This is the new theme song for SEGA:
Oh mother, tell your children,
Not to do what I have done.
Spend your lives in sin and misery
In the house of the Rising Sun.
Really, take heed game developers. If you want to be RICH AND SUCCESSFUL DO NOT do what Sega has done.
DO NOT try to make a good lineup of colorful racing games that take SKILL to play because no one will like it. Fighting games included (the disaster that is Virtua Fighter when it comes to popularity).
DO NOT try to start your own console with a lineup of quirky, unique games cause you'll get beat down. The only exception to this rule is Nintendo cause they're friggin Nintendo, that's why.
Speaking of Nintendo, DON'T EVEN BOTHER TRYING TO FIGHT NINTENDO like Sega did. You will just lose for some reason. Just give up, Nintendo is God-like and can't be stopped ever and Sega is like dog crap to your shoes.
DO NOT try to pad your already-aged console with expensive peripherals required to play some new games (Sega 32X/CD). Oh wait, Microsoft is already doing that with the Kinect, God rest their souls. Ok, this one's deliberately bad so no sarcasm here.
DO NOT TOUCH SONIC WITH A TWENTY FOOT POLE EVER. Just don't bother. Being associated with Sonic invokes bad memories of buggy games, woulda-coulda-shoulda gameplay flaws/fixes, market oversaturation, "useless" characters, and furry porn. Look at Smash Bros: Brawl--it got beat with an ugly stick thanks to Sonic, really. And Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games? ROFL
If you're from Japan and you want to make a unique, fun popular game, DO NOT TRUST SEGA. Take it to Nintendo, Capcom, Square, Konami, ANYONE BUT SEGA.
The only thing Sega is good for is PUBLISHING games. See The Conduit, Bayonetta, Vanquish, all that crap. Don't actually have Sega develop the game, remember that!!
Anyway, that's why we go to school to learn HISTORY...to learn WHAT'S GOOD AND WHAT'S BAD so we don't screw up more than once...and Sega is BAD FOR SUCCESS, there you go.
...
But despite all this we all come back to Sega anyway cause we're just that stupid. SCREW BEING RICH AND SUCCESSFUL, I'D RATHER DIE ON MY FEET THAN LIVE ON MY KNEES. TAKE YOUR CRAPPY BILLION-DOLLAR GAMES AND SHOVE THEM UP YOUR [Rear End]. Now you know why history repeats itself.
I could go on, but like I said, this is what Sega gets for trying to make some good games--they get dumped on and the only ones who care are a bunch of crazy Dreamcast lunatics. Pssh. Not in a good mood today.
------------
Strangely, Sega posts a forecasted profit this financial year, but mostly thanks to pachinko machines. Sega says in an official statement:
"While the consumer business saw mainly sales of new titles in overseas markets hover at weak volumes, the amusement machine sales business and amusement center operations business are expected to maintain robust operating results."
So yay, Sega. They get to survive for another year.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Racing Gamebreakers And Daytona USA Tropes
I was going to talk about something else, mostly Dead Rising 2--beaten the story mode but am going back for achievements so gimme some time to come to conclusions. I got off on a tangent and now I come up with a neat topic on the run.
First off, this deals with racing games in general. Just cheese exploits that deviate from the very nature of the game. I hate gamebreakers--they ruin the game. Most of these apply to Mario Kart which is lolworthy to say the least.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/GameBreaker/Racing
My favorite has to be snaking in Mario Kart DS which is just lame. It also exists in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing as well as in F-Zero GX. To be fair, these glitches aren't easy to do (especially in F-Zero), but look at it this way. Let's say you're playing Daytona USA and there's a glitch where if you mash the start button as fast as possible, you get a speed boost. Is it challenging? Yes. Is it logical and makes sense? No, not at all.
But there does exists a bug/glitch/exploit in Daytona USA. In the Beginner and Expert tracks, if you drive on the gray strip adjacent to the pit lane, you can pass through without stopping. This is probably my least favorite part of the game. You might scream "Well, you're jealous cause you can't do it!!" So what? Even without the glitch I would still lose handily. I just don't like it, but still props for doing a good job since it's very difficult to pull off seven times in a row.
And while we're on the topic of glitches, there's this famous glitch in Perfect Dark where you can clip the building and fall down to the exit below in six seconds. Yes, it's very difficult to do, but ha, oh man.
And you want to get EVEN MORE NASTY???
I mean, let's not get started on how any character besides Yoshi/Toad/Peach is useless, but this guy's voice is awesome so watch the entirety of it. Oh yeah, and The Netherlands = N64 gods. Korea has Starcraft, Sweden has Counter-Strike, Singapore has arcade games, Holland has N64, I swear. America has...uh, some FPSes, not all of them, and Guitar Hero, Rock Band. Japan has fighting games, I think, and maybe DDR, although Korea may have usurped them, I don't know. At least they have baseball (see WBC)...
