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The Worst Load Times Ever: Sonic The Hedgehog (Xbox 360) With Video Proof
followingrevolution.wordpress.… — Ever think that you have come across terrible load times in a game? I bet you it's nothing compared to Sonic for the 360. I found one side mission in particular, where it not only loads the question, but also the answer input, and the screen that tells you if you are correct or not. This is a perfect example of how games should not be made.
ElChiboFR- 1342 diggs
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- lock720, on 10/12/2007, -9/+109While those load times are clearly horrible, you are at least still technically "playing" the game.
Compare that to WWE Smackdown VS RAW 2006 for the PSP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVyw0v3Ntx0
It's over 6 minutes before a match even starts.- nymphetamine, on 10/12/2007, -8/+35DIRECT LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naVshTpD9l0
- TonySki, on 10/12/2007, -18/+6when I read the title, that game immedately came to mind. 6 minnutes before you do anything is way longer than 30 seconds of waittime.
- Chandon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10712 seconds of load time between each line of dialog is far, far worse than any six minutes of load time once. With one chunk of loading, you can at least go get a snack or take a dump or something. Whoever designed this should be punched in the nuts, repeatedly... there's just no excuse for programming this bad - the machine has 512 megs of RAM that it could totally store text dialog in.
- mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+66I agree with chandon.. the sonic load times gave me the desire to shoot myself in the anus
- zonk3r, on 10/12/2007, -17/+9Sadly, from what little experience I've had with a few PSP's I've played with it seems this is the case with many games though not nearly to this extent...
- Munkey106, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12That is just ridiculous!
- kaje, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24Atleast with the waiting 6 minutes before the match starts, you can atleast put your controller down and do something else. This requires you to interact with the game in between all of the loading!
- YES2007, on 10/12/2007, -39/+8How the hell can defend the 360 by making a comparison of it's load times to that of a dam hand held in the PSP talking about a 360 mark grasping at straws!!
- TonyCubed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10YES2007, they are both gaming devices, that's why.
- meshgiath, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Regardless, Sega is KING of crap-ass load times and bad programming. Ever played Super Monkeyball Adventure on the GC? It has to be the #1 worst programmed game I have ever seen by a major manufacturer on a major console.
The music randomly bugs out. Sometimes it doesn't play at all. When playing 10 rounds of monkey target, you have to wait for 12 seconds of loadtimes between EVERY TURN. Previous Monkeyball games had NO load times there. Not just that, but the load screen is a static and musicless screen.
Again, regardless, Sonic360 shouldn't be that ***** programmed. This is why Sega got knocked down back in the old 16-bit days - they're lazy ass programmers that cut corners because they expect their games to sell strictly on name recognition. It's STILL pathetic 10-15 years later. - Gutterpunk, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3@meshgiath : King of crappy coding?
Apparently someone doesn't play much games . Just on the top of my head, Saints Row and The Sims (all of them) are lights year ahead in "Bad Programming Kinghood" - FormulaOne, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4@zonk3r
"Sadly, from what little experience I've had with a few PSP's I've played with it seems this is the case with many games though not nearly to this extent..."
No it's not, you ignorant tool. Try not to comment on something you know nothing about. Of the 100's of games I've played on the PSP, the load times have been extremely quick. And once you place them on the memory stick, they become lightning quick. - acff, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1this was fixed with a patch!
- xxNIRVANAxx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@acff: The Sonic load times were fixed with a patch? Where? On the Marketplace?
- soccerboi00, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2They need to go back to what they do best: arcade games. That's why the Dreamcast was (and still is) amazing, because it had so many arcade games ported to it.
- spidoman, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4lol getting dugg up for comparing a console game to a handheld game? Handhelds have bad load times. Consoles shouldn't. 360 fanboys, ATTACK!
- jgclark123, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6@spidoman
Handhelds have bad load times?! Have you ever used a Game Boy? The only handheld with long load times that I know of is the PSP, and we all know how well that's selling.
