#SUMO Digital

[nickolashx]

Still Wakes the Deep (2024)

Still Wakes the Deep is a horror video game developed by The Chinese Room and published by Secret Mode.

You are an offshore oil rig worker, Cameron "Caz" McLeary, fighting for your life through a vicious storm, perilous surroundings, and the dark, freezing North Sea waters.

All lines of communication have been severed. All exits are gone. All that remains is to face the unknowable horror that’s come aboard.

[vgadvisor]

[they-have-the-same-va]

Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic the Hedgehog series (since 2010) shares a voice actor with Igor from the Persona series (since 2017).

Voiced by Kirk Thornton

[siriusoculuscentrifuge]

The Imagisphere Cracks in Two.

[sweetwolf05]

MerMay 2024 Day 4

Clown Fish, Mermay prompt based on Legendary444 on DeviantArt

[tidalskii]

It was announced yesterday that LittleBigPlanet 3’s game servers would be closing indefinitely, putting an end to the remaining online support the original LBP trilogy still had. I’ve managed to collect my thoughts and pay my tributes to the series before I part ways with it.

This game series means the world to me, and I am extremely proud and honored to have been apart of it’s community. I started playing the games in 2010 with the demo for LittleBigPlanet on PS3 and… I wasn’t impressed. I got stuck before I even played the game! I had a second controller turned on somewhere so 6 y/o me was presented with the “Select Profile” screen.

Having no clue why none of the buttons on my controller were working, I think I just turned it off and didn’t play it for months. Idk what got me to play it again, but I’m glad I did because I fell in LOVE with the game. Everything about how it controlled just… clicked with me. I thought it was genius, the sheer amount of expressiveness you could display; tilting the controller to move your head or your hips, using the D-Pad to change your facial expression, moving each individual arm with both sticks and the limb buttons on the back, it was all so intuitive and fun to do. Although, once me and my cousin learned how to slap each other in-game, it was over for my parents’ ears lol, we’d be screaming and yelling at each other. Sure enough that Christmas, I got the full game, specifically the special kind with some of the DLC pre-installed. That’s where the REAL fun began. Nearly every night after school I’d bring a couple of friends over and we’d try to play through as many levels as we could in one-sitting. The Metal Gear Solid DLC levels I often died immediately in and I would wait for an older kid I knew to get to a checkpoint and revive me. Regardless of how bad I was at the game, it was so much fun, especially now that we were able to experience the create mode. My mom actually started playing it, too. I don’t have any pictures of it sadly but she made a really expansive house with separate rooms and secret passages everywhere, it was really cool. I’d say I spent a good year or so playing the first game, then Christmas 2011 arrived. That’s when I got LittleBigPlanet 2.

LBP2 is my favorite video game of all time, it does what every good sequel should do: expand on what made the first game so amazing without straying too far away from its core appeal. For starters, if you already owned LBP the game will ask you right off the bat if you wish to import all of your collected items, costumes, and levels into LBP2. This absolutely BLEW MY MIND and in a weird way it kind of made playing the first game obsolete. You mean to tell me EVERYTHING I’ve ever made is already here, I can just… continue working on it?! I can still rock the same costumes I had, I can play music from the FIRST game in the SECOND game?!?! That alone made LBP2 so much of a gem in my eyes, it was LITERALLY the first game and MORE. But the fun didn’t end there! It was around this time I got a PSN account, so I was able to experience everyone else’s creations online and… wow. A whole new world just opened up, a whole community to engage and interact with. I met so many amazing people, some of whom are my closest friends to this day, over a decade later. It was through a group of some older kids that I often tagged along with that started getting into anime and comics more. 2011-2014 was a magical time to be on LBP, those years really felt like “The Golden Years” of the online community. Oh yeah and LBP Karting and the portable games existed too, I guess. I played LBPK, I thought it was fun… I still own it, but I’ve barely touched it after all these years. From what I’ve heard PSP and Vita seemed like a lot of fun, I’ve just never played them. Around early-mid 2014, it was announced that there would be a third LBP game for both the PS3 and the newly-released PS4. New characters, 16-LAYERS in create-mode (!!!), and a weird purple lightbulb as the new main-antagonist of the story mode… “Newton”. I remember being so excited for it to release. We were FINALLY getting a THIRD LittleBigPlanet, for a new console, too! We sure did, alright.

