Hello everybody. I've been a fan of Sega Racing games (Daytona USA 1/2, Scud Race, OutRun 1/2, Sega Rally, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Racing, etc.) ever since I first played Daytona USA 2 in the arcade around 2002. I like them and try to promote them as much as I can. Let everyone know about the magic that is Sega Racing Games!!!
Guys, I have a confession to make. I haven't been keeping up on E3. I do not care about 99.9999% of the games they talk about. I know about how everyone is taking a dump on Microsoft whom is trying to spin-doctor their way out of the fact their console sucks. Microsoft blows now, Sony all the way, even though I have little incentive to buy any next-gen consoles. But I will tell you what I know.
This is the best thing that Sony has done since Kevin Butler.
Yeehaw, watch this burn on nine different screens for nine times the sizzle.
Also the PS4 is region-free, Xbox One isn't, oh happy days are here again.
See you in Hell, Microsoft. Where you'll be forced to play sub-par Kinect games for eternity, the same exact games you forced your pitiful developers to make. Really, they have a patent on viewing/counting the number of people the Kinect picks up on, NO SERIOUSLY, READ THIS. Didn't get this from from /r/gaming either. See you in hell too with your little 2-second satisfaction posts for LE SWEET, SWEET KARMA.
As for Pokemon, you now have Fairy type Pokemon. Boy I'd never see the day, rofl!! As for Smash Bros, you have Mega Man and Wii Fit Trainer. Hooray Nintendo. Let's hope that Sonic makes a return especially to return the favor that Sonic games are going Nintendo-exclusive. Speaking of Sonic and Sega, well, there's really nothing I give a crap about. There's new Sonic games, including another Sonic & Mario Olympics game (WHO KEEPS BUYING THESE????), Bayonetta 2, and some Mickey Mouse game I don't care about (I'm trying to get the fuck out of Orlando, remember?) but that's it. Hey Sumo, where is that elusive DLC character for Sega All-Stars Racing: Transformed? Where's Ryo Hazuki? Where's Segata Sanshiro? Where's Yu Suzuki with the Shenmue 3 announcement? And that's how the world turns for a Sega fan--get your hopes up, wait, wait, wait, wait, get old, wait, wait, wait, wait, muse about how good you thought Sega was, wait, wait, wait, wait, then get a life or die of heartache.
Now about racing games. Nope, nothing I care about. Forza and Driveclub are bleh--too much realism, not enough emphasis on having fun. Well, how about Need for Speed: Rivals? Surely this game would induce vomiting but hold up a sec--just watch the gameplay footage. It's a bit weird cause there's multiple screens going on. Basically, it's simultaneous gameplay from the points of view from the evader and the cop.
Now this game isn't made by Black Box, responsible for the atrocity that is NFS: The Runs, or Criterion with their overrated crash-gasm games. This is from Ghost Games, a new EA studio out of Gothemburg, Sweden. And overall, looking at this game, it doesn't look TOO bad. Basically, it feels kinda like the old NFS games--you drive around, cops are behind you with the radio chatter, you weave around ever-changing landscapes, and there's no stupid bonuses for doing stunts, shunting and using EMPs to make your rivals crash and die. Here's footage from NFS 4: High Stakes on the PS1.
Looks familiar, don't it? Plus Rivals has Ferraris in it. Hey, if Ferrari endorses something (*coughoutrun2cough*), you know it's gotta be good stuff. But I'm not getting my hopes up cause this is still a NFS game that has EA's greasy fingerprints all over it so I'm still a no-buy for me. But it's worth giving props where it's due.
Other racing games...well, there's also Mario Kart 8. Their new feature this time around is driving up on the ceiling and walls, kinda like in Super Mario Galaxy, to create more dynamic looking tracks. They also seems to have tightened up the handling a bit cause I bet you they saw Sega All-Stars Racing: Transformed and thought "oh shit we're gonna get our asses kicked here" even though they have yet to introduce boats or planes into their game--rather they stuck with hang-gliders and driving on the bottom of the lakes. Sumo, you got Nintendo where you want 'em.
One more thing. Dead Rising 3 sucks ass. What made the first two cool were the colorful mall/casino backdrops. Here's it's a crappy-ass town loaded with gritty shaders. Oh, and I don't give a damn about The Last of Us either. I know that's not E3-related but I'm tired of hearing about that damn game. Again, where's Shenmue 3. Later guys.
Let the Burnout/Split-Second spooge-fest begin! I love how we can't even play the "less realistic racing games plz" card anymore cause it descends to this:
"Hey Eric, like the new Forza/Drive Club?"
"No, I'm tired of realistic games, they should be more focused on gameplay and being fun."
"Oh so it's like Burnout, that's awesome!"
"No...something a little more colorful and lighthearted and...not bro-tastic."
"How about Mario Kart!"
"No, I mean something more arcade-like, fast-paced, and skill based!"
"...Need for Speed?"
"....>_>"
I think I've had the above conversation like twenty times in my life already. Bah, Sega can't win.
Look, let's get this topic over with. Sega All-Stars Racing is fun. Quite possibly the best racing game not to originate in arcades for years. But it has its flaws. The cheap AI is one (I guess so, everyone complains to this day). The on-disc pre-order DLC for Metal Sonic & OutRun Bay is another (no way the DLC is 700 KB in size, it's already on the disc). The online collisions are a BIG one (once got knocked the wrong way at the VERY START of a Sunshine Tour race...still came back and won). But track glitches that affect lap times? Yeah, the worst. 90% probably won't care because you'll play the game normally and be happy. But if you have OCD and don't want this to turn into another Mario Kart glitch-fest, well, you're gonna have a bad time.
A common theme of these glitches is getting airborne and then crossing some plane (the "finish line") or just warping through the level boundaries. This seems to happen in plenty of the courses as you'll see here. I don't know how hard it is to execute each of these glitches (or if they can still be done at the time you're reading this) but this is just me posting after some mild research.
Sky Sanctuary: Halfway through the land portion of the track, just turn hard right into the abyss. You'll clip the finish line and end the lap having only traversed about 30% of it.
