Hello everybody. I've been a fan of Sega Racing games (Daytona USA 1/2, Scud Race, OutRun 1/2, Sega Rally, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Racing, etc.) ever since I first played Daytona USA 2 in the arcade around 2002. I like them and try to promote them as much as I can. Let everyone know about the magic that is Sega Racing Games!!!
Oh, this one I heard about days ago, but it slipped my mind until now. There's a Days of Thunder game for Xbox Live Arcade. It's 800 MSP. From what I heard, it is pleasantly average. I should've downloaded the demo but I was too busy playing Pro Keys on Rock Band 3, please forgive me. I'm sorry--Rock Band is that engrossing that it can distract me from paramount news.
Going for the edgy Burnout angle here...whatever.
Kind of strange that they went back 20 years to get the Days of Thunder license, but at least they bypass the NASCAR license which isn't too bad. The game has both oval and technical tracks which is nice cause it keeps in line with Daytona USA tradition.
I'm guessing the framerate sucks because of the recording. Actually, this video does suck so ignore the FPS. No way you release a game with 5 FPS nowadays unless you want to the lynch mob to knock on your front door. Pwned.
Actual in-game footage. It looks better than I expected... To be fair, the game looks like it has potential cause it looks loose and free-wheeling. I also noticed how you can go up to 220 mph (354 kph) which is certainly nice compared to the lame-o 190 mph races of real-life NASCAR. Too bad you can't powerslide. I doubt it'll ever live up to Sega racing expectations though.
I hope this game is good, really, I do. I assume I will post further opinions when I actually play the demo.
EDIT: Just played the demo, I thought it was good. Controls are a bit fidgety but this isn't like Mario Kart, it's a bit tougher than that. Will post more about this later.
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Obligatory movie footage, rubbin' is racing, yada yada yada...let's get an actual movie clip in here, something for you to analyze:
PLEASE DON'T GET DELETED FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
Down and dirty racing... Now make a Talladega Nights game next, lololol.
Heh, I have a surprise for you: my birthday is in two days. March 1. Well, it depends. I was really born on February 29 which is Leap Day. Since it's not a leap year, I don't know whether to celebrate on Monday (Feb 28) or Tuesday (March 1). I don't even know what I want for my birthday. I just want to go eat at a nice restaurant and enjoy the company of my friends & family. Oh and cash, LOTS AND LOTS OF CASH. And toy cars. And a Daytona USA 2 cabinet.
And then if that weren't crazy enough, on March 8, I'm going on a family vacation to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I will also take a tour of the nearby Full Sail campus in Winter Park. I hope it's good. Road trips are the bane of my existence (10 hours). But this I must do and I'll have fun and take lots of pictures. I also have a 13-year-old brother who is also rambling about game design so he's stoked to visit Full Sail too. I assume there will be internet connection wherever I go so I can post here in the meantime.
And March 8 is Mardi Gras Day (Fat Tuesday) which means lots of parades here in Louisiana. Now Mardi Gras is a French Catholic holiday which means lots of partying in the streets of New Orleans. From January 6 to Fat Tuesday (which varies each year), they hold parades on city streets, usually on Sundays. And at parades, people on floats throw stuff to screaming crowds.
I've yet to go to any parades this year--they throw too many cheap beads and doubloons. And it's kind of funky, standing on a sidewalk next to a bunch of miscreants. But I'm going to go to one before the Disney trip just for kicks. Maybe I get a good haul--some stuffed animals, footballs, etc. And take more pictures for the old Photobucket account!
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And if there's one more piece of news, it's that Guitar/DJ Hero DLC is making a comeback due to "fan support." No way, this is BOGUS man. Maybe, DJ Hero is at least something new so I can see why they'd revive that. On the other hand, Guitar Hero has run its course and needs a complete series reboot after a LOOONNGGG period of waiting. I really don't care what goes on with that "Hero" franchise anymore, do what you want Activision.