Personally, I have a GP2X < http://www.gp2x.com/ >, and I don't get much chance to play for a long time. Since I can't get the NES emulator (gpfce) to save state, I never get past the first level or two of any game. (The other emulators work fine.) If I had to deal with any loading time, I wouldn't get that far. The firmware's ~10 second initial load time would be enough to piss me off, if I didn't have it on playing mp3s all the time. - hcl40u, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2In the PS2 version of Smackdown vs RAW 07 you'll see the loading screens so often they even included a loading screen manager for season mode.
- tafkase7en, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2That's what you get for buying a non traditional Sonic game.
- icebrand, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I guess "blast processing" doesn't work as well for optical disk based systems...
Poor sonic. He's nothing but a shell of his former self and this game shows just how little Sonic Team cares. - EAMUS1CATULI, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You call that playing the game? ...Are you ***** kidding me!!!!
- PSPon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3OH, it was loading the loading screen!
- UPSLynx, on 10/12/2007, -54/+6That's what the 360 gets.
- bdorry, on 10/12/2007, -3/+710 bucks says its just as bad when it hits PS3
- UPSLynx, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5Fine with me, I'm a PC gamer.
- sinner0423, on 10/12/2007, -60/+6load times are the scourge of all the new consoles. it's something you have to put up with, but it's a decent trade off (in most cases) when it comes to how much storage you can put on the disc.
but, thats just ***** horrible. who in their right mind would design something like that?- defectDS, on 10/12/2007, -9/+67I beg your pardon? All the new consoles? Zelda: TP has about 3-4 seconds of loading between maps, of which are huge expanses of land. This game has what, like 9-10 seconds of loading between scenes of which consist of boxes, walls and 2 characters. What the hell was stoping the developers from panning away from the boxes over to the character after you finish? And even still, why so long for such a tiny environment? It should be fade in - fade out.
- eplawless, on 10/12/2007, -52/+9Yeah, but Zelda is a Gamecube game ported to the Wii. Otherwise I completely agree.
- theseans, on 10/12/2007, -2/+44DefectDS is right. It's just a pure half ass design on the part of the developers.
- olliholliday, on 10/12/2007, -0/+40when it comes down to situations like this the graphical complexity is pretty much irrelevant. the sonic game's not even loading anything new (except maybe a single line of text dialogue) - clearly it's just extremely shoddy coding rather than a limitation of the system.
- vpshockwave, on 10/12/2007, -5/+25"Yeah, but Zelda is a Gamecube game ported to the Wii. Otherwise I completely agree."
That doesn't make any difference. If anything, it makes it more sad because the Wii has a fraction of the XB360's memory/power. - mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+30Yeah Gears of War (X360) is incredible. Despite the revolutionary graphics, load times are nearly non-existent. Even multiplayer matches begin immediately after an initial short load when you enter a room. One of the keys they seem to use is dynamic loading (a phrase I just made up) in which textures load progressively.
- slicedoranges, on 10/12/2007, -23/+3No, it's a Wii game ported to Gamecube.
- Soave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Same goes for the Metroid Prime games. Virtually no loading time for those games. All the rooms load while you're in the previous rooms, so it's pretty seamless. I think more companies should follow that design.
- LordSkywalker, on 10/12/2007, -13/+7Anyone care to count the load times?
- PureEvilGenius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6My count there was in the first run though 11 and in his second run though 17 load screens.
- LordSkywalker, on 10/12/2007, -7/+114What the hell are HUMANS doing in a ***** Sonic game anyway? The Sonic Team has really lost its vision.
- nights0223, on 10/12/2007, -4/+41You're saying Dr. Robotnik isn't a human? I do agree though, Sonic shouldn't take place in a city full of humans.
- vpshockwave, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6I wondered the same thing.
- DCJoeDog, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16I always thought, to myself anyway, that robotnik was from earth and being a scientist he found a way to jump to other dimensions and then he found sonic's dimension and sonic constantly kicks his ass, robotnik cannot stand this and becomes obsessed with defeating him... at least that's my take on it. Too geeky?
- mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24The Dreamcast version (which was highly rated) had humans too. They were considered tourists and were basically useless. They were just continuously confused about everything that was happening around them.
