PlayStation Plus subscribers will be receiving Shadow of the Colossus, developed by Team ICO and remade by Bluepoint Games, along with Sega’s Sonic Forces as their free games for March. These titles will be available with the next PlayStation Store refresh, which should be on Tuesday, March 3rd. If you haven’t claimed February’s free offerings, now’s a good time.

Shadow of the Colossus originally released in 2005 for the PS2 but this remake arrived in 2018 for the PS4. It sees Wander roaming the lands, defeating massive beasts known as the Colossi, to save his love Mono. The game was acclaimed for its boss design, atmosphere and visuals.

Sega’s Sonic Forces is suitably less acclaimed but features a mix of 2D and 3D Sonic gameplay a la Sonic Generations. It also features the ability to make an avatar and partake in different stages with it. Though it doesn’t have the best level design or performance, it’s still worth experiencing as a Sonic fan for the presentation and gonzo story.

PlayStation Plus members will also get access to the Predator: Hunting Grounds trial next month. Head here for more details.

Sega of America and Atlus U.S.A have just announced the appointment of Ian Curran as the new Chief Operating Officer and President of Sega of America. He will begin performing his duties from today onward. Curran has previously worked with quite a few notable video game companies, in case you didn’t know, such as THQ Nordic and Acclaim Entertainment.

Curran has many years’ experience working in video games publishing, and he’s had a pretty god track record in achieving greater revenue and efficiency at places he’s worked. Most recently, Curran had also worked with Gioteck, which designed and supplied gaming accessories and he accomplished great results with the company. In his new role at Sega of America, he’ll be responsible for maximizing profitability for the publishing sector of the company. He will also be in charge of handling Sonic the Hedgehog business units in the Americas, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.

Regarding his role, Curran stated, “My thanks and gratitude to Mr. Miyazaki and the entire company leadership for this opportunity to lead our operations and executions in the Americas and EMEA. I appreciate all of the incredible efforts Mr. Hiraoka has made to lay the groundwork for our operations in the Americas. Coming off the success of Persona 5, Sonic Forces, Sonic Mania Plus, and the Yakuza series, and with so much more on the horizon, including Valkyria Chronicles 4, it is an incredible time to join the team. As part of the Sega family, we are inheritors of an expansive body of work and opportunity which I plan to help reach its full potential.”

We will have to wait and see what the future holds for Sega and Ian Curran. Here’s to hoping for the best in all their future endeavours, and of course, also for some great Sonic games in the future.

Ty Olsson – Dead Rising 4

Dead Rising 4 wasn’t exactly the most stellar example of an open world zombie game, much less a great Dead Rising title. But hey, at least you got to hear the signature voice of TJ Rotolo as Frank West, right? Wrong because Ty Olsson was the voice of Frank instead and while he wasn’t the worst part of the game, it still came across as more of an imitator than the ladies’ man who covered wars, you know.

One user at Restera noticed and pointed out that Sonic the Hedgehog will have an official panel at SXSW. At this event, Sega will reveal a “world-exclusive first look at what comes next” for the beloved video game franchise. The event is set to take place on March 16 and the “Gotta Go Fast: The Official Sonic The Hedgehog Panel” will discuss the performance of both Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces. 

It remains to be seen whether this means that Sega is working  on a new big Sonic game or whether it’s going to be a spin-off title. The description for the panel reads “Sonic is back and ready to take 2018 by storm”, and this suggests that they have something big planned for the series.

We’ll just have to wait for more information from Sega but if you’re a fan of the series, it sounds like there’s a lot to be excited for Sonic’s future.

Lawbreakers – Health Regeneration

Gears of War scion Cliff Blizenski had some good ideas with his gravity shooter, Lawbreakers but when it didn’t take off like he had hoped, major changes came to the game including introducing regenerating health to resolve the problems gamers were having with dying too often and too fast. But tossing game balance out the window to buff everybody’s health and make it regenerate while not under fire just made games draw out way too long.

Lawbreakers

In a way, you have to feel bad for Lawbreakers. This was Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski’s return to the games industry after a long sabbatical. It was supposed to be the perfect union of hero shooter and arena shooter. Sadly, Lawbreakers was handicapped out of the gate with a market dominated by Overwatch. The actual game had a paucity of content with poor matchmaking and weird balance issues. Of course, the high skill ceiling, lack of personality to its heroes and outright lameness didn’t help either.

