Showing posts with label Rez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rez. Show all posts

Staff Picks: Top 21 Dreamcast Games

With our 2022 Top 200 Dreamcast Games poll coming to a close at the end of March, coinciding with the 21st anniversary of our beloved console’s discontinuation (I would say RIP but she is very much still alive and kicking, if you've been paying attention to anything we've been reporting on in the last few years!), I thought it was time for a peek into the minds of the staff here at The Dreamcast Junkyard. What did WE vote as our top ten Dreamcast games, and how does that look when compiled into a list? Well, let's find out shall we?

Along with myself, I asked Tom, Mike, Brian, Lewis, Kev, James H, James J, Mark and Rich to list their ten favourite Dreamcast titles in order. I took these and did what I seemingly love to do now as I approach my forties - I made a spreadsheet! Everyone's top picks received a score of 10, 2nd place got 9, and so on. I then employed some magic formulas to tally up the totals to give us a definitive top 21 games, using the number of times a game was voted for as a tie-breaker where necessary.

The end result is very interesting! We think there's something here for everyone, and if these were the only games in your collection most people would be pretty happy! There are some surprises, and a few things that, if you've ever listened to the DreamPod, you will not at all be surprised about. 

I'll link you to the spreadsheet itself at the end of this article so you can see the full list of games and how everyone voted, for your agreement or ridicule, but first let us count down these games from last to first. Our first entry is the only joint entry, seeing three games share 19th place...

19. Blue Stinger, San Francisco Rush 2049 & Spirit of Speed 1937 (Joint)

A trio of titles start us off, a couple of which often split the opinion of fans. One thing they all have in common? A commitment to a particular time. Blue Stinger takes place in the year 2000, so each represents a very different era, though released within a short space of each other in reality. Let's hear what some of the team had to say about these games.

Upon its release, Blue Stinger was widely misunderstood and critically dismissed under the umbrella of its survival horror contemporaries. In the decades since, it has emerged a cult classic in its own right. Blue Stinger is Shinya Nishigaki and Climax Graphics' endearing homage/parody of Hollywood action and sci-fi cinema, and it plays wonderfully as a B-movie beat-em-up today. - Brian on Blue Stinger

Rush 2049 embodies everything an arcade racer on Dreamcast should be. It looks great, the tracks are full of inventive shortcuts and hidden nooks and crannies, and the actual racing is tight and exciting. A true Midway game that doesn't take itself too seriously, Rush 2049 is easily one of the best racers on the platform. - Tom on Rush 2049

Spirit Of Speed 1937 is the Dark Souls of racing games. The sad truth is that 99% of people won't play it long enough to experience where its strengths really are. It's a true to the era racer which rewards forward thinking and careful driving - something sim racers will appreciate. - James H on Spirit of Speed 1937

18. Rez

Art? Hacking? No this isn't the latest goings-on over at OpenSea, but instead best encapsulates Rez (besides, this is actually nice to look at). Tetsuya Mizuguchi's rail-shooter may have been minimalist on visuals, but it was heavy on trance beats and addictive gameplay. A gem in the Dreamcast's library and its influence is still felt to this day. - Rich

17. Jet Set Radio

Ahead of it's time in so many ways, Jet Set Radio is held up as one of the shining beacons of unfettered creativity that the Dreamcast is so well known for. From its art style to its music, its gameplay to its reverence for hip-hop and Japanese street culture, JSR is a masterclass in what a video game can be. This is Sega at their most zany, but in the best possible way. Strap on your in-line skates and grab that spray paint can, it's time to get funky! - Andrew

The original Rez website has been fully restored

We love a story with a happy ending here at the Junkyard, and this one fits right in with that philosophy. Remember Rez? Of course you do. It's that psychedelic shooter with the wireframes and the flashing lights and the thumping soundtrack. You know the one. It's quite good too, apparently. Anyway, in the name of digital preservation and the fight to stop the internet simply becoming a portal to Facebook and YouTube, one man has taken it upon himself to resurrect the original Rez website. Well, the 2001 iteration, anyway.

