All the S@nics - the end

[raocow]

Screenshot_20220809_120154.png
The shell rendering (for fur; one of the more extreme instances pictured above) seems a bit ... off-tune here. This must be an emulation thing, right? Surely they would have noticed and toned this down on real hardware...? Looking forward to seeing more of it once night falls again in-game, anyway.

those things looked identical in the prerendered cutscenes in sd

[Grounder]

yeah, no, "a month" is pretty unrealistic with this one just forcing you to be better at it and engage with it more and the dlc

we're looking at two and a half at minimum imo

[Lord Ruby]

For reference (not the exact same frame, but close enough):

Screenshot_20220809_150420.png (229.14 KiB) Viewed 1156 times

Similar, especially on the right side, but not identical.

It seems like there might be some graphical glitch going on on the left side in HD, like ... the outermost shell might have a much higher opacity than it's supposed to have, but only when it's facing away from the camera...? If that's it, it's most likely an emulation glitch ... or a PS3-version glitch, as I've heard that was the secondary version. But, ultimately, it's fairly mild, and there's probably nothing we can do about it.

[KobaBeach]

It seems like there might be some graphical glitch going on on the left side in HD, like ... the outermost shell might have a much higher opacity than it's supposed to have, but only when it's facing away from the camera...? If that's it, it's most likely an emulation glitch ... or a PS3-version glitch, as I've heard that was the secondary version. But, ultimately, it's fairly mild, and there's probably nothing we can do about it.

WALL OF TEXT WARNING

What? No, this is also in the Xbox 360 version, according to the video I posted. I timestamped on the first cutscene, no spoilers unless you really want to watch like a 6 hour video (would be a Sebby Moment). I tried to get a good longplay of the PS3 version that wasn't on RPCS3 but I couldn't find one, but I do remember this being on the console and weirding me out too.

I don't know if you can screenshot in a PS3 Super Slim (I have a jailbroken one with HFW), but if I could I'd be willing to take a screenshot and try to extract it with multiMAN's FTP folder feature and WinSCP, I'd just need to get my motivation on. Autism/asperg ritual thing, plugging in my PS3 is A Thing and then putting it back into my drawer is Another Thing with the amount of nonsense I keep in there.

There's a reason I don't really play Star Ocean 4 or Sonic Unleashed everyday and also keep delaying my "how much of Sonic 06 can I handle" replay (two reasons, actually one of them is my horrible backlog, so SO4 and SU are a priority).

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At the end of the day Sonic Team just has trouble with some aspects of 3D aesthetics, NiGHTS and Burning Rangers are gorgeous but then you look at Sonic Adventure and a lot of stuff looks rough while other stuff looks fantastic for the time, a halfbaked/romhack like quality that I am willing to stand by and encourage.

Adventure 2 is a definite upgrade to the character models for real, but it still has that weird "midpoly" aesthetic with kind of real life-esque textures that I kind of love in a clash-y, "this episode wont be accepted in knux's forum" sort of way? Humans look ghastly though, I cannot with Maria's original model.

06 is similar, graphic wise it tries to be high fidelity and detailed, going for a super detailed realistic world, but it has certain moments where stuff just feels jank and the attempt at realism just makes it feel weird? Unlike Adventure and Adventure 2, 06 feels like Absolute Ass instead of just slightly ass so I cannot defend it in good faith.

Unleashed is a better attempt at merging realism with Pixar/Dreamworks like humans, which I would adore to see this vibe return or make them like super anime and stylized like Adventure or OVA instead of just...

The Nier baby, Sage from Sonic Frontiers who looks honestly super bad. I MIGHT end up liking her if she ends up being more interesting than Infinite (not a hard bar) or The Game She's In (also not a hard bar), and, /she is/ written by Ian but. Man that design jesus fucking christ on a bicycle

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But anyway Sonic Team games just have like, weird aesthetic decisions that just Look specifically Sonic Team and also 2000s SEGA and a lot of the times kinda bad lol. And it's something I appreciate a lot and feel nostalgic for, and I also feel is missing from later games as they try to make the Sonic universe more consistent starting around Lost World, Boom at least tries to be a bit weirder but it plays much worse.

