Edit Edit: It’s cloud gaming for arcades… hardly setting the world on fire there Sega, are you? No benefit to the consumer, and would make games harder to archive, so this announcement is actually bad news…
Naturally, this got everyone, myself included, curious as to what it actually is. What could it possibly be? I have 2 theories
It’s not going to be a new Sonic game, or a revival of an old franchise. None of that is groundbreaking enough, is it?
So I’ll get the most depressing out of my 2 theories out of the way, and that is Sega announces that they got bought out by someone like Microsoft or Nintendo, which I think would be a disaster. Microsoft will make them a laughing stock and reduce them to nothing, like they did Rare, and Nintendo is very stingy with their copyrights, fan games, ROMHacks, etc…
With that out of the way, now for the other theory: The first thing people are going to think is that it’s hardware related, but Sega just don’t have the resources to do that any more, and even if they did, they’re hardly the juggernaut they once were. Sega barely make games any more, and most of their money come from Pachinko machines.
But who says they would do it alone? I think it’s possible that they teamed up with another console maker or something.
Like Microsoft, whose consoles never sell in Asia, and especially not in Japan. It would make sense for Sega to team up with Microsoft, and place the Sega brand for the Xbox Series X in Japan, wouldn’t it? The Sega Series X has a nice ring to it, too, I think!
Sega would so, by extension, make games exclusively for the Series X, and maybe this is an opportunity for Sega to rebuild their company to the state it was at the Saturn and Dreamcast days.
Indeed, there is a rumour going around that supports my theory, or at least, is in the same ballpark!
I would personally love to see this, and would even pay to import the Sega model from Japan, or wherever it would be released, even if the console is the same internally!
However, if we apply Occam’s Razor, it could just be overhyped, and Sega didn’t have anything big planned to begin with, or Sega, and the journalist reporting it, overestimated how big it will be.
So what do you think? I guess leave a comment blog and tell me your thoughts.
So I finally got to play Shenmue III, a game I’ve been anticipating since I played the first 2 in the 2000s.
After deciding to just get the game on PS4 instead of getting a refund after their Epic Game Store controversey, my Kickstarter copy being shipped a week after launch.
Even then, all I got was a flimsy slipcase that only had a logo on front, and nothing on back, and a DLC that was only 1MB big. (Shows how much Deep Silver cares about the Kickstarter backers, huh?)
So I popped it in and played it for 5 miunutes.
I actually really enjoy it.
It plays almost exactly like the first 2 games, but with better controls, thanks to finally having a 2nd analog! QTEs also seem to be gone!
Then I found out a lot of people people are shitting on the game, and I just don’t understand why.
For the record, I understand that people are entitled to their opinion. Shenmue isn’t for everyone, it’s slow paced and very story focused, but the way people are going about, it feels like they’re trying to make it sound objectively bad. Here’s an interesting fact:
People can enjoy things you don’t. People have different tastes.
I know, it’s shocking! It’s a lot to take in, I understand. Want a minute to sit down and think about it? Okay, I’ll be here when you let it soak in.
In all seriousness, I think if you’re saying that the game is boring, you’re not it’s target market.
A lot of people compare the series to Yakuza, and on the surface, that makes sense, as both were published by Sega and both are RPG-like games that take place in Japan, but the deeper I look at both series, the more I find it isn’t really far. (Especially if we’re comparing the Dreamcast Shenmue to the PS2 Yakuza, both are barely even remotely identical!)
It’s like the equivalent of comparing a visual novel to an arcade beat-em-up, solely on the premise that both are set in the same country in the same decade.
Both games serve different purposes and appeal to different markets.
Yakuza is more focused on action and outlandishness, whereas Shenmue focuses more on story and immersion.
Both games have elements from the other. Yakuza has a good story, and Shenmue has some fun beat-em-up segments, but ultimately, as much as I enjoy both series, I don’t really think they can be compared.
So why do I enjoy Shenmue 3? Well, it’s for the reasons many don’t. It’s slow paced, you’re exploring the in-game world, being able to interact with literally everything and progressing a big story. You do jobs to pay for things like capsult toys and to play games.
You’re essentially living life in a different world. In the past, in another country.
I’ve always wanted to see Japan, but to see it in the 80s! Count me the fuck in!
As well as just being fun, I enjoy games for their plot. They provide an interactive story, which gives you more immersion, and I think Shenmue provides exactly what I’m looking for, plus the added realism gives me more oppurtunity to immerse in the world it provides.
So I decided to play Sonic Adventure again some weeks back, and this time, complete the entire thing.
I decided to play the game on Dreamcast as opposed to the PC port, which I also have, because I want the original experience, and plus I’d much prefer using the Dreamcast controller than the Xbone’s.
