Team Sonic Racing - E3 Demo Footage/Impressions

[Blue Blood]

Just now, Miragnarok said:

This is the first new Wisp since SLW. And it looks like a corrupted Wisp. So maybe Bomb is indeed a corrupted Wisp? Some were speculating Asteroid was the purified form of Void Wisp due to a similar power and design. So is this teal one a corrupted Cyan Laser? And maybe Bomb is a corrupted Burst, but what would that make Frenzy? It’s also possible the three missing Wisps, as well as more new ones, aren’t in this demo.

You're putting way too much thought into it. If you want to be really technical about it, Colours clearly shows that the Void and Frenzy Wisps were just any other type of Wisp that had been turned Nega, rather than Wisps or any specific variety. It's shown in the ending scenes. Any story and context surrounding the Wisps is long since forgotten and ignored by SEGA. 

And for what it's worth, the game's PR confirms that there are 14 Wisp power-ups. This is all of them.

[Shadowlax]

19 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

Christ. It's like SEGA wants you to hate Tails. 

" We saw that you didn't like tails in forces, so we learned that you actually hate tails, and will actively make him worse in every appearance " 

[Jango]

28 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

Christ. It's like SEGA wants you to hate Tails. 

Jesus. This is... IDK, I was not ready for this. I was not.

Man, they're going to talk more than EVER in this, aren't they? Because the AI will constantly feed you up about the race, if they need an item or have one to give, and of course, make the most obnoxious coments... I wonder how non-english speakers will deal with this. Hearing the instructions is fine, but having to read shit on the screen is gonna be ass. Unless there's dub in a bunch of languages, not very assible I'm affraid. 

Forcing you into teams and make you race hoping that your AI teammates don't suck is a fear I couldn't put to rest after watching these gameplays, sadly. Told you it wasn't the greatest idea. Different of course. But you all saw how it turned out. Sure it's early to judge a 100%... but from the get-go I knew these flaws would show up.

Anyways, if you can't even mix team members, then hell, why even bother?  

 

[Multikaris]

44 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

Christ

Never expected Black Doom to ever get referenced again. Nor Gerald, for that matter, if we don’t count Sonic Team’s webcomic. 

53 minutes ago, GentlemanX said:

The Sega rep was a little wobbly early in the interview, but he does explicitly say they've revealed six characters, which supports the notion that Egg Pawn isn't playable. I'll echo Plasme's concerns about the AI though - the player won first place but only won the race by a single point. That's very worrying when it's clear there isn't a way to play this like a conventional racer. The team gimmick is decent in concept, but you've got to get the execution right.

It'd be really nice to have Sumo chime in on the game here soon.

Good.

1 hour ago, LukA8 said:

Bitchy Tails is BACK in full force!

 

I’d like somebody to draw the above scene.

10 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

" We saw that you didn't like tails in forces, so learned that you actually hate tails, and will actively make him worse in every appearance " 

Worse is that plenty  of other characters are playable and relevant this time, so it’s no longer a symptom of Duo Sonica.

34 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

You're putting way too much thought into it. If you want to be really technical about it, Colours clearly shows that the Void and Frenzy Wisps were just any other type of Wisp that had been turned Nega, rather than Wisps or any specific variety. It's shown in the ending scenes. Any story and context surrounding the Wisps is long since forgotten and ignored by SEGA. 

And for what it's worth, the game's PR confirms that there are 14 Wisp power-ups. This is all of them.

Yeah, there’s more and more reasons i’m given that the Wisps should simply be scrapped, with Sega being rid of all of their associated lore at this point. But I still stand by the Bomb being a corrupted Wisp. 

[LukA8]

So we know the effects of the following Wisps:

White Wisp: Short boost

Orange Rocket: Projectile bouncing off walls

Blue Cube: Throw obstacles on the track

Black Bomb: Self-explanatory

Crimson Eagle: Homing projectile

Ivory Lightning: Zaps player(s?) in front

Red Burst: Leaves a trail of fire behind your car. This will definitely become annoying.

 

Which leaves us with the following:

Green Phantom thingy: 10 bucks on this ripping off the Boo item, stealing other's items.

Magenta Rhythm: Acts like the Super Horn from SASR, a sound wave.

Violet Void: Summons Black Holes on the track that suck racers in? Then again we still need a shield item, and this could absorb items.

Cyan Laser: ...probably a laser.

Yellow Drill: Maybe a more offensive boost item? Think of Bullet Bill.

Pink Spikes: Spike balls rolling on the track

Gray Quake: Causes a minor earthquake (see Mario Kart POW item). Probably the Power Type-exclusive Wisp.

Still missing something that exclusively targets first place racer, unless this is Lightning.

[Plasme]

I think a big problem with this is that the team mechanic doesn't make sense in a racer, at least how it's done here. In Overwatch and other such games, the complete goal isn't to get kills. It's to work together towards an objective. Some characters are healers and some are tanks, and the fact they can't kill people doesn't matter, because they assist their team-mates who are designed to be played aggressively. In this, however, the only goal is to come first. There are no other objectives to meet. It's more akin to team deathmatch in a FPS, and isn't something which an entire game should be based around. Imagine if in Battlefield, Overwatch or Halo the only form of play (or the play which received the most attention) was just a bog-standard team deathmatch. That's not something to get excited about or to build an entire game around.

Not to mention the fact the character types are barely distinguishable. Power is slightly bigger and slower, so knocks enemies out the way. That's the most defined but it's hardly something new. I have no idea what the technique type is meant to be. Is it just Speed type but with less speed and more acceleration? Isn't that kind of minute detail what car modding is for?

