What actual games coming out in the next 12 months are you excited for?

#21
Aidan
i saw a video where a guy jumps, hits homing attack and then immediately boosts and sanic rockets up 5 million miles into the sky
#22
T-man
I gotta say, I fucking hate the voice direction in Sonic Frontiers. I don't know what the voice actors were told that compelled them all to try to shift their pitch, but it sounds unnatural. I think the worst part is that it's so inconsistent; Roger Craig Smith in cutscenes sounds like they made his voice deeper in Audacity, but the environmental commentary sounds like the Sonic voice he's been doing for the past decade.

The drift in cyberspace levels is sorely missed, I read that it's back to being triggered by the level design like in Sonic Colors which is a shame. I wish they keep the Cycloop in Cyber Space at least because all we really need is a way to turn tight corners without grinding Sonic against the wall, and the Cycloop would have been more that suitable for the job just like it is in the open zone.

And never fucking map the light speed dash to L3 ever again, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Sonic Frontiers is very much a Pokemon Legends Arceus kind of game where we're all gonna overlook how shitty it actually is because it's such an exciting departure from the established formula that gives players hope for future entries.
#23
Draku
(Nov 9, 2022 at 5:02 PM)T-man Wrote: I gotta say, I fucking hate the voice direction in Sonic Frontiers. I don't know what the voice actors were told that compelled them all to try to shift their pitch, but it sounds unnatural. I think the worst part is that it's so inconsistent; Roger Craig Smith in cutscenes sounds like they made his voice deeper in Audacity, but the environmental commentary sounds like the Sonic voice he's been doing for the past decade.
Yeah the voice acting is horrendously bad. sonic's voice sounds completely wrong and super forced, he's never once come off as a character that should sound deep to me. the rest of the line delivery isn't very good either.

(Nov 9, 2022 at 5:02 PM)T-man Wrote: And never fucking map the light speed dash to L3 ever again, what the fuck is wrong with you?
I sorta get why because there's a shocking amount of functions this time they needed to use other buttons for but yeah it's goofy. I do appreciate that it's not a shared button that will kill you if you press it at the wrong time, unfortunately they decided to put that functionality on the homing attack bind instead. God damn it.
[Image: s2n7oi.png]
#24
T-man
Completed Sonic Frontiers, I have mixed feelings on it but I still managed to enjoy it for what it was.

As the game went on I started to feel like I could see the hands of the developers trying to feel out what worked and what didn't, but they didn't have time to go back and address what didn't. It boggles my mind that there are parry challenges in a game where parries aren't dependant on timing, it gives the impression that it was going to be at one point but they walked it back when it proved too challenging for playtesters. I actually found myself enjoying combat and engaging with it by choice. I will say at the end of the Skill Tree it feels you can't press any buttons without some special animation playing, but they're flashy and pack enough punch to be satisfying. I really enjoyed the open zone minibosses and Titan battles, the latter is just spectacle more than anything but it's hard not to get sucked in to the action. Before playing the game I thought the lyrical tracks were cringe and they still are, but they're awesome in-game. I underestimated how much better 3D Sonic games are with stories that are filled with anime bullshit, it's more enjoyable than the insincere Saturday Morning Cartoon writing they've been using since Sonic Colors.

The game's biggest failing is that it doesn't seem to understand where its strengths lie and it ends up being fun in spite of itself. There was a moment late in the game where an island was inaccessible due to a drawn bridge which was angled like a ramp just begging to launched off of. I sped toward it without even thinking and ramped right into an invisible wall plunging into the water below. A few storybeats later, Sonic got to launch off the draw bridge in a cutscene and I got to play a dumbass skydiving sequence so I could land on the otherside and lower the bridge. The two seconds it would have taken me to launch off the bridge and lower it in-game would have been a hundred times more satisfying than whatever that shit was. There is never a single point in the game where you use the movement mechanics in a truly meaningful way, probably because they're totally fucked. You're more likely to go flying off of a random stone tile in the dirt than you are any hills or ramps. They really need to design the world for Sonic's abilities regardless of whether or not it looks "realistic." If you need to put quarter pipes everywhere like in Tony Hawk then that's what you gotta do, it's for the best.