For those not in the know, somehow, Sonic Adventure was a Dreamcast launch title in North America and PAL regions in 1999, originally a Saturn game, moved to the Dreamcast after the Saturn was declared “not their future”, and is essentially a 3D Sonic with overworld segments.
So I’ve been thinking recently about the Dreamcast, thanks to the 20th anniversary celebrations, and wondered: What would have happened if the Dreamcast didn’t die. Could it have kept up with the other next gen machines, and if so, for how long?
I’ve been having some discussions about this from both Sega and Sony fans, and figured it’ll be fun to talk about it here.
Now at first glance, looking at the specs of both machines, the PS2 looks almost better in every way.
Hmm, something seems off here, right? Apparently, the PS2 is almost 7 times as powerful as the Gamecube…
That’s because the PS2 and Xbox numbers are innacurate. In short, they didn’t actually test the systems, just made estimates. I’ll quote the PDF itself to explain in more detail.
We’re unable to accurately compare the specifications for the below consoles because the method the companies used to measure performance are so different. Sony and Microsoft’s numbers are unrealistic and denote the raw (read: not real) performance of their respective systems, while Nintendo’s and Sega’s numbers are based on real performance during gameplay. With that said, the figures you see are just smoke and numbers. We refer you to compare the actual games.
Here’s the full version of the chart above:
GameCube: 6 to 12 million polygons per second (conservative, but realistic estimate)
PlayStation 2: 75 million polygons per second (realistically first-gen games are more like 3-5 million)
Xbox: 150 million polygons per second (does not consider real gameplay environments)
Dreamcast: Roughly 3 million polygons per second
You’ll find similar numbers all across the internet, this PDF was just a nice concise way of displaying them.
Fun fact, the record for the highest polygon count of the generation actually belongs to the a Gamecube game: Star Wars Rogue Squadron II, which is rendered at 20 million polygons a second!
Anyway, I noticed something interesting here, the PS2’s launch titles shown that the PS2 was capable of 5 million a second, only marginally more powerful than the Dreamcast. In fact you had Dreamcast games also pushing 5 million a second by 2000. Le Mans 24 Hours, or Test Drive Le Mans in America, was one of them.
So we’ve established that, at least when the PS2 launched, both systems were roughly as good as one another, but that isn’t the main focus of this article, is it? The article is about if the Dreamcast could have survived beyond that.
It’s fair to assume that because the numbers on the PS2 specs are much higher, the Dreamcast would lag behind, and I would certainly agree that eventually that would happen, but I think the first few years would have been a totally different story.
If anyone studying gaming history would have figured out, is that specs aren’t everything. No point in having all of that power if developers can’t access it, right?
If you compared the 3DO to the Jaguar, the Jaguar looks to be the more powerful system, but games looked better on the 3DO. You’ll also see this with the PS1 vs Saturn, and Xbox 360 vs PS3. That’s because the former systems were far easier to develop for, so developers could push more out of them.
As it turns out, we see a similar case here. The PS2 was reported to be frustrating to program for, while the Dreamcast was pish easy. If both systems were given equal attention and games were developed for both, this would have given the Dreamcast the advantage.
Focusing on Xbox 360 vs PS3, we see a similar scenario. PS3 is more powerful, but hard as nails to program for. (I don’t think the PS2 is quite as difficult, but still) As a result, I’d say up until 2010, multiplatform games were better on Xbox 360, they fan faster and looked clearer. Developers such as Gabe Newel even ranted about how frustrating the PS3 was to work with!
I can imagine the same happening to these 2 systems. I mean it took your average 3rd party PS2 game until like 2004 to finally outdo what the Dreamcast could have done.
So what about the games that were available on both systems? Well, they seem to support my theory. Dead or Alive 2 looks better on the Dreamcast. The only thing the PS2 has going for it is that the cutscenes are 60fps, vs 30 on the Dreamcast.
Rayman 2 is a game that, in my opinion, is far better on Dreamcast. It runs at 60fps, and supports VGA and widescreen, The PS2 version is enhanced graphically, but only runs at 25fps and as far as I know, only supports an interlaced picture. (could be wrong, though). However, the PS2 has some enhancements that some players may prefer, and that’s totally fair. I just don’t think it was anything the Dreamcast could have also done.
With Quake 3, the Dreamcast version has superior texture quality and better effects such as shininess. Whereas the PS2 version allows more players and bots in a game.
There are examples of the PS2 outdoing the Dreamcast, though, such as NBA 2k2.
Unreal Tournament had unstable framerates on both, but the PS2 version was locked at 30fps, whereas Dreamcast could go up to 60fps.
Other games, such as Ready to Rumble Round 2 and NBA Hoopz, look absolutely idential on both.
So we can see that in general, both systems had their ups and downs, but it looked like Dreamcast versions had the upper hand most of the time.