Frontiers for instance just looks

super mid, people said that the game looked better after the new previews in June and that IGN's previews made the game look bad but, I feel like all of that is just delusion and the Open Zones just look incredibly bland by themselves, very Hire This Man. I see some potential in the spaghetti highway stage but jesus christ the open world looks so boring.

Sorry for the wall of text and I'm sorry you had to read all this sperging.

[helucard]

Nah, Robotnik is like... super hyper genius, but you know, he has his foible. Like, the fact that he does want a challenge, like, I feel like he puts weaknesses on everything 'cause otherwise, he would argue, like, what's the point? In a strange way. He has his own codes.

Yeah! The comics do explore this a bit. Image from the comics in the spoiler explaining why he acts the way he does. The summary though is that Eggman is fully aware that he can just win whenever he wants if he just drops tons of ordinance on him. But that's not enough for him, he has to prove he's better than Sonic, capable of outsmarting him. It kinda shows the madness he's fallen into at this point - it's not just blind murderous intent towards a persistent obstacle in the way of his goals, it's a superiority complex, he needs to validate his unrestrained ego. All this effort that he's gone through has to be made worthwhile, he NEEDS the payoff. He HAS to show that when it comes down to the wire, his brains are what will beat Sonic's speed. We've seen the finale of Sonic 2, right? Where when he reaches the Death Egg, Sonic just has no access to rings at all, and a single mistake is death. He's fully capable of finding ways of depriving Sonic of his strengths, but no. At this point, he's actively choosing to face him directly at his strongest because this isn't about just tossing him aside anymore. He'll beat him at his best, or not at all.

- Sidenote, I learned a new word; Foible! That's one for the scrabble table!

Yeah, does the game ever explain why he shows up, but then un-shows up? And then spreads... through the world... as a miasmous...?

Well yeah - Dark Gaia was woken up too early and didn't have the energy to maintain his form. So his essence dispersed into the billions of heartless around the world.

[EllenHouraisan]

My take on Eggman is though he's a genius, he's lacking in perspective. Like, his brain has to run so many complex operations to design working robots and spaceships of ever increasing power that he's become incapable of caveman thoughts such as "put spikes on the spaceship's surface so Sonic no can land on it."

I dunno, I always felt like the whole "Eggman enjoys the competition aspect with Sonic" takes away from how he always felt like a significant threat in early games. Reminds me of how in Sonic X at one point he's about to kill Tails but orders his robots to recall the missile because he doesn't want to lose his now only rival (because Sonic is stuck on Earth thanks to Christopher Thorndyke being immesurably dumb), while earlier during the SA2 arc he had no qualms with killing Sonic whatsoever. It makes no sense.

[KobaBeach]

Sega? Making sense? Surely you jest

[Grounder]

[EllenHouraisan]

Sega? Making sense? Surely you jest

Me trying to slot every single Sonic game into a concise timeline regardless of inconsistencies and retcons:

[Heavy Sigh]

Fun Sonic Facts!

Upon release, critical reception to Unleashed was actually rather mixed, with Metacritic scores averaging only 60 and 54 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions , and 66 out of 100 for the Wii and PlayStation 2 versions. The added element of motion controls for the Werehog sections, as well as text-based hub worlds and better Werehog level design and camera system, were reasons cited for the higher review scores for the Wii and PlayStation 2 versions of the game, though a few reviews, such as 1UPs, gave the Wii version a lower score than its Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 counterparts. Nevertheless, the game was a commercial success and sold 2.45 million units combined making it Sega's third bestselling game during their last fiscal year period of 2008.

Positive elements of Sonic Unleashed remarked upon by reviews include the environments, such as the "postcard-perfect architecture", and the graphics, with stages looking "absolutely gorgeous" and being "very pretty and lovingly animated", with one reviewer comparing them to a playable Pixar film. Praise was given to the technical competence of Sega's new Hedgehog Engine as a whole on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, with "bright cartoonish graphics that fly by without a stutter". However, some complaints were raised about notable performance hits when large numbers of enemies appeared during Werehog sections.

Although the Wii and PlayStation 2 versions did not benefit from the Hedgehog Engine, their graphics were still praised for their high quality, with the Wii release being nominated for Best Graphics Technology by IGN in its 2008 video game awards. The soundtrack to the game was also seen as being an improvement on more recent instalments in the series, with the use of an orchestral score instead of rock especially appreciated.

