Sonic Forces | PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC "The Next Generations"

[blazefan519]

Just now, Kintor said:

The target for game developers is now High-end PC, PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpion. Making the real difference between the Switch and the competition as vast as the Wii days if not more so. New games are being made at original PS4 and Xbox One as a baseline, the bare minimum, which excludes the Switch. It's something of a miracle that Sonic Forces is getting a Switch version at all, only time will tell what sacrifices Sonic Team (or Dimps?) will have to make to get that Switch version playable.

The Switch is doing significantly well right now (almost 2 million in the first 3 days of release). Of course they'll want to capitilize on it's success, that's how third parties work in general. All in all, it won't really come down to graphics because the Switch can handle it. What it comes down to is optimization. If it's optimized really well, then without a doubt it will look fantastic on Switch. Also, since most games are made in the PS4 and XBONE as a baseline, the graphical limitations won't be that huge since the Switch is close in power to those consoles.

[Kintor]

5 minutes ago, RictalRose0 said:

Sonic Total War lmao. I actually wouldn't mind a spin-off of that. 

There's now the fantasy based Total War: Warhammer, so anything is possible.

Speaking of which, Relic Entertainment (also owned by Sega) might have some ideas about a Sonic themed Warhammer 40,000 game:

For the Emperor!

[Jango]

There's so many possibilities for the third character/gameplay that it's not even funny

I wonder if it truly can be some sort of Future Sonic if the plot involves time travel. A rebel Sonic that lives in the city's underground, fighting the opposing Eggman forces day and night with guns and shit. Like Jak 2...? Eh, better no.

[RictalRose0]

Also seeing as dialogue is often lacking in the recent games and we don't see much of the other characters I hope we don't just see the characters through a few cutscenes and radio conversations, and hope it's not like "one character per stage". I'll rather they focus on a group of characters and try to give us a good story with them instead of having EVERYONE just for the hell of it because they have never really pulled that off except in Heroes, and that was because everyone was playable in Heroes.

The way it was done in Shadow the Hedgehog was pretty lazy. Everyone was there but you barely noticed their importance. Sonic 06 also had that, only Silver and Shadow end up feeling relevant, even making Sonic feel like a side-character in his own game. Also Knuckles literally had no reason to be in 06, and Tails also feels very out of place most of the time too. Amy managed to be somehow more relevant that Knuckles and Tails even though she appears the least out of all the side characters.

So basically I want the other characters to be back yeah, but don't over do it. Find a balance between "Hey look everyone's here!" and "Sonic, Tails and Eggman"

[blazefan519]

5 minutes ago, RictalRose0 said:

Also seeing as dialogue is often lacking in the recent games and we don't see much of the other characters I hope we don't just see the characters through a few cutscenes and radio conversations, and hope it's not like "one character per stage". I'll rather they focus on a group of characters and try to give us a good story with them instead of having EVERYONE just for the hell of it because they have never really pulled that off except in Heroes, and that was because everyone was playable in Heroes.

The way it was done in Shadow the Hedgehog was pretty lazy. Everyone was there but you barely noticed their importance. Sonic 06 also had that, only Silver and Shadow end up feeling relevant, even making Sonic feel like a side-character in his own game. Also Knuckles literally had no reason to be in 06, and Tails also feels very out of place most of the time too. Amy managed to be somehow more relevant that Knuckles and Tails even though she appears the least out of all the side characters.

So basically I want the other characters to be back yeah, but don't over do it. Find a balance between "Hey look everyone's here!" and "Sonic, Tails and Eggman"

Seeing as this is an anniversary game, It's most likely that a majority if not all of the characters will be here. I'd honestly be surprised if they can do it as well as Heroes, but, who knows, it's possible.

Did anyone mention that Tails wasn't mentioned at all for the communicators. I know we don't know much about the game, but Sonic is Tails' best friend and I find it incredibly odd that in the first stage of the game, he wasn't front and center helping Sonic. It may be a bit soon to jump to conclusions, but I honestly think that that is a pretty big detail.

