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

[Badnik Mechanic]

7 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

Generations 2,

How much do you wanna bet that when someone eventually datamines the game they find more than one reference to this game being generations 2?

[The drunkard from space!]

Inb4 datamining it revealing files called "Sonic5" :V

[Zippo]

It's Generations 2. 

Sega's PR department may claim otherwise until they're blue in the face, but that's what it is, i don't have an issue with that at all, but they dropped the ball with that reveal, 30 seconds of gameplay is not enough to gauge anything, and now they're telling us we'll have to wait until E3 just to get a full trailer? Come on. Classic Sonic isn't going to be that much different from his Generations counterpart either, guaranteed. What will truly decide if this a sequel will be this third gameplay style. That will be very telling. 

[Shadowlax]

58 minutes ago, Mayor D said:

How much do you wanna bet that when someone eventually datamines the game they find more than one reference to this game being generations 2?

Steam>Steamapps>Common>Generations 2

[Kintor]

1 hour ago, Zippo said:

It's Generations 2. 

Sega's PR department may claim otherwise until they're blue in the face, but that's what it is, i don't have an issue with that at all, but they dropped the ball with that reveal, 30 seconds of gameplay is not enough to gauge anything, and now they're telling us we'll have to wait until E3 just to get a full trailer? Come on. Classic Sonic isn't going to be that much different from his Generations counterpart either, guaranteed. What will truly decide if this a sequel will be this third gameplay style. That will be very telling. 

I think that the 40 seconds of gameplay footage we've seen so far has done its job perfectly. Sonic Forces, as the true successor to Sonic Generations, needed to make a break with the recent past and assure the world that it would nothing like Lost World or Sonic Boom. From the initial reveal trailer we already knew that both classic and modern sonic would be making an appearance, it was only a question of whether the popular boost gameplay would return or it would be more of Lost World's failed gameplay mechanics. Devoting this first gameplay trailer entirely to the boost sends the right message, that the Sonic franchise is back on track the way it was in 2011, before everything went wrong. The mysterious third gameplay type can be saved for another, more appropriate time. Stability is the order of the day.

[Blue Blood]

13 minutes ago, Kintor said:

I think that the 40 seconds of gameplay footage we've seen so far has done its job perfectly. Sonic Forces, as the true successor to Sonic Generations, needed to make a break with the recent past and assure the world that it would nothing like Lost World or Sonic Boom. From the initial reveal trailer we already knew that both classic and modern sonic would be making an appearance, it was only a question of whether the popular boost gameplay would return or it would be more of Lost World's failed gameplay mechanics. Devoting this first gameplay trailer entirely to the boost sends the right message, that the Sonic franchise is back on track the way it was in 2011, before everything went wrong. The mysterious third gameplay type can be saved for another, more appropriate time. Stability is the order of the day.

The message that I'm getting is that they're not capable of delivering something better than or different to Generations, so they're just going to repeat it. And that's the wrong message.

Look, they've got something else up their sleeve for Forces and I'm interested to see what it is. But simply going by what we know of the gameplay so far, I'm not excited and I'm not feeling much buzz either. Even with the gameplay they released, chopping it up into a proper trailer would probably have made it look more interesting.

[Kintor]

3 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

The message in getting is that they're not capable of delivering something better than or different to Generations, so they're just going to repeat it. And that's the wrong message. 

When many Sonic fans and general gamers have been demanding Sonic Generations 2 for nearly six years now. When games like Lost World and Sonic Boom are commercial and critical failures, severely damaging the reputation of the Sonic franchise. When it becomes essential for Sega to return to that spirit of good will they achieved in 2011, thanks to the line of games from Sonic Unleashed to Sonic Generations. This is when finally announcing a true sequel to Sonic Generations becomes exactly the right message to say, Sega is at last learning from their mistakes and listening to what the fans have been saying all along - Sonic Forces is proof that things are getting better.

[Blue Blood]

22 minutes ago, Kintor said:

When many Sonic fans and general gamers have been demanding Sonic Generations 2 for nearly six years now. When games like Lost World and Sonic Boom are commercial and critical failures, severely damaging the reputation of the Sonic franchise. When it becomes essential for Sega to return to that spirit of good will they achieved in 2011, thanks to the line of games from Sonic Unleashed to Sonic Generations. This is when finally announcing a true sequel to Sonic Generations becomes exactly the right message to say, Sega is at last learning from their mistakes and listening to what the fans have been saying all along - Sonic Forces is proof that things are getting better.