- teethman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Its not so much that there's humans in it, but that the humans are realistic style. Robotnick was always cartoony in the old games. Its not even anime or anything, its just a realistic world with a giant blue hedgehog. It looks like 'who framed roger rabbit'
Also, at one point the hedgehog carries a human girl in his arms. Who the ***** ruined Sonic? - joehobbes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Here's a piece from a month or so ago that shares the thoughts that Sonic is really going downhill:
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2006/12/how-sega-all-but-ruined-sonic-hedgehog.html - DeathBorn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Actually, in Sonic Adventure and such, humans are common and Sonic and the other animals are sort of superheroes. Just look at SA2, everyone is human except for the characters you play as, even the president.
- HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1With the talking to the guy and the ways the street looks and such, it looks more like a Tony Hawk Game (Wasteland or later). The latest Hawk (8) has no load times even though the entire world is accessible by skating at all times (at least on 360).
- bobbyi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Sonic Rush for DS is a really good 2D Sonic game that is true to the original series.
- Richggs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sonic team really need to get there act together, they just cant keep developing crap and hope to get away with it...
The only reason sonic DS was any better was that a separate developer made it.
- JamesWilson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+42Load times are the sign of bad programming. I don't care how big the game is..just load what is needed on screen, release control to the user, and load incrementally based on the user's actions.
- idmclaren, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36....Wow. I wasn't expecting it to be THAT bad. But that was... unacceptable.
(PS) Happy New Years. - CharlesSaint007, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23All I can say is "damn it Sonic, get your ***** ***** together."
- CDHarrisUSF, on 10/12/2007, -0/+59That's a feature. "Aristo's Challenge" is obviously just a challenge of your patience.
- deporitaz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+202d Sonic never had these load time problems.
What the ***** man?
And they were a lot better than this 3d *****.
Don't fix what ain't broke?
And does anyone else see the irony in these slow as ***** load times in a SONIC game? It'd be just as worse as putting huma-- oh wait...- AwesomeMonster, on 10/12/2007, -9/+12d sonic was cartridge based, 3d sonic isn't. There will never be any load times on cartridge based games. Which is also why people shouldn't be bitching about the psp load times, seeing as they have a disc based system.
- mrRB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1^Um, Metroid Prime and the PoP series were basically loadless. The PoP games had about a minute load or so when you loaded up a savegame, but that was it. You could just keep playing from there on out. Both were disc based.
- Reponere, on 10/12/2007, -13/+5Incredible. In my own opinion, this tops WWE Smackdown for the PSP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjf0D6bRTQ8 - Easty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Can someone tell me how it ends?
My eyes started bleeding halfway through.- mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13answer: 9 boxes
answer: 9 boxes
answer: 9 boxes
"oh dammit, i guess you beat me"
THE END
- mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13answer: 9 boxes
- sgtgoomba, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18I have this game. I'm a huge Sonic fan, and I put my heart and soul into trying to like this game. But its impossible. These horrific load times are just part of the problem.
If you want a good sonic game, play Excite Truck and pretend that those are hedgehogs and not trucks (Sonic the Hedge truck I like to call it.) Hell, play Super Monkey Ball:BB and pretend that the monkeys are hedgehogs. Even that game is faster, and much more fun than Sonic the Hedgehog for the 360.
Sonic the Hedgehog needs a director like Shigeru Miyamoto, someone who cares enough about their games to "upend the tea table" and start all over again when it isn't working. It also needs to be developed under a company that doesn't need to rush its games to stay afloat financially. - RichesToRags, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Damn, if I was a Sonic Developer I would have placed a few advertisements on the loading page.
- Cyber_Akuma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22Then youd need a seperate loading screen to load the ads.
And then a load screen for the ad loading screen if you want to put ads on that.
And then...
- Cyber_Akuma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22Then youd need a seperate loading screen to load the ads.
- tholder, on 10/12/2007, -17/+0Happy New Year everyone... let's get 07 off to a great start by talking about the load times of a blue Hedgehog!
- prasannasd, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0nice article
- Spaceomega, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Haha, that's horrible. Seriously, what the hell developers?
- Blazekun, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11This whole scene just feels fake. Please for the love of god tell me it's fake. They aren't really unloading and loading the entire scene every time they want to change a few boxes are they?!