From article comments: Dropeti said, "Ah, ye old marketing strategy. Pretend you are going to take it away so that people realize they actually want it." I think that sums it up. EDIT: The DLC isn't going to last long--Activision is just finishing up on whatever they've yet to complete (one month's worth). Ok, good, now go away GH.
Also, MyGamerCard.net is down forever so I can't keep my perpetually updated X360 gamerscore up here anymore. That really sucks when stuff goes down like this--slams the door shut in your face...
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And now for your feature presentation...
This is the game I alluded too a while back but let's talk about it since it's Sega's baby and all. I'm focusing entirely on House of the Dead 2. It was released in 1998 on Sega's Naomi arcade board. Crazy Taxi also used the Naomi board but Daytona 2/Scud Race did not (Model3 board). HotD2 received numerous ports, but I'm playing this on the Nintendo Wii using the Perfect Shot gun:
It's not bad but after a while of pulling the trigger, it feels like I'm straining to push the button because of friction. Also, about gun calibration--it's not too bad, there's an option to set it in menu (I missed it before), but it's not 100% perfect. Good enough I suppose since there's an aiming reticule on the screen which helps. Main problem is that I must sit at least 15 feet/5 meters away from the TV for the gun to pick up. What a piece of crap.
But about House of the Dead itself...I can't admit to playing these games a lot. It's dark, depressing, but at least it makes up for it with corny comic relief. Also, it arrived before this tidal wave of zombie-related games(Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty, Red Dead Redemption, Dead Rising, etc.) so it gets a pass here.
When it comes to light games, I've played lots of Time Crisis 2, 3, & 4 and those are definitely stellar, but the nauseating feeling of having to duck when you see that red flash gets on my nerves. In HotD, you can't avoid attacks, but at least you can see them coming unlike in crap Atari/Midway gun games like Area 51 where the enemy jumps out and you get hit for no reason. To reload, you aim the gun off the screen although you're stuck with this six-shooter pistol always. Oh crap, reach for the Double Tap Root Beer! So HotD is pretty good IMO.
When it comes to killing zombies, headshots are your best bet. There's some areas where you get hit in the face with a bunch of bad guys so you need to get headshots or you get hit. It's kind of cool to shoot guys and see them get blown apart. Enemies include zombies, axe-wielding zombies, army commando zombies, knife-throwing zombies, fish monster zombies, chainsaw zombies, fat zombies, alligator zombies, Edward Scissorhands zombies, killer frogs, killer snakes, killer fish, killer owls, killer bats, etc. Okay, I'm scared already, but your protagonist James always keeps a straight face.
An interesting facet about the game is that you can take multiple paths depending on whether or not you save civilians. In Time Crisis, there's no alternate paths per-se--when in two-player, Player 1 and 2 split up occasionally. In one-player, during these split paths, two yellow guards will appear--shoot the guard to the left to take P1's path, shoot the guard to the right to take P2's path. But in HotD, depending on whether a hostage dies or not, you'll either enter a building or go elsewhere.
This reminds me of a scenario--I was playing through the game and I saved every hostage up until Stage 2. I shot the key to open the gate and there's this kid being chased by a fat zombie. I would usually kill the zombie and save the kid which meant I went into the building to my left...but this time the kid died and I went into the building on the right. Next thing you know, I'm fighting the Stage 2 boss on a completely different area (a dock instead of a bridge), and Stage 3 (where you ride on the boat) is in a completely different area. All because of that kid. Oh, let me repeat again--kids can die in this game. Crazy game.
Only thing I really didn't like is that the game only displays your score at the end of each stage. You have no idea what your score is during the game. I don't know how many points I get for saving hostages, headshots, and secret items. Though it is good to save hostages since if you save enough in one stage, you get an extra life.
I tried beating the game on Arcade Mode, but the farthest I got was Boss 5 (the Magician). Creepy looking dude. The more you play, the more lives/continues you get but I still couldn't get to Goldman. So after blowing like 40 lives (on Easy difficulty I might add), I die to the Magician and I rage quit cause this game is a piece of crap. I try this other mode called Original Mode, but the only difference is that you start with fewer lives but can use bonuses like larger clips, increased gun damage, "Machine Gun," and extra continues. Eventually, I found a powerup for Infinite Continues so I was able to beat the game and see the end credits.
