Well, well, well, it's nearly 2011 and I figured I'd give my final post early for all you people who will get to New Year's hours ahead of me. Can't believe we have come this far in less than six months, starting in July after that damn GameFAQs message board mishap. We've talked about everything, from Daytona USA to OutRun 2.....from Split/Second to Hydro Thunder.....from Rock Band to CoD: Black Ops.....from GameFAQs to Midway....from Days of Thunder to Field of Dreams.....from Toshihiro Nagoshi to Segata Sanshiro.....from the New Orleans Saints to broken-ass basketball games.....from furries to Chicken McNuggets. I swear this is the best blog known to mankind and your insight of God's green earth will increase ten-fold by reading this.
Now, about New Year's celebration...well, I don't really care too much. It doesn't have that Christmas spirit. Just another day it seems. You pop some cheapo fireworks and stay up until midnight smelling of smoke. You take a look back at the year and think "Wow, that was a long time." Don't really understand how long a year is? Look at it this way...Take a day of your life; you wake up, eat, do work, go to bed. Now do that 364 more times. That's a long-ass amount of time for just a year. So a number changes on a calendar and we do all these ritualistic things for it. Not because of some patriotic or religious significance, just because we can...
I really don't know what I'm getting at here, but I hope you at least accrue a sense of self-worth and go out there and do stuff. Like if writing this blog has any positive effect on your life (albeit a small one), then I've done my job.
And for gratuitous self-promotion, here are the so-called Top 10 Articles I Wrote In 2010...in no particular order and in the end, I'll probably regret this list and will go back and edit it behind your backs so screw it:
1. Top 10 Nitpicks With Daytona USA 2001- Breaking down the game for the world (and Sega) to see.
2. Nagoshi-San and Osaki-San - Why Nagoshi is a bum and Osaki (of AM2) is the true mastermind behind Daytona.
3. Racing Is Scary - Why racing games should be taken more seriously beyond the level of Burnout and Split/Second.
4. Daytona USA Drama: Why I Like This Stuff - Me talking about the music and intangibles of Sega racers which move me this way. An unofficial Part 2 to the "official" page I posted on the right: Why Sega Racing Games Are So Good.
5. Don't Get All Emo On Me - Longing for that new Daytona game and listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd.
6. The Gloves Are Coming Off - Ripping violent and depressing games a new one!
7. Adventures in FPSes - Winning And Losing - Part one of three of my FPS experience. Deals with competition and pressure. There are life lessons to be learned. Also mentions the difference between an FPS and a violent game.
8. Adventures in Daytona USA - 2000 to 2005 - My beginnings as a Sega racer fan. Part one of two articles (latter looking into the future).
9. NEW SEGA THEME SONG - Cause I thought it was hilarious and informative and you know it's true.
10. Top 10 Notoriously Bad Driving Games - Just for laughs, check out these terrible driving games.
11 (screw the rules, I can go over 10). Happy Thanksgiving And Dramatic Life Stuff - Close encounters with death and being thankful.
More terrific articles like this on my blog if you search hard and long enough (hint: click on the tags to the right). Stay fly and have a safe 2011. Here's to hoping for some REALLY good games this year. Good night.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
I Hate Racing Games
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Ok, well I haven't ripped anything for a while so let's go again. I talked about Split/Second and Joystiq previously--well guess what, the site's back at it again with this long-winded fanciful narrative about how it's such a great game. It's also #7 of their Top 10 favorite games of 2010.
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/30/best-games-2010-split-second/
Speaking of which, I also watched some YouTube footage of Burnout: Revenge a couple of days ago. One clip among them stood out to me. In this clip, a pristine white muscle car (a '69 Camaro or whatever) hit a ramp, flew hundreds of feet, and collided with oncoming traffic, smashing everything to bits. A $100,000 car trashed in milliseconds as nearby traffic just sits there in awe, apparently. Oh, and if that wasn't bad enough, a bomb goes off in the car, further decimating nearby traffic. Honk honk, terrorist attack, drive away! AND IF THAT WAS BAD ENOUGH, THEN A SECOND BOMB GOES OFF! That's right, the car EXPLODES TWICE!
So this car's a bomb factory capable of laying waste to everything in its path! This is Al Qaeda's favorite automobile! The whole purpose of this mode is to see how much monetary damage you can deal to your environment (apparently, human life has no value seeing as you must've killed at least 20+ people).
You know what, if I wanted to play a game where I destroyed stuff, let's take it to the extreme, shall we?
You know, I'm gonna say this cause the Split/Second article above referred to cars as "attractively molded metal cages." I'm sick and tired of cars being treated like meat. Oh this goes WAY back to where I talked about the difference between cars taking damage and being outright demolished. Like I know Daytona USA 2 is a violent racing game, but in the end, it's you and your baby from start to finish. You take care of your car! None of this phony baloney "Look at my instant replay wreck," crap. This is just dumbing down the racing genre--as if the hyperactive action gamer who plays Halo or God of War needs something he can relate to.
My God, you have no idea how pissed off I get at this stuff.
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Oh, and I'm not done! I'm back to kicking around Fast and the Furious again. This is the Cruis'n game for the Wii. Note that this isn't me talking. Just speed up to 4:30 for the good part! I don't know why he says the game is "okay" though, that was my least favorite part.
NEWS FLASH TO ALL ASPIRING GAME DEVELOPERS: If there is a noticeable hangup (i.e. freeze or suspended animation) between changing car colors or music, then odds are your game sucks. Just look at the statistics--clunky interfaces and very long load times are signs of a BAD GAME.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
"Daytona" Toy Cars And Indy 500 Micro Machines PICS
I was trying out my new camera so I decided to snap some normal shots of some cars I have. Click to enlarge them.
These regular Hot Wheels-sized cars look like stock cars from Daytona USA...I bought them from Dollar Tree a very, very long time ago... I actually like the way they look despite not being official NASCAR merchandise. They look similar to the Hornet in that they resemble old '80-'90's stock cars. I have them on my desk. Too bad there's no P6 pink car (purple instead), but you get a silver car as a bonus.
And this is the 1996 Indianapolis 500 Starting Grid Micro Machine set I got recently. I have yet to open it, but I probably will. Don't really care about collector's items and whatnot...not like it was worth that much in the first place ($55 in the original package). I may show some more pics of my Micro Machines collection later.
Yes, that's one of my broken RB2 guitars as well as my RB3 keyboard right there, oh yeah.
These regular Hot Wheels-sized cars look like stock cars from Daytona USA...I bought them from Dollar Tree a very, very long time ago... I actually like the way they look despite not being official NASCAR merchandise. They look similar to the Hornet in that they resemble old '80-'90's stock cars. I have them on my desk. Too bad there's no P6 pink car (purple instead), but you get a silver car as a bonus.
YOU'RE LOOKIN' GOOD!!
And this is the 1996 Indianapolis 500 Starting Grid Micro Machine set I got recently. I have yet to open it, but I probably will. Don't really care about collector's items and whatnot...not like it was worth that much in the first place ($55 in the original package). I may show some more pics of my Micro Machines collection later.
TIME BOWNUS!!
Yes, that's one of my broken RB2 guitars as well as my RB3 keyboard right there, oh yeah.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Rock Band 3 Keyboards! Part 2: Welcome To Hell
Ok, now the Christmas fallout is over. I got a digital camera, a new desktop computer (one that can hopefully run HL Source games), a bunch of polo t-shirts, and a set of 1996 Indianapolis 500 Micro Machines. I might add I love Micro Machines and any small toy cars (Hot Wheels can bite me), but I'll get to that someday.
But most of all, I picked up the Rock Band 3 Clavier Keyboard with stand...alright, I'm super pumped! So that's the first present I opened up.
Now I've already talked about RB3 Keyboards before. My initial reactions were slightly off (ex. you can't play Guitar and Keys in the same song) but regardless, you have the option to play Pro Keys. That spans the entire length of 25 keys. On the contrary, normal Keys is just 5 notes--C, D, E, F, G. You have the option of holding the keyboard like a guitar (sling it over your shoulder), but I'd rather do like everyone else and lay the thing down on a surface.
But I said that everyone thought that Pro Keys on Hard/Expert was really hard and I thought I could take it, but no, it's THAT HARD. And this is coming from someone with over five years of piano lessons. There's four reasons why:
1. You usually have no idea where your hands are. So you'll see a note and go for it and you completely whiff it. Yes, you may say "I'll keep my hands here and remember from now on," but then you have to jump around, especially with the black keys which throw you off. The game tries to make it easy by color-coding the lanes, but it only helps a little.
2. You get hit in the face with a chord and no matter how slow it comes, your brain misfires and you miss it.
3. Fat fingers--you go for a note but accidentally hit another one too. Bam, miss the note. Even if you know which notes to hit, it can be hard to keep a combo going at first.
4. I wouldn't say this is a difficulty concern, but on some songs, you spend a lot of time idle waiting for notes to pop up. I just finished playing Radar Love and you have to sit there for a minute, play some hard chords, wait, play hard chords, repeat. Makes going for high scores more aggravating.
NOTE: One egregious offender is Rock Lobster. Once the guy goes "It's a giant clam! Down, down..." after those two-note repeated chords, just get up and walk away. Or party on the beach. Or beat your head against the keyboard. No more notes for the rest of the song. Hey, at least it was an easy FC for me!
And about the "whammy bar" touch pad and the Overdrive button--that's on the left side of the keyboard. So in theory, you're supposed to play the entire chart one-handed, but that doesn't stop people from using both. Like this:
Hardest Pro Keys song in the game. Now this guy deploys a good strategy--place the keyboard near the screen so you can see both at a time. I haven't tried it, but you can better see where your hands are.
Now unlike regular Guitar/Bass/Drums/Keys, you need to practice beforehand. Unless you're some sort of prodigy like Mozart, Liszt, or Danny (AKA GHPhenom), then you probably can't do it. Like throw up any moderate song--I'm not like the lady at church who plays any hymn on the piano or organ like that--no, not at all. Yes, you can turn No Fail on and still submit scores to the Leaderboards, but unless you feel like flailing around, then practice or play on Easy/Medium difficulty. The game does try to make it easy by offering you some training lessons for each song--specifically practice the hard bits over and over again until you get it. Unfortunately, these segments don't cover every hard part of the song which kind of sucks.
I just finished 5-starring all the Warmup Pro-Keys songs on Expert and even though it's not much, it still feels good. Just being able to get a combo going on something easy is tedious. Crap like Oh My God and Radar Love seem easy, but it's a few big chords and you can't afford to break your combo or miss that many Overdrive segments to have a chance. The only reasons these songs are labeled as easy is because with so few notes, it's hard to fail.
You have to fight your battles one at a time. If you don't know how to do something, start on easy then move up as you go along. Like a tube of toothpaste--roll it up from the back to front. I don't know how long I'll take this Pro Keys stuff seriously since it's so damn tedious. I'll probably go back to Guitar soon which I'm much better at.
So anyway, that's enough of the rant. If you like pianos, give it a shot. You've got to put practice into it though. UPDATE: I've gotten a lot better at Pro Keys (it's May 2011 and I've already 5-starred many Tier 5 thru 7 songs), I'll get back to you later about that.
But most of all, I picked up the Rock Band 3 Clavier Keyboard with stand...alright, I'm super pumped! So that's the first present I opened up.
Now I've already talked about RB3 Keyboards before. My initial reactions were slightly off (ex. you can't play Guitar and Keys in the same song) but regardless, you have the option to play Pro Keys. That spans the entire length of 25 keys. On the contrary, normal Keys is just 5 notes--C, D, E, F, G. You have the option of holding the keyboard like a guitar (sling it over your shoulder), but I'd rather do like everyone else and lay the thing down on a surface.
