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DsS has found a glitch that allows you to walk through any sufficiently thin wall and fall though any floor (nothing new there lolol), and another glitch that allows you to use the uppercut as a superjump to grab poles and such things. His summary from YouTube:


Shamar night in 69 seconds. That's the most dramatic showpiece, but there's shortcuts and various interesting stuff in tons of levels.

edit: DsS has put the video up for the Adabat hidden area. It's primarily a round chamber with platforms that rise with the water level as you reach each new platform and turn the switch, similar to Lost Temple or various Zelda puzzles, with the level's actual original goal ring chamber at the end - since he's actually in the ghost mission, activating the ring results in a failure message. The reason they cut it is pretty obvious once you watch it: while the platforms and the kill plane rise, the actual water graphics don't. My guess would be that it got left on the cutting room floor when time was short. It's a shame, as the concept is much more interesting than the rest of the level and the ring chamber is quite a bit more impressive than how they ended up leaving it in front of a barred door. Given that the engine capabilities for handling the area don't appear to have been implemented, I'd say that's fairly solid evidence against these hidden areas simply being reserved for DLC.

The Wii and 360 Unleashed are now both out in America. Judging from various reactions and reviews, the framework is the same old 3D Sonic story, with speedy Sonic levels that are inexplicably paired with unSonic levels that take up the majority of the game and an assortment of hub world questing and minigame action. It's pretty clear at this point that, for better or worse, SEGA management doesn't want to mess with the formula they've established. But notably, a lot of fans seem to be happy with the 360 speed level design; the Wii/PS2 versions are truncated and redesigned to fit within the technical constraints of the console.

I haven't yet played any version so I can't offer any personal opinions, but I figured a new game warrants a space on the front page. I'm hoping the speed levels will be good enough to justify slogging through the rest of it. <_<

To offer a rough estimate, competition charts will probably go up within a week or two. How fast or slow it goes largely depends on how easily the community can reach a consensus on how things ought to be ranked, and I don't have any knowledge on that front.

Update: A clarification on the HD-gimp distinction. There is -drastically- less speed Sonic content in the PS2/Wii version; only one speed level per continent (zone) instead of two, and they are quite a bit shorter as well. Basically, if you have both options available, all signs point towards the 360/PS3 version with the exception of the PS2 version being $20 cheaper. The framerate issues that come up now and again in conversation have not been eradicated completely, but are sufficiently tamped down that it should not be a serious factor in a purchase decision.

Gerbil Update: Charts for both the Wii/PS2 and 360/PS3 versions are up. Submit your stats! :D

As many of you will be well aware, over the past year or two I've been using what cunning and guile I possess to try and make TSC a better place for the rest of you... and myself, too. I've already written up two news posts on the subject which you can look through the news forum if you're so inclined.

We're now up to about a year since I last did this, so it's once again time to go over the facts and draw some conclusions.

Here's this year's activity statistics:


November's incomplete, so ignore it. But even taking that away, and allowing for potential downtimes, it would seem that activity is going backwards. On the forum anyway.

A better measure would be statistics, since that's the part of the site that needs reviving, but I only have the amount submitted in the last week handy (376). I've seen periods where it gets as low as 250 though, which is definitely substantially lower than a year ago.

On the community side of things, though, TSC seems to be going better than it has in years! Why? I can only put it down to increased game playing! I'm not talking about Sonic, of course, I'm talking about our fads like Mafia and Settlers. This, in itself, seems to be a different means of achieving the end I detailed in my last such post: refueling our naturally competitive spirits through a different outlet. My outlet, of course, was the tournament structure which... is just lying idle, basically. I think it would be rash to draw a conclusion from this, but I would hypothesise that we're all just bored with Sonic right now. (Constant mediocre releases probably don't help in this regard.)

Nevertheless, I still have an idea to invoke a bit of competition! Here it is:

I (or someone else, but probably me) will start a topic with various games in it. Probably just the popular ones with heaps of charts to choose from. Every day (or maybe every two days, or maybe every week; this bit is very open to interpretation) I select a level on each of these games, and everyone plays it. I am particularly referring to the top-level players of each game playing it, of course, in order to bring the records down towards perfection. We've already seen from Paragod and that other guy on Final Rush how effective focusing on a single level can be. By formalising the process, we can hopefully bring the records down where they belong much quicker.

At the end of the day, the winner on that chart gets a point, and perhaps at the end of each month the leader on points gets an award for being awesome?

As usual, discuss. I'm eager to hear your thoughts.

TSC is now old enough to enter first grade! Feel free to celebrate its impending loss of innocence with your beverage of choice.

Also, Gerbil would like me to point out that the site was down most of today because his server is totally noobish. Linux what.

And I don't think it ever got a topic, but we now have over 100,000 submissions. Note that that is a large number.

In related news, the top 10s march on, the latest entry being the top 10 comments. Don't look at me, blame douglas. <___<

Awhile ago I wrote about some severe framerate troubles with Unleashed and their potential to sink the game. Well, we're within a month of release now, which means the game is pretty much in its final form, and the verdict is in:

"The PlayStation 3 version's appalling framerate [is] a shame, because the Xbox 360 version boasts a brisk framerate that compliments the game's arresting and vivid graphics"

So, 360 Sonic fans can break out the champagne, and PS3 owners have yet another reason to regret their purchase.

Meanwhile, Douglas and genus's merry parade staggers onward, with the Top Ten Catchphrases next to come.

update: Shadow Jacky's put comparison videos later in the topic if you want to check it out for yourself.