Star Wars Battlefront 2

On the surface, it seemed like Electronic Arts had learned its lesson with the first Star Wars Battlefront. People don’t like expansion passes? They’re gone! People want a campaign? They get it and you get to play as the Empire! More maps, proper class loadouts, space battles – it almost seemed like a dream come true. Of course, in true EA fashion, it turned into a nightmare. The campaign was barely worth experiencing. The game’s loot boxes completely ruined progression, leaving the min-maxing of loadouts to random luck of the draw.

Friday The 13th: The Video Game

Friday The 13^th: The Video Game suffered from many of the same expectations as Star Wars Battlefront but on a smaller scale. It was the first time we’d get to properly play as Jason Voorhees. With an asymmetrical multiplayer approach, everything seemed like it was on track even with some delays. Sadly, the actual game was riddled with bugs and server issues that made it nigh unplayable at launch. Though such issues were resolved later, Friday The 13^th: The Video Game was still just a fairly okay game and not the murder-a-thon we expected.

Mass Effect Andromeda

Mass Effect Andromeda was doomed from the EA Access trial with horrible facial animations, poorly written dialogue, glitches, an odd set-up and strange design choices. The full game was worse with severe performance issues, game breaking bugs and glitches, a total waste of a new setting, the squandering of any potential that the premise could have had and don’t even get us started on the co-op multiplayer mode. Mass Effect Andromeda’s combat was up to snuff but everything else makes us think that the series died just so we could have an amazing year of games. Was it worth it? Hmm.

Marvel vs Capcom Infinite

A hilariously bad story mode, low-rent roster, lack of additional features, idiotic new mechanics and terrible graphics – at this rate, you’d wonder why we had any expectations from Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite. Well, this was the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and to a series that we thought was generally dead and gone. To think that we went from “Take you for a ride!” to this nonsense is just sad.

Need for Speed: Payback

Electronic Arts just couldn’t catch a break in 2017. It’s not like we had too much to hope for Need for Speed Payback until its reveal. Over the months, we thought its open world approach, introduction of Heists and three playable characters might finally offer something cool. Expectations were tempered to say the least. Unfortunately, as with Star Wars Battlefront 2, EA ruined it with Speed Cards that could be earned either in-game or with microtransactions. Again, it’s not like the game is suddenly better without microtransactions – customizing your vehicle this way is simply asinine and completely up to RNG. The story was horrendous, the open world didn’t offer much by way of fulfilling gameplay and for an industry that needs microtransactions to fund triple A development, Payback didn’t look particularly good either.

Sonic Forces

When Sonic Forces was first announced, there was cautious optimism. A sequel to Sonic Generations with some kind of war setting? Hurray-ish. Then it was revealed that Sonic would be working alongside all his critter friends. Then all his past enemies appeared as well. And for some reason, Sega thought to throw a customizable avatar. All these bells and whistles aside, Sonic Forces takes everything Generations did right with its gameplay and messes it up. Present Sonic is meh and the Avatar levels are boring. The experience is underwhelming at best and disappointingly idiotic at worst.

NBA 2K18

NBA 2K titles used to walk a fine line between love and hate. Virtual Currency has been an epidemic for a while but the games were generally well built on the basis of their gameplay and campaign. NBA 2K18 looked like it would be even better with its Playgrounds and Career mode and whatnot. Then, like most everything else this year, it was ruined with microtransactions. Customization options are severely gated by Virtual Currency and the game would reward very little of it, pushing you towards microtransactions even more. What could have been a great game is ultimately a decent one that demands way too much money from you past the initial $60.

WWE 2K18

Visual Concepts and Yuke’s haven’t really given us much in terms of quality wrestling for the past few years but past WWE 2K games were at least somewhat decent. WWE 2K18 beats that streak, mixing in a number of amazingly stupid glitches along with a nonsensical MyCareer mode. Though the loot boxes included aren’t purchased with real money, they still severely limit customization and lean towards RNG luck than any kind of actual freedom. This year’s iteration is the best-looking yet but that can only get you so far when everything else is so fundamentally bad.

Styx: Shards of Darkness

Styx: Master of Shadows wasn’t exactly the next Assassin’s Creed (which doesn’t mean much since the current Assassin’s Creed is so different). However, it offered a nice little offbeat fantasy stealth adventure that players could sink their teeth into. Styx: Shards of Darkness sadly failed to build on that. Level design was better this time around but instead of paying homage to the old-school while streamlining gameplay elements, the game stubbornly stuck to it. Stealth is very easy to cheese, which makes you wonder what the point even is and the humour just doesn’t click.

