SEGAbits Forums
Gaming => General Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: CrazyT on December 25, 2012, 02:02:19 pm
-
First i'd like to say merry christmas guys! Hope you have a good holiday. Alex Kidd is finally unlocked in Sonic Allstar racing Transformed so at least have a lot of fun with that!
Anyway, I thought it was time to have a thread like this. What kind of year has 2012 been for SEGA? 2012 has been a year of ups and downs as usual, but what overweights the one over the other for you?
Let us divide this in 2 sections. 1 for the games and the other for the SEGA news in general. IE, What was your favorite or worst game? What was the best or worst SEGA news for you?
My favorite game: Without a doubt Sonic Racing Transformed. Haven't had so much constant and endless fun with a game in years. Ever since I bought it, i've been playing it every day when possible. Sumo Digital achieved something amazing, which is not only making a great game, but also making it have that very distinct SEGA style in it. This is not only evident in the art and level themes, but also in the gameplay imo. I havent gotten bored of it yet so that is a good sign.
Runner ups: Binary Domain and Hell yeah. Great games I thoroughly enjoyed, but not close to the fun I had with sonic racing transformed.
My most dissapointing game: Another tough one between Phantasy Star Online 2(JP) and Sonic 4 episode 2. But i'm picking PSO2 because I never really cared about sonic 4 after episode1's catastrophe so my expectations were low. However for PSO2 they were huge. Not gonna lie that I enjoyed my first 100 hours in the game a lot. Mostly for the fact that I was mostly looking forward to the evolution of the game. The game has evolved a great deal ever since. We got like 5 new environments, 2 new difficulties and etc. The game has shown its true identity and direction in the process, and I don't like it. It is not similar to PSO1. While there are a lot of aspects that do resemble PSO1, its a different game with different priorities.
Best SEGA news: I actually am really happy with SEGA's digital efforts so far. Especially on STEAM. I have had great fun with the HD remakes, but also the introduction of Viking battle of asgard on steam. I hope this helps a lot of franchises get recognized in the process. The restructuring seemed to have done good so far. I mean face it guys, would you rather have a lot of games with half if not more of them being average? Or a few good top quality ones. I go with the latter
Worst SEGA news: Had a hard time thinking about something because I can't remember anything, but I have been very bothered with SEGA's marketing. I don't know if its me not ever paying attention, but ever since all of the closures in europe and west I've been paying more attention. And games that are worth the marketing either get very little marketing or terrible marketing. I don't know what the guys at SEGA west are thinking, but for "professionals" they have terrible taste and I feel sad for anyone cooporating with SEGA finding out how their potentially great games get such a lame treatment.
In general i'd say 2012 was a great SEGA year. If not only becaus of SASRT! There hasn't been much anounced for 2013, but I hope 2013 becomes an even better year!
-
best this year: i can not really say cause i havent seen many games. i did like allstars racing 2.
but in a sense of being innovative and explosive i remain in the near past playing resonance of fate and viking battle of asgard at the moment.
wors: sega has decreasingly communicated with her fans and gets silent by the second. sega has made a wall between her and her fans and makes games out of the blue. and re releases every game that had great times
optimism:
i love sega it has ups and downs. i just hope that they will bring something out that will make people get hyped up and awake. so far that sega will be the hot topic on every site
i hope
i wish
and now i wait for the sleeping lion to wake up. fucking sega RISE UP
-
I personally give the best game to Binary Domain.
As much as I was hyped for ASRT, the glitches are kind of not making me play as much as I liked. PSO2 isn't something I am interested in due to the MMO genre.
Worst SEGA news for me was the marketing for Binary Domain, the best news is that the XBLA/PSN offerings are amazing! VF5S as well as VF2, FV and STF along with Monster World, SoR & the GA collections were awesome! Let's not forget JSR & NiGHTS.
