Sonic Wreaks Havok on PS3
Hey, know that Sonic game that SEGA's working on? Yep, it's got fancy physics.
Published: October 12, 2006
You can tell it's a slow news day when we start posting stories about video game Halloween costumes, but a close second is devoting a whole story (with quotes in just a little bit!) to the fact that Sonic the Hedgehog is using Havok, the de facto standard for physics middleware, to make stuff fly around really nice like in their game.
It's not that we don't like Sonic (okay, that's a lie; all our hands-on time with the game so far has been more than disappointing for one of our fondest childhood mascots), it's just that, well, lots of games use Havok, but since we can't be bothered to actually, y'know, look for news, we just regurgitate what slides into our inbox. We're lazy like that, but at least we admit it. And we don't just cut and paste the whole release in here and call it news. Just most of the release, like this!
“For the next generation Sonic The Hedgehog, we wanted blistering speed in a visually rich environment. Havok’s real-time physics engine has enabled us to process the huge amounts of data involved in ensuring that Sonic’s every bounce and battle is both visually interesting and accurate, within the enhanced but still recognisable dream-like world of the game," gasped SEGA R&D Creative Officer Takayuki Kawagoe before charging back into his glowing comment. "The fact that our development team was provided with all documentation and support was in Japanese from Havok’s office in Tokyo, made it that much easier for them to make the most of Havok’s technology.”
“Sonic The Hedgehog for next gen platforms is an excellent example of how a talented development team can use physics technology to bring a much loved classic character to a whole new level. We are very proud to be involved in the latest evolution of such an iconic, world-renowned game,” added Havok CEO and all around nice bloke David O'Meara.
Okay, so offering full documentation in a native language of the licensee is definitely going the extra mile, but then that's how they roll in those Irish-founded companies. It does make one wonder, though, is the documentation actually in perfect Japanese, or does it read like those awesome multi-lingual directions we get from stuff we bought in Japantown? What's the Japanese equivalent of Engrish anyway? Neepawneese?
Food for thought...
It's not that we don't like Sonic (okay, that's a lie; all our hands-on time with the game so far has been more than disappointing for one of our fondest childhood mascots), it's just that, well, lots of games use Havok, but since we can't be bothered to actually, y'know, look for news, we just regurgitate what slides into our inbox. We're lazy like that, but at least we admit it. And we don't just cut and paste the whole release in here and call it news. Just most of the release, like this!
“For the next generation Sonic The Hedgehog, we wanted blistering speed in a visually rich environment. Havok’s real-time physics engine has enabled us to process the huge amounts of data involved in ensuring that Sonic’s every bounce and battle is both visually interesting and accurate, within the enhanced but still recognisable dream-like world of the game," gasped SEGA R&D Creative Officer Takayuki Kawagoe before charging back into his glowing comment. "The fact that our development team was provided with all documentation and support was in Japanese from Havok’s office in Tokyo, made it that much easier for them to make the most of Havok’s technology.”
“Sonic The Hedgehog for next gen platforms is an excellent example of how a talented development team can use physics technology to bring a much loved classic character to a whole new level. We are very proud to be involved in the latest evolution of such an iconic, world-renowned game,” added Havok CEO and all around nice bloke David O'Meara.
Okay, so offering full documentation in a native language of the licensee is definitely going the extra mile, but then that's how they roll in those Irish-founded companies. It does make one wonder, though, is the documentation actually in perfect Japanese, or does it read like those awesome multi-lingual directions we get from stuff we bought in Japantown? What's the Japanese equivalent of Engrish anyway? Neepawneese?
Food for thought...