Another thing to take into account is if the least powerful system is the most popular or at least relevant enough, multiplatform games will centre around that and just port to other machines. The Gamecube and Xbox were never pushed to their limits because of this.
So how do I think the Dreamcast would have faired? I hear nobody ask.
Well, I think in the early 2000s, the Dreamcast would have had better versions of games, though inferior to the Gamecube and Xbox. Then by, say 2004, it will hit a wall. Developers have pushed everything they could out of it, in which case, the PS2 would gradually overtake it.
By then, the PSP will have come out, which has similar specs to the Dreamcast in terms of what developers were allowed to use at the time. (It was only in 2010 where developers were allowed to fully utilise the PSPs power) So it would be likely that the Dreamcast would have then be receiving PSP ports at that point.
By then as well, it would have been likely that Sega will have also came up with a successor console anyway, so either way, it wouldn’t matter.
Anyway, I hope you guys had as much fun reading this as I did writing this. I might do more articles like this in the future.
This post is available in both English and Scots, Scots version is further down.
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This is just a quick blog post to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the European Dreamcast launch.
This was a console I never had as a kid. I went straight from PS1 to PS2 (Shoot me), but getting a Dreamcast years later, hearing all of the love people have for it years later and hearing the sad story of how it got defeated by the PS2 really badly, (and some argue, unjustifyably) I absolutely love it, and is to this day my favourite console.
It has so many amazing games for it. My favourites being Shenmue, Jet Set Radio, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, Crazy Taxi 1 & 2 and Chu Chu Rocket.
Not to mention all of the amazing enhanced ports the console had. Hydro Thunder and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 are still best played on the Dreamcast. (I’m not counting 2X, as that never got a PAL release)
The console’s online features sounded exciting and thanks to devices like the DreamPi, you can use them again!
The controller was great, too, not many liked it, but I did. The form factor fir great in my hands and I love the little screen on the controllers.
In short: I think it is. For those who just wanted to know that, you can now piss off.
For those who want to know what brought me to that conclusion, I suppose I can give you a backstory.
I used to have a PS1 back in the day, and I loved it. There were so many great games for it. The 3D aspect was mindblowing coming from the Mega Drive!
When I got into retro gaming, I naturally went back to the PS1. Those wobbly textures have a charm to them that you can’t recreate with modern games!
So I decided to expland into other retro consoles of that generation, and I got a Saturn, then an N64, then a Dreamcast.
Over time, I found myself playing those way more, and my PS1 was just collecting dust.
It seems I’m not alone. People my age seem to rave on about those consoles more than the PS1. Look at any meme about the 90s, and 9 times out of 10, you’ll see a reference to the N64 there.
Dreamcast obviously has it’s huge fanbase, and the Saturn has a dedicated one, too.
But the PS1 seems completely forgotten. Sure, you have some guys, such as myself, recalling memories of it, but generally, people seemed to have just moved on and don’t pay any attention to it. At least this is from my experience.
This is all despite the fact the PS1 sold about twice as many consoles as the other 3 combined.
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? From playing all of the consoles, almost on a regular basis, I can give you my reason for doing this myself.
The PS1 just feels… bland. Lifeless. Almost corporate.
The library seems quanity over quality. Absolutely it has it’s classics, but a big percentage of those weren’t even exclusive, and most of the time, in my opinion, the PS1 version wasn’t even the best.
Wipeout is also available on Saturn and PC.
Wipeout 2097/XL is also available on Saturn and PC.
Croc is also available on Saturn and PC.
Destruction Derby, you guessed it, also on Saturn and PC.
Destruction Derby 2 was also on PC, and a Saturn port was in the works, but cancelled.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was also on N64 and Dreamcast.
Pro Skater 2 was also on N64, Dreamcast, and PC. (There was also 2X on Xbox, but that never got released here)
Final Fantasy VII was also on PC.
Metal Gear Solid was also on PC.
Bugs Bunny Lost in Time and Sheep, Dog n’ Wolf were also on PC.
See where I’m getting at?
Don’t get me wrong, the PS1 has some absolute classics to call it’s own, such as the Crash Bandicoot games, the Spyro trilogy, Klonoa, Wip3out and Ape Escape. I’m not holding anything against those, I love those games! It also has Bubsy 3D… I guess?
But outside of those, the PS1 feels like it hasn’t got anything truly outstanding to offer.
I also respect that the same could be said for the Sega Saturn, many of it’s games were also on PC, but at least those Saturn games had multiplayer that was harder to achieve on PC, so there was a reason to own the games on Saturn, if you had one. Most of the PS1 games listed were singleplayer only.
The other consoles felt like they had personality to them, like you go to one of them to play a specific type of game.
Whereas the PS1 feels like it’s just a generic for everyone console, it lacks such personality.
I’m not knocking the PS1 at all, mind you, I still think it’s a great console, just overshadowed by almost every other console that generation.