Winner: Star Wars Battlefront 2

It started with the realization that Star Cards could upset the balance of gameplay in multiplayer. Fans were irate that a $60 release introduced pay to win elements. Naturally, DICE responded and promised changes. However, once Star Wars Battlefront 2 hit the early trial stage, the costs of various heroes proved to be the tipping point. The “sense of pride and accomplishment” comment by EA’s community management team became the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. It eventually snowballed into microtransactions being removed and EA experiencing severe falls in its stock prices.

But that’s not what made Star Wars Battlefront 2 a disappointment. It’s the fact that the campaign is a few hours long and fails to deliver on its promise of an Empire state of view. It’s the fact that the multiplayer would suffer severe rubber banding and latency issues, making matches unplayable. It’s the fact that progression makes no sense and is so heavily gated by randomness that you’ll probably never get rewards for the classes you enjoy the most.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 is the most disappointing game of 2017 because EA took what should have been a winner with its graphics, presentation and sound design and utterly ruined it out of pure greed. That it accomplished this even after Star Wars Battlefront (2015) was so heavily panned is remarkably sad.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

Sledgehammer Games is busy patching up and fixing Call of Duty: WW2’s servers but that doesn’t mean the first person shooter is suffering in sales. In the latest UK sales charts courtesy of Chart-Track, it was revealed that Call of Duty: WW2 was still on top. Furthermore, it not only attained the highest selling second week for a title in 2017 but for 2016 as well.

So yes, that means that second week of UK sales for Call of Duty: WW2 was higher than the second week sales of anything from last year. Keep in mind that digital sales are not tracked by Chart-Track so the actual number of copies sold is likely a lot higher.

In second place was FIFA 2018 followed by Assassin’s Creed Origins in third. Despite its own controversies and negative reviews, Need for Speed Payback still debuted in fourth placed followed by Sonic Forces in fifth.

Super Mario Odyssey is in sixth place with Forza Motorsport 7, Forza Horizon 3 and Gran Turismo Sport in seventh, eighth and ninth place respectively. And yes, even Football Manager 2018 managed to break the top 10, debuting at tenth place. Other debuts for the week include Super Lucky’s Tale at 23rd place and The Sims 4: Cats and Dogs at 27th place.

"With Sonic Forces, developers Team Sonic have taken another stab at a 3D game, with a dash of 2D thrown in as well, and while improvements have definitely been made over some of the more recent entries in the series, the overall package is disappointingly unremarkable."

As far as improvement goes, credit has to be given where it is due. Sonic Forces’ 3D levels have improved massively over what we’ve seen in the past. Of these 3D levels, Sonic Forces features a few types. One type has you controller Modern Sonic, one puts you in the shoes of a custom made avatar, while another has you alternating between both of them. Though that distinction should make for a higher variety of levels across the two different playable characters – at least on paper – that is unfortunately not the case.

Level design itself isn’t spectacular per se, but it’s still solid, with very little moments of frustration where you feel you had no control over the situation due to poor level design. Some of the levels really ramp up the momentum of gameplay, and these fast paced romps are among the highlights of the experience. In addition to that, the unique abilities you possess while playing as the custom made character can often open up new ways to play, which is definitely a bonus. In fact, some of the stages dedicated only to the custom character are the best in the game with a few unique gimmicks and ideas.

Modern Sonic is equipped with all the moves we’ve seen from him in past games, such as sliding, stomping and boosting, as well as his signature homing attack. The custom made character has access to all of that as well, in addition to being equipped Wispon weapons and grapple points. These Wispon weapons can be all manner of weapons, from a flamethrower to an electric whip, and each of them comes with a unique ability that you can use for traversal as well. These moments can allow you to access paths and areas which were previous unaccessible, encouraging experimentation.

"Level design itself isn’t spectacular per se, but it’s still solid, with very little moments of frustration where you feel you had no control over the situation due to poor level design."

That experimentation, sadly enough, hardly ever bears any fruit worth caring about. There is usually not much incentive to explore and find hidden areas besides a few extra rings. Even in levels that have branching paths, it’s hard to care about exploration, and you’ll usually want to blast through at full pace to the finish line. As far as character creation itself goes, there isn’t much scope for customization, with not many options to choose from, and them being cosmetic in nature as well. That comes in with equipping Wispons, but though experimentation with that in gameplay can be mildly enjoyable, you can easily beat the entire game without having done so.