- AllenHSmilden, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Sorry its not fake, the load times are that bad.
- strebalicious, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Since I can't look at this stuff from work, I still don't think anything can beat Rune on the PS2.
Minutes worth of loading, small maps consisting of two or three rooms, minutes worth of loading, small round room, minutes worth of loading, etc. - JaggedEdge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2One game that came to mind was Road Rage for the Playstation
- kenn5375, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I hate games that show a hundred logos when starting the game.
- Orat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4More like "SUBSonic".
EL OH EL. - PurpleSfinx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12After carefully reviewing this video and the accompanying facts, I have used my vast knowledge of video games and programming to form a highly complex opinion about Sonic the Hedgehog's loading times:
"Ahahahahahaha."
That is all. - brindon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3The video was a little blurry for me. Is Sonic being challenged by a human to a philosophy "fight"? The human also seems to be gesticulating as though he is rapping. Is he "rapping" his posits et al to poor Sonic?
- iam1e3t, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5yep....gameplay sucks...loadtime sucks..kinda sad i just wasted $60 for it
- vpshockwave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4$60 ... for this?
Maybe the next project the company should undertake is a fundraiser for all the people that actually bought Sonic.
- vpshockwave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4$60 ... for this?
- Mc_Carter, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3the most pooptastic game ever
- loggia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I'm sure there were many people at this developer that pointed out the problems... at which time highly paid managers reminded everyone to fill out their TPS reports.
And you can be sure that with this egg on their faces, these same management executives will write a lengthy memo telling the rank-and-file to not repeat the very errors they begged management not to force them to commit in the first place. - albinoMithos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I miss sonic, sonic 2, sonic 3, sonic & knuckles, etc. type sonic games where the hell did those go? Damn....I feel old (in gamer years).
- CDHarrisUSF, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Sonic Rush (on the DS) is very close to the old formula.
- Rice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Sonic 3 & Knuckles = My best game of all time.
- apoc06, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4check out the sonic advance games for the GBA in general. those games actually feel like sequels. the newer 3d sonic games feel like some other series that they decided to use the sonic motif with.
- LabRat777, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Jesus Christ Butt *****
- irchs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Sonic is a particularly poor game tho in general. What I resent the most are the little scenes where you are just tapping X (or A, can't really remember not played it in ages) and the game is doing most of the work for you jumping off various bits of scenery. It's half-entertaining the first time, and not very challenging but after 1000 times it's very annoying and just *****. I got my 360 with Gears of War, PGR, and Sonic. Sonic really is the ***** fest of the three by a long distance! Stay clear of it!
- Qooop, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0The sad thing is that the technology is there to increase the speed of the load by placing the full content onto the hard drive. As eveidenced by games running fully from the hard drive on the original modded Xbox, the load time is crippled by copy protection.
- YES2007, on 10/12/2007, -31/+1So much for the GREAT 360's processing power/memory and little 20 gig hard - drive !!!! What will be the poor 360 Zombie fanboys defense be now ??
Can't blame that on Sony !!! MicroGate SUCKS !!!!- Erroneus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Yeah because all Xbox 360 games has this problem....
Nice one fake troll profil
- Erroneus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Yeah because all Xbox 360 games has this problem....
- dugbay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I hope they fix all of these probelms for the wii sonic game. I really hope I get to play a great 3d sonic game before i die. Sonic Heros was ok, but sonic should be up there with Zelda, Mario, and Metriod..but its not.
- p5ychop3nguin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2When the load time for the dialogue is longer than the dialogue that you've already seen 7 times within the last 8 minutes, you have a poorly made game.
Why is there this much loading in the challenge anyway? Once you choose a box how hard is it to compare two numbers and make the character tell you if you are right or not?
After the 4th load screen, I would have gone back to the store and demanded a refund.- Lezlee798, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1i would've went to microsoft and kicked their ass
- xXShadowstormXx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ Lezlee798
It isn't Microsoft's fault that Sonic360 loads like this. It's the Sonic Team's fault (the developers). Half ass programming. - flarn2006, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1 If it couldn't compare two numbers without a loading screen, there would be a loading screen in between EVERY FRAME! For everything a computer does it must compare numbers, and of course the same goes for a console.