Such bad Engrish. Like your guy will just say "My God," or "I must go and prevent confusion in the city," in this blank voice. I also think I spotted a typo. When you get to World 4, look at the opening title with the flickering font. The serif (plain) font says "The Forth Stage" while the scribble-scratch says "Fourth." Lol, they also have a typo like this in Daytona USA 2--"Don't crash or you will loose speed," or something like that. You gotta love the Japanese.
If you can't aim, you can always play Typing of the Dead. But do you trust these Engrish types to make a game based on the English language? Smart-looking boy.
Anyway, that's about it. Like Time Crisis, if you play the crap out of it, you'll know what to do and I guess it's okay. And until then, I need a night light when I go to sleep cause I got nightmare fuel. The end.
FINAL SCORE: 7.837246435630450452324593749857308486752156875457938409803945345 out of 10
Occasionally, I do a Google Image Search for Daytona USA 2 pics and I usually find something new. Here's something:
* Check out this Japanese site I found. Some guy made car designs for Daytona USA 1 cars. The Buick GNX!! These are for Forza 2 though. :( I don't know if you can download them.
Now I know some people don't care about this aspect, but I REALLY LIKE the multiple color schemes...nice, I tried to do that with my Forza 3 D2 cars. Like if you're going to make the AT Scorpio or Phantom, just make the MT, P1, P2, etc. versions. Oooo, I would love to own a set of Hot Wheels like this...I like the pretty cars.
Also, on the same site, there's a few more D2 emulation shots. Not sure how they got there but save 'em anyway.
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* Not only this, but someone points out that in the movie Dude, Where's My Car, there's an arcade scene where you can see a Daytona USA 2 cabinet. Now I must plead ignorance here because I've never seen the movie, but is this really true? I tried looking up YouTube clips of this scene, but found nothing. EDIT: That site was taken down, re-uploading pic now...
Because it's been a while since I've ripped something.
But let's start with the good news. Sumo Digital picks up Bizarre Creations' ex-lead designer. I've said this before and I said it now--MAKE IT HAPPEN, SEGA! Sega/Sumo Digital should pick up Bizarre Creations. Pick up these people cause they have some know-how when it comes to racing games. Keep these people away from Criterion or Raw Thrills and go pwn the bastards, rofl. Lol at Criterion and Raw Thrills, they just screwed themselves.
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Kotaku, the (annoying) game blog site, has decided to change to a new format where parts of the screen are static and others are not. Anyway, I don't like it and neither do a lot of people. According to UK Resistance, Kotaku's average daily hits have dropped from 2 mil to less than 0.5 mil, beginning January 11. ROFLMAO!!!
I look at Kotaku feeds from my Blogspot, I don't actually go to the website itself so it's a win-win for our side.
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All these FPSes coming out. Well, there's this one coming out called Rage. It's made by Bethesda Softworks, same people who brought you Fallout 3. I know about this game thanks to the front-page GameFAQs ad. Now they show this picture of this disturbing mutant guy which I will not directly post here (click here to see tha homie). Now wait--what's the appeal of this game again? Another post-apocalyptic adventure/FPS game with macabre environments and enemies? Wait, I want to play this? No, I don't.
Same thing to all you other new FPSes out there. Bulletstorm, Brink, Killzone, etc. I almost feel that these over-the-top, "herrdcarrr" FPSes are just trying to melt my brain. Will I buy it? No, no, no, no, stop trying to one-up Black Ops cause you're all jealous that a normal, contemporary FPS is whooping your ass. See Goldeneye and Counter-Strike, other FPS classes that don't resort to crazy-ass scenarios. So LOL at you game developers, keep making FPSes, so original...
