Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (June 21st, 2019)

[Plasme]

This game is way better than TSR, it's not even close. It's also fairly cheap, so it's not a big financial burden to check it out. The tracks for one are so much better than TSR it's not even funny. Way better design, variety and detail. Not to mention the better single player content.

And while the game is too hard, that can be mitigated by turning the difficulty down to Easy.

[mayday2592]

It definitely is a very fun game . The track designs are well done, the side missions are creative, and there's more skill required than your typical kart racer. But it's also clear at this point it was a very rushed game. What's really giving it the edge of TSR for me is the fanservice and background details that just ooze with charm. Sure TSR references older games, but it does so in the least interesting way possible.

[Jango]

10 hours ago, Zaysho said:

 

lol

Dude you go in to Sonic threads unrelated to Forces to bash Iizuka and you're rushing in here to defend some aspect of this game people are dissatisfied about. In addition to Blacklightning's warning to stop with the condescending attitude, this is the last time I want to see your hypocritical fanboy nonsense here or in a Sonic thread.

I understand and I'll stop. I just think writing in all caps and bolding stuff you're dissatisfied isn't debating like a "normal human being" either. It's good that people have complaints about the game this early, it will help getting fixed. For one, I commend SEGA for delaying Team Sonic Racing when it was clear the game had issues and lack of content. I'll say it again, CTR:NF should've been delayed, but this is Activision we're talking about. They don't care for the devs, who have very little to blame on these situations. It's clear that Beenox absolutely loves the franchise and the game they're working on, and I'm damn sure they want to make it better for every fan, but they're being crushed by Activision's hand... The same thing happened with Toys For Bob. Yeah, you can argue that "the devs aren't your friends, stop defending them like this", but it became clear during the whole Spyro Reignited Trilogy fiasco that the devs are the last to blame (I read that the same thing happened with Black Ops), that's why I'm trying to be more reasonable with the game, at least this soon. It needed a delay, but that's on Activision's entirely.

Anyways... Why I can't skip the GP intro, I've already saw it on YouTube >:V

[Kittea]

10 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Oh my god. You know what, even if you wanna defend the pit stop breaking, here's something you can't defend. 

THE SAVE CORRUPTION BUG IS STILL A THING

 

 

Considering trading in my copy at this point. I couldn't play it day-1 due to that particular week being busy and I've held off until now after hearing about the mess with the save files. Really don't want to start going for rewards in a tourney only to lose them due to no fault of my own.

[mayday2592]

The 

11 minutes ago, Shiroi said:

Considering trading in my copy at this point. I couldn't play it day-1 due to that particular week being busy and I've held off until now after hearing about the mess with the save files. Really don't want to start going for rewards in a tourney only to lose them due to no fault of my own.

The GP rewards are still saved if you earn them even if you lose your save file.

[Plasme]

The CTR tracks have way more detail in the background than the TSR ones do. Has anyone actually driven slowly around the tracks to see what's going on?

[mayday2592]

Canadian Guy eh posted a video a while back comparing the two racers after extended playtime. He makes some pretty good points.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OWMl3v1Kn8

[Meta77]

All I know is this.  CTR is still in my playstation. I only switch it out when friends need help in monster hunter world

Team sonic racing is currently laying in my floor somewhere at my place. Replaced with dmc5 in my system

[Jango]

Literally more than a dozen characters coming:

 

Like, damn, all main three Spyro villains (but not Elora or Bianca?)

Even Willie Wumpa Cheeks is there! And... Gorilla Monkey Anus Face too.

[8ther]

 

sucks that Bianca and Elle’s aren’t there, but at least muh girl Pasadena is coming

[DabigRG]

12 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So, I feel like I've had enough time to scour the internet for reactions as well as refine my own opinions on what I'm seeing of the game and I've come to the conclusion that this one might need to stay on the back-burner for me... for quite a long time. Not saying I won't eventually give it a try but there's a lot that I'm seeing and hearing about it that's making me happy I went with the other kart racer at the moment.

First, there's the familiarity issue. I haven't gotten over that hump yet. I'm not too familiar with Crash and in order to get into it in order to appreciate the world and its cast I'd need to get the N'Sane trilogy first, which is, on my to-do list regardless.

More concerning than that, the stuff I'm hearing from you guys and people whom I trust when it comes to games isn't very comforting. The idea of the game being too hard for me to squeeze fun out of it doesn't sit right with me. I'm not liking all the bugs I'm hearing news about. If coins are needed to get stuff then I really don't want them to be dulled out slowly. Plus, the biggest worry is the fact that it's Activision and they've definitely got Beelzebub on speed-dial so... eh.