That man is Brian Hargrove, and as described in his semi-viral tweet on the matter, he somehow managed to acquire the United Game Artists domain and restore the site to its former glory, with all of the content intact:

Naturally, wanting to know more we reached out to Brian to ask what the story was here - skin care products? What's all that about then? Brian explained in his own words:

"I don't think the domain was held captive or anything, just never really used since 2003. After UGA was transferred to Sonic Team in late 2003, the site went down. I have no way of telling if registry ownership changed over the years, but there was an attempt at one point to make a WordPress blog, then it turned into some kind of skin care information site. 

"I knew I had always wanted to pick up the domain and at least restore the Rez homepage. I would check every few years, taking note of the domain expiration date on a Whois lookup. Every time it expired, I was never able to purchase it. Until 2020.

"Early in 2020 I checked the Whois and did see that it was expected to expire in November. So I made a note in my calendar to check back. November rolls around and this time I try Godaddy's expired domain auctions, and it was actually there! The owner finally let it expire and I knew it would probably be my only chance save it. I won the auction and collected all the site backups from Archive.org

"With a Linux utility, I was able to bulk download multiple years of the backup directly from Archive. The majority of the files were recoverable, with only a few images missing. I was able to restore it to what it was right before the site went down."

- Brian Hargrove

It's a pretty cool story, and definitely qualifies as what we like to call a labour of love. So what can you do with the Rez website? Well, you can read upcoming 2001 news, look at screenshots, download assets and do pretty much anything you could with a website from 2001. 

It's worth noting that the site predominantly features the later PlayStation 2 release of Rez along with the Trance Vibrator (and it's curious that the Dreamcast release of Rez is seemingly absent), but seeing as Tetsuya Mizuguchi's masterpiece is a game that's more synonymous with the Dreamcast, we thought it was worth sharing Brain's work here.

If you would like to see first hand how the superb Rez holds up on more modern systems, be sure to check out the official Rez Infinite site too.

To Dream of Love: More Music of Rez

Much has been said about Rez here at the ‘Yard. Some don’t rate the game that highly, thinking it is either boring, or too simple. To me, that simply means that you do not “get” it. When you get it, Rez is like nothing else I have ever played. Well, perhaps WipEout is about as close as it has gotten for me. The reason I say this is the fusion between the “race” or challenge, the gameplay inputs, the visuals, and the music. To play Rez properly is to wear some bloody good headphones, and dedicate yourself to its gameplay. You can’t appreciate Rez if you have the sound low, off, or simply have a “5 minute bash”. Rez is more of an experience.

Rez went through a lot of changes in development (see video below), but the leaked beta is extremely close to the final game (though it's got a higher difficulty level).



I’ve yet to play Rez Infinite on PSVR, but one is on its way to me as I write. However, I do have the game on Xbox 360 and enjoyed playing through and completing it multiple times. I consider myself nowhere near an expert at the game, but definitely feel I am very well connected with it. When I see people write “it’s boring” or “it’s overrated” then to me, they simply don’t get it. It’s gone over their head. That’s fine. Though putting such things to the page makes me sound like an elitist prick (the data is still coming in on that), to say that I am more invested in Rez than the average gamer would be a fair comment. Most of my posts for the ‘Yard have been on the subject of the game; I have a copy of “Vibes”, the prototype beta of Rez:
So, why am I, once again, writing about this legendary game? It’s because yesterday I put on an album I haven’t listened to in ages; Second Toughest In The Infants, by Underworld. I was taken back into the game. 


