Well, the last week has certainly been interesting. Especially in the world of so-called ‘journalism’, where everyone but GameSpot seems to have reacted like a complete immature child to the whole Sonic Unleashed debacle. You know, real journalists. Especially in reaction to our news piece collated from an inside source, which has been debunked several times by some other sources (hey, we never said it was fact), claiming their sources are more accurate (only for them to spread false information). I don’t know if we should be considered the ‘most reliable’ website or not, and frankly I don’t care, but I know my sources are definitely trustworthy.

And on another note, this thought appeared in my mind; Why is everyone so worked up about this point of ‘trust’ anyway? Where did this petty ‘e-Penis’ contest come from? All of a sudden anything else that isn’t an “exclusive” by “X Website” is obviously a fake and thus the entire site in question is riddled with ‘shoddy journalism’. This news has turned the best of community sites (particularly general SEGA ones) to backstabbing and gossiping washerwomen. Hardly professional don’t you think? Oddly enough, I’m standing by the wayside, wondering just why the hell everyone’s out to embarrass themselves by going on some crusade to “show that they are the most trustworthy and reliable source!!!!11!one1!”

Yes… well, a word to the SEGA community sites out there – leave that dead dog to die… er, more. Trust me, the Sonic community has been there before, many years ago. Even TSS was a righteous “proper journalistic source” wannabe for a short period back in the day (despite the fact that I am, in fact, a journalist). Communities don’t survive on that. Communities survive on each other. Regardless of what you think, you’re not GameSpot or 1Up. You’re a fan community. And as such should be acting like one.

To everyone else, as an FYI to anyone interested, spoken from an actual games journalist (i.e. me, and not you):

• Making news stories that “iron out” details in spite of other websites is bad journalism and makes you look bitchy and unprofessional;
• Writing commentary and light-hearted opinion in a news article might pass for bad journalism – but only in ‘serious’ mediums. Nobody is qualified to call out such practices on a gaming blog, fansite or video gaming website which house style calls for such written prose. You don’t expect opinion in BBC News stories. You do expect opinion in video game magazine news stories. It’s all about context.
• The only thing you could assume to be true in Sonic Unleashed is that a werewolf is involved. Everything else – even TSS’ articles – can be laid to pure speculation until officially confirmed by official sources, and nothing less is accepted. It’s one thing getting a scoop, but scoops are obtained through unofficial channels, however true or false they may be.

I hope that the Internet is somewhat wiser now after reading this, and would kindly ask that everyone would just calm down and enact a little bit of humility in this torrent of undoubtedly exciting Unleashed news. The Sonic – and somewhat more SEGA community – have been acting extremely childish of the whole affair, and it’s time we put a stop to all the madness right now before somebody embarrasses themselves.

EDIT: Oh, and for some of our own SSMB members, shame on you. Can I ask all the plebs who mistook my article to go and re-read the news piece now to save some silliness. This is half the reason other websites are selfishly bitching at each other (and attacking me by default) as it is. Like I have enough on my plate as it is without some deranged fanboy yelling in my left earhole.

Whatever happened to just having fun?

You may have noticed the main site going wibbly wobbly the last few days. Well, here’s a bit of history: B’man and I are working on a new TSS that’s all fancy and has jazz hands and everything round the back here. Problem is, knowing how I am, this is going to take an age. I was kind of hoping that if I focused on just that new dynamic site, we’ll have it done quicker and then TSS updates could be worked on upon its launch. Well, it’s not likely to be finished any time soon due to many reasons, so I’ve currently turned to working my nuts off on the site as it is to make sure it’s up to date and such. That includes bringing in the new design into the current TSS system, which you can see the initial results of on any TSS page. You may have noticed I’ve bunched everything non-Game into a new section called ‘Info Zone’. It’s just easier that way. And I’ve revived the Downloads section. Enjoy.

Speaking of Downloads, look at the DefChamba. Go on. Take a peek. I’m finally getting round to finishing off the missing music. The cool thing is, I’ve re-tagged and filenamed all of these PROPERLY – DefChamba is just about the only place you’ll get Sonic music tagged with the real artist and named in a fashion that makes sense. So dive in guys. Still a way to go, but everything in the Music & Soundtracks archive are the real deal. I’m re-tagging and uploading new stuff all the time.

