Ozisoft have made another dramatic blunder for the Dreamcast in Australia. The most sought after title so far this year, Crazy Taxi, has been delayed only days before it's expected release. Scheduled for release this Tuesday 29th February, the game has been pushed back by almost 2 weeks. While I am still awaiting confirmation of the actual date from Ozisoft my local EB's are now expecting the title on March 10th. I guess my birthday present will have to wait a bit longer.
Some good news talking with Ozisoft the other day was that the Official DC Magazine is still on the way and is now due (hopefully) in March. The magazine will come with a cover CD and is expected to be published every 2nd month with the possibility of monthly magazines somewhere down the track.
Eidos have confirmed they are developing another eight titles for the Dreamcast. One of the games confirmed is a sequel to Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver which will also appear on the Playstation 2.
Ion Storm, who are currently developing Daikatana, Deus Ex and Anachronox look like they will be porting some of their games to the Dreamcast with an ad appearing on their web site for a Dreamcast programmer. Here's hoping then.
The Japanese game sales charts are as impressive as ever with 6 Dreamcast games in the top 30 for the week from 14/2 to 21/2. Sega's new racing game Sega GT was a number 1 with 93,691 units sold in the first five days of release. Resident Evil : Code Veronica continues to sell well with another 22,092 units (455,090 total). Konami's Dance Dance Revolution 2nd Remix Dreamcast Edition sold 12,420 units after five days while number 11 on the chart was Roommania #203 which sold 11,860 units (60,769). The recently delayed Crazy Taxi sold another 9,664 units (112,643) to be at number 15 on the chart. The biggest shock though is that Seaman is still in the Japanese charts. Although at number 23 the game still sold an impressive 6,727 units bringing its total to 441,335 units since it's release on 29/7/1999, almost 7 months ago.
Babbages' online web site has confirmed that Capcom's Gigawing will be headed to the States at the low price of $US29.99. This is the same price that Sega are going to release Chu Chu Rocket for in the states.
Sonic Team have confirmed that they will be releasing Samba De Amigo on the Dreamcast. Unfortunately I haven't seen this game in action although I am assured that dancing with maracas is a lot of fun!
According to several developers the Nintendo Dolphin will not be available until Q'3 2001. This gives the Dreamcast quite a bit of time before we see a second competitor. The Playstation 2 is due out on the 4th March in Japan with pre-orders crashing the dedicated ordering server in Japan and setting new pre-order records.
Just a quick reminder that the poll on the main page will be closing in a day or so. If you haven't voted yet make sure you do so now.
Attention all Resident Evil fans. Although Resident Evil : Code Veronica has just hit the shelves in Japan and isn't due for release here for some time Total Video Games are reporting that another Resident Evil game is headed to the Dreamcast. Currently known as Resident Evil Project X the game is rumoured to be set in South America and will possibly (I don't think this is true) come out on 6 discs. Capcom are yet to confirm the rumours.
Various online retailers and web sites have listed Tokyo Extreme Racing 2 for release by crave on August 15th this year in the US.
In what can only be seen as a major blow to the Dreamcast's online gaming Master Gamer has recently been informed that Half Life will ship without multiplayer support. So all you fans of mods such as Counterstrike and Team Fortress look like you will beout of luck. Perhaps Sega should pay them money to include online gameplay because this was the hit game of last year.
Acclaim have confirmed that Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 will hit the Dreamcast in the latter half of this year. The game will include an increased number of tricks as well as the ability to build your own skating park using an editor.
Sega have confirmed that they are working on a new version of Virtual Onfor the arcades. Titled Virtual On Oratorio Tangram M.S.B.S. Version 5.66 the game runs on the Naomi arcade system and although a Dreamcast port hasn't been confirmed it is almost certain.
More information has been revealed about Sega's upcoming light gun game, Virtua Cop 2. The game will feature 3 modes of play which includes the standard arcade mode, the Big Head mode where everyone has big heads and a Mirror Mode where all the levels will appear back to front. The game is due out in Japan in early March at the very low price of 2,800 yen.
Ozisoft have forwarded the latest release schedule to me which has altered some of the dates on the Coming Soon page. Some of the more interesting dates, apart from those mentioned a couple of days ago, are Street FIghter Alpha 3 (25/2/2000), NBA2K (17/3/2000 - another delay), Plasma Sword (17/3/2000), and Resident Evil 2 (April 2000).
I have added a review to DMA Design's rather impressive Wild Metal. This tank game was deleyed from last year to make some improvements and the wait seem to e worth it.
I'm sorry if there are a lack of updates over the next couple of days. It's my 24th birthday on Thursday and as always I will be celebrating pretty hard.