-
I really hope there will be more Japanese RPG's in 2013. What SEGA really needs to do is port VC3 to the 3DS and release it worldwide. But perhaps they are contracted with sony(like yakuza)?
VC3 would be a great addition to the 3DS library imo
-
I honestly don't think I played many Sega games from this year at all. My favourite is without a doubt Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown.
It's just a phenomenal fighting game, I really can't find much fault with it at all. The gameplay is fast, technical and yet completely intuitive. Cutting down movelists to the essentials turned out to be a great idea IMO, it just makes the game leaner and better, the new throw system works well IMO, making it more about reading the opponent rather than execution skill. The little extras like the costumes are fun and the netcode is the best around. It's really just an exceedingly well-made game, and it's been pretty much the only thing I've played on Xbox since it's been released.
Total War: Fall of the Samurai is my runner up, another jewel in the Total War franchise. It's not only a great expansion to Shogun 2, but is a great game on it's own merits too. Complete re-work of the units and strategy map, and introduced some fantastic new features like armoured ship combat, railways and tradition/technology clashes.
Dissapointment of the year: Yakuza Dead Souls. I was so looking forward to this title too, but it was just so... dull. The gunplay is pretty bland, the story was weird, side-missions were all but gone... it just wasn't Yakuza, it wasn't a good shooter, it wasn't really anything. Bring on Yakuza 5.
-
VC3 would be a great addition to the 3DS library imo
Funny you mention this, as this Nintendo fan I used to talk to said to me why would SEGA give VC as an exclusive to Sony without any benefits?
To this day I don't get their logic with that.
-
Best:
-Binary Domain: Often people ask me what's so great about the game, it has many amazing elements, but I just refer them to this video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbzOLTXMr1Y[/youtube]
-Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai
Really took what's best from Empire/Napoleon and Shogun 2, mixed them together to create one of the best, Total War games ever. It's a shame some people consider this a DLC or an expansion pack, I think its pretty much its own game.
-Virtua Fighter 5: FS
Its VF5, only better, and I get to play with Jean Kujo, I just need a PC version SEGA!
Disappointments:
-WHERE IS BORDER BREAK FOR CONSOLES/STEAM, SEGA?
-SASRT PC getting delayed to next year.
-
My personal Best of 2012:
Binary Domain - I loved this game. It is criminally underrated. On the surface it appears to be generic, but once you get into it, it has many elements that make it unique. For one, it's a robot shooter, which Sega seems to be the only publisher takes risks in actually making, and I personally find it compelling. There is something very sinister about mechanical enemies. A co-op campaign mode would have made this game perfect in my opinion.
House of the Dead 4 - Bringing this arcade on rails shooter to Move was a great, um, move. I can understand Sega holding out on bringing their arcade titles to consoles but hopefully they'll make us fans happy by doing so once they've had a nice long life in the arcades (2 Spicy, comon 2 Spicy). On that note...
Virtua Fighter 5 FS - The latest iteration of the Greatest Fighter of All-Time made it to consoles this year. Everything about this game is what is right with gaming. Perfect approach, controls, balance, character, community. Everything around VF has a air of sophistication that makes other fighters seem juvenile by comparison.
Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing Transformed - Anybody who has played this knows why this was a total win for Sega. Redeems any wrong really.
Anarchy Reigns - It felt great to play as Bayonetta again. The controls aren't exactly the same but the basics are there. Fun as hell online. The chaos is awesome, as is the dialog and soundtrack
Worst of 2012:
Anarchy Reigns, specifically the "will they / won't they" of Sega's planned western release date - I'm sure there's some financial reason as to why they held out the western release, but was it really worth sacrificing the business relationship of Platinum in the process? All the language up until the summer was of how great Sega was to Platinum for not getting in the way of their creativity etc. I was hoping that Sega would see the value of a long term relationship with that exceptional studio. They've developed some awesome groundbreaking IPs. To this day more than a year has gone by and I have not played anything as good as Bayonetta and Vanquish. No shooter is better than Vanquish and Bayonetta's depth has ruined me for action games. But now, no more planned future titles (as far as I know), and Bayonetta being temporarily published by Nintendo. Let's hope the Anarchy Reign's January release miraculously gets these two groups together again.