Temple Trouble: Same concept as above but now you can skip about 95% of the track if you dive-bomb hard right on the water ramp at the very start of the course. Also, DarkspinesSonic, you have the best YouTube intro ever. Tired of these long-ass intros with the Zelda/Smash Bros/Resident Evil clips set to obnoxious music, I mean JUST POST YOUR USERNAME AND START WITH THE FEATURED PRESENTATION ALREADY. Stay classy, my friends.
Shibuya Downtown: On the third & final jump, the finish line plane can be crossed if you turn hard left and fall off the course. The result of the play is a TOUCHDOWN (someone explain the Dallas Cowboys stars in the JSR levels, really people).
Carrier Zone: Once you turn into a plane, start barrel-rolling into the carrier and you'll break out of the playable zone. Then you can fly over the finish line three times and finish in record time. Against regular AI opponents, DarkSpineSonic is able to come in 1st-2nd-3rd-4th with four human players but only one controller. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!!!
Galactic Parade: Same song & dance as previous vid. Break out of the level in the plane section using barrel rolls. Then do a little circle around the finish line to get a sub-10-second lap. The game will actually tell you "New World Record," nice.
Various Tracks: For a change if pace, this glitch had nothing to do with shortcuts. In any standard arcade racer, if you stall/stop moving for a few seconds, the game will teleport you back on course and help you on your merry way (San Francisco Rush is a good example of this). Yet when Sega All-Stars Racing teleports you forward, it may take you past a transformation game without transforming you...it means driving a car on water, a a boat on an air section, just screwed up things so check it out.
Seasonal Shrines: Another useless yet fun glitch. In the boat cave jump part, if you barrel roll into the wall, you may actually clip the wall and propel the boat onto a land section. The only way to move the boat on land is to roll sideways... I had something sort like this sort of happen on Chilly Castle...hit the left part of that ramp in the boat section and floated through the ceiling for a few seconds...thankfully I landed back in the water again like there was no roof in the first place. LOL
Dream Valley: Skip to 3:15 in the video. In a 3-lap Dream Valley race, early in Lap 2, if you take a hard right instead of a hard left coming out of the first little tunnel, you may get credit for finishing Lap 2. Somehow the game assumes you traveled through the whole course at LUDICROUS SPEED in a single frame. This is just one big WTF especially since, unlike the other glitches, you're not even close to the finish line!
Dragon Canyon: I think this one only works online. In the plane section on Lap 3, if you fly over the bridge where the finish line is, you can get credit for finishing the lap RIGHT THERE. Like the Shibuya Downtown glitch, just crossing the plane, regardless of how many other "checkpoints" you drove through, gives you the lap.
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So what do the glitches mean? Well, Sumo Digital has to release a patch. But guess what? Each patch on Xbox Live costs $40,000 (at least it was a few years ago). I mean, think about it. First, you have to reproduce the glitch. Then you have to fix it. Then you have to playtest it to make sure it stops the leaky faucet. Then you have to hand it to Microsoft who has to playtest it too to make sure it doesn't break the game completely. Then MS puts it on the server and forces every person who signs in to download it, taking up more bandwidth & stuff. And this is just for one console--who knows what it's like for Sony or Nintendo. The process of merely patching a game is a tedious one that can take months so I'm not surprised if Sumo is waiting to fix as many bugs as possible for releasing a patch. Hopefully, they can fix these stupid shortcuts because they seem like low-hanging fruit that a couple of rubbish programmers forgot to pick up on. "To err is human," OH WELL.
But it's not just fixing the glitches that ends it. It's also about blowing up the leaderboards. Anyone who posted a time that exploits the glitch will be removed. Sounds fair, but odds are a bunch of good times that didn't use shortcuts will be erased too. This also doesn't include the Grand Prix records I posted about before (basically four 3-lap races where no ghosts are provided so you really can't tell if the user glitched or not) so those'll have to be blown up too. It really sucks and I'm not knocking on people for using glitches cause people do them ALL THE TIME in speedrunning and they do take skill to use even if they are cheesy and break the spirit of the game. Call me old-school but I like racing games to be about racing, not jumping outside the level and being teleported ahead of the finish line and other nonsense.
By the way, our precious little Mario Kart is not immune as well. Check it out:
Mario Kart 64: Record-setting gameplay can be broken down like this--pick Toad/Peach/Yoshi and jump over barriers and teleport outside level only to have Lakitu drop you off a lap ahead. I know it's an old-ass game that can't be patched (cartridges, remember) but yeah, here's an example of a game where all the rules are broken. Have fun, kids. EDIT: I'm really pissed that the previous video was deleted by the owner. As you can guess, I'm livid over this since that video was cool and this one is not.
Mario Kart Wii: Even new MK games are vulnerable. The infamous Grumble Volcano shortcut--at the start line, boost onto a rock to the left of the finish line. Drive around in a circle on that rock and the game'll assume you traversed the whole course and will credit you a lap each time. Brilliant work, Nintendo. But I don't think there's many glitches like this in MKWii altogether so suffice to say Sega All-Stars Racing is probably worse.
That's just a tip of the iceberg for glitches--do some research on your own if you like and discover a treasure trove of programming follies. And now you know the rest of the story. GOOD DAY.
I know in a few days, Sega All-Stars Racing: Transformed will be among us and it'll surely consume much of our attention. But before then, I want to get as many on the queue things out of the way.
This is the first draft of the timeline I made. It's HUGE. This image below is just a thumbnail.
Now, if you want to see the large timeline,CLICK HERE. It's 2.9 mb and that's after converting to a .jpg with good (not maximum) quality so I don't want to dump this on you people. Yet I had to make the image 3000x4000 because it's the only way to fit so many games without the images being too small to read.
The pic is uploaded to deviantART. Click here and favorite the submission. But since I already described the timeline in the deviantART submission, I'll just copy & paste it here:
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I spent about 30-40 hours on this over the course of a month. It's a list of (most) every relevant racing game since the beginning of video games. From 1976 to 2012. The original timeline is 3000x4000 size so click to zoom in twice for the best view.
