Sumo Digital has shown more support for the PC version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed today by releasing a 370 MB update on Steam. This update addresses some big issues certain players had with the game. It includes an alternative INTZ Render for old cards that don’t support INTZ, bug and exploit fixes and VAC support. There’s a downside to this update as well though: because of the exploit fixes the leaderboards have now been wiped to get rid of suspicious times. You can read the full details about this update here.
An update for the console versions was also released last week, which fixed a bunch of stuff like a tuned down difficulty of Traffic Attack, Ring Race and certain Race events, exploit and bug fixes etc. A change log for that can be read here.
A new trailer for the PC version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed was put up on Sega’s press site today showing that three playable characters previously found in the data of the console version will be playable only in the PC release. These include the guy on the cover of Football Manager with a helmet on (aka the Tactician), The Deadly Assassin from Shogun: Total War and the Heavy, Pyro and Spy from Valve’s Team Fortress 2.
You can pre-purchase it now on Steam now for 10% off or from Green Man Gaming for another 25% off until tomorrow with this coupon: GMG25-XTYYZ-POSL1. Also, unlike what the trailer says, the PC version doesn’t come out until January 31st. Below you can find some screenshots and promotional artwork.
[Thanks to Arique for the trailer, pictures via The Sonic Scene]
SEGA seemingly finally remembered that they hadn’t announced a specific release for The Cave yet even though they said that it’d be out this month, so now they have: it’ll be out January 22nd on Playstation Network and the Wii U eShop, January 23rd for Xbox Live Arcade and PC and Mac through Steam. It’ll cost $14.99 in the US, £9.99 in the UK and €12.99 in the rest of Europe.
What SEGA hasn’t mentioned in their PR is that it will also be available on Linux through Steamplay, making this the first game published by SEGA to be released on the OS.
[Via Ron Gilbert's Twitter and SEGA Blog]
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, and by that I mean not go to Sonic-related websites in the past few days, you know that Eddie Lebron released his Sonic fan film last week. And if you’ve seen you’ll probably think that it’s impressive for a low-budget fan project or that it’s crap. Or you actually have a different opinion than the majority of the internet, but that’d just be silly. Anyway monday links.
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Finally some good news for those who were waiting for the PC release of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. The product page of the game has gone up on Steam, revealing that the release date is January 31st. Like Sonic Generations it also has a cheaper price than the console version: $29.99 in the US, €24.99 in Europe and £19.99 in the UK. However, if you pre-order the game 10% will be taken off the price and it can be bought in a 4-pack.
GreenManGaming also has it up for pre-order for the same price, but you can get it for another 25% off with this coupon code: GMG25-XTYYZ-POSL1. The product page also reveals the minimum requirements that you need to know if your PC can actually run this game:
- CPU: 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent
- Ram: 1GB Ram (Windows XP), 2GB Ram (Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8)
- Video Card: 256MB with Shader Model 3.0 support
- Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
- HDD: 6.7GB free hard drive space
UPDATE (AGAIN): It looks as if Amazon.com in the US is also providing a couple of collections for digital PC download for sale on Sega games. However only one of the packages activate on Steam. That being the Dreamcast Pack containing Dreamcast Collection Volume 1 (Which contains Sonic Adventure DX, Crazy Taxi, Space Channel 5 Part 2 and Sega Bass Fishing) and Jet Set Radio for $4.99. The Genesis pack is still on sale for $4.99 as well, however those do not activate on Steam, but that’s still 50 Genesis games that also sell for $7.50 a pack currently.
While this is not really a deal, they also sell Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg for digital download PC. (This also does NOT activate on Steam) Still noteworthy.
UPDATE (12/3/2012): Sonic Generations is 75% off again on Steam until December 10th as part of a sale celebrating the official release of Big Picture Mode. Another Sega game, Hell Yeah! is 75% off as well. You can check out all of the other deals here. Amazon is also having a sale on downloadable Sega games, with various bundles. This includes the Sonic Action Pack for $25, which includes every downloadable Sonic game besides Sonic Adventure 2. These deals are good until December 8th and can be seen here in this NeoGAF thread.
Those who have used Steam for at least half a year know that their sales are usually pretty darn good, with lots of games usually being 50% or 75% off. Like now Sonic Generations is 75% off until November 27th, which is a great deal if you don’t have the game yet. All other Sega games on the service besides those that came out during the last month or so are 50% off as well. Other good games on sale are Dishonored for 50% off, Batman: Arkham City GOTY Edition for 75% off and Deus Ex: Human Revolution for 75% off.
Also, if you missed out on the Starbucks deal for Sonic 4: Episode II you can get Episode I for $2.99 and Episode II for $3.74 on Amazon. Both episodes use Steamworks so you’ll have to activate them on Steam in order to play them. The Sega Genesis Classic Game Pack is also priced off to $4.99 and includes 50 Genesis games.
SEGA and Double Fine just released a new trailer for The Cave. For those who don’t know what this game is, The Cave is an upcoming puzzle platformer by Ron Gilbert (The Secret of Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion) and Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts, Brütal Legend) that’s being published by SEGA. It’s going to be a lot like those old point and click adventure games, except with a lot less pointing and clicking and more moving left and right and jumping. You have to choose from three of seven characters at the start of the game, all of which have their own quirks. This new trailer showcases four of these characters, and another upcoming trailer will showcase the rest of them. The game can also be played with up to three players in local co-op.
This is a seperate project from Double Fine’s upcoming crowd-funded point and click adventure game Double Fine Adventure, though Ron Gilbert is working on that game as well. The Cave comes out January 2013 on Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, the Wii U eShop and Steam.
PC owners that absolutely NEED their Sonic Adventure 2 fix can finally begin throwing their money toward their local Steam client. No, it’s not time for the yearly flogging of the wallet from Steam sales so much as Sega has finally confirmed via Twitter that SA2 and its Battle DLC will be touching down on the client on Monday, Nov. 19.
While the game offers little change from its original presentations other than proper widescreen support and some touched up textures, that’s sure to keep some fans of the game quite happy. No word on the cost or what online functionality the PC version will have, but we’re hedging our bets on the usual $9.99 price for the game and $2.99 for Battle, with leaderboards only as the online functionality.
Be sure to check out our review to see if you want to go for the PC version or remain loyal to your Dreamcast or Gamecube discs.