Also disappointing is the fact that the controls themselves in these levels can be quite frustrating. At many moments in my playtime, the controls felt unresponsive and imprecise, which conflicted with the generally fast-paced nature of these 3D levels. It has to be admitted that these controls are an improvement over previous 3D Sonic games, and as such any gripes are much less pronounced than they have been in the past- but they do still exist.

Surprisingly enough, Sonic Forces falters most in its 2D stages. These levels are seriously lacking in the momentum that characterizes much of the 3D sections of the game, and are also marred by level design that is unremarkable and decent at best and uninspired and choppy at worst. What’s worse is that the controls in these sections feel even more slippery and imprecise than they do in the 3D levels, making areas that require precise platforming (of which there are a lot more in the 2D levels) more of a chore than anything else. For a series that has always excelled at 2D side-scrolling level design, and did so quite recently with Sonic Mania as well, it’s surprising to see it struggling with the same here.

"Surprisingly enough, Sonic Forces falters most in its 2D stages."

Another major flaw that lets down Sonic Forces is the fact that the game hardly ever provides a challenge. That, combined with levels that are well built and yet hardly memorable makes for moments that can work just fine while you’re playing them, but don’t really make an attempt to stand out. Not only are the levels unchallenging, they’re all also incredibly short, and you can easily beat the game in a handful of hours. Sadly enough, there’s not much incentive to come back beyond that either. There are admittedly SOS missions that occasionally pop up, but it’s hard to care for them too, since the game doesn’t really give you much of an incentive to go through them.

One area where Sonic Forces has to be commended is the visuals department. 3D levels are ripe with detail and excellent environments, which are complemented by fluid animations. The 2D levels too look quite crisp, with detailed and great looking backgrounds. The fact that the game manages to consistently run at a frame rate of 60 frames per second is also commendable.

Sonic Forces is not the next big step we all hoped the series would take after having taken such a major one so recently with Sonic Mania. Though it looks great and though it makes significant improvements over its predecessors in terms of 3D level design, it surprisingly falters on the 2D side. Additionally, much of what it tries to do is unremarkable and unmemorable at best. If you’re a fan of the series and want to enjoy yet another decent yet flawed experience, Sonic Forces can be recommended to you. Beyond that, your money is best saved for something else.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

Sonic Forces was developed by the same team at Sonic Team responsible for Sonic Colours and Sonic Generations. Beginning work shortly after the completion of Sonic Lost World, the game was revealed during a 25th anniversary event at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2016 under the working title ‘Project Sonic 2017’, revealed alongside Sonic Mania. Sonic Forces runs on an improved version of the engine used in Sonic Generations, the Hedgehog Engine 2. Happy Tree Friends writers Ken Pontac and Warren Graff returned to help pen the games English script.

Sonic Forces was one of the earliest third party titles announced for the Nintendo Switch, then known only as NX and released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 family systems, and Xbox One family platforms on November 7th, 2017. The game launched with a bonus edition which included controller skins and downloadable clothing items for the Avatar character, which highlighted other Sega owned properties like Persona 5, Puyo Puyo and Jet Set Radio. Upon release, Sonic Forces received mixed critical reception, citing short length, poor level design and uneven difficulty.

Story

Sonic Forces story takes place following events of previous games, and links into the events of the true ending to Sonic Mania. During the ending events of that game, the Phantom Ruby, along with the power of the Chaos emeralds, transports Classic Sonic away to destinations unknown, at the time.

Upon responding to an attack by Dr. Eggman, Sonic is attacked by a recruited Shadow the Hedgehog, Metal Sonic, Chaos, Zavok and unknown newcomer Infinite. Sonic is quickly overpowered and captured. Within the space of six months, much of the world is under Eggman’s thumb, with a few pockets of resistance fighting back. One such pocket is led by Knuckles the Echidna, who recruits a new member dubbed ‘The Rookie’, which is the player created avatar.

The dimensional influence of the Phantom Ruby from Sonic Mania is responsible for Infinite’s power, as well as the involvement of Classic Sonic (along with the return of his gameplay style). During an early mission to rescue Sonic from a rebuilt Death Egg, Classic Sonic appears from his portal and rescues Tails from an attack by Chaos.

Gameplay

Sonic Forces divides itself into three distinct play styles across the three player characters, and while there is the occasional team up between the avatar and modern sonic happens, these moments do little more than combine both styles.

Modern Sonic gameplay should be the most immediately familiar to recent Sonic fans, taking most of its cues from Sonic Generations in terms of handing and play. Sonic will rush along a largely linear path and demand some twitch reactions from the player to stay on the higher paths and finish the level with more style. Modern Sonic can do an instant boost to speed along and destroy enemies, along with a handful of other abilities like a light speed dash, and stomp. Classic sonic brings back his 2D, momentum based platforming with a more precision focused jumping.

