Sega’s been showing a lot of love to PC owners as of late with releases of Sonic Generations, Sonic 4: Episode 1 and Sonic CD to the platform. But what of Sonic Unleashed, the game which kicked off Modern Sonic’s current breakneck speed style (and included the highly divisive Werehog)? If anything, those Unleashed stages may soon be making their way as a patch to the PC version of the game.

Forum members Dario FF, Twilightzoney and Chimera have been hard at work trying to bring Unleashed‘s stages over to Generations’ engine. In one week, they went from bringing in the stages without any sort of collision and usage of Global Illumination Ambiance (GIA), the system used in both Unleashed and Generations to give some dynamic lighting to the levels, to the above video. So far, Windmill Isle Act 2, Dragon Road Act 1 and Cool Edge Act 1 have all made a partial conversion. The group admits that while progress is going well, there is still much work to be done.

“Well shadows ARE casting on stuff like Sonic or the objects. It’s there, it just isn’t casting on the terrain for some reason(and it’s not some Terrain -> Terrain thing, Sonic and the objects don’t),” Dario FF said with regards to missing shadow effects. “The only technical explanation we got is, we don’t effing know. But hey, a week ago I wouldn’t even have dreamed of seeing GIA data correctly working, let alone the high-quality DLC one.”

For comparison, check out this run of Windmill Island Act 2.

For more on the progress of their work, check out this topic. If you can’t see it, here’s a lovely gallery of photos of their work so far.

The PC version of Sonic Generations has already gotten a couple of mods in the past. First there was Classic Sonic Adventures which allowed you to play as Classic Sonic in Modern Sonic’s levels. Then we discovered we could import levels from Sonic Unleashed into the game. And now the Russian Sonic fan MrHelias94 has found out how to swap Sonic’s model in the game:

This basicly means that other characters in the game can be made playable, so if you ever wanted to play as Tails it’s possible now. How this can be done is shown in the video tutorial above. The results this delivers depends on if the character is about Sonic’s size, so if you’d try to play as a character like Eggman the outcome may not be what you expect, though this is not necessarily a bad thing. Videos of various characters being played like this can be found after the jump.

First up are a few examples of this working right:

Now a couple of examples of this going horribly wrong, yet so right at the same time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tnQ9xY4k60

And this one is just perfect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diFHxtDrkTQ

Character swaps aren’t exactly a rarity when it comes to Sonic hacks and mods. Especially recently with the PC version of Sonic Generations allowing modders to swap Sonic’s model with pretty much every other character in the game. But on the Xbox 360 and PS3 these mods don’t appear quite as often, mostly because hacking a console game means doing things Microsoft and Sony don’t want you to do which means you’d probably get banned from Xbox Live or Playstation Network for doing so. So it’s a good thing one of the people that actually bothered to hack Sonic 2006 made good use of it:

This video actually has been up since March 22nd, but… yeah, I don’t have an excuse for not covering this earlier. That doesn’t mean there’s not news about our favorite new playable Sonic character though. The video’s creator, Melpontro, has now started a show page for the videos starring Pelé the Beloved Dog, with there already being three more episodes. Be sure to read the descriptions:

Pelé the Beloved Dog in Dusty Desert
Hatsun the Pigeon in Wave Ocean
Pelé the Beloved Dog vs. Silver the Hedgehog

All this guy just needs to do now is to hack Sonic Unleashed and swap Sonic with Professor Pickle.

Oh.

OH HO HO HO

The team consisting of Dario FF, Chimera and TwilightZoney have released the first act of the first stage of Sonic Unleashed, Windmill Isle, for the PC version of Sonic Generations. The purpose of this release is to test the mod on as many systems as possible. If it works on enough systems they’ll start to convert all of Unleashed’s stages. More details can be found in the following video and in the link that follows.

Here is the forum thread with details where it can be downloaded along with instructions on how to install it. Other credits go to JoeTE for ripping the songs, Korama for making CPKREDIR (which makes developing and using mods more efficient and easier) and MainMemory for making Generations Archive Editor (which does what the name implies). Like it was mentioned earlier, the intent for this release is to test it on as much hardware as possible. Meaning that you can help the development of the mod by posting the results of how it works on your set-up on the forums. Also post results if you mess around with it by doing stuff like combining it with other mods like Classic Sonic Adventures or some model swap you found on Youtube.