- Cyber_Akuma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Please Wait...
Comment from Cyber_Akuma Now Loading... - KimmoA, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This has GOT to be a joke! I simply do not believe it...
- smokespliffz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I actually have to agree with KimmoA, how the ***** can they release this pile of junk? I mean do they test these games prior to release? What the ***** were the Sonic developers thinking? I would sue for the $60 + interest if I owned that game just to get media attention.
- Flunk, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2Dead Rising is pretty similar. Turns out killing zombies isn't all it cracked up to be.
- deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I dunno what's funnier here. The load times or the fact you can hear the whine of his 360's DVD-ROM drive so clearly.
- cr3ative, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I think what is funnier is the fact that over 400 people just watched a video of a loading screen. ^_^
- Gutterpunk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0@deadbaby :
*cough* backup dvd *cough*
Seriously, the only time I've had *a* (not mine of course) XBOX 360 make that sound or load that fast is on a modded 360.
- coopa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Does anyone remember the original release of Sin, the one thats been re-released in Steam? I played that through when it came out (about 7 years ago i think?), load times between maps were consistently over 10-15minutes, no matter what the map included.
- Rayonic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Penny Arcade even made a comic about it.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1998/11/18
There was a patch that fixed the load times, by the way. Apparently there was a bug that made it load in the most inefficient way possible. It was a good game after that.
- Rayonic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Penny Arcade even made a comic about it.
- JavertHolmes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Looks like a combination of a bad design choice combined with a limited engine design to me. Makes me wonder if each box arrangement is a complete level in itself rather than item spawning. Regardless, they should have had it so that you pick the number of boxes via the dialogue box to at least HALVE the number of load times.
- TimmyGUNZ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Is it just me, or is seeing Sonic takling to humans kinda creepy? I miss the little woodland creatures!
- rkuchiki, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1The only other people who claim to have the game have left comments on the blog entry stating their copy does not do it. Marked as inaccurate. Blogger needs to clean his DVD laser/disc or something.
- AllenHSmilden, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have the game and it does do this, its obvious not a bad 360 or dirty disc problem. Those load times were designed to be there. It really does that for each and every sub mission. Every time.
- UCFartstudntJON, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Sonic for 360: Worst Game Ever. I hope somebody was fired over this flop.
- FormulaOne, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0
I wouldn't blame the Sonic team. They just didn't have the tools or hardware to make a worthwhile game on the 360. As for the 360's DVD drive, well, everyone knows that it's a cheap POS that makes more noise than fat man after a burrito eating contest. - thumbup, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Okay, so, I am not buying that game...looks crap and the load times are hilariously bad.
- ocha, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Sonic the hedgehog used to be my favorite game back in the day. I was the kid with the Sonic lunchbox, watched the TV shows, and read the comic books religiously.
Somewhere around Sonic Adventure I discovered Solid Snake and grew up and found a new video game favorite. I wish they can get back to their roots and make a 3D sonic game that actually works or just make it a handheld/side scrolling only series. The problem with Sonic the Hedgehog (next gen) goes far beyond load times. The controls are horrible. The level design is bland and unoriginal. The game is a huge failure. And making a more than one Sonic game a year isnt helping either. They need to sit back and give it at least three years and make another hit. - SonikBoom, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Yeah, PSP games are just as terrible with loading times. Hard to believe when the game's main purpose is speed. And by hard to believe, I mean it's hard to believe how bad Sega debugged their game.
- 4g1vn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Just proves that any console can be a victim of poor/lazy programming.
- theamazingboo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is exactly the reason Dimps should handle Sonic games from now on. (They made the GBA games, and Sonic Rush- the greatest Sonic game since Sonic 3&Knuckles) They wouldn't do any of this *****. Sega has really ruined Sonic with both the horrible load times, and the pathetic story. (They have Sonic fall in love with a HUMAN for ***** sakes) He's supposed to run away from Amy, not this *****.
- AllenHSmilden, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4He is always running away from Amy thats the way it should always be. Always running away.
- Odjn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This game series (Sonic 3-D) already has enough problems as it is. ***** Sega is awful.
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