The “Open-world” concept needs to die, or stop being so goddamn repetitive

Yes game. I know Keith David is awesome. Loves to inspire people to accelerate their life for oil and terrorism while moonlighting as a claymation cat. You know What isn’t awesome? Having to run around and deal in several escort missions for the last stretch of the game. 

I suppose im still new to the open world genre as a whole and thus am unable to appreciate the fine qualities these types of games provide, or am playing the shitty ones, but I think there is something wrong with the genre if the industry standard for an Open World game is to run across vast distances to mission objectives time and again.

Saints Row 4. I was busy playing this shit (And Dragon‘s Dogma) for a week before it got old and repetitive. Usually when it comes to games, I tend to fuck around with the mechanics and do as many diversionary activities (side quests, maybe some fetch quests, exploring) before I eventually get bored and go through the main story anyway. And no matter what, the main game tends to be shit. Tedious and repetitive missions seem to be the name of the game. A lot of it because they require far more backtracking than your standard Metroid fare. For one, why the fuck…. do I need to travel to a location, then immediately leave it to find a car, steal it, then go right… the fuck back… to the original spot!? Stupid shit like this are littered throughout the game, and the length of them miles only get longer and longer as the missions go on. 

Then again, this is practically the same shit you do in Prototype 2, Infamous and the like (not the stealing of cars, yah trolls). It seems as though repetitive missions are the standard…. probably why no one talks about them. You trek from one spot across big ass distances to the next item on the shopping list until you reach the end of the game. Unfortunately, by the time you reach the end game, you’ll be suffering from fatigue as the general desire to explore the world is diminished by the hours of long walks/flights/ W/E.

You’d think with how often developers express interest in open-world crap that they’d do a better job of handling them than to say “here’s your next mission that’s halfway across the world so we can justify having you go 1k miles to see the amount of work we did to design maps of overly intricate areas that are practically indistinguishable from each other!” Perhaps this attitude is exclusive to the games that have cities. Idk. Ironically, I’m starting to think that having a story fucks up the whole program because then you need the characters to be certain places for any logic to be applied to select scenes, restricting you to particular areas until the mission is done. Hell, if that’s the case, it should’ve been a stage by stage type of progression. 

When I think “open world“, I think unencumbered exploration and the freedom to do whatever I please. The idea being that the world is literally “open” to you. There are no travel restrictions. You are free to move about the country! Terraria certainly succeeds at this. Total freedom, unhindered by the conventional beliefs of requiring the player to do something in the game aside from w/e the hell they want. But therein lies the problem. Terraria tends to get boring fast if you don’t know what to do or know what you want to do. If you don’t like exploration, you won’t travel very far out of fear of getting lost. If you don’t like crafting, you won’t bother farming for materials to get new weapons. If you don’t like building things or aren’t very good at that, you won’t spend time trying to reconstruct the land to your whims. And if you’re not into all of the above, this game just won’t do it for you. Some people would rather the developers create the fun stuff to do for them. Afterall, people seem to hate user-generated content on principle as you’re essentially paying devs for a DIY kit. 

So the developers, being the lazy asses they can be, are stuck in a quandary. They have this large and massive world to explore… and practically nothing to do. Course, exploration works best in an outdoor environment. In a city, not so much as everything is copy/pasted. Developers are too obsessed with realism to make unique landmarks in a city, so you get bland areas that you don’t really want to trek through.

So the best things they could do is to create a check list. A game is… honestly not much of a game without some system of progression. Else the game gets boring after a day or two. A system of progression gives the player something to do. And has existed since the good ol’ days, even if it was just keeping score in endless levels. Developers know this which is why they implement these missions to give the player an idea of what to do next. Even Terraria has an SOP that you have to figure out on your own where you have to kill some demonic wall to gain better materials. As well, an SOP works best when you have tangible rewards to go along with those missions. 

But… then it wouldn’t “open-world”, now would it? Cause now you’ve introduced restrictions on the player, you’re telling them that they have to earn the freedom that is supposed to be granted by virtue that the game is “open world”. In SR4, you can’t even undertake certain missions or find certain power clusters without first gaining new powers or completing earlier missions. But again, having to go on an endless succession of missions to gain that open world creates that fatigue. This would be no better if the game were an RPG of sorts (a predatory genre as of late) as the strength of certain enemies and bosses would keep you at bay until you’ve grinded enough experience to take them down.