All I have to say is that people will break every single rule that they can. And that's fine, I'm not saying that they aren't allowed to, but if I were the developer and I had a chance to go back in time and fix this, I would. Please don't take it personally. Like I said before, you would still kick my ass.
And then I looked up some TVtropes page on Daytona USA and other games and they do exist. Wow, really cool. This is a user-created site like Wikipedia. Some of my favorites are Crowning Moment of Awesome, Nintendo Hard, Scenery Porn, Stalked by the Bell, That's One Damn Level, and the best--They Just Didn't Care (referring to Championship Edition car textures). It's a very flattering article and makes me happy that there exists Daytona USA diehards out there in unexpected places...
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DaytonaUSA
There also exists one on OutRun which is similar in nature.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OutRun
All in all TVTropes is an interesting site to get lost in cause it's got lots of "haha that's so true" stuff. Sorry I got carried away, I will see you fools later.
First off, this deals with racing games in general. Just cheese exploits that deviate from the very nature of the game. I hate gamebreakers--they ruin the game. Most of these apply to Mario Kart which is lolworthy to say the least.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/GameBreaker/Racing
My favorite has to be snaking in Mario Kart DS which is just lame. It also exists in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing as well as in F-Zero GX. To be fair, these glitches aren't easy to do (especially in F-Zero), but look at it this way. Let's say you're playing Daytona USA and there's a glitch where if you mash the start button as fast as possible, you get a speed boost. Is it challenging? Yes. Is it logical and makes sense? No, not at all.
But there does exists a bug/glitch/exploit in Daytona USA. In the Beginner and Expert tracks, if you drive on the gray strip adjacent to the pit lane, you can pass through without stopping. This is probably my least favorite part of the game. You might scream "Well, you're jealous cause you can't do it!!" So what? Even without the glitch I would still lose handily. I just don't like it, but still props for doing a good job since it's very difficult to pull off seven times in a row.
And while we're on the topic of glitches, there's this famous glitch in Perfect Dark where you can clip the building and fall down to the exit below in six seconds. Yes, it's very difficult to do, but ha, oh man.
And you want to get EVEN MORE NASTY???
I mean, let's not get started on how any character besides Yoshi/Toad/Peach is useless, but this guy's voice is awesome so watch the entirety of it. Oh yeah, and The Netherlands = N64 gods. Korea has Starcraft, Sweden has Counter-Strike, Singapore has arcade games, Holland has N64, I swear. America has...uh, some FPSes, not all of them, and Guitar Hero, Rock Band. Japan has fighting games, I think, and maybe DDR, although Korea may have usurped them, I don't know. At least they have baseball (see WBC)...
All I have to say is that people will break every single rule that they can. And that's fine, I'm not saying that they aren't allowed to, but if I were the developer and I had a chance to go back in time and fix this, I would. Please don't take it personally. Like I said before, you would still kick my ass.
And then I looked up some TVtropes page on Daytona USA and other games and they do exist. Wow, really cool. This is a user-created site like Wikipedia. Some of my favorites are Crowning Moment of Awesome, Nintendo Hard, Scenery Porn, Stalked by the Bell, That's One Damn Level, and the best--They Just Didn't Care (referring to Championship Edition car textures). It's a very flattering article and makes me happy that there exists Daytona USA diehards out there in unexpected places...
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DaytonaUSA
There also exists one on OutRun which is similar in nature.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OutRun
All in all TVTropes is an interesting site to get lost in cause it's got lots of "haha that's so true" stuff. Sorry I got carried away, I will see you fools later.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
OutRun 2, Crossword Puzzles, Game Flaws, NBA Elite, MW2
These last few days were kind of interesting because I got the chance to do a couple of Sudoku's in the USA Today. Yeah, I like to do those--I remember them in Brain Age for the DS and they're not hard as long as you use a pencil... I also did a crossword. Now those are hard--I had to Google some terms but I figured it out without calling the 1-800 number. What is the prayer book of Zoroastrianism (Avesta)? A column foundation piece (socle)? Oh yeah, I really was supposed to know those.
I also got the chance to play OutRun Online Arcade in a long time and it was really refreshing...just nice to see all those colorful landscapes, crazy drifts, just good stuff. And yeah, that game's not easy either--I was twitching all over the place mostly because I think I had the sensitivity too high. Yeah, I look at the times that my friends F40, rjay, all of them set and it certainly seems tough...give them some credit. Oh, and if you haven't bought ORA for Xbox 360 already, just do it...
