speed cap. I guess that's what makes it interesting. But getting the most out of speed in Unleashed is hard. Not that speed running Generations was easy - no. It's just that there are so many little things you have to factor in to keep Sonic's momentum. So many things that try to stop him from going fast - kind of like Crisis City Act 2, but worse.
The first speed run I did of Act 3's Skyscraper Scamper is probably one of my favorite stages because 95% of the time, it's really just Sonic moving at his uncapped speed with the Quick Slide Step + Boost. Most of it is just memorization. I think the last part is the trickiest because you must target the right enemies to get the goal ring up and then you must aim Sonic at the goal ring which for me is tricky. Why? I'm just not used to it. It seems simple but Sonic moves really slow when he turns and I usually expect him to be facing where I want him to when my thumb is pointing which direction I want him to go.
And that's what's going to be the challenge here - controlling Sonic. Memorization? Not so much, I think.
By controlling Sonic, I mean that I MUST be able to do EVERYTHING he is capable of doing to go faster (though I'm not too concerned about D-Speed, M-Speed, etc.) Quick Slide Step, yes. That's easy. Stomp-sliding... don't get it and I really want to. Gaining extra speed from speed boosters... straight line drifting... man... all of this may sound strange, but every time I look at Unleashed speed runs, I think of how awesome it would be to do most (if not all) of that stuff, so I'm gonna try.
Today, I decided that I would take this journey of controlling Sonic as slow as possible, so yesterday I was messing around with the very first daytime stage in the game. You know it. It's really short. My goal was sub 30 seconds and the current record was somehow 33ish To get the most out of the first part requires some straight-line boost drifting in between some rocks, or you can QSS it, but I found that was even more challenging. For now, I just boosted through it and after the last rock, starting QSSing and jumping over the speed boosters before the first 360 to get max speed in the loop. The next part is strange and tricky. If you simply run over the ledge, you will loose all control of Sonic until he lands, but if you side-step just before leaving the ledge (timing is important), you will be able to air boost over to the next area. If the side-step is mis-timed, it will kiiiiiiill youuuuuuu~ because you will fall into the pit. The air boost needs to be immediate so Sonic will land asap and can gain as much speed as he can on the ground so he can jump just before hitting the springs so he can reach the highest platform. I don't get how he should land afterwards but I always air boost and it seems to just throw him into a wall lol. The rest of the stage is really simple. The only thing I can really take note of is the after the side-step area, it's better to hop than hit the launcher, and after the corkscrew, you can either stomp slide or QSS for a bit more speed before the ring (just don't slide UNDER the ring.)
Because I made it to 29.66, I now have another stage to record. I will do my best to try and get Sonic through the first part asap. So far the fastest time I've seen was sobatsuyu100's run of the stage.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Resurrection?
It's been a while. Admittedly, I decided to take a break from focusing on Sonic. Information overload? More like information motherload. What does that mean? I think that staring into the screen, peering through various fan sites, various forums, certain youtube accounts (NOT youtube comments, most people on YT are just dumb kids) and my own efforts towards expressing my love for this franchise, simply got a bit overwhelming. It was also the first time in a long time that I was consistently playing a Sonic game at a high level. A part of me was yearning to play something more laid back as I seem to have forgotten how to do that with a Sonic game (until recently).
What I wanted was an RPG. Sonic Chronicles? No. In fact, I don't really see myself enjoying that game. I tried to watch a playthrough of it (something that's become somewhat of a past time for me this year, watching playthroughs of video games) and I didn't get far for two reasons. First of all, the story was poorly written, and secondly... I was not in the mood to watch a Sonic game of Sonic doing something that doesn't express his speed. It's a deal breaker because how he expresses his speed is a big deal. (Why do you think there are so many people throwing in custom Sonic voices in Generations? Voices from Unleashed and Adventure 2. To put it simple, it brings him to life.) So I picked up FF13 - yeah, I said it. A non-Sonic game in my blog. You know... this is actually something I've been wanting to point out, actually (especially since I've been playing Unleashed lately). When I was looking at what people were saying about Final Fantasy XIII, they seemed to say two things about the game that were very similar to what some people were saying about Unleashed. Yeah, you guessed it.
