Team Sonic Racing - Upcoming Sonic Racing Game

[Sega DogTagz]

Transformed snuck up on people after it launched and ended up selling really well,  but I feel like a lot of that came from word of mouth about the quality of the game.

[Sonicka]

Happy to say I completely agree. The game was not bad to play at all.

Frame Rate rarely choppy - if at all during my playthroughs. It’s not a silky 60fps, but never expected that in the first place.  

I think the team mechanic surprised me the most here - even in Single player there was some statagies that you could work in that just isn’t something you’d find in a regular racer, this will be more of a highlight for true multiplayer I imagine however rather than via AI.

The Ice Mountain Stage played Cool Edge’s theme from Unleashed, thematically it’s probably the closest to that game but if Sumo are saying it’s a culmination of all Ice levels across the series (now) then whatever. The track itself was actually very fun to play on, better than the wisp stage anyhow which was a tad more basic.

Control-wise, you just have to think of the past titles, a little slower perhaps but drifting still works like a dream. Power-ups make so much more sense in this racer than past titles and are easier to identify thanks to being relegated as Wisps, such a genius idea. I also loved getting additional help turbos from drifts and slides left on the ground from Teammates - again, this gives you a few more things to think about and take advantage of rather than relying on course memorisation and items alone.

Its not gunna Win my heart out over Transformed sadly - but at least I feel happier at picking this up now I’ve had a test run

[Fire-N-Space]

I love how their taking there time making the team play, characters talking to each other, and tracks it reinforces how good this game will be!

[Badnik Mechanic]

I didn't notice any issues with the frame-rate myself, but then again at EGX we're sat so close to the screen if there was anything I didn't really see it since due to the distance from the screen it was impossible to see the full screen of the telly's.

Now I do have some pretty good over the shoulder footage of EGX which will likely get uploaded tomorrow, assuming I don't kill myself before then. It would have been done tonight only the video is over 30min long and that's way too high for me to justify rendering and uploading.

 

Basically it'll be a playthrough of Planet Wisp without commentary, then at the end the same footage with commentary.

2nd video will be of Ice Mountain without commentary, then at the end the same footage with commentary.

 

So if there is any obvious frame rate or screen tearing issues, I've probably caught it on one of the two videos.

 

I want the commentary there because there's a lot I captured which shows off the games mechanics far better than anything Sega has put out for the game. But I think Sega is going to have a hell of a time trying to communicate this since it's not the easiest thing to show or teach to a player unless they have quite an intense tutorial system.

Also assuming the video rendering goes well, should also have a large preview uploaded similar to what I did to Sonic forces last year.

[Scape]

10 hours ago, Fire-N-Space said:

characters talking to each other

Fantastic. Another opportunity for terrible writing.

[Fire-N-Space]

Just now, Scape said:

Fantastic. Another opportunity for terrible writing.

Its also a opportunity for great writing I'll be happy with any writer as long as its not the ones from Sonic Boom TV or Ian Flynn.

[Sega DogTagz]

1 hour ago, Fire-N-Space said:

Its also a opportunity for great writing I'll be happy with any writer as long as its not the ones from Sonic Boom TV or Ian Flynn.

you mean the only good writers this series has

On this note, I do wonder how deep the V/O pool will be for this game. Each character will need specific quips for each of their rivals, and then probably a handful of generic ones on top of that. With the roster set to so few charaters, you could burn through that stock and start hearing repeats sooner than I would want...

 

[Fire-N-Space]

Just now, Sega DogTagz said:

you mean the only good writers this series has

On this note, I do wonder how deep the V/O pool will be for this game. Each character will need specific quips for each of their rivals, and then probably a handful of generic ones on top of that. With the roster set to so few charaters, you could burn through that stock and start hearing repeats sooner than I would want...

 

I mean the worst writers this series has ever had.

Its characters roster feels more robust than Transformed and they don't look half done with the hearing repeat voices sooner than later Transformed had Pudding saying only two loud words "pudding" or "no" and Amy just made grunts or whimper sounds so hearing Amy talk makes me want to give this game a 10 out of 10 right now.

[Tarnish]

17 hours ago, Fire-N-Space said:

characters talking to each other

Like with everything, there's a good way and bad way of doing this. From what I could tell, now it is on the "characters won't ever shut up and has to comment every little god damn thing" setting, which I would say is a bad way of doing it.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Characters talking to each other.

 

Yeah some people are really blowing this out of proportion.

The character dialogue in this isn't that bad at all. Even during races it's very minimum and uses the 'Wine Party' theory really well.

That being. You don't really notice the dialogue unless a team mate is talking to you or asking you for help.

We had some pretty good headphones on which cancelled out the noise of the convention so you could focus on the music and dialogue.

 

These complaints the the dialogue is too much or bad. Just not true.

 

Edit: Oh yeah. Most of the time the dialogue only occurs if you the player interacts in some way with another character. So hit an opponent with a weapon. You'll get a response.