EDIT:Speaking of which, about a month ago, Bulletstorm made a parody game of Call of Duty called "Duty Calls." It portrays CoD as piss-boring with a linear campaign and lame storyline. Now I do agree that the single-player kind of sucks, but it's all in good fun. I think it's rather funny cause it nails many FPS campaign cliches, but the whole "Sergeant Super Duper Extreme Person" titles are probably made up by some Red Bull-drinking WoW nerd who pulled an "epic" 30-man raid all last night. Or something like that. Bulletstorm also parodied Halo too, WTG guys.
I also have a lot more respect for Halo now since you can make a futuristic FPS without it being disgusting to look at so yeah.
This arcade has a few murals of Donkey Kong and what other games does it have? Fast & Furious: Super Bikes and Dead Heat. Yeah, great arcade. No old arcade games either, nothing with a "kill screen." Wow, greatest arcade I've ever been to. Lol, Billy Mitchell.
Stick to the hot sauce.
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EDIT: Oh, and one more Lol's. So my brother owns House of the Dead 2 & 3 for Nintendo Wii with those Wii-gun controllers. Because this is on the Wii, the aiming already sucks as it is but I have to cope with it anyway. I start playing through 2 with the blood on red and oh man...lol's everywhere. Wonderful voice acting, nightmare fuel, guys hitting you in the face with axes/chainsaws, doesn't get any better than this, Sega. Lol at this entire game.
Stick to Time Crisis, at least you can dodge incoming projectiles. Wait, this is the second time I said "stick," my bad. EDIT: NVM, this game doesn't suck, we love you Sega. Read about my HotD2 experience.
Ok, so I'm tired but it was a fun day, I guess. We saw Trevor Bayne win the Daytona 500. He's only 20 years (and 1 day old) so he's the youngest to win behind Jeff Gordon who won it at 25. There were the most lead changes and caution flags of any Daytona too.
You know, it was really interesting to see Bayne win since he only participated in one Sprint Cup race in his career (finished 17th at Texas last year). In Daytona, he qualified 32th. He moved up to around 4th with a few laps to go. He communcated with and agreed to push David Ragan (#6) who was in first. Now knowing that you'll push someone, it means you are sacrificing first place in order to help someone else to win, but Ragan was black-flagged for changing lanes before the green flag in order to set up the draft with him. Then Dale Jr. crashed and brought up the last caution.
Thanks to Ragan shooting himself in the foot, Bayne moves up to first in the next green flag. He ran two laps with Bobby Labonte (#47) pushing him the whole way. He edged out Carl Edwards (#99) who was creeping up on him very quickly. Bayne won and did some half-assed donut maneuver and got lost on the way to Victory Lane.
Welcome to Victory Lane! You made it!!!
It was a good race, especially when you consider how blemish-free his car was. That was fantastic.
On the other hand, Kyle Bush's yellow #18 M&M's car must've spun out and been bumped about ten times the entire race. Luckily, he finished in 8th place.
As for the rest of the race, one could wish for a self-repairing automobile cause when you see massive pileups with several people being sucked in, it's no good to see all that junk... Gotta haul the car out Just press a button and the car realigns itself. Brilliant!!
Now I don't know if NASCAR rigged Trevor Bayne to win, but if they did, they should've done it in favor of Dale Jr. You know, cause of Dale Sr. Anyway, this is inspirational. If Trevor Bayne can win the Daytona 500, then I can win the Daytona USA 500...make that Sega game and haul that giant box of CD's and throw them all around, save video games, make everyone feel alright...ok I'm tired so I'm just rambling again. I am looking at a Full Sail in Florida visit soon
EDITEDITEDIT: Seeing some new guy win, it reminded me of Talladega Nights, rofl.
Not really gonna talk about NASCAR anymore...just cause of Daytona USA and stuff.
Tomorrow, Feb. 20, is the first race of the Sprint Cup series at Daytona International Speedway. Now this has to do with real-life racing, not any video games. But because this is a Daytona USA blog, let's get this in here, let's fire from the hip.