1. Linearity: Now, if Role-Playing Games happen to be something new to you, or you've never played any games in the FF series, I'll try to keep it simple. RPGs such as FF have always offered a sense of diversity and openness. On a large scale, you get a world map with plenty of exploration, a variety of ways to travel, a long story, a battle/character development system and hopefully a thoroughly developed cast. On a smaller scale, you get various vehicles, various mini-games, side-quests that have various tasks that offers either a reward or if you're lucky, it can add to the story, sometimes optional characters, a ton of monsters (some of which may aid you in battle), tons of items that rank from useless to too good to use unless it's the hardest battle in the game (though it still may never get used), side-bosses, weapons/armor, etc.. 13 was in fact missing a lot of things longtime fans were accustomed to. No world map, no various transportation, no sense of exploration (everything's mostly a long narrow hallway), no mini-games (maybe one). Final Fantasy XIII is really an all or nothing game, and people bitched.
Sonic Unleashed's linearity was criticized in it's level design of course and people bitched because it didn't have much of a platforming game.
2. Auto-play: In FFXIII, people said that the battle system requires little to no effort thanks to auto-battle. Now this was only true up to a certain point. First, if you didn't reach the part of the game where the character development system opens up (give it an hourish) then you'd eventually learn that you can not just mash autobattle. The irony of this is that most people who started the series (like myself) played FF7, and honestly, that game's battle system in comparison was extremely linear. Everyone pretty much leveled up the same and your physical power would eventually reach a point where you could just HOLD down the button that selects the command while you waited your turn and just auto-attacked with your normal attack. I have never, ever died so much in a FF game like I have in FF13. It does to a very solid degree, require a lot of micromanagement to develop strong characters and to earn high scores in battle, you must be strategically efficient with your attacks (which will also depend on how you developed your characters). It does boil down to making the right decisions fast enough.
Sonic Unleashed's auto-play, you've heard it... boost-to-win. I've probably already given my opinion in the past on what I think of that term. Personally, I think it's a scrubby term that suggests to me (when referring to Unleashed) that the game requires little or no effort to get from point A to point B. Some people may argue back that old school games were just hold right-to-win in some cases. Again, like in FF13, if you do not reach a certain point of the game, you will soon find out that braindead boosting doesn't work for very long. The linear level designs won't allow it. Another thing is that there is a reason why in Sonic games, the clock ticks forwards instead of backwards. There is a huge gameplay in Unleashed that's still to this day being developed which dictates how fast Sonic gets from point A to point B to point Z. I don't think many people get it. Just because you get from point A to point B in Sonic Unleashed by holding down the boost button doesn't mean you win. It means you just aren't able to figure out the other things Sonic is capable of in terms of creating speed. It's not that simple as pressing a button in Windmill Isle Act 2. (I had something else to say, but I forgot.)
In the end, FF13... for what it was worth, I felt it was a pretty decent game. It may not have been closer to it's roots, and it did have room for improvement (yeah, 13-2 pretty much let me down by dumbing down the battle system and making a story I could hardly consider captivating.).
Unleashed on the other hand... yeah, you think I'm going to start bitching about the Werehog? No. For what it's worth, it took a while for me to appreciate Unleashed, but it somehow seems to surprise me to this day (even moreso than Generations) what people can do in that game to make the fastest time. It's NOT EASY. I felt like Generations sort of closed the gap a bit with how advanced you can be in the game (granted it's newer and yeah, I've still been paying attention to it - the D and even M-speed is possible in Generations, though it's harder to execute.) Unleashed really had the makings of a great 3D Sonic game with the daytime levels.
