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[Sciz]

I wouldn't have thought having a faulty storage drive connected would stop Windows from booting, but apparently it can. Learn something new every day. After extensive and frustrating troubleshooting.


SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #126

Song: Eggmanland - Day
Game: Sonic Unleashed
Composer: Kenichi Tokoi

Presented without comment.

 

[HUELEN10]

Whenever I hear this song, it's specifically the day Eggmanland from the Wii version I see in my mind.

 

[BlackJace]

I wouldn't have thought having a faulty storage drive connected would stop Windows from booting, but apparently it can. Learn something new every day. After extensive and frustrating troubleshooting.


SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #126

Song: Eggmanland - Day
Game: Sonic Unleashed
Composer: Kenichi Tokoi

Presented without comment.

I really only like just the first 10-15 seconds of the song, then it becomes rather bland.

 

[Shadow Hog]

I always really liked the "Eggmanland" themes. They're a little dry on hummable melody, but I think the piano riffs more than make up for it. I particularly like how, in the Day variant, the slow speed of said piano lead is juxtaposed quite nicely with the frenetic synth backing accompanying it.

 

[PhantomOfTheKnight]

Tearaway is fucked up.

Tearaway fucked me up.

I don't know what to think anymore.

...what is life?

 

[Regiruler]

i can't take these motion controls anymore

i can't

why do i have to swing on ropes with waggle, who on earth thinks that's fun

this game will kill me

Better or worse than unleashed's Wii motion controls?

 

[Razzer]

SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #126

Song: Eggmanland - Day
Game: Sonic Unleashed
Composer: Kenichi Tokoi

I really like it, not sure why honestly.

 

[AniHawk]

i like the last of us, and i think naughty dog did an awesome job at pounding a square peg into a round hole, but tearaway's message was so much more earnest and worth the journey. i can't remember the last game i played that urged the player to be imaginative.

mediamolecule's easily sony's best studio right now. i can't wait to see what they do next.

 

[Regiruler]

I must ride this some day

 

[HUELEN10]

I must ride this some day

Where exactly is this?

 

[The Xtortionist]

Where exactly is this?

Dubai

 

[Anth0ny]

Better or worse than unleashed's Wii motion controls?

I've never played Unleashed for Wii, but I can't imagine anything more broken than the motion controls in secret rings

i'm this close to chucking my wiimote out the fucking window

 

[Professor Beef]

Tearaway is fucked up.

Tearaway fucked me up.

I don't know what to think anymore.

...what is life?

If I had a passing interest in playing it, this would intrigue me.

 

[BlazeHedgehog]

Better or worse than unleashed's Wii motion controls?

To control Secret Rings, you hold the Wii Remote NES style and tilt left and right to steer Sonic. Homing attacks are done by thrusting the remote forward. As I recall, to get Sonic to stop and back up, you have to tilt the remote so far back that you basically flip it upside down.

I've never used Unleashed Wii's motion controls but I can't imagine they're that bad. Secret Rings is 90% motion control.

 

[Professor Beef]

And to think people praised the controls. Or was that the game? I don't know anymore.

 

[qq more]

Unleashed Wii just has you waggling to do just a homing attack, that's all I can remember

Secret Rings is entirely motion control-based and is not even playable

 

[Rikkun]

I'll replay it tomorrow and I'll show you all how shameful you are.

 

[Nocturnowl]

And to think people praised the controls. Or was that the game? I don't know anymore.

It came out shortly after the disaster that was Sonic 06 If I recall so I guess by comparison it came off looking pretty decent and was at the very least a sonic only outing without any of the super serious story that plagued most recent console entries leading to greater praise than it really deserved, said praise was still pretty ho-hum though.

 

[Nvzman]

I thought Secret Rings was a decent game hampered by shitty level design, making the control problem even worse. It isn't as bad as Black Knight, but really, fuck the missions in both games. They are some of the most obnoxiously designed missions I've ever played.

 

[BlackJace]

I'm not ashamed to admit that I had fun with Secret Rings.
A lot of fun actually....

 

[Nocturnowl]

The missions that give you a standard run of the stage are actually okay, had the controls not been so gimmicky/fidgety I'd have probably have found it to go down a lot better if still not that great, reminds me of Unleashed syndrome where the good parts are outnumbered and surrounded by lots of not so fun filler (or should that be Adventure syndrome, it's a running trend!).

 

[AniHawk]

it's a running trend!

 

[Sciz]

SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #127

Song: Angel Island Zone Act 1
Game: Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Composer: Uncertain; Sega staff

Meant to put this one up yesterday, and then I completely forgot about it. But yesterday marks the 20th anniversary of Sonic 3! It'd take Sonic Team the rest of the year to finish the game properly, and a lot of little things pointed to the first half having being not been quite ready for release, but onto the shelves it went anyway to spectacular fanfare. Sonic Retro has an excellent article about the game's development that I recommend reading.