------------
I would like to talk about this funny story I've heard and then transition into game design-ish stuff. First, in case you're not up on sports, there were supposed to be two NBA games released this year. One is NBA 2K11 which has Michael Jordan in it--can you believe it? The other is NBA Elite '11 by EA Sports which is supposed to be the glorious return to the Live series...well, things aren't looking so great for them once again.
The Elite demo came out in mid-September or so and the actual game was supposed to be released in early October. Well, just a week before the release date, EA postponed the game indefinitely. Let me repeat, a WEEK before the release date. RIP. The game was hallmarked by a bevy of glitches, among them the "Jesus" glitch where a player stands in the center of the court, arms spread, not moving at all. Wow, what a glitch. This is the video that cost EA $60 million! This is legendary IMO.
NOTE: The uploader's account was suspended once, here's the same video again:
WARNING: Some Profanity NSFW
Or you can watch the "longer" version here (3:00 is when it gets good).
The Jesus pose is merely the "default" pose for any given player model--if not assigned a wireframe, it will just snap to that. Standing at the dead center of the court (the origin: 0, 0, 0) not moving at all, one could assume that all data on that player (in this case, Andrew Bynum as "Jesus") has been dumped/erased thereby taking him out the game. This glitch is widespread and I really can't believe something like this exists in a game...I was cracking up in tears over this.
There's no way that EA's going to compete with 2K Sports with a buggy product. I'm all for delaying the game if it means it will be semi-decent. But why do developers do this? This all began with the 360--release the game and patch it later. You couldn't patch N64 or PS2 games, but now, let's just do it all the time... This everyone knows I'm sure. But it's not just glitches to fix--it's game balance issues as well.
Look at Modern Warfare 2. It's not that bad a game, I've played it up to 4th prestige on the PS3, 1000/1000'd on the 360, it sold tons of copies, but I've never seen a game community SO BITTER over a product before. Not just glitches and exploits, but noobtubes/grenade launchers, knife sprinters, annoying perks, killstreaks, etc. Just a lot of things that that should've gone back to the drawing board. But that's the thing--glitches and balance issues only bother a small portion of the consumers, enough for game devs to say "Screw it, just release the game, we'll sell tons of copies anyway."
I mean, call me old-fashioned, call me puritan, but if you're gonna go out of your way to hire hundred of employees to work for two years, design a game engine from the ground up, work on art design/models, advertise, etc. I would at least make sure the game is somewhat solid and pleasing to everyone. Why leave a game at 80-90%? I mean, how many opportunities do you have to work on a project of such a grand scale? The only reason why these games are as they are is because of greed--pure and simple. Yes, I know that greed is good in driving people to be successful as possible, but not when it means denying the consumer a solid product.
I imagine that all gamers have select games they really wanted to like, but are heartbroken to find out how flawed they are...like say someone really liked Modern Warfare 2, they say "I love everything about this game more than any other game, the graphics, the guns, the sound effects, EXCEPT for all the noobtubers, IF ONLY THE DEVS COULD HAVE FIXED THAT..." and then they spend the rest of their lives mourning over what could've been a better game... Usually, these flaws are easy fixes that the devs pass up. Considering the nomadic nature of gamers, we are rarely satisfied by one game so we just keep moving on to get our fill which kind of sucks...
I miss the old days where you didn't need hundreds of people to work on a game...NES, Genesis, SNES, N64, games that only needed thirty or so people. I talk about Goldeneye N64 quite a bit and that was a game made by a small bunch of novice developers that went on to be one of the most memorable of all time. I've heard that the multiplayer source code was created overnight by one man, amazing stuff. Same thing with Daytona USA and stuff, small groups of people make good games. It's more personal to them instead of being caught up in crowds of hundreds. That's just the way I see it--with games becoming so intricate due to graphics, processing power, etc. you're not going to see any "small" games outside of the standard indie/iPod/flash game or whatever.
Next time you beat a game, do this. Count how many people are mentioned in the credits. And no, silly stuff like marketing and special thanks don't count--look for how many people sat in that developing studio and got their hands dirty--programming, modeling, art design, sound, you name it. You'd be surprised.
I guess the good news about newer games is that with the increase in communication--magazines, internet, game rentals, downloadable demos--is that there's less ability of devs to BS you...back in the NES days, there were a lot of good games, but also plenty of abysmal ones. You just bought and game and hoped for the best. Nowadays, you can't really push a piss-poor product, but then again, you see a lot of lukewarm games that aren't really good or bad. This is mostly because of the informational aspect, plus having tons of coworkers to rely on in case you slack off (someone's gonna get the game done, even if it's sloppy).
I was going to talk further about Dead Rising 2 in this post but I'm gonna postpone that for later. Peace.