An open world game opens itself up to nothing but endless repetition.  None of which is actually fun or engaging enough to hold your attention for long. This…. “genre” has overstayed it’s welcome, that or SR4 is shit.

If I were to make an open world game, it would have to be survival horror. The city would be treated as a sort of labrynth, with zombies lurking every corner. You would be situated in the centre of the city, and your only goal is to escape by any means necessary.  There’s no overarching story, it’s merely you trying to get out. Exploration would be purely scavenger based, by which you’d have to brave dark corridors to find supplies as opposed to having a scripted sequence where you need to help survivors that provide no benefit to you. Matter of fact, you’d be free to help survivors so long as they help you fight off zombies.

Something simple. You know?E

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A “Spy’s” Report

Amma, its no wonder people think I came off Facebook…

…Eh, what the hell. ijapa@protonmail.com

This is also for those who don’t wish to crowd the comments sections on each post. Not that I’m on enough to give a damn about clutter, mind you. 😛

I was under the impression that you were the admin. 😛

Pretty much. Though I don’t know about 06’s story being rewarding. Had it been better written, had no lame ass princess, or not taken it’s sweet time out for some animu teenage boy gossip, it probably would’ve been interesting outside of Shadow’s story. Hell, I think that had more to do with it being about him rather than being about a princess you barely see throughout the game.

Maybe that’s the magic of previous Sonic stories, they were less about these NPC’s and more about what the gang was up to. They were more or less connected to the main plot anyway while in 06, the gang all feel like random, foreign entities that are there just because. Shadow’s story feels self-contained and tries to advance his own story while Silver is a mere tool that doesn’t develop and Sonic is an animatronic doofus. Maybe if Elise was actually interesting instead of being a yamato nadesko bore to appeal to Japan’s crappy standard of desirable women minus the G-cup, then we’d have something. 

I know that’s not what you meant, I just ramble. No argument on unleashed. 

“Barbarian…. gamer”?

I’m assuming by this bit that there are signs abound of developer pretentiousness… which, judging by some vids i’ve watched, seems accurate enough. Did we really need a sign that said “Flying Battery coming up next!” After killing the first Heavy? Talk about nonsensical and trying too hard. It’s neither cool nor clever, and makes no goddamn sense in context. Robotnik was so certain you’d kick his ass that he has a movie studio announce his escape vessel/fortress. My ass.

It’s like the bastids were so caught up in trying to be clever.

How does a background make any level disorienting unless it blended in seemlessly with the foreground? 

Oh pleeeeeease don’t ruin Studiopolis! It’s the only redeemable zone this game has! I’d wager the “hook” would’ve been better if Studiopolis was the first zone and not been held back by idiotic padding.

Actually no. The level design in Classic Sonic isn’t “structured” like a typical platformer level. It is completely irrational to use something like DKC to describe how Zones in Sonic shoild be designed. I’ve said before that Sonic games weren’t designed with conventional design philosophies in mind. Nintendo, Capcom, and the like have a very mechanical method to it’s level design while Sonic games were more organic.

Instead, the zones were designed with realistic geographies in mind. In outdoor/nature areas, the zones are more open and “horizontal”. You feel free to run and jump anywhere without fail. On the other hand, industrial areas are designed more claustrophobic. Everything is busy and noisy, like a labrynth. The “maze” that you speak of.

This is because as one commenter mentioned, Sonic was about nature vs industry. The environments reflected those extremes like that of the real world. You go to a park or a farm (sure why not) you have all this open space! Go to a factory, casino or otherwise and you might feel claustrophobic. 

Compare to your typical Mario platformer, damn near every level is built like a contraption with specific means to progress. It’s all mechanical. Sonic Zones are built more “naturally” where players are free to find their own means to progress (until 3K). You could say Classic Sonic had a more “realistic” approach to level design. Tis why Mirage Saloon sucks as a Sonic Zone with it’s floating hands. It assumes the Zones of old were just random fantasy obstacles. 