After about a year and a half of absence, the Retrocast returns with monthly installments! In this month’s episode, discussion over Sonic 4: Episode 2 and Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed takes place.

A while back, you’ll remember we made a post showing how a small group of fans on our forums were tearing into the very fabric of the PC version of Sonic Generations to recreate the daytime stages of Sonic Unleashed within the game. On last check, they had managed to get the Hedgehog Engine’s Global Illumination Ambiance working, a rather impressive task of its own right. So how are things coming along now?

Quite fantastically, if these three projects all based off Generations are anything to go by.

Dario FF brings us his latest playable release of getting Sonic Unleashed stages working in Generations’ engine which allows you to tear through a completed version of Dragon Road Day Act 1. Not only does the level look extremely beautiful flowing by at a crisp 60 frames per second, but the GIA is in full effect, making the level pop just as well if not better than the console release. Although not every element of the stage is intact from Unleashed, Dario has provided a few workarounds that help keep the stage feeling fresh.

If porting over Unleashed stages doesn’t quite tickle your fancy, Melpontro and Dude are working on their own modifications that radically alter Generations. Using a level editor created by Dario, the two are bringing two completely different stages to life in Generations. Above, we see Melpontro’s attempts to create a level from the infamous Shadow The Hedgehog, Sky Troops. Though still very early in development, the stage shows much promise and plays off some ideas from the original level and from Generations’ Sky Sanctuary. It’s also worth noting the remix given to the stage’s original song performed by Zach Hinchy and EXshad.

Taking a different approach, Dude is focusing on updating the Dreamcast classic Sonic Adventure to Generations’ engine, including adapting Sonic’s animations to mimic his stances and poses from the very game. Here we see Dude has created his own iteration of Adventure’s opening stage, Emerald Coast. Although the level was featured as one of the seven stages on the 3DS version of Generations, Dude is aiming to capture the open world feel of Adventure’s stages while mixing in the fast-paced style of Generations.

With the variety of modifications happening to Generations, it’s certainly a very bright future for this young area of the modding scene. For those who want to try them out, make sure to follow the directions their creators offer in the video links when installing them.

Watch live video from vidyaretro on www.twitch.tv

We’ve got one more surprise stream for you all before the end of the new year. We will be joined by Chimera of the Unleashed to Generations conversion team checking out one of the levels and will be able to take your questions.

Check back at 4PM Central (That’s less than an hour if you’re just reading this!) and come join us!

UPDATE: The stream is over, if you missed it you can still watch it archived (cut into lots of parts due to connection problems) here on our Twitch channel.

Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday Monday.

Retro News

• Dario put up a video of Cool Edge in Sonic Generations, also more details on when the Unleashed mod is going to be released. [Youtube] [ModDB]
• Tiddles showed some new stuff for his Sonic 3 Complete hack, also this happened 2-3 weeks ago. Oops. [Sonic 3 Complete]
• Pelikan13 has teased that The 90′s Arcade Racer could be coming to the Wii U. [Kickstarter]
• David is still doing his Mobius 25 Years Later thing. [Part 12]

Sonic/SEGA News

• SEGA bought Relic Entertainment, the developer of the Warhammer 40.000 and Company of Heroes game. Here’s some PR stuff about that. [SEGA Blog]
• A behind the scenes video of Bayonetta 2 was shown during the latest Nintendo Direct. [Youtube]
• Pix ‘N Love’s History of Sonic book is getting a collectors edition. [Sonic Stadium]
• SEGA of Japan is doing a 24 hour long live stream on February 2nd/3rd featuring Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F, Phantasy Star Online 2, Yakuza 5, Rusty Hearts, Puyo Puyo and Sonic Team. [SEGAbits]
• Sumo Digital has gotten approval to make one of the DLC characters for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed that fans requested. [SEGA Forums]
• Another Aliens: Colonial Marines has been released, this one features cheesy lines that are supposed to sound bad-ass. [Youtube]

Other Stuff

• Junction Point, the studio that made the Epic Mickey games has been closed down. [Polygon]
• Nintendo did a Nintendo Direct live stream where they revealed some new Wii U games. [Youtube]
• JonTron says that he’ll release a new episode tomorrow. [JonTron's Twitter]

Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Special Edition

When it comes to games involving Sega in some capacity, it almost seems like the game itself isn’t the only thing players are paying for, but a whole new meta-game called, “Let’s improve the game through hacking through the game’s data.”