I also got the chance to play OutRun Online Arcade in a long time and it was really refreshing...just nice to see all those colorful landscapes, crazy drifts, just good stuff. And yeah, that game's not easy either--I was twitching all over the place mostly because I think I had the sensitivity too high. Yeah, I look at the times that my friends F40, rjay, all of them set and it certainly seems tough...give them some credit. Oh, and if you haven't bought ORA for Xbox 360 already, just do it...
------------
I would like to talk about this funny story I've heard and then transition into game design-ish stuff. First, in case you're not up on sports, there were supposed to be two NBA games released this year. One is NBA 2K11 which has Michael Jordan in it--can you believe it? The other is NBA Elite '11 by EA Sports which is supposed to be the glorious return to the Live series...well, things aren't looking so great for them once again.
The Elite demo came out in mid-September or so and the actual game was supposed to be released in early October. Well, just a week before the release date, EA postponed the game indefinitely. Let me repeat, a WEEK before the release date. RIP. The game was hallmarked by a bevy of glitches, among them the "Jesus" glitch where a player stands in the center of the court, arms spread, not moving at all. Wow, what a glitch. This is the video that cost EA $60 million! This is legendary IMO.
NOTE: The uploader's account was suspended once, here's the same video again:
WARNING: Some Profanity NSFW
Or you can watch the "longer" version here (3:00 is when it gets good).
The Jesus pose is merely the "default" pose for any given player model--if not assigned a wireframe, it will just snap to that. Standing at the dead center of the court (the origin: 0, 0, 0) not moving at all, one could assume that all data on that player (in this case, Andrew Bynum as "Jesus") has been dumped/erased thereby taking him out the game. This glitch is widespread and I really can't believe something like this exists in a game...I was cracking up in tears over this.
There's no way that EA's going to compete with 2K Sports with a buggy product. I'm all for delaying the game if it means it will be semi-decent. But why do developers do this? This all began with the 360--release the game and patch it later. You couldn't patch N64 or PS2 games, but now, let's just do it all the time... This everyone knows I'm sure. But it's not just glitches to fix--it's game balance issues as well.
Look at Modern Warfare 2. It's not that bad a game, I've played it up to 4th prestige on the PS3, 1000/1000'd on the 360, it sold tons of copies, but I've never seen a game community SO BITTER over a product before. Not just glitches and exploits, but noobtubes/grenade launchers, knife sprinters, annoying perks, killstreaks, etc. Just a lot of things that that should've gone back to the drawing board. But that's the thing--glitches and balance issues only bother a small portion of the consumers, enough for game devs to say "Screw it, just release the game, we'll sell tons of copies anyway."
I mean, call me old-fashioned, call me puritan, but if you're gonna go out of your way to hire hundred of employees to work for two years, design a game engine from the ground up, work on art design/models, advertise, etc. I would at least make sure the game is somewhat solid and pleasing to everyone. Why leave a game at 80-90%? I mean, how many opportunities do you have to work on a project of such a grand scale? The only reason why these games are as they are is because of greed--pure and simple. Yes, I know that greed is good in driving people to be successful as possible, but not when it means denying the consumer a solid product.
I imagine that all gamers have select games they really wanted to like, but are heartbroken to find out how flawed they are...like say someone really liked Modern Warfare 2, they say "I love everything about this game more than any other game, the graphics, the guns, the sound effects, EXCEPT for all the noobtubers, IF ONLY THE DEVS COULD HAVE FIXED THAT..." and then they spend the rest of their lives mourning over what could've been a better game... Usually, these flaws are easy fixes that the devs pass up. Considering the nomadic nature of gamers, we are rarely satisfied by one game so we just keep moving on to get our fill which kind of sucks...
I miss the old days where you didn't need hundreds of people to work on a game...NES, Genesis, SNES, N64, games that only needed thirty or so people. I talk about Goldeneye N64 quite a bit and that was a game made by a small bunch of novice developers that went on to be one of the most memorable of all time. I've heard that the multiplayer source code was created overnight by one man, amazing stuff. Same thing with Daytona USA and stuff, small groups of people make good games. It's more personal to them instead of being caught up in crowds of hundreds. That's just the way I see it--with games becoming so intricate due to graphics, processing power, etc. you're not going to see any "small" games outside of the standard indie/iPod/flash game or whatever.
Next time you beat a game, do this. Count how many people are mentioned in the credits. And no, silly stuff like marketing and special thanks don't count--look for how many people sat in that developing studio and got their hands dirty--programming, modeling, art design, sound, you name it. You'd be surprised.
I guess the good news about newer games is that with the increase in communication--magazines, internet, game rentals, downloadable demos--is that there's less ability of devs to BS you...back in the NES days, there were a lot of good games, but also plenty of abysmal ones. You just bought and game and hoped for the best. Nowadays, you can't really push a piss-poor product, but then again, you see a lot of lukewarm games that aren't really good or bad. This is mostly because of the informational aspect, plus having tons of coworkers to rely on in case you slack off (someone's gonna get the game done, even if it's sloppy).
