Gamespot Demo Final Build!

[Aquaslash]

Oh man, I hope Sonic Wrecks eventually gets all this art. That'd be pretty sweet.

[Echidna Adventurer CC14]

Dr Achens is the best UK Comedian I know to date:

Correction. Ashens. He's quite an entertaining chap. You should check him out, Ferno.

Oh man, I hope Sonic Wrecks eventually gets all this art. That'd be pretty sweet.

Agreed. Especially that Shadow art. I've always wanted to see a CG render of him in those shades. (That and the art looks all kinds of awesome.) Edited October 22, 2010 by chaoscontrol14

[Detective Shadzter]

Here's a screen-cap showing the blue robot for anyone who can't quite catch it when the team select spins round in the video:

[Shockhog]

Wow, the game actually looks fun, save for all that banging into walls. I wonder if it's really that difficult to control. Nice demo though, good to see the final build of the game.

I don't think I've ever been this excited for a game I don't plan on buying. I just really want to hear the new voices.

[JaidynReiman]

We better get Espio and Charmy. Seriously.

But yeah, glad we've got more than 16 characters. Awesome. Weird that Shadow and Rouge are teamed up with a blue Eggman bot, though... I still don't see Red in there, either. And... why is Vector with Amy and Cream? Weird...

Cool that the story's a lot larger, though. That's awesome.

[HunterTSF]

GTRENBAFIOWSb fhyAGARWU

HOOOOREEEYY SHET

Hype train just went into maximum overdrive. Holy freakin' snap. Characters everywhere. 17 have been seen so far, and PR guy said there were unlockables on top of that. That's the most playable Sonic characters in any game to date ever. There's also four stories and a new E-10000 series robot with a playable protagonistic role in the story? OH MY GAWD.

That PR guy even hinted that the king that we saw in the trailer may not in actuality be Eggman.

As in, someone who may actually just be impersonating him. Like, someone with a similar physique and lighter hair.

And Team Dark is back.

With one of Eggman's robots assisting them. A similar scenario has happened twice.

Vector is here. Investigations must be afoot.

And Blaze and Silver are in this game.

oh my gawd freaking eggman nega

WELL EXCUSE ME SONIC COLORS, MY HYPE NOW BELONGS TO FREE RIDERS.

[Agent York]

Team Eggman is Eggman, E-1000000G and Metal Sonic. Curious Shadow and Rouge is working with a Blue one...

"If it's about a date it'll have to wait!" -Amy to Vector in the only time they've communicated in Heroes.

Looks like Vector is finally getting that date.

Edited October 22, 2010 by Dusk the Wisp Keeper

[Kiberbot]

WELL EXCUSE ME SONIC COLORS, MY HYPE NOW BELONGS TO FREE RIDERS.

+1500! Totally agree! Even the fact that I can't play it, don't spoil this great impressions that I have after all this.

[ArtFenix]

I loved everything i saw, but where are my cutscenes? Where's my CG opening with that song? The story apparently will be something like a slideshow? That SUCKS. I was hoping for normal ingame cutscenes.. Talk about being lazy.. At lease, give me CG opening and ending, Sega!

"If it's about a date it'll have to wait!" -Amy to Vector in the only time they've communicated in Heroes.

I lol'd!

Edited October 22, 2010 by ArtFenix

[Marcello]

God damn it. Does SEGA only care about Vector from the Chaotix >_<? Espio better be unlockable and have a cameo in the story, or I'll be pissed.

And if that is Rouge's new voice, that's not good :-/ It sounded a lot like her 4 Kids voice. Though it was only a grunt.

Edited October 22, 2010 by MarcelloF

[Doctor MK]

If only Kinect wasn't an overpriced piece of novelty rubbish, I might be slightly interested in this game now.

Must... supress... desire to play...

[Aries]

As I thought, It was indeed Wave's voice all along.

[DaN]

we have 17 characters for now... I think the secret ones will be Big, Espio, and amybe...Shade???? I'd like to have also Omega and Charmy as cameos

[Aries]

You guys say you hear Rouges voice? where? what part?

So far I have clearly heard, Sonic, Wave, Eggman, Storm, Knuckles and Shadow.

Knuckles only says one line "Yes!" or something like that.

Shadow says "Hmph!"

Storm says "here I come" or something, sounds kinda Vectorish...unless Vector was in that last "Wave on the Bike" Race which I did not see him on.

So yeah where can you hear Rouges Voice or grunt? as I cannot hear it yet?

Edited October 22, 2010 by Aries

[Toothpaste]

It still amazes me how Free Riders has gone from what looked like a rush job to a full-featured game that defies the typical expectations surrounding a launch title and lives up to the Riders name. Great to see at least one of the Chaotix made the cut this time for sure. Plus there's unlockable characters? I thought Shadow, Rouge, Cream, Blaze, Silver, and Eggman would be secret characters like in the previous games. Glad to see that's not the case this time.

I always thought a four-way team competition would work well for the Riders series and be a great way to bring in more characters. Reminds me of the Nascar Racers cartoon. Ahh the nostalgia.

To me Wave still sounds like Bella Hudson except a bit lower-pitched. And if that "haaa!" I heard at 5:40 is Jet he sounds similar to his old voice too, I hope he still doesn't sound like a parrot.

Also, if that King Eggman somehow turns out to be Nega in disguise I won't be the least bit surprised.