This new style of gameplay, which from here on we’ll call Tactical Debugging Action/Adventure™, has already drawn some talented programmers to sift through the game’s code on the PC version in an effort to enhance the game graphically and could potentially lead to repairing other issues such as enemy A.I. and other parameters.

One such find in a guide by Steam user adonys is that most graphics cards released after 2007 aren’t even listed in the game’s .ini files which alone can hamper the game’s performance visually. Tweaking the game a little can yield some dramatic changes in the game’s environs, such as fixing light mappings, as seen below.

The left shot showcases the game without lighting fixes, while the right features updated lighting. Several more comparisons can be seen in this thread on Gearbox’s forums. Adonys’ guide features pre-made files users can install to offer immediate improvements to the game. Those afraid of modding due to the possibility of a VAC ban need not worry. Much like Sonic Generations’ hacks with the PC version, the game doesn’t utilize Steam’s VAC functionality.

ACM, a Sega-published and Timegate/Gearbox-developed game was originally announced back in 2001 by Check Six Games for the PlayStation 2 and quietly canceled before being revived by Sega in 2006 after acquiring the Aliens license from 20th Century Fox. The original game and the current Gearbox version share little in common according to Gearbox.

[Via: Eurogamer]

We first reported on the Unleashed Project over a year ago, when Sonic Retro community members (and all-around beautiful people) Dario FF, Twilightzoney, and Chimera revealed the earliest footage of their experiments with porting stages from Sonic Unleashed into the PC version of Sonic Generations. Today, thanks to the incredible efforts of Dario and his team, they’ve released the first completed version of the project, including all eight major daytime stages from the original Unleashed ported to Generations, along with a redesigned hub world and reworked level progression.

Now you can play through all of the best parts of Unleashed without having to endure the suffering caused by Werehog fatigue and medal-hunting. Plus, you can enjoy the beautiful art direction of each stage in full 1080p at 60 frames per second (provided your computer can handle it – my Phenom II X4 cries during Jungle Joyride), and many of the game’s lower-resolution textures have been recreated in higher quality so you can get the most out of your PC’s graphics card. Of course, the stages also benefit from improvements and changes Generations made over its predecessor, such as tighter controls and the addition of customizable skills.

Be sure to check out the trailer after the break, complete with an orgasmic remix of the Unleashed final boss theme by Retro musician Falk, known for his work on fan games such as Sonic Before the Sequel and After the Sequel (and who also did the hub world remixes of the Unleashed stage themes for this project). You should also head to the project’s ModDB page, where you can find links to download the mod for yourself. Finally, a tremendous thanks to the Unleashed Project team for all the hard work they’ve put in over the past year to get this polished up and ready for release. This project is a stellar example of the kind of awesome stuff we love to see from the Retro community.

60 FPS trailer download: Mega | Rapidshare

Sonic 1 hacks are a dime-a-dozen these days. This makes getting excited about them a little difficult if nothing more than a few palettes are edited and zones are sloppily renamed to fit their new color schemes. That said, it’s never a dull day when someone steps up and delivers a new Sonic 1 experience with new boss enemies, moves for Sonic, and more.

Enter Russian Sonic hacker vladikcomper and his project Sonic Winter Adventures. In similar stead to Sonic 1 Megamix, Adventures enables Sonic to enable the full power of blast processing  with the addition of light speed dash, super peel out, the spin dash, and even the homing attack. Let’s give the purists a little time to seethe. … All right then!

While the level variety isn’t very boastful, vladikcomper laments, the amount of work put in so far is a very commendable effort and definitely worth playing though. Some of his bosses make specific use of Sonic’s new age moves meaning you can’t just throw Sonic’s body into Eggman eight times and waltz over to the Egg Prisonpod so easily.

So what are you waiting for? Download this bad boy and give it a spin yourself! And don’t think that beating the game means it’s over. vladik teases that more playthroughs unlock more things.