Sonic 3 is a big game, but Angel Island alone lays out everything that makes it different from its predecessors. The traditional Green Hill style is thrown out the window and then promptly set on fire, it's sprinkled with little cutscenes and a chase sequence, there are interactive objects everywhere, it's got plenty of content just for Tails and Knuckles, there's elemental hazards to show off the new shield capabilities, and even some of the game's seldom seen ability to hotswap in blocks of content to fake an outdoors-indoors transition.

And there's the music, of course. I've gone off on what makes this game's music different before, but Angel Island Act 1 is its masterpiece. I can't even count how many different instruments they've got swapping in and out here, every single one of which has to be individually tuned and programmed. It's absolute madness, even by the rest of the game's lofty standards, and a major departure from the chippy J-pop of the prior two games.

 

[Professor Beef]

Sonic 3 Anniversary? Sounds like a thread to me.

 

[WillyFive]

I liked Sonic and the Secret Rings, except for the music and laggy button presses. The game managed to more graphically impressive and better looking than Sonic 06.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Anniversary? Sounds like a Tizoc thread to me.

That's more like it.

For some reason Angel Island 1 doesn't resonate with me that much, it's pretty relaxed compared to some of the other opening themes which isn't a bad angle at all but it does mean it lacks that energetic kick off I'd personally prefer to launch into a Sonic game with though maybe that was to create greater contrast with the second version of the theme for when the island goes up in flames, still like the theme mind you and I prefer Act 1 a lot more than Act 2.

 

[qq more]

The game managed to more graphically impressive and better looking than Sonic 06.

Well it ain't saying much but I agree with you there. The game looked nice, I thought 06 looked ugly/boring because everything looked generic and very lifeless...

 

[HUELEN10]

Dubai

Dammit, that means I'll never get to ride it. Oh well.

I liked Sonic and the Secret Rings, except for the music and laggy button presses. The game managed to more graphically impressive and better looking than Sonic 06.

You are not a fan of Secret Rings' songs? I thought the whole package was fairly solid song-wise. Easily one of the better soundtracks as far as I'm concerned.

 

[BlackJace]

Well it ain't saying much but I agree with you there. The game looked nice, I thought 06 looked ugly/boring because everything looked generic and very lifeless...

WHY WAS SONIC SO LANKY

 

[Rikkun]

WHY WAS SONIC SO LANKY

I don't know which one should be posted, so.

 

[BlackJace]

I don't know which one should be posted, so.

lmao

 

[PKrockin]

I've never played Unleashed for Wii, but I can't imagine anything more broken than the motion controls in secret rings

i'm this close to chucking my wiimote out the fucking window

It feels good to have someone to share the pain with.

 

[Anth0ny]

I feel like this game would have been a lot better if the stages were just a more traditional Sonic format, like:

Zone 1
Zone 2
Zone 3/boss

So many of the missions are just awful (why the fuck am I racing Navi), and the RPG elements are completely unnecessary. kicking me out of the game and forcing me to scroll through menus to select the next mission is so fucking tedious.

Oh, AND LET ME USE A GOD DAMN GAMECUBE CONTROLLER

I've lost count how many times I've tilted the controller forward for Sonic to start... moonwalking. then start walking the opposite direction. why. how.

then, I lean the controller back. no sanic, don't walk into the spikey balls. no sanic, stahp. sanic pls

and den i die

 

[BlackJace]

Black Knight and Secret Rings had cool UIs though, especially Black Knight.

 

[TheOGB]

Black Knight had some pretty cool presentation for a terrible game

 

[PKrockin]

I feel like this game would have been a lot better if the stages were just a more traditional Sonic format, like:

Zone 1
Zone 2
Zone 3/boss

So many of the missions are just awful (why the fuck am I racing Navi), and the RPG elements are completely unnecessary. kicking me out of the game and forcing me to scroll through menus to select the next mission is so fucking tedious.

Oh, AND LET ME USE A GOD DAMN GAMECUBE CONTROLLER

I've lost count how many times I've tilted the controller forward for Sonic to start... moonwalking. then start walking the opposite direction. why. how.

then, I lean the controller back. no sanic, don't walk into the spikey balls. no sanic, stahp. sanic pls

and den i die

To be fair, there is a brake button.

Of course once you've pressed it you lose what tiny frame of reference you had to know how far to tilt the Wiimote to move in the desired speed and direction.