But I said that everyone thought that Pro Keys on Hard/Expert was really hard and I thought I could take it, but no, it's THAT HARD. And this is coming from someone with over five years of piano lessons. There's four reasons why:
1. You usually have no idea where your hands are. So you'll see a note and go for it and you completely whiff it. Yes, you may say "I'll keep my hands here and remember from now on," but then you have to jump around, especially with the black keys which throw you off. The game tries to make it easy by color-coding the lanes, but it only helps a little.
2. You get hit in the face with a chord and no matter how slow it comes, your brain misfires and you miss it.
3. Fat fingers--you go for a note but accidentally hit another one too. Bam, miss the note. Even if you know which notes to hit, it can be hard to keep a combo going at first.
4. I wouldn't say this is a difficulty concern, but on some songs, you spend a lot of time idle waiting for notes to pop up. I just finished playing Radar Love and you have to sit there for a minute, play some hard chords, wait, play hard chords, repeat. Makes going for high scores more aggravating.
NOTE: One egregious offender is Rock Lobster. Once the guy goes "It's a giant clam! Down, down..." after those two-note repeated chords, just get up and walk away. Or party on the beach. Or beat your head against the keyboard. No more notes for the rest of the song. Hey, at least it was an easy FC for me!
And about the "whammy bar" touch pad and the Overdrive button--that's on the left side of the keyboard. So in theory, you're supposed to play the entire chart one-handed, but that doesn't stop people from using both. Like this:
Hardest Pro Keys song in the game. Now this guy deploys a good strategy--place the keyboard near the screen so you can see both at a time. I haven't tried it, but you can better see where your hands are.
Now unlike regular Guitar/Bass/Drums/Keys, you need to practice beforehand. Unless you're some sort of prodigy like Mozart, Liszt, or Danny (AKA GHPhenom), then you probably can't do it. Like throw up any moderate song--I'm not like the lady at church who plays any hymn on the piano or organ like that--no, not at all. Yes, you can turn No Fail on and still submit scores to the Leaderboards, but unless you feel like flailing around, then practice or play on Easy/Medium difficulty. The game does try to make it easy by offering you some training lessons for each song--specifically practice the hard bits over and over again until you get it. Unfortunately, these segments don't cover every hard part of the song which kind of sucks.
I just finished 5-starring all the Warmup Pro-Keys songs on Expert and even though it's not much, it still feels good. Just being able to get a combo going on something easy is tedious. Crap like Oh My God and Radar Love seem easy, but it's a few big chords and you can't afford to break your combo or miss that many Overdrive segments to have a chance. The only reasons these songs are labeled as easy is because with so few notes, it's hard to fail.
You have to fight your battles one at a time. If you don't know how to do something, start on easy then move up as you go along. Like a tube of toothpaste--roll it up from the back to front. I don't know how long I'll take this Pro Keys stuff seriously since it's so damn tedious. I'll probably go back to Guitar soon which I'm much better at.
So anyway, that's enough of the rant. If you like pianos, give it a shot. You've got to put practice into it though. UPDATE: I've gotten a lot better at Pro Keys (it's May 2011 and I've already 5-starred many Tier 5 thru 7 songs), I'll get back to you later about that.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
All I Want For Christmas Is...
To Be THUNDERSTRUCK!!!
More crazy music to wreck your car to!
I'll get back to stupid stuff in 2 seconds.
More crazy music to wreck your car to!
I'll get back to stupid stuff in 2 seconds.
Merry Christmas For Real
You know what, enough of Santa Claus, the reindeer, the presents, etc. Let's cut to the chase of why this holiday is as big as it is:
Luke 2:1-20:
In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea. He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom.
Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night. The Lord’s angel stood before them, the Lord’s glory shone around them, and they were terrified.
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you–wonderful, joyous news for all people. Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”
When the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go right now to Bethlehem and see what’s happened. Let’s confirm what the Lord has revealed to us.” They went quickly and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw this, they reported what they had been told about this child. Everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds told them. Mary committed these things to memory and considered them carefully. The shepherds returned home, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Everything happened just as they had been told.
Starts out kind of lame, but it's Peanuts so yeah
And Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night...
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Also, not to steal from Jesus (that would be bad), but I also found this when looking for nativity pics:
Luke 2:1-20:
In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea. He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom.
Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night. The Lord’s angel stood before them, the Lord’s glory shone around them, and they were terrified.
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you–wonderful, joyous news for all people. Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”
When the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go right now to Bethlehem and see what’s happened. Let’s confirm what the Lord has revealed to us.” They went quickly and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw this, they reported what they had been told about this child. Everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds told them. Mary committed these things to memory and considered them carefully. The shepherds returned home, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Everything happened just as they had been told.
Starts out kind of lame, but it's Peanuts so yeah
And Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night...
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Also, not to steal from Jesus (that would be bad), but I also found this when looking for nativity pics:
There's a Sonic picture for everything, I'm fairly sure.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Victory Road -- Free Daytona USA/Virtua Racing Indie Game
This most certainly isn't new, but if you have the time, check out this game. I didn't make it, someone else did back in 2003. It's free and it's not that bad for an entry-level video game design project...
Click the link, then Get VR on the left, then the blue text that says "DOWNLOAD FULL GAME NOW!" If you're using Vista/Win7, download the .dll patch too and extract it to your base folder. Game works fine for me so I assume you can handle it. Not that hard to install...I hope.
As for the game itself, it uses plenty of Daytona USA stuff, such as the car and the music. The handling is similar to Virtua Racing in that turning causes you to drift, plus it uses the checkpoint music as well (TIME BOWNUS! *doodooteedoo*). The Advanced and Expert courses are completely original and they're not that bad-looking...too bad you have to unlock them though (just win a race on the easiest difficulty, I think).
Oh yeah, you can also run over people and you hear this *blop* noise, lol it's stupid and incredibly non-violent.
Oh yeah, you can also run over people and you hear this *blop* noise, lol it's stupid and incredibly non-violent.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Rockin Around The Christmas Tree
Alright, enough with the video game rants for a little while. This one's about Christmas. So we only have two days left. So far, it's been rather uneventful. Haven't really seen many Christmas lights. The cold weather (which I actually like...I'd move up north if I ever got out of here) has gone. Like you'd expect to see Christmas carolers, snow, shoppers with bags, Santa Claus imposters, candy canes, manger scenes, etc. but...not a whole lot going on. Maybe because we're in a recession, people are less likely to go do stuff so I don't know.
So I decide to go run some errands which basically means spend a lot of money for myself. Alright, we're at the mall again and there's quite a few people there, but I don't see traffic jams or congested parking lots, it's cool as usual. So I take the time to play Crazy Taxi again and I only get two tries. I up my best score to $7,700 with Gena which is good but I can do much better. Just like Daytona USA 2, I have to play the heck out of it to learn the subtleties of it. It's another self-taught thing. You know what--I bet that the Crazy Taxi game will be taken away soon, just a hunch. Not like I see anyone playing it, but since it's a lone cabinet off in the corner somewhere, they probably won't think of it.
Oh, and this is quite interesting. I told you about the Help Wanted sign I saw before. I was thinking about getting a job there just to make some extra money in a comfortable environment since I've got plenty of time on my hands now. On this sign was a phone number to call to get information, presumably the owner's home phone number. That sign has been up for a week and I've called that number ten times and left two messages with not a single reply. Now the sign's gone. What a bunch of idiots. There's also a Help Wanted sign in Office Depot...giddy up folks.
Back on topic, the only Christmas-y thing that I've done so far is prod my family into taking a drive around some nearby neighborhood with all these Christmas lights. There were some good houses with lots of stuff. I also counted about ten inflatable snowball Santas...take a while ball and put the hat, face, arms, and beard on it.
Also, my younger brother knows some rather wealthy friends from his school and he got invited to a Christmas party...just kind of sucks that I haven't gone to any social events either.
So, uh, I enjoy this time of year since you don't have to go to school and you get to to crazy stuff. I wish I could put off Christmas for some time, but no. I expect to get a few gifts like the Rock Band Keyboard and a digital camera, but that stuff's not too important to me. I want my family to be happy.
I also thought about giving you guys something...not sure what I can do though I may have something fortunate for those who read my blog.
Anyway, hope you guys have a good one for now.
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Super Terrific Bonanza: This is two years old. In case you don't know, I live in southeast Louisiana. It never snows here, but when it does, all hell breaks loose. This was back in December 11, 2008 which is the day of that infamous Louisiana snowstorm. I was driving to school to take an exam, but then it snowed on the way there and I started to take some shots on my cell phone. Hey, I was stuck in traffic...I had time. Check it out:
So I decide to go run some errands which basically means spend a lot of money for myself. Alright, we're at the mall again and there's quite a few people there, but I don't see traffic jams or congested parking lots, it's cool as usual. So I take the time to play Crazy Taxi again and I only get two tries. I up my best score to $7,700 with Gena which is good but I can do much better. Just like Daytona USA 2, I have to play the heck out of it to learn the subtleties of it. It's another self-taught thing. You know what--I bet that the Crazy Taxi game will be taken away soon, just a hunch. Not like I see anyone playing it, but since it's a lone cabinet off in the corner somewhere, they probably won't think of it.
Oh, and this is quite interesting. I told you about the Help Wanted sign I saw before. I was thinking about getting a job there just to make some extra money in a comfortable environment since I've got plenty of time on my hands now. On this sign was a phone number to call to get information, presumably the owner's home phone number. That sign has been up for a week and I've called that number ten times and left two messages with not a single reply. Now the sign's gone. What a bunch of idiots. There's also a Help Wanted sign in Office Depot...giddy up folks.
Back on topic, the only Christmas-y thing that I've done so far is prod my family into taking a drive around some nearby neighborhood with all these Christmas lights. There were some good houses with lots of stuff. I also counted about ten inflatable snowball Santas...take a while ball and put the hat, face, arms, and beard on it.
Also, my younger brother knows some rather wealthy friends from his school and he got invited to a Christmas party...just kind of sucks that I haven't gone to any social events either.
So, uh, I enjoy this time of year since you don't have to go to school and you get to to crazy stuff. I wish I could put off Christmas for some time, but no. I expect to get a few gifts like the Rock Band Keyboard and a digital camera, but that stuff's not too important to me. I want my family to be happy.
I also thought about giving you guys something...not sure what I can do though I may have something fortunate for those who read my blog.
Anyway, hope you guys have a good one for now.
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Super Terrific Bonanza: This is two years old. In case you don't know, I live in southeast Louisiana. It never snows here, but when it does, all hell breaks loose. This was back in December 11, 2008 which is the day of that infamous Louisiana snowstorm. I was driving to school to take an exam, but then it snowed on the way there and I started to take some shots on my cell phone. Hey, I was stuck in traffic...I had time. Check it out:
One of the best days of my life!
A Festivus For The Rest Of Us
If you know me, I'm a huge Seinfeld fan. December 23 may be Christmas Eve's Eve, but no--it is indeed Festivus. See here; too bad it's an abridged version:
"The Strike" Season 9 Ep. 10, first aired December 18, 1997.
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Now for my personal Airing of Grievances. I'm exaggerating here BTW so don't cry about it:
Sega, you didn't make that new Daytona USA game and I'm pissed! As a matter of fact, you've done little more than piss on our childhood dreams! All you do is publish games and take credit for it--you don't develop them! Stop making games about urinals! Also, try to build upon your old Dreamcast games rather than release they hackneyed ports that disintegrate in the bowels of Xbox Live Marketplace!