You know, I think this is why so many people don’t know how Sonic could work in 3D. They’re always thinking of Sonic as a conventional platformer series than otherwise. Out of all the fangame developers, the guys who made Sonic Robo Blast 2, I think, are the only ones who fucking get it! Green Flower Zone, large open spaces. Poison Plant Zone, claustrophobic shit hole. I’m starting to think these young cats are so obsessed with Nintendo games that they can’t understand any form of design beyond conventional design and specific methods to solving an obstacle. Players should look at Sonic Zones as big ass playgrounds rather than megalithic contraptions that need tangibly defined solutions. The solution is “just play the damn game! Don’t think about it too much!” With a health system built for wimps, w/e hiccups are along the way are negligible. Sonic himself was described as being “free like the wind” And I feel the level design should reflect that.

Oh I can hear those mother fuckas on Sega.com crying “Classicfag!” Dem sweet ass memories… before it became cool. Now you got all these hipster fucks championing classic Sonic just because it’s old oh im rambling again.

I’ll contend that Mania has no appeal for this generation, sure. Except kids if they’re able to get it.  Old asses like myself would probably get a kick out of how far they went to capture the spirit of the 90’s, all the way to making old ass artwork, boxes, and manuals. But that reeks of exploitation. Our old asses aren’t that easy to manipulate (at least i’m hoping). That zone ratio alone fucked the pooch, and I won’t stop bitching about it. 

Amma, this game is so conflicting! On one hand, I want it to succeed,  but on the other, I want folks to understand how shallow it is!

All these trailers, mang.

Ugh, Rayman Legends has a definitive edition? Seriously!? Who bought the vanilla edition to care about some extra costumes!?

Good lord, this bitch is back

I gotta stop doing so many Sonic posts. Hell I didn’t even know MVCI is apparently out right now. I realize I don’t pay a lot of attention to videogames anymore. With the mess that went down in Charlottesville and recently with St. Louis, not to mention all the shit i’ve been going through lately, I should probably come to accept that… *sighs* maybe I am getting too old for gaming. Either that or it’s the depression talking again. 

I mean hell, I’ve practically ignored the existence of Nintendo for a while. It’s not uncommon for anyone to do so, but they’re the only other mother fuckers I try to cover, and I’m like “Who the hell is Nintendo!? Are they making good shit? Nope!” Aw hell, that new Metroid dropped recently too, huh?

Bah, that’s my baggage.

I didn’t really give a lot a thought to the most recent Japanese trailer that came out. All things considered, I’m legitimately looking forward to this game. You know how damn long it’s been since I had that kind of anticipation!? Every news bit that comes out has this game looking better as the days go on. Though im positive the westside will get screwed in some capacity, namely writing and dialogue. But what we have right now is lookin pretty good.

Im a little disappointed that Infinite is a science project. I was expecting him to be some Mephilis type of villain in that he reshapes reality for his own purposes. But… no, he’s a robot voiced by Liam O’Brien. Idk, it’s not a total loss, it just feels like he’ll be a lesser villain as a result. But oh well, I guess Robotnik needs some redemption after the humiliation of having his robots controlled by some random cocksuckers twice in a row.

As for the rest of the trailer, I get a SatAM vibe from it. Though, if Silver is in the resistance, I don’t see why he can’t just rape Robotnik’s entire army in an instant. He’s over-powered as shit, and has a goddamn super form! Damn the resistance,  He’s a one man army!

But yeah, the game is looking pretty damn good so far. The 2D sections, however,  look bland and unexciting, but that’s par the course. I still hate this trash rock singer. I was never a fan of Crush 40, but this guy sounds like one of those trashy teen rock groups you’d hear from some xtreme sports/parkour video on youtube. Absolutely terrible! And im gonna go ahead and say this… but Sonic’s main musical genre… should not be rock.  “But rock music is edgy!” No, Rock music, especially modern Rock, is used by people who want to create the impression of being edgy. What you create instead is an aura of juvenility. It’s why half of Guilty Gear’s soundtracks are forgettable piles of junk. None of them stand out and feel like they were composed by angsty goths oh im rambling again. 

As i’ve become a lazy shit, I appreciate all who’ve passed along anymore info pertaining to Forces. Speaking of which..