I should mention I'm a huge fan of Sega's racing games so the original purpose of the graph was to chart Sega racing games only. Then I branched out and decided to include some other racing games for a point of reference. Then I included video game consoles. Then even more racing games. Now there's a few hundred racing games on there because I'm obsessed like that.
As for how this chart works, I basically thought up as many racing games as I could. The usual suspects like Daytona USA, OutRun, Sega Rally, Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, Mario Kart, etc. Then I looked at some more racing game lists here and there for for more recommendations. After going through that many racing games, I may have missed some. If I forgot some famous racing game, please let me know and I'll get to it. Sorry if I screwed up.
Also I should mention that I'm only looking for semi-relevant racing games. Go to GameFAQs and type in "gp" or "f1" in the search bar and scroll through the list. Should all of those be included here when you've only heard of maybe 5-10% of those?
I've also favored arcade racing games which is why there's a couple of obscure racing games on there. Many of the Sega racing games are arcade titles so comparing them to other arcade titles makes sense.
Now for the dates and the pictures. Basically, I have a game I want to add to the timeline. I look for a box art/title screen pic, chop it, and put it in the chart according to the year I was provided with. Some games I looked up the year on GameFAQs which proves to be inaccurate at times. Other games I look up on Wikipedia which seems more accurate. The point is if the date is wrong then please let me know and I can amend it.
Though some dates are major judgment calls--like Gran Turismo 4 was released in Japan on Dec. 28, 2004 and everywhere else months later. So should I list GT4 under 2004 even though it really isn't? Same thing with Mario Kart 64--Japanese release was Dec. 14, 1996, NA release was Feb. 10, 1997, EU release was June 24, 1997. So there's some judgment calls that had to be made. I still may be wrong with the dates but at least give me "proof" that I'm not.
One more thing--I included Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row in the list purely because driving is a huge part of the gameplay. Those technically don't count as "racing games" but oh well. If their presence is too bothersome, I can take them out.
I appreciate all comments. If this is a big deal and I get a lot of suggestions, I'll make it look much more polished. Until then, here's the first version. Adios.
Oh and I hope this is acceptable for deviantART even though it really isn't "artwork." Maybe I'll move it to scraps then. Isn't all art subjective?
Copyright all these games not to me. So many to list...
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Like most projects I engage in, this one took much too long so I hope it's worthwhile. If only to highlight Fonz, heh...
Here on this site, we like Sega games. But we also like racing games. Question is you had to pick between the two, which would you go with? Would you take a SEGA game or a RACING game??? To reiterate, a Sega non-racing game or a non-Sega racing game. It's like Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail, the 50-50 on Millionaire, or Facemash from The Social Network, just pick whichever frickin one you like more. You MUST pick one, not two, not zero. Here are the two quality games to choose from, choose wisely. Seriously, just pick one.
........
A. The SEGA game.
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B. The RACING game.
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Wow, what an riveting psychological question...which is more important to you: SEGA games or RACING games. WHICH SIDE OF THE FENCE ARE YOU ON??? WHERE DOES YOUR ALLEGIANCE LIE??? And I just blew it with such a shallow post and two lousy games. Man, I am a lousy blogger.
I have a bunch of funny car/racing/Sega memes & gifs for you. Found 'em off random websites like GameFAQs, Reddit, every terrible website out there over the years. And since I'm too lazy to make an actual good post, this one's for you!
Because of the large number of pics, you must hit the jump to load the page. Don't want to crash anyone's browsers here.
This is the game. You're able to drive a car, a boat, and a plane and that's...not a bad idea. Sort of. It depends on how Sumo Digital executes but assuming they improve what they did with Sonic All-Stars Racing 1, I have much faith in the idea.
I'm not going to rehash all the details of the game since that would be stupid. The first thing that comes to mind is comparisons between this and Mario Kart 7. Yes, Mario Kart 7 has water/air racing too. But look at it this way. Mario Kart has gliders, Sonic All-Stars Racing as planes. Mario Kart has underwater driving (as in you don't drive on the surface, you drive on the ocean floor), Sonic All-Stars Racing has boats. Big difference. It would be better to compare this with Diddy Kong Racing which was a pretty good game. If they add Banjo-Kazooie to this game too, it would put an exclamation point on that analogy.
Even if Sonic All-Stars Racing 2 is considered a ripoff, think about it this way. Mario Kart is a mainstay racing game. It's basically sterile in that you're getting the same damn thing every iteration. And if Sega/Sumo Digital is gonna step in, then they ought to differentiate themselves from Mario Kart. If they combine Daytona/OutRun speed & handling with lavish scenery & fun characters, it'll whip Mario Kart's ass--I believe it.
Anyway, so SEGAbits linked to a EuroGamer article which is quite intriguing. Here we have ex-Bizarre Creation employees working with Sumo Digital on this game. Gee whiz, it's about time Bizarre gets the picture!!! Anyway, some choice quotes:
Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed Preview: The Saviour of Arcade Racers
Can PGR talent and Sega's mascot breathe life into a fading genre?
Damn straight, I've been hollering like a lunatic that the arcade racing genre has flatlined for friggin years. And now someone gets it. Thank you EuroGamer, I guess you gotta go across the pond to get ACTUAL GOOD RACING GAME INFO these days.
The designer, a veteran of the Project Gotham Racing series, was talking up his next game Blur, telling me how Bizarre wanted to escape the simulation niche and make racing games mass-market again. "I think we should be going back to the reason people play racing games," he said.
Yes, about time for this too!!! I think most want those colorful, fast-paced games but they've been forced down this narrow path of gritty, wreck-em, pseudo-sim racers cause that's all racing devs have been making these days. About time someone else steps up to the plate.
It did what Blur couldn't, what so few in this genre have managed to do in the last couple of years: it sold.
