Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Shenmue 3, Crazy Taxi, School Sucks, Et Al.

I'm really sorry that I didn't post in the last few days (especially anything Daytona/Sega related)...wasn't feeling good and something bad came up.  Turns out that I have to take more than just two English classes next semester to graduate.  Need to take one course in public speaking and one in Visual Basic.  So now I go from 6 to 12 credits/hours left.

Turns out that leading up to this point, my advisors lied about what courses I could/couldn't substitute.  "Hey, take this!"  "Wait, no, that class is useless now.  We're sorry!"  I'm taking as many as I can online--I'm not traveling anymore.  This is my tenth semester here and I'm tired of taking advice from advisors in the Computer Science department who are "100% sure" that these are the right courses for me to take.  I give up with this place.

I also beat CoD: Black Ops on Veteran.  Finally, done with that garbage.

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News:

Yu Suzuki Wants Shenmue 3 -- Ok, this is a few days old, but this is from an interview with Famitsu magazine:

"I want to make 3 with the same volume as in the past," Suzuki said. "There have actually been a lot of requests from fans for 3 as well. There were even petitions signed by by tens of thousands of people."

But it appears that the biggest issue for SEGA and Suzuki is investment. "Shenmue has the image of grand scale,"
he told Famitsu. "But making something of grand scale requires appropriate preparation."  

I don't know he was prodded into giving a positive response because the interviewer intentionally brought up the issue (what's else is he gonna say, 0% chance of Shenmue 3??).  However, I bet there's tons of Shenmue fans who are breaking down over this.  The most important part of any project is...ya know...to have a leader that WANTS to accomplish a goal.  And having a bunch of people behind you certainly gives you a morale boost.  I really don't have much to say about it because Shenmue isn't my most favorite game, but this is Sega's baby we're talking about.  Two things that I want to bring up though...

One, how much fan campaigning do we have to do to get their attention?  Like if 50,000 fans start screaming for a Shenmue 3, making , they get it?  How about Daytona fans?  Despite our "dwindling" numbers, could we produce out such an effort?  I don't know how many would be onboard since some Daytona fans are happy with their 8-player setups anyway, which is good but like the Queen song says, "I want it ALL."  I want as much Sega racing goodness in one package.  I want to knock all the Burnouts, the FnF's, the Split/Second's of the world to be knocked back on their ass by pure awesomeness.


Sega employees are people too (I think)...they probably look at the internet and stuff.  I wonder how often they look up fan sites, message boards, and stuff.  Yu Suzuki acknowledged the fans, but to what extent does he know about us?  I'd like to think that there is SOMEONE from Sega who has read this blog, but I don't know.  If I do become an employee for a game company (preferrably Sega, of course), then I'll try to get more hands-on with the community--take more time to get input and make a game that doesn't suck.  How much investigation do devs do nowadays?  They don't say.  Like a bunch of games nowadays where the devs just sit there locked in their little bunker, slaving away, game's out and it has a bunch of flaws.  That's great--wasted energy for nothing.

Throw this in here too:  If someone from Sega (in seriousness, of course) asked "Eric, please tell me what you want," I will break down EVERYTHING that I want for a Daytona game.  I'll discuss everything--the cars, the tracks, the menus, the online, whatever.  Break it down.  Talk with you guys in the Sega community too.  Fly me over in a plane over to Sega HQ in Japan (not likely, of course lol).  I'll get my hands dirty.  I'll do it because this is what I've been waiting for.  I just hope I don't get too nervous cause...uh, I don't have any actual professional game design training yet (stuck learning how to program in Silverlight and stuff ROFL).

The second thing is that Yu Suzuki says he wants to get prepared for something of grand scale.  YES, finally, people treating their games well!  Like I've said before, and this is apparent with "backbencher" devs like Sega, you rarely have more than one chance to make a game right.  Screw up and you can throw a few patches at it, but you can't redo it from the ground up.  So if Shenmue 3 comes out and it's crap, well then congratulations--you blew it, Suzuki-San.  No Shenmue 3 remake, it's sealed in history now.  But no really, take the time to make it GOOD.

Like when it comes to Daytona, I'd much prefer if Sega took years to make a great game than it would be if they gave us a port.  ANYTHING other than a sub-par game.  I tell you this--if a new Daytona game were announced, I'd sweat bullets and bite my nails more than anything.  I'd rather take NO Daytona game than a sucky one.  Yes, it's true, let the series die with HONOR than to let it live in disgrace.  Live off of old memories if we have too!  We've gotten this far with just that!  There's a lot of stake with iconic series like these, Sega.  Listen to Yu Suzuki, people.

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Crazy Taxi Now Out For PSN - Really, now it's out??  I completely lost track of this.  The Xbox 360 game's coming out Nov. 24.  I highly recommend you buy it.  I will...OBVIOUSLY.  I'll find the money somewhere.  So go buy it, really, just go buy it.  BTW, I know this version will be in Widescreen, but it will ditch the old music and logos.  Hopefully the car handling is the same...

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New Mario & Sonic Crossover Game? - I don't think I heard anyone talk about this, so don't take this too seriously.  Some 4chan "prophet" who correctly posted all the details to Sonic Colors claims there will be another crossover that some will be surprised about.  It won't be a sports game.  I mean, it was really weird to see Mario and Sonic in that Olympics game and in Brawl, but can you imagine a normal platformer with the two in it?  It'll probably be something subdued like an RPG.  Good luck trying to come up with a semi-decent plot that than combine the two...wow, the canon's gonna be all effed up now.

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A "Dreamcast Collection" At Gamestop? - It's $30 and it's stated to come out February 2011.  Gamestop pulled the item from its website because they may have released it too soon.  It sounds absurd to me though.  How many games will it have?  I'm guessing it will have Sonic and Crazy Taxi along with Space Channel 5 and Bass Fishing, although with the rate at which Sega's been porting DC games, I don't see them getting just four games out the door.  Besides, if they sell 4 games on XBLA for $40 combined, why would a hard copy be worth $30?  Good deal then!  I'd take a hard copy of these games any day, I'd tell you that.

End

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