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Outrun And Sega Rally Under Attack? (More Yakuza, Sonic)
This is a good bit of investigative reporting by my buddy isamu on the ORA board. I'm repeating this just for any readers not from that board...
OutRun Online Arcade is available on the Xbox 360 in any country. On the PS3 however, it's only available in the UK store. Well it turns out that he and many others have scoured the UK store to find the game removed altogether. So basically OutRun 2 is not on the PS3 anymore. What???
This isn't the first time that a downloadable game has been removed from an online store. Paperboy, Root Beer Tapper, and other Midway classics have been sucked under (Midway went bankrupt). Same thing with Yaris which was free BTW (it was a promo game). You can redownload them again ONLY if you purchased it previously. Presumably, the game is still on the server but it's not for sale for some reason which makes no sense because you're missing out on the opportunity to earn money...
I think we should all play OutRun Online Arcade on the Xbox 360 in memory. Just cause we need to do SOMETHING and give Sumo Digital props for making the game more available to a larger crowd (although it wasn't a big seller). People, you had no excuse to try out the demo cause it's right there in front of you...
To make things worse, Sega Rally Revo has been pulled from the PSN store too. Yes, I know that Revo isn't considered a powerhouse Sega title, but it's still one of Sega's babies. So that's two Sega racers gone. I'm not 100% sure this is true, but I'll let you know if something comes up.
Why would something like this happen all of a sudden? Does Sega want out? Does Sony hate Sega? Is this a stupid mistake? The last thing we need is every trace of Sega goodness to go away...look out for the future...
------------
And then add this just because I saw it. This is entirely in Japan. New Pokemon game on DS and new Sega Yakuza (under some weird name) game on the PSP. FIGHT! Pokemon outsells Yakuza 5 to 1 despite the fact that PB/W has been out for a week already. This is from Sept. 20 to 26. All in all not surprising. Why is Sega making all these PSP games, much less ones that'll never come out in America anyway? Who knows, who cares. Congrats on coming in second I guess, Sega has a reason to hold their heads high now.
01. Pokemon Black / White (DS) - 829,000 / 3,386,000
02. Kurohyou: Ryu ga Gotoku Shinshou (PSP) - 174,000 / NEW
http://kotaku.com/5652709/pokemon-black--white-show-the-yakuza-whos-the-boss-in-japan
------------
And one more thing cause I'm teeming with information. We're talking about the new Sonic games. Sonic 4: Episode 1 is coming out in mid-October so that's pretty good. I'm pretty sure it'll be 1200 MSP but I can't prove it. Made by Dimps, it's a downloadable title. Yes, Sonic's gonna be GOOD AGAIN!! And what's best is that it's just the first episode which means more Sonic titles to come!
Looks like Sonic's moving slower in this one, apparently to improve the controls. The way he runs looks funny, like his foot movement is potato-shaped or something. Oh yeah, and I know Sonic 1 had Starlight, Sonic 2 had Casino Night, and Sonic 3 had Carnival Night, but this looks like another Casino level...there's enough of those already, but whatever, that's ok, I like that... Also, didn't I see a boss battle on Green Hill zone with Eggman and the ball thing? I think it's good to "revisit" old Sonic classics, but come on, make something semi-original. Who knows, it may be good.
http://forums.sega.com/showpost.php?p=6228418&postcount=215 - Sonic 4: Episode 2 is currently not in development yet.
------------
Sonic Colours (yes, I like the British spelling) is coming out mid-November and Takashi Iizuka of Sonic Team says...:
This is a similar title to Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, but the similarity comes from the concept – keeping the tempo very fluid. A similar concept applies here. Is it the best since then? We always strive to make the best Sonic game yet. It’s at least on a par with Sonic Adventure Battle 2 [sic], and I’m confident it is one of the best Sonic games ever.
http://www.tssznews.com/2010/09/22/iizuka-says-sonic-colors-one-of-the-best-sonic-games-ever/
I've been looking up some info on this Iizuka guy and he's been working on most every Sonic Team game since Sonic 3... So looking at the footage of Sonic Colours, this looks just like Sonic: Unleashed except without the nighttime Werehog stages. If it turns out like Sonic Adventure 2 (which I thought was great but remember, not EVERYONE liked it), then it will be alright. I'm not too stoked though. Also, it's just gonna be on the Wii and DS which sucks too--no Xbox 360 or PS3 love.
OutRun Online Arcade is available on the Xbox 360 in any country. On the PS3 however, it's only available in the UK store. Well it turns out that he and many others have scoured the UK store to find the game removed altogether. So basically OutRun 2 is not on the PS3 anymore. What???