Thank you Lord Jesus that the arcade racing genre still has untapped potential! Common sense dictates that if you're going to develop a game, try to avoid competition from the "600 pound gorillas" in the room like Call of Duty, Halo, Starcraft, etc. since you will lose. Don't try making FPSes or RTSes. EDIT: Like this:
Look guys, I made a new vidya game.
On the other hand, there's a glaring hole in racing games. Aside from Mario Kart, there aren't any "Sega racer" type of games out there. So Sega can slingshot the competition and take the lead. This I believe. It just takes SOMEBODY with balls to actually make the game and that's what Sumo is doing so mega props to them.
Also speaking of differentiators--this game'll have boats in it. Think about any water-racing games you've played recently...Hydro Thunder, Wave Race, Grand Theft Auto (that's right, hijack those boats & hoes), ...??? More undeveloped territory for Sega to invest in.
But Sega's had a taste of success in this area now, and it's deadly serious when it gives Transformed the much-abused "triple-A" label.
Success in quality racing games, definitely.
A rep tells me that it's being treated as "this year's big Sonic title", and Wilson confirms that Sumo's not knocking this one out on the cheap.
Not only is Sega reviving racing games, they're also reviving Sonic. You're very welcome, Sonic fans.
"This is a massive, massive budget title," he says, citing the expense of modelling three separate vehicles for each of 27 characters, as well as the transformations between them.
There were 20 characters in the Sonic All-Stars Racing 1, but 27 in Sonic All-Stars Racing 2. We now know that Gilius (Golden Axe) and Vyse (Skies of Arcadia) are added to the game. Also NiGHTS cause it would be asinine not to include him as a playable character this time around. Buy TWENTY-SEVEN IS BIG and it's nice to know that FOR ONCE IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND a Sega racer is actually getting a big budget. So damn sick and tired of publishers like EA and Activision pumping millions of dollars into this misguided dreck that completely misses the point we're trying to get at here.
I have one concern about the changing characters and that is how are some characters going to derive boats/planes out of their asses? Like Ryo Hazuki on the motorbike--how does that that work out? Get cracking, Sumo publishers. We need more documents on what to do.
Sega's investment also encompasses new rendering and physics engines (created "with future platforms in mind," says Wilson - but no, he can't confirm or deny a Wii U release) and has allowed Sumo to take in some of the development talent from Bizarre and Black Rock, which similarly found itself shut down after the release of Split/Second.
Yes, we have beloved Split/Second people working on this game. Dammit, but good cause we've converted them to our side! Now they see the light of HAPPY, FUN RACING GAMES.
The demo looked lovely but suffered from a chugging frame-rate. Sumo's aiming for a solid 30 frames per second in the final game (the water physics rule out 60fps).
Damn, that really sucks. I'd kill for 60 fps but with the water, I can understand where they're coming from. If they make it 30 fps for no logical reason whatsoever then I'd be super pissed.
The budget's also visible in the lavishly mounted dynamic tracks that, just like the vehicles, transform from lap to lap.
OMG you can change the race track via powerplays--is that right, Black Rock??? The article spends a lot of time talking about the Super Monkey Ball & Skies of Arcadia tracks so w/e, you get the idea.
Transformed's speed classes, which will range from easy C to testing All-Star, aren't in the game yet, but the demo is pitched around A-class and at this level it's already a thrill to link together the OutRun-style endless drifts.
Yes, YES! Heh.
But the great thing about Sonic & All-Stars Racing is that you don't really need to justify its existence alongside Mario Kart. The difference between them is as easy to grasp as the difference between Mario and Sonic themselves - one cute, slapstick and inventive, the other with a harder, brasher, more spectacular arcade edge.
That's the differentiator I'm looking for there! Thank you Sumo Digital for actually giving me faith in the future of games.
So it's fitting and welcome that Wilson and other refugees from the great arcade racing slump have found themselves working on Transformed. Here, they can subtly slip their race-tuned sensibilities into a game with good commercial prospects and genuine crossover appeal. And if it works out as it should, everyone wins - from kids, to Sega fanboys, to the dispossessed brotherhood of the drift.
Oh yes, the dispossed brotherhood...all it takes is a few good racing games and people will actually get back into racing games again and Sonic All-Stars Racing 2 is definitely a good start.
Just off the 101 freeway in good ‘ol San Fran is a Go-Kart tracing track which for one Tuesday afternoon, was taken over by Sega.
Yeah, I'd love to take over a go-kart track too. A subtle poke at Mario Kart nonetheless.
Now, I do have three concerns about the game and here they go:
1. I like the cars/boats/planes idea but the way the tracks are designed, all three may be mandatory at some point in a race. Now I'm a big fan of cars so more often that most, I may just want to drive cars and that's it. Or if I do feel like driving a boat or plane, I want to do it for the whole race. Mixing it up each race is a good idea but it can get annoying after a while. We'll see.
2. The name just plain sucks right now. "Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed"??? First of all, "Sonic and All-Stars Racing" sounds dumb. The "all-stars" can mean just about anyone. It's a given that it's Sega's all-stars but of the words that should be stripped from the title, I'd kill "All-Stars" and replace it with "Sega." Also, "Transformed" is a weird word to put in a title--I'd stay away from verbs in a game title IMO. I'd prefer something like "Deluxe" or even "Extravaganza" over "Transformed." But that's just me.
EDIT: 3. Can this game at least run a consistent 30 fps? I would love 60 fps but that's likely out of the picture. But if this game runs at 30 fps and gets choppy at points, it would be a huge dent in the game. EDIT AGAIN: This is an early build of the game so please hold out on the early reports on lag. Give it some time.
...that's about it. I think Tails' car looks tight--like a F1 car/buggy hybrid. TBQH, I'd prefer a new Daytona/OutRun to this but hell, right now Sega's arcade racing hopes hinge on this game so let us pray this game is a huge success. Even if you don't like racers, Sega needs any boost it can get right about now. The game'll be out in 2012 so I'm super stoked that we'll get to play it soon. We should learn more at E3. Laters.