-
The best:
By default, the best SEGA game I played this year was Binary Domain.
I'd also like to give a quick nod to Spiral Knights, perhaps one of the most acessible free-to-play games on the market today.
The Jet Set Radio HD port also counts as one of the highest, namely because it's the very first Dreamcast port that gets it right.
Worst, however:
SEGA dropping the ball on Anarchy Reigns. Nuff said about that.
Announcing Bayonetta 2 as a Wii-U exclusive and acting simply as a consultant. I know this is controversial point for a lot of people, but even after getting over it, I am still on the "You gotta be f***ing kidding me!" camp.
-
Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing Transformed - Anybody who has played this knows why this was a total win for Sega. Redeems any wrong really.
man that game made the world look silly of al karting games of all time. even nintend freaks admit
-
Binary domain was great and Sonic all star racing transformed also.
The worst thing sega did was for me that sega announced they going more digital than retail, for me as a collector it's hard because i want everything fysical. You just don't have a true collection when it"s on your hard drive.
-
There's also that and perhaps waay too many re-releases... I just hope they don't turn into the new Atari that pretty much only does small digital titles. They've pretty much faded into obscurity.
-
^Isn't Atari just a brand owned by Namco Bandai?
-
Not that I'm aware of. This Atari isn't even the same Atari from the 80's, it used to a french company called Infrogrames that bought whatever was left of the old company, name included. Namco Bandai does own D3P Publisher (they are mostly known for churning out Ben 10 games and a few other CN properties) and I think they bought out Atari's Europeaon HQ, but that's about it.
-
^ Yeah I know about Infogrammes buying the name from a while back. Maybe I was thinking of Namco Bandai because they are the distributors here in Aus.
-
There's also that and perhaps waay too many re-releases... I just hope they don't turn into the new Atari that pretty much only does small digital titles. They've pretty much faded into obscurity.
i made a topic about this some time ago the disease of re release. and all i can say is that i agee with you
it cant be healthy to go on like that
-
I'd also like to give a quick nod to Spiral Knights, perhaps one of the most acessible free-to-play games on the market today.
I was gonna say spiral knights as well, but that game launched in 2011 so :(
Funny you mention this, as this Nintendo fan I used to talk to said to me why would SEGA give VC as an exclusive to Sony without any benefits?
To this day I don't get their logic with that.
It's a shame because the franchise may have been alive and well in the west DID it come out on the 3DS
-
Nobody has shared a list of all the 2012 titles yet?
• Binary Domain
• Yakuza of the End
• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
• Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai
• Football Manager 2013
• Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II
• Hell Yeah!
• Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz
• Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition (Vita)
• Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure
• Crush 3D
• Jet Set Radio HD
• Sonic Adventure 2 HD
• NiGHTS into Dreams... HD
• Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage
• Vintage Collection: Golden Axe
• Vintage Collection: Monster World
• Vintage Collection: Alex Kidd & Co.
• Vintage Collection: Toe Jam & Earl
• Sonic the Fighters
• Virtua Fighter 2
• Fighting Vipers
• The House of the Dead III (PSN)
• The House of the Dead 4 (PSN)
• Total War Battles: SHOGUN
• Virtua Tennis Challenge
• Sonic Jump
• Jack Lumber
• Zaxxon Escape
• Crazy Taxi iOS
-
Thanks a lot barry, i wanted to but i got lazy finding a source.
-
Thanks for posting Barry, although it doesn't change my list. I'm still in love with the titles I already pointed out.
-
No problem! We had this list in the writers forum, and I thought it would be handy here.