This isn't the first time that a downloadable game has been removed from an online store. Paperboy, Root Beer Tapper, and other Midway classics have been sucked under (Midway went bankrupt). Same thing with Yaris which was free BTW (it was a promo game). You can redownload them again ONLY if you purchased it previously. Presumably, the game is still on the server but it's not for sale for some reason which makes no sense because you're missing out on the opportunity to earn money...
I think we should all play OutRun Online Arcade on the Xbox 360 in memory. Just cause we need to do SOMETHING and give Sumo Digital props for making the game more available to a larger crowd (although it wasn't a big seller). People, you had no excuse to try out the demo cause it's right there in front of you...
To make things worse, Sega Rally Revo has been pulled from the PSN store too. Yes, I know that Revo isn't considered a powerhouse Sega title, but it's still one of Sega's babies. So that's two Sega racers gone. I'm not 100% sure this is true, but I'll let you know if something comes up.
Why would something like this happen all of a sudden? Does Sega want out? Does Sony hate Sega? Is this a stupid mistake? The last thing we need is every trace of Sega goodness to go away...look out for the future...
------------
And then add this just because I saw it. This is entirely in Japan. New Pokemon game on DS and new Sega Yakuza (under some weird name) game on the PSP. FIGHT! Pokemon outsells Yakuza 5 to 1 despite the fact that PB/W has been out for a week already. This is from Sept. 20 to 26. All in all not surprising. Why is Sega making all these PSP games, much less ones that'll never come out in America anyway? Who knows, who cares. Congrats on coming in second I guess, Sega has a reason to hold their heads high now.
01. Pokemon Black / White (DS) - 829,000 / 3,386,000
02. Kurohyou: Ryu ga Gotoku Shinshou (PSP) - 174,000 / NEW
http://kotaku.com/5652709/pokemon-black--white-show-the-yakuza-whos-the-boss-in-japan
------------
And one more thing cause I'm teeming with information. We're talking about the new Sonic games. Sonic 4: Episode 1 is coming out in mid-October so that's pretty good. I'm pretty sure it'll be 1200 MSP but I can't prove it. Made by Dimps, it's a downloadable title. Yes, Sonic's gonna be GOOD AGAIN!! And what's best is that it's just the first episode which means more Sonic titles to come!
Looks like Sonic's moving slower in this one, apparently to improve the controls. The way he runs looks funny, like his foot movement is potato-shaped or something. Oh yeah, and I know Sonic 1 had Starlight, Sonic 2 had Casino Night, and Sonic 3 had Carnival Night, but this looks like another Casino level...there's enough of those already, but whatever, that's ok, I like that... Also, didn't I see a boss battle on Green Hill zone with Eggman and the ball thing? I think it's good to "revisit" old Sonic classics, but come on, make something semi-original. Who knows, it may be good.
http://forums.sega.com/showpost.php?p=6228418&postcount=215 - Sonic 4: Episode 2 is currently not in development yet.
------------
Sonic Colours (yes, I like the British spelling) is coming out mid-November and Takashi Iizuka of Sonic Team says...:
This is a similar title to Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, but the similarity comes from the concept – keeping the tempo very fluid. A similar concept applies here. Is it the best since then? We always strive to make the best Sonic game yet. It’s at least on a par with Sonic Adventure Battle 2 [sic], and I’m confident it is one of the best Sonic games ever.
http://www.tssznews.com/2010/09/22/iizuka-says-sonic-colors-one-of-the-best-sonic-games-ever/
I've been looking up some info on this Iizuka guy and he's been working on most every Sonic Team game since Sonic 3... So looking at the footage of Sonic Colours, this looks just like Sonic: Unleashed except without the nighttime Werehog stages. If it turns out like Sonic Adventure 2 (which I thought was great but remember, not EVERYONE liked it), then it will be alright. I'm not too stoked though. Also, it's just gonna be on the Wii and DS which sucks too--no Xbox 360 or PS3 love.
NASCAR: The Game CONFIRMED! Bad Daytona Days
Remember how I talked a week ago about Activision picking up the NASCAR license for a supposed "new" racing game? Well, that's not entirely true, but it's pretty much as clear as day now.
So basically, NASCAR License = gone for several years. No chance of a "Daytona USA" comeback. At least Activision isn't gobbling it up, that was just a rumor. Apparently Eutechnyx can handle this all by itself.
JUST TO CLEAR SOMETHING UP: Having the NASCAR license and the Daytona license are two different things. It's just inferred now that if Eutechnyx has the NASCAR license then they'll have the Daytona International Speedway license too which means presuming the DIS license is exclusive, then Sega can't use the Daytona name. So NASCAR leads to DIS leads to Daytona USA...you get what I mean by NASCAR license.