Dream Trance Rez Vibrator Video Review

The PlayStation 2 famously received a small and slightly odd peripheral in the form of the Rez Trance Vibrator, which was a small USB-powered block that would pulse and shake in time with the music while playing Tetsuya Mizuguchi's psychedelic masterpiece. Sadly, the DC was already in a body bag by the time the Trance Vibrator hit, so nothing of the sort was ever released for it.
Until now, that is. Fellow DCJY member Scott Marley (aka Sega Retro's Doc Eggfan) has created the world's first - and only - Dreamcast Rez vibration unit, Dream Trance...and he sent it to me to review. Please note that the Dream Trance only really mimics the functions of a standard Dreamcast rumble pack and doesn't vibrate in time with the game music, but it's a cool little device and demonstrates what can be achieved with a little imagination and technical know-how. Here's the video:

1080p is available from the video options menu

As stated, there's only one Dream Trance unit in existence at the moment - the one in the video. However, if people wish to own their own Dream Trance, please let us know in the comments and we'll see what we can do with regards to making them a reality for other Rez fans.
You can also find Ross's Rez Infinite first look mentioned in the video above by visiting this link.

Rez Infinite Coming To PS4

Rez is one of the Dreamcast's most iconic titles and the blend of trippy visuals and great music mean it is still a favourite with many gamers. The game has been re-released several times since the Dreamcast original in 2001, with PlayStation 2 and HD remakes but now Tetsuya Mizaguchi's musical shooter is heading to the PlayStation 4 with full 1080 HD visuals and VR support. Check out IGN's video below of the Rez Infinite reveal at the recent PlayStation Experience press conference.
It is quite ironic that after all this time, we are still seeing titles that started on the Dreamcast being brought to a new audience in 2015. You can read more about Rez Infinite at the PlayStation Europe blog here. Also, thanks to Ted for the heads up on this.

Breaking The Bank

The rising cost of hardware and software is something that affects us all as gamers – the latest console offerings from both Microsoft and Sony are out of the financial reach of a lot of people (me included), and while Nintendo’s latest system is cheaper than both the Xbox One and PS4, the Wii U will still leave a hole the size of £200 in your pocket if you decide you need Mario Kart 8 in your life (and from what I've played of it, that means everyone). But as I stated in a recent article/rant on emulation, the high price of gaming certainly isn't limited to the contemporary formats – retro-gaming and collecting is rapidly becoming a big business and the prices that some games, systems and memorabilia command can be pretty eye-watering. As an avid Dreamcast collector, I’m only too aware that Sega’s final system is no different to many others in that there are certain hardware variants that are way out of the budget range of most average gamers – look at the prices a Treamcast or a Divers 2000 fetch on eBay, if indeed they ever surface. However, I’m going to talk about a slightly different aspect of this subject in this post: software. More specifically, which Dreamcast games are the ones that will leave your bank account looking anorexic if you do decide to take the plunge? Please note that I’m only really looking at PAL releases here and I don’t actually own legitimate retail copies of any of the games on this list as I refuse to pay the ridiculous sums required, but I thought it would be interesting to have a look at some of the more expensive Dreamcast games out there…

Rez sequel announced: Child of Eden

Until I finish my Ph.D, my posts will remain few and far between. Sorry for the hiatus, but I fully intend on posting some high quality stuff once I am finished.

Anyway, in addition to the other news from E3, it's worth broadcasting this little snippet of information: Mizuguchi Tetsuya, the mind behind the amazing synesthesia-based Rez (and betaK-Project), showcased his new game at E3; Child of Eden.

Those of you that have played Rez will remember that the AI in Rez is actually called "Eden" and is actually personified as the image of a woman that you must rescue from numerous computer firewalls and other defence systems (man this game is a geek's vision!).

The new game makes use of Microsoft's Kinect system for the XBOX 360, but can also be played with the use of standard controllers. If there was ever a game to sell me on the idea of waving my arms around whilst stood in the lounge listening to trance music during a never ending computer visualisation, this is it.

The idea seems familiar to those of use that know Rez; take control within the computer and 'clense' (some say shoot) the area, which in turn progresses the musical score of the game. Quite novel stuff really. Personally, I think that much as NiGHTS was destined to be played on the Wii, Rez is destined to be played using the Kinect. At least, it has me partially sold on the idea!

Here's a couple of videos for your viewing pleasure. Please turn up your speakers and relax!





