Sonic Colors: Ultimate - Announcement Trailer

[Wraith]

1 minute ago, Shade Vortex said:

Now that all the visual issues are seeming to be getting fixed, I guess the people who said things like "Blind Squirrel Games is a fitting name" are gonna eat some crow?

Nah for a solid month that shit looked terrible. I don't regret anything I said then

[Shade Vortex]

I don't disagree that things looked bad before, but my point is more that the devs got a lot of flack that directly insulted how competent they are. And now that things are better, are people going to be nicer to these devs? I guess not, going by that reaction and people agreeing with it.

[VO.SUPER]

39 minutes ago, Shade Vortex said:

I don't disagree that things looked bad before, but my point is more that the devs got a lot of flack that directly insulted how competent they are. And now that things are better, are people going to be nicer to these devs? I guess not, going by that reaction and people agreeing with it.

While I was always of the opinion that they would be improving it all the way up to launch. I don't blame everyone else for reacting as they did.

1. Opinions on Sonic had been at a pretty big low a few weeks back.

2. Remaster apathy has been growing in the gaming landscape in general, and so Colours Ultimate wasn't really helping matters.

Combine those two with the relatively mediocre footage we saw at E3 and everyone was right to think things were going wrong. And no one was really willing to hold out hope things would get better since the wall of apathy was just very thick and SEGA had just let a lot of people down.

[Dr. Detective]

For some reason, I guess they didn't think Sonic fans would comb through the footage and do comparison shots. How foolish.

But nah. I feel like this'll be a repeat of what happened with TSR. People will say it looks dreadful and then the game comes out and it looks fine. 

Hopefully, this isn't a trick and the game comes out in black and white. It'll be "Sonic: The Search for Colors" then.

Whatever though. If this means I can be even more positive about Sonic then I already am lately then hurray!

[TheOcelot]

Ohtani has confirmed via twitter that (as suspected) the remix of Reach For The Stars performed yesterday is indeed made for Ultimate:

 

 

Time stamp 1:16:30

Love this new version. Definitely my favourite of the Ultimate remixs we've heard so far.

 

The version of Speak With Your Heart performed (time stamp 1:21:19) is a hybrid of the original version and the remix for Ultimate:

[Sonicka]

One thought I did have surrounding the lighting controversy (moreso talking about Sonic and the oddly dimmed lighting when he uses specific colour powers) is that it could be tied into these new aura effects that can be unlocked and applied like cosmetics.

If I understand their use correctly then it would stand to reason that they could have deliberately dulled down the look of certain colour powers as this would make the new visual cosmetics to appear more pronounced in comparison when activated. 

 

[Blue Blood]

2 hours ago, Shade Vortex said:

I don't disagree that things looked bad before, but my point is more that the devs got a lot of flack that directly insulted how competent they are. And now that things are better, are people going to be nicer to these devs? I guess not, going by that reaction and people agreeing with it.

We criticised the game and the efforts that were shown. FWIW, Colours Ultimate still has problems and should never have been shown in the state that it was in before. I won't take back anything that I said about a product that looked bad when it was shown off just because things have some been changed.

[Dr. Detective]

2 hours ago, TheOcelot said:

Ohtani has confirmed via twitter that (as suspected) the remix of Reach For The Stars performed yesterday is indeed made for Ultimate:

I think I like this version more than the original. I would have to considering hearing it made me tear up. Maybe it was just the atmosphere of the celebration getting to me but I listened to it again and it's still just as good, if not better. I'm really happy. 

[Jango]

Just wanna drop this:

 

 

 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Glad to see the visuals looking better. Also feeling validated for not being upset when the game was still a little while out. Hope we continue to see ways the game has improved.

[TheOcelot]

Here's an upload of Speak With Your Heart:

I think the part which is from the Ultimate remix (this performance was a hybrid of the original and Ultimate remix) starts around 3:34.

[VO.SUPER]

I can't tell whether it was actually a good or bad thing for SEGA to show Ultimate as it was. 

