So a new Sonic game is in the making called Sonic and the Black Knight, I heard about this from a youtube comment thinking the person must have confused the title with the dark brotherhood, but indeed they did not. There will be a game coming to the Nintendo wii called Sonic and the Black Knight having our Blue hero wielding a sword, and wearing a Knight glove. Apperently it's the sequal ,sorta, to Sonic and the secret rings where Sonic is in some medi evil world. this game is is scheduled for Spring 2009. Who knows how this game will affect Sonic but I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Heres a scan from Nintendo Power showing Sonc's new look for the game: http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j297/Sheepish-J/blackknight.png
Japanese Sonic Unleashed site it up 07-20-2008 @ 08:53 PM
Yes so the Japanese have opened up thier Sonic Unleashed site, and well the game over there is titled Sonic World Adventure, it turns out that the name was not a mere rumour afterall that I read up, I shall check my sources better next time. Anyway with the name on topic here I belive that Sonic Unleashed will still remain as the name elsewhere though who knows it may change. As for the site itself there nothing around just a few extra screenshots of Werehog Sonic so check it out if your eager about this game. Heres your link:
New Sonic Unleashed-Cut-scene Trailer from E3 07-15-2008 @ 04:39 PM
Sega just unveiled a new trailer at E3 containing a few new levels, some developed cutscene clips and finally a small but healthy dosage of Werehog gameplay.
Sorry there haven't been any updates since Spring. Classes have been keeping me on and off the site work. Well the next update for this site is a move over to the TSF server. We are doing this so it is easier to navigate between the forums and the website, we will also have a much easier music download section that will allow you to download in zip files.
So if the site goes down do not worry we will be up and running soon. Also for all you would be writers I want to apologize for not getting that up and running. That'll be up once we move to the TSF server.
Some more Sonic Unleashed for ya 06-16-2008 @ 09:20 PM
More Sonic Unleashed gameplay footage from SEGA here showing you some more of Sonic Unleashed, this time it's the Europe styled level and it's shows off Sonics new moves, such as wall, jump, skid round the corner thingy (I dunno it has a name check for it), and quick step. Really this game is shaping up very nicely from what I can see from the trailer here and I am really looking forward to this title. So copy and paste this link or get yoursleves down to IGN.com and search for the vid yourself to see it, it's worth a watch:
oh and 1 last note for the speculations. Sonic Unleashed is the games final name and will not be Sonic world adventure, that will lift most people concerns and if you actually liked the name Sonic world advanture I am sorry to tell you the news.
After a weekend of downtime the forums are now up and running, I must say everything went smoothly ya know? Now the first thing you may have noticed is the new skin "TSF Ice Cap" which features a bunch of Sonic icons, its also our brightest skin available.
The Sonic Factory forums will be unavailable this weekend when we go through some downtime. We hope to have this place free of SQL errors, cleaned up, resynchronized, reorganized and generally better updated on everything else.
Sega Game Day 08: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Hands-On 05-17-2008 @ 10:04 PM
Taken from Kotaku.
My first chance to play around with Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood left me more than a little impressed.
While we didn't get a walk through of the game's storyline, we were given a chance to mess around with a chunk of the game.
The DS title shows the action of the game on the bottom, touch screen, while the top screen is taken up by a large colorful map of the section of the world you are currently exploring.
The game has you playing a team of Sonic characters, selected among 11 playable in the game.
Typically while playing only one of your team is shown on the screen and controllable, but you can switch between them by tapping on their icons. Each character has different abilities, which can be used by tapping icons that pop up at times while wandering the map.
For instance, only Big the Cat was able to make his way through a dense fog of clouds in portions of the map I was on, while a wing icon showed me that I could use Tails' flying ability.
The fighting segments of the game did a nice job of capturing the essence of typical role-playing and adding enough to make it exciting. While you still select who you are attacking and how you are attacking them in a turn-based setting, once the attacks start some require the gamer to rhythmically tap the screen or drag the stylus in particular places, ala Elite Beat Agents, to succeed.
Fleeing an encounter is also very hands on, as you have to keep an eye on your entire team and tap different members to get them to jump over obstacles as you run from the bad guys in a sort of mini-game.
Despite being on the compact DS, the game seemed to pack most of the features one would expect to find in a role-playing game including lots of wandering, dialog trees, puzzles, leveling up and even an equipable pet of sorts.
Over the years I've found myself losing interest in role-playing games, but this slight blending of genres, a move that gets more involved in the process and makes the title feel slightly more like an action game, has me thinking that this would be a great game to take with me on a trip.
Sega Game Day 08: Sonic Unleashed preview 05-17-2008 @ 10:00 PM
The preview we were allowed to see was running on the Xbox 360. The Sega rep said Sonic Team, led by Yoshihisa Hasimoto, will be developing both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. He said that the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions will be done by another team because they didn’t want to downgrade the same levels on the weaker platforms. He also made it very clear that Yoshihisa Hasimoto had nothing to do with Sonic’s recent outings. He was involved in both Sonic Adventure games, so it’s not like Sega isn’t aware that everyone hates most of the new Sonic games.
After they introduced the team behind the game, they talked about the â€Hedgehog Engineâ€. Apparently Sonic Team has been working on it since 2005. The Sega reps said the engine is going to be used on more than just Sonic games, but it is made to run Sonic games. They said it’s supposed to display textures at a faster rate and let the game switch between 2-D and 3-D perspectives in the blink of an eye.
They later decided to fill us in on the level design. They said that the game is supposed to have multiple paths. The level they showed us first (the Greece level first seen in the numerous previous leaks) had fifteen different alternative routes, hopefully adding a level of replayability. The second level we saw was called â€The Europe Level’ and it had stone buildings that looked a lot different than the ones in the Greece level.