I’ve finally gotten round to reviewing Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. But before you go wondering what ‘definitive score’ I’ve given the game, I should let you know that I haven’t. I have brought in a new structure for reviewing Sonic games and scores no longer exist. Read it here and let me know your impressions of me reviewing in this way – I certainly feel all the more better for doing it this way, especially since walls of text put me off, and scores can change with age. If you like me reviewing in this way, I may use it for other purposes…

In other news, the SEGA Superstars Tennis website has been updated with character profiles. Back in February when I was doing some work for SEGA, that work involved writing a story for the game, as well as character profiles for everyone in the game. SEGA decided not to use the story in the end (I thought it was awesome – one day I may indulge you all in it) and the Sonic character profiles have been altered to their generic Sonic Channel ones instead, but all the other character descriptions (including the names of the special moves and descriptions) were written by yours truly. I quite like Bamboleo De Maracas. Took me a while to think of that one.

Finally, I want to update everyone on an upcoming addition to the TSS Network – we’re getting our own Sonic the Hedgehog comic. It’s by no means a rush job either – the guys behind it are very talented (some have dabbled in the STC Online comic) and the project was meant to launch some months ago, but it’s been delayed. It’s looking like soon may be the time you get to read the first edition of ‘Sonic Adventures’ as my man ‘Crystal’ has just informed me it’ll be launched this Spring. Check the Sonic News article for details.

There’s still a way to go with the site re-jig, what with all the content and info that’s passed me by for the last year or so. Along with some skin things to sort out (sorry, character skins are going to be away for a while on the main site guys). So bear with me. You can track latest game additions on the sidebar on any TSS page – I wouldn’t really trust the ‘Updates’ grid on the home page anymore. Speaking of which, the homepage is also due for a bit of a makeover, so look out for that too.

OK, I’m done talking, enjoy. Oh, and vote for Psykore. 🙂

The polls to name the mysterious race of bad guy aliens in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood are now open, so get down there and cast your vote! Read T-Bird’s Sonic News story on the event by clicking here. Here’s the kicker – some of the Sonic fan community were indeed given the chance to submit names for this race, including T-Bird/Echo Hawk (representing Sonic Wrecks) and myself and Roareye Black (representing TSS’ name submission). T-Bird and Echo suggested ‘The Gravitus‘, but I really liked another name that wasn’t used in the poll – The Anomalix. As for TSS’ name, we chose ‘The Psykore‘. P-K to da massive. Or something.

Other Sonic communities from France and Germany were involved in submitting names, and they’re… hm, well… er, that’s all we better say about that side of things really. I think BioWare went with ‘The Dusk’, but if you want my opinion, it doesn’t sound right. Especially when you look at the fully revealed creature, the Dusk just lacks punch.

But that’s my opinion and now it’s time for yours, so head to the Sonic City poll now and vote for your favourite name out of the list of possibles. This is about your own personal preference, so don’t go voting for ours just because you feel you want/have to. If our names are crap, then don’t vote them. Simple as. Although I thought Psykore was pretty cool…

You won’t break my heart really. ;P Go forth and vote! The link is in T-Bird’s Sonic News post, so use the link I just posted to get there.

Hey guys, because of all the changes we’re doing (and the work that comes with) there won’t be a Sonic Hour tonight on SEGASonic Radio. Plus, my toes are hurting; I’ve just been in an operation to have the toenails chopped off (yum, don’t read this while eating your dinner kids!) so am recovering for the next couple of weeks. It has its perks – putting my feet up and playing games isn’t that much of a raw deal in exchange. Especially as there are plenty in my collection I’ve not gotten round to completing yet.

T-TIME will be filling in on SSR though, so don’t tune out. 🙂

The changes seem to be going over quite well – there’s still some time for us to do some little tweaks to make things easier for everyone, and to help communicate the new rules in the Sonic forum better – we’ve seen a few posts that still involve people arguing about how their vision of a Sonic game is right and blah blah blah – they have been deleted on sight. If your post was a casualty (i.e. it’s not there anymore) then please do better next time kthx. Hopefully everyone will get the point soon.

And because the new Sonic forum rules kinda killed discussion of this, I’m-a put it here for some light-hearted weekend fun. A friend of mine Sam who has a website called Hoopla Net has written an article on the ‘most pointless Sonic games’. Now, most of the games here are in actual fact rubbish, so they miss the point there. But the article also features games that aren’t rubbish, but actually have just simply missed the point of Sonic. It’s a good list, personally there was an omission in Sonic Jam on the Game.com that I’d like to see burned from my memory, but that’s just me.

Read it here. Any Sonic games you feel have missed the point (not necessarily crap)?