 

[Regiruler]

To control Secret Rings, you hold the Wii Remote NES style and tilt left and right to steer Sonic. Homing attacks are done by thrusting the remote forward. As I recall, to get Sonic to stop and back up, you have to tilt the remote so far back that you basically flip it upside down.

I've never used Unleashed Wii's motion controls but I can't imagine they're that bad. Secret Rings is 90% motion control.

Yeah, that sounds worse.
It was unused during the day stages, while in the night stages you used it for your attacks, which wasn't so bad. It was also used as the prompt to grab onto ledges, with the "let go" being a different button IIRC so you don't accidentally let go when you don't want to.

 

[Azure Dream]

Unleashed Wii's motion controls at Night were miserable, I had a hell of a time just trying to get Werehog Sonic up one of the vertical poles, and his fighting variety was vastly reduced. Played fine with a Classic Controller, though.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I had fun with Secret Rings.
A lot of fun actually....

You start off too weak, but one thing I liked is that you kept upgrading past the point you'd expect. When I unlocked the ability to flip/jump over walls (instead of just dashing into them), it blew my mind a bit.

Pity that the best way to get points was to grind the final boss over and over. (At least the one set in the castle.) That got really old, I eventually gave up.

 

[Sciz]

SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #128
Remix Spotlight!

Song: Hill Top Course
Original Game: Sonic Drift 2
Source Game: Sonic After the Sequel
Composer: Masayuki Nagao or Saori Kobayashi
Arrangement: Mr Lange

There's a lot of catchy music in Drift 2, and it should have been one of the series' hidden little gems. Unfortunately it all consists of 15-second loops for some unfathomable reason. As I'm never going to hit any of these individually, here's a selection: Milky Way, Ice Cap, Emerald Ocean, Options, Balloon Panic, Hill Top, Final Road. Nagao was coming off of being one of the arrangers for Sonic 3, so he knew his stuff, and the first Sonic Drift actually had music of reasonable length, so I can only assume there was some strict memory limitation and he had to keep the audio data size down. It's tragic is what it is.

Anyway, props to Mr Lange for noticing one of those ditties and running with it for a little longer. Hill Top's a peppy party piece and well-suited to being promoted to special stage theme. It's still essentially a 15-second loop, but it's mixed up as much as you could hope for, and you're dead inside if the piano breaking in doesn't do something for you.

 

[Dario ff]

Not sure if thread-worthy so I'll post something Paraxade made here over the course of roughly 5-6 weeks.

Wave Ocean as a Sonic Generations stage. (My playthrough)

He's not adding more stuff to it as it's a finished level, but I'm sure he would love to hear your feedback on it.

 

[qq more]

Did he actually improved the visuals? They look a lot more colorful.

 

[Dario ff]

Did he actually improved the visuals? They look a lot more colorful.

The lighting model is completely new, Sonic '06 didn't have the baked lighting that the Hedgehog Engine has. It just used colors in the vertices to simulate some sort of GI. This is done from a real renderer.

The beaches and such also have custom paint on this version to give that nice green/blue glow around the ocean.

 

[Anth0ny]

Not sure if thread-worthy so I'll post something Paraxade made here over the course of roughly 5-6 weeks.

Wave Ocean as a Sonic Generations stage. (My playthrough)



He's not adding more stuff to it as it's a finished level, but I'm sure he would love to hear your feedback on it.

god damn that looks good

Generations mods have come so far. Did anyone create a perfect Genesis physics mod for the 2D portion of the game yet?

 

[Tizoc]

That's more like it.

For some reason Angel Island 1 doesn't resonate with me that much, it's pretty relaxed compared to some of the other opening themes which isn't a bad angle at all but it does mean it lacks that energetic kick off I'd personally prefer to launch into a Sonic game with though maybe that was to create greater contrast with the second version of the theme for when the island goes up in flames, still like the theme mind you and I prefer Act 1 a lot more than Act 2.

Ooof it's not on my list, let me make one soon if I find the time @_@

Man my meories of playing Sonic 3 are blurry atm but I recall liking it as a kid, but that I never owned it; my cousins abroad did.

 

[Professor Beef]

So did anyone actually make the 20th Anniv. of Sonic 3 thread?

 

[Nvzman]

Did anyone create a perfect Genesis physics mod for the 2D portion of the game yet?

Somebody tried that (RIP Polygon Jim) but they said that it basically broke the game and it creates a crash-fest. So no 1:1 genesis Generations for us

 

[Rikkun]

So did anyone actually make the 20th Anniv. of Sonic 3 thread?

 

[Tizoc]

Making a quick thread for Sonic 3, then going to bed, just gimme a few minutes.

 

[Professor Beef]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=99630206

 

[Anth0ny]

this boss with the sword

so close to throwing the wiimote out the window

sooooooooo close