Toshihiro Nagoshi, you bum, stop hitting up the bars and tanning booths and make some good old Sega games from the old days! No more of this Yakuza or Binary Domain crap, give me something Daytona-related!
Sonic Team, thanks for stabbing the Sonic franchise with a rusty shank all this time!
Nintendo, you're overrated and no one has the guts to say it so I will! The Wii is a shovelware receptacle hinging entirely on the likes of Zelda, Smash Bros., Mario Kart, and miscellaneous motion control games! Also, I will never forgive you for making the bikes overpowered in Mario Kart Wii!
Microsoft, the Kinect is a piece of crap! Also, your little Xbox Live Avatars are incredibly ugly and seeing them makes me want to puke!
GameFAQs, your site is a good source of user-submitted guides, cheat codes, and reviews, but the message boards stink! Your moderators are crazy and so are your little user-contests! The Best Game contests are also lousy cause I can't take this Final Fantasy or Zelda crap anymore! I also don't like in that "Rate The Song" contest on the Rock Band 3 board you posters gave Werewolves of London, I Can See For Miles, Foolin', Good Vibrations, and Rock Lobster (yes) crap scores while you gave Beast and the Harlot a good score (click here)!
Kotaku, you're turning into the G4TV of gaming blogs! Stop pissing me off with your mis-representation of racing games, the miscellaneous science stories, dumb random crap, and all those anime chick pinups!
G4TV and Spike, congratulations on making me feel embarrassed to be a gamer! X-Play is trash, Attack of the Show is lame, and Code Monkeys is the kind of crap my obnoxious WoW-obsessed Mountain Dew-drinking "accomplice" would like!
Game Informer, I'll never forgive you for that old OutRun 2 review where you gave it a 6.5! Your magazine sucks and I hope you fail!
Activision, you are an embarrassment to the gaming community! The way you slash and burn game companies--you do not allow any room for creativity or innovation! It's all about the money, isn't it?
Namco Arcade in the mall, I'll never forgive you for taking away that Daytona USA 2 cabinet, regardless of the logistics behind it!
Forza 3 and Turn 10, I'm pissed at how the PI ratings are so screwed up that I can't play it anymore! Perfectly good game goes to waste and now I can't play it anymore!
World of Warcraft, you ruined gaming as we know it with its grinding gameplay, crap graphics in which all the characters look the same, and turning everyone I know into zombies who use nerdy lingo and don't shower!
Midway and Raw Thrills, you suck, end of story.
All you people who don't read my blog, you don't know what you're missing so shame on you!
...I lost my train of thought, that's the end for me, I'm through.
"The Strike" Season 9 Ep. 10, first aired December 18, 1997.
------------
Now for my personal Airing of Grievances. I'm exaggerating here BTW so don't cry about it:
Sega, you didn't make that new Daytona USA game and I'm pissed! As a matter of fact, you've done little more than piss on our childhood dreams! All you do is publish games and take credit for it--you don't develop them! Stop making games about urinals! Also, try to build upon your old Dreamcast games rather than release they hackneyed ports that disintegrate in the bowels of Xbox Live Marketplace!
Toshihiro Nagoshi, you bum, stop hitting up the bars and tanning booths and make some good old Sega games from the old days! No more of this Yakuza or Binary Domain crap, give me something Daytona-related!
Sonic Team, thanks for stabbing the Sonic franchise with a rusty shank all this time!
Nintendo, you're overrated and no one has the guts to say it so I will! The Wii is a shovelware receptacle hinging entirely on the likes of Zelda, Smash Bros., Mario Kart, and miscellaneous motion control games! Also, I will never forgive you for making the bikes overpowered in Mario Kart Wii!
Microsoft, the Kinect is a piece of crap! Also, your little Xbox Live Avatars are incredibly ugly and seeing them makes me want to puke!
GameFAQs, your site is a good source of user-submitted guides, cheat codes, and reviews, but the message boards stink! Your moderators are crazy and so are your little user-contests! The Best Game contests are also lousy cause I can't take this Final Fantasy or Zelda crap anymore! I also don't like in that "Rate The Song" contest on the Rock Band 3 board you posters gave Werewolves of London, I Can See For Miles, Foolin', Good Vibrations, and Rock Lobster (yes) crap scores while you gave Beast and the Harlot a good score (click here)!
Kotaku, you're turning into the G4TV of gaming blogs! Stop pissing me off with your mis-representation of racing games, the miscellaneous science stories, dumb random crap, and all those anime chick pinups!
G4TV and Spike, congratulations on making me feel embarrassed to be a gamer! X-Play is trash, Attack of the Show is lame, and Code Monkeys is the kind of crap my obnoxious WoW-obsessed Mountain Dew-drinking "accomplice" would like!
Game Informer, I'll never forgive you for that old OutRun 2 review where you gave it a 6.5! Your magazine sucks and I hope you fail!
Activision, you are an embarrassment to the gaming community! The way you slash and burn game companies--you do not allow any room for creativity or innovation! It's all about the money, isn't it?
Namco Arcade in the mall, I'll never forgive you for taking away that Daytona USA 2 cabinet, regardless of the logistics behind it!
Forza 3 and Turn 10, I'm pissed at how the PI ratings are so screwed up that I can't play it anymore! Perfectly good game goes to waste and now I can't play it anymore!
World of Warcraft, you ruined gaming as we know it with its grinding gameplay, crap graphics in which all the characters look the same, and turning everyone I know into zombies who use nerdy lingo and don't shower!
Midway and Raw Thrills, you suck, end of story.
All you people who don't read my blog, you don't know what you're missing so shame on you!
...I lost my train of thought, that's the end for me, I'm through.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Motorstorm: Apocalype, Lawyers, Lots Of Stuff, I'm Cryin'
First, I'd like to say that I feel somewhat distraught by making quite a few negative posts lately, especially one aimed at Daytona USA 2001. I don't know if anyone's interested in this stuff--I get very little feedback. For one thing, it's more "fun" to write negative material than positive, hence why you have people like Angry Video Game Nerd and Maddox the Pirate who constantly rip things a new a-hole.
But the main reason I brought up Daytona USA is because I genuinely care about the franchise...I could treat it like Blur or Split/Second and just gash it and go away, but I really want it to be good so I tell whoever what can be done to make it better. Like if you ever have children, you want to correct and discipline them because you care and want them to be good. I guess I criticize the state of racing games for that very reason. I just hate how so much energy is put into so much junk and whatnot...
That concludes this message.
------------
I talked about Motorstorm: Apocalypse a while back in my violent/depressing video game rant and well, it rears its ugly head again. You want me to come on here and criticize it--well, let's take a look at this six minute video:
Found the video from this Joystiq article.
Ok, so you can drive monster trucks, dune buggies, muscle cars, sports cars, ATVs, chopper bikes, whatever. You and your gang has fun driving around an abandoned city as you dodge falling buildings, derailed trains, and pits of boiling lava (I made up that last one). So it's like the last Motorstorm--just drive around, don't die, take multiple paths to the exit. Oh yeah, and there's a few military contractors in the city trying to mow you down. So not only do you get to crash and burn but you also get to run over people. Sounds great!
I can't help but think I'm watching Michael Bay: The Racing Game. It's Split/Second's bastard child. Yes, it's obvious that these people put a lot of time and effort into making sure the game's good, but I think they missed the point...
See, most every racing game is on some extreme. You got games that are "boring old sim racers," like Gran Turismo, Forza, Test Drive Unlimited, iRacing, etc. Then on the other spectrum, you've got "OCD-blow-up stuff-in-your-face-crap" like Burnout, Split/Second, Motorstorm... It's like there's very few games in that medium. That's where the good Sega racers are--not too over the top, but not boring. They're professionally-made games. I think Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit may fit in this category too, but since that was made by Criterion, I'm not too certain it what's I'm looking for.
------------
When in doubt, sue someone:
Harmonix (Rock Band dev) sues Viacom (ex-Rock Band publisher).
Infinity Ward sues Activision who sues Electronic Arts over Medal of Honor/Call of Duty.
I don't know about you, but I sure as hell wouldn't touch a big company like Activision or Viacom and expect to come out alive. Hey, check this out. New Call of Duty for 2011 announced. This one's not by Infinity Ward (they're dead, remember?), it's by this new studio called Sledgehammer Games. Who the hell is that? Anyway, I really like Call of Duty, but it's going to get run into the ground eventually (if it hasn't already). I'm really worried. That and between Activision's habit of gashing game studios like that, I'd be afraid to work at Treyarch. BTW, Black Ops just made $1 billion, so no, I don't think Activision will cut back in the slightest. At leat the $15 DLC map packs will have four MP maps as opposed to three (including the obligatory zombie map).
Speaking of Activision, look at Guitar Hero (I'm jumping around a lot here). Guess what--Guitar Hero is officially dead. So while Rock Band gets gobs of DLC on a weekly basis, Guitar Hero gets like two or three songs a month. And this month, Guitar Hero gets three Kiss songs, two that are playable in Rock Band (Detroit Rock City and Calling Dr. Love) and one in GH: Smash Hits (Rock and Roll All Nite). So what's the point? Combine that this year's GH: Warriors of Rock abysmal first month sales of 86,000 and there, it's dead. Once again, Guitar Hero fanboys should thank Activision very much.
------------
I want to end this now, so I'm going to throw in three more quick links:
Gran Tursimo 5 Gets a 600mb Patch - Adds some new features for online play such as stat tracking among others. Hey, sounds great...waited all that time and they still need to fix it...doesn't sound good for Polyphony Digital.
Gears of War 3 Maps Will Be "Brighter" - Article goes on to say that the most popular GoW2 maps were the brightest and most colorful. Hmm? So people are getting tired of the grey, brown, and crimson red? Now there is no 100% way to confirm that the color is the sole reason those maps are the most popular (it could be because those maps have better layouts, etc.) but still...cut the crap people. We don't want to play this depressing garbage anymore.
Some Guy Talking About Sega Racing Classic - Old and nothing really new, but if you know little about this, read it. Old Daytona USA cabinets needed to be repaired, some needing parts that aren't made anymore. Daytona license costs too much.
The end.
But the main reason I brought up Daytona USA is because I genuinely care about the franchise...I could treat it like Blur or Split/Second and just gash it and go away, but I really want it to be good so I tell whoever what can be done to make it better. Like if you ever have children, you want to correct and discipline them because you care and want them to be good. I guess I criticize the state of racing games for that very reason. I just hate how so much energy is put into so much junk and whatnot...
That concludes this message.
------------
I talked about Motorstorm: Apocalypse a while back in my violent/depressing video game rant and well, it rears its ugly head again. You want me to come on here and criticize it--well, let's take a look at this six minute video:
Found the video from this Joystiq article.
Ok, so you can drive monster trucks, dune buggies, muscle cars, sports cars, ATVs, chopper bikes, whatever. You and your gang has fun driving around an abandoned city as you dodge falling buildings, derailed trains, and pits of boiling lava (I made up that last one). So it's like the last Motorstorm--just drive around, don't die, take multiple paths to the exit. Oh yeah, and there's a few military contractors in the city trying to mow you down. So not only do you get to crash and burn but you also get to run over people. Sounds great!
I can't help but think I'm watching Michael Bay: The Racing Game. It's Split/Second's bastard child. Yes, it's obvious that these people put a lot of time and effort into making sure the game's good, but I think they missed the point...