Feb. 18 was the Craftsman Truck Race at Daytona. Feb. 19 was the Nationwide Series Race. Oh no, a Nationwide race...don't get me wrong, this one was okay. They took my advice from earlier--the cars look much nicer this time. They even threw in some Dodge Challengers and Ford Mustangs which were kind of weird since I got them mixed up for pace cars...
Now I saw the outcome of today's Nationwide race--Tony Stewart in the blue Oreo #4 car won by .007 of a second. Nice. It was worth it.
But first, it's worth mentioning that there's some new changes to NASCAR. Once again, folks have made changes to the vehicle itself. Apparently, the car grill and air filter is a bit more constricted so that you cannot draft as long, lest your engine overheats due to lack of air flow. In a positive note, the car body is designed to allow contact to the front/rear with less repercussion--no entanglement or hooking. Because of these two factors, you'll see a change in techniques.
This combined with Daytona's new paved surface and what you get is a lot of two-car drafting. Literally, one car will be touching the other car's rear bumper as the front punches a hole in the air, allowing the rear car to go faster and push the front car ahead. Because of the grill's tendency to overheat, the drivers must switch positions every once in a while. Seriously, in this Nationwide race, there were hardly any big packs of cars at once--it was just two cars here, two cars there, it was seriously weird... Like those damn love bugs.
I got your back, buddy!
I don't know if the NASCAR officials expected this method to be exploited so much. Either way, cheesy or not, it's teams of two to the finish line. At least the cars can reach 200 mph, which is kind of weird when you consider speeds of over 210 mph (340 kph) in the Daytona USA games... Real life sucks, video games are better.
And about teammates who are there to score points for your owner, manufacturer, or whatever. You're there to compliment each other. Now this is strange compared to video games where it's every man for himself. It would be interesting to see a NASCAR series with no teammates whatsoever so there's no deliberate two-man slingshot maneuvers.
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There's some other things. Halfway through the race, Brad Keselowski (#22 car), got a little nudge near the right rear bumper which caused him to skid out of control, zipping over the grass Daytona logo, damaging the car beyond repair. Now this wreck did not appear to be Brad's fault at all. That's just one thing that sucks about real-life auto racing--you can get taken out just like that. Get yourself all prepared for race day, go out there and wipe out in the first two laps, day's over, you finish in last. Such a fulfilling experience.
As a matter of fact, all motorsports are just like that. It's like Mario Kart--you're gonna get taken out EVENTUALLY so you better damn well learn to drive defensively. Hence why some people like Jimmie Johnson never wreck and other poor expendables like Scott Speed eat the pavement.
And Joey Logano (#20) was driving a GameStop car with a Nascar 2011: The Game logo on the hood. He bounced off the wall near the end trying to make a move for first. Lololololololol.
And one last thing--about Dale Jr. at the end of the race. Well, Dale Jr. (#5) was in 2nd, riding Clint Bowyer's (#33) bumper in 1st. Here comes Tony Stewart (#4) being pushed by Landon Cassill (#1). Dale's been riding Clint for a couple of laps so he wants his moment of glory--he cuts to the inside for a second, trying to slingshot by Clint to get the win. However, by doing this, he doesn't push Clint and thus, Tony speeds by at the very last second with support by Cassill. So Clint lost cause Dale Jr. moved. Jerkface.
Race was that close.
I must admit the race was fun at the end. But that's what I notice--races are only THAT exciting near the end. If you're not there driving the car (or at least sitting in the stands feeling the VIBRATION OF THE CARS...), it's not too spectacular. As a stock car afonciando, I admit that for you average Joes out there.
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And in all this, we still have the Sprint Cup race tomorrow (Sunday) so the Daytona fun isn't over yet. One more thing. How much do you think these guys practice their backflip and burnout skills? You know, they win, they get out of the car and do a backflip. Now I don't think I could do a backflip--I'm not that atheletic. What if I was a fat loser? And why would someone like Dale Jr. perfect his donut techniques if he never wins a race anyway? Rofl.
Anyone ever consider he might fall on his face?
Doing the victory donuts is like the Big Rock Ending--you can win the race but if your finishing routine looks like crap, it ain't worth it.