Well, that is all... oh wait... almost all. Yeah, I made a vid. I'll go into details about it later.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Happy 21st Birthday, Sonic.
I've liked Sonic since Sonic 1 and I have never, not once in my life ever within the 21 years of this franchise have celebrated his birthday. Well... today is going to be different.
Unfortunately, I don't have anything all that spectacular to express my love for Sonic... well, neither did the people from The Sonic Show but I'd give them an A for effort.
Meanwhile, I'd been wanting to record this long before I had a PVR, long before the Spring season. Long before 2011 as I found that out shortly after purchasing and playing this game on day 1. I was just gonna upload the raw file with no music to it, but lately YouTube has started desyncing my MP4s. Not too long ago I was uploading a bunch of OLD Super Street Fighter 4 matches I'd wanted to put on YouTube since 2010 and nearly every one of them failed to sync correctly. Only one of them synced and unfortunately it wasn't even a real match. No luck today with that either. It sucks because eventually I'd love to upload some quality MP4s that I can edit in the future, but if I can't upload them with such quality, then I suppose there's no use worrying about it now. However, I don't get it. I'll never understand why I always have syncing issues. I had them a long time ago when I had my first capture device and the quality was terrible. Now it's just hit or miss.
Anyhoo, enough doom and gloom. I hadn't really given it much time what I'd do today as I only considered recording stuff yesterday. I thought perhaps I'd do something with Sonic CD thinking it was released in '92 so it would be on it's 20th anniversary, but it was actually released a year after Sonic 2 in '93. Do something with Sonic 2? No. Sonic 2 is an awesome game of course, but it's really my least favorite between 1, CD, 2, 3&K. Of course I could still do something with CD anyway, but I have the least amount of off the hand knowledge of the game unlike the Genesis titles.
There was one idea I had originally, and I had started on it already, however things aren't looking very promising with editing. I'm also worried that I don't have enough content. I really can't forsee the scope of it yet as it's just something that's gonna require more time I unfortunately don't have today.
Well, I'll figure something out. My mind is so convinced that I need to record, record, record, but really... what I think I need to record probably isn't mandatory at all.
I decided to start recording in 1080i instead of 720p to see how it would work out. I really didn't like the quality of the last speed run that I did. It was recorded in 720p, but it was compressed pretty hard. In fact, all of my videos post Sky Sanctuary wound up that way because I have to compress the MP4 into an MP2 so it can get edited in Windows Move Maker - and then it gets saved into a WMV file (more compression I assume) and it just looks bad. I may have to look into better hardware soon, or recheck my options saving files in Movie Maker. But how did recording in 1080i work out? Since it's interlaced, there seems to be a bit more motion blur in the videos which I found extremely difficult to NOT notice when I was recording Unleashed. For reasons beyond me, my PVR won't do 1080p. The console flickers off and on until it just won't display it. In spite of starting from a larger resolution, the quality of the edited video (as you can see from above) isn't really much different than from what I've been uploading. Personally, I'm not much of a fan of this interlaced look along with the motion blur. I might feel different about it in the future, but honestly, all that blur doesn't really help games like Sonic easier on the eyes when everything's moving so fast. To watch, it's okay, but to play with... that's another story.
Okay, that was a useless rant, but I feel better~
Unfortunately, I don't have anything all that spectacular to express my love for Sonic... well, neither did the people from The Sonic Show but I'd give them an A for effort.
Meanwhile, I'd been wanting to record this long before I had a PVR, long before the Spring season. Long before 2011 as I found that out shortly after purchasing and playing this game on day 1. I was just gonna upload the raw file with no music to it, but lately YouTube has started desyncing my MP4s. Not too long ago I was uploading a bunch of OLD Super Street Fighter 4 matches I'd wanted to put on YouTube since 2010 and nearly every one of them failed to sync correctly. Only one of them synced and unfortunately it wasn't even a real match. No luck today with that either. It sucks because eventually I'd love to upload some quality MP4s that I can edit in the future, but if I can't upload them with such quality, then I suppose there's no use worrying about it now. However, I don't get it. I'll never understand why I always have syncing issues. I had them a long time ago when I had my first capture device and the quality was terrible. Now it's just hit or miss.