There's also my own personal reflections on what I've been seeing. The game looks beautiful and it's got an impressive cast but I haven't been taken in by the tracks themselves. At least the ones I've seen don't look as though there's much going on with them. The cutscenes look impressive and intriguing but there's so much I feel I'll get out of that with a cast that hasn't fully enchanted me at the moment either.

So, I've made the decision to hang back and see how this all pans out. Despite my complaints with TSR's lack of content, the game is still fun as hell. At least Sumo didn't forget the fun. 

That's fine.

I could probably get the game myself, but an combination of an already recently expanded backlog and needing to travel at least 20 miles to do so are extra motivators.

[Dr. Detective]

I'm still going to hang back and wait.

Whether the tracks are better than TSR or not wasn't really the issue. I don't have a ton of praise for TSR's tracks either. Its just that, what I've seen of CTR's tracks hasn't impressed me outside of how beautiful the game looks, which I definitely did mention. I'm sure that'll change when or if I get the game as the "look" of something is far different from the "feel" of something.

I also didn't bring up anything about money. Whether I can buy it or not isn't the problem. My biggest concern right now is just making sure I get familiar with the series first with the N' sane trilogy and wait and see how things pan out.

Even then I'm not sure I'll be enamoured with it. Thats the other big thing. I'm squarely on the fence right now.

I can wait. I literally just played Mario Odyssey this month. I'm good at waiting. Its what I do for games I'm on the fence about. 

Probably shouldn't have made it seem like I was saying TSR was an outright better buy too. I was just giving it a compliment. Something I feel I could stand to do more of when it comes to things I like despite being highly disappointed by them. Otherwise people will confuse it for hate and I don't need that.

[DabigRG]

22 minutes ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

 

Probably shouldn't have made it seem like I was saying TSR was an outright better buy too. I was just giving it a compliment. Something I feel I could stand to do more of when it comes to things I like despite being highly disappointed by them. Otherwise people will confuse it for hate and I don't need that.

Don't worry--they probably would've taken it as such regardless.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

6 hours ago, Jango said:

I understand and I'll stop. I just think writing in all caps and bolding stuff you're dissatisfied isn't debating like a "normal human being" either. It's good that people have complaints about the game this early, it will help getting fixed. For one, I commend SEGA for delaying Team Sonic Racing when it was clear the game had issues and lack of content. I'll say it again, CTR:NF should've been delayed, but this is Activision we're talking about. They don't care for the devs, who have very little to blame on these situations. It's clear that Beenox absolutely loves the franchise and the game they're working on, and I'm damn sure they want to make it better for every fan, but they're being crushed by Activision's hand... The same thing happened with Toys For Bob. Yeah, you can argue that "the devs aren't your friends, stop defending them like this", but it became clear during the whole Spyro Reignited Trilogy fiasco that the devs are the last to blame (I read that the same thing happened with Black Ops), that's why I'm trying to be more reasonable with the game, at least this soon. It needed a delay, but that's on Activision's entirely.

Alright, two things about this - firstly - How exactly is empathising a point "not debating like a human being"? Literally all it is using caps, and a forum tool to empathise the point I am making, in that one of the core features of the game was broken. That is literally what a bold function is used for, to empathise a point, and my point was that it wasn't a minor thing just randomly broken, it was literally one of the core features of the game.

So frankly, I don't particularly take too kindly to you claiming "i don't debate like a normal human being" because I just bolded and capped a word for the sake of empathising. 

Secondly - You keep going on about how Activision was pushing down on Beenox, and whatever else, and that's fine, I coincide that's probably it, but these flaws aren't things just rushed, it's things that should be obvious, especially in QA testing. It'd be one thing if it was the collision issues, or the jumping physics. But no, it was literally a common game-breaking bug that still is not fixed, and one of the first things everyone will do upon loading the game being broken. That isn't even something that requires extensive QA testing to find, these are basic and common bugs that were not found, and were not fixed somehow.

You can't just put the full blame for Activision rushing the game out when something as large as a save corruption bug, or even something like the Pit Shop becoming broken, because no matter what - a dev should be capable of finding such a massive bug as that and coming up with a solution. Or in the event they cannot do it, get it fixed as soon as possible, and warn people about it.

It took them two weeks to announce the bug was a thing and to warn people. It took two weeks for a patch to fix an issue that should've been fixed ASAP. It then turned out said patch not only broke another feature for an hour, but it didn't even fix the save corruption error in the first place, despite claims that it did. 

