NegaMetallix

Welp, looks like the film's officially getting delayed: ...Neat, I guess? As I said before, changing Sonic's design isn't enough to get me interested in this thing. But hey, this news is bound to please some others.

Unless they announce a delay for the film's release and/or they start overworking the animators HARD (the latter of which is a terrible thought), I don't see the design changing much from what we've already seen. Either way, changing Sonic's look alone isn't gonna convince me to see this. I found the trailer to be unremarkable at best, with Carrey being the only standout thing (even though he's really just playing a typical Jim Carrey role, not the Eggman I know and love to hate).

The difference in human design from Adventure to 06 to Unleashed is simply a change in art design, nothing more. Any game with humans around are set in the human world, while any without them (besides Eggman) are set on Sonic's world. ...Sorry, I meant to say 'Modern' Sonic's world, since he and Classic Sonic are now separate entities from alternate dimensions.

From the looks of it, the animation studio that are set to create this series are the same ones behind Sonic Boom (among other things). So I'd imagine that the Sly series will have a similar level of animation quality to those shows.

Insomniac aren't working on a Sly Cooper game. No-one is. Last I checked, there's been no word on a new Sly game since Thieves in Time. And since Rainmaker Studios (the guys that animated the Ratchet and Clank film) ditched the Sly movie project last year, effectively killing the movie before it was even made, there'd be no point in making any form of tie-in. Sorry to burst the bubble, but a Sly movie (and any video game connected to it) ain't happening. There's the proposed TV show, and that's it.

Last I heard, that's being restructured into a TV series. But there's been little-to-no word about it since, so it's hard to say if it'll ever become a thing at all.

Eh, more like a mesh between Unleashed and Lost World graphically, but gameplay's a little harder to explain. Simply put, Modern is like Colours but with wonkier momentum, Classic is like Generations but without a stupidly powerful Spin Dash, and the Avatar is similar to Modern but with even less control. I will say that the characters' unnatural controls can make 'em feel, in some ways, broken. Not quite in the same way as 06 was, but it's certainly noticeable. However, unlike 06, nothing felt quite as... precise as that game. It's more like the extreme opposite, I guess, since the characters feel far more floaty and imprecise than they realistically should.

I can tell you now, this was definitely not just a case of not knowing what to do or how/when to use a move. The controls were legitimately awkward, since you seem to gain an unnatural amount of speed both on the ground and in the air. So when you think you're gonna land on a platform, you often either go too far in one direction (and fall), you don't go far enough (and fall), or you do land on the platform only to find yourself slipping off the other end (and fall). The momentum in this game is completely out of whack. I say this as someone who liked how Sonic controlled in Generations (and Unleashed, though to a lesser extent). In Forces, he and the Avatar just flat-out aren't fun to control, primarily because you don't truly feel like you're in control of their movements. I don't want these criticisms to be seen as me needlessly hating on Sonic Team or the game, but I am genuinely disappointed in what I played. To answer you're last question; these demos should provide a general idea of how the final game will play, then the developers work on bug-fixes and gameplay tweaks. The earlier the demo, the more they can fix, theoretically. Yet the first playable demo for Sonic Forces was E3 this year (only a few months before release) and no real improvements have been seen since. Not at Gamescom, not at PAX, not at EGX, and not even at the Tokyo Game Show that just finished! There's only 43 days until this game is due to release, so any feedback they receive isn't gonna mean much now. The most that the developers can do by the time the demo comes out is work on some basic bug-fixes and slight gameplay tweaks. Even if that 'fixes' the control of the characters, that doesn't change the levels and their design. If they're bland at launch, they'll still be bland afterwards.

It's weird. You'd think that Sonic Team would look at Generations (or even Unleashed) to replicate Modern Sonic's gameplay. But instead, they went back to Colours' approach, and somehow made it feel worse than that. Classic's gameplay is basically what I expected, since unfortunately the current development team don't seem to understand how the classic games' physics worked. Not completely terrible, but unimpressive nonetheless. (Heck, if the team behind Mania had worked on Classic Sonic's gameplay and levels, then I imagine it could've been one of the more impressive parts of Forces.) It really is a pity, and I can only hope that Sonic Team learn from this. I'm not really confident that they will, but one can hope at least.

