Monday, May 23, 2011

Sega Rally UK Appreciation Hour, F-Zero, Depressing Racing Games

Here's some assorted racing game stories just for you:

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Sega Rally Online Arcade has been out for a couple of days and there's only two reviews I know of: GameSpot (7.0) and Eurogamer (8.0).  There's really no need to criticize these reviews because there's not much to say about such a small game.  Gamespot quotes "The sun is always shining in the world of Sega Rally," which is a good thing since bright, saturated environments is a given in (most) Sega games.  Eurogamer quotes, "After this and the oh-so-excellent OutRun, let's have Daytona Online Arcade, yeah?" so at least it's nice to know there's Daytona fans in higher places.  Overall, main demerits are lack of content and no online ranking systems.

It is weird how Eurogamer is more flattering towards Sega...because most of the Sega racing diehards (I know of anyway) come out of the UK.  Well, their review is good.  I like how the writer has a more personal relationship with Sega Rally outside of the Xbox 360 so that's great to hear.

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Another racing game story that you may have missed--some people at Total Video Games have tracked down ex-Amusement Vision employees at a Mario & Sonic at the London Olympics.  They got one comment out of producer Osamu Ohashi who said, "It might happen, if someone comes up with a brilliant idea that would make both Nintendo and SEGA happy..."

Now saying "might" or "I want to" just doesn't cut the mustard anymore--it really doesn't.  Yu Suzuki might work on Shenmue 3.  Yuji Naka wants to work on Dreamcast 2.  Mark Fisher (of Sega Racing Studio) said "maybe" to a new Daytona game.  Well, better to say that than an outright "no" as to not hurt your fanbase or stick your foot in your mouth should the opposite happen.  So expect ambiguous BS from your devs from now on!!!

But I do think there will be another F-Zero for this new Nintendo "Cafe" console.  And sadly, Sega & Nagoshi-San will put more effort into one of Nintendo's IP's rather than any of Sega's racing IP's.  I hope I'm wrong, but with Nagoshi running around touting that new Binary Domain game, I really question that man's sanity...

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Hey, guess what game's making a comeback?  Carmageddon.  Yeah.  A site will release an announcement on June 1.  The site is hosted by Square-Enix Europe--I mean, really?  SQUARE ENIX???  Wouldn't you like to see THEM make a new Carmageddon game?  Holy crap, that would be the end of racing games, hence the game's title.  So there you go, a new Carmageddon, I'm stoked and you should be, jk rofl.

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Also, please be sure to check out my friend Dave's blog post right here on dark-colored racing games.  He makes a good point that a lot of these racing sims like GRID and DiRT are just trying to depress you with dingy hues.  EDIT: DiRT 3 averages 9.0 on review sites, therefore engraving this idea into devs that crap "realistic" hues are good.  NEWS FLASH: If you're trying to go for "realism," then don't cause real life is "depressing" enough as it is having to get out of bed and get to work in a world full of turmoil and death.  Remember our Kotaku friend Mr. EnigmaNemesis who recently called us "color fanboys?"  Isn't the world a great place to live?  EDIT: DiRT has some color, I know.  Not as much as Sega though.

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One last thing is that I added a "Fan Stuff" label so go looking for fan stuff now!!!

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