To this day, I’m still not sure how to feel about LittleBigPlanet 3, and it feels like the greater community more or less can’t ether. This game… SHOULD be better than the 2nd game, and you know what? Catch me on a good day and I might say that I prefer LBP3 to LBP2. Everything’s there, a new story, cross-compatibility with LBP and LBP2, a fleshed-out create mode, all of it’s there and what we have in the game is phenomenal, however there’s one big, glaring issue that distracts it from being superior to its predecessors… this game is BROKEN. I know people like to throw out that term a lot with somewhat buggy games but oh my god, LBP3 is DANGEROUSLY glitchy and exploitative. By this point, Media Molecule had moved on from the LBP series to continue developing new games, leaving Sumo Digital to oversee LBP3’s development. I feel so bad for Sumo Digital because it’s painfully obvious Sony rushed their time to complete the game for a holiday 2014 release date… and the quality of the final game reflects the time-crunch they must’ve gone through. Joining friends can take you up to a half-hour if you’re unlucky, it’s a gamble if the game will even function properly. Often you’ll be sent back to your pod after the game rapid-fires it’s loading screen (btw serious warning for anyone with epilepsy: DON’T play LittleBigPlanet 3, it does stuff like this all the time), but when the screen fades in, Sackboy doesn��t respawn, soft-locking the game. Fun! I’m not sure if anyone else suffered from this one specific, GAME-BREAKING bug as I’ve never seen anyone else talk about it, but around 2015 or so my game’s gravity just… freaked out, regardless if you were in hover-mode or not, Sackboy would float off to the left of the screen and phase through all of the walls. I tried restarting the game, cleaning off the physical disc the sink, but nothing would fix it, I literally had to reset my game progress. Very fun! Another weird thing I ran into is the inability to place down stickers with the PS Eye Camera Tool. It just stopped working entirely at one point, even in previous games like LBP2. No idea how THAT happened, very strange bug. Despite all this… I powered through, because truthfully I do think the content in LBP3 is superior to the previous games. The music is great, I found myself genuinely invested in the story and it’s characters, the DLC packs introduced in LBP3 were all very fun, and the create mode is a GODSEND compared to the first 2 games. Honestly, that’s one of the 2 reasons why I chose to stick around with LBP3, there is SO MUCH you can do with the tools it provides you. For those of you who don’t know, for the last couple years or so I’ve been building full working models of the Thomas the Tank Engine characters in LBP3, and that’s led to me gaining a humble but amazingly awesome following in the game. I love Thomas, I love LBP, I just wanted to put those two interests together and I’m very happy people seemed to have liked what I made, which is very wholesome and sweet.

I am devastated that the game’s online services are now gone for good, but it was kind of inevitable. LBP3’s lack of quality opened the door for a lot of nasty exploitation and modifications people made to their games. The servers were hacked in 2021, and that led to the termination of the PS3’s servers. It wasn’t hard to deduce that PS4’s servers were running on borrowed-time. Regardless of how unfortunate it’s closure was, this franchise was supported for 16 years. That’s not a bad run at all. I would say I’m surprised it wasn’t closed sooner, but then again… I’m not surprised. The LittleBigPlanet community is so amazing and passionate over these games. When the 2021 server attacks happened we all rallied together online to keep it alive, if just for a little bit longer. Even at its very end, a lot of us had so much more creativity to share with the world. To all those out there listening, I hope you’re able to channel that creativity outlet even further beyond in the future, whenever and wherever that may be. As for me, I’m going to attempt to learn “Dreams”, Media Molecule’s spiritual successor to the LBP games, released on PS4/PS5. From what I’ve seen and played of that game, it scratches that itch LBP left on me. It’s so good.

Rest easy, Sackboy. Thank you for some of the best experiences I could have asked for in a video game. Here’s hoping for a LBP4 one day, old friend. 🌎

[shinigami-striker]

Team Sonic Racing | Tuesday, 05.21.24

On this day, Team Sonic Racing saw a worldwide release 5 years ago on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One, courtesy of Sega and Sumo Digital (the developers of both Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed).

Features:

A team-based Adventure Mode with 3-player co-op (on the same predetermined team), track-specific challenges, and tutorials

15 playable characters such as: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Chao, Big, Blaze, Silver, Vector, Shadow, Rouge, E-123 Omega, Dr. Eggman, Metal Sonic, and Zavok

21 races tracks (including 8 from All-Stars Racing and Ocean View from Transformed)

Gameplay Modes: Team Adventure, Exhibition (Grand Prix, Single Race, and Time Attack), and Online Matchmaking

Vehicle customization features with unlockable mods

Team Sonic Racing is available now!

[melskytodstar]

If I can request one more Sonic game to get a rerelease for modern systems, I nominate Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Of the three Sumo Digital Sonic Racing games that I’ve played, Transformed is the best.

I know there would be issues with some characters in the original release (like Danica Patrick and Wreck-It Ralph)… but there’s plenty in the Steam version that could replace those racers.

I bring this up because much like Sonic Generations, I loved this game so much, and I haven’t had a chance to play it for at least seven years. My primary kart racer in that time has been Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and there are people who can only handle so much of that game. Sure, Team Sonic Racing has its moments, but the content is severely lacking compared to the All-Stars Racing games.

So this is my plea to SEGA, @sonicthehedgehog and Sumo Digital: Please bring back Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (but not the Wii U version, cause I remember it crashing on me all the time). As excited as myself and my wife are that Sonic Generations is coming back, I would greatly appreciate the return of the racing game where you can drive a car, boat and fly a plane in the same race as you take different routes each lap… that’s what I loved about All-Stars Racing Transformed the most!