See, most every racing game is on some extreme. You got games that are "boring old sim racers," like Gran Turismo, Forza, Test Drive Unlimited, iRacing, etc. Then on the other spectrum, you've got "OCD-blow-up stuff-in-your-face-crap" like Burnout, Split/Second, Motorstorm... It's like there's very few games in that medium. That's where the good Sega racers are--not too over the top, but not boring. They're professionally-made games. I think Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit may fit in this category too, but since that was made by Criterion, I'm not too certain it what's I'm looking for.
------------
When in doubt, sue someone:
Harmonix (Rock Band dev) sues Viacom (ex-Rock Band publisher).
Infinity Ward sues Activision who sues Electronic Arts over Medal of Honor/Call of Duty.
I don't know about you, but I sure as hell wouldn't touch a big company like Activision or Viacom and expect to come out alive. Hey, check this out. New Call of Duty for 2011 announced. This one's not by Infinity Ward (they're dead, remember?), it's by this new studio called Sledgehammer Games. Who the hell is that? Anyway, I really like Call of Duty, but it's going to get run into the ground eventually (if it hasn't already). I'm really worried. That and between Activision's habit of gashing game studios like that, I'd be afraid to work at Treyarch. BTW, Black Ops just made $1 billion, so no, I don't think Activision will cut back in the slightest. At leat the $15 DLC map packs will have four MP maps as opposed to three (including the obligatory zombie map).
Speaking of Activision, look at Guitar Hero (I'm jumping around a lot here). Guess what--Guitar Hero is officially dead. So while Rock Band gets gobs of DLC on a weekly basis, Guitar Hero gets like two or three songs a month. And this month, Guitar Hero gets three Kiss songs, two that are playable in Rock Band (Detroit Rock City and Calling Dr. Love) and one in GH: Smash Hits (Rock and Roll All Nite). So what's the point? Combine that this year's GH: Warriors of Rock abysmal first month sales of 86,000 and there, it's dead. Once again, Guitar Hero fanboys should thank Activision very much.
------------
I want to end this now, so I'm going to throw in three more quick links:
Gran Tursimo 5 Gets a 600mb Patch - Adds some new features for online play such as stat tracking among others. Hey, sounds great...waited all that time and they still need to fix it...doesn't sound good for Polyphony Digital.
Gears of War 3 Maps Will Be "Brighter" - Article goes on to say that the most popular GoW2 maps were the brightest and most colorful. Hmm? So people are getting tired of the grey, brown, and crimson red? Now there is no 100% way to confirm that the color is the sole reason those maps are the most popular (it could be because those maps have better layouts, etc.) but still...cut the crap people. We don't want to play this depressing garbage anymore.
Some Guy Talking About Sega Racing Classic - Old and nothing really new, but if you know little about this, read it. Old Daytona USA cabinets needed to be repaired, some needing parts that aren't made anymore. Daytona license costs too much.
The end.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Top 10 Nitpicks With Daytona USA 2001 (Dreamcast)
NOTE: I wrote this rather hastily (it's late again) so I may go back and edit some stuff so I'll let you know if I change anything.
And here we go with an article I've been thinking up for weeks. I've always clamored for a good Daytona USA game for home consoles, but in case you weren't aware, there already exists a modest game for consoles. And no, I'm not talking about the Saturn/PC ports. This one is for the Dreamcast and it has been appropriately dubbed "Daytona USA 2001" outside the US as to avoid confusion with the original '94 arcade release.
First of all, before I begin, this is a good game. If you want one of the best racing games for the Dreamcast, I suggest picking this one up. Good graphics, smooth framerate, no pop-up. It's a fine Sega product. However, I'm going to delve into the game and talk about some of the things I don't really like about it.
But first, gameplay video courtesy of rjay (although he didn't film it...some Japanese dude did):
What, you're surprised I'm not 100% content with a Sega racer? Ah, you see, I love these games, but if something stinks, I'll point it out for you. And yes, even games like Daytona 1/2, Scud Race, and OutRun 2 have their flaws, albeit very few since no game is "perfect" yet they're as close to it as perfection as you get.
If you're not deep into this stuff like I am, you probably won't be bothered by any of the things I mention here. That's why I'm calling them "nitpicks." Here we go in vague order of how much they irked me:
------------
10. The joystick sensitivity is whack. You hear this a lot from mainstream players. Just a single nudge of the stick will send the car into a drift that you must ease your way out of or else you crash and die. I got used to the sensitivity so it wasn't that big a problem for me. Of course, there's a simple remedy--lower the joystick sensitivity in the options menu. Still, not sure why there has to be so many complaints in the first place.
It's worth mentioning that the sensitivity is fine-tuned for steering wheels...got myself a nice Dreamcast wheel and pedals. It was the closest things to the arcade as I could get. No gear shifter though, have to push the buttons. :(
9. The AI cars are as dumb as bricks. Now I can't recall the AI in Daytona 1, but in Daytona 2, they were at least competent and could bump you around. In this one, they don't do anything. They're just traffic bumps good for drafting and that's it. You can literally ram the other cars into the wall and they don't push back at all. Pathetic.
8. Online play sucked. Well, this is a gimme since the Dreamcast servers went down in '03-'04 and I never had a chance to play it. But assuming it still worked, you'd have one glaring flaw--only four players max. A Daytona game with just four players when the arcade games had eight?? You kiddin' me? Did you know that Virtua Racing was capable of eight players? Not to mention I heard dumb stuff about cars warping around the track due to latency problems, but I have little proof other than vague accounts from back in the day.
Also, in the US version, you need to play online to unlock the Red Cat (pace car). But good luck trying to play online now! You either need to use a Gameshark/ActionReplay or play a foreign copy of the game instead (unlock conditions for the Red Cat are different).
7. The handling is somewhat different from Daytona USA arcade. Now this probably isn't a flaw, but it's worth pointing out. In the arcade version, the Hornet car was able to push much faster times than most any car in the Dreamcast version (barring the Javelin and I THINK the Rule of the 9th and the Unicorn).
For instance, on Dinosaur Canyon (Advanced course), it is possible to push below 2:53 in arcades, but only 2:56 with the Dreamcast Hornet. On Seaside Street Galaxy (Expert course), 3:03 in arcades and 3:10-3:15 with Dreamcast Hornet. It's very hard to tell cause all that exists are a bunch of YouTube videos and outdated leaderboards, but there is a noticeable difference.
This is probably the case because you lose less speed while drifting in the arcade version. Haven't put the two side-by-side but that seems obvious. Considering rumors of how Sega lost the source code for the original Daytona USA, they did a good job of recreating the physics from scratch.
6. Pit stops are absolutely useless. What do I mean? In Daytona for arcades, the longer you drove, the worse the car handling got due to tire wear. This was enhanced in Daytona 2 where wrecks decrease handling and fuel runs out over time. However, almost nobody got to experience this since the brief arcade races (3 to 4 mins) never warranted a situation where you needed to pit.
The frustration compounds in Daytona 2001 for two reasons. One, you can tweak the lap settings for an endurance race. Okay, no pit stops whatsoever? Two, it seems like they went out of their way to enhance the pit crew animations so why did they make them go to waste? Sure, pit stops clean your car of damage, but it's entirely visual. It's stupid.
One reason why they probably omitted the mandatory pitstops is because the tire compound gimmick. Harder tires make the car more slippery which is a double edged sword--easier to produce skillful drifts, but also increases the likelihood of an overdrift and makes the car skittish when trying to straighten out which can reduce acceleration. Now I don't have a problem with the tires--it's a neat idea. Obviously from an endurance perspective, softer tires would wear out much faster and since you can do just as well, if not, better (though you need to the skills to take advantage) by just sticking to hard tires which gives you the longest mileage, thereby defeating the purpose.
5. The voices in this game are mediocre. I'm talking about the announcer and the pit chief.
Now for the announcer. Oh geez...I don't know how to say this...he sounds homosexual, more apropos for a Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant than a stock car race. And no, this is not from a homophobic point of view, he's just not appropriate for this job. This dandy, happy voice ain't cutting it--sorry. Take the announcers from Daytona 1 and 2. Dude yelling, "Gentlemen...START YOUR ENGINES!!" Sheer brilliance. The DC announcer just doesn't do it justice.
And what's with "Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines"? Are we that politically correct nowadays? Sorry women, I really like you all, but the traditional phrase IS "Gentlemen, start your engines," what else do you expect?
And about the pit chief. Well, he doesn't sound like the "cowboy" from Daytona 1. He just doesn't fit as well either. He chimes in with the same canned phrases that really don't add much to the experience at all. They had a chance to up the number of phrases from the pit chief (one of Daytona's weaknesses...just admit it), but they didn't do such a thing.
On the contrary...the engine and tire sounds in this game are quite good. Almost up to par with the arcade games.
4. Awkward car design choices. In this game, they look all shiny and polished which just seems awkward. Too clean! Now I don't have a problem with some of the more "abstract" stock cars like the Falcon or the Lightning, but what I think kills them is that they just lack detail. Most of them are painted the same color with bland numbering and few decals. I'd up the looks on these if I could. Although I do think the Unicorn is probably the best-looking car in the game.
Also, where's the original Hornet? Come on--nothing wrong with the new Hornet, but you couldn't throw in the old one too? They threw in the original Hornet in Daytona: Championship Edition (albeit it didn't fit in too well), but this was years later...they could've pulled it off...
And then there's the bonus cars--the Pywackett Barchetta (what the--), the Rule of the 9th, and the Javelin (ROCKET MAN!!). Now this isn't the first time Daytona got a joke car (see Uma the Horse). I believe they got these characters from Burning Rangers (I may be wrong), but what I really don't get is why they inferiorize the regular cars...Rule of the 9th is a better Lightning and Pywackett Barchetta is a better Grasshopper. What's that all about? The Javelin car is quite interesting though--definitely the fastest as well as hardest to control in Daytona history.
What the hell's goin' on there mang, whatchoo tryin' to...
3. The track design is questionable. The three tracks from Daytona arcade are here--Three-Seven Speedway, Dinosaur Canyon, and Seaside Street Galaxy. Now normally that would be enough right there, but Sega was kind enough to throw in five more. There's two courses from Daytona: Championship Edition--Desert City and National Park Speedway--and three DC-exclusives--Circuit Pixie, Rin Rin Rink, and Mermaid Lake (great names, huh?). That's eight courses total which looks good on paper.
However, besides the original three tracks, the others are a bit on the boring side. What do I mean? There's just not enough eye candy present. They don't have that "legendary" feeling. National Park Speedway is literally the most boring track I've ever seen. Desert City is okay with the hot air balloons. The three exclusives aren't bad, but they're not technically complex in the slightest. They were made for high-paced online racing which is good, but since online is DEAD...what's the point? Mermaid Lake stands out as the most interesting non-original course IMO because it takes place at sunset and has that huge banking turn which leads into the tunnel. Sweetness.
Also, it doesn't help that (I have a feeling I'm gonna get shot for this) the music for the other tracks is boring. Like really, you can get into the music from Daytona 1/2, OutRun 1/2, even freakin Turbo OutRun, but I really cannot recall any of the other tracks in the game. They put me to sleep. Sorry, you need a good soundtrack to go with the intense racing action.
I did like the car/track selection menu music--nice little piano ditty going on there...
2. No Daytona 2/Scud Race stuff whatsoever. Just a disgrace. Scud Race came out in '96, Daytona 2 in '98, and Daytona DC in '01. These games were hot off the assembly line, but Sega missed their chance. This game only contains stuff pertaining to Daytona 1 and Championship Edition ONLY.