Edited October 22, 2010 by Captain THPS4

[ArtFenix]

we have 17 characters for now... I think the secret ones will be Big, Espio, and amybe...Shade???? I'd like to have also Omega and Charmy as cameos

I'd LOVE to see Shade. We had only seen her wearing her suit with the helmet or whatever it was in CG and we also saw her with the crappy in-game graphics of Sonic chronicles. To think about it..we never saw a proper 3D model of her. I hope sonicteam remembers the character and won't forrget about the female echidna.

It still amazes me how Free Riders has gone from what looked like a rush job to a full-featured game that defies the typical expectations surrounding a launch title and lives up to the Riders name.

Until they show normal in-game and CG cutscenes of the story mode, it'll stay a rush job game for me.

Edited October 22, 2010 by ArtFenix

[Badnik Mechanic]

It still amazes me how Free Riders has gone from what looked like a rush job to a full-featured game that defies the typical expectations surrounding a launch title and lives up to the Riders name. Great to see at least one of the Chaotix made the cut this time for sure. Plus there's unlockable characters? I thought Shadow, Rouge, Cream, Blaze, Silver, and Eggman would be secret characters like in the previous games. Glad to see that's not the case this time.

Am I looking at the same game as other people here?

That video showed off the final build... But just look at it. When you make a move, theres such an obvious delay you're never going to do well in this game unless you radically change your playstyle. For instance, in both the past Riders games, to get the most points you had to jump, just before you left the ledge. But on this one you'll have to jump at least a second before you even reach the jump area in order for the system to react and respond to you. That isn't right, for any game like this, snowboarding or riders futuristic style, you always jump when you get to the edge of the platform, not a few seconds before hand. Even in Sonic Adventure, during the snowboard sections you had to time the end of the ledge just right or else you'd never beat that mission.

Then theres the actual movements themselves... Just look at them! To gain the most points you have to jump and spin in the air... ... Who has the energy or the space in their room to do that!? The dev got too tired to continue before he had even finished the first race! Thats not a sign of a good game if you're too tired to continue playing it!

The voice recognition is not going to work... really it's not, especially when it gets to england and it has to try and decipher all our various accents and dialects. Theres no way this is going to work.

The only thing that this game has got going for it from a fans perspective... is that it has a large character roster... Now unless Silver is in the game and he uses his psychic powers to navigate the course, I doubt for a second this game will be fun or easy to play for the majority of people.

Edited October 22, 2010 by Gnasher

[FamilyGAMEGuy8]

I'm going to guess the secret characters are:

Espio

Omega

Big

E-10000R

and please say SCR-HD and SCR-GP. I really liked them. Way more than E-10000

[Xeric]

What's with SEGA only ever using Vector these days as a playable chaotix? What's wrong with Espio and Charmy?

Olympics - Vector

Riders - Charmy

Rivals - Espio

This way each member will get a playable appearance.

I wanted Marine in this game.. if Blaze can dimension jump to appear in a extreme gear tournament, why can't she? D:

[Detective Shadzter]

There's always the possibility of more unlockable characters and downloadable content was confirmed for the game ages ago at Xbox.com, so we could see more characters, tracks and Extreme Gear to download in the future, though the site isn't listing that feature now the site has been redesigned.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/Product/SONIC-FREE-RIDERS/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025345084d

[Shockhog]

@Gnasher:

THPS4 was just pointing out that the game itself looked good. You have to admit, they did pack a lot of stuff in there. ~20 playable characters, lots of gear to use, plenty of courses to race on and several different modes. The problems you're pointing out are not the game's fault, but the hardware's fault. Kinect just doesn't work as it was originally promised to and that's not SEGA's fault. Personally, I think they did a fine job in developing a decent game on such a bad piece of hardware. I don't know why they would restrict themselves like that though.

[Yong]

As much as I'd like to buy this, that would also require me buying a Kinect, of which I cannot without sacrificing funds going towards another game Sega wants me to buy, Sonic Colors. (also there's no other games on the Kinect I want to buy at the moment) That's Sega's marketing strategy biting itself in the foot right there. And that's too bad cause I'm super intriguied now that they're more teams in the story mode.

[JaidynReiman]

I'm pretty sure Charmy and Espio are unlockable. I'm also praying that Omega is, too.

As far as the cutscenes go... well, I'm anticipating their being actual animated cutscenes in there, as well. I can see why most of the scenes are just text-slideshows because of how much larger the story is this time around. However, we're bound to get actual cutscenes mixed in as well.

[Aries]

I'm pretty sure Charmy and Espio are unlockable. I'm also praying that Omega is, too.

As far as the cutscenes go... well, I'm anticipating their being actual animated cutscenes in there, as well. I can see why most of the scenes are just text-slideshows because of how much larger the story is this time around. However, we're bound to get actual cutscenes mixed in as well.

Edited October 23, 2010 by Aries

[JaidynReiman]

If they are why not be on Vector's Team? (as he is on Amy's team)

...I don't know ;o the reason Vector is appearing a lot lately is because hes a Power type and there's not many power types out there besides Big and maybe Omega.

I don't think Big or Omega will be in this game, but u never know.

Probably for plot purposes. Espio and Charmy are likely unlockable characters, but Vector is the actual "representative" from the Chaotix who is joining in the World Grand Prix.