[gebo4482]

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre by David Paget

[orepositorio]

Nome: Sackboy - Uma Grande Aventura

Lançamento: 20/04/2020

Desenvolvedores: Sumo Digital

[dynamos-games]

after I beat Psychonauts 2, I decided I wasn't done with fun and whimsical platformers, so I started playing Sackboy: A Big Adventure (knowing full well I've only ever played one LBP game and I never finished it). I'm stunned by the visuals and how nicely Sackboy transitioned from a 2D sidescroller to a 3D platformer. also, I love the use of the controller's speakers, it caught me so off guard I actually giggled when I heard the controller jingle in response to collectibles. this game makes me feel warm and fuzzy and giddy, and I'm eager to get to the end (at the rate I've been finishing games I'd give it a week).

[vgadvisor]

[they-have-the-same-va]

Donald Trump in The Queen's Corgi (U.S. dub) shares a voice actor with Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic the Hedgehog series (since 2010).

Voiced by Kirk Thornton

[siriusoculuscentrifuge]

I feel like people should know about this.

[blazehedgehog]

I’d love a completely new Sonic and Sega All Star Racing Game in 2025 or 2026. Both to see an expanded cast from more Sega franchises (Yakuza, Persona, Puyo Puyo, Hatsune Miku, Angry Birds, the “Power The Next Level” IP revivals) and due to untapped gameplay potential for a sonic racing game. My question is: if we were to get a new Sonic and Sega ASR do you have any ideas or hopes for how they could evolve the gameplay of a sonic racing game? (Aside from adding all content from the past titles)

I mean, do you have to evolve it? I'd like a straight collection, which means basically freezing all the gameplay features in time in the Transformed era.

The thing about those games and Mario Kart is that they don't evolve much. With a few exceptions, most Mario Kart games are what they always have been. More evolution than revolution. Tweaks to power sliding mechanics, maybe the ability to better mix and match characters and parts, but still Mario Kart after 8 or 9 games.

Where Sega and Sumo's games differed was having a real, proper singleplayer campaign. The plan was apparently to always have a story mode in those games, but they didn't get enough budget to pull it off until Team Sonic Racing. Regardless, they always contained at least some kind of singleplayer mission structure outside of the context of just racing, racing, racing. That's something that Mario Kart always lacked.

They can keep those as-is and still be a step ahead of most Mario Karts.

I dunno. I have a lot of ideas for what could make racing games better, though. I like to play those alone, by myself, against the computer. At risk of giving these ideas away for free, it's like...

One feature I liked from Dirt 2 that Codemasters struggled to carry forward was the idea that other racers on the track were characters you could interact with. Real people. They would banter with you as you raced, get angry if you bumped into them too hard, chat with each other during races, etc.

Codemasters got away with that for a few games but did sort of bring it back in newer entries like Grid 2 and Grid Legends, but it's lacking that human element -- you'll get an alert that you have "a new rival" because you were too aggressive with another racer, but there's no visible reaction or audible dialog to reflect that. And with how much Codemasters leans on having stories in those games, despite having the foundation for a Telltale-style "[xyz] will remember that" system, it never has bearing on the plot.

They are so close to unlocking the true potential of that system and they never fully commit. There's untapped possibility there for sure.

The other thing is, like, these games always have a finite amount of content. You play something like Ridge Racer 4 and it's always the same tracks, in the same order, every time you play. But does it have to be?

A lot of racing games will let you pick individual tracks one at a time if you want to switch it up, but I don't want that. I want to be able to tell the game "give me a new cup" and have it assemble one on the spot.

It's like a fighting game, right. What's the main fault of early Smash Bros. games? You fight the same characters, in the same order, every time. Later Smash games, and indeed most fighting games, offer you up fighters in a random order, so every time you fire up Arcade Mode, you're never entirely sure who your next opponent is.

So back when stuff like the Spelunky Daily Challenge was a hot conversation topic, I often wondered why racing games couldn't have, like, "The Grand Prix of the Day." Generate a playlist of four existing tracks in a random order for every day of the year.

Like, Mario Kart 8 has, what, 64 tracks right now? It should be able to generate me a new Grand Prix playlist of four tracks on command in trillions of variations. Technically, this is sort of what Mario Kart Tour does, but even then that's locked in to a live service model of "seasonal" content and you still eventually run out of Grand Prix cups to race on for that month. Also, Mario Kart Tour sucks and is bad to play.

And, like, what if you could share your Grand Prix playlists with others? Send them to your friends, issue challenges, configure parameters like mirror mode and reverse races. Maybe designate specific racers as being "experts" for that GP with different traits to race against. Maybe even let the friend record a ghost or some kind of Drivatar-style profile to race against as part of the GP.

This feels so natural and obvious to me. And to be fair, Forza Horizon games also kind of do some of this, but it's still not the same. It's not what I'm looking for.

When I play a racing game, the less I have to interface with the menu, the better. I'm here to race, not to scroll through track lists and be indecisive.