E3 News Roundup


Who knew that ten years after the launch of the Dreamcast, we'd have an E3 filled with Dreamcast releated goodies? The first of these bits comes from nuckles87, the SEGAbits E3 representative:

E3 2010: Crazy Taxi Hands-On

Aside from Shenmue and, perhaps, Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi is the most iconic franchise the Dreamcast every produced. So it comes as no surprise that the original game has joined Sonic Adventure as one of the first games in the Dreamcast revival SEGA is now pushing. Everyone here knows how the game plays: you play a taxi driver who drives people to far away locations in ridiculously short amounts of times, throwing every traffic law to the wind in the hopes of getting the largest fair possible from the customer.
Click here to read the rest

The second bit of news involves sequels to two great Dreamcast games: REZ and Hydro Thunder. The upcoming sequel to REZ isn't so much a sequel as it is a spiritual successor. Different name, different publisher, sure. But Tetsuya Mizuguchi (REZ, Space Channel 5) is behind it and many of REZ's elements are in place. Check out the awesome demo below featuring Mizuguchi playing the game via the 360's Kinect controller:



As you can see in the video, one hand is your gun. A grabbing motion pulls in ammo, and the player can throw it out at enemies for a blast attack. Clapping hands switches guns and your other hand fires the Vulcan cannon and auto-fires shots. The controls are definitly a step above the trance vibrator and looks to be a lot of fun! Child of Eden's release is TBA and will be hitting the 360 and PS3.

Next up is Hydro Thunder Hurricane, the sequel to the Dreamcast launch title. Check out the trailer below for old memories with stunning new graphics:



This sequel/remake will be hitting the 360's downloadable marketplace this summer!

Finally, I saved the best for last! I'll leave you with a quote from President of SEGA West Mike Hayes. When asked how many Dreamcast titles we can expect to have on XBLA and PSN by next summer, Mike replied:

We hope to have somewhere between 18 to 24. Around that.

 Nice.

Rez - The Core

Hello world. I was recently contacted by a fellow by the name of Tjerk Otten about his Rez inspired, abstract short film on Youtube.

In his words:

"The story on this trailer is about humanity trying to hack into creation itself.
We try to unravel the great mystery of life itself all the time. We are creations on our own and
we try to expand our lifecycle in many different ways and try to know the human itself."

Tjerk is a self confessed Rez nut, and this is quite evident in 'The Core.' Wanna see what he's on about, fellow Dreamcaster? Cast your eyes downward and all will be revealed:



It's best viewed in HD and full screen, so if like me you have to rely on a pathetic mobile broadband dongle with equally pathetic GPRS connection, you could be waiting the best part of a decade for the whole thing to load...but it's worth the wait.

Rez

I was reading a review of Panzer Dragoon Orta for the XBOX (thinking about picking up a copy for my 360) when it mentioned the excellent Dreamcast (and PS2, 360) shooter, Rez.

It picks up about £40-50 on eBay these days, and there's a good reason why. It's fantastic. It's mental. I've never done acid (shame on me), but the guys that made this must have been (shame on them). And you probably want to (shame on you).

Pictures don't do it justice, so here's a youtube video of someone caining it. Rez that is. Area 5 - starting somewhere in the middle...



Oh, I made a wallpaper too, you can download it by clicking here.Preview below:


EDIT: Also check out this interview with one of the members of the team that brought you Rez and Space Channel 5 here!

X-box Live arcade gets some updated Dreamcast goodness.



See that picture?

The cat represents the X-box 360.

The corn represents Dreamcast games like Rez and Ikaruga.

As you can see the X-box 360 is really enjoying the Dreamcast goodness. And I am sure gamers will too.

...Ok fine. I just wanted an excuse to post that .gif. But really a HD edition of Rez and an updated version of Ikaruga are being released on X-box Live. Rejoice.

-Articles linked from Kotaku.

EDIT: Racketboy has a much better article up about this that I somehow missed before. Go. Read. It.

Btw: One of these games (Rez) was mentioned in an article that Gagaman(n) wrote awhile back. Of course he said it should be remade for the Wii, not the 360. Still I think 1/2 points should be awarded.