[Official Sonic Winter Adventure Thread]

Watch live video from vidyaretro on TwitchTV

Have you subscribed to our Twitch channel? We’ve been doing some streams to mess about while we prepare for the next Retro Community Day (Which is likely to happen soon!) When you subscribe, you’ll learn about when we do some unannounced streams. (That is, what we don’t announce on the front page.)

Last Friday, me and the Retro crew sat through the precursor of Sonic Robo Blast 2; Sonic Doom 2 – Bots on Mobius, a total conversion of Doom II: Hell on Earth that attempts to bring the aesthetics of the Sonic universe with guns. Well, sort of. We play through the mod to it’s completion, for better or worse as I jog my memory of this mod from over 10 years ago. Sonic fan games during the 90′s were certainly something else and somehow, I spent some time of my youth playing this. Probably more than I should have.

If you want to play the mod for yourself, SSNTails recently updated the mod to be compatible with zDoom and you can find it here.

Rev up your disassemblies, it’s that time of the year where aspiring Sonic game hackers get their chance to show off new game ideas once more. Registration for the 2013 Sonic Hacking Contest is now open. In the past, the contest has seen magnificent entries such as the highly-praised Sonic Megamix or the blistering fast (and brutally difficult) Sonic Boom.

Novice hackers of course shouldn’t be so intimidated to enter after seeing names like those, since all it takes is a little creativity to strike gold. Robotnik’s Revenge, anyone?

This year is promised to be the biggest year for the contest according to contest judge SuperEgg.

Yes folks, this year all the stops have been pulled, and media coverage wasn’t an exception. For years, this contest had been only covered by MegaGWolf, but this year is going to be different. Through many hours of research and development, the judges realized that the need to bring attention to this community gem has been lacking, and something needed to be done about it.

I took the initiative and invited one of the ever popularly growing YouTube reveiwer, SomeCallMeJohnny, to play with us during this contest. He will be making a series of videos reviewing the hacks in the contest. Another incentive to make sure your hacks are tip top shape for contest, eh?

Johnny is a cool guy, so be nice. No promises that he won’t bite, cause you never know, the evil Sonic hat could easily possess him again……

With more eyes on the contest than ever before, it’s time to see what all the hackers out there, talented or otherwise, can really do. To submit an entry, vote and comment, you must have a Sonic Retro OR a Sonic Stuff Research Group account that has gone through the respective site’s trial period. Exceptions will be considered, so don’t let this be a deterrent.

Submissions must be done through the contest’s website, located here.

So Summer of Sonic happened, meaning that new stuff was revealed there right? Well, besides this new Sonic Lost World trailer not really, but it seems like it was still a fun event for fans. Overlord did a write-up on his experience there, so be sure to check that out. If you want to know what the Sonic Lost World demo was like, an article with impressions from Overlord and other Retro members will be coming out soon. But for now, check out this stuff:

Retro News

• Seriously, go read Overlord’s write-up on Summer of Sonic 2013 [Sonic Retro]
• vladikcomper put up a new video of his Sonic Winter Adventures hack, which has seemingly moved on to be for the Sega CD [Youtube]
• A new version of Dude’s Sonic Generations mod: Sonic Adventure Generations has been released [On our forums]
• MainMemory released a Sonic Adventure 2 Mod Loader for the PC version, along with a few mods to go with it [SA2 Mod Loader]
• Delta Hedgehog put up a new trailer for his fangame Sonic: Edge of Darkness, which will have a new demo at SAGE 2013 [Youtube]

Sonic/Sega News

• A new trailer for Sonic Lost World got released cause Summer of Sonic happened [Look up]
• The PC version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed got a new update which adds a character from Total War: Rome II [Sonic Retro]
• Atlus’ parent company might be getting bought by SEGA-Sammy [SEGAbits]
• SEGA actually made some money! [SEGAbits]
• Here’s a handy information guide for Sonic Boom, looks like we’ll be seeing some announcements there [SEGA Blog]
• What is Sonic doing in Ocarina of Time? [Youtube]

Other Stuff

• Peter Capaldi has been chosen to play the Twelfth Doctor [Doctor Who]

Video of the Week

Surprise Bonus Video of the Week

The hacks are done and submitted. With judgment day looming over which hacks will reign supreme, the time has come for you–Yes, YOU!–to play these works. Lovingly called Contest Week, the festivities will begin on Aug. 12 and last through Aug. 18. During this time, everyone is able to download the games on display. However, to actually vote for Community Choice trophies, users must have a validated account on either SSRG or right here on Retro.

