Ch-Ch-Changes

Anyone who's even half as embroiled in Shenmue as I am will love this site. It documents in detail the visual differences between the Dreamcast and Xbox versions of Shenmue 2. Example:










The DC shot (left) shows a sign on the door to the left; while in the Xbox version (right), the sign is absent...

There are loads of others, and some are slightly more nonsensical than others (bottles in shop fridges have moved etc) - but it's still a really intriguing study of the little things Sega thought necessary to change...

...and remember to view us with Firefox - Internet Explorer fucks the 'Yard's sidebar up for some reason.

eXTREME

Mustn't talk about Shenmue. Mustn't talk about Shenmue...Oh, there you are! Come on in - I've just put the kettle on. But where to begin, eh...?

The Gagaman has provided such amazing posts over the last week that I believe it would be extremely ignorant and totally in character for me not to comment, but in recognition of the obvious effort exerted - here goes: Gagaman, "nicely done, Sir."

Just a quick bit of news though before I plough ahead with much Dreamcast related verbal diahorrea - yesterday I was roped into being an audience member for a TV gameshow called 'The Price is Right.' It's target audience is obviously grannies, dolers and students as it's aired at about 4.30 in the afternoon and as such I won't get to see myself looking like a cross between our old friend Pete Doherty and the Cheshire Cat. Why so? Because I only got about an hour's sleep the night before and been drinking heavily throughout. TV debuts: always a laugh.

But onwards and upwards. It's been a while, but today saw my first Dreamcast purchases for nearly three weeks. Here for your viewing pleasure is what I managed to get in return for a wet, screwed up fiver at my local Gamestation...

Sega Extreme Sports

Bit of a curious one this. I first played it aeons ago on a demo disc that came with the extortionatly priced Official Dreamcast Magazine (although saying that, £5 for a mag is considered reasonable these days - damn thieving media swines); and remember being slightly impressed by the sumptuous visuals. Basically, Sega Extreme Sports is like playing a triathlon but instead of running, swimming, chopping onions and grouting the bathroom (or whatever they do in a triathlon); you have to guide your remarkably stereotypical character through a series of non liner 'stages' via various modes of transport. So, you start off at the top of an obscenely steep mountain with a snowboard strapped to your feet, bomb it down the hillside and go through a checkpoint at the bottom. Then, your character will hop off the 'board and run to a quad bike (or ATV, depending on how anal you are) and scramble over the hills to the next checkpoint...and so on and so forth until you get to the finish.

It's actually rather good fun, but some sections/modes of transport are better than others e.g. the hang-gliding sections in particular are the gaming equivalent of a peaceful political protest - you never really know what's going on, where you're going or what you're meant to be doing. The aforementioned snowboarding bits are pretty enjoyable and probably could have been used to make up a full game - they're easily as good as 1080 on the N64; and the music is quite similar to that heard in Jet Set Radio (relaxed beats, man), so it's all good. The graphics possibly aren’t as good as they once seemed, and the scenery has the habit of 'morphing' into view in a slightly disturbing manner, but overall (with the exception of the hang-gliding), Extreme Sports is a pleasant little game.

6.8/10 in an EGM stylee.

You've had the Good...now prepare for the Bad and The Ugly rolled into a single ball of sheer hatred and then flattened to the size of...well, a Dreamcast GD-Rom, as luck would have it. Gentlemen, lock up your daughters - it's:

90 Minutes: Sega Championship Football

Erm. What happened here then? I've mentioned 90 Minutes in the past, but I’d only managed to play it briefly. Now I actually own it, I can confirm my earlier fears that it is one of the most broken video representations of footy I've ever seen. Pele on the Megadrive played a more convincing game than 90 Minutes, and if I remember rightly, Mean Machines Sega said that it was one of the worst games...ever. But I've jumped the gun a bit. There are loads of things wrong with 90 Minutes:

1. Playstation quality visuals (that's PSX, friends - not PS2)
2. Commentary that's so bad it's actually just plain bad (example: "The clock, 5 minutes, indicates that there are 5 minutes remaining in this, the first half..." - no, REALLY)
3. A 'dash' button that doesn't make your player run any faster (?)
4. More slowdon than a particularly busy day down at the Harbour in Shenmue (oops...!)
5. It's impossible to tackle
6. Players run through the ball

This list is exhaustive, but I'm sure you get the message.

However, the single aspect of the 90 Minutes 'experience' (an experience similar to 'The Death of A Thousand Screams') that makes me want to rip out and then devour my own small intestine, is that it was developed by Smilebit. Or at least it has their logo festooned all over the box and manual. Who?