Because now Ultimate has a redemption arc going on after following the high of the Symphony. 

In any other circumstances I'd say it was a mistake. But maybe just this once id say it was a good thing. But only under these specific circumstances. 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Lots of games don't look as good before they release, this one just happened to still look the way it did closer to its release (or else had really old screens and footage) and have a direct point of comparison.

Whether the game had a "redemption arc" or not, it wouldn't be a mistake to SEGA, because the detractors from the remaster, even with valid complaints, have never been the majority or controlled the dominant narrative about the game.

[Sega DogTagz]

1 hour ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

Whether the game had a "redemption arc" or not, it wouldn't be a mistake to SEGA, because the detractors from the remaster, even with valid complaints, have never been the majority or controlled the dominant narrative about the game.

Even if it was, the movie just showed that Sonic media can get away with kneecapping expectations, then delivering a competent end result. While nothing we saw out of Ultimate reached original movie Sonic levels of universal recoil, it did set the stage for the final copy to be deemed acceptable simply by not being the dumpster fire we were looking at just a month or so ago.

 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

4 hours ago, TheOcelot said:

Here's an upload of Speak With Your Heart:

I think the part which is from the Ultimate remix (this performance was a hybrid of the original and Ultimate remix) starts around 3:34.

The entire song sounds remixed though.

[Spooky Mulder]

Some of the new music is great, but most of it just seems new for the sake of it and I don't love that. I hope there's a way to play with the original tracks.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

8 hours ago, Jango said:

Just wanna drop this:

 

 

 

It's interesting that there are some parts of this remix that I vastly prefer to the original.

The quieter start really helps with the buildup and the overall softer background mix of drums and piano music is a lot more pleasant to my ears compared to the original, even if the stronger guitar does get a bit overwhelming at times,

Plus the shifting between harder and softer means that it doesn't get too samey as I listen to the whole song, something that the original kinda fell into when I relistened to it.

[Red Hot Jack]

Well, it's absolutely fine to criticize the game, of course it was based on what we saw of it, but yeah things develop through time, I am just glad they finally released updated footage and obviously ifit the game was said to be "unplayable" in 2020, I'm not surprised recent footage looked like garbage, it's okay as well because they fixed it from the looks of it, no need to say "they should have never released the old footage" either because of schedules that was what they had.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Well, the assumption is probably that a lot of what we saw was from older builds of the game, the footage itself being old from last year. If that is the case, then the right move would have been to actually record what the game's current state looked like before announcing it. It's not like that's extremely hard.

[Blue Blood]

14 minutes ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

Well, the assumption is probably that a lot of what we saw was from older builds of the game, the footage itself being old from last year. If that is the case, then the right move would have been to actually record what the game's current state looked like before announcing it. It's not like that's extremely hard.

Even if you want to say "Oh but it takes a long time to get trailers made and approved", I'm not buying it. The symphony used footage recorded from Ultimate very recently, as mentioned in the Sonic Official stream least night. The trailer looked bad. End of story. It even had a brief section where Sonic's eyes were glitched and remained shut as he was running in Sweet Mountain. They could, and should, have put together a new trailer or montage of footage.

I still need to see if they've fixed the mappings on various textures, to remove artefacts and seams. I know that no seams are visible in some screenshots, but I just want to see the same areas for comparisons sake. There's also the matter of the bright-as-day tunnels in Sweet Mountain, the lack of eye animation and show animation on maps, the copious amount of pop in and the various other small things. The Symphony footage looks miles better. But we need a much clearer look than the symphony gives us.

[Marcello]

Since they seem to have fixed the stage lighting, I hope they fix Sonic's lighting. Not a fan of the overlit, shiny Sonic with yellow skin. Pretty sure that was still in the concert footage.