According to contest judge and organizer Spanner, a number of regular events are scheduled to take place every day over on the SHC website. These include live streams of the games by MegaGWolf  (from 7pm to 9pm British Summer Time, or 2pm to 4pm Eastern for the Americans) and SomecallmeJohnny (1am to 3am BST/9pm to 11pm Eastern.)

A daily podcast will also go live at 9pm BST (4pm EST) and last until 11pm BST (6pm EST.) At the end of the Contest Week, the winners will be announced live via the radio server on the site, so make sure to tune in from 8pm BST (3pm EST) to 11pm BST (6pm EST.)

Other events planned include hacking workshops–of which they’re still seeking ideas for more, so fire Spanner a PM if interested in hosting your own workshop–and a daily hacking contest open to everyone which will ultimately produce a level within Sonic 1. For that last one, a Retro or SSRG account is not required.

Fans can join the discussion about the contest all week via IRC by joining the server located at irc.badnik.net and joining #hackingcontest.

Watch live video from MegaGShow on TwitchTV

Last Sunday, the winners of the 2013 Sonic Hacking Contest were revealed by judges through a livestream event which has been preserved on Twitch for everyone to watch in the above video. During the two hours it took, the winners were announced for each category, including categories decided upon community members of Retro and SSRG. You can view the results immediately on the Hacking Contest website here, or you can check past the jump for the complete list.

Don’t forget to check out the available entries for yourself, and even for the ones that didn’t win, they still deserve your attention for their hard efforts. Congratulations to everyone involved!

Judged Results

Hidden Palace Trophy Winner
The S Factor: Sonia and Silver
Aquaslash & Pals

Wood Zone Trophy Winner
Sonic Generations – Unleashed Project
Unleashed Team

Dust Hill Trophy Winner
Metal Sonic Hyperdrive
Darkon

Green Hill Trophy Winner
Sonic 3: D.A. Garden Edition
D.A. Garden

Windy Valley Trophy Winner
Metal Sonic Hyperdrive
Darkon

D.A. Garden Trophy Winner
The S Factor: Sonia and Silver
Aquaslash & Pals

Lava Reef Trophy Winner
Sonic 3: D.A. Garden Edition
D.A. Garden

Genocide City Trophy Winner
Sonic 1: The Harder Levels
The Harder Levels Project

Generations Trophy Winner
Sonic Generations – Unleashed Project
Unleashed Team

11000101 Trophy Winner
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle Network
Morph

Fang Trophy Winner
An Ordinary Sonic ROM Hack
Cinossu

Eggman Trophy Winner
Sonic Winter Adventures
Vladikcomper

Spin Dash Trophy Winner
The S Factor: Sonia and Silver
Aquaslash & Pals

Carnival Night Trophy Winner
Sonic Classic Heroes – Rise of the Chaotix
Flamewing

Emerald Trophy Winner
The S Factor: Sonia and Silver
Aquaslash & Pals

Robotnik’s Revenge Trophy Winner
Sonic the Hedgehog: Never Stop Running
Cinossu

Casinopolis Trophy Winner
Sonic Classic Heroes – Rise of the Chaotix
Flamewing

Polygon Jim Trophy Winner
An Ordinary Sonic ROM Hack
Cinossu

Tails Trophy Winner
Metal Sonic Hyperdrive
Darkon

Community Results

Hidden Palace Community Trophy Winner
Sonic Generations – Unleashed Project
Team Unleashed

Polygon Jim Trophy Winner
An Ordinary Sonic ROM Hack
Cinossu

Windy Valley Community Trophy Winner
Metal Sonic Hyperdrive
Darkon

D.A. Garden Community Trophy Winner
Sonic Winter Adventures
Vladikcomper

Lava Reef Community Trophy Winner
Metal Sonic Hyperdrive
Darkon

11000101 Community Trophy Winner
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle Network
Morph

Polygon Jim Community Trophy Winner
An Ordinary Sonic ROM Hack
Cinossu

So last week I promised that I’d put up my impressions of the Sonic Lost World demo at Gamescom. Two problems presented itself, the first one being that there were a lot more people at Gamescom than anticipated. (Pictured right) So many more that it was hard to even walk past some the booths. So I left after two hours of literally squirming through the crowds. The other problem was that the demo available to the public there was the same demo previously playable at Summer of Sonic and Sonic Boom, of which we already have impressions up right here. The demo shown off last week was only playable on the press day.