The newest addition is the Avatar, which has the most similar gameplay to Modern Sonic, with the addition of a bunch of customizable gadgets and Wisp abilities that allow you to tailor your exact abilities. While the full extent of the exact abilities and differences between them is out of scope for this piece and more of a fit for a guide, the Avatar is naturally agile enough to keep up with Sonic, uses wrist mounted grappling hooks and a device called a ‘Wispon’, which allows him to harness the recurring alien powers in a variety of ways, such as a flamethrower or shockwave, without causing a physical transformation.

In a piece of free side content, Episode Shadow, you can also play a brief story prequel where you take control of Shadow the Hedgehog. Playable for the first time in 12 years, Shadow controls like an enhanced version of Modern Sonic, utilizing a boost and able to chain up many sequential homing attacks to make progress.

Characters

While the gameplay itself focuses on the two Sonic’s and the avatar, Sonic Forces brings back a lot of characters from throughout the series long history to play a part in the war with The Eggman Empire. The two major sides are the Resistance and the Eggman Empire Forces

Resistance Members:

Sonic the Hedgehog is a key member of the resistance and who’s involvement alone motivates his allies to continuing the fight against impossible odds. He’s the fastest thing alive, endlessly cocky but endlessly loyal to match. The freedom fighter is captured and tortured for many months at the start of the game, but is soon broken out by the Avatar.

Meanwhile, Classic Sonic is a chubby little dude who’s not as much for words as his older counterpart, but still has the same fierce beliefs in freedom and scrambling Eggmen. Brought to Modern Sonic’s world through the portal created during the climactic battle between himself, Dr. Eggman and Phantom King over the Phantom Ruby at the end of Sonic Mania, he can’t help but want to break the mad doctor’s grip on the world.

The player created avatar was just a random citizen in Sonic’s world, until the world was turned upside down by Dr. Eggman and Infinite. He joins the resistance where he’s dubbed “The Rookie” and assists in the fight against the Eggman Empire. The sole survivor of a raid, Infinite purposely let the Avatar flee out of a sadistic pleasure in hearing his frightened screams. This backfires horribly when Sonic later inspires the Avatar to stand against him and he plays a key role in the story.

Supporting the central trio in their efforts are the menagerie of colourful friends that Sonic has gained over the years. While he is presumed dead, Knuckles the Echidna organizes one particular sect of the resistance effort, Tails bounces back once Sonic is rescued to provide mechanical and tactical support, Silver, Amy, The Chaotics members Espio, Charmy and Vector, and many others eventually show up as well.

Eggman Empire:

Dr. Eggman’s ambitions have finally very nearly come to fruition through the dimensional powers of the Phantom Ruby, which he discovers just outside one of his bases one faithful day after the events of Sonic Mania send it through to that world. The mysterious gem allows him to quickly rebuild his army and recruit Infinite, as well as many other bosses from Sonic’s past to help defeat him.

Infinite is a mysterious figure who the resistance cannot make sense of at first, with speed and power that vastly outstrips that of Sonic the Hedgehog. In their first encounter, going so far as to toy with the blue blur before he gets defeated. He has total command over the powers of the Phantom Ruby, which enhances his abilities, allows him to command much of his surrounding environment, and influence or even project other beings.

It’s by Infinite and the Phantom Ruby’s influence that brings together a big bunch of bad bosses from Sonic’s past to help the good doctor take the world for his own. Shadow the Hedgehog, longtime Frienemy is somehow now decidedly enemy. Metal Sonic has been rebooted to give the Resistance a hard time and Zavok of the Deadly Six returns to finish his vendetta.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Sonic Forces is out. and it decides to squander all the goodwill earned for 3D Sonic games thanks to Colors and Generations, as well as for the Sonic brand in general thanks to Mania, by being a generally terrible game with few, if any, redeeming values.

Which means that Sonic fans will fin themselves right at home. Others? Well, maybe you have a morbid curiosity about the whole ordeal, you know? I’m not judging- you have it if you have it. In which case, you probably don’t want to subject yourself to the game, but you wouldn’t mind seeing more of it.

Enter a full video walkthrough, showcasing all of the cringe in the game, from start to end. You can find it for yourself below. Just remember that it has… I mean, okay, I don’t think you care, but requisite spoiler warning and all that.