EDIT: Stupid GameBanana changed servers and broke all the old pic links...so I'm uploading these pics to my blog, there you go.
I'm hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with these. So far, the response is positive but lukewarm at best. I'm not even going to make YouTube videos for these since the casino one got 19 hits so far so screw it...
Convention Center, I had fun with this one, it's big and has lots of stuff:
Two Buildings, just shoot at people in the other skyscraper and plant the bomb in the sky walk--if you fall into the fountain, you'll survive the drop:
And while you're at it, here's the other maps--Casino Gulfport, Northshore Square Mall, Sonic Adventure 2 Ark, Goldeneye maps, PD Grid, check out my GameBanana maps right here. Yes, I said this like a million times but w/e.
I'm feeling more comfortable about sharing my work. I mean, as a (future) game designer, you're supposed to take crap from the community. This is true in just about every creative medium--movies, TV, music, product sales, etc. Hopefully, you can avert more mutinies than most--kind of like that nuclear war saying "You can't win, but maybe you can lose the least."
And no, I really am not one of those people who gnash their teeth at the most "innocent" of things. I mean, we're playing Call of Duty and there's a map that pops up and everyone votes to skip it. They do this over and over again like every map sucks. For what? Give me a break. If every map in the game must be skipped, then they ALL suck and the game is unplayable. Congratulations on proving your ineptitude--trying to shove a square peg in a round hole.
I still don't hate many game-related things since most of the time, I can't muster up the energy to care anyway.
Not only that, but it's all about acquired tastes. Most CS players would prefer to play de_dust2, de_nuke, de_inferno, and other "official" maps that the pros in CPL and MLG play. I mean, if you want to play the same damn map over and over again, sure. But I like mixing it up and that's what I was thinking of in the first place.
And about other mappers. Well, there's many out there, but there's this dude named "Nipper" who made 100+ CS 1.6 maps. His work spilled over to CS: Source where he's now this big thing in the community. What can I say other than he did his own thing and I like what he did so I take that to heart... One of my favorites is this map called "blahhh" which is crazy to say the least...Click here to see it (Warning: F-word and some disturbing material).
For the most part, I've been humbled. I don't think I'll get any recognition for my work, CS maps, blog posts, etc. so I really take compliments to heart. The reason I'm coming out with my maps now is because, like I said, CS isn't getting any younger and I'm not getting any more nervous about this. Just get them out, live and let die. I think I made a mistake in waiting too long to release these. We're talking about a game that's over ten years old now.
I'm done, I'll end on a picture of a Daytona USA 2 cabinet in the mall map in case you didn't see the video:
This is just a miscellaneous post, more serious stuff to talk about later.
I would like to know what happened to my poll vote count. The one that says "Who makes the best racing games?" There was once 9 votes (not including mine), but then it went down to 6. No way, this is BOGUS, man. And yes, I do pay attention to stupid stuff like that. So vote, vote, vote and may the best developer win.
And one more thing for now. So right now, I've been playing some Rock Band 3. I like playing the Pro Keys--that's my new thing. But for today, I go back to drums and give it a shot again (regular drums since I don't have the RB3 cymbals). Drums is arguably my weakest instrument although I can play some songs on Expert. I actually own two RB2 drumsets which sit in my room, both in working condition.
So I'm playing songs like Everybody Wants to Rule the World and I get absolutely raped by the rhythm--barely 3-star it. It's just a damn struggle to do anything semi-complicated. I get to these middle-tier songs like King George, Rehab, and Lasso and I'm busting my ass trying to 5-star these. I actually start to nail these tricky foot pedal/roll parts. So I do, in my opinion, very well, but much to my chagrin, I'm in the top 40-50% of the leaderboards. Which basically means that about half of all the drummers out there did better than me.
I mean, it's damn hard to play drums--it's hard to get the beat down, you have to cope with the drumset, you get sweaty. And all these years of playing and I still suck that bad? Everyone's good at drums now, that's a given. Like how everyone's good at guitar/bass because they've been playing since Guitar Hero 1. The only difference I can pass just about every Expert song on guitar, but on drums, it's a huge embarassment.