I played through my brother’s Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 story, the one he was creating using entirely goals made from the Create-A-Goal feature in the game… for something that was created out of the blue in 2 days using something that basically made things like character development or actual story events impossible, it’s actually pretty good. In my opinion. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m going to start this off with an experience I’ve recently had with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 for the PS4, which I got for Christmas. I found out that the game has this awesome feature where you can play career mode and you see other players playing through career mode as well, and some goals/missions you can even player co-op! It was pretty awesome, and a lot of fun. I got a PS plus trial just to do this basic, and not needed feature. Now that trial has run out, and now I have to fork out £4 a month or pay £15-£40 upfront to do this…
Seriously, Sony, what the f*ck? What happened to free online play? That was a massive advantage the PS3 had over the Xbox 360! The PS Vita even has free online-play, so why doesn’t the PS4?!
Apparently the reason is because they needed to compensate for their new flashy features they added such as watching other people play games or even streaming a game onto your console if someone else is playing and you want to, and also things like online cloud storage… okay, but what about people who only want to play online and don’t care about those features? They would be paying for sh*t they aren’t going to use!
I could understand back in the late 90s and very early 2000s where the Dreamcast and Xbox did this, because it was a new thing, and I’m guessing doing things like that was expensive, because you needed servers dedicated to the console, I guess, but by the time online play became more mainstream, it seemed like an obsolete idea. The PS2, Gamecube (whatever games it had online), PS3, Wii and Wii U all had free online, and the guys behind them were doing just fine financially, so why would it be needed now?!
Again, all I would want to do is use this cool feature on THPS5, but I have to pay for game streaming, live let’s play features and cloud storage just to do this?! I’m never going to use any of those features!
I remember when this thing was first announced, my friend, who previously had a 360, reacted to it like it was no big deal. I’m guessing because he was used to it…
That’s probably why Sony did this, they new thanks to the controversy with the Xbox One at the time, many 360 owners were moving to Sony, so they saw money in this, and decided to treat them as sh*t as Microsoft did for money!
Smart? Maybe, but that doesn’t make it good, though!
Let’s imagine a scenario where you can to pay some guy “protection” money, otherwise, he gets to batter you with a baseball bat. This goes on for years, and maybe the original guy stops this for one reason or another (e.g. he dies or got arrested), and then another guy jumps in and does the same thing. You’d be used to that treatment by then, does that make this behaviour okay? No, of f*cking course it doesn’t!
“But PS Plus is a good deal!” Not when you HAVE to pay for it for something unrelated to why it’s a good deal!
I’ll create another scenario for this argument, but I’ll tell this story differently, try to imagine you enter a shop because you are away from home and need the toilet. (You probably already see where this is going…)
“Hey,” you say to the cashier, “Can I use your toilet? I’m bursting!”
“Would you like to buy this deal we have going on where if you purchase this bottle of Mountain Dew, you get a free bag of Doritos!”
“No thanks, I just need to go to the toilet.”
“Well, you need to get this deal, otherwise, you can’t use the toilet.”
“What the f**k?! No! F**k off!”
“Well, I’m afraid you can’t use our toilets, so you can either leave the store or I’m calling the police!”
…Okay, both of those analogies are a little extreme, as online play in of itself isn’t a mandatory human right (Unless the internet access thing that was added to the list of human rights count!), and the consequences aren’t that extreme, but I got my point across, right?
Bottom line, paying for online is not needed! You’re a greedy piece of sh*t if you charge for it! F*ck you Sony, and f*ck you Microsoft! I’m not giving youse a penny for online play! *sigh*, I wish they still made the Call of Duty games or THPS5 for Wii U…
It’s that time of the month again, where I need to get something off of my (mostly) hairless chest (better there than my head), and this time I am going to be ranting about games that use checkpoint, and use them sparingly, and especially those who defend it over quicksaves/quickloads.
I will be mostly talking about Shooters, where this problem is the most affected, genres like platformers and sidescrollers don’t seem to be as badly affected by this problem.
I have played many games, and a lot of them are shockingly PC games, that use checkpoints, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they are few and too far between. It’s p*ssing me off! These games are really frustrating, hair-tearingly merciless! I’ve played many games that would’ve been otherwise fantastic, ruined by sparse checkpoints, I can maybe understand (older) consoles games using checkpoint, but many PC games nowadays do this as well! Read the rest of this entry »
I have finally finished a game series, and thus stars a new series I am doing! Retrospectives!
Well okay, this series was only 3 games long, but it’s still an achievement, at least it is for me.
So as you could probably guess, I have been delving into the Soldier of Fortune games, and now that’s I have completed all 3, I’ll give youse my thoughts on them here, starting with, of course, Call of duty! …Er, I mean Soldier of Fortune, the first game…
Cobra!'s Retro Room 