[Jango]

30 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

Even if you want to say "Oh but it takes a long time to get trailers made and approved", I'm not buying it. The symphony used footage recorded from Ultimate very recently, as mentioned in the Sonic Official stream least night. The trailer looked bad. End of story. It even had a brief section where Sonic's eyes were glitched and remained shut as he was running in Sweet Mountain. They could, and should, have put together a new trailer or montage of footage.

I still need to see if they've fixed the mappings on various textures, to remove artefacts and seams. I know that no seams are visible in some screenshots, but I just want to see the same areas for comparisons sake. There's also the matter of the bright-as-day tunnels in Sweet Mountain, the lack of eye animation and show animation on maps, the copious amount of pop in and the various other small things. The Symphony footage looks miles better. But we need a much clearer look than the symphony gives us.

I've followed the graphical evolution of all the Crash and Spyro games that came after 2017 very closely, and stuff changing weekly is really common. There were times where something was improved, just to a week later appear worse in a "new footage". It's that crazy, we never knew at which point in time a footage came from. But something that definitely helped the developers of Crash and Spyro was the official subreddit, A LOT of improvements came from suggestions posted there. We knew they browsed those reddits all the time, especially the CTR devs, Beenox. Hell, THIS came from reddit. And they even fixed a character's face and re-released it because of the complaints.

Althought I'm not sure if Blind Squirrel or someone at SEGA keeps an eye on these reddits or forums like us. They sure as hell could take a lot of good suggestions from here too.

Anyways, from my experience, @Blue Blood, it's better not get too much into it regarding footage. We're only really gonna know how the game looks once it's out (I know it sounds obvious, but still...).

[Blue Blood]

1 hour ago, Jango said:

I've followed the graphical evolution of all the Crash and Spyro games that came after 2017 very closely, and stuff changing weekly is really common. There were times where something was improved, just to a week later appear worse in a "new footage". It's that crazy, we never knew at which point in time a footage came from. But something that definitely helped the developers of Crash and Spyro was the official subreddit, A LOT of improvements came from suggestions posted there. We knew they browsed those reddits all the time, especially the CTR devs, Beenox. Hell, THIS came from reddit. And they even fixed a character's face and re-released it because of the complaints.

Althought I'm not sure if Blind Squirrel or someone at SEGA keeps an eye on these reddits or forums like us. They sure as hell could take a lot of good suggestions from here too.

Anyways, from my experience, @Blue Blood, it's better not get too much into it regarding footage. We're only really gonna know how the game looks once it's out (I know it sounds obvious, but still...).

I've absolutely no idea what that Reddit link is supposed to mean.

But anyway, I'm well aware of visuals and other such details changing over the course of a games development. That's normal. Lol I don't need you try to give me a pep talk or anything. That doesn't change my point about all of the footage that's been properly showcased looking bad, whilst the B-roll in the background of the symphony is looking vastly improved over everything else. The trailer should never showed the game in such a state. We've seen plenty of things too find fault with regarding the graphics of Ultimate, and I'm going to keep those all in mind as we wait to see more of the game. It's that simple. And it shouldn't be up to the fans to say "this looks bad please fix it". 

[Iko]

In the meanwhile drifting still looks bad implemented even in the symphony footage... they didn't fix it and I'm losing hopes they will, along with the spike wisp glitchy behaviors and the double jump resetting your momentum. If they fixed those 3 issues the game would have improved a lot, but my hopes for that are close to 0.

Also I hope they fixed this guy too

one of the most confusing parts of the game, it's unintuitive and unfair, especially on Terminal Velocity.

(I want to point out that all of the issues in this post were in the original game on Wii and I expect them to be fixed in an enhanced port).

[Kuzu]

Not that it isn't justified, but methinks we're just a little TOO reactionary.

Like, nothing about the early footage shown isn't really too different from what other franchises do and people generally take it in stride.

But since this is Sonic, we need to scrutinize and nitpick every issue. And I do mean EVERY issue, minor or otherwise.

Its just a quirk of the Sonic fanbase I guess. Things other franchises can get away with, will always be put under a microscope when Sonic does it. Its a weird double standard tbh.