[Solly]

Sorry if I'm late here, but do we know what the game's running on in the footage? I'm inclined to say PC because that's how these things usually go, plus we haven't had a boost game running higher than 30fps on any console yet, have we? (Not that I want to feed into the technical discussion too much)

I agree that the animations definitely need work. Sonic's looking a little rigid, especially when running.

[RictalRose0]

I know. But it's Tails, he's gotta be. Maybe they only mentioted Knux, Amy and the Chaotix because that's who they saw in their play time. I really hope it's not another case of Tails getting kidnapped, the boy has come a long way from that and he doesn't need to get himself kidnapped again.

[blazefan519]

1 minute ago, RictalRose0 said:

I know. But it's Tails, he's gotta be. Maybe they only mentioted Knux, Amy and the Chaotix because that's who they saw in their play time. I really hope it's not another case of Tails getting kidnapped, the boy has come a long way from that and he doesn't need to get himself kidnapped again.

I know, but it's just odd to not see him mentioned since he almost always at Sonic's side. And yeah, I'm hoping he doesn't get captured either, that plot in Lost World was dumb because it didn't amount to anything at all.

[Chris Knopps]

55 minutes ago, Kintor said:

The target for game developers is now High-end PC, PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpion. Making the real difference between the Switch and the competition as vast as the Wii days if not more so. New games are being made at original PS4 and Xbox One as a baseline, the bare minimum, which excludes the Switch. It's something of a miracle that Sonic Forces is getting a Switch version at all, only time will tell what sacrifices Sonic Team (or Dimps?) will have to make to get that Switch version playable.

Edit:

Sounds interesting. Sega owns Creative Assembly, so why not get them involved? Just imagine - Sonic: Total War

We just gonna ignore indies that will likely flock more to Switch in the long run...?

Big-name developers are becoming less and less important in the gaming industry nowadays with indies gradually starting to overshadow them.

[Vec]

"Sonic Forces" and "Join the resistance" to me sounds like they'll let players create a character. I know that's something dangerous to implement in the Sonic fandom...but it's what it sounds like to me.

[JosepHenry]

Maybe he got brainwashed or robotized? That would be cool.

Come on I need Sonic vs Tails boss fight. Colors disappointed me, so Lost World.

[blazefan519]

1 minute ago, JosepMelloZSM said:

Maybe he got brainwashed or robotized?

Come on I need Sonic vs Tails boss figh

 

That's something that both Colors and Lost World could've done, but NOPE. He get's brainwashed but gets immediately fixed afterwards. COME ON!

[Chris Knopps]

4 minutes ago, JosepMelloZSM said:

Maybe he got brainwashed or robotized?

Come on I need Sonic vs Tails boss figh

 

Or...

Maybe this is happening...?

(Edit)

Of course, now knowing who's producing the game... Maybe THIS is more of a possibility...?

All your friends are belong to Eggman.

[Strickerx5]

22 minutes ago, blazefan519 said:

The Switch is doing significantly well right now (almost 2 million in the first 3 days of release). Of course they'll want to capitilize on it's success, that's how third parties work in general. All in all, it won't really come down to graphics because the Switch can handle it. What it comes down to is optimization. If it's optimized really well, then without a doubt it will look fantastic on Switch. Also, since most games are made in the PS4 and XBONE as a baseline, the graphical limitations won't be that huge since the Switch is close in power to those consoles.

While I do agree that the Switch is pretty damn impressive on its own terms (I'm loving mine so far)... to say it's near the level most developers operate on now is pretty optimistic at best. For the last year or two we've even seen the One and PS4 struggle to keep up with the majority of games coming out. Developers have resorted to techniques like checker boarding and resolution scaling just to maintain a solid 30fps a majority of the time. It's something I've been saying from the beginning. Nintendo coming out this late in the generation (as the Pro is already raising the bar and the Scorpio is not far behind) with 3 year old handheld hardware isn't doing themselves any favors with 3rd parties. Hell, we've already seen a number of titles on it that don't have half the technical features this footage shows off that are struggling technically. I look at the footage released today and I'm starting to think that even the base PS4 is going to have some trouble pooling all that off.