I keep reading on these websites that this game is another "crap Sonic game." First, this game wasn't crap--yeah it wasn't flawless but it was good (78% on GameRankings). Second, in case you couldn't read, it's a "SEGA" game, not a Sonic game. The only really good Sega racer we got in recent times. Really, what else am I supposed to play? Mario Kart? Where are all these people flipping out over Mario Kart 7? No, cause Mario Kart 7 is mediocre (don't shoot me for this). Move over, Nintendo, cause Sega can do Kart racing too.
Look, the Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing talk isn't old, I went into detail about it long, long ago. Sumo Digital also ported OutRun 2--I have a lot of faith in these guys to do better with SaSASR 2 than with 1.
EDIT: Guess I'll say this. I know that SaSASR 1 was lacking in the content department. Too many Sonic characters and recycled track assets. I think if they append what they did from the first game to the second (I am all in favor of re-using tracks from the previous game even if they undergo few changes) then that'll be great.
....Aaaaaannnnnddd, I can't talk much nowadays since I've done so much programming homework that at the end of the day, I'm not in the mood to stare at the screen. Second homework assignment I turned in five minutes before the deadline (11:55 pm). It's like defusing bombs with seconds to spare--it's fun!!!
Quick, you have 16 hours to finish the 32 hour-long assignment or else you lose 10% credit for each day late, PROGRAM FASTER YOU NUBS!!!!1!!1!!!!!!!!!!! What's that--you only have one hour left? Thirty minutes??? TEN MINUTES??? Will I crash the build if I submit this? WWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello kids, I'm not fully motivated to type right now but once again, two GameInformer magazines are tossed on the table and I couldn't resist the urge to rip 'em again. I have both the Dec. 2011 and Jan. 2012 issues.
But first, let me talk about the game covers. The December issue has a Rainbow Six: Patriots cover, but that's not all. Glued to the front cover is another "cover"that you can peel off. This second cover happens to be an ad for the Spike Video Game Awards. That stupid ass trophy of a monkey wearing a crown holding what appears to be a bong might as well be substituted for dog excrement. Way to go GameInformer, just when I thought you couldn't stoop any lower.
What am I doing here???
Then there's the January cover showcasing this upcoming South Park game, complete with tons of photos and interviews with Trey and Matt. Now, I'm completely indifferent to the show, but damn--since when did South Park become "down" with the gamers? Ever since the World of Warcraft episode? The Guitar Hero episode? The Nintendo Wii episode? Just like Spike TV or Mountain Dew--now gamers think they're hip cause they start advertising to them? Sorry, I'm not buying.
Although The Run contains all of these constituent parts, it fails to execute or combine them in a way that is engaging. After I finished the game, I had raced across America, escaped the mob, and cheated death numerous times, but was left with relatively few postcards to remember the experience by.
My main problem with the game is that its cross-country trek simply contains too few highlights. The out-of-the-car moments can be counted on one hand, and when they finally do occur, the fact that they are little more than quick-time events dampens them as a novel gameplay experience in an otherwise foreign genre.
The racing itself isn’t boring, but it’s not novel enough in and of itself to make the game great – especially since it’s not being bolstered by the on-foot segments.
As much as the on-foot vignettes are a lost opportunity for The Run, I also feel like it drops the ball on the story as a whole.
Need for Speed: The Run is by no stretch a bad game; it just fails to capitalize on its chances. San Francisco to New York is a long haul, and it’s even longer when not enough happens in between.
Replay: Moderate
So let's play a game. It's called "Guess the review score?" Guess what it is:
A 7.75. Personally, for me, reading this review without looking at the number, you'd think this would be somewhere in the 7 or less review. Maybe even a 6.5. It's almost as if Mr. Kato (the same dumbass extraordinaire who bashed OutRun 2) played the game, wrote down plenty of flaws, but at the last minute when it was time to write the final score, he chickened out a by a point or so. Why would he do that?
Name recognition. To him and many other mainstream gamer types, the Need for Speed brand is this glorious, fetishized object that they'll always respect, no matter how many crap releases Electronic Arts pushes every year. So when they get to NFS: The Run, they play it and think "It's not very good" BUT they cannot will themselves to write down a score in the 6-ish range so they cut the deal and say "this game has problems BUT it's still a 7.75!" Yeah sure, when the GameRankings average is 6.9, I buy it.
Despite these slight tweaks to the rules, the modes don’t feel all that different. After the initial hour or so, I started to feel the repetition setting in. You play the same intersection three times in a row, move on to the next one, play that three times, and so on. It really starts to feel like a grind as you try to plow through all the levels.
Replay: Moderate
They gave Burnout: Crash a 7.5. See what I mean? When they hear the name "Burnout," they piss their pants. And when they find out a Burnout game just isn't very good, they weasel their way out of it with a short, non-helpful review with a few critiques to show they "care," slap a decent score on it, and they're on their merry way. It's pathetic.
The result is a timeline that starts out strong and slowly deteriorates, serving as an apt history lesson for the struggling series.
Unfortunately, the good times fade when Sonic begins cruising through 2D versions of levels from post-Dreamcast Sonic games. Traversing the burning ruins of Crisis City from the awful 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog reboot is an exercise in frustration packed with unfair drop-offs and annoying gales.
Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Heroes didn’t thrill me, and revisiting reworked versions only serves to remind me of how uninspired they are. Legacy issues, like wonky platforming and poorly communicated pitfalls, plague these later levels.
I felt smothered by Sonic Team’s insistence on shoehorning recent Sonic games, no matter how awful, into the 20-year timeline.
Concept: A whimsical trip down memory lane that ends in the gutter
Replay: Moderately Low
I don't get it. The only real critique behind the game is that it reminds them of bad Sonic games, the controls "suck" again, and there's a few pits that you can fall in (news flash: a red warning sign appears in places you can fall to your death). You moron, this is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT GAME. If ONLY the mere sight of levels/characters from a mediocre Sonic game makes you sick, then you're a complete wimp. Stop reviewing Sonic games.