I kind of see why Sega chose to do this. There's two camps of Daytona fans--those who like all of them (from Virtua Racing to Daytona 2) and those who want nothing to do with Daytona 2 or all that crap and will play the original 3 D1 courses all day long. I guess they thought one of two things...
A. Daytona 2/Scud Race content doesn't blend well with Daytona 1 content (particularly due to subtle differences in handling).
B. It's better to cater to Daytona 1 fans only than anyone else.
Not sure why they chose to do this, but this was probably the closest we ever got to a D2/SR port which is a real shame since all that stuff will be left to pick up dust in the annals of Sega history...
1. It's not made by AM2. I happen to love AM2. They're Sega's best studio as far as I'm concerned. Yes, Toshihiro Nagoshi, the supposed brain behind Daytona, basically owns Amusement Vision (AV) but it was AM2's palm tree stamp of approval that was all over the arcade versions. So basically, Daytona was originally AM2's baby, but AV (as well as this random dev called Genki...don't know what's up with that) just hijacked it.
Now don't get me wrong, AV isn't bad--they did a good job with F-Zero GX in '03, but clearly if I had to choose between AM2 or AV to make Daytona, I'd go with AM2. I mean, AM2 has already made numerous racers before this so why not them? Hey Nagoshi and AV, go make your Super Monkey Ball and Virtua Striker games. Go get drunk and make more Yakuza and Binary Domain games.
------------
That's about it, I really can't come up with anything else. So why do I bring this up? The primary reason why is for informative purposes. If Sega were to somehow make another Daytona game again, then they better damn well pay attention and get their stuff straight. The secondary reason is to clear up any misconceptions people think I have of this game. Yes, it's a good game, but it's not the home run I expected from Sega. Besides, the game's nine years old and if OutRun could get numerous sequels, so could Daytona get at least one final victory lap.
Like I said before, if you don't mind the things I mentioned above (and odds are you won't), then you should like the game anyway. I think though that if Sega were to make another Daytona game, they should incorporate stuff from this game in it too as long as they tweak it a little...
Let me end on some of my super-old gameplay footage:
And here we go with an article I've been thinking up for weeks. I've always clamored for a good Daytona USA game for home consoles, but in case you weren't aware, there already exists a modest game for consoles. And no, I'm not talking about the Saturn/PC ports. This one is for the Dreamcast and it has been appropriately dubbed "Daytona USA 2001" outside the US as to avoid confusion with the original '94 arcade release.
First of all, before I begin, this is a good game. If you want one of the best racing games for the Dreamcast, I suggest picking this one up. Good graphics, smooth framerate, no pop-up. It's a fine Sega product. However, I'm going to delve into the game and talk about some of the things I don't really like about it.
But first, gameplay video courtesy of rjay (although he didn't film it...some Japanese dude did):
What, you're surprised I'm not 100% content with a Sega racer? Ah, you see, I love these games, but if something stinks, I'll point it out for you. And yes, even games like Daytona 1/2, Scud Race, and OutRun 2 have their flaws, albeit very few since no game is "perfect" yet they're as close to it as perfection as you get.
If you're not deep into this stuff like I am, you probably won't be bothered by any of the things I mention here. That's why I'm calling them "nitpicks." Here we go in vague order of how much they irked me:
------------
10. The joystick sensitivity is whack. You hear this a lot from mainstream players. Just a single nudge of the stick will send the car into a drift that you must ease your way out of or else you crash and die. I got used to the sensitivity so it wasn't that big a problem for me. Of course, there's a simple remedy--lower the joystick sensitivity in the options menu. Still, not sure why there has to be so many complaints in the first place.
It's worth mentioning that the sensitivity is fine-tuned for steering wheels...got myself a nice Dreamcast wheel and pedals. It was the closest things to the arcade as I could get. No gear shifter though, have to push the buttons. :(
9. The AI cars are as dumb as bricks. Now I can't recall the AI in Daytona 1, but in Daytona 2, they were at least competent and could bump you around. In this one, they don't do anything. They're just traffic bumps good for drafting and that's it. You can literally ram the other cars into the wall and they don't push back at all. Pathetic.
8. Online play sucked. Well, this is a gimme since the Dreamcast servers went down in '03-'04 and I never had a chance to play it. But assuming it still worked, you'd have one glaring flaw--only four players max. A Daytona game with just four players when the arcade games had eight?? You kiddin' me? Did you know that Virtua Racing was capable of eight players? Not to mention I heard dumb stuff about cars warping around the track due to latency problems, but I have little proof other than vague accounts from back in the day.
Eight player Sega magic back in '92.
Also, in the US version, you need to play online to unlock the Red Cat (pace car). But good luck trying to play online now! You either need to use a Gameshark/ActionReplay or play a foreign copy of the game instead (unlock conditions for the Red Cat are different).
7. The handling is somewhat different from Daytona USA arcade. Now this probably isn't a flaw, but it's worth pointing out. In the arcade version, the Hornet car was able to push much faster times than most any car in the Dreamcast version (barring the Javelin and I THINK the Rule of the 9th and the Unicorn).
For instance, on Dinosaur Canyon (Advanced course), it is possible to push below 2:53 in arcades, but only 2:56 with the Dreamcast Hornet. On Seaside Street Galaxy (Expert course), 3:03 in arcades and 3:10-3:15 with Dreamcast Hornet. It's very hard to tell cause all that exists are a bunch of YouTube videos and outdated leaderboards, but there is a noticeable difference.
This is probably the case because you lose less speed while drifting in the arcade version. Haven't put the two side-by-side but that seems obvious. Considering rumors of how Sega lost the source code for the original Daytona USA, they did a good job of recreating the physics from scratch.
6. Pit stops are absolutely useless. What do I mean? In Daytona for arcades, the longer you drove, the worse the car handling got due to tire wear. This was enhanced in Daytona 2 where wrecks decrease handling and fuel runs out over time. However, almost nobody got to experience this since the brief arcade races (3 to 4 mins) never warranted a situation where you needed to pit.
The frustration compounds in Daytona 2001 for two reasons. One, you can tweak the lap settings for an endurance race. Okay, no pit stops whatsoever? Two, it seems like they went out of their way to enhance the pit crew animations so why did they make them go to waste? Sure, pit stops clean your car of damage, but it's entirely visual. It's stupid.
Thanks, guys.
One reason why they probably omitted the mandatory pitstops is because the tire compound gimmick. Harder tires make the car more slippery which is a double edged sword--easier to produce skillful drifts, but also increases the likelihood of an overdrift and makes the car skittish when trying to straighten out which can reduce acceleration. Now I don't have a problem with the tires--it's a neat idea. Obviously from an endurance perspective, softer tires would wear out much faster and since you can do just as well, if not, better (though you need to the skills to take advantage) by just sticking to hard tires which gives you the longest mileage, thereby defeating the purpose.
5. The voices in this game are mediocre. I'm talking about the announcer and the pit chief.
Now for the announcer. Oh geez...I don't know how to say this...he sounds homosexual, more apropos for a Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant than a stock car race. And no, this is not from a homophobic point of view, he's just not appropriate for this job. This dandy, happy voice ain't cutting it--sorry. Take the announcers from Daytona 1 and 2. Dude yelling, "Gentlemen...START YOUR ENGINES!!" Sheer brilliance. The DC announcer just doesn't do it justice.
And what's with "Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines"? Are we that politically correct nowadays? Sorry women, I really like you all, but the traditional phrase IS "Gentlemen, start your engines," what else do you expect?
PREPOSTEROUS!
And about the pit chief. Well, he doesn't sound like the "cowboy" from Daytona 1. He just doesn't fit as well either. He chimes in with the same canned phrases that really don't add much to the experience at all. They had a chance to up the number of phrases from the pit chief (one of Daytona's weaknesses...just admit it), but they didn't do such a thing.
On the contrary...the engine and tire sounds in this game are quite good. Almost up to par with the arcade games.
4. Awkward car design choices. In this game, they look all shiny and polished which just seems awkward. Too clean! Now I don't have a problem with some of the more "abstract" stock cars like the Falcon or the Lightning, but what I think kills them is that they just lack detail. Most of them are painted the same color with bland numbering and few decals. I'd up the looks on these if I could. Although I do think the Unicorn is probably the best-looking car in the game.
Plain.
Also, where's the original Hornet? Come on--nothing wrong with the new Hornet, but you couldn't throw in the old one too? They threw in the original Hornet in Daytona: Championship Edition (albeit it didn't fit in too well), but this was years later...they could've pulled it off...
You can't deny me the HORNET!
And then there's the bonus cars--the Pywackett Barchetta (what the--), the Rule of the 9th, and the Javelin (ROCKET MAN!!). Now this isn't the first time Daytona got a joke car (see Uma the Horse). I believe they got these characters from Burning Rangers (I may be wrong), but what I really don't get is why they inferiorize the regular cars...Rule of the 9th is a better Lightning and Pywackett Barchetta is a better Grasshopper. What's that all about? The Javelin car is quite interesting though--definitely the fastest as well as hardest to control in Daytona history.
What the hell's goin' on there mang, whatchoo tryin' to...
3. The track design is questionable. The three tracks from Daytona arcade are here--Three-Seven Speedway, Dinosaur Canyon, and Seaside Street Galaxy. Now normally that would be enough right there, but Sega was kind enough to throw in five more. There's two courses from Daytona: Championship Edition--Desert City and National Park Speedway--and three DC-exclusives--Circuit Pixie, Rin Rin Rink, and Mermaid Lake (great names, huh?). That's eight courses total which looks good on paper.
Every track in the game.
However, besides the original three tracks, the others are a bit on the boring side. What do I mean? There's just not enough eye candy present. They don't have that "legendary" feeling. National Park Speedway is literally the most boring track I've ever seen. Desert City is okay with the hot air balloons. The three exclusives aren't bad, but they're not technically complex in the slightest. They were made for high-paced online racing which is good, but since online is DEAD...what's the point? Mermaid Lake stands out as the most interesting non-original course IMO because it takes place at sunset and has that huge banking turn which leads into the tunnel. Sweetness.
Also, it doesn't help that (I have a feeling I'm gonna get shot for this) the music for the other tracks is boring. Like really, you can get into the music from Daytona 1/2, OutRun 1/2, even freakin Turbo OutRun, but I really cannot recall any of the other tracks in the game. They put me to sleep. Sorry, you need a good soundtrack to go with the intense racing action.
I did like the car/track selection menu music--nice little piano ditty going on there...
2. No Daytona 2/Scud Race stuff whatsoever. Just a disgrace. Scud Race came out in '96, Daytona 2 in '98, and Daytona DC in '01. These games were hot off the assembly line, but Sega missed their chance. This game only contains stuff pertaining to Daytona 1 and Championship Edition ONLY.
I kind of see why Sega chose to do this. There's two camps of Daytona fans--those who like all of them (from Virtua Racing to Daytona 2) and those who want nothing to do with Daytona 2 or all that crap and will play the original 3 D1 courses all day long. I guess they thought one of two things...
A. Daytona 2/Scud Race content doesn't blend well with Daytona 1 content (particularly due to subtle differences in handling).
B. It's better to cater to Daytona 1 fans only than anyone else.
Not sure why they chose to do this, but this was probably the closest we ever got to a D2/SR port which is a real shame since all that stuff will be left to pick up dust in the annals of Sega history...
1. It's not made by AM2. I happen to love AM2. They're Sega's best studio as far as I'm concerned. Yes, Toshihiro Nagoshi, the supposed brain behind Daytona, basically owns Amusement Vision (AV) but it was AM2's palm tree stamp of approval that was all over the arcade versions. So basically, Daytona was originally AM2's baby, but AV (as well as this random dev called Genki...don't know what's up with that) just hijacked it.
