Team Sonic Racing - E3 Demo Footage/Impressions

[Plasme]

Offscreen Shadow gameplay. You can kind of make out what he's saying and it seems suitably edgy

 

[SpongicX]

I too feel like the dialogue is terrible, I hate seeing Tails act like this... However, I think the gameplay looks alright. I like the idea of team trail, it looks like an improvement over the air stream mechanic from the first Sonic Riders, where every player would create an air stream, and it was nearly impossible to head the direction you wanted, without getting sucked in to those annoying air streams.

[Shadowlax]

10 minutes ago, Plasme said:

Offscreen Shadow gameplay. You can kind of make out what he's saying and it seems suitably edgy

 

I couldn't make anything out, interested to see the dialog for team dark

 

Especially omega tbh

 

Edit: Whats the percentage of someone in this game doing a dab

[Pawn]

1 hour ago, Plasme said:

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.

Speaking of Sumo, I wonder if the usual team is on this or not since they have some pretty big games in development in Crackdown 3 and Dead Island 2. There's also not been any sign so far of them on the forums, unlike previous years.

[Tracker_TD]

Impressions from GameXplain:

 

 

[Jango]

2 hours ago, Plasme said:

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.

Saving this quote if true for the future.

I'm smelling delays.

[LukA8]

Rouge gameplay! We could have heard her Ultimate theme but they were discussing the important question why Sonic is in a car!

 

[Plasme]

I think Team Dark's dialogue is a bit funnier than Team Sonic's. I like Omega's dialogue and Shadow's seems to be self-aware edgy without going into too far into parody.

Rouge sounds like Dolly Parton though, not sure what to think of that  

And I do find Tails' dialogue funny to some extent, just because of how much of a massive twat he sounds.

[Whatever the WhoCares]

The team mechanic totally killed my hype for this, not gonna lie. They just couldn’t resist putting in a counter-intuitive gimmick.

[jgcatindig]

Dammit,  

6 hours ago, LukA8 said:

Rouge gameplay! We could have heard her Ultimate theme but they were discussing the important question why Sonic is in a car!

 

Isn't there an offscreen of both Shadow's and Rouge's gameplay?  I... need it! 

[Zavok the SpinningSilver]

IGN posted their segment from the livestream yesterday, so here it is if you don't want to dig through the whole thing:

...yeah, that AI definitely needs to perform more competently in the final build or Single Player could get really frustrating. I do like how this track looks though! Artstyle nitpicks aside, it's always fun to explore Planet Wisp's wildlife and luscious trees.

[cakito123]

On 6/12/2018 at 9:03 PM, Plasme said:

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.

Since the basis of what you said is the claim that a racing game is not justified by rules based on teams, I disagree with you.

What Sumo Digital is doing is exactly the opposite: they are transforming the rules and adding a few more so that a team is justified in a racing game. And I believe they are succeeding, although I admit that they could delve further into these mechanics by creating a few more. 

Quote

You can't exactly give up your lead and go back and help them, especially if you are very far ahead of them.

Actually, players in the lead can trade items with them and ask for some items too, and that trading action fills the Team Ultimate bar.

This ultimate team is clearly very very powerful, as we can see in the video where someone plays with Tails off-screen:
Knuckles was far behind and almost immediately went to third place!

- - -

Two things that concerns me, though: 

1) Planet Wisp's track was really bland and boring. It's probably the tutorial track for people to get the team based mechanics, so I guess it's on purpose. But oh well, they could at least add another track that feels more dynamic - surely there must be a track in the game, for example, that shows a bit more how each type of character can be different from one another.

2) Why 3 members in each team? I have a feeling that in a Local Multiplayer that wouldn't be that good since one of the 4 players would have to team up with AIs. Probably the game has an option of making teams of 2 members only - I hope so.

[Blue Blood]

Footage and impressions from The D-Pad. SEGA are also line streaming here.

They're pretty positive about it, citing that the racing aspect seems more serious than Mario Kart, with the karts having a lot more weight to them. They both say that it controls very well. Items are a part of the gameplay, but they aren't the most important thing. Specifically, they're agree that it's a racing game with a few aspects of battling involved, while Mario Kart would the the opposite of that. That's kinda of what a lot of us here have said about ASR and ASRT, but it's nice to hear it coming from non-fans too.