I'm putting together our games of the year round table and should post it tomorrow (waiting on a few stragglers). I've also linked this topic in the article for those who want to join in on sharing their picks.
-
^ Yeah I know about Infogrammes buying the name from a while back. Maybe I was thinking of Namco Bandai because they are the distributors here in Aus.
I was reminded of Atari being the former publisher of Dragon Ball games in the West (Namco Bandai publishes the games now and they always have in Japan.)
-
Atari was also responsible for distribution of most of the 2002-2004 SEGA titles in Europe. This was the awkward transition period when SEGA Europe shut down it's operations. And the SEGA Europe brand did not get relaunched till 2006 I think.
Getting back to the topic, I think I'll have to consider putting Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown on my Best Of list.
I don't understand why, because the game engine is from 2007. But there's so much background detail, the character models look much more detailed than before. Small little things... There's the License Mode which is a more focused variation of the classic Quest Mode.
-
BEST: Very very close but I will have to go for Sonic Transformed. Great tracks, great fan service (Although where is Shenmue, Outrun & Daytona cars etc?) & innovative.
BIGGEST SUPPRISE: LONDON 2012 - I am a huge fan of Athlete Kings (Decathlete) & after the respectable Sydney 200 on the DC there haven't been ANY great track and field games. The production values were high. The multiplayer was blinding fun and the range of events very good.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Sonic 4 Ep 2 (Sega fixed the wrongs with Episode 1)
Virtua Fighter 5 - FS (Retail game at XBLA cost - still the best fighting game out there)
Binary Domain (Slightly beter textures and multiplayer and this would have been better than Gears Of War. In fact the single player arguably is)
NiGHTS - The original with the PS2s improved textures in full HD. Withe the Saturn version thrown in for Nostalgia
WORST: SONIC THE FIGHTERS - Utter utter crap. Sega's worst fighter EVER
MOST DISSAPPOINTING: No Shenmue HD announcemet. Surely 2013 will be the year?
-
Yeah, I enjoyed Sonic 4 Episode 2. No way could it beat stuff like Binary Domain, ASRT or Hell Yeah, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. I'd put it second tier in my favorite games listing.
I guess my issues with Sonic 4 Episode 2 wasn't so much the game itself, which I thought was a solid 2D Sonic title, but that it made so many improvements that it didn't feel like an episode 2 to episode 1. If anything, it felt like a reboot to Sonic 4. I had envisioned the episodic titles to build off of the map screen, like how Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles created one big game. Instead, Episode 1 was a separate title from Episode 2, and the only real link were the Episode Metal episodes which were fun but way too brief.
I guess, given the hate Episode 1 gets, it was for the best to distance Episode 2. But the OCD Sonic fan in me wishes you could play from Splash Hill through to Death Egg Mk II. It doesn't help that SEGA is now being very iffy about an episode 3. In fact, it seems they cut a teaser out of the end of Episode 2, which makes the final ending very unsatisfying. Sonic and Tails just float back to Earth. No big happy ending, just an incomplete sort of bleak end. I have a feeling the teaser involved the Master Emerald appearing on screen and getting stolen by Eggman.
IMO, Episode 2 was good enough to warrant an Episode 3. If Episode 1 got a followup, and Episode 1 itself was pretty weak and unoriginal, then Episode 2 deserves a follow up.
-
Completely agree they should have bound together. Sadly Episode 1 was so broken it needed the changes. They feel like separate games rather than episodic content. However as a standalone game I think it was overlooked and I really liked it. I guess the main thing is how did it sell. Sonic 4 Ep 1 did 2 millions copies. Sega certainly hasn't said much on how Ep 2 did? My biggest gripe was the 1200 point price. When Walking Dead publishes episodes at 400! When a port like Sonic Adventure 2 can sell 500,000 on the 360 alone I guess that tells a story and may be why sega may have cancelled it?
I really didn't get Hell Yeah! I wanted to... But it just never clicked for me.