The graphics were nice, with good shadowing and detail on everything. Some things could have used some work, but everything looked a lot better than Sonic’s last Xbox 360 game. The Greece level looked very nice and I actually enjoyed it. One of the visual aspects that is shaping up really nicely is the background detail. Usually mountains and buildings in the far distance are obviously flat 2-D images, but in Sonic Unleashed all those distant objects looked like explorable, playable areas.
The camera is always a big issue in Sonic games and it seems that Sonic Team decided to fix this problem by making tight areas in 2-D. They said you can’t control the camera in 2-D, which makes sense to me. They said when the game switches to 3-D, you can control the camera with the right joystick. The camera didn’t seem to be much of an issue in the game, and looked like it worked fine. This to me was refreshing to see, especially in a Sonic game.
Something that was added to the gameplay this time around is â€Sonic Driftâ€. No, you don’t hop in a car and drive around (which is what I was expecting). Apparently, there are parts of stages with turns that you can perform the Sonic Drift on, turning Sonic sharply and quickly to keep his momentum and speed. Sounds great in theory, but the guy demonstrating the game to us failed horribly at performing the move. (The poor guy was under pressure to perform. I’m sure we all know how that feels.) I assume that drifting Sonic helps lower level completion times, and will hopefully be a fun aspect of the game. I know I enjoyed drifting in Outrun 2.
Unleashed also seemed to have a lot of QTEs (if you’re not a Shenmue fan that stands for Quick Time Events), though I doubt they call them that in this game. For example, there was a part when Sonic launched off a huge platform and a few buttons popped up on screen in mid-air. When the player hits them he goes into an alternate route, but if he misses the buttons he goes down a different route. QTE isn’t the only way to switch routes, though. There was a part when Sonic was going down a hall and the path split into two, but the left path was sort of sneaked in on the left.
A (somewhat) new feature is the â€Sonic Meterâ€, which works like the rush meter in Sonic Rush. Instead of being like Tony Hawk and pulling off tricks to build it up, it fills up when Sonic nabs rings, which sounds way better than doing tricks. I thought the speed was perfect regularly without the â€Sonic Meter’.
Something else that they showed us was the new way to make Sonic do a quick step. If you played Sonic Adventure 2, you know it’s hard to switch rail to rail. It’s risky business! Now you can switch by simply pressing the right and left bumpers. This is also used when running up to enemies. Let’s say the enemy is far ahead and he shoots a fast bullet at you; you can hit one of the bumpers and quick step to dodge, then hit the other bumper to get back to where you were. Seems like a great new addition to Sonic’s arsenal.
At the end of the whole demonstration they let us ask questions. Somebody immediately beat me to my first question: If Sonic is the only playable character. The PR person said no. There will be minor gameplay moments with other characters, but it’s primarily a Sonic game. I asked if Eggman is the main villain and apparently he is one of the villains, but there will be more. No mention on what other characters or villains will be in the game, though I’m hoping for Metal Sonic.
The game will feature an overworld. It will not be like the one in Sonic Adventure, where you have to perform tasks to move on to the next level. The overworld is now completely optional, so you can just jump straight back into the action stages if you want.
Another complaint voiced at the event was that Sonic looked like he was just running through the enemies. This was a huge point of complaint for people with Sonic Rush, who said that the whole â€jumping on enemies’ aspect was thrown away. I agree, the game did seem that way. They said that the AI on enemies wasn’t complete yet, and that Sonic still has his homing attack. They also said that Sonic’s levels aren’t the same levels at nighttime. They said the levels are different during night and day, but can’t show or talk about them until E3. That was a bummer.
They said that the target framerate is 30. I thought they should have aimed for 60, but to each their own. The last answered question was why they chose to have Sonic in the “real world†instead of Sonic’s fictional world. They said they wanted to have players travel the world in different locations, just like in the Sonic Adventure games.
Conclusion: This game seems like a hybrid mix of Sonic Rush and Sonic Adventure. This could be a good thing, but it isn’t necessarily covering new ground in the Sonic universe. The game seemed way too fast when in Sonic boost mode, and there were big framerate drops. I hope they fix these issues and they said they would, but they also said the same thing for Sonic 06.
I wish the game was more of a hybrid of Sonic 2 and Sonic Adventure than Sonic Rush. I think it’s way too fast in this game and should be toned down a bit. However, I think if Sonic Team can get the game to run without dropping the framerate and lock down a respectable speed, this could be one of Sonic’s best games since Sonic Adventure 2.
Chao gardens are back.. confirmed in newest Game Informer Issue? 04-13-2008 @ 04:46 PM
Rumor spreading around the nets about chao gardens returning in Sonic Chronicles.
Here is the "supposed" quote from the article.. so take it with a grain o' salt.
"Return of the Chao Players will be able to collect various Chao eggs, grow them in a chao garden, and use them to boost stats like fire damage and luck. Bioware hints that the chao will be tied into multiplayer, possibly for trading purpose."
Delay for Would be TSF Writers... 04-13-2008 @ 04:43 PM
I know I said yesterday would be the day we would get those forms for the people who wanted to write news articles for TSF but stuff happened and now its gonna be delayed for a while, remain patient and you will get your chance.
TSF looking for writers and editors! 04-06-2008 @ 06:30 PM
Hey Truesonic here with another TSF update. As all you readers know, there are very few sonic news updates that happen on this site. Why? Because most of the time I'm too busy to update. As of now there are only two writers for this site Sheepish and myself. We will soon be looking for 3 other writers and editors so if you think you have great writing skills and have constant Sonic news to report we will be hoping to hear from you.
On April 12th we will have a form for you to fill out that will let us know your qualifications and why you wish to write for us.. if your good enough you will become a writer for TSF. So start practicing those writing skills people.