I had completely forgotten about that. You have to wonder if this little change was why the game got delayed back in the spring. There’s nothing to actually justify it.

I don’t know anything about this Phantom Ruby, though. 

Well, that remains to be seen. For all we know, Knuckles could be the “Antoine” of the group. Sonic could be knocked out of commission, and Knuckles, in all his envy, tries to take over the resistance, but ends up being too incompetent to organize and command it, so that when Sonic eventually returns, Knuckles will learn humility. That kind of shit.

After the BS they pulled with Boom Knux, I don’t trust it. Here’s hoping i’m wrong.

Hah! Better than the official story!

I’ll do that only if ol’ fatboy murders someone with a rock.

This is also a beautiful thing! Iizuka coming out of his comfort zone and allowing other characters to be playable. .. which negates the purpose of CaC’s entirely, but eh. That pre-order Shadow costume is now officially worthless! 

Why the hell do you have to download it, though? The shit is free, been announced 2 months in advance, they should just include it in the game when they press the discs. This is just inconvenient for the sake of.

Sega wasn’t one to go on a dlc craze, now we got all this pre-order shit going on. They must be thinking Pso2 micro-transactions will translate to all their other games. And for the ability to play as other characters, this is a slippery slope. Soon enough, because of all the demand, we’ll be paying to play as extra characters! This is something we need to be cautious about. 

I probably wouldn’t give a damn if it were Knuckles that was playable.  😛 Even so, from what I’ve seen, Shadow is literally a Sonic skin anyway. The same moves, no variant abilities, he has some orange trail.. stuff.. coming out of his ass, I guess that counts as new. I get the feeling that this might’ve been rushed if Shadow is just a skin. Considering Iizuka’s resistance toward the option of playing different characters,  this would not surprise mr one bit.

And that would’ve made the game more interesting. Far more interesting. But again, that would require Iizuka to not be a lazy shit. And allow for the ability to play as different characters. It’d be hilarious if the bastard was using the constant 06 backlash to justify not giving us extra characters since 2008.

Personally,  I think I’ve said all I needed to about Mania. I’ll probably check back and see about those NPD numbers if I can get them, but I don’t know what else I could say about it. Other than how no one gives a shit about Mania after 2 weeks. 

To me, Mania is wasted potential promoted endlessly by youtube shills and journalists.  But at least the music’s good.

Ah, and Justin passed along more of Iizuka’s lies. “We don’t want to make SA3 just to make fans happy because it’s a step backwards” said a month after Mania’s release. 

And there was never a Black Digi-destined either!

See, it’s this kind of nonsense I can’t stomach anymore from this industry. There’s so many fucking lies being spouted endlessly, all the while still wanting money from people. This medium is too damn expensive to BS people consistently. Who the hell is gonna believe that shit after Mania just came out!? And this was a last minute decision, no less. And of course the boost gameplay came back in Forces.

Just another day in Asia, I guess. Deceit is their culture. But hell, they don’t even try to lie anymore.

And you know what the best part is?

They still don’t explain why Retro Sonic is in the game! Not even a hint!

Still, this is one the best trailers we’ve had in years, and ofcourse it’s in Japanese.  😛

So Robotnik made Infinite in a tank?

Anxiety

Ugh. I just need to unwind for a bit. As the title says, I haven’t been in… the best of moods. I’ve been through some shit.

Job seems to be ran by feminist cunts all of a sudden, found some snake nest in my back yard, lawn mower broke down (again), and on top of that, I was visiting family in Atlanta last week before Irma hit, and I was fucked up the whole time. I can’t do bad weather. I remember back when I was 7, I was at some fair when we got hit by a hailstorm. And I was outside in a tent,  I ain’t been right ever since then. And my family is kinda dumb with that whole “you need to spend time with family” horse shit. But luckily, they got some sense, they packed up and we all bounced.

Then some drama went on. some years back, I had gotten this Icraig laptop from my grandmother and my aunt…. just out of the blue. This made me quite uncomfortable. I don’t like handouts in general, but from relatives at their ages!? Never asked for, never wanted this thing, and I barely talk to my family. Im one of those assholes. I called them up and told them I can’t accept this thing. I was prepared to send it back. But then the aunt was talkin “you don’t want to say that to your grandmother, you might make her feel bad” that kind of shit. So I’m like “fine”. I ain’t touchin it. Makes me feel dirty.