Also, I don't get how Sonic Generations gets a "low" replay value when all I hear out of games like Burnout: Crash and NFS: The Run with their "medium" replay value is the repetitive grinding as usual. Sonic has plenty of side missions and things to unlock--does Burnout and Need for Speed have the same as well?
Seriously, Sonic Generations faired much better than NFS: The Run ever did (a 7.8 average on GameRankings), so what's the deal with this review?
See what I mean? When it comes to NFS or Burnout, those are special icons they cannot part with. Sonic, however, is expendable. It's for loser Sega fans, nerds, little kids, furries, and people with autism. The "cool" gamers don't care about Sonic so they're not afraid to rip the game although they couldn't come up with much to say about the game anyway other than the usual talking points..."uh, Sonic's dead to us so this game automatically fails."
I did say this before and I'll say it again--GameInformer is a magazine sold by retailer GameStop so what the hell do you think GI is going to say? That these games suck? No, they're going to soften them up and convince readers to run to GameStop to buy all these wonderful games. It's no use to them to rate a game poorly (except Sonic since that'll sell no matter what since we're all "tools"). Either that or Electronic Arts & Criterion are paying off GameInformer not to rate their games so harshly which is likely the case too.
Other GameInformer reviews include: Modern Warfare 3 (9.0), Battlefield 3 (9.25), Skyrim (9.5), and Zelda: Skyward Sword (a perfect 10). So their reviews fall in line with everyone else's. What's the point of reading this magazine again?
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Oh, and one more kick in the ass for the road, on Page 50 of the Dec. 2011 issue, they run through a list of games of this generation you "shouldn't miss" from each genre. Here's the racing games that you must definitely check out:
"RACING: You love the smell of burning tires and the press of wind against your skin, but nothing compares to the feeling of knowing that, at any moment, you could lose control."
Forza Motorsport series Gran Turismo 5 Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Burnout series Mario Kart series
I shed a tear at the guy's description but realized he's full of crap. Really sad how this list has dwindled down to just this. Forza is the only one that has any sense of credibility left. Gran Turismo 5 is a heap of a mess. NFS: Hot Pursuit is the only "good" NFS of this generation but even then, I think it's overrated and needed the assistance of both EA and Criterion to make it decent. Burnout is Burnout and Mario Kart has Nintendo's blessing behind it. It's the same-old same-old that you've heard for years and it makes me sick. A shame that no other races have risen to challenge it. OutRun 2, maybe, but no one cares about that anymore. And Sonic didn't even get mentioned in the Platformer section, go figure. Sega FTW!
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I can keep nitpicking about GameInformer but it is futile and petty. GI still puts out some decent editorials although I obviously don't put a lot of faith in these guys. But it's not just about GI, it's about the gaming media in general which tends to follow the same thought processes. Now you know why as a Sega racing fan I can get so irate.
10. Victory Run (Turbografx-16)
9. Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off-Road (Sega Genesis)
8. Marauder - Rock & Roll Racing (Sega Genesis)
7. Battle Cars (SNES)
6. Jaguar XJ220 (Sega Genesis)
5. Zero 4 Champ RR (Super Famicom)
4. Super Mario Kart (SNES) 3. Virtua Racing (Sega Genesis NOT 32X)
2. F-Zero (SNES) 1. OutRun (Sega Genesis)
Might I remind you that I contributed nothing to the votes. Lessseeee here...you got Nintendo juggernauts Mario Kart & F-Zero. And then here comes Outrun and Virtua Racing (the GENESIS version, remind you) which top 'em. Well done, voters!!! Cartoon go-karts and space racers may be interesting in a fantasy setting, but in the end, it's all about the work of modern artisans and technicians that hits the pavement...
Holy crap, look at the people at :36...it's Gumby!!
Not the flashiest version of OutRun...
These are on the measly Genesis so give them a break. And there you have it, Sega racers score more points out there.
That's about it for now. I sure hope the site doesn't go down forever or all these picture links will be ruined and I'll be super-pissed. Farewell, mates.
...Oh! Hello, didn't see you there. Well, gather around the fireplace, folks, cause I'm gonna tell you a story about the old days.
Well, not that old. Going back to Spring 2010 when Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racers came out. Now I've referenced this game a few times, but let's delve into it if you're uninformed.
This game was made by Sumo Digital, not Sega. Sumo is also responsible for Sega Superstars Tennis and OutRun 2 console ports. I'm gonna go ahead and say this--Sumo Digital is one of the last bastions of Sega goodness. Really, cause I don't think Sega would've made a game that celebrates its history as much as this. And don't give me Sonic Riders since that game wasn't as well-received as this one.
Now, I'm going to tell you five good things and five bad things about this game. Well, why more bad things, you ask? Not because I'm a Negative Nancy, but because I want to prove I'm not a blind homer and so that Sega/Sumo can improve on whatever games they make in the future. See, constructive criticism isn't so bad, is it? Consider this as a "Top 10" of stuff to mention about this game.
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GOOD:
1. My goodness, this game was such a breath of fresh air when it came out. Sick and tired of this Burnout crap. Game's got great drifts and a decent (not the best, but certainly better than most) sense of speed. I'm dead serious--when a race gets going, it's a hell of a lot more fun than Mario Kart. It's as close as you're gonna get to Daytona/OutRun in a looooong time...
2. Good representation of Sega characters. You don't necessarily have to be a Sega diehard to get it, but besides a bunch of Sega characters, you got Ryo Hazuki, Beat, Ulala, BD Joe, Billy Hatcher, Bonanza Bros., Alex Kidd, even freakin Banjo-Kazooie (360 version only). It's really nice to see some Sega representation somewhere, and what better than a freakin racing game?
3. The items are actually quite balanced. Granted, they are generic items like traffic cones, rockets, bombs, Sonic shoes, etc. which act like the usual Mario Kart stuff like shells and bananas. But in Mario Kart, one of the biggest complaints was how cheesy the items were. It was so easy to get the crap kicked out of you in that game. In this game, items aren't as powerful and you can deflect them quite easily using your own items. So basically, the game is not as random as Mario Kart and is thus more rewarding.