Now don't get me wrong, AV isn't bad--they did a good job with F-Zero GX in '03, but clearly if I had to choose between AM2 or AV to make Daytona, I'd go with AM2. I mean, AM2 has already made numerous racers before this so why not them? Hey Nagoshi and AV, go make your Super Monkey Ball and Virtua Striker games. Go get drunk and make more Yakuza and Binary Domain games.
------------
That's about it, I really can't come up with anything else. So why do I bring this up? The primary reason why is for informative purposes. If Sega were to somehow make another Daytona game again, then they better damn well pay attention and get their stuff straight. The secondary reason is to clear up any misconceptions people think I have of this game. Yes, it's a good game, but it's not the home run I expected from Sega. Besides, the game's nine years old and if OutRun could get numerous sequels, so could Daytona get at least one final victory lap.
Like I said before, if you don't mind the things I mentioned above (and odds are you won't), then you should like the game anyway. I think though that if Sega were to make another Daytona game, they should incorporate stuff from this game in it too as long as they tweak it a little...
Let me end on some of my super-old gameplay footage:
Sunday, December 19, 2010
How To Sing Bohemian Rhapsody By Queen
This is pretty cool.
Follow the pitch and you'll be good. This is Rock Band 3 Vocals we're talking about.
Follow the pitch and you'll be good. This is Rock Band 3 Vocals we're talking about.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
The Greatest Game(s) Ever Made?
EDIT: GameFAQs keeps churning out more lists as time goes on so I'll probably add them eventually...
I would like to know what's up with GameFAQs and their rabid-like obsession with figuring out what the greatest video game of all time is. First, check out these Top 10 lists according to these GameFAQs people...:
Moderators
Current Events Board
Random Insanity Board
Contest Board
Poll Of The Day Board
Life, The Universe, And Everything
EVERYBODY PANIC
Nonstop Gaming Board
War on Terrorism Board???
The Forum (dear God make it stop)
Classic Gaming Board (not all these games are "old," makes sense right)
The Couch
At least to be fair, each list has some different games, but overall, you see the same twenty or thirty games pop up all the time.
And then this is all capped off by what must be the millionth GameFAQs "Best Game Ever" contest. And the winner will always be Zelda or Final Fantasy. MAYBE Smash Bros or MGS. No questions asked. They focused this contest on games from the 00's, but all this does it take away Zelda: OoT and FFVII so some other garbage can win.
Really, I hate to be a jackass, but do I really care what a select group of people think are the greatest games? Like what are you trying to say--if I haven't sat down and played Shadows of the Collosus, Metroid Prime, Zelda: Majora's Mask, or Star Wars: KotR from start to finish that I'm a bad man? I hate to say it, but I don't care about 80% of the games on these lists. And you might say I'm missing out--well, too bad. EDIT: Let me reiterate--I don't hate these games per-se, but I'm just not into them.
As a matter of fact, I'm willing to say I had more fun playing this than all your little RPG games:
And I do like my Sega racers, but I'm not about to "scientifically prove" why I like these games by taking polls and whatnot...I like them, they make me feel good, this stuff comes from the heart, you come see for yourself. I'm not running around trying to piece together all these Top 10 lists that are set in concrete. Fact is my Top 10 would be completely unique. I mean, all these "official" Top 10's just seem to reinforce more groupthink. Play these games and you'll be cool! Don't play them and you're out of the loop. Oh so what. Peer pressure, my ass.
Some will say that I'm just pissed just cause I don't see games like Daytona USA up there. Really? That's not it--contrary to popular belief, I don't want Daytona USA to have a fanbase in the billions...I like it playing the underdog role. Secretly hiding in the shadows like Batman. Criterion, Electronic Arts, Turn10 tossing and turning all night cause Sega may release that new racing killer app that would sink their ship (thankfully, this is Sega we're talking about so they're not too worried...neither would I).
There's plenty of games with no face time out there that have cult followings (besides Sega racers) such as X-Com UFO Defense and Earthbound, so really, I find these lists annoying for completely different reasons altogether.
...
And another thing that's weird about GameFAQs...what's with these GameFAQs VIP Beta Key Giveaway things? So SBAllen asks you some question about this new fantasy MMORPG game called Rift like "What area do you find item-X or whatever," you type the answer in the blank, and if you're right, you enter a raffle where you may win a prize that I have no idea what the hell it does. Okay...a Beta Key, what does it do? I have no friggin idea. So I entered one or two and as odds would have it, I don't win.
In case you've never seen this contest, click here to check out SBAllen's post.
Now I have nothing against this Rift game, but I can't help but think he's trying to self-promote this game himself by having people look up info about it. It is as if I were the admin and I had people scrambling to find answers for OutRun 2 or Scud Race questions to win "prizes." I'm willing to bet A. that SBAllen loves this game and is self-promoting it himself or B. someone's paying him off.
EDIT: I think these beta keys were for the Rift game itself. Wow, ambiguity FTW!!
And another thing, this is not saying that Rift will be a "bad" game quality-wise. But I hear about one more G-D GAME WITH THE FOLLOWING WORDS--MAGE, CLERIC, WARLOCK, PALADIN, DRUID, ROGUE, HUNTER, OR WHAT HAVE YOU--I AM GOING TO SNAP. Literally, I don't want to have anything to do World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, or whatever crap you got because I can't take it anymore.
And that's my post. Very sloppy, probably pissed off a lot of people, but whatever.
I would like to know what's up with GameFAQs and their rabid-like obsession with figuring out what the greatest video game of all time is. First, check out these Top 10 lists according to these GameFAQs people...:
Moderators
Current Events Board
Random Insanity Board
Contest Board
Poll Of The Day Board
Life, The Universe, And Everything
EVERYBODY PANIC
Nonstop Gaming Board
War on Terrorism Board???
The Forum (dear God make it stop)
Classic Gaming Board (not all these games are "old," makes sense right)
The Couch
At least to be fair, each list has some different games, but overall, you see the same twenty or thirty games pop up all the time.
And then this is all capped off by what must be the millionth GameFAQs "Best Game Ever" contest. And the winner will always be Zelda or Final Fantasy. MAYBE Smash Bros or MGS. No questions asked. They focused this contest on games from the 00's, but all this does it take away Zelda: OoT and FFVII so some other garbage can win.
Really, I hate to be a jackass, but do I really care what a select group of people think are the greatest games? Like what are you trying to say--if I haven't sat down and played Shadows of the Collosus, Metroid Prime, Zelda: Majora's Mask, or Star Wars: KotR from start to finish that I'm a bad man? I hate to say it, but I don't care about 80% of the games on these lists. And you might say I'm missing out--well, too bad. EDIT: Let me reiterate--I don't hate these games per-se, but I'm just not into them.
As a matter of fact, I'm willing to say I had more fun playing this than all your little RPG games:
And I do like my Sega racers, but I'm not about to "scientifically prove" why I like these games by taking polls and whatnot...I like them, they make me feel good, this stuff comes from the heart, you come see for yourself. I'm not running around trying to piece together all these Top 10 lists that are set in concrete. Fact is my Top 10 would be completely unique. I mean, all these "official" Top 10's just seem to reinforce more groupthink. Play these games and you'll be cool! Don't play them and you're out of the loop. Oh so what. Peer pressure, my ass.
Some will say that I'm just pissed just cause I don't see games like Daytona USA up there. Really? That's not it--contrary to popular belief, I don't want Daytona USA to have a fanbase in the billions...I like it playing the underdog role. Secretly hiding in the shadows like Batman. Criterion, Electronic Arts, Turn10 tossing and turning all night cause Sega may release that new racing killer app that would sink their ship (thankfully, this is Sega we're talking about so they're not too worried...neither would I).
There's plenty of games with no face time out there that have cult followings (besides Sega racers) such as X-Com UFO Defense and Earthbound, so really, I find these lists annoying for completely different reasons altogether.
...
And another thing that's weird about GameFAQs...what's with these GameFAQs VIP Beta Key Giveaway things? So SBAllen asks you some question about this new fantasy MMORPG game called Rift like "What area do you find item-X or whatever," you type the answer in the blank, and if you're right, you enter a raffle where you may win a prize that I have no idea what the hell it does. Okay...a Beta Key, what does it do? I have no friggin idea. So I entered one or two and as odds would have it, I don't win.
In case you've never seen this contest, click here to check out SBAllen's post.
Now I have nothing against this Rift game, but I can't help but think he's trying to self-promote this game himself by having people look up info about it. It is as if I were the admin and I had people scrambling to find answers for OutRun 2 or Scud Race questions to win "prizes." I'm willing to bet A. that SBAllen loves this game and is self-promoting it himself or B. someone's paying him off.
EDIT: I think these beta keys were for the Rift game itself. Wow, ambiguity FTW!!
And another thing, this is not saying that Rift will be a "bad" game quality-wise. But I hear about one more G-D GAME WITH THE FOLLOWING WORDS--MAGE, CLERIC, WARLOCK, PALADIN, DRUID, ROGUE, HUNTER, OR WHAT HAVE YOU--I AM GOING TO SNAP. Literally, I don't want to have anything to do World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, or whatever crap you got because I can't take it anymore.
And that's my post. Very sloppy, probably pissed off a lot of people, but whatever.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Eric, What The Hell Are Ya Talkin' About?
Edited it a little bit, damn NBC blocked the old vid so I reposted it
You know, I've made about 160 posts on this blogspot and I'm fairly certain that a few people who have actually given me some thought have said, "Eric, what are you talking about?" You know, because of the lack of hits and exposure. My inane mumblings about crusty old video games no one seems to like. What for? Why am I still here? Well, I'll give you a couple of reasons:
1. Cause it helps keep my mind straight. What do I mean by that? Well, look at people today. There's just too many people who are, for lack of a better term, bored as hell. They sit there for hours on their World of Warcraft or their Call of Duty game. Yes, I know that we are all guilty of that, but some to a greater extent than others. I know a couple of people like that. In a creative gridlock, they just play games to escape and they really don't gain anything from it. They have little motivation to get up and do something.
What I really advise people to do is do something CREATIVE. Paint pictures, write books or poems, learn how to code and design video games. This blog is just one of my outlets. It lets me flex my mind and talk about stuff. It's kind of like a journal, except other people can read it (although not many choose too). BTW, just because I'm not popular doesn't mean I can't own a blog. That's the beauty of it!
So if you're that bored, try doing something creative. Doesn't mean you have to stop gaming, but learn something new while you're at it.
2. If you've seen the movie Field of Dreams, you'll know about this:
Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.
I believe that if I get up here and I keep stirring up the Sega hopefuls that I will be able to bring about SOMETHING good from this...it's only a matter of time. They will yearn for the old days of good racing games... People will come...to talk about DAYTONA USA and SEGA...it will never die. Never let those Mario Kart/Burnout/FnF pinheads wash it away. Never give up, never surrender. Hopefully we'll touch the nerve of some Sega higher-ups and be able to bestow some good fortune upon them. People may question my purpose, but I'll remain steadfast. We've got to do our part, people. I tear up just thinking about it.
This blog is just the first step. Then we will make that new Sega racing game and then truly people will come and be blessed by it. And they may say "What the hell are you thinking, this game won't sell," but we won't be stopped. But it will be a good game. Reviewers and Average Joes alike will tremble and drop the controller in awe after what they've seen. Then Sega will be revived and all will be okay in the gaming world. By God, I know it.