Which is pretty good since you know your weapon strike hit a target even if they're around a bend out of sight.

Same if a character hits you. It's a good gameplay mechanic in that you know where other players are in relation to you just by a dialogue line.

It's not like these characters are like every teen road trip movie where they don't stop talking on their phones.

 

Edit: In fact just editing my EGX footage now. There's an example of this context dialogue. 

 

I shoot a weapon. It goes around a corner and a few second later Sonic comments on how he just hit Big. I would have had no idea Big was ahead of me or m weapon hit target had that not been there.

[Red Hot Jack]

I noticed this too, the talking is pretty much restricted to basic race interactions.

[NegaMix]

Speaking of dialogue, I found it kind of odd that whichever character I chose to play as never seemed to actually speak during the race.

Sure, dialogue boxes for them would show up on the screen, but my character would never open their mouth for some reason. Wonder of that was just a demo thing.

Same with the rings not making any sound effect when collected. I'm not sure if that was intentional, or just something that was missing from the demo (OR if the headphones at EGX had something to do with it).

[Badnik Mechanic]

1 hour ago, NegaMetallix said:

Speaking of dialogue, I found it kind of odd that whichever character I chose to play as never seemed to actually speak during the race.

Sure, dialogue boxes for them would show up on the screen, but my character would never open their mouth for some reason. Wonder of that was just a demo thing.

Same with the rings not making any sound effect when collected. I'm not sure if that was intentional, or just something that was missing from the demo (OR if the headphones at EGX had something to do with it).

Characters you pick definitely speak, have it on video.

But there are some very odd missing sound effects, such as character select notifications.

[Meta77]

You didn't know who was in front of you. So no map or did you just not pay attention to big passing you?

[Badnik Mechanic]

3 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

You didn't know who was in front of you. So no map or did you just not pay attention to big passing you?

Why do I get the feeling regardless of what answer I give here it's going to generate a non controversy?

There is no map. I cannot keep a mental note of 12 different characters in a racing game which has multiple routes.

[Meta77]

3 minutes ago, Mayor D said:

Why do I get the feeling regardless of what answer I give here it's going to generate a non controversy?

There is no map. I cannot keep a mental note of 12 different characters in a racing game which has multiple routes.

Didn't even mean that. I'm guess asking how it's set up. Not all gamers can do it but I can keep a mental picture  it helps me to learn who the threats will be in later gp cup races

[NegaMix]

1 hour ago, Mayor D said:

Characters you pick definitely speak, have it on video.

But there are some very odd missing sound effects, such as character select notifications.

Huh. I must've had some bad luck with that, then. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Plasme]

Mayor D, are you going to write a full opinion piece on TSR?

[Badnik Mechanic]

52 minutes ago, Plasme said:

Mayor D, are you going to write a full opinion piece on TSR?

Yes.

It's already written. Just trying to render the accompanying videos.

[Plasme]

6 minutes ago, Mayor D said:

Yes.

It's already written. Just trying to render the accompanying videos.

Thanks man, I really appreciate it!

I'm looking forward to seeing your opinion  

[Badnik Mechanic]

There's two videos I'm doing, 1 per track, because if I did it as one video it would be over 30min long.

The first one is rendering now, the 2nd one still needs to be edited and rendered... so hopefully everything should be up by tomorrow, would like it to be tonight but... yeah... can't see that happening.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Boink: https://www.sonicstadium.org/2018/09/team-sonic-racing-egx-2018-hands-on-impressions/

Boink:

Flibble Wibble. 

Any questions?

 

 

[Red Hot Jack]

I definitely agree that it should be delayed for extra polish (animations, sound effects, framerate, etc.), January or February or even March seems enough in my opinion. But I'm also afraid that some reviews might not get into it when the game comes out, they might play it a couple of times and not understand the mechanics, because this is a very complex racing game that has a bland appearance to it, at first glance it may seem boring and dull, too simple, but it's actually very intelligent, and I'm afraid they may not see it for what it really is. I also defend the track design because between team mechanics and Wisps, there is a lot going on so there need to be more open tracks, but also with interesting design as shown in Ice Mountain and Street Market.

[Plasme]

I've been very critical of this game since it's reveal, but Mayor D's analysis and write up has shown me that there is more depth and tactics in this game than I originally assumed. I'm actually excited to get this now. I mean, I don't want a Sonic game to fail, especially a SUMO racing game, and this has filled me with a lot of hope.

There's still elements which irritate me, such as the small roster, but I'm actually excited to get my hands on this now.

[kalion]

Sounds like it's gonna be ARMS of Racing games.

What really cheesed me off is that I had to read your article to know Speed Characters were flimsy and Power characters can be a battering ram.

Where were all this information in the trailers? They need to get new PR people because Webber got promoted and the new people in charge have been faring poorly since Forces.

Look at how they handle the Yakuza trailers and then look at this mess. Believe it or not, it's the same publisher.