[KnucklesSonic8]

I knew it wasn't a false rumor...
http://basforums.proboards80.com/index.cgi?board=spoilerssecretrings&action=display&thread=1171932283

This is what I've looked forward to in 06 although I have yet to try it. I suggest new divisions but I'd also suggest a debate first. Otherwise, enjoy this to your leisure.

edit: rotfl. Wrong link! Was doing SatSR research and didn't copy link I guess. >_<
Sorry: http://www.sonicstadium.org/sonicnews/276/

[Thorn]

Er, sorry, I'm not going to register for that site.  Paraphrase plz.

EDIT: Okay, now that the right link is up, I've DLed the missions.  Pretty cool, really.

[eggFL]

COOL!!!

lol im playing Sonic06 as I post this and I had no idea this was out. (obviously, such is oddly the case with xbox live marketplace, there is no notice about it or anything when your games have new content)

I look forward to trying it out very soon. oh yea and thanks for the heads up

[Magnezone]

Now that is actually interesting. Is it free, or is there a cost to it, and if so, how much? :(

[F-Man]

New divisions? This sounds like just one stage to me. I'll be waiting for pictures on the Japanese site.

[Magnezone]

It sounds more like seven to me, but hey; we'll just have to see.

Oh, and I've been told that it costs 150 points to get.

[eggFL]

Indeed, I just paid 150 MS points to get it.

[douglas]

So they take an over-priced, badly-made, not-fun game and still expect you to pay more?!?!?

I am not pro this "let's add trivial shit and charge customers for it" nonsense (Oblivion horse armour, I'm looking at you).  It encourages developer laziness, fleeces a game's fans rotten and stifles innovation.  If you want my money, get working on an entire game already.

[eggFL]

Weird thing about videogames is that they are expensive and so they are made to be as good a value as possible by offering you lots of playtime, replay value, long quests, etc. But on the other hand once you get someone to buy your game, who cares how much playtime is on it? (or even how good it is?) The deal has already been made. That's what gets me about videogames.

A expansive pricing model kinda like this makes a lot of sense. But only if games were cheaper and were actually priced at least somewhat relative to how long they are. Not games that are already expensive and/or short.

If Sonic were $20, and you'd have to buy the last story, hard mode, etc. as well as the other content it would be really interesting. Lots of people would own Sonic. (as well as any other game in this structure) With something like that, consumers would be able to try more products which would jet start innovation. And developers would hit a boon and have more creative freedom, as well as actually be encouraged and rewarded to make good games.

Anyway, pardon my rant.

I just finished the stage. It sucked eggs.

[F-Man]

A new update has been released in the US Market place. Titled 'Amigo Team Attack Episode', the download allows Tails to play in Crisis City, Radical Train and Kingdom Valley, Blaze in Tropical Jungle and Aquatic Base and Omega in Dusty Desert and White Acropolis.

The levels have been stitched together (in a similar fashion to the End of the World stage in Last chapter of story mode) and so must be tackled in a single sitting. Upon reaching the end, Omega will fight the Egg Genesis boss.

Although the Amigo Episode is accessed from the story menu, it has no cut-scenes and so doesn't elaborate on any of the gaps in the story.

The download costs 150 Microsoft points.

So it's like a new division consisting of one level.

I'm guessing it has no trial board, but that doesn't really change anything.

[eggFL]

A trial board? It records your stats if that's what you mean. Mine are:

29:10:184
67640
6 rings
rank: B

[Magnezone]

...

When will Sonic Team ever do something logical...

[douglas]

Weird thing about videogames is that they are expensive and so they are made to be as good a value as possible by offering you lots of playtime, replay value, long quests, etc. But on the other hand once you get someone to buy your game, who cares how much playtime is on it? (or even how good it is?) The deal has already been made. That's what gets me about videogames.

A expansive pricing model kinda like this makes a lot of sense. But only if games were cheaper and were actually priced at least somewhat relative to how long they are. Not games that are already expensive and/or short.

If Sonic were $20, and you'd have to buy the last story, hard mode, etc. as well as the other content it would be really interesting. Lots of people would own Sonic. (as well as any other game in this structure) With something like that, consumers would be able to try more products which would jet start innovation. And developers would hit a boon and have more creative freedom, as well as actually be encouraged and rewarded to make good games.

Anyway, pardon my rant.

I just finished the stage. It sucked eggs.

You are quite correct.  However, it's not $20 dollars for the original game, it's $60.  For that, I expect a finished product.  I had the same beef with Sonic 3/S&K.  I also expect that given I'll be expected to shell out heavily next time, the developers should give me content like horse armour as a free patch - I reckon they'd make more in customer loyalty that way anyway.