You know, I've made about 160 posts on this blogspot and I'm fairly certain that a few people who have actually given me some thought have said, "Eric, what are you talking about?" You know, because of the lack of hits and exposure. My inane mumblings about crusty old video games no one seems to like. What for? Why am I still here? Well, I'll give you a couple of reasons:
1. Cause it helps keep my mind straight. What do I mean by that? Well, look at people today. There's just too many people who are, for lack of a better term, bored as hell. They sit there for hours on their World of Warcraft or their Call of Duty game. Yes, I know that we are all guilty of that, but some to a greater extent than others. I know a couple of people like that. In a creative gridlock, they just play games to escape and they really don't gain anything from it. They have little motivation to get up and do something.
What I really advise people to do is do something CREATIVE. Paint pictures, write books or poems, learn how to code and design video games. This blog is just one of my outlets. It lets me flex my mind and talk about stuff. It's kind of like a journal, except other people can read it (although not many choose too). BTW, just because I'm not popular doesn't mean I can't own a blog. That's the beauty of it!
So if you're that bored, try doing something creative. Doesn't mean you have to stop gaming, but learn something new while you're at it.
2. If you've seen the movie Field of Dreams, you'll know about this:
Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.
I believe that if I get up here and I keep stirring up the Sega hopefuls that I will be able to bring about SOMETHING good from this...it's only a matter of time. They will yearn for the old days of good racing games... People will come...to talk about DAYTONA USA and SEGA...it will never die. Never let those Mario Kart/Burnout/FnF pinheads wash it away. Never give up, never surrender. Hopefully we'll touch the nerve of some Sega higher-ups and be able to bestow some good fortune upon them. People may question my purpose, but I'll remain steadfast. We've got to do our part, people. I tear up just thinking about it.
This blog is just the first step. Then we will make that new Sega racing game and then truly people will come and be blessed by it. And they may say "What the hell are you thinking, this game won't sell," but we won't be stopped. But it will be a good game. Reviewers and Average Joes alike will tremble and drop the controller in awe after what they've seen. Then Sega will be revived and all will be okay in the gaming world. By God, I know it.
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Better To Be Pissed Off Than To Be Pissed On
There's really a hundred different ways I can address this story, but since I'm tired, I'm going to make it as brief as possible...
Sega made a game for urinals. Piss on the target and you win. I'm not making this stuff up; click here. Wait, what's going on?
Now, I know this is in Japan and I know that Sega has to be the "bad boy" to make money (cause other companies like Nintendo and Capcom have one-upped them in terms of professionalism and quality products) buy my goodness, couldn't they invest their time into some real games? BTW, I could "cheat" by bringing in a water bottle or a super soaker--HIGH SCORE BABY. Who has that kind of a bladder?
I may talk up Sega, but they're still a huge enigma as far as I'm concerned. You take a look and you've got Sonic over there, Yakuza over there, et. al. but the rest, I have no idea what the hell's going on. Like who expected this:
Could be worse, it could've been one of those hentai/lolicon/weirdo games. Instead, this is just one of those little mingame things like WarioWare.
------------
Quick, get these links in here:
Sega Dreamcast compilation game is real and coming out for 360/PS3 next year, what other games will be on it is not known.
Platinum Games making more stuff for Sega.
Spike VGA's drop in ratings
bwahahaha, jerkoffs are going down...
And these are semi-old but read them anyway. 1-up interviews with Yu Suzuki. Talks about Shenmue 3 (ideas he has that he'll never use cause S3 will never exist), talks about Model 1/2 boards with Lockheed Martin, talks about AM2, talks about the Dreamcast, talks about Nagoshi and that crap. It's actually quite lengthy.
Part 1
Part 2
He really doesn't talk about anything but this is as close as it gets to Sega racers:
JM: How do you feel the gamer has changed? The industry is still very young -- only 35 years-old or so -- but 15 years ago you created Daytona USA. Look at how much has changed in that time. In Hang-On you have only one motorcycle. Games like Daytona you only have two or three cars to choose from. Now, Gran Turismo 5 is out and it has over a thousand cars in the game. Personally, I'll never use 1,000 cars, maybe only 6 of them. Do you think people have now mistaken quantity for quality? Is there such a thing as too much?
YS: Yeah, user expectations are to blame, too. If given the option of 1000 cars and 10 cars in a game, the user will most likely take the game with 1,000 cars. Games with fewer options can't compete on the same level because the user will always choose the game with more cars.
...
JM: OK. Now for something completely random. Did you really own an F355?
YS: Yeah, I still do.
------------
Throw in one more thing to this terrible lump of a post. So I replay Crazy Taxi on 360 on Arcade course and now I get $67,000 with Gus. I wasted too much time looking for people. If you get stuck around Square Park or Borders Paradise places, you'll run out of people. You just have to hope that your passengers will take you around the Fire Station area because that's where you get a lot of people late in the game.
Sega made a game for urinals. Piss on the target and you win. I'm not making this stuff up; click here. Wait, what's going on?
Now, I know this is in Japan and I know that Sega has to be the "bad boy" to make money (cause other companies like Nintendo and Capcom have one-upped them in terms of professionalism and quality products) buy my goodness, couldn't they invest their time into some real games? BTW, I could "cheat" by bringing in a water bottle or a super soaker--HIGH SCORE BABY. Who has that kind of a bladder?
I may talk up Sega, but they're still a huge enigma as far as I'm concerned. You take a look and you've got Sonic over there, Yakuza over there, et. al. but the rest, I have no idea what the hell's going on. Like who expected this:
Could be worse, it could've been one of those hentai/lolicon/weirdo games. Instead, this is just one of those little mingame things like WarioWare.
------------
Quick, get these links in here:
Sega Dreamcast compilation game is real and coming out for 360/PS3 next year, what other games will be on it is not known.
Platinum Games making more stuff for Sega.
Spike VGA's drop in ratings
bwahahaha, jerkoffs are going down...
And these are semi-old but read them anyway. 1-up interviews with Yu Suzuki. Talks about Shenmue 3 (ideas he has that he'll never use cause S3 will never exist), talks about Model 1/2 boards with Lockheed Martin, talks about AM2, talks about the Dreamcast, talks about Nagoshi and that crap. It's actually quite lengthy.
Part 1
Part 2
He really doesn't talk about anything but this is as close as it gets to Sega racers:
JM: How do you feel the gamer has changed? The industry is still very young -- only 35 years-old or so -- but 15 years ago you created Daytona USA. Look at how much has changed in that time. In Hang-On you have only one motorcycle. Games like Daytona you only have two or three cars to choose from. Now, Gran Turismo 5 is out and it has over a thousand cars in the game. Personally, I'll never use 1,000 cars, maybe only 6 of them. Do you think people have now mistaken quantity for quality? Is there such a thing as too much?
YS: Yeah, user expectations are to blame, too. If given the option of 1000 cars and 10 cars in a game, the user will most likely take the game with 1,000 cars. Games with fewer options can't compete on the same level because the user will always choose the game with more cars.
...
JM: OK. Now for something completely random. Did you really own an F355?
YS: Yeah, I still do.
------------
Throw in one more thing to this terrible lump of a post. So I replay Crazy Taxi on 360 on Arcade course and now I get $67,000 with Gus. I wasted too much time looking for people. If you get stuck around Square Park or Borders Paradise places, you'll run out of people. You just have to hope that your passengers will take you around the Fire Station area because that's where you get a lot of people late in the game.
Monday, December 13, 2010
New Daytona 2 Stuff
I looked around on Google a bit and I found a never-before-seen Daytona 2 article from Sega Saturn Magazine. Not to be confused with the Makato Osaki interview from before. This is mostly people talking up the game as it was being released. I have these saved on my computer and my Photobucket account for safety's sake. Click on the pics to enlarge.
Got the pics from here (in a much higher resolution).
Now you know what's really interesting? If you look at Page 4, you see a clean Toshihiro Nagoshi there, sitting by the desk with the Daytona 2 banners. Test driving stock cars around Twin Ring Motegi. Now, what has happened since then? Go from racing games to tanning salons to Super Monkey Balls to Binary Domain. Who would've thought it would turn out this way? It also mentions an interview with Nagoshi in an upcoming issue, but I didn't see that one. We got an interview with Osaki but not Nagoshi. I don't if there's a missing issue or what...
I've always asked this question--do we really need Mr. Nagoshi's consent to make another racing game? I don't know what else to say. It's just really heartbreaking to see how our so-called "hero" has forsaken us.
------------
And this is another thing. It's semi-relevant. If you've been watching American football today, you may have seen footage of the Metrodome in Minnesota cave in due to snow. This is the fourth time this has happened in the stadium's history. It's not supported by beams, it's supported by air pressure...makes sense, right? What is this, a circus tent?
"Even the Metrodome has given up on the Vikings."
And how appropriate is it to talk about "caving in" now. Look at my world when it comes to Daytona USA. Just sitting here waiting out the big fish when everyone else but me (and a few select companions) are all twisted out of shape by it. Then I read this thing about Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and how great it is. Criterion is genius. I'm not even going to bother debating.
Criterion's creative director Craig Sullivan talking about stuff.
"...we're really glad that people are embracing it and having fun."
And check out these quotes by commenters:
*** The attitudes of Criterion and Naughty Dog are where their great games start. I bet it is a blast to be employed by them.
So make Burnout Revenge 2 !!!!!!!!
Got the pics from here (in a much higher resolution).
Now you know what's really interesting? If you look at Page 4, you see a clean Toshihiro Nagoshi there, sitting by the desk with the Daytona 2 banners. Test driving stock cars around Twin Ring Motegi. Now, what has happened since then? Go from racing games to tanning salons to Super Monkey Balls to Binary Domain. Who would've thought it would turn out this way? It also mentions an interview with Nagoshi in an upcoming issue, but I didn't see that one. We got an interview with Osaki but not Nagoshi. I don't if there's a missing issue or what...
I've always asked this question--do we really need Mr. Nagoshi's consent to make another racing game? I don't know what else to say. It's just really heartbreaking to see how our so-called "hero" has forsaken us.
------------
And this is another thing. It's semi-relevant. If you've been watching American football today, you may have seen footage of the Metrodome in Minnesota cave in due to snow. This is the fourth time this has happened in the stadium's history. It's not supported by beams, it's supported by air pressure...makes sense, right? What is this, a circus tent?
"Even the Metrodome has given up on the Vikings."
And how appropriate is it to talk about "caving in" now. Look at my world when it comes to Daytona USA. Just sitting here waiting out the big fish when everyone else but me (and a few select companions) are all twisted out of shape by it. Then I read this thing about Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and how great it is. Criterion is genius. I'm not even going to bother debating.
Criterion's creative director Craig Sullivan talking about stuff.
"...we're really glad that people are embracing it and having fun."
And check out these quotes by commenters:
*** The attitudes of Criterion and Naughty Dog are where their great games start. I bet it is a blast to be employed by them.
So make Burnout Revenge 2 !!!!!!!!
Bro, you know what. You probably expect me to come on here fists swinging like a fanboy loser. Doesn't really bother me. That's just the way it is. I'm glad that people out there are happy, but I'm just tired man. Just kind of sucks to see everyone else having fun but me. And no, this isn't a "oh woe is me, please be my friend and shower me with nice things" kind of posts. I just don't think it's fair how I picked one of the hardest gaming series to follow as my wingman. Geez.
If you like Burnout then that's ok. But if you're in my camp of Sega diehards, then this song's for us:
If you like Burnout then that's ok. But if you're in my camp of Sega diehards, then this song's for us:
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Spike VGA's And Stupid Stuff
First off, I took a shower a while back and I got some water in my ear which has me completely disoriented right now so that sucks.