SOMETHING ELSE: Even if the Daytona license isn't exclusive (and I hear it isn't from others), then it would probably be too expensive for Sega to afford...so either way, Sega's in a pickle.
But the strange thing is that there's already gonna be a NASCAR game in the form of GRAN TURISMO 5...the question is will GT5's NASCAR be superior to NASCAR THE ("Official") GAME?? So why are they making the same game TWICE? EDIT: Cause GT5 only has 12 cars on the track at once, that's why.
Further instincts might say you know what, this company apparently has the guts to try something "new" with NASCAR considering their wonderful lineup of past racing games since they can't "out-sim" GT5, but it's looking pretty bleak if you read later in the interview. This is Ed Martin, Executive VP of Eutechnyx in the US of A:
...There are tens of millions of NASCAR fans and plenty of them have video game systems. So how come NASCAR video games haven't penetrated that market as far as an NHL game or a baseball game? We really believe that's because the games haven't been approachable.
There have been times where there were "over-the-top" games like "NASCAR Rumble" and even "NASCAR Kart," but there is a real disconnect there because those games don't represent the real sport. You can't go off too far off the path. At the same time, you can't get too sim-y. We want you to jump right in and have fun. The thing about Eutechnyx, this is our 24th year, and we've done nothing but racing games for 24 years. This is a company with a rich history of creating great driving games. If you turn off all the assists in our NASCAR game, this is a very real -- as close as you can come to a simulation on a console -- but at the same time, with the assists turned on, this is a very fun, approachable game for the common NASCAR fan.
Of course though, when it comes to NASCAR and Daytona USA 1/2, they aren't even close (obviously in terms of physics/driving), but also because Daytona USA never outright references NASCAR or uses actual cars, tracks, etc. Therefore, Daytona USA fans are never really NASCAR fans or vice versa so basically Daytona USA = a piece of meat to these people as far as I'm concerned. Also, Daytona USA is made in Japan and as we all know, the Japanese will butcher anything American and we can't have that.
I think though that Daytona USA 1/2 would have great "approachability" to the general public. Fun and unique, it had great audio, sense of speed, intensity, etc. If not, then what OTHER stock car games could you make that people would buy? The old NASCAR sims were unimpressive or unpopular, EA was just phoning it in apparently, "NASCAR is boring lololol," and these weirdo Mario-Kart-like games didn't stick either. Really, riddle me this--what do actual NASCAR fans think of NASCAR '09 or all these sims? Weren't they already satisfied or is this gonna be the "glorious return to NASCAR" that everyone will love? I don't know, I don't see NASCAR games being pushed any further outside of anomalies like Daytona USA.
So the guy's gonna return to the sim genre but make it a little more fun...doesn't sound new. Just trying to drum up a bit of support against GT5. My main concern is this--how will this game be that much different than, say, NASCAR by EA or NASCAR Thunder for the PC? Or is there all this hype because there wasn't a NASCAR game in more than one year?
Apparently, everyone's new mission statement is "Don't do what Sega has done," and just make a NASCAR game devoid of any Daytona USA aspects which I guess is what's going to happen. But really, if you want my advice...TAKE THIS PAGE FROM SEGA'S PLAYBOOK...make the game intense. Add great audio, music, control, sense of speed, you don't even have to put drifting/powersliding in it, just channel out all the ADHD-filth from Burnout/Split-Second and make it a PURE RACING GAME!
But it doesn't really bother me that much what these guys do. Obviously, they're gonna go for more NASCAR authenticity than GT5. If they did try to go the Daytona USA route just a little, they would probably muck it up and I wouldn't like it. Do whatever you want, doesn't bother me. I'm rambling incoherently now. I just want to get all my ideas out there now so I'm gonna stop.
In the meantime, expect the NASCAR The Game website clock to countdown in the future (Oct. 4) and we can learn more about it then (as if there were any other surprises...I'm not holding my breath).
http://www.nascarthegame.com/
UPDATE: According to the site above, NASCAR 2011 will be a pure racing sim. No surprise there.
Check out this excerpt:
Then just last week the rumor mill heated up once again about a possible deal between NASCAR and Activision. From what everyone was saying, the deal was already signed and NASCAR and Activision were ready to drop the big news any day. But as it turns out the rumors were only half true.
In reality, NASCAR has signed on to an exclusive new multi-year, multi-game deal, but they chose video game developer Eutechnyx -- creators of "Big Mutha Truckers" and "Ferrari Challenge" -- to sign the deal with, not a publisher like EA or Activision. Activision is involved, but they are acting as the distributor for Eutechnyx's game, entitled "NASCAR The Game 2011."