So then, I guess they told my mother about it cause she’s ringing up my damn phone pissed as hell. Demanding that I repay them $600 for the laptop. 

Now… I checked the prices of these Icraigs from 2015, and this is an older model with only 2 gigs of space. The highest price I’ve seen was $150. But she’s talkin about $550 interest rates. She might be teetering on the edges of senility! 

Ugh, this damn family. Sorry for blogging, I just needed to get that off my chest.

Just all kinds of stress right now, I need time to recoup. Any questions you have, ill get to em when in a better mood.

Does Iizuka not like extra characters!? (Paranoia)

I happened upon some news which Sonic Forces will have DLC.  “Breath taking”

Classic Sega characters that you’d know fuck all about without the All-Stars Racing games get fugly cameo costumes no one will buy.  Well, i’d probably check out Beat’s costume, that looks nice. But eh, pure aesthetics.  What is known as “acceptable DLC”. 😛

Sega never really bothers to put much effort into Sonic DLC, which I find refreshing. But I don’t recall them ever going the pre-order route. Amma knows they need to keep out of that shit. But… guess what the bonus is.

Wow, that’s ugly as hell!

Fantastic idea, morons! Instead of an authentic skin, lets just make Shadow a hat so the face can look hideously distorted! Brilliant! 

No, I don’t care that it’s poorly designed. But… look at this. This is SOJ’S current idea… of letting you play as different characters now. Instead of the actual fucking characters, you instead have these shit skins as a substitute. You cannot play as the raw mutha fuckas, you have a cosplay party going on.

Now the existence of the CaC is suspect. Afterall, Avatars are merely blank slates with no pre-defined abilities. What better excuse for experimental gameplay than a blank slate? That way, very few people could honestly complain about a lack of variety in abilities so long as the premise of “normal citizen in this world” exists.

I realize this isn’t going to make a lot of sense,  and it’s mostly me just overreacting, but i’m seeing a thought process here that says Iizuka or whoever else involved with the game’s design is more focused on the experimental gameplay than the availability of characters. And that these avatars are now a shallow response to people who want to play as those other characters. And I suspect this goes back to why Iizuka never wanted to make an SA3. Because then he’d have to continue the same line of design and thinking in making multiple gameplay styles for different. Now, while I wasn’t a fan of treasure hunting or those fucking mechs (gah I hated those clunky bastards) I will say that the next 2 games were handled poorly in this regard. Sonic Heroes, where characters were squeezed into teams and had drastically minor differences in their abilities, limiting the amount of work they would have to do in designing 12 separate characters. What could’ve been the best damn Sonic game of that Generation was held back by this team system. But I suspect it’s because Iizuka did not want to do the work of defining 12 separate character abilities. 

Shadow the Hedgehog, obviously, you only have a single character playable unless you have siblings who can access a rather shitty version of Shadow with no  gun capabilities, or that 2 player mode with nothing but Shadow clones. Simply was no excuse for that.

06 is it’s own can of worms, but then we get to Unleashed and it’s been a steady pattern of solo characters. We no longer get the options to choose anyone outside of Sonic. Because now we have Sonic portrayed as the tech demo for new, experimental gameplay. If any other characters were playable and had defined abilities, Werehog would be seen as unnecessary. The wisps would be seen as unnecessary. The parkour system and overwhelming puzzles would be seen as unnecessary. The only games that allowed you to play as other characters… came almost exclusively from third parties. Because those people are not interested in experimental gameplay (except maybe BRB). Problem is outside of Dimps and taxman, those guys were terrible with Sonic.

You can tell that having multiple characters would interfere with what Iizuka wants to do with this series simply by how hesitant he comes off when regarding these panels whereby a conscious fan may ask “will we get to use other characters besides Sonic”? The answers are always vague and are meant to jerk you around. The avatar in this sense is now a half-assed means of mitigating those fans who want a return to character variety. Instead, it serves as yet another excuse for experimental gameplay ie saving wisps from the scrap heep and partially shoving them off to another character. 