Anyhoo, enough doom and gloom. I hadn't really given it much time what I'd do today as I only considered recording stuff yesterday. I thought perhaps I'd do something with Sonic CD thinking it was released in '92 so it would be on it's 20th anniversary, but it was actually released a year after Sonic 2 in '93. Do something with Sonic 2? No. Sonic 2 is an awesome game of course, but it's really my least favorite between 1, CD, 2, 3&K. Of course I could still do something with CD anyway, but I have the least amount of off the hand knowledge of the game unlike the Genesis titles.
There was one idea I had originally, and I had started on it already, however things aren't looking very promising with editing. I'm also worried that I don't have enough content. I really can't forsee the scope of it yet as it's just something that's gonna require more time I unfortunately don't have today.
Well, I'll figure something out. My mind is so convinced that I need to record, record, record, but really... what I think I need to record probably isn't mandatory at all.
I decided to start recording in 1080i instead of 720p to see how it would work out. I really didn't like the quality of the last speed run that I did. It was recorded in 720p, but it was compressed pretty hard. In fact, all of my videos post Sky Sanctuary wound up that way because I have to compress the MP4 into an MP2 so it can get edited in Windows Move Maker - and then it gets saved into a WMV file (more compression I assume) and it just looks bad. I may have to look into better hardware soon, or recheck my options saving files in Movie Maker. But how did recording in 1080i work out? Since it's interlaced, there seems to be a bit more motion blur in the videos which I found extremely difficult to NOT notice when I was recording Unleashed. For reasons beyond me, my PVR won't do 1080p. The console flickers off and on until it just won't display it. In spite of starting from a larger resolution, the quality of the edited video (as you can see from above) isn't really much different than from what I've been uploading. Personally, I'm not much of a fan of this interlaced look along with the motion blur. I might feel different about it in the future, but honestly, all that blur doesn't really help games like Sonic easier on the eyes when everything's moving so fast. To watch, it's okay, but to play with... that's another story.
Okay, that was a useless rant, but I feel better~
Thursday, June 21, 2012
False advertisement.
Yup. Sure nobody's going to mind that Shadow is advertising Sonic Adventure ONE.
(Though, that is my favorite picture of Sonic, so I'll forgive even Sega for this.)
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Obligatory SA2 post.
(And I just got word that SA1 + Director's Cut on XBL is going for 600 MS points this week.)
I'm actually looking forward to this release and I'm glad that they decided to put it in HD. However, I do have a few concerns.
Seeing this screenshot and all, the first thing I'm wondering is what the framerate is going to be like for the 2-player mode. When I played this game on the Dreamcast, the 2-player mode was pretty horrible. More than the drop in frames, it was slow. I only wonder now that it's running on significantly more powerful hardware, will this still be an issue? Yeah, this is going to be the "Battle" version and I didn't get to see the 2-player mode in the Gamecube version, so...
If there were to change anything, all I'd ask is for Knuckles to have his radar work like it did in SA1 where it would go off for every shard instead of just one at a time. THAT'S IT. Knowing Sega, that's a lot to ask for even if that was centered around one of the game's largest problems: Knuckles' enormous stages. For me, and I'm sure a lot of other people, that would make the replay value of the game go up.
Then we can hail it as the greatest 3D Sonic game ever made... ha! I don't think so. This game was overall a step up from SA1 and IMO, better than Sonic Heroes as far as story, variety of gameplay, voice acting... and MUSIC are concerned. SA2 really did have one of the best Sonic OSTs in the series.
So did SA1 as well.
And for now, that is all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)