So, I got a chance to play the game at EGX this year, and I can honestly say that this game feels like a major step in the wrong direction. To summarise... Modern: Modern Sonic feels incredibly awkward to control. For some reason, his speed jumps from 0-60 faster than you can react, which leads to incredibly janky turns and jumps that you should be able to do just fine, but can't because of the weird momentum (or lack thereof). This impacts the platforming pretty badly, despite the incredibly basic (and honestly boring) level design. Classic: Classic Sonic feels pretty much exactly like Generations, with only one real difference; he can't hold the X/Square button to perform a Spin Dash like Generations, but can now perform the Drop Dash by holding the Jump button mid-air, like in Sonic Mania. Not much else to say, though, since the only 'level' he gets is a boss fight. Avatar: The Avatar felt like the worst character of the bunch to control. Like Modern Sonic, their jumps are also finicky, but you don't even get a double jump to somewhat help with platforming (unless you choose to be a bird). The grapple feels like a delayed Homing Attack, which makes it feel like it should take out multiple enemies at once, but can't (unless you choose to be a bear). The Wispons, while cool in theory, are very boring in execution, since they all just mow down enemies without any need to think ahead. The Wisp powers that they allow range from interesting at best (Burst) to outright lazy at worst (Lightning). The platforming is much worse than Modern Sonic's, and the constant feeling of "I should've made that jump!!" after falling between two platforms for the eighth time gets incredibly frustrating. Also, on a side note, giving each Avatar species a 'unique' skill bothers me, since a lot of these skills (such as the aforementioned double-jump and powered-up Homing Attack) would be very useful to have together. But no, they're all separate, which leaves me choosing a species not because I want to be that species, but because a want that species' ability, even if I hate the look of them. Tag-Team: Basically, it's got the same problems as Modern Sonic and the Avatar, but combined. It really just feels like a glorified Avatar level, with short segments where you're 'required' to boost as Modern Sonic. The only thing that surprised me was that, if you 'fail' the Double Boost QTE, then the game won't play the vocal version of Fist Bump, but the instrumental version instead. As someone who likes the instrumental, but can't stand the lyrics, I'm fine with 'failing' these segments more often! Overall: I wanted to stay at least optimistic for this game until I had a chance to play it myself. And after doing so, I'm afraid I just can't. Above all else, this game feels like a major step back from Generations in terms of gameplay. It feels incredibly unfinished, uninteresting, and ultimately unsatisfying. And this is due to come out in just over a month! (No matter what anyone says, that's not enough time to work these things out. This is pretty much how the game will be when it releases.) I'm still interested in how the story will play out, but that's it at this point.

It's more like a typical Special Edition, like Sonic Lost World's "Deadly Six Edition". However, there is some Day One DLC (for EU and Australia, at least) for those who pre-order the Bonus Edition: Oh boy! Now we can play as SHADOW...'s dissected body over the Avatar! (...Have I mentioned that I'm not excited for this game? No? Well, I'm saying it now!)

Ladies and Gents, we finally have confirmation on the comic's status: Unfortunately, the era of Archie Sonic is officially over.

Heh, I was wondering if ASO was gonna find its way here. Welcome! (I've been a user over on their forums for a while, but haven't really posted much.) Really liking what's been done so far, and I'm very curious to see how this alternate take on Endangered Species turns out.

Just came in to point out that Archie DID officially reply to people asking about the Sonic comics a few days ago: (Apologies for the large amount of Twitter embeds, I wanted to make sure I found every recent reply) Short story is, they're still discussing things with SEGA, so it's not cancelled just yet. Basically, the answer right now is...

Skye's got a point. It would take a heck of a lot of organisation, planning, and dedication just to get a project like that off the ground. It could take months (possibly over a year) just to come up with, and release, a "first issue". I mean, if you're certain that you'd have the dedication to see it through to the bitter end, then... go for it, I guess. At least Archie seem to be giving out some kind of info by the end of the month, so that's good.