The shadow costume is not only hideous but is also insulting in this regard. It taunts you with a character you’d rather be playing than a blank slate. But all it would serve to do here is remind everyone of the game that ruined Sonic in the eyes of many, and castrated the psyche of the Fandom for the last 12 years goddamn it’s been 12 years since Shth came out!? This quarter life crisis ain’t no joke!

Catch-22, perhaps? (Forces)

I wouldn’t trust my gut instincts after Link Between Worlds 😛

In seriousness, I can’t really say if Sega is doing anything right merely by pissing off the Nintards (sounds like a fitting topic for the defunct Great Entertainment Decline forums). Hell, irritating as they are, companies should focus on getting as many people as possible to play their games. No one should be picky with where their money comes from, especially going into a franchise that has no more legs to stand on. Unless they ascribe to some 80/20 rule where they figure 80% of their profits will come from 20% of their consumer base. The biggest problem now is that… the Nintendo fans are the only group of people who are taking interest in Sonic. Most news coverage of new Sonic games are coming directly from Nintendo sites, no doubt helped in large part thanks to disastrous exclusivity deals that went nowhere. Xbox fans I couldn’t tell you one thing about, but damn sure the Sony crowd will ignore Sonic. 

But Nintendo fans have a vested interest in appropriating Sonic for themselves. Hell, the only reason they keep bringing up 06 is two-fold. One is because they want to shame the real fans from having their own tastes by using 06 as the example of why we should fear a game with more…. “mature” content, it’s why their talking points make no goddamn sense. And second, because in part they are still somewhat bitter by the fact that 06 wasn’t put on the Wii, and the fact that the game was received poorly helped them sleep at night. They jumped on 06 every chance they got to make themselves feel good. They won’t ever talk about Secret Rings or Black Knight, 2 virtually unplayable pieces of trash who’s only saving grace is the soundtrack, but 06 is their sacrificial lamb. Notice that Generation gets more heat than it’s objectively inferior, Wii exclusive Colors? Nintards are far more critical of games that aren’t exclusive or even present on their home console. Sonic Mania, they’re merely using as a tool to push their own ideas on the franchise. I’ve watched damn near all kinds of Mania videos, and many of these people would have to be Nintendo fans to play so badly. I lost count the amount of times I wanted to snatch the controller from their hands and show these morons how easy these damned games are.

if anything, purging those jackasses from the fandom is only beneficial for the fandom, but not Sega. But this kind of audience is bad for the franchise. 

The problem with Sonic fans now is hypersensitivity. Much like Pokemon fans, our pack of idiots panic at the slightest of things, ironically taking after IGN in foolish declarations such as Sonic never being good. A game takes on a darker tone? Well, Shadow had a darker tone, and 06 had a darker tone, and Unleashed had a darker tone, and those games were all failures. So by default, Forces taking on a darker tone is automatically a bad move on Sega’s part. Nevermind the fact that these games sold far better than every single game that came afterward, maybe with the exception of Sonic Dash and all the repackaged Genesis games. 

See, this kind of thinking is not only dense, it’s also detrimental if a company ever bothers to listen to it’s fans. There’s no critical thinking or analysis done to see why Sonic games have failed enmasse, they just go on the automatic assumption that the mere inclusion of certain elements is automatic failure. Like say Sonic’s friends, that was one helluva meme that people ran into the ground. Instead of thinking the gameplay elements that Sega arbitrarily stuffed into the characters was a bad call, we had to wait for Sonic Unleashed before these inbred jackasses could admit that there was nothing wrong with Sonic’s friends. 

If you had to listen to any criticism, I’d say look towards those that proclaim Sonic has an identity crisis. Every new game that comes out, they always change how it plays to a style they have no experience in designing. All the damn time. We the fans were never allowed to get accustomed to Sonic games because Sega was more interested in chasing fads OR making sure they don’t get bores developing their games. Cause see, the Japanese hate making sequels. The idea that you might have a money making franchise on hand is something that they’re apparently too good for. And it would certainly explain Sega’s “pass off 2D Sonic to some other developers cause we’re too good for that noise”. But unfortunately,  unlike the west that understands the necessity of consistency (most of the time), the Japanese tend to throw everything out with bath water and rarely ever look back. 

