New Sonic Adventure 2 character revealed

It's no secret that by the time Sonic Adventure 2 was released, Sega had pretty much abandoned all hope of a victory in the war against the PS2. However, this was no excuse for clearly sacking the in-house proof reader:

Rouge the Bat. Worse than all of the Chaotix characters combined

What the fuck is an echnida? And all this time I thought Knuckles was an echidna...

HD-Cast

Just a few days ago, I was a wreck. A gibbering, sweating, puss-filled mess. And for once, it wasn't down to smashing in too many cans of Special Brew down the park and shouting at pigeons. No, it was down to the state of my eyes and contrary to what some may say, It had nothing to do with the Gok Wan-style goggles the cretin at Specsavers duped me into buying (left).

You see, several months ago I invested in a quite lovely Argos own brand HD-ready LCD telly. And you know what? It's sublime. Not only can I watch infinite Freeview repeats of Top Gear and Montel Williams in pupil-eroding clarity, but I can also romp through the Galaxy as Commander Shepherd in Mass Effect in the truly magnificent Xbox 360 hi-def. There was a problem though. Playing a Dreamcast on my new telly was something of a nightmare simply because the SCART signal gave such a crappy picture.

Take this guy:

and rub this into his eyes/hands:

And you have some idea of what I had to contend with when I wanted to play on my DC.

NOT SO ANYMORE, PEEPS! After moaning about this subject in my last post, the honourable Gagaman pointed me here. Behold the majesty of Racketboy.com! A magical place that offers DC VGA cables for under twenty quid - INCLUDING postage! All the way from The New World!

I seem to remember The Gagaman preaching about his experiences with a VGA cable some time in the distant past, but it's taken till now for me to have a reason to actually buy one, and boy, am I glad I did. Plugging the DC into a VGA compatible display opens up a whole new world of visual delight - everything becomes super-sharp and the Awesome Levels(TM) go through the roof! Granted, there are a few games that don't support this (mile) high-res display mode (most disappointingly is Hydro Thunder), but you have to take the rough with the smooth, I suppose.

Click here for a game compatibility list.

So, to reiterate, the crux of the matter is this: if you own a Dreamcast and a PC - which I'm guessing you do if you're reading this, click here. Get your debit card out and buy a goddamn cable! You'll be glad you did.

One thing I really must point out though, is that the VGA cable's connection is a 'female.' If your monitor also has a female connector, you'll need to invest in a male to male VGA adapter, like I did.

Dreamcast: The Novel

You know, it's amazing the amount of bollocks you can dig up on the net if you look hard enough. And by 'hard enough,' I mean trawling Amazon for cheapo Dreamcast games. During this morning's epic journey, I happened across this little gem:

"Wow!" I thought - someone's written a hard hitting novel documenting the rise and meteoric fall of our favourite dead console! Just think - the intrigue! the espionage! the blood, sex and tears played out against a backdrop of hardcore business meetings and mass redundancies! DREAMCAST - A NOVEL!!!*

Alas, upon reading the actual synopsis...

"What really goes on behind the scenes in the mysterious world of community theatre? Dreamcast is a look at the most underpaid volunteers on the planet, those who serve the muse of live theatre in the small towns and suburbs of America."

...I came to the conclusion that it actually sounds like a load of shite.

Shame.

* Once again, I apologise for wanton over-use of apostrophies.

A Gentle Reminder: Dux and Wind and Water Puzzle Battles

For everyone who has been living without Internet access...(you know, like me). The rest of you might be sick of hearing about these games but come on!

Wind and Water.It's a fast paced puzzle game!
http://www.wind-water.net/
http://www.redspotgames.com/shop/

Dux.
It's an old school shooter!
http://www.hucast.net/
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-17-71-4-74-1uf-49-en.html

This is a very exciting time for the Dreamcast scene. Possible success for these titles may help usher in a new wave of Dreamcast Independent releases from smaller companies.

Also bear in mind that similar games with limited releases became quite the collectors items once the original run ran dry. So yeah. If you are considering spending some cash on a "current gen" game maybe you should consider investing your cash in one of these instead. It's gonna cost you about the same amount of money.

(And don't forget they still have some copies of Last Hope left at Red Spot Games. I know I am gonna grab one!)