VOTE FOR DLC AND FOOTBALL MANAGER!!!

Stop right there, you must read this or your family, friends, and pets will die in a fire:

I'll set you a challange. Without any policing from the SUMO or SEGA crew, if you can all agree on three characters by the 1st of December and prove there is sufficient interest of at least 1000 unique people *per* character, I will present the result to SEGA. I can't promise anything will happen as a result, but since you're starting it... - DarthS0L

EDIT: The means for character voting has changed.  GO TO THIS THREAD and there are links to petitions for each character.  Pick the characters you want, sign 'em, and that's it!  You can sign as many petitions as you want.  Here's Ryo's petition.  And Segata's petition.  Look, you don't even need to make a Sega message board account anymore to vote.  Just go there, it takes 15 seconds and you'll do us all a favor!!!

I personally petitioned for the elusive Daytona USA 2 transformer, made up of the Scorpio Car, the Chums Gum Boat, and the Phantom Jet.  What...Daytona 2 needs some love too?  And Scud Race.  And Sega Rally.  Damn Hornet steals all the attention.  Too bad my idea didn't go through.

But THERE'S MORE SECRET CHARACTERS!  These characters are on the disc but they had to be hacked to get the videos you see here.  There's only twenty-three slots on character select screen.  Wait, are these guys platform exclusives or are they on-disc DLC?  If they are DLC, why Sumo, why???  Well, you paid $40 for the game, just shut up and let Sumo take your money.

Jolly good show, mate!  I'm in Sega All-Stars Racing, that's massive!!!

There's gonna be a bunch of flak taken for this character. I mean, a FOOTBALL MANAGER character??? Fantastic! I am actually not bothered by this. Everyone loves British accents. And that silver Rolls Royce is pretty cool. Notice the helmet? You were never meant to see this bloke's eyes and hair. Couldn't see them on the box art, couldn't see them in this game.

I was going to make a funny joke about being in first place but that's the second stereotype I played up in this post and I don't want to blow it.  Well, everyone loves Japanese samurai dudes...the car's pretty cool, made out of wood like a 70's station wagon but if you're gonna put an Asian in the game...why not Ryo?  Or Segata Sanshiro?  SUMO IS A DISGRACE TO SEGA!!! 

It's Alex Kidd, I have nothing funny to say about him.

Where did this come from?  Sega struck a deal with Valve through the Steam store?  This can only be the work of GABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABENGABEN

No, Sumo, that's wrong.  We need the Sniper...he actually drives in his "Meet the ___" video.

Once Gaben takes over, he'll make his own Valve kart racer.  And for the first time in the History of the World, Reddit Gaming will actually care about a racing game (DAE PLAY THIS GAEM???).

Both photoshops from the Kotaku photoshop contest (over a year ago).

Also, watch out guys, pieces of Billy Hatcher, Jacky Bryant, and Zobio & Zobiko were found in the code.  I know Billy was cut (S0L said so) but these guys may be set for future DLC.  Yes, they can bring Billy back, I believe it!  Just vote in the thread above, buy the game, and rate it 10/10 on all the terrible websites like GameFAQs, please.

EDIT: So guys on the Sega forums are spamming links to the thread on various forums, including Kotaku and Reddit.  Kotaku is a joke of a gaming site, only post about bad aspects of Japanese culture, snack food, Reddit reposts, and the occasional article about how awesome of a gamer you are because you play Assassin's Creed/Portal/Halo/Minecraft.  Reddit cares more about stuff that doesn't even deserve to make the front page on /r/midlyinteresting, such as this:

HAVE MY UPVOTES

Sega & Steam Got A Relationship Going On

First, I'd like to thank all the commenters for the comments I've received lately.  I hope I'm doing a good job here on this blog which I do entirely for free every day!!!

A weekend that lasts six days.  Now that's the kind of weekend we can all get behind!!!

Anyway, go buy Sega games off Steam now!!  Most are 75% off or more.

Well, I own some of these games for Xbox 360, sorry, PC gaming is "lame," rofl.  What's this--buy 79 Sega games for 79 dollars???  Why are all these games on sale anyway???  Is Sega that desperate to sell games that they give them away for that cheap?  Anyway, it doesn't even include all games like Renegade Ops.  That costs $15 and you have to buy it separately.  I've heard it's a good game though!  EDIT: And I also realized RO for the PC will also feature the Gordon Freeman buggy...so there you go again, SegaxSteam fanfiction on the way...

40 of those 79 Sega games are Genesis games.  As cruel as this sounds...just get a Genesis emulator.  You get save states and speed throttling.  If anything, the emulator should cost money, not the games (roms).

You have to realize though that Steam has been practically giving away games recently.  Most people are playing console games, not PC games, hence the whole "PC Gaming is Dead" phrase.  Not to mention rampant piracy on the PC.  I bought Left 4 Dead 1 AND 2 for $5.  Let me repeat--2 games for $5.  Well, L4D1 is now null and void cause you can play L4D campaigns on L4D2 now, but L4D2 for $5...not bad.  Now I have this l33t laptop that can run Source games flawlessly.  But I've got bigger games to play, like Sega Racers, Rock Band, and Advance Wars!!

And another thing...what's up with Team Fortress 2 and all the hats?  I know TF2 is free but the hats require some time & effort to unlock.  So it's sort of their Call of Duty/Farmville hook to get you playing.  Something's not right, people.  EDIT: Finally found that picture I was looking for...two weeks later.

Look at this, it's a mess.  These hats are a mess, yes I said it.  I'm going back to Team Fortress Classic.  I love Goldsource.

Oh, by the way...since I go to a video game school, I occasionally get free stuff, like video game beta keys?  One of my professors made his rounds offering people free Diablo 3 beta codes!  But I turned it down.  Why?  I don't like Diablo, rofl.