This is why I feel we shouldn’t be too quick to write off Forces… at the moment. They’re going back and revisiting old ideas and are trying to improve them in some way. They’re going back to elements they’ve at least some experience in. And I must admit, I’m liking the Wisps this time around. Instead of being timed powerups for pseudo-exploration or puzzles, they are now weapons of ass destruction via the whims of the player. At the same time, I’m not in denial of it’s problems. The Acts seem insidiously short, CaC is 100% cosmetic, the writing and animation is sub par, the inclusion of Retro Sonic was an afterthought confirmed by Sonic Mania’s bizarre delay, and clearly, Roger Craig Smith is just phoning in his performance. The gameplay side looks fine. The content side, I feel, is getting shafted. And there appears to be some lack of interest in Forces development, or SOJ is being bad at marketing by “keeping too much of the game a secret so you can be surprised later”. Forces will be yet another game of demands and deterrents. A divisive game that will exist merely to spawn more idiotic debates about what Sonic needs to survive in the coming generations.

That’s always the reception for Sonic games. Because at the end of the day, Sega won’t ever get their act together. You look at some of the decisions they made for this game and would have to wonder if they’re even serious. But I’m getting off-topic. It could just be the very fact that it is just a ” darker and edgier” Sonic game that we haven’t seen for literally 10 years, and all Sonic game during this period were made to coddle the Nintards. And because that’s not the case here, they’re attacking everything in Forces to make it appear as unappealing as possible. It was bizarre to me that character creation got the heat that it did. Who the fuck do you know hates CaC options!? It’s the least offensive feature you could ever include in a videogame. The rage and pushback against Forces is disproportionate, and I see that as a result of this resistance toward “grimdark” takes.

The Nintards have gone insane over Sonic the Hedgehog. They literally believe they own it and should be the only ones dictating how the games should be made according to the standards they hold for Nintendo games. That’s detrimental for a number of reasons, but most importantly because the values that people expect from Super Mario are in direct opposition to the values that people expect from Sonic the Hedgehog. 

People want Sonic to adhere to Arcade Centric Values. Their rejection of treasure hunts, 06, and the like are evidence of that. People expect Computer Centric Values from Super Mario. Their so-called “rejection” of NSMBW is evidence of that. In large part, Nintendo was able to convert Mario into a Computer Centric franchise so easily because Mario games have never been fast-paced, and have put a larger emphasis on exploration and secrets. Mario already had the foundation laid out for the future of the series. On the other hand, Sonic was full on Arcade Centric. Keeping a high ring count, putting an emphasis on blasting through Zones as fast as possible, the numerous bonus rounds,  there’s no foundation here to convert Sonic to the ideals of Computer Centrism. 

This generation (and the one before it) is dominated by Computer Centrism. The biggest games are now FPS’ s WRPGS and Open World games. Barely anything else can compete with that. This generation of gamers were born with and grew up on a steady diet of RPGs, Grand Theft auto, Call of duty, Uncharted, and pretentious indy games. The only Arcade Centric genre that has a leg to stand on is the fighting game genre. Everything else is practically dead. Arcade games don’t have the kind of replay value that today’s gamers understand or give 2/5ths of a fuck about. Their idea of replay value Is “100% completion” masturbation post game fetch quests, or a shopping list of side missions. 

Nintendo had the Advantage going into the future because they’ve already invested more time on Computer Centric games than did Sega. Sega was an Arcade company from the get go, leaving them to play catch up on Phantasy Star Online. That’s their most successful game this generation (one these asholes won’t share, goddamn them!). And because Sega still acted like an Arcade company, their ideas of Computer Centrism gets musty when going into Sonic. It gave way to all these bad habits of forcing you to play through gameplay elements you don’t want. The werehog was the most glaring example of Computer Centric Sonic up until Lost Mind and Bust. Secret Rings would’ve been an alright game if Sega didn’t become fearful of the critique that it would be too repetitive. Freeing Sinbad was a pain in the ass. But they do this merely because they see everyone else doing it. They epitomize the Birdman Fallacy. 

