Sonic Generations

[RyaNtheSlayA]

The game lags occasionally on a Geforce 560 Ti, no wonder my laptop couldn't handle it. Lazy porting by Sega, this game shouldn't require such computing power to run smoothly.

I won't even bother trying to run it on my GT 520, then. What's with console-to-PC porting and it usually being lazy?

It depends on the developer, but it can basically be summed up like this.

PC has less of an install base (talking gaming here, not general users).

PC wont earn nearly as much money as the other platforms.

Why spend more money than you have to on it?

Frankly, Sega has a terrible track record of even providing PC versions, so I'm just happy it's on PC in the first place. The console versions are extremely low resolution and only 30fps.

[abeaver]

As far as install base goes, it depends on the company and the genre. For Sega and platformers in general, I would agree that there are less potential buyers on the PC. However, I think Sega is trying to change that. Back in the 90s, Sega provided some pretty great ports of their arcade games for the PC. If I recall, Virtual On on the PC ran at a higher resolution than the arcade version without any of the graphical cuts of the Saturn version. Now I'm glad to see that Sega is experimenting with Steam. You can't argue that you definitely get your money's worth when you buy PC games. I bought Sonic Generations for $20 on Black Friday for the 360 and thought that was great, but I think it was only $5 when it was on sale for the PC. If I had a much better computer, I would have bought it again. In case you guys aren't aware, someone is actually porting all of the Sonic Unleashed day levels to Generations for the PC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr-GxSOUpyQ

[Luke]

I'm late to the party.

So far Generations is a lot of fun, but I'm not a fan of "tiny Sonic". Always thought it looked cool in Sonic CD during Metallic Madness when Sonic goes through the shrinking ray, but hate playing with a Sonic that is barely visible.

I'm playing on a 52" Bravia, and at times Sonic still looks minuscule compared to everything else on the screen. Small complaint on an otherwise great game.

It was very nice to learn that it's not just the same level over and over and over during the challenges. Same music during every stage, but that I don't mind that. Still to learn if collecting enough coins will lead to bonus stages, as the only chaos emerald I have is from beating Metal Sonic in a race. Not having complete instructions in the manual is dumb.

[Gamerforlife]

I'm late to the party.

So far Generations is a lot of fun, but I'm not a fan of "tiny Sonic". Always thought it looked cool in Sonic CD during Metallic Madness when Sonic goes through the shrinking ray, but hate playing with a Sonic that is barely visible.

I'm playing on a 52" Bravia, and at times Sonic still looks minuscule compared to everything else on the screen. Small complaint on an otherwise great game.

It was very nice to learn that it's not just the same level over and over and over during the challenges. Same music during every stage, but that I don't mind that. Still to learn if collecting enough coins will lead to bonus stages, as the only chaos emerald I have is from beating Metal Sonic in a race. Not having complete instructions in the manual is dumb.

Metal Sonic is one of the optional bosses. You get chaos emeralds from beating both the main game bosses and the optional ones. I think the challenges are for all intents and purposes the bonus levels of this game

EDIT: A minor detail, but the little cutscenes when you restore both versions of a world are a little funnier if you're playing as classic Sonic

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I beat Generations a few days ago as well. It was really fun, though I still found the new Sonic levels to be a bit meh. They weren't unplayable but it didn't ever feel like I was totally in control. I didn't have the issue with the size of Sonic, but playing on a PC I'd imagine that's less of an issue.

While the console version was (imo) pretty ugly. On my PC the game was gorgeous. Especially Planet Wisp, which is extraordinarily beautiful compared to most of the dull cityscapes of the later Sonic games. The music remix for Classic Wisp was also done by the guy who did the SonicCD soundtrack, and you can tell! I love it though I'm sure some people won't have liked it as much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzS_l-fP8G4

Wisp was also by far the hardest and best designed level. It really felt like an early 90s platformer. If Sonic 4 Ep2. is using the Generations engine as rumored, I can't wait. Sega really got it down.

[Luke]

Metal Sonic is one of the optional bosses. You get chaos emeralds from beating both the main game bosses and the optional ones. I think the challenges are for all intents and purposes the bonus levels of this game

EDIT: A minor detail, but the little cutscenes when you restore both versions of a world are a little funnier if you're playing as classic Sonic

So no need to collect coins other than to stay alive?

[ZenErik]

Hoping for a Vita port of this game. I've played 3 or 4 levels of the PS3 version, and it's certainly a fun game, but there have just been other games I'd rather play at home. A Vita port would likely look and play just as well as the console versions and definitely makes a lot of sense as a portable game.

[Luke]

The cut scenes are completely corny, which I don't mind at all as the game keeps getting better and better.

Not too crazy about the levels with the spinning metal pizzas you control by running, but that's just because I haven't gotten the hang of it yet. Reminds me much of the Glass Bubble levels in EWJ; you need to be patient and at the same time be as quick as possible.

[GameMasterGuy]

Those are only In SS Act 1, thank God.

[Gamerforlife]

The cut scenes are completely corny, which I don't mind at all as the game keeps getting better and better.

Two things I like are that the cut scenes can be watched with Japanese audio or skipped entirely. So they give you some nice options. I think they are some funny bits in some of them. This is a very minor spoiler, but a scene at the end of the game shows Tails wondering where Sonic keeps all those rings. Another scene has Sonic wondering why the heck it's always him having to stop Robotnick. He says something along the lines of, "it's like it's my job or something". There's a funny bit with Robotnick in the game's ending as well

As for your ring question, they are a part of your ranking for each stage I believe. I think they made getting S ranks just a little too easy though, as you can take a hit and still get one. Plus, they'll bump an A rank up to an automatic S just for not dying in a stage. I'm not complaining though, as there are plenty of games out there that make getting high ranks a royal pain in the rear and this is clearly a game that is trying sooooo hard to get every player to like it.