This is a more expensive and elaborate drumset, but regardless, WE'RE NOT WORTHY!
I guess part of the appeal of Pro Keys is that it's something "new" and that not so many people are as good at it, therefore I rank higher in the leaderboards and thus feel better about myself. Plus I played the piano for years while I've never messed with a real drumset.
You ruined my life.
BTW, my younger brother is a huge drummer. He plays in some teenage screamo band (which practices underneath my bedroom if you can believe it)--into bands like Underoath, Devil Wears Prada, A Day To Remember, etc. They are Christian bands (I think, either way their music isn't "heathenish" by any means). But whatever happened to that punk music--ya know, like Blink 182, Ramones, THE OFFSPRING, etc.? Kids just don't understand.
PSSSH, go listen to some Anthrax, see drum video above. It's nice to hear a metal band that actually sings in a pitch for once. Yes, I admit to liking Anthrax.
Thankfully, my brother is only slightly better at RB drums than I am. He can pass the harder songs, but I can get higher scores by not breaking my combo (assuming the song is within my comfort zone). He hardly plays though, loser.
Now assuming I WAS in Japan and could speak Japanese, this is how my meeting would turn out with Nagoshi. Except I'm Costanza and he's Steinbrenner and we're talking about Sega, not the Yankees. And it ends with a long tirade about Daytona USA and I get hired by Sega and my wildest dreams come true and videos games as we know it are saved forever.
Now if only I had something to play it--ah, here we go.
And I believe the 12 inch Dreamcast vinyl will have music on it. Sega is on top of things. They can't make a decent Sonic game or a DC collection with more than four games, but they can make a vinyl CD, atta boy. *scratch that disc like a DJ* Just like Jet Set Radio...oh wait, they didn't port that game yet. :(
I like how they got the JC Eagle down although the Daytona 2 guide book I scanned doesn't have any pics of it. Really good heads-up detail right there, although it's practically the same as the Chums Gum except for a few decals, lol.
These are from batfanx29 on deviantArt. If you go on his account and request the skins enough, he'll release them. Some of them are already out. So just go ahead and check it out.
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Also, as a nice little bonus, here's the Hornet and Phantom cars for Nascar Racing 2003:
Check these out at tkkda's deviantArt page. Like the TMN cars, I don't know if these are up on some site to download. I didn't see any links for these. Anyway, go to his profile and ask if you like.
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Really, it's just stellar how ever since I got that Daytona 2 guide scans of mine out there for people to see, there has been this influx of Daytona 2 related fan stuff...nice. I don't say this to brag cause I got little props for my work anyway. Just saying it's something good to see. Oh, I'm gonna go ahead and put a link to that Photobucket album under "My Stuff" on the right just cause it's that important.
There's probably more fan stuff like this that I'll find later.
This is about a GameFAQs poll on Feb. 13, 2011. I followed this since last night and waited for all the votes to be cast before mentioning it.
The question was "Which major game publisher do you most trust to publish the best games?" Out of a polling sample from 70,938 voters, the results from best to worst are as follows (rounded to nearest number):
Click here to see the poll. Surprised Valve is not on the list either but they'd rank in the half-way part most likely.
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Well, let me address a few things. One, the title is a bit of a misnomer cause you might as well say "Who's your favorite game company?" or something like that. Oh, and they use the word "Publisher" instead of "Developer" which took me a few glances to pick out. So Sega gets the benefit of games like Bayonetta and Vanquish here, but that maybe raised their percentage by 0.01-0.02% only for that same gain to be sucked away due to bad games like Full Auto and Iron Man 2.
There really isn't a whole lot to defend here. They're mostly right, even if you take the GameFAQs bias out of it. If you saw two anonymous game boxes lying on a table, one with a Nintendo sticker on it, the other with a Sega sticker, which one would you keep?