So basically, the highly anticipated Gamescom demo impressions write-up has been cancelled. To make up for it, here are Monday Links done on an actual Monday again:

Retro/Bits News

• The results of the Sonic Hacking Contest 2013 were unveiled [Results]
• Guess Who made a video review of A Hedgehog Dash for iOS [The Retro Review]
• As if Marble Zone wasn’t an annoying zone already, TheInvisibleSun made a hack in which the first two acts take place underwater [Retro Forums]
• Our good friends at SEGAbits have put up a new episode of the Swingin’ Report Show for you to listen to [SEGAbits]

Sonic/SEGA News

• Lots of Sonic Lost World stuff was shown this week, first up a new trailer and a walkthrough video [Sonic Retro]
• Second, the Deadly Six edition was revealed, which will feature an extra level with bosses from NiGHTS Into Dreams [Sonic Retro again]
• Third, new screenshots show off what the Miiverse functions and overworld look like [SEGAbits]
• A new Yakuza spin-off game was revealed, you can look screenshots and complain about how it probably won’t be localized [Yakuza: Ishin]
• The Creative Assembly did an unboxing of their impressive Total War: Rome II Collector’s Edition while being attacked by dogs [Sadly not included]
• Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F pre-orders are doing surprisingly well, so well that Gamestop is no longer taking them [Pizza sadly not included either]
• Football Manager Classic 2014 is coming to the Playstation Vita [Playstation Blog]

Other Stuff

• The Playstation 4 is releasing November 15th in the US, November 29th in Europe [Eurogamer]
• Two guys are making an impressive homebrew Portal fan-game for the Nintendo DS [Joystiq]
• More than 340,000 people went to Gamescom this year, obviously it’s more fun with more people right? [Joystiq]

Video of the Week

The other site staff wanted me to put this video in this week’s Monday Links. Considering the content of the video, I’d like to apologize on everyone’s behalf for putting it here. I’m sorry. I’m so, so very sorry.

Retro/Bits News

• Guess Who reviewed the 3DS version of Sonic Lost World and greatly regrets doing so [Review]
• Missed some of our Vidya Retro streams? Catch up on some [Highlights]
• A new version of Sonic Worlds Delta has been released for MMF2/Fusion 2.5 [The Barrel Update]
• The fifth release of Sonic ERaZor is here [Yup, that still exists]
• My Life with SEGA has released a sequel to The Next Level [No Limits]
• The winner of the SEGAbits Summer of Art/Season of Colors contest has been revealed [Ryo Hazuki would want it]

Sonic/SEGA News

• SEGA announced a new Alien game, this one being a survival horror title called Alien: Isolation [Spooky scary]
• Rhythm Thief, a 3DS game barely anyone knew about, is now available on iOS. [MICROTRANSACTIONS YAY]

Other Stuff

• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was released on Steam [RULES OF NATURE]
• Broken Age (aka Double Fine Adventure) will be released tomorrow for backers [Also the release date for non-backers will be announced]

(Other) Video of the Week

Oh dear, I got stuck with the Monday Links this week. You know that new Sonic game that everyone is talking about? Yes. No? Well, theres still not much to talk about, or Sonic Boom, or much of anything Sonic lately, and you probably don’t want to talk about sports either. In fact I’ve been busy messing around Phantasy Star Online despite being over 14 years too late, and I haven’t moved on to Phantasy Star Online 2. Why? It was something I had missed out on when it came out for the Drreamcast and Gamecube. Since I had broadband adapters for each, and my curiosity in private servers piqued, I wanted to take a look to see what I had missed.