Expansive pricing is an interesting model, but the problem is that the majority of smaller, cheaper game modules are pisspoor.  Look at expansion packs.  There are notable exceptions - Zero Hour was excellent, and Half Life Ep1 was reasonable.  What can we learn from this?  Developers *must* see this in the same way they see traditional development, not as a way to push minimal extra content that probably would have been cut anyway to make a quick buck.

[eggFL]

True.

On the subject, I actually don't have that much experience with expansion packs but all of my experience has been quite positive. Duke Nukem 3D Atomic, Tiberian Sun Firestorm, and Yuri's Revenge all ruled.

btw not to defend the game or anything, but this the first time we play a Sonic game that has both a hard mode and a seperate super hard mode. Til now it was one or the other. =P

[Bilan]

btw not to defend the game or anything, but this the first time we play a Sonic game that has both a hard mode and a seperate super hard mode. Til now it was one or the other. =P

Thats hardly a defensive point anyway

[eggFL]

Topic should be renamed 'Amigos for the Fail"

it's neat to see the rumor come to fruition, but this is the most annoying new stage out of all of them. It's essentially a Very Hard stage that lasts over 20 minutes and ends with Omega backtracking switch puzzles. And locking onto Egg Genesis as Omega is annoying.

Although it's neat to plow uphill with speedy Tails in the reverse crisis city snowboarding area.

As well as Kingdom Valley rollercoaster grinds. Really, these extra stages consistently feel like what the main game should have been... with faster, more 'vast' feeling stages and more impressive use 'clever' use of gimmicks.

The very hard kingdom valley stage where Sonic has to hid a series of grind beacons in mid air over water and grind from one to the next.. that's the cool stuff.

And Rouge the Bat sure is far more interesting than hanglider for Crisis City Shadow. Isn't nearly as short, either.

[Bilan]

Imma buy this in an hour.

[KnucklesSonic8]

Topic should be renamed 'Amigos for the Fail"

Too bad... (Hear Omochao from Secret Rings come and say it)

[Shadow Jacky]

I agree with douglas...also still not being able to shorten those load times is fail as well...but can they still do that? 

then again, what if they do for a platinum or greatest hits version?  (provided that sales gimmick is still being carried over)

then again, I can be a sucker for extra content and I try to make the most out of it.

some examples would be DMC3 and the Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors series.

DMC3 on one had a complete game to it self which reminded me of DMC1 and its completedness...

It was solid and you could spend hours upon hours just playing it and replaying missions and maxing out styles and buying everything in the shops to be the ultimate Dante.  I spent a good 90+ hours out of the whole experience playing with the extra costumes (which 2 make a difference within Dante himself) and the varying difficulties (just 5).  That was a bunch of replay value itself and it had extra goodies to strive for as well which was a plus.  Now after a year or so Capcom announces that it will be making a greatest hits version, but this time adding another playable character.  I was estatic over this awesome addition and what more was that they were adding a slew of other goodies as well.  Well when it came out it was 20 bucks right off the bat...thing was it was the complete DMC3 experience but with a bunch of extra content...also there was no one of transferring data from the original DMC3 game over to the new one.  So all in all, they could have done both of these titles and combined them to make a kickass experience.  Have they learned from this?  I think so because DMC4 seems to ba a jumpstart of awesomeness with what seems to be like 4-5 characters to play as and a slew of other things to do.   I dont know if they were running out of time to get the original out or what, but it still came out great, and to shell out 20 bucks for another character and extra content...some say it was worth it and I'm one of them.  (got a good 40 hours out of him)

The DW-SW series is known for their expansions after DW3 had come out with its first called "Xteme Lengends".  In these you simply load up the expansion disk, then load up the original content from the original game and it would all be complete.  You would have to do this everytime you turned that game off though.  Now in these expansions they would add modes, more items, weapons, costumes, and other things to keep you busy and each one (DW4, 5, and SW1 had one as well) had its own theme so it wouldn't get tiresome.  Now to me this is great and all, but these would be planned, not something that would be a good idea to carry out later on at some meeting.  They could have brought everything into the original game in the first place cause its definately not a space issue.  These expansion would cost 30-40 bucks though and at first it was awesome, but after awhile it was getting quite tiresome doing this for almost every new DW-SW game that would come out.  Now they seem to be stopping this procedure and picked up on another...but these aren't expansions, but a stand alone title for that particular game in the series. 

Now on one hand getting this extra content and people buying it and saying "damn these are some great additions" would get the developers thinking these new things are working and should stick to them for future games or work on them.  Then again why couldn't they spend some extra time to implement these in the first place?  Would save the fans some money, but we dont have to buy them if we dont want, then again what would we be missing if we dont?