And an interesting tidbit for those that might have missed it - the only way to get triple items is through sending and receiving items with your team mates. The Eagle Wisp is the equivalent of the Red Shell from the looks of it, but you won't get three of them unless they're sent from another racer. So you have to choose to use your single one to your advantage, or help a teammate out by giving them three to use. I really like that aspect.

Racer stats for anyone interested. Sonic and Shadow are identical, but Knuckles and Omega, and Tails and Rouge are not.

Sonic (Speed)

Acceleration: 5/10
Boost: 6/10
Defense: 4/10 
Handling: 5/10
Speed: 7/10

Tails (Technique)
Acceleration: 7/10
Boost: 4/10
Defense: 5/10 
Handling: 7/10
Speed: 4/10

Knuckles (Power)
Acceleration: 4/10
Boost: 7/10
Defense: 7/10 
Handling: 4/10
Speed: 5/10

Shadow (Speed)
Acceleration: 5/10
Boost: 6/10
Defense: 4/10 
Handling: 5/10
Speed: 7/10

Rouge (Technique)
Acceleration: 7/10
Boost: 4/10
Defense: 5/10 
Handling: 6/10
Speed: 5/10

Omega (Power)

Acceleration: 5/10
Boost: 7/10
Defense: 6/10 
Handling: 4/10
Speed: 5/10

Tails continues to be a terrible character:

Omega continues to be a hilarious ham:

 

[JosepHenry]

... Why is everyone but Tails good with their quips. Like...

[Blue Blood]

1 hour ago, JosepHenry said:

... Why is everyone but Tails good with their quips. Like...

Not going to lie, that actually really made me laugh. Almost wish it was real.

Having dialogue going on in the races seems important really, considering what this game is about. It's not just talking within the teams but between them too. It really makes the action feel more real. But the problem is that all of these lines, even the good ones, are going to wear thin very, very fast. I don't want to hear everyone saying the same things in every race, and God forbid they repeat lines more than once in a single race. There absolutely needs to be a huge variety of lines for each character and an option to disable the voice and text boxes (besides the informative ones about items on offer), or this game is going to quite rightfully annoy a lot of people.

[Your Vest Friend]

We don't need references to Tails Gets Trolled, thanks. 

[Shadowlax]

22 hours ago, Plasme said:

I think Team Dark's dialogue is a bit funnier than Team Sonic's. I like Omega's dialogue and Shadow's seems to be self-aware edgy without going into too far into parody.

Rouge sounds like Dolly Parton though, not sure what to think of that  

And I do find Tails' dialogue funny to some extent, just because of how much of a massive twat he sounds.

I don't know how you found that out, I don't think enough people even played team dark to see any of those

[Marco9966]

55 minutes ago, JosepHenry said:

... Why is everyone but Tails good with their quips. Like...

Now this is fucking inappropriate for a kids's game.

[Blue Blood]

11 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

Now this is fucking inappropriate for a kids's game.

Chill. It's a joke.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

It sounds ripped right from Portal 2, and that's rated E10+, soooooo

[Badnik Mechanic]

Beep beep

https://www.sonicstadium.org/2018/06/team-sonic-racing-impressions-alexs-take/

[Razule]

1 hour ago, Marco9966 said:

Now this is fucking inappropriate for a kids's game.

Almost as inappropriate as humans and two worlds 

This is just a light touch of dark humor. If it was inappropriate, it wouldn't be there.

[Marco9966]

I think you're right guys, I watch too much real-life news and get emotional over it.

 

[MegasonicZX]

2 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

Now this is fucking inappropriate for a kids's game.

I mean, I don't think little boy johnny's life will be all that affected by learning the cold hard facts of life at an early age.

[Tracker_TD]

1 hour ago, Razule said:

Almost as inappropriate as humans and two worlds 

This is just a light touch of dark humor. If it was inappropriate, it wouldn't be there.

It is pretty inappropriate, which is why it isn’t in there. It’s a Photoshop referencing Tails Gets Trolled, presumably to take the piss out of how odd Tails’ trashtalk was.