I have absolutely no problems manipulating the camera to do what I want it to, and I have had no control issues since I got the game.
As glitches, the only one I can think of off the top of my head is the Knux/Rouge wall glitch, which can be easily avoided in any case.
Right. But you're a long-time Sonic gamer, I assume. I, too, came into this game from Heroes and Shadow, so really, camera trouble is more of a nuisance than anything else, and it is more prevalent in boss fights, where there should've at least been an option to keep it focused on a boss.
That said, I mention that camera because it's another nail in the coffin to me. If the camera was the only problem, I'd be joining fans in telling people to learn how to play, rather than taking the stance that Sonic games are growing steadily worse. The camera may be something you can live with... but, by now, it should've been much better, or at least have several options with how it handles.
Glitches are something I encountered abundantly in my time with Sonic 360, before I gave up on the game and put it away indefinitely. Wandering around Soleanna, wondering why Sonic was so mind-numbingly SLOW, I tried many actions, including spin-dash-jumping (which was inexplicably REMOVED in this game, for anyone who didn't know), and I tried breaking through the invisible walls that some (not all) of the water-side areas have. It didn't take me too long to slip in between a nearby building and a ledge to go careening into the water. Now, that was a glitch I was looking for, and were the game more than what it is, I may have considered this funny... but lo and behold, I've been hit with glitches almost my entire time with the game, including, but not limited to:
Wave Ocean: falling through the water while sliding on it. I didn't hit any button or rock.
Same level's Mach Speed area: getting stuck in walls, eventually losing all my rings and dying.
The snow level: reaching areas on my snowboard where it will just stop moving, unless I align the camera just right, and even then, a couple of times this sent me to my death.
Same level, same section: why, again, can't you jump by just tapping A? You have to hold and release it to jump, for some unknown reason. But even if I do it on a ramp, before reaching that "point of no return" where I fall off of it, it sometimes doesn't trigger. At first I thought it was my timing, but I was doing it the same for every ramp, sometimes triggering the jump, other times dying.
Same level, same section: Rails. It's another hit or miss thing. Sometimes, you'll catch the rail. Other times, you'll bounce off of it or nudge it.
Crisis City, boarding part: same deal, thought its rails seem easier to grasp.
Fighting Silver: an easy S Rank once you know what to do, but if you get cornered, it's over. He can grab you while you're flashing from taking a hit, so if you get hit just right, you get to watch as Silver repeatedly TK grabs you and flings you. I don't mind bosses that can off me in one hit, ala Sonic Rush (in fact I think more bosses should have fatal attacks). But if that's going to happen, just get it over with and don't make me watch 4-5 seconds of me being helpless to stop it.
Just a few that I've encountered. If you haven't, I'll call you lucky. But they are there, and they shouldn't be. Sega's been pulling this for a long time now, and while some glitches are beneficial and lead to some advanced tactics (spin-dashing up walls, etc.), they shouldn't be so abundant as to make clear that the game needed more than just a couple of weeks of testing.
Also, regardless of his posting habits or any agenda he may have, I unequivocally agree with Landis (aside from the fact that it's the worst game ever, since S Genesis is clearly worse).
You speak of the GBA port, correct? I haven't played it, nor do I plan to, as I have Sonic 1 on so many systems already that owning it for the GBA just doesn't seem warranted. I do hear that it's a terrible port, though, and that's a crying shame, for a port of a 15 year old game to cost full price and still not be ported properly. It speaks volumes of modern-day Sega, sadly.
Adapting to each new camera doesn't really bother me. Each game is a different experience and you have to take your time to get a feel for a game at it's fullest.
*snip; I read it but I want to save space*
To tell the truth, I don't really know. I never really think about the camera because it doesn't annoy me much.
Fair enough. Cameras are hard to get right, and while I still insist that having seven 3D Sonic games under their belt (that's more Sonic games than the Genesis had) should raise the bar of our expectations more than it does, I, too, have adapted to bad cameras to play games I wanted to play, the Sonic series included.
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Okay, so that's the camera. What about gameplay itself? The most important part of any game is its gameplay, IMO, and the entire reason that I ignored all the faults of the Adventure titles, Heroes, and even some of Shadow's were because, underneath the haystack of bad, there was the golden needle of good. But not even that seems to be in Sonic 360.
Playing through the first area, Wave Ocean, a level that, being first, should introduce me to the concepts of the game and give me a taste of what I'm in for. I recall very few parts of that level where I'm actually in control. Not during the loops, where the Adventure method of holding UP the whole way through still gets you through a semi-automatic, visually appealing sequence. Not during the Mach Speed area, a level type where Sonic runs much faster than normal... automatically, giving you only right/left control (and even then, not while jumping, which is just odd). I think the only times I was really, honestly controlling Sonic was while fighting robots, using the "new and improved" delayed homing attack (yes I'm aware that I have to let go of the button to homing attack again sooner; it's still slow and unintuitive), over and over until the mobs were gone. I recall having to control an almost unforgiveably slow Tails, throwing fake rings that look exactly like real rings, with flight not nearly as fast and guideable as in Adventure 1.
And... that's about it. Only a scant few areas where I'm actually controlling Sonic. The first time I played it through, thanks to a bevy of bugs, I got an abyssmal D. The second time, thanks to me forgetting to manually save the game (no more auto-save, another questionable move), I got an S, but I didn't feel like I really earned that S, the same way I earned A ranks in Adventure 2.
The levels following aren't much better. Carrying Elise in a desert where the sand is a pit, for some bizarre reason (lava, in the Flame Core, isn't even a pit, but sand is? yeah, whatever) was dull. I sped through the level as fast as Sonic's new slower speed would take me, hit the end... and got an S Rank, on my first try. I didn't even really feel like I played a level, to tell you the truth. It was just "hold R when you get to the sand, release when you get off of hit, homing attack a few mobs, and... you're done."
As for the Egg Ceberus... it was kinda a cool fight. I was hoping it involved more than just ramming the statues, and I was bothered by the camera, but I didn't come out of it thinking too ill of it, other than the fact that is was an average boss at best.
The snow level... oy. I talked of my pains in the boarding portion above. The rest of the level, while the player is more in control of Sonic than he is during Wave Ocean, is simply unspectacular, not holding a candle to the level designs found in past 3D Sonic titles. It's all just fight, find a spring/fly to the next area, fight, rinse, repeat.
Crisis City is where I finally had enough. I was trying really hard to enjoy the game, as I had been looking forward to it for a LONG time, but after another aggravating boarding segment, I shut off the game, disgusted. I couldn't take anymore.
So that's how I took it. Gameplay. What do you think of it? Everything you hoped for? Nothing? Could be better? Could be worse?