I had no idea the Spike Video Game Awards were this Saturday, nor did I care. It's so tempting to get on here and call the show a piece of crap, but I'm not even going to do that. It is what it is.
The Winners.
Game of the Year: Red Dead Redemption. Now I don't really care any way. At least it wasn't something overly violent and annoying like God of War.
Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Black Ops. Now I love how when I'm on the 360 Dashboard, I see all this stuff for Halo: Reach. Buy Halo Reach! Mess around with the Forge Editor and all that crap. Well guess what--everyone's playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. I hate to sound like a jerk, but I prefer the contemporary style of Call of Duty over Halo, sorry that's just the way I think. Way back to Counter-Strike and Goldeneye.
EDIT:
Basically, it's like that quote "Men love blondes but marry brunettes," or something. So everyone buys Call of Duty but MS would prefer if you played Halo. I think that's how it works.
Best Driving Game: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Now, I would've picked Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing but remember, no one cares about cool stuff like that anymore. Thankfully, Hot Pursuit is not a game that I loathe. We should all be thankful that Split/Second didn't win instead. I don't even know if GT5 was nominated.
Best Music Game: Rock Band 3. As it should be.
Best Downloadable Game: Costume Quest. Wrong answer man. Should be Perfect Dark. EDIT: I'm also surprised it wasn't Super Meat Boy.
As for the rest of the awards, I don't care and I'm not going to bother mentioning them because I would be wasting your time.
------------
Then there's also game announcements and stuff. You have Kratos from God of War who will appear in Mortal Kombat. First of all, I can't believe these two are still going. Sure, slash and hack each other to death. I still think it's weird that Kratos was in that PSP Soul Calibur which doesn't make any sense cause there's no gore in it.
But then there's Forza 4. Just after GT5. You know these guys are going for the jugular here. Polyphony Digital had six years to work on it and people have brought up tons of complaints. I may seem partial to GT5, but I think they may have screwed up really bad here. We'll see if Forza 4 gets the PI ratings right and throws in some new courses, then GT6 will be playing catchup big-time. Kazunori Yamauchi, you had the sim racing genre down until then, you played prevent defense and now you're on your heels.
Forza 4 trailer.
I'm done talking, goodbye.
I had no idea the Spike Video Game Awards were this Saturday, nor did I care. It's so tempting to get on here and call the show a piece of crap, but I'm not even going to do that. It is what it is.
The Winners.
Game of the Year: Red Dead Redemption. Now I don't really care any way. At least it wasn't something overly violent and annoying like God of War.
Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Black Ops. Now I love how when I'm on the 360 Dashboard, I see all this stuff for Halo: Reach. Buy Halo Reach! Mess around with the Forge Editor and all that crap. Well guess what--everyone's playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. I hate to sound like a jerk, but I prefer the contemporary style of Call of Duty over Halo, sorry that's just the way I think. Way back to Counter-Strike and Goldeneye.
EDIT:
Basically, it's like that quote "Men love blondes but marry brunettes," or something. So everyone buys Call of Duty but MS would prefer if you played Halo. I think that's how it works.
Best Driving Game: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Now, I would've picked Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing but remember, no one cares about cool stuff like that anymore. Thankfully, Hot Pursuit is not a game that I loathe. We should all be thankful that Split/Second didn't win instead. I don't even know if GT5 was nominated.
Best Music Game: Rock Band 3. As it should be.
Best Downloadable Game: Costume Quest. Wrong answer man. Should be Perfect Dark. EDIT: I'm also surprised it wasn't Super Meat Boy.
As for the rest of the awards, I don't care and I'm not going to bother mentioning them because I would be wasting your time.
------------
Then there's also game announcements and stuff. You have Kratos from God of War who will appear in Mortal Kombat. First of all, I can't believe these two are still going. Sure, slash and hack each other to death. I still think it's weird that Kratos was in that PSP Soul Calibur which doesn't make any sense cause there's no gore in it.
But then there's Forza 4. Just after GT5. You know these guys are going for the jugular here. Polyphony Digital had six years to work on it and people have brought up tons of complaints. I may seem partial to GT5, but I think they may have screwed up really bad here. We'll see if Forza 4 gets the PI ratings right and throws in some new courses, then GT6 will be playing catchup big-time. Kazunori Yamauchi, you had the sim racing genre down until then, you played prevent defense and now you're on your heels.
Forza 4 trailer.
Just for show. I think it's really weird that you can "ramp" another car in GT5 since in previous ones, I thought your collision box extended the entire space above and below your car, but not here:
I'm done talking, goodbye.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Lots Of Weird Stuff Going On (GFAQs, Servers, Forza)
This happened about two weeks ago. I received an invite to a private GameFAQs board called "LifeFAQs." Now considering the fiasco over the video proposal contest (which I'm not even going to link to--click on the tags to the right) and the realization that private boards are not accessible unless the admin specifically types your name in, I was convinced that they're just a waste of time.
So you may think this guy invited me because he saw my entry. Well, no, that's not it. The guy got this list of all the GameFAQs accounts older than eight years old and I happened to be on it. The board is actually rather big now, like another LUE (Life, Universe, Everything) board where people discuss their favorite flavor poptarts and their grief over breaking up with girlfriends.
Putting aside all pettiness, I'm not a fan of big boards at all. I used to post at a "big board" but it took a huge-ass amount of energy just to remain semi-relevant because there's hundreds of posts to reply too. I'd much prefer a small board where you can maintain close friendships with a few people than to be the "cool guy" that everyone likes.
------------
And this is a news story that I've picked up on too. It kind of relates the the OutRun Online Arcade server removal issue I talked about earlier. Well, if you've been following Halo Wars, then you've probably heard in November that Microsoft is pulling the plug on the stat-tracking server on Dec. 15, much to the fanbase's chagrin. However, because enough Halo fans complained about it, Microsoft has decided to keep the server up.
Going offline...
...just kidding, we're not going anywhere (yet).
Wow, isn't that great. A game lives or dies by the servers. Servers go down, game bricks. And this is what you get when you rely on official servers instead of dedicated ones (EDIT: I think anyway, not sure if there's any remedy to server games RIP). And throw in downloaded games too. Oh, what about my Microsoft Achievement Points? Well, if that were to go away, then I would have to come onto this blog and disagree with their decision in a not-so-polite manner.
And of course, this follows Electronic Arts' claim that they will only make games that adhere to online mode. See here. Can be loosely interpreted at a poke at Japanese games which have always been lackluster in the online component...
Oh, let me throw in that I've also been playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. Yes, I'm a toolbag. Yes, it's kind of fun. So I'm already Level 26 and I think the Galil is a dead sexy gun (for a gun of course). And I also made this crude Sega logo as my pic...it's not that grand because the game doesn't have every letter of the alphabet so I had to use a 5 and a 6 for the S and the G and then tweak it from there. Will post pics later.
But I also look at Call of Duty and the house of cards it's built on...everything is on a server. Not a dedicated server, I might add! Just public servers. See Starcraft 2, Modern Warfare 2, etc. Server goes down, everything flushed down the toilet. And you can also say this about World of Warcraft or Halo or any other game that people log hours upon days upon weeks into.
You could say that down the road about five years from now when the servers are gone that "no one will care about the game anyway," which is a seemingly legit argument, but why make all these disposable games in the first place? About as disposable as cameras and toilet paper! I'm getting really redundant here, just read the old OutRun post I linked to up there. If this is the future of gaming, then I'm sure as hell gonna hang on to my Daytona games as the ship slowly sinks. I don't want to be a sellout who buys all these brand new games that I will dispose of in the next three months. That's just pathetic, I can't take it.
BTW, I'm backing up my Blogspot too. Just in case the server is hit by a hurricane, a volcano, or a nuke. I put too much thought into this site to let it slip through my hands like sand on a beach.
------------
One more story. Forza 3, in an attempt to sway me back to their game, has released ten community-selected classics cars in a future DLC pack. This includes the DeLorean. Congrats Turn10 for deceiving me into believing your game was "dead," now go fix your PI ratings and maybe I'll reconsider.
88 MPH
So you may think this guy invited me because he saw my entry. Well, no, that's not it. The guy got this list of all the GameFAQs accounts older than eight years old and I happened to be on it. The board is actually rather big now, like another LUE (Life, Universe, Everything) board where people discuss their favorite flavor poptarts and their grief over breaking up with girlfriends.
Putting aside all pettiness, I'm not a fan of big boards at all. I used to post at a "big board" but it took a huge-ass amount of energy just to remain semi-relevant because there's hundreds of posts to reply too. I'd much prefer a small board where you can maintain close friendships with a few people than to be the "cool guy" that everyone likes.
------------
And this is a news story that I've picked up on too. It kind of relates the the OutRun Online Arcade server removal issue I talked about earlier. Well, if you've been following Halo Wars, then you've probably heard in November that Microsoft is pulling the plug on the stat-tracking server on Dec. 15, much to the fanbase's chagrin. However, because enough Halo fans complained about it, Microsoft has decided to keep the server up.
Going offline...
...just kidding, we're not going anywhere (yet).
Wow, isn't that great. A game lives or dies by the servers. Servers go down, game bricks. And this is what you get when you rely on official servers instead of dedicated ones (EDIT: I think anyway, not sure if there's any remedy to server games RIP). And throw in downloaded games too. Oh, what about my Microsoft Achievement Points? Well, if that were to go away, then I would have to come onto this blog and disagree with their decision in a not-so-polite manner.
And of course, this follows Electronic Arts' claim that they will only make games that adhere to online mode. See here. Can be loosely interpreted at a poke at Japanese games which have always been lackluster in the online component...
Oh, let me throw in that I've also been playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. Yes, I'm a toolbag. Yes, it's kind of fun. So I'm already Level 26 and I think the Galil is a dead sexy gun (for a gun of course). And I also made this crude Sega logo as my pic...it's not that grand because the game doesn't have every letter of the alphabet so I had to use a 5 and a 6 for the S and the G and then tweak it from there. Will post pics later.
But I also look at Call of Duty and the house of cards it's built on...everything is on a server. Not a dedicated server, I might add! Just public servers. See Starcraft 2, Modern Warfare 2, etc. Server goes down, everything flushed down the toilet. And you can also say this about World of Warcraft or Halo or any other game that people log hours upon days upon weeks into.
You could say that down the road about five years from now when the servers are gone that "no one will care about the game anyway," which is a seemingly legit argument, but why make all these disposable games in the first place? About as disposable as cameras and toilet paper! I'm getting really redundant here, just read the old OutRun post I linked to up there. If this is the future of gaming, then I'm sure as hell gonna hang on to my Daytona games as the ship slowly sinks. I don't want to be a sellout who buys all these brand new games that I will dispose of in the next three months. That's just pathetic, I can't take it.
BTW, I'm backing up my Blogspot too. Just in case the server is hit by a hurricane, a volcano, or a nuke. I put too much thought into this site to let it slip through my hands like sand on a beach.
------------
One more story. Forza 3, in an attempt to sway me back to their game, has released ten community-selected classics cars in a future DLC pack. This includes the DeLorean. Congrats Turn10 for deceiving me into believing your game was "dead," now go fix your PI ratings and maybe I'll reconsider.
88 MPH
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*** I stand by my personal belief that Criterion are the greatest game development studio of all time, with Naughty Dog and Rockstar tied for second
*** I've been following Criterion since the first Burnout came out, and I've loved all their games. They honestly know how to make fun games. I complained about Paradise before release because they were going to actually try making an open-world game, but they did it right. I thought they were going to screw up NFS, but they made it better. Seriously, whatever game they announce, I know it will rock.