The game’s aesthetics and gameplay structure were the main reason for me wanting to look back at this outdated RPG, because it used a theme thoat most RPGs have not tried to work with, and most would follow the large, open world that World of Warcraft popularized. In fact several of them had an identity crisis to the point that you’d think the developers just wanted to get away with making World of Warcraft. But not Phantasy Star Online, a game that took Sega’s established RPG series and not only gave it a multiplayer component but emphasized real-time action where you are actively engaged in battle, and avoiding damage and looking for enemy weakpoints requires creative strategy. This is probably the best non-Sonic game from Sonic Team, at least in my eyes. You’re still not going to be won over by the story, and it is absolutely difficult for newcomers to find others to play with online, but it certainly reached a technical marvel and helped kickstart a genre to what was popularized by its successors. Theres also fun to be had by playing the game Single Player, but the social element definitely makes up half the game through social interaction, item trading, and planning with your teammates on what to do.

My only handicap that I am personally following is to play this game as blind as possible. I’m not going to bother with item duping, I know Force classes are utterly broken, and I don’t want to consult a wiki to generate the best possible outcome for my character(s). I want to try to match my experience with the game similar to how others played the game back when it came out. Its incredible how the evolution of game design and social interaction has changed the way we play the game, and for a game like Phantasy Star Online, the experience does not match with a modern massive multiplayer environment. But to get the most out of the game, its best to look at why the game had it’s strengths in the first place. Its not entirely possible, and I do want to try and avoid the technical hurdles the game has, because there’s nothing quite like it out there. I want to see about doing an annual check in with the game as well as have more video podcasts with people who played the game before sharing their experiences. Because honestly? I truly regret letting it pass by me, even with the paid subscription fees involved.

Now, lets take a look at the headlines for Monday.

Retro/Bits News

• Barry the Nomad and Shigs talk with GameSpot Editor Peter Brown reminiscing on all things SEGA. [Swingin' Report Show #54]
• Ben wrote an editorial on how Sonic should remain true to himself while branching out. [Sonic Lost Identity?]
• You can check out the PSO Adventures on our YouTube Playlist and on Twitch [Tales from Ragol]
• I was also part of another stream with three other people and we defeated Dark Falz [Jay's Gaming and RetroGaming Stream]
• Wait. What happened to Vidya Retro? In a joint effort with SEGAbits, we renamed it to SEGA Channel Retro. [That Logo is Pretty Nice, Barry]

Sonic/SEGA Stuff

• On 2/2/2014 was the 20th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. [You're Old]
• Retro user MarkyJester releases another Sonic 1 ROM hack titled Ring Ride 3. [Fill Sonic with Lead]
• Jazz Jackrabbit 1 mod Sonic With a Gun by VioletCLM  releases on Feburary 23rd [I Miss the Jazz Days]
• Relic Entertainment and Creative Assembly Fight to the Death in Counter Strike [Relic's Victory is Similar to the Super Bowl]
• Akira Yuki was officially revealed as the next statuette in the SEGA All-Stars line [First 4 Figures]

Other Stuff

• Game Music composer Alexander Brandon, along with our good buddy Shadix and other video game composers have a kickstarter for a massive collaborative soundtrack. [Just Fun]
• Archie Mega Man is now doing a crossover with the Classic and X series. [Worlds Collide Harder?]

Video of the Week

Sonic Retro and Sonic Stuff Research Group team up once again to bring you the Sonic Hacking Contest 2014.  The competition for all ROM hacks, mods and more based on our favorite blue blur. Entries are now being accepted on the website and can be accessed by logging in with either a Retro or SSRG forum account. Our resident Cinossu breaks it down on our forums with whats new for this year.

“Like last year, everything is handled on-site and you can log in with your Sonic Retro forum account to get started. More information is on the site itself, including instructions on what to do, how to do it, etc.

The biggest addition this year is Teams, which can be set up from the new “Teams” section. They can be a mix of both Retro and SSRG members, and allow credit to be on all members of the team as well as allow any member to modify and set up entries for the whole team.

As always, enjoy. If any issues, bugs, etc. are found, just let us know either in here, the SSRG thread equivalent, or in the comments of the news post on the site itself.”

The deadline for entries is on July 31st, 2014. If you’re not interested in participating, you will eventually get to see the entries that are made publicly available, or look at entries from years prior. Head on over to the website itself for more information!

Ready, Set, Procrastinate!

[Source: Sonic Hacking Contest 2014 – Sonic Retro Forums]

The post Sonic Hacking Contest 2014 is Live appeared first on Sonic Retro.