It's true though, optimization plays a large factor into this as well. I mean, games like Overwatch with all its graphical effects could probably maintain at least a solid 30 on any potato. Though, companies like Blizzard are far and few between when it comes to this category. It's much more common to have companies make one version that works decently well and then port it off to other hardware where it then degrades from there. Honestly, we have yet to see Sonic Team having to develop a game that's being ported to such drastically different hardware. For the most part it's either been just on Nintendo's hardware or across the level playing field that Sony and Microsoft usually have. Sega seems to op for a completely different version of the title entirely when it's a release on hardware as varied as this. It'll be interesting to see where they fall in terms of optimization now.

Though, it's hard to be optimistic at this point. We have every current sign pointing to the Switch not being able to even come close to keeping the detail seen in that trailer while boosting 60fps even in docked mode (as at that point the system is just overclocking its cpu for the pure functionality of up-scaling the resolution). I have no doubt that a version of this can run on the Switch... but I'll lay my cards on the table here and say it'll be a 30fps, low graphics setting version. If it's anything more, color me impressed.

That being said, I do actually plan on getting the Switch version anyway along with the PC version. Will hopefully get the best of both worlds then.

 

On another note:

13 minutes ago, blazefan519 said:

Seeing as this is an anniversary game, It's most likely that a majority if not all of the characters will be here. I'd honestly be surprised if they can do it as well as Heroes, but, who knows, it's possible.

That's a... real low bar isn't it? Especially considering that most of the cutscenes in Heroes can basically be summed up as: "Hey look it's so and so, let's fight for some reason!..."

[JosepHenry]

THAT TAILS WILL GIVE ME NIGHTMARES THANK YOU SO MUCH

 

Tails is a traitor? Nah, I rather have him brainwashed or robotized. That should also bring some feels, since Tails is Sonic's best friend.

[Maxtiis]

4 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

Or...

Maybe this is happening...?

 

 

Those teeth...

[RictalRose0]

Indeed, it's a pretty low bar but that's the only game that is like "EVERYONE'S HERE YEAH" and doesn't feel forced as hell. The reasons for the teams to fight were the most ridiculous things but other that that eveyone does have a reason to be on the trail of Dr. Eggman, and the dialogue the characters have during the stages elaborates on that a little more.

[JezMM]

Honestly assuming you're planning to play the game as oppose to masturbate furiously to the graphics, the Switch version is the only one which you'll be able to play on the go, which I'm sure is a significant dealbreaker for many players.

[Kellan]

I can see it now:

Eggman uses time nonsense to send Classic into the future, thus undoing all of his adventures.

Tails never becomes Sonic's protege, and is now a low-level mechanic for the Eggman Empire. Knuckles lost the Master Emerald during the events of Sonic 3. The Chaotix have disbanded for some reason. Etc.

Probably won't happen, considering Amy and the Chaotix talk to you in the first level, but I thought it'd be a neat concept.

[blazefan519]

4 minutes ago, Strickerx5 said:

While I do agree that the Switch is pretty damn impressive on its own terms (I'm loving mine so far)... to say it's near the level most developers operate on now is pretty optimistic at best. For the last year or two we've even seen the One and PS4 struggle to keep up with the majority of games coming out. Developers have resorted to techniques like checker boarding and resolution scaling just to maintain a solid 30fps a majority of the time. It's something I've been saying from the beginning. Nintendo coming out this late in the generation (as the Pro is already raising the bar and the Scorpio is not far behind) with 3 year old handheld hardware isn't doing themselves any favors with 3rd parties. Hell, we've already seen a number of titles on it that don't have half the technical features this footage shows off that are struggling technically. I look at the footage released today and I'm starting to think that even the base PS4 is going to have some trouble pooling all that off.

