Sonic Adventure 2 Discussion, Speculation, Media Topic

[Dr. Homem]

Well it turns out you have to be connected to the internet at all times in order to play Sonic Adventure 2 for the PC. Otherwise this pops up:

-snip-

Well that sucks. How did they think that made sense?

[Stritix]

Well that sucks. How did they think that made sense?

It has pissed me off if I'm honest.

When I buy a downloadable game, I expect to own it on my hard drive. Not for the internet to own it.

I hope there's a mod to fix this.

[JezMM]

There is a tickbox thing on the pre-game startup options menu that asks if it's okay to beam data about "how you play" to SEGA for research purposes. Are we sure that doesn't only appear when said box is ticked?

[KT <3]

So I just bought the game on Steam, and is it me or is there no lighting on the PC version for Iron Gate? I compared it to the HD version on my xbox, and you can see the lights flashing around on the walls and Eggman's flashlight even works and everything is all dark like it's supposed to be. I even compared that to the GCN version.

On the PC is just like...someone turned on all the lights. The textures in the game also seem kinda brighter than usual, or washed out, like I noticed in the rings and on the roads in City Escape. That and the main menu hangs when I press start and so does the white screen when you finish a stage for the results.

Does anyone else have these problems? None of this is present on the "HD" version on the console.

Edited November 21, 2012 by KT <3

[Stritix]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opi3hFSo6m8&feature=youtu.be

Well, this is weird. I wonder if this happens for any other stages.

[tenchibr]

I had that happen to me once on the 360, so it's not just the PC version.

[goku262002]

This is what happens when you guys decide to be dickheads and fail the last level:

ARE YOU PROUD OF YOURSELF?! THE BIOLIZARD IS STUCK IN THE CONCRETE BECAUSE OF YOU!

A no boss variant:

Yep, were working on it over @ Retro. stay tuned for more of Jase and other Retro member's Cheatengine shenanigans!

Edited November 22, 2012 by goku262002

[MedriFogmatio]

This is what happens when you guys decide to be dickheads and fail the last level:

ARE YOU PROUD OF YOURSELF?! THE BIOLIZARD IS STUCK IN THE CONCRETE BECAUSE OF YOU!

A no boss variant:

Yep, were working on it over @ Retro. stay tuned for more of Jase and other Retro member's Cheatengine shenanigans!

I never noticed how slow super sonic actually went in that stage.... heh.

[McGroose]

SomecallmeJohnny has uploaded his review of Sonic Adventure 2.

It's long. Very long. It's 40 minutes long, but it's worth every minute.

Edited November 22, 2012 by McGroose

[MedriFogmatio]

SomecallmeJohnny has uploaded his review of Sonic Adventure 2.

It's long. Very long. It's 40 minutes long, but it's worth every minute.

I donno, his points are valid, but there's some really strong nostalgia goggles going on me. Why do you think that SA2 has a Nostalgia boner on all of us?

[Frogging101]

Well it turns out you have to be connected to the internet at all times in order to play Sonic Adventure 2 for the PC. Otherwise this pops up:

[snip]

Why the fuck? I assume it's an anti-piracy measure but I would have thought that we learned from Assassin's Creed 2, where a similar anti-piracy measure was implemented. As usual, the pirates circumvented it and the paying customers were the only ones who had to deal with it. I can tell you without a fucking doubt that this anti-piracy measure will do fuck all because it will be cracked/circumvented very soon, if it hasn't been already. And once again the only people you'll deter from playing the game are the people who paid for it.

Active DRM is a fucking joke. Pirates will always get around it so there isn't any point to implementing it. It's a waste of time and money, and the only people who will be affected by it are the real customers, not the pirates.

[Alice Twilight]

Don't really like DRM.

You never feel like you own the games your brought.

That's why if I was ever going to show off my PS3 games I'd never mention the ones I got off the PSN store.

[MykonosFan]

From what I've heard, when that internet connection screen pops up, you can press the A button and just keep on trucking.

[Tornado]

> Owning games purchased through digital distribution services.

Though it's very rare for Steam games to require an internet connection, since Steam by itself tends to be enough in the way of DRM once you set it up for offline mode.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Tornado

[goku262002]

Yeah so this is possible now thanks to Mainmemory over at Retro:

Its a cutscene debug mode in case you didn't guess it right away.

Thing is we can't get the menu to show up just yet. it exists since the GC version did have a debug menu as well.

So yeah, NOW YOU HAVE THE ABLITY FOR SONIC TO TERIAAAAA OVER AND OVER AGAIN! ISN'T THAT NEAT?

[Tornado]

Only way to go for me.

No disk scratches

can play them wherever I go

don't have to worry about loosing disks

AAA games for $5

never out of stock

don't have to wait a day after release day,

pre-install a game a week beforehand allowing you to play at the stroke of midnight

Plenty of advantages to be had

You missed the joke. People were complaining about restrictions placed on content they purchased digitally because they didn't want such restrictions on content that they owned; except digitally-purchased content is by default not owned by the person who paid to access it so the concept of owner's rights don't apply anyway.

Hence the specific (albeit confusing, I admit) wording that I used.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Tornado

[Tornado]

No worries. I can understand why what I said was confusing.

[Laser Heartstrike]

Got the PC version yesterday.

The lighting in Iron Gate is broken, characters occasionally leave shadows on the ceilings ABOVE where they are, and the music is now far, FAR too quiet in comparison to the sound effects; I can barely hear it where there's a lot of ambient noise in Final Rush and Sand Ocean in particular, and there's audible clipping and distortion when you collect rings in quick succession.