If people can’t understand this, they will never know what’s wrong with this franchise. As for how Sonic will be received outside of internet? Pff, it’ll be ignored like every Sonic game after Unleashed. Unless that shit was mobile, I wouldn’t kid myself. Around the US, the only folks I see going for Sonic are the ones that President Dump wants to expel from America. Those guys always take an interest in niches (King of Fighters, anyone?).  Their pudgy kids are the only ones rockin Sonic shirts. That should tell you how fucked Sonic is.

Some folks might be thinking “well Mania might revive interest in Sonic”. I don’t know any digital game that did this. Sonic Dash certainly did no favors for this flailing series, and frankly, it’ll do marginally better than lost mind and bust by virtue that it’s on platforms that people actually own. Sales wise will probably be par the course.  It won’t do better than Mania, obviously. Critical reception will likely be just as disproportionate as it is now, the status quo is too precious to the gaming industry. They literally masturbate to making constant editorials on the downfall of Sonic while falsly claiming they’re huge fans (all journalists love computer centrism, btw). Digital games don’t do shit for a franchise. It’s simply easy money. And Mania isn’t some revolutionary title, it’s simply fanservice. I’m not betting on it revitalizing anything atm.

Tag Gameplay (Forces)

Um… er…

Ok. You guys know i’m not a huge fan of Sonic Heroes’s Team Switch BS, and seeing that nonsense return is, to me, a horse’s ass move. Though I’m not seeing a lot of evidence thus far that you’ll be forced (PUNS!!) to switch characters often, so that might be some glimmer of hope. 

Though it seems that they’re cramming in all the gameplay elements from previous 3D outtings. I’ve said it before that both Mania and Forces are both fanservice titles, but this might be going overboard a bit. We got wisps, boosts, gunplay, and the team system all rolled into one game. Oh and the retro shit too. I still can’t believe Mania was delayed just to ninja-promote Forces.

I take offense to the level-design a bit where they enter the factory portion, and enemies spawn in the same goddamn pattern several times. You’d think Sonic Colors had some actual effort put into it, goddamn.

Right now, the fandom is on a crusade against Forces, and shit like that isn’t helping it’s case. Neither is the vocalist for the main theme song. Fuck, he‘s terrible. 

And… more quick time events? Is it wrong to want to just hit a button once to get the desired effect!?

Well, at least the wisps stopped being shit.

Awwww hell yeah!

Press Garden doesn’t feel like a Sonic Zone at all.

At least Act 1 doesn’t. Act 2 gets it’s shit straight. 

If you were to tell me that this was say… a Castlevania or a Mega Man game, Press Garden would feel right at home. It’s even got those retarded dissappearing blocks! But here, it looks like some bizarre concoction of Mega Man and Castle of Illusion (Mickey Mouse Genesis game). I’m sure some people could draw comparisons to …. perhaps the Marble Zone and Marble Garden, but it just feels… off to me. It also seems strange that a factory setting would have elegant European architecture. 

I’m trying to think here… cause it seems like the most effort they put into a new zone feeling like a “Sonic Zone”… comes exclusively from Studiopolis. They seem to get confused with the other zones, it’s like they got mixed up with another game, like mirage saloon feeling more Looney Tunes than Sonic. I’m trying not to complain about whatever new content we do get. Probably all this baggage from the zone ratio being total shit. I haven’t checked out Titanic Monarch yet.

It also doesn’t help that Act 1 is ugly as fuck. 

Only 4 new zones and 8 repackaged zones, that is fucking terrible.

By the balls of Ra, how do you fuck this up!? 

I don’t have the game yet, but please don’t tell me they pulled some “wait 2 old ass zones to get your new zone” bullshit.
They pulled that, didn’t they?

What horse shit format! I wouldn’t be surprised (though saddened) if the game somehow flopped because Sega decided to jerk us around with this nonsense. They could’ve just used those 4 new zones for the aborted Episode 3 of Sonic 4 if this was the case!

Ugh…. 8 old ass zones, and you gotta plow through them just to get the new zones, goddammit Sega…

“But the new zones are the reward!” That’s gonna be the apologetic slogan for this game if such complaints existed. “But the second Acts are redesigned!” Why not the whole fucking Zone, jackass!?

Gah! Right now, mutha fuckas are all moist and shit for this game, I hope they bought this shit in droves to validate their hype and propaganda. Cause I don’t see any reason to get hyped for 20% New shit.