But on top of that, again - you saying that is pretty hypocritical in of itself when you were shit-talking Team Sonic Racing about a month ago, especially when it came to it's story presentation, and how CTR was fifty times better, despite the fact that not only are their stories just not even comparable, given CTR has all of six minutes worth of cutscenes, but more importantly - Sumo Digital were on a very tight budget and likely had to do the best with what they had, and what they managed was a fully voiced story mode to go with their campaign. 

It wasn't Sumo Digital's fault that SEGA gave them a limited budget, meaning tracks had to be reused, presentation cuts had to happen, the story mode had to be simplified, and there had to be less modes than CTR, yet you've criticised TSR for that. So again I ask, why is it any different? TSR got a delay, yes. But it also got a ridiculously low budget to work with as well. CTR might have a larger budget, but also has a tighter developmental schedule.

Neither of them are immune to criticism because of their developmental issues, because they're selling a product to you, and you have a fair right to judge and criticise that product if there's issues with it, no matter the circumstances. Like it or not, despite the issues with development they might've had, these bugs have ruined CTR for a lot of people, a lot of people losing progress and unlocks because of it, and therefore losing motivation as well. Many others don't want to jump on board because they don't want to risk putting effort into their games only for the game to bug out and wipe their progress clean.

So again, I might feel bad for the team at Beenox, it isn't the first time they've gotten screwed either, given how their Spidey games went, but that doesn't change the fact there's huge glitches and flaws presenting themselves at major milestones, let it be release, or this grand prix. You can argue "give them a day or two" and I can concide that for the pit stop, because at least that was fixed within an hour, but the fact that the save corruption glitch is still there, after two weeks, a major patch, and a promise to fix it, no, they don't just get to have a free pass from criticism because of Activision possibly rushing them.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Well, this just in, I can confirm that they've nerfed even Tiny Arena when it comes to Wumpa Coins offline.

What the hell Beenox? :U

[Dr. Detective]

12 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Don't worry--they probably would've taken it as such regardless.

Yeah. The thought occured to me that giving TSR a compliment while at the same time talking about why I'm holding off on picking up CTR in the CTR thread could be taken the wrong way and it seems that it was. I'm just clarifying things a bit.

[Your Vest Friend]

That leak spoiler

Gnasty Gnark

[TheOcelot]

Been playing tons of online but getting precious little coins and nitro-things. Halfway towards unlocking Tawna. The constant grinding is so boring.

Twlight Tour is an okay track. Nothing spectacular.

I like that they've added the (four-race) Cups Races in the patch. 

[DabigRG]

16 minutes ago, Your Vest Friend said:

 

  Hide contents

That leak spoiler

 

  Hide contents

Gnasty Gnark

 

 

He just can't win, can he?

[Sonicka]

3 minutes ago, TheOcelot said:

Been playing tons of online but getting precious little coins and nitro-things. Halfway towards unlocking Tawna. The constant grinding is so boring.

Twlight Tour is an okay track. Nothing spectacular.

I like that they've added the (four-race) Cups Races in the patch. 

They did? I’ve been playing them in Local Arcade since launch, unless you mean for online matches.

Personally I have found the Nitro business wasn’t as stingy as I feared and the multitude of missions give the game extra replayability with these new challenges which is amazing. 

Despite not having an online service with PS Plus (yes the coin grind is SUPER painful) I’m actually halfway done with The Nitro Gauge which took me about 30 minutes or so, so I can’t see this taking too long thankfully. It has been pretty easy so far if you pick and choose the missions you want to aim to complete, fairly simple to break some of them too haha. 

[Jango]

Managed to reach silver tier within an hour or so and unlocked the good girl Tawna Bandicoot. One piece of advice: get the Ami pack if you can early on and use it. It multiplies your nitro points earning a little (and she is awesome). I aimed for the Themed and Daily challenges mostly, but got 2 Pro challenges by luck. Doesn't seen like much grinding. I think it's possible to do confortably within a month.

Loving the new online podium and the Velo mask.

[Plasme]

Is there any hard evidence that TSR was made on a very low budget, because I don't think getting a delay indicates a 'ridiculously low' budget to be honest.

Because, people assume a lot of tracks were just imported from the past Sonic racing games when it could have been an artistic decision. That and the returning levels are completely remade and would have had a lot of money and resources put into them.

[DarkRula]

10 minutes ago, Plasme said:

Is there any hard evidence that TSR was made on a very low budget, because I don't think getting a delay indicates a 'ridiculously low' budget to be honest.