In fact, is there a way of disabling the sound effects entirely? I'd assume that they're stored in a .afs file or in .adx files, but I can't anything like that in the folder that I installed the game to.

I guess that I can't shelve the Dreamcast quite just yet, then...

It's otherwise basically perfect, though - it's just that I feel as though they copped out somewhat by porting the already unfaithful GameCube version and doing a somewhat flawed job of it.

What is it with Sega and porting their ports, anyway? NiGHTS was a port of a port, Sonic Adventure was a port of a port of a port, and now we have Sonic Adventure 2 - another port of a port.

I'm surprised that the re-release of Jet Set Radio didn't turn out to be a port of the Game Boy Advance version, to be honest - and Chu Chu Rocket!, too. I mean, if they ever release Rez HD or Virtual-On: Oratorio Tangram on the PC or PS3, they'll probably be ports of the 360 versions (maybe that's a little unfair; the 360 versions were somewhat better than their Dreamcast counterparts anyway, so I guess it'd make sense - but the absolute farce that was Sonic Adventure DX and the in itself slightly dodgy SA2:B don't really make for great re-ports, especially in the case of the former).

Oh well; at least it has widescreen support. That's about it, though; you even have to pay extra for the fucking Battle content.

"Oh, look at us!", says Sega; "We're making a ten-years-too-late PC port of another port and failing to include by default all of the content that made that port acceptable! Aren't we clever?"

No, Sega; you're just lazy and greedy.

To be honest, they probably put more effort into stripping out the Battle content than they would have if they'd have just ported the Dreamcast version (as they should have done in the first place). I suppose then that they wouldn't have had the opportunity to cream the extra cash from us, but whatever; this game's all about the single player mode anyway, and nobody cares about multiplayer unless it's online and you can hear some deranged American twelve-year-old on the other end calling you a "noobfag".

Oh well; a predictably wasted opportunity, but it's a perfectly serviceable port at least. And hey, I'm judging it based on its parallels with the Dreamcast version - and if you're new to Sonic Adventure 2, you won't be doing that. In short, if you don't already own the Dreamcast version, then this will look like mana from heaven next to like likes of Sonic Unleashed.

I guess that if NullDC wasn't complete and utter shite, then I would probably just be using that instead, but as it stands, this is currently the only decent way of me playing the game without having to give my PC monitor a reach-around to swap out the VGA cables so that I can use the Dreamcast.

Still better than most of the cat vomit that came out after it, though.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Laser Heartstrike

[Solkia]

those last 2 links are severely out of place

[Kireek]

those last 2 links are severely out of place

My thoughts exactly. Sonic Colors was an astounding game.

[Ultimate Waffle]

vomit.

[Stritix]

I guess that I can't shelve the Dreamcast quite just yet, then...

It's otherwise basically perfect, though - it's just that I feel as though they copped out somewhat by porting the already unfaithful GameCube version and doing a somewhat flawed job of it.

What is it with Sega and porting their ports, anyway? NiGHTS was a port of a port, Sonic Adventure was a port of a port of a port, and now we have Sonic Adventure 2 - another port of a port.

To be honest, they probably put more effort into stripping out the Battle content than they would have if they'd have just ported the Dreamcast version (as they should have done in the first place).

I guess that if NullDC wasn't complete and utter shite, then I would probably just be using that instead, but as it stands, this is currently the only decent way of me playing the game without having to give my PC monitor a reach-around to swap out the VGA cables so that I can use the Dreamcast.

The Gamecube version was improved. There were many improvements and additions, and no value was lost. Could you elaborate?

[Shane]

The only problem I had with the GameCube version was that it lacked the Big cameos.

ohandwtfcoloursisnotcatvomit

[goku262002]

cat vomit

Oh your just asking for the wolves to rip you apart arn't you?

Better correct yourself fast, the pack is circling and they look hungry.

[Laser Heartstrike]

Okay, perhaps I was being a touch unfair earlier.

Having played it for a few more hours, I've come to the conclusion that it's almost on par with the Dreamcast version, and most of my woes came from the fact that the controls feel a touch looser in the port. Being fair, this was probably down to the fact that the Xbox 360 controller's joystick isn't quite as tight as the Dreamcast controller's, but now that I've re-adjusted myself to suit the game's new environment, it's a really rather excellent port.

However, I still can't hear the darned music properly; it's simply just not loud enough in comparison to the sound effects, and I'm struggling to enjoy the sumptuous beats of Sand Ocean over the heaps of ambient noise that utterly drown out the tune. It's a really rather irritating niggle, and I'd be exceptionally grateful if a modder could perhaps create a tool or method by which I'm able to change the volume.

And I do stand by what I said earlier about the lighting; the stages that are quite clearly supposed to be dark and gloomy (in particular Iron Gate and Lost Colony) are now fully lit and absolutely toneless, and it really ruins the atmosphere.

Other than that, though, it's the very same masterpiece that graced our Dreamcasts/GameCubes all those years ago - and, by extension, a game that every Sonic fan should play at least once if only for its historical relevance to the series.

Oh, and by the way:

> Member makes 500-word mega-post on Sonic Adventure 2

> Most repliers quote the mostly unrelated offhand footnote that has nothing to do with Sonic Adventure 2

Yup.

This is definitely a Sonic forum.

Oh your just asking for the wolves to rip you apart arn't you?

Better correct yourself fast, the pack is circling and they look hungry.

Come at me bro(s).