All in all Sonic Frontiers is the worst game I've ever really liked, but a new Pokémon game is coming out and could easily take the crown.
#25
Spritanium
I've always felt like the core issue with 3D sonic games is that moving around a 3D plane at mach speed is really difficult. In the 2D games much of the gameplay is centered around just sorta launching yourself and seeing where you land, and an extra axis throws that mechanic off the rails because there are so many more opportunities to fall and die. I wonder if the "open world" helps with that at all by providing more space to work with
[Image: supercorrect.png]
#26
Yrrzy
the 80s-90s mascot characters almost universally suffered in the transition to 3d because their iconic elements were designed for fixed-perspective 2d imo
#27
Spritanium
Yeah exactly, Mario is really the only one where the addition of a Z axis felt like a natural evolution, and even then Mario 64 has plenty of janky parts (mostly involving the camera)

With Sonic they couldn't figure out what to do, like they tried an isometric one, a racing one (probably the best idea but with subpar execution), before eventually just sticking him in a city with cars??? And Sonic Adventure is cool but it can't decide what it wants to be. It wants you to run a million miles per hour along precarious cliffs and then stop for a second to use your homing attack because you can't just barrel through enemies like in the 2D games
[Image: supercorrect.png]
#28
Aidan
everyone playing sonic frontiers please stop and play this instead
#29
T-man
(Nov 8, 2022 at 2:05 AM)Aidan Wrote: everyone playing sonic frontiers please stop and play this instead
>its an indie 3d platformer

>these are the protagonists


[Image: 0Ioppde.png]

many such cases
#30
Aidan
(Nov 16, 2022 at 7:27 PM)T-man Wrote:
(Nov 8, 2022 at 2:05 AM)Aidan Wrote: everyone playing sonic frontiers please stop and play this instead
>its an indie 3d platformer

>these are the protagonists


[Image: 0Ioppde.png]

many such cases

Gato?
#31
Yrrzy
(Nov 16, 2022 at 5:22 PM)Spritanium Wrote: Yeah exactly, Mario is really the only one where the addition of a Z axis felt like a natural evolution, and even then Mario 64 has plenty of janky parts (mostly involving the camera)

imo 3d platformers like mario are still full of design decisions that were made because of the 2d ones, rather than because it was the best design decision. for example the player character being Tall rather than Wide, and having to Hit Blocks and Jump On Enemies despite that

it took until sunshine for them to find 3d gameplay design they could make use of and its stuff mario didnt do in 2d
#32
Draku
(Nov 16, 2022 at 10:34 PM)Yrrzy Wrote: it took until sunshine for them to find 3d gameplay design they could make use of and its stuff mario didnt do in 2d
mario sunshine is a boring and extremely jank game whereas mario 64 is better than 99% of 3D games that come out today so this clearly isn't true
[Image: s2n7oi.png]
#33
Aidan
mario was a square in his first few games
he's taller in 64 for aesthetic reasons and because the super mushroom shit wasn't fitting in an open 3d level
there's way way less hitting blocks and jumping on enemies in 64, again because you would just walk around them most of the time
also sunshine acts are often fairly with a clearly set path full of obstacles like a 2d stage.
#34
Yrrzy
i have to come clean ive never played sunshine i was just going for an argument i thought might appeal to spritey
#35
Yrrzy
im a spyro gamer and they made spyro wide cause it makes 3d platforming way more forgiving, his other abilities like the glide and hover are also all designed to make 3d platforming less shit
#36
Spritanium
You actually pointed out one of my favorite things about sunshine, which is that they gave mario more interesting/flexible ways to move around a 3D plane which wouldn't really work in 2D. It felt like the game was 3D for a reason, not just because they could

It is however extremely jank and often boring because they kinda just stopped working on it and released it anyway
#37
Spritanium
The tall vs. wide character is really interesting and I've never thought about it before. It's too bad they couldn't make mario wide in 3D without it looking weird, but maybe they could've at least made his hitbox a cube when stomping
[Image: supercorrect.png]
#38
T-man
I've always been curious about how other people play 3D Mario games because sometimes I get the impression they aren't triple jumping, long jumping and spin jumping everywhere. If you aren't hearing Mario Yah, Wah, or Wahoo every second of gameplay you aren't playing right
#39
T-man
Sometimes you gotta wahoo into a yippee because it's intrinsically satisfying to do, not because the level design demands it
#40
Yrrzy
(Nov 18, 2022 at 11:34 PM)T-man Wrote: Sometimes you gotta wahoo into a yippee because it's intrinsically satisfying to do, not because the level design demands it

T-man is the only person playing 3D Mario correctly

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