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DreamPod Episode 12


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If you like what you hear, please consider voting for DreamPod in the final nominations for the UK Podcasters Awards for best Video Games podcast. Thanks!

11 comments:

  1. Hey guys, listened to the show today! Great as usual and i've placed my vote for the show :)

    Wanted to make a few points on what you guys were on about with the Shenmue HD topic. Firstly I know you guys are 't the buggest Shenmue fans, so maybe this doesnt feel like such a big deal to you, but you have to think, the majority of people that have been exposed to Shenmue 3 at E3 aren't going to have access to a Dreamcast and or an Original Xbox. Maybe the announcement and the great fanbase for the game turned a few heads and opened eyes to this fantastic series. How many of them do you think then went out of their way to buy a Dreamcast and pay the currently extoriante ebay prices for what is literally only a used game these days. Not many I wouldn't have thought. So for newcomers to the series, say they give the third game a chance, since the series is so story driven, how many of them will instantly understand what is happening? Even if they do some research and maybe watch the story recap shorts, it's going to be a whole load of story condensed into a massive headache for a new player. Not only would Shenmue 1 and 2 HD allow everyone to fully experience the greatness of these two games and the saga of a story that goes with them, it may also help determine the fate of the series depending on the then subsequent success of Shenmue 3.

    In theory it seems like a petty cry for something seemingly uncessary since the games are out there and still playable today, but in reality, people won't go through that amount of trouble for a game they are unsure whether they might like. You compared it to Final Fantasy and that people aren't crying for HD ports of all of those games, I think Shenmue is the exception to this rule since of how heavily story driven it is and the fact that the next game completely follows on from the last. It's like the original Star Wars movies being only available on VHS and them releasing episode 7, you wouldn't think it was unecessary to release those old films on Blueray before the 7th film came out? Imagine people never watcthing the orignally trilogy because it waa stuck to the VHS format. You got to think the last game released was 14 years ago, people that were born the same year are now 14, even people up to say the age of 6 that probably wouldnt even have been able to experience a game like Shenmue are now 20 years old. That is more than an adequate age for anyone to give a series like Shenmue a chance, but they need to get a hold of the games first and the best way for that would be to have them available on the same current console as what would feature the next game in the series.

    You also make a point that it woukd cost Sega or whatever company 6 million to make just these HD ports, with the hype and media attention, not only does it seem a viable option, i'm fairly confident that it would be more profitible now than ever before for them to do this and isnt such a crazy money sink it might seem. Sega should really have taken advantage of the oppourtunity to get a quick cash in whilst they can, and ultimately helping the series flurish for the future sequels.

    Thanks for reading these points, I hope I brought up some stuff you may not have thought about. Keep up the good work!
    James

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  2. Also sorry about some errors and typo's I wrote all that out with my iphone, i hate touchscreen keyboards!

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  3. These are all good points James. In hindsight, I think you are right about Sega missing the opportunity to re-release Shenmue for a modern audience - my annoyance was more aimed at the demanding social media attitudes. Not Shenmue itself - to the contrary, we're all fans of the series and most of backed the Kickstarter campaign. Thanks for listening and voting though, much appreciated!

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  4. They just need to re-release the original games as they are. Shenmue was VGA compatible, which means the original was 480p. This isn't "Full HD" but it does classify as "Enhanced Definition" which ticks the box of being better than standard definition. It's not in the same boat as playstation era games like Final Fantasy VII or Resident Evil, which benefit from HD upgrades. Shenmue is already close enough to HD without any further work required.

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  5. My hopes for a Shenmue / Yakuza crossover still live.

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  6. Also people could pick up the Xbox release of Shenmue 2 that had the DVD summing up Shenmue 1.

    But that is becoming more expensive as well.

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  7. A Shenmue / Yakuza crossover? Genius! Save it!

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  8. Hi there, a (fuzzy)picture of the MSR wristwatch can be found on an old review discussion of mine:

    http://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3880&start=20

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  9. We don't want a Shenmue remake but a HD version, it's two different things and SEGA owns Shenmue I&II nothing to do with Yu Suzuki if they happen or not.

    But just bring out the games in HD that's it nothing else has to be done like all the PS2 games that came to PS3 in HD.

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  10. I think project gotham racing was bought out by activison they ended the serious and made blur which is multi platform, so no more metropolis street racing or project gotham racing

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  11. I remember seeing the guys from bizarre rations at a Brit meet I Hartford and they brought a demo of the next game with them. Good times

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