There is one item though that serves as a spiky shell/bullet bill/lightning bolt and that is a Superstar Move. If you're in a bad position, you activate this and your character gains some special ability for a few seconds. Like Sonic turns into Super Sonic, Ryo rides a forklift that is tank-like in nature, Billy Hatcher rides a big egg and crushes people, Bonanza Bros. drop bombs from a blimp, etc. However, these items are not available in online play. Whether or not this is a good thing is up to you (I err towards good since they seem broken in a way).
4. Tracks are actually damn good and colorful. They're all based off of Sega games--Sonic Green Hill, Sonic Casino, Eggman Fortress, Jet Set Radio Tokyo, Samba de Amigo World, House of the Dead, etc. Granted, this fact is a given, but it's nice to race on bright, colorful tracks that make you feel GOOD. Well, some of them anyway, but at least there's a decent variety!
5. It has Jacky Bryant and his buddy Akira riding in the Koenigsegg CCX convertible OUTRUNNERS STYLE!!!
This is not the best race in the world. I can certainly do much better, but this is just for show.
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BAD:
1. Some people don't like how the game runs at 30 FPS as opposed to 60. Now IMO, this is hardly a problem, but since this was the year 2010, the game's gotta push it to the limit. There's also some slight slowdown in the second Eggman course, when you whip around the final turn and you're facing the big factory and you get cut down a little. It's not so bad, but everyone would prefer if the game ran in full speed.
2. The character tiers are crap, crap, mega crap. Well, it's not that bad since you can be competitive with any character but still, blatant tiers exist. The best characters in the game are in the middleweight category. Tierwise, the best characters would be Sonic, Shadow, Ryo, Tails, Bonanza Bros. and so forth. The worst are the heavy weights which consist of Eggman, Banjo, the Zombie dudes, and my boys Jacky and Akira...
The reason why is because their acceleration sucks so all it takes is a few timely hits and they're down for the count. Even without items, their high top speeds and long drift boost aren't that great against the other characters. Also, the game doesn't allow players to push other characters around. As Jacky, I should be able to plow over lightweights like Knuckes in the ATV, but he just blocks me and kills my momentum which makes no sense, thus neutering heavyweights even further.
Regardless, these tiers are nowhere near as bad as Mario Kart Wii's vehicle tiers. I talked about this way back, but in MKWii, if you're not driving a bike, you're shooting yourself in the foot. Change the name to Mario Bike Wii for good justice.
3. Backwards drifting. Now Mario Kart DS and F-Zero have a similar mechanic in snaking--constantly moving back and forth to accumulate speed boosts. SaSASR has a similar mechanic this way. There are two "steering wheels"--one on the joystick and one on the d-pad. So if you use the joystick to turn one way in the drift, you can push the d-pad in the opposite direction to jerk the car back the other way, hence being able to drift in a straight line at will.
Now this trick really isn't all that bad. For one, I believe it does even out the character tiers a little which gives heavyweights like Jacky more time to boost. Second, it does take some skill to do. However, if we're going for a pure racing game, this can't happen. It's ridiculous that every second you're on the track, you're constantly sideways. This isn't gymkhana , it's a race.
Of course, the debate whether or not to keep BD drifting in (despite it being an unintentional feature) was ended when some people pleaded on the official Sega forums to keep it in. This is a tough call because I like drifting, but doing it in a straight line makes no sense.
4. Some shortcuts are better than others. The best shortcut in the game is on Rokkaku Hill (2nd JSR level, sunset). When you enter the subway tunnel, cut hard to the right to enter a parking garage. This parking garage shortcut is so advantageous that if you miss it and take the traditional route instead, you lose a lot of ground. There's also a lucrative shortcut at the end of Ocean Pier--just jump the pier in front of you instead of turning left and there's a couple of seconds off your lap time.
On the other hand, there's some shortcuts in the Billy Hatcher levels that require you to "thread the needle" just to gain hardly any track position which means it is better to just skip it entirely. Yes, it would be tough to fix shortcuts and make them "fair," but just apply the More Risk = More Reward principle and there you go.
5. Sometimes the announcer needs to shut up. He can be rather annoying. Also, some of the items could be buffed, like the rainbow trap and the bombs which I don't think has helped one damn bit. There are more Sega franchises that could be included like uhh...maybe the Hornet from Daytona? Hey the Hornet WAS in Fighters Megamix after all. Okay, now I'm just nitpicking so I'm done.
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Anyway, I know this "review" is really late, but I still gotta give Sumo props on this game. It's one of the best racing games I've played in a long time despite its flaws. Online's mostly dead but even if you get this game just to try out single-player, it's worth it.
Surprisingly, reviews for this game have been pretty good, some saying that it's better than Mario Kart Wii. Professional and user reviews hover around the 8.0 range, maybe higher. Not bad. If I were to rate the game, I'd give it AT LEAST an 8, maybe a 9 (out of 10). Is this game good? Yes. Is it better than Outrun and Daytona? Not really, but once again, props people. Peace out. Go read a book or something.
Remi is this famous YouTuber from France who does all these wacky stunts in public which makes you wonder how much jail time he did for each one. He's got a huge following and is most known for his Mario Kart video that I'm certain everyone has seen at least once. But he's made many more videos besides that one.
Race car drivers get free champagne.
Formula 1 car on public roads...makes sense, right?
Not racing related but he falls asleep at the wheel...this is how I feel when I play Cruis'n World.
I was going to talk about something else, mostly Dead Rising 2--beaten the story mode but am going back for achievements so gimme some time to come to conclusions. I got off on a tangent and now I come up with a neat topic on the run.
First off, this deals with racing games in general. Just cheese exploits that deviate from the very nature of the game. I hate gamebreakers--they ruin the game. Most of these apply to Mario Kart which is lolworthy to say the least.