Er...Jet Set Radio? Jet Set Radio Future? Gun Valkyrie? Panzer Dragoon Orta? Hmmm...when you consider the rest of the Smilebit family, 90 Minutes suddenly looks more like the retarded brother who is chained up in the attic.

Turd out of 5, in a CVG (Golden Years of '96-'99) stylee.


And even though I've already broken my vow not to mention Shenmue, I've got some news that just can't wait...I FINISHED IT!!! Now for part 2... :-)

Footnote: Never attempt to write a post in Word and then paste it into the blogger window. You have been warned...

Bleemcast Example clips

Three topics in a row? Two in one day? Surely I'm over doing it? Meh, I'm bored is all, and I've actually had this post planned for weeks now, and finally managed to rip the footage properly. Basically, if you have no idea what 'Bleemcast' is, check out Tom's previous posts about it here and here, as well as my Sega Freaks post about it here, before I joined this blog's staff. Get ready for an overload of YouTubes!



This first clip is of Time Crisis, which works almost perfectly. This was always a favourite of mine in the arcades back when I was about 11. The intro is all in real time so this is a great way to show how the emulator works at it's best. The only main thing that sticks out is some of the voices fluffing up, especially near the end. Also, the fact that you can't use the Dreamcast light gun on it takes away some of the fun. Oh well.



Next is Parappa the Rappa. I don't own this game properly (it's a rare one, lke a lot of the good ones are), but have a burnt copy from a torrent site to check this out, as I was told it worked well, and it does. The title screen is a bit messy, the menu's graphics are not quite right, and the cut scenes in-between levels don't play right, but the in-game stuff works perfectly, as seen here. Because all the pixelation is smoothed out, the game looks like a real cartoon almost.



This clip above is of Riddddddge Racerrrrrrrrrr: High Spec. First it plays the original mode, which runs kind of slow but perfectly playable, then the 'Turbo' made which is even slower, but runs pretty well none the less. This is one of those games you don't need a save file for either, as it's just a quick fix arcade title. It seems Namco games are the ones that work the most for Bleemcast, which is good news for me, as there games are pretty much the only ones I like on the Playstation that I can't get anywhere else.



Next up: Ridge Racer Type 4. Dreamcast nuts will remember that this was the first game Bleem showed screenshots of running on Bleemcast, and sure enough it works really well, especially in time attack. The main problem I noticed is in the Grand Prix mode, where the car engine plays up, sometimes going silent then suddenly really loud.



Rollcage also works well enough to play, but it has some problems with loading textures from time to time, and there's no sound effects at all. It also makes me feel like a casual gamer playing it, for some reason.



Finally, Driver 2. If you thought Rollcage had texture problems, check this out. It also slows down from time to time (especially when you first start up the car) and, not shown in the video, the menu's are a bit of a pain of navigate. Meh.

Well there you have it. Conclusion? Unless you already own the games on the Playstation, this is only really a novelty more than anything. What's more, Dreamcast games are far more interesting anyway, as long as you're not counting all those games they ported from the Playstation that weren’t even it’s good ones.

Virtua Fighter 4 on the Dreamcast?

Le gasp! Could it be?

No. I found these discs for download on a torrent site yesterday, and must admit it caught me by surprise. What they really are, however, is promotional discs that run on the Dreamcast, either released just before they decided to port it to the Playstation 2 exclusively, or released to rub in the fact that you would have to buy a bloody Sony console to play the next instalment, or it could just be promoting the arcade game, as it seems.

The first disc, 'History/VF4' features all the music and lots of footage from all the previous VF games (1,2,3, and Kids), including some interesting beta footage, as well as all those games music. The second half of the disc is dedicated to VF4, with movie clips, profiles and a whole lotta images. That's about it, really. Also, all the videos are played in a thumbnail rather than full screen, so you're not going to enjoy this if you have a small telly.

The other disc, 'VF4 Passport', is exactly what it sounds like: a disc you take online to view the website. That's it. Surely they could of just fit that on the other disc, rather than make a whole disc for a few web page files that take up about 10MB? Oh well, I didn't even bother burning this one as soon as I browsed through the files.

If your a Virtua Fighter nut, then this disc will probably worth the look for the early test footage (although they forgot to include footage of VF1's axed Arabian characters who was later made playable in Fighters Megamix) but over wise, don't bother.

In other news: I got another light gun and rumble pack the other day chap. Playing house of the Dead 2 with two guns is harder, but certainly just as fun. I have that Bleem topic I promised ages go on it's way.