Do you know who I voted for? I voted for Sega. Yeah, me and 882 other sorry losers. Why? Cause of Sega Racers and cause of this:
I mean, really, I just don't buy into all these nerdgasms over Final Fantasy or Metal Gear Solid or whatever. You can grill me for that but I don't care. If Sega was to make a good racing game, I would check it out! Screw Mario Kart or Need for Speed or Chocobo Racing or whatever other crap you got. I'd enjoy a good Sega racer 10x more than your crappy little RPGs and stuff.
But really, you had Sega back in the 90's, the only company that could compete with Nintendo, on top of the world, but then crash-boom-wham-bomb-smack-dead. If they're not releasing some crappy Sonic game, it's a hackneyed rehash of some old ported game in a vain attempt to drum up some nostalgia factor, but the public doesn't buy it for more than a minute. Yes, you got Yakuza, Bayonetta, and hopefully some new good Sonic games, but that's enough.
Let's talk about Nintendo. Employees who work at Nintendo vs. employees who work at Sega...what's the difference? Cause I know that the employees at Sega have opposable thumbs (I think). Is it a lack of resources, skill, or motivation that's holding these guys back? I'm starting to think so. Like I said before (and I still believe it), Nintendo is in Cruise Control--they make another Mario or Zelda game, it's an instant hit, Nintendo is God-like, nothing can stop them, etc. So why does Sega even BOTHER anymore?
Sega should do what Nintendon't. MAKE A GOOD DAYTONA USA GAME CAUSE NINTENDO DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE A TRADITIONAL RACING GAME. There, that's one Achilles Heel that Nintendo has. Oh wait, no one likes good racing games anymore, my bad. But at least there's urinal games that Nintendo won't touch. Yeah, Nintendo is making motion control hardware, Sega is making urinal hardware, makes sense, right. Oh, and pachinko machines, there you go Sega, a hall of fame lineup right there! Sticking it to Nintendo.
Oh, and one more thing. SEGA LOST TO NAMCO. Wtf. I mean, what's Namco doing nowadays besides that crap Ridger Racer Unbounded game? Pushing that Body & Brain Connection game that's basically Nintendo's Brain Age for the Kinect? Not saying the game is bad, but where's the hallmark titles out of Namco, like...uh, Soul Calibur, Time Crisis, Tekken...Klonoa...?
Dr. Kawashima works for the highest bidder.
And lol THQ, what are they doing on this list...? Hey, Sega didn't come in dead last, so if there's a slight victory to be gained here, it's this.
EDIT: I know in the past that I didn't really "care" about all these popularity lists (i.e. best games ever made), but this isn't just a list, this has to do with Sega's ineptitude altogether.
I was just sitting around trying to play some Call of Duty with my brother's friends. Unfortunately, they won't have anything to do with me. So I've got nothing to do. I've been thinking about the three maps I made: the mall, the SA2 Ark, and the casino and I put them on GameBanana. There, that's what you do out of desperation.
BTW, I threw in the Grid from Perfect Dark as a bonus.
They're public domain now, gone away like little ducks leaving the mother's nest. I don't know if they'll last. I guess maybe I was being selfish by keeping them concealed for so long. I sure hope they make some people happy. I feel nervous but hey, I gotta face the music eventually. I don't even think people will make a big deal out of them. Yeah...
I figure I gotta do something to drum up more interest for something I like. People like maps, I make more, it's simple as that... :o
*Will the Lego Hornet be able to finish 1st in the back of the 40 car lineup?
That's just 40 cars. I have 18 more (of assorted colors, I just drew these 40 randomly from the box) and I may buy some more in the future.
...
I'm tired and I'm done with this for now. I can take more pics like this if I need too.
Thanks to the Daytona USA sprite sheet by DarkHedge. Also had to get other sprites from random emulator screenshots I had. Some of these I got from Scud Race so maybe they're a bit off.
* - Since I did this in Photoshop Print Shop Pro, I can edit the BG image if necessary (or anything else for that matter). I know it's the AT car with the MT stuff, rofl. Looks cooler that way.