My favorite has to be snaking in Mario Kart DS which is just lame. It also exists in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing as well as in F-Zero GX. To be fair, these glitches aren't easy to do (especially in F-Zero), but look at it this way. Let's say you're playing Daytona USA and there's a glitch where if you mash the start button as fast as possible, you get a speed boost. Is it challenging? Yes. Is it logical and makes sense? No, not at all.
But there does exists a bug/glitch/exploit in Daytona USA. In the Beginner and Expert tracks, if you drive on the gray strip adjacent to the pit lane, you can pass through without stopping. This is probably my least favorite part of the game. You might scream "Well, you're jealous cause you can't do it!!" So what? Even without the glitch I would still lose handily. I just don't like it, but still props for doing a good job since it's very difficult to pull off seven times in a row.
And while we're on the topic of glitches, there's this famous glitch in Perfect Dark where you can clip the building and fall down to the exit below in six seconds. Yes, it's very difficult to do, but ha, oh man.
And you want to get EVEN MORE NASTY???
I mean, let's not get started on how any character besides Yoshi/Toad/Peach is useless, but this guy's voice is awesome so watch the entirety of it. Oh yeah, and The Netherlands = N64 gods. Korea has Starcraft, Sweden has Counter-Strike, Singapore has arcade games, Holland has N64, I swear. America has...uh, some FPSes, not all of them, and Guitar Hero, Rock Band. Japan has fighting games, I think, and maybe DDR, although Korea may have usurped them, I don't know. At least they have baseball (see WBC)...
All I have to say is that people will break every single rule that they can. And that's fine, I'm not saying that they aren't allowed to, but if I were the developer and I had a chance to go back in time and fix this, I would. Please don't take it personally. Like I said before, you would still kick my ass.
And then I looked up some TVtropes page on Daytona USA and other games and they do exist. Wow, really cool. This is a user-created site like Wikipedia. Some of my favorites are Crowning Moment of Awesome, Nintendo Hard, Scenery Porn, Stalked by the Bell, That's One Damn Level, and the best--They Just Didn't Care (referring to Championship Edition car textures). It's a very flattering article and makes me happy that there exists Daytona USA diehards out there in unexpected places...
All in all TVTropes is an interesting site to get lost in cause it's got lots of "haha that's so true" stuff. Sorry I got carried away, I will see you fools later.
I have a lot of topics lined up, but since I want to save all of them for later, I just don't feel like going out of the way to talk about it
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Freakin' Call of Duty: Black Ops Trailer. Now, I did play MW2 for some time, it didn't last though (4th prestige, how sad) but then I moved on to Perfect Dark. I'm probably not going to play this one for long. All I have to say is hidden thermal cameras? Okay, cool. Crossbows? Wow, just like Half-Life! Ballistic knives? I saw those on Deadliest Warrior! RC CARS?? Ok, this is not a lie people.
While you're at it, why not just whip out some ninja stars, nail guns, tranquilizers, rubber shotgun slugs, Han Solo's Mauser laser, chainsaws, potato guns, shrink rays, a kick melee attack/Duke's "mighty boot," missile balloons, Rick Roll mines, stuffed teddy bears (those can be lethal); I mean this is MW2 but with more toys. Seems like IW always painstakingly makes the good game (I say this loosely, rushing the game doesn't help) and Treyarch copies. This game will have Zombies in it too which is good. I don't really care that much, but I guess you should know. Game will still be inexplicably good.
4WD cars are overpowered. The game takes off too much PI because it assumes your car is fat and sluggish when it in fact is OP. Now you can't play online anymore without a bunch of Audi S5/Dodge Viper 4WD cheesers ruining the game. Assuming that RWD handles the same as 4WD, yes 4WD would be overpowered, but to rub salt on the wound, 4WD cars don't have to worry about spinning out if you drive without TCS. I play with all driving aids off (ABS, TCS, STM) and I can usually handle the cars I drive, but if I'm going with a RWD slippery car, then the fact that I can lose traction and speed just makes it even more difficult for RWD to compete.
I saved up 20 million credits just so I could buy the Ferrari 250 GTO and now I can't even use that (or any other Ferrari for that matter) because I play to save face, never to reach Victory Lane. Yes, tuning your car--I at least have a knack at it and considering the skill level of the people I play with, there's no excuse to lose that bad. So I'm just gonna save for Forza 4. It was fun while it lasted.
I'm sorry I let you down.
Why is it that other racing games have so much trouble with balance issues? In Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, lightweights were OP. Using Jacky Bryant was the equivalent of running a marathon with a pair of crutches. And Mario Kart Wii--oh man, what a piece of crap, 10x worse than SaSASR. Bikes are so OP it's ridiculous. The name of the game is Mario KART Wii, but everyone uses bikes because you can wheelie for top-speed down straightaways. I'm not going to lie--I did like this game a lot but I just couldn't play it anymore because of this.
Why do game designers have to drop the ball this way? I know I sound nitpicky, but if you're going to go out of your way to include extra details, at least make them viable ones. Don't taunt us with useless extras that are more frustrating to use than fun.
But wait, Nintendo can do no wrong, right??
This also reminds me of how other games can be lopsided--fighting games are notorious for this, but that's an incredibly complex genre to balance. Racing games are nowhere near as complicated. Another game that comes to mind is Advance Wars, which I think is awesome regardless. Let's just say that some characters allow you to produce really cheap, effective units that overpower the enemy. I'm not going to go into detail since I'm fairly certain lots of people haven't played it.
I know that game devs can't always catch game balance issues for two reasons...
One, they usually don't have enough time to test the game. Devs would rather get the game out and make a profit, which is the truth like it or not (save a few dedicated folks). Wait too long and money is wasted and everyone loses interest. Sadly, a game community can more fairly balance a game over a month of playing than the devs can.
Two, because "game balance" doesn't look good on paper. When selling games to a publisher and to the public, it's better to say "This game has hundreds of cars in it," than "This game has about fifty cars in it, but we made sure they're all balanced." I mean, look at Marvel vs. Capcom 2--56 characters, tiers are all over the place, but still, people eat that up like fried chicken (I'd like some Chicken McNuggets right about now).