Because, people assume a lot of tracks were just imported from the past Sonic racing games when it could have been an artistic decision. That and the returning levels are completely remade and would have had a lot of money and resources put into them.

I think they had a larger budget than most seem to be thinking, but it would still have been a low amount. Either that or SEGA gave them more money along with more time, even if it wasn't a massive boost to what they already had.

[Jango]

17 hours ago, Meta77 said:

I live on my own. i own two playstations. i own 3 controllers..........see where im going with this wink wink nudge nudge

You don't necessarily need a person to do some challenges, boy. For the offline challenges you can simply turn on the second controller, enter as a guest, pick whatever mode you have to do, set the game to "no AI" and do it. I mean, it's cheating, but since the game allows you :U

[Sonicka]

1 hour ago, Plasme said:

Is there any hard evidence that TSR was made on a very low budget, because I don't think getting a delay indicates a 'ridiculously low' budget to be honest.

Because, people assume a lot of tracks were just imported from the past Sonic racing games when it could have been an artistic decision. That and the returning levels are completely remade and would have had a lot of money and resources put into them.

Not really. It’s just known as a low budget release because the RRP was £34.99. Most stores sold it when it came out for £24.99, and GAME even flogged it for a tenner under particular circumstances.

However that doesn’t actually mean that a lot of money didn’t go into making it. Far from it, it’s just that when you look at the face of it, less money went into it TSR compared to CTR.

STR is still a very highly polished game IMO, and I agree that yes, the 9 tracks from the first game could well have been a creative decision (the wrong one, mind you as they didn’t really suit the new gameplay style at all) - but it didn’t mean effort wasn’t put in to spruce those tracks up - buuuut it was definitely a time saver on their development.

But really, the price it was sold at is why a lot of TSR’s shortcomings are excusable - jpeg cutscenes in story mode, only 12 new tracks overall, 15 characters unlocked from the start, no DLC or long term support beyond its release means its a budget title and for good reason.

This is a crying shame because it deserves the long term content commitment and treatment that CTR is currently receiving.

I feel that whilst SUMO handled certain elements of their game better than Crash by including everything “in game” and having a much more satisfactory way of unlocking things via the POD - there just wasn’t enough interesting content to unlock itself. We had all characters from the get go and it was only Car Parts and Mods (half of which are recycled) that was rewarded. Big Woop. Also there was no optional way to play the specific missions or challenges other than on a few select tracks in adventure mode, why was there not a single player option to mix and match these challenges on every track? Why is Mirror Mode not available (to my knowledge) ominous single player races. And thanks for making the worst 3 tracks (and old tracks to boot) in the franchise the unlockable reward for beating story mode. Amazing work there.

Basically, A lot more could have been done. But it wasn’t. The value and longevity a player gets from TSR fits the bill we paid sadly, and it sucks because the newer content was amazing. 

CTR is also a Budget Release (which makes sense for a remake) but it still beggars belief that this got (and continues to get) such a huge plethora of content. Yes the Pit Stop sucks balls as does requiring an internet connection to be able to unlock some of this extra swag...

...But at the end of the day, who cares? I know I am not alone in saying that we all still would have bought this game if it was just a simple CTR remaster - I would have been happy with that by itself. But no, Beenox added a whole load of content for the proceeding racers, the roster of characters is now impressively double that of TSR’s, and the garage for unlockable aesthetic Mods is really pleasing, not to mention every character has additional skins on top.

And now we have even more Single Player/Online content to keep players invested in playing the game longer? I mean, my god. The effort cannot be more applauded.

I know there are those that dislike the model and approaches taken with the shop - and I don’t completely agree with everything... but when you’re not physically paying for anything you can’t really complain. I appreciate the issues some people are having with bugs are probably annoying as well, but I seem to be one of the lucky ones that’s not run into anything of the sort so far.

Pains me to say this (and it’s probably a controversial opinion I must add as a disclaimer) - but those that are vocal about bugs or glitches or broken elements in games (or whatever else) group together and are always the loudest to be heard. In the grand scheme of things they are often a minority of affected players. That doesn’t make it any less worse for them - but it’s sucks that this puts people off playing what I personally find to be a fully functioning and excellent game. 

Overall, My personal philosophy is that I went in with the mindset of buying CTR being remade, it’s what I expected... and yet I ended up with much much more. And now all these world tours and free additional content is a huge bonus. I just feel like a kid being treated for no good reason than loyalty to his franchise. 

I want this for Sonic so soooo bad (and we did get this in Mania). But I’m really happy Crash is back and being treated properly.