This is a key distinction, enabling NASCAR to be more hands-on with the game's development thanks to partnering with a company that specializes in creating racing games, rather than signing blindly with Activision for the sole sake of dollar signs and letting the publisher decide who develops the franchise.
So basically, NASCAR License = gone for several years. No chance of a "Daytona USA" comeback. At least Activision isn't gobbling it up, that was just a rumor. Apparently Eutechnyx can handle this all by itself.
JUST TO CLEAR SOMETHING UP: Having the NASCAR license and the Daytona license are two different things. It's just inferred now that if Eutechnyx has the NASCAR license then they'll have the Daytona International Speedway license too which means presuming the DIS license is exclusive, then Sega can't use the Daytona name. So NASCAR leads to DIS leads to Daytona USA...you get what I mean by NASCAR license.
SOMETHING ELSE: Even if the Daytona license isn't exclusive (and I hear it isn't from others), then it would probably be too expensive for Sega to afford...so either way, Sega's in a pickle.
But the strange thing is that there's already gonna be a NASCAR game in the form of GRAN TURISMO 5...the question is will GT5's NASCAR be superior to NASCAR THE ("Official") GAME?? So why are they making the same game TWICE? EDIT: Cause GT5 only has 12 cars on the track at once, that's why.
Further instincts might say you know what, this company apparently has the guts to try something "new" with NASCAR considering their wonderful lineup of past racing games since they can't "out-sim" GT5, but it's looking pretty bleak if you read later in the interview. This is Ed Martin, Executive VP of Eutechnyx in the US of A:
...There are tens of millions of NASCAR fans and plenty of them have video game systems. So how come NASCAR video games haven't penetrated that market as far as an NHL game or a baseball game? We really believe that's because the games haven't been approachable.
There have been times where there were "over-the-top" games like "NASCAR Rumble" and even "NASCAR Kart," but there is a real disconnect there because those games don't represent the real sport. You can't go off too far off the path. At the same time, you can't get too sim-y. We want you to jump right in and have fun. The thing about Eutechnyx, this is our 24th year, and we've done nothing but racing games for 24 years. This is a company with a rich history of creating great driving games. If you turn off all the assists in our NASCAR game, this is a very real -- as close as you can come to a simulation on a console -- but at the same time, with the assists turned on, this is a very fun, approachable game for the common NASCAR fan.
Of course though, when it comes to NASCAR and Daytona USA 1/2, they aren't even close (obviously in terms of physics/driving), but also because Daytona USA never outright references NASCAR or uses actual cars, tracks, etc. Therefore, Daytona USA fans are never really NASCAR fans or vice versa so basically Daytona USA = a piece of meat to these people as far as I'm concerned. Also, Daytona USA is made in Japan and as we all know, the Japanese will butcher anything American and we can't have that.
I think though that Daytona USA 1/2 would have great "approachability" to the general public. Fun and unique, it had great audio, sense of speed, intensity, etc. If not, then what OTHER stock car games could you make that people would buy? The old NASCAR sims were unimpressive or unpopular, EA was just phoning it in apparently, "NASCAR is boring lololol," and these weirdo Mario-Kart-like games didn't stick either. Really, riddle me this--what do actual NASCAR fans think of NASCAR '09 or all these sims? Weren't they already satisfied or is this gonna be the "glorious return to NASCAR" that everyone will love? I don't know, I don't see NASCAR games being pushed any further outside of anomalies like Daytona USA.
So the guy's gonna return to the sim genre but make it a little more fun...doesn't sound new. Just trying to drum up a bit of support against GT5. My main concern is this--how will this game be that much different than, say, NASCAR by EA or NASCAR Thunder for the PC? Or is there all this hype because there wasn't a NASCAR game in more than one year?
Apparently, everyone's new mission statement is "Don't do what Sega has done," and just make a NASCAR game devoid of any Daytona USA aspects which I guess is what's going to happen. But really, if you want my advice...TAKE THIS PAGE FROM SEGA'S PLAYBOOK...make the game intense. Add great audio, music, control, sense of speed, you don't even have to put drifting/powersliding in it, just channel out all the ADHD-filth from Burnout/Split-Second and make it a PURE RACING GAME!
But it doesn't really bother me that much what these guys do. Obviously, they're gonna go for more NASCAR authenticity than GT5. If they did try to go the Daytona USA route just a little, they would probably muck it up and I wouldn't like it. Do whatever you want, doesn't bother me. I'm rambling incoherently now. I just want to get all my ideas out there now so I'm gonna stop.
In the meantime, expect the NASCAR The Game website clock to countdown in the future (Oct. 4) and we can learn more about it then (as if there were any other surprises...I'm not holding my breath).
http://www.nascarthegame.com/
UPDATE: According to the site above, NASCAR 2011 will be a pure racing sim. No surprise there.
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