Come to think of it, I should've taken it and sold/used it as bribe material.  Yeah, so I guess I screwed up! But that's okay cause I only advocate happy games, remember? I will not sell out on my values!

Poor guy

...I wish I had more to talk about but it's been a long day (sat at school for 8 hours, drank cold black coffee again and got the jitters) so I just want to be left alone for a sec, okay....  If you want something educational pertaining to games, read this: Ten Facts about the Video Game Crash of '83!  Good read...

A Supposed "New" Shenmue Game And Other Useless News

There's a new Shenmue game on the horizon.  No, it is NOT Shenmue III.  It's "Shenmue Town," some sort of mobile-phone social game.  I really don't know how this is gonna work out.

http://kotaku.com/5657756/there-will-be-a-new-shenmue-game-but-not-what-you-think

You really ought to read some of the comments in that Kotaku article.  My favorite one is this:

Said it before but I'll say it again, I'm constantly feeling bad for Sega fans. They suffer regularly.

You think so?  You think my head pops off the pillow every morning with optimism knowing that Sega racers get the short end of the stick while every other racing game thrives despite the fact that racing games as a genre is a JOKE now?  I really feel bad for Shenmue fans, really I do.  I think we'll get it on Xbox Live Arcade someday, assuming Sega plows full-steam ahead with their Dreamcast campaign...

Funny thing is that Kotaku was the first to break this story.  Sega Nerds didn't get to it first, wtf...

EDIT: Nevermind, here's the Sega Nerds article which is more informative.

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Also, Dead Rising 2 is starting to piss me off.  I've grown thick skin to these kind of games so it really doesn't bother me anymore from a gruesome/offensive standpoint.  I'm going achievement hunting and it gets old after a while.  I will review it later in more detail.

Speaking of zombies (yet again), Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 are sold as a pack for just $10 on Steam.  I say get it now if you haven't already cause it's a really good deal.  I actually bought it, but much to my chagrin, my laptop can hardly play it...yeah, that's great.  I could've sworn my laptop ran Half-Life 2 in the past with some success, but now, it's just a mess.  Not easy to install new video cards or whatever.  And now you know why console gaming is surpassing PC gaming by a mile--cause I don't feel like breaking the bank for some fancy gaming PCs with superior processors and video cards when I can just pop the game into my 360...and get achievement points while I'm at it!

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Also, make sure you enter GameFAQs' pathetic contest on The Best Game Of The 2000's.  I didn't overthink any pics, but I think it will come down to Metal Gear Solid 3 vs. Super Smash Bros. Melee (with SSB winning).  Really, I never win any of these damn contests no matter how confident I feel so what's the point.  Just try for fun, I guess.

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Now for sports.  The MLB playoffs are under way and the Phillies pitched a no-hitter in Game 1 which is the first time for a playoff game.  Really, no-hitters are still special nowadays?  There must've been like 7 or 8 no-hitters this season (I vaguely pay attention) so I don't know what the heck's going on--the pitchers are suddenly good or the batters just suck.  Must be something in the air...increased air resistance, chemicals which make you high, earth's gravitational pull is reversed, etc.

And the NFL is a mess now with only one undefeated team, the Chiefs who had a bye week already (3-0, not 4-0).  They play the Colts, Titans, and Texans next so I don't see them going 7-0.  Wow, what an interesting season already--everyone's getting beat down nowadays.  Lots of teams in playoff contention thus far.  It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

Valve Seems Like A Nice Guy

Today is actually a pretty good day...don't have any school work, I can take a nap, I can eat normal food again (for the most part), not bad, things are better than before...

But I was intrigued by this.  Left 4 Dead loves Dead Rising 2...now isn't that classy.  Stories like these make me smile.

http://kotaku.com/5650478/left-4-dead-loves-dead-rising-2

Not only did they make that image above and put Chuck Greene in one of their comics, but they also made passing references to Frank West from DR1, etc.  To me, this is like if Namco made another Ridge Racer and Sega came out and said "You've got a damn fine racing game there, my good man."  Although neither company seems interested in racing games anymore, but that's besides the point.  DR2 isn't in direct competition with L4D (they aren't even the same genre, FPS vs. Action/Adventure), but they like zombies too.  I just wonder if the feeling's mutual on Capcom's side.  After Inafune said that Japanese games were five years behind US games, I think he's a bit touchy to say so.

And throw in this too.  I like Valve.  I like them a lot.  All of their games are pretty good.  Yeah, I get on violent games, but at least Left 4 Dead was on the cusp of the zombie wave so they get a pass.  Plus not to mention they've come up with some unique ideas instead of spitting out these Halo/Fallout/CoD clones, geez.  They have unique ideas, fun characters, different vibe, etc.  Not only that, but they've really fueled the user community by releasing Garry's mod, map-making tools, and the HL source code for modification--lots of fun stuff.

Believe it or not, I actually had the chance (for a college class I might add, in Fall '09) to create a mod of the Half-Life 1 engine.  I got it going alright, but my teammates didn't really follow through and I worked on it mostly myself...I'm proud of what I learned though--it's nice to get your hands dirty.  I am also a huge fan of making FPS maps--I talked about that way back in a July '10 entry about Goldeneye/Perfect Dark maps in CS 1.6, but that's just the tip of the iceberg--there's more.  I may touch on that someday, but don't count on it any time soon.

Overall, gotta give Valve some props.  Cheers.

BTW, I actually got 1000/1000 on L4D1 (a long time ago) so that's not bad.  But enough of zombies.  In all honesty.  Screw 'em.

NOTE: I'm sorry Kotaku that I keep borrowing your images.  I hope you can forgive me someday.