I think many people were also feeling exhausted after Generations and wanted something different. Neither Lost World nor Boom managed to do what they were supposed to, so seeing SEGA falls back on Generations feels like they're giving up. It's always good to build on what you have, and that total forgoing of any foundations did a lot of harm to Lost World and Boom. Forcing Classic Sonic back in here doesn't really say anything good about SEGA's self-confidence though. And the same goes for Modern Sonic's gameplay which has absolutely lost its luster. 

So far, SEGA haven't managed to recapture the spirit of 2011 at all. Media outlets are fairly quiet, the fanbase isn't particularly hyped either. I said a while ago that reception isn't really negative right now - it's just not very positive either. Part of that is simply because they haven't said much yet, but the slow trickle of details that they have given have really just amounted to "it's the same thing". That's not necessarily bad, really. It isn't exciting though. 

[Kintor]

3 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

I think many people were also feeling exhausted after Generations and wanted something different. Neither Lost World nor Boom managed to do what they were supposed to, so seeing SEGA falls back on Generations feels like they're giving up. It's always good to build on what you have, and that total forgoing of any foundations did a lot of harm to List World and Boom. Forcing Classic Sonic back in here doesn't really say anything good about SEGA's self-confidence though.

The real feeling in the Sonic fanbase at the moment is one of starvation. Most people have never played Lost World or Sonic Boom, even when Lost World was ported to PC. And for good reason, those games were terrible and a far cry from the highly enjoyable experience that Sonic Team created with Sonic Generations. As such, the last big AAA Sonic game most people ever played was back in 2011, six years ago, that's a long time to go between playing new Sonic games. People wanted Sonic Generations 2 and now at least Sega is delivering on that promise. Sonic Forces, with its rightfully restored boost gameplay, as the foundation of Sonic's 3D gameplay going forward, with fill the void that has been left in the wake of Lost World and Sonic Boom's pitiful failures.

[Blue Blood]

13 minutes ago, Kintor said:

Sonic Forces, with its rightfully restored boost gameplay, as the foundation of Sonic's 3D gameplay going forward, with fill the void that has been left in the wake of Lost World and Sonic Boom's pitiful failures.

It is their destiny It is their birthright. Sonic Team Sonic Forces will lay claim to this power and rule over their dominion. (C. Fun, 2017)

References

Captain Fun, Sonic Stadium Message Board "Sonic Forces PS4 Xbox One Swith PC". [31 March 2017] Available at: https://board.sonicstadium.org/topic/21313-sonic-forces-ps4-xbox-one-switch-pc-forcing-another-10-pages-to-the-topic-length-every-day/?page=236#comment-1098612 (Accessed 03 April 2017)

 

[JosepHenry]

This is starting to get annoying. For both sides, funny enough. The people who like it, are indifferent, or don't like it.

...How many times I saw the same "They aren't doing something different and that's not a good sign" post made by the same group of people? We know almost nothing about the game for Christ sake. We know about one gameplay style and... AND? That's all?

If they do something different people will say "why they aren't using more of the boost formula? This game will probably suck! I pass.". They need to win people back after Lost World and Boom. Two very experimental games that failed (Like it or not) while Colors and Generations, did not. Yet is very clear that they are changing things at least a bit, so that "nothing has changed" is not true until we see more of the game to see the new gameplay that will be probably half of the game.

We are missing 2 gameplay styles, and we don't how much of it we are going to have! Maybe is 25% Modern Sonic, 25% Classic Sonic and 50% new gameplay? We don't know.

I repeat: We know next to nothing about the game.

[Jango]

I think the only thing stoping this game of being Generations 2 is the fact that it has all new levels (hopefully?). It's called "generations" for that reason after all, generations of Sonic... Same could be said about calling it Unleashed 2, I don't think either Sonics will "unleash" in Forces (hopefully?)... At best, Forces is Colors 3 right now :V

[Zippo]

39 minutes ago, Kintor said:

When many Sonic fans and general gamers have been demanding Sonic Generations 2 for nearly six years now. When games like Lost World and Sonic Boom are commercial and critical failures, severely damaging the reputation of the Sonic franchise. When it becomes essential for Sega to return to that spirit of good will they achieved in 2011, thanks to the line of games from Sonic Unleashed to Sonic Generations. This is when finally announcing a true sequel to Sonic Generations becomes exactly the right message to say, Sega is at last learning from their mistakes and listening to what the fans have been saying all along - Sonic Forces is proof that things are getting better.