[KobaBeach]

sniping jotaro off the front page to say that i love unleashed's soundtrack but

with the use of an orchestral score instead of rock especially appreciated.

this is white privilege /sarcasm

[Bean]

Yeah, collecting the medals is a much bigger deal in the HD version. It'll get easier as you go along, so I'd just recommend playing normally other than maybe exploring the towns a little bit since different medals exist there both in day and night. Apotos is small enough that finding them shouldn't be too much of an issue.

If you ever get stuck, you know by now to ask. For now, I'm just going to keep watching!

[EllenHouraisan]

Big Sonic Adventure vibes with today's thumbnail.

[Catabo]

Homing attack being not-the-jump-button is weird. But rail switch being its own button distinct from jump is nice! Lose some, win some.

Boy howdy, this (version of the) game looks good. Might be me being stuck in the PSWii60 era because that's when i stopped buying non-Nintendo consoles, but even in 720p with the emulator weirdness(?), it shines through that this is Sonic in HD.

edit: i say this today (2022-8-10) while watching yesterday (2022-8-9)'s video, right after realising that it's coincidentally a few minutes before today's video's upload time. I've learned not to religiously keep up with Sonic videos.

[Grounder]

so yeah, next time, technically tails' last mainline playability for a while begins!

and the next time is even less of him...

[Bean]

I mean, honestly, that was a really good run. If I had to guess where the last medal was, it'd be in one of those alcoves or doors where you had to do the pedestal placing. A couple of them got skipped after you placed the green one. Other than that, yeah, that was a really good first run where you only lost the one life and all of your points that don't matter right at the end.

Honestly, unleashing is a good thing to do against most of the big guys or groups. More damage dealt, all damage reduced or even nullified. Plus, it fills up pretty fast that you'll probably be ready to destroy right when you get to the next wave.

[Paragraph]

I mean, honestly, that was a really good run. If I had to guess where the last medal was, it'd be in one of those alcoves or doors where you had to do the pedestal placing. A couple of them got skipped after you placed the green one. Other than that, yeah, that was a really good first run where you only lost the one life and all of your points that don't matter right at the end.

Honestly, unleashing is a good thing to do against most of the big guys or groups. More damage dealt, all damage reduced or even nullified. Plus, it fills up pretty fast that you'll probably be ready to destroy right when you get to the next wave.

I agree with the second statement. First:

almost right - it's after the last door, around the corner. The camera had already started to shift to the left to show it, one more step and raocow would have gotten it

[Grounder]

talk about a low budget flight *laugh track*

[KobaBeach]

tornado defense is so garbage trash poop

and the fact that you have to do it twice

[QuiEstFaba]

tornado defense is so garbage trash poop

and the fact that you have to do it twice

yeah, sonic team were really addicted to their quicktime events during all this, and it shows.
I'm not kidding when I say this isn't the game at its most ridiculous on that front.

[Bean]

It's kind of amazing the detail they tried to put into all these town and level hub areas, let alone the levels themselves. Shame the execution isn't always there, but the effort definitely is.

[Bean]

If you do wind up getting the buttons down, those finishing moves are great for landing way bigger chunks of experience to collect. If not, then it's a better idea to just finish off enemies naturally for two reasons. One, failing a finisher harms you. Two, it also heals the enemy which is why it's easier to do when their health bar is nearly empty.

[Paragraph]

The finishers also give you a big chunk of points, the more health the enemy had when you activate it (so, the more difficult the QTE is), the more points. If you're into the S-Rank dopamine rush, that's your ticket.

[KobaBeach]

Just as a question, what do you have the PlayStation 3 buttons set up as in your Switch Pro Controller?

They map to the following in an SNES controller, I've used it to set it up for Mednafen, PPSSPP and PCSX2 (and previously PCSX-R, later I'll try to use RPCS3 and Vita3K as well, can't run RPCS3 well yet) in the same fashion I've set up ZSNES, SNES9x and bsnes over the years:
A -> Circle
B -> Cross
X -> Triangle
Y -> Square

[raocow]

? I've mapped them the way they would be on a playstation controller, like you described