And these team dynamics kind of go against the whole principal of racing anyway, where the whole point is to come first and focus on your own victory. Races that do have team dynamics, such as relay sprinting, factor this in, because the racing of each team-mate is independent. The teamwork comes in other factors, such as passing the baton etc. It just makes little sense as it's done here. If, say, you are in first place and your partner is in 9th, there's very little you can do to directly help them. It's not like a team fps when you can go near them and give them support. You can't exactly give up your lead and go back and help them, especially if you are very far ahead of them.

[LukA8]

Technique characters can race off-road. One of Tails'...numerous...lines even mentioned lava and water, but it might just be more Tails being Tails. Otherwise, they have the acceleration.

Speed characters can trigger a "defensive radial burst" by drifting, whatever that means, and obviously have the top speed.

Power characters have one or two exclusive Wisps next to their weight/resistance to obstacles.

So yeah, not all that much from what we know. However, exclusive routes per type would probably split up the tracks too much and prevent you from using the team actions.

[Tracker_TD]

Some off-screen footage.

The game appears to target 60fps... but I noticed it sure didn't seem to hit it a whole lot. And apparently I wasn't alone:

Other than that... it exists. This really isn't doing much for me. 

[Shadowlax]

whoah bruh @Tracker_TD

15? What type shit is this, what were you playing it on?

[Tracker_TD]

Just now, Shadowlax said:

whoah bruh @Tracker_TD

15? What type shit is this, what were you playing it on?

I'm not the one in the tweet. I assume it was the PS4 build, like the one in the footage. 

[Jango]

I really wanna cut this game some slack because I believe playing with actual human beings can be pretty fun.

But then again, they are human beings, so you know what to expect :V

[Strickerx5]

51 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

*vid*

Some off-screen footage.

The game appears to target 60fps... but I noticed it sure didn't seem to hit it a whole lot. And apparently I wasn't alone:

Other than that... it exists. This really isn't doing much for me. 

 

You mean to tell me that even with that dated, simplistic af art-style the game still can't keep a locked 60fps? Wow.

Really hoping that's just the demo build. Would explain why they're so hesitant to give this a release date. Right now this is literally the worst of both worlds.

[jgcatindig]

4 hours ago, Tracker_TD said:

Some off-screen footage.

The game appears to target 60fps... but I noticed it sure didn't seem to hit it a whole lot. And apparently I wasn't alone:

Other than that... it exists. This really isn't doing much for me. 

Heh, if it wasn't for the AI Sonic giving the All Star, Knux would not be in the podium.

[Red Hot Jack]

Lmao my god Tails, and who is YOUR Daddy?

Comments seem excited in the video, plus it says 60 FPS. I'm not sure.

[Roger_van_der_weide]

I'm  baffled by the enormous frequency of dialogue. Sorry, didn't the Sonic community hammer the "GET A LOAD OF THIS" "BOUNCE PADS!!!" jokes into the ground by this point, with even Sega joining in on the jokes? They should be More then aware badly implanted dialogue has been mocked forever now, right?
Guess they didn't learn that lesson at all, or think just having the dialogue being varied enough will remedy that problem (As if with this rate of constant commentary we won't hear the same phrases in quick succesion anyway)

I'm hoping this will turn around somehow since I have faith in Sumo, but so far this feels very, very underwhelming. Come on dudes, you have a perfect track record with me so far, don't mess up now.

[Patron]

This could be solved with an option slider.

[Red Hot Jack]

Forces has an option to turn dialogue off so I'm sure this has one too.

[Marcello]

"Who's your daddy, Shadow?" is an amazing line.

[Sonic Fan J]

You know, it occurs to me that despite the concerns about the extreme chatiness of the characters that this game is actually going to be one of the few times we'll see certain characters actually interacting with each other in a game.

[jgcatindig]

13 hours ago, LukA8 said:

Technique characters can race off-road. One of Tails'...numerous...lines even mentioned lava and water, but it might just be more Tails being Tails. Otherwise, they have the acceleration.

Speed characters can trigger a "defensive radial burst" by drifting, whatever that means, and obviously have the top speed.

Power characters have one or two exclusive Wisps next to their weight/resistance to obstacles.

So yeah, not all that much from what we know. However, exclusive routes per type would probably split up the tracks too much and prevent you from using the team actions.

somewhere along the final lap, Tails drove thru the grass to avoid the Cube in his way. You may be right about that thought.

[Your Vest Friend]

4Gamer go into more depth about the different type traits.

Man, Japanese media is on the ball today. 

[Multikaris]

4 hours ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

I'm  baffled by the enormous frequency of dialogue. Sorry, didn't the Sonic community hammer the "GET A LOAD OF THIS" "BOUNCE PADS!!!" jokes into the ground by this point, with even Sega joining in on the jokes? They should be More then aware badly implanted dialogue has been mocked forever now, right?
Guess they didn't learn that lesson at all, or think just having the dialogue being varied enough will remedy that problem (As if with this rate of constant commentary we won't hear the same phrases in quick succesion anyway)

I'm hoping this will turn around somehow since I have faith in Sumo, but so far this feels very, very underwhelming. Come on dudes, you have a perfect track record with me so far, don't mess up now.

Forced in as Adventure nostalgia. Simple as that.

[Red Hot Jack]

According to the interview, you can mix the teams, even with people of the same type. Interesting, if the translation is correct.

[Plasme]

The interview suggests that the whole team mechanic was put in by Iizuka to help people who are not good at racing.

I think Sonic Team probably have a more hands on role with this one than with other SUMO games.

[Razule]

19 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

Christ. It's like SEGA wants you to hate Tails. 

But... but why though

Why would Tails say this