This i will agree with. Sega doesn't need to be taking risks again. They did that in 2013 and 2014, and they failed horribly. They need to stick to what worked. The boost formula is what i feel works best for Sonic in 3D. All that needs to be improved is his somewhat stiff control in the 3D sections. Two improvements we've already seen is that Sonic no longer loses momentum from air dashing, and that boost energy can only be obtained from Wisps, meaning the boost is no longer as common as it was in Unleashed and Generations. I also want other playable characters. Shadow and Blaze can easily be variations of Modern Sonic, Tails and Knuckles can also be variations of Classic Sonic, such as in the older games. Mania isn't doing anything revolutionary or groundbreaking, but no one really cares because it looks and plays fantastic. I'm personally not going to hold Sonic Team to a different standard. I'm going to patiently wait and see what else they have to show us come E3. 

[Chris Knopps]

1 hour ago, Jango said:

I think the only thing stoping this game of being Generations 2 is the fact that it has all new levels (hopefully?). It's called "generations" for that reason after all, generations of Sonic... Same could be said about calling it Unleashed 2, I don't think either Sonics will "unleash" in Forces (hopefully?)... At best, Forces is Colors 3 right now :V

I dunno...

If this game is backtracking in the ways I'm thinking, it's possible my previous ideas/theories make sense. What may be happening is Sonic and co. revisiting Unleashed locations, only now with more of a Genesis trilogy twist since the Time Eater fiasco has resulted in the world being reborn.

Familiar locations now merged with traditional tropes, such as what's potentially Spagonia now being in Green Hill Zone.

It's not too impossible an idea.

[Blue Blood]

The level we've seen is neither Spagonia nor Green Hill. 

[Chris Knopps]

2 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

The level we've seen is neither Spagonia nor Green Hill. 

Be sure to tell me where you got the official, factual confirmation to suggest this one way or the other.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Because it looks like neither of them, let alone both at once.

It's like saying

PROVE TO ME THIS ISN'T A REAL PICTURE OF EARTH

[Wraith]

I can't think of a time Green Hill wasn't instantly recognizable. It's just so far out there a theory with nothing to go on there's not much to discuss. 

[Blue Blood]

51 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

Be sure to tell me where you got the official, factual confirmation to suggest this one way or the other.

Official, factual confirmation that suggests this. 

 

[Adamabba]

On 7/27/2016 at 5:07 PM, JingleBoy said:

So @therealmaddnsk & @TwighlightZoney on twitter have pointed out that the city in this trailer is actually based on Amsterdam! The blue, red and yellow colored buildings probably have no significance to the actual gameplay whatsoever!

Pics in the spoiler tag:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Just for comparison's sake:

                   

 

 

Also, we found out way back that the city is based on Amsterdam.

[blazefan519]

4 minutes ago, Adamabba said:

Also, we found out way back that the city is based on Amsterdam.

Netherlands confirmed?

[The Deleter]

Alright, I've never been big on the Sonic series using photorealistic cities for Sonic's world like Unleashed or SA2 did, as I much prefer they use original and cartoony locations, but if Forces is not only going to combine the two styles, but also an actual, real world city's design into the cartoony world itself...

That's actually a really cool idea, tbh. Dunno why it feels different from Unleashed outright using their locations in all but name, but I definitely like it.

 

Wonder what became of the "two worlds" thing, then, if this is the case...

[RictalRose0]

So I saw this post on tumblr

https://creaturebelowthedeck.tumblr.com/post/159153042819/this-came-from-nakamurashuns-twitter-page-where

It's apparently Shun Nakamura doing some mocap for what appears to be Sonic Forces (or something else?)

Now he's obviously doing Sonic here. But who's the guy in the back playing? Silver?

https://mobile.twitter.com/SEGA_OFFICIAL/status/847314142297956352

[The Deleter]

Considering the Sonic movie is still a thing, I'd say that's the more likely situation here tbh. Though it is pretty odd; I thought it was a live action X cgi mix? Why are they doing motion capture in a studio instead of on a set, greensuited? And in such odd poses, as well?

It could be for Forces, ala SA2 cutscenes, but that seems pretty over the top, really. Regardless, if that is the case, I wonder if it really is Silver being shot, or the new character?

 

But most of all, I have to wonder why even use motion capture for Sonic at all in the first place... He's rediculously over-the-top and speedy; can people actually get better performances and animations out of him through motion capture than animation from scratch? SA2 was a time of a slower Sonic, but even then he looked a little too weighty there than usual when motion cap was used...

[Sephy]

Amsterdam? Personally, when I saw the level for the first time, Porto came to my mind instantly, lol.

 

Even half of the building there are all in a pitiful condition