It's true though, optimization plays a large factor into this as well. I mean, games like Overwatch with all its graphical effects could probably maintain at least a solid 30 on any potato. Though, companies like Blizzard are far and few between when it comes to this category. It's much more common to have companies make one version that works decently well and then port it off to other hardware where it then degrades from there. Honestly, we have yet to see Sonic Team having to develop a game that's being ported to such drastically different hardware. For the most part it's either been just on Nintendo's hardware or across the level playing field that Sony and Microsoft usually have. Sega seems to op for a completely different version of the title entirely when it's a release on hardware as varied as this. It'll be interesting to see where they fall in terms of optimization now.

Though, it's hard to be optimistic at this point. We have every current sign pointing to the Switch not being able to even come close to keeping the detail seen in that trailer while boosting 60fps even in docked mode (as at that point the system is just overclocking its cpu for the pure functionality of up-scaling the resolution). I have no doubt that a version of this can run on the Switch... but I'll lay my cards on the table here and say it'll be a 30fps, low graphics setting version. If it's anything more, color me impressed.

That being said, I do actually plan on getting the Switch version anyway along with the PC version. Will hopefully get the best of both worlds then.

 

On another note:

That's a... real low bar isn't it? Especially considering that most of the cutscenes in Heroes can basically be summed up as: "Hey look it's so and so, let's fight for some reason!..."

For the first point. I can see where you are coming from there. I still think that the main thing it will come down to is optimization and while the hardware does have a share in it, it's not the main problem. Like I said, I'll most likely get the XBONE and the Switch version and I'm very interested to how the Switch port will be handled.

As for Heroes, Yeah the cutscenes were pretty generic but the point that me and the other guy was saying was that Heroes was the only game to make it feel like all the characters were important and not one of them overshadowed the other. And that's what I'm personally hoping is the case with Forces, but I am very doubtful that is the case.

[RictalRose0]

But then why would Modern Sonic still be there? Unless it's like, as reality tears part he starts to slowly disssapear and he and Classic have to team up and undo Eggman's plans before he dissapears?

[StaticMania]

2 minutes ago, Kellan said:

I can see it now:

Eggman uses time nonsense to send Classic into the future, thus undoing all of his adventures.

Tails never becomes Sonic's protege, and is now a low-level mechanic for the Eggman Empire. Knuckles lost the Master Emerald during the events of Sonic 3. The Chaotix have disbanded for some reason. Etc.

Probably won't happen, considering Amy and the Chaotix talk to you in the first level, but I thought it'd be a neat concept.

Is there anything actually tragic happening here? The worst thing is that Tails never becomes Sonic's little brother...and he might possibly get Eggman's teeth. But other than that, it wouldn't be a hard fix. Also wouldn't change much either...

[blazefan519]

6 minutes ago, JezMM said:

Honestly assuming you're planning to play the game as oppose to masturbate furiously to the graphics, the Switch version is the only one which you'll be able to play on the go, which I'm sure is a significant dealbreaker for many players.

It's a deal breaker? That's actually one of the reasons why I am getting the Switch version (also partly because I mostly play games on Nintendo Consoles)

[JezMM]

Just now, blazefan519 said:

It's a deal breaker? That's actually one of the reasons why I am getting the Switch version (also partly because I mostly play games on Nintendo Consoles)

Dealbreaker can go any ways, I mean as in what you say, for some the fact that you can play it handheld is what swayed your decision.

[RictalRose0]

Eggman ruling the world and turning everything into a nation long theme park and destroying everything that stands in his way isn't a terrible thing? Without Sonic, Eggman really would rule the world. The Doctor might be a bit of manchild goofball but when he wants to he can easily threaten everyone. Usually by means of awakening ancient gods he shouldn't mess with or planet busting weapons like the ARK cannon.