Even though Acclaim's NFL Quarterback 2000 got a bit of a pounding in the reviews Acclaim have confirmed that NFL Quarterback Club 2001 will be hitting the Dreamcast (in America) around June. Hopefully they will learn from their mistakes.
While on the subject of NFL I spoke to Ozisoft today about the highly anticipated release of NFL2K and it looks like we will have to wait a little longer. Sega Europe are still deciding the future for this title. If they make us wait much longer they may as well wait for NFL2001 which is due at the end of the year and will include online gameplay.
A couple of games have been delayed in Australia. Firstly, and very sadly, Sega Bass Fishing has been pushed back until April. What is going on with this game? It was going to be one of the launch titles last year. Red Dog has been pushed back until sometime in March, as has Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver. Activision's highly anticipated action racer Vigilante 8 : Second Offense has also been pushed back until sometime in March.
I received confirmation today that several new games have hit the stores. Virtua Striker 2, Incoming and Jimmy Whites 2 : Cue Ball should all be available now. For those of you that are interested I did an interview with the developers of JW2 last year which can be read by clicking here.
Peter Molyniux has confirmed at the Milia Conference that his upcoming online god sim, Black And White will be coming to the Dreamcast. It is unknown if Lionhead will do the conversion themselves but the game is expected to be one of the top online titles for this year.
A major Japanese web site and arcade chain is now listing Soul Calibur 2 for release in the arcades in the coming months. Thats nice, you say? Well it's better then that the site, called Amusement Graffiti, has listed the game as running on Naomi. Namco are still to confirm the rumours but if they turn out to be true a Dreamcast port is almost certain.
Acclaim have confirmed that they are making Re-Volt 2 on the Playstation and Gameboy Color. Why am I telling you this then? Well seing as the original made it to almost every system, including the Dreamcast, the sequel will likely do the same.
Disney Interactive and UbiSoft have confirmed that they are making a game based on Disney's awesome looking upcoming movie called Dinosaur. Although no specific release date has been given for the game yet you can bet it will be available arounf the movie's launch in May.
Bloomberg news service is reporting that Sega is being sued by Media Optik for infringing on patented technology within the Dreamcast. Sega (obviously) continued to infringe on the copyright with the development of the Dreamcast and the case was filed last week in Miami.
Ubisoft were kind enough to send me a pre-release (beta) copy of Rayman 2 last week and after playing it over the weekend and this week all I can say is WOW! This is one awesome game. I will be reviewing it in the coming weeks as soon as the final version arrives in my hands but may I suggest you start saving you money for this one.
Sierra have confirmed that they are porting their hit PC game Half Life to the Dreamcast. The game will most likely be playable online however a release date has not yet been set.
Sega of Japan have confirmed that online users have not topped 1 million people worldwide. Here is an excerpt from the press release :
Sega Enterprises, Ltd. (Head Office: Tokyo; President: Shoichiro Irimajiri), its U.S. affiliate, Sega of America Inc. (based in San Francisco), and its European affiliate, Sega Europe Limited (based in London), announced today that the number of registered members of the Dreamcast network, the latest 128-bit game console, has topped one million worldwide. The breakdown for network members includes roughly 520,000 in Japan, 280,000 in the U.S. and 200,000 in Europe. I wonder what has happened to Australia's grand figure of 0 (zero)?
A couple of release dates have been given to me from EB's at Pacific Fair on the Gold Coast. Sega Bass Fishing will appear one day after my birthday, on February 25th. Crazy Taxi is now due on February 29th while NBA2K has been pushed back until March 7th.
According to Gamespot Resient Evil: Code Veronica has sold a massive 400,000 copies in the first week. This puts sales of the game just behind Shen Mue which has been available for over a month now. Hopefully Capcom's game has also pushed up sales of Dreamcast hardware.
Take 2 Interactive have confirmed that they will be distributing Silicon Dreams upcoming action game Dogs of War on the Dreamcast. This 3D action games allows you to control a team of 100 soldiers or a single sniper to acheive the mission objectives. The PC version is due out in April with the Dreamcast version sometime after that.
Japanese Magazine Famitsu have reviewed Sega's new racing title, Sega GT. The game scored a respectable 33/40 with awkward controls beimg the main problem with the game.
Ozisoft have confirmed that Virtua Striker 2 has been delayed. The game, which was due in late January is now due in late February at the earliest.
Space Channel 5 has been given and unconfirmed release date in America of May 16th.
Before we get into the news I have some important information I want to get accross to everyone. Two days ago I asked by Ozisoft to remove the word Dreamcast from the name of my web site as well as the Dreamcast logo on the top left corner as it infringes on Sega's trademark and they are now clamping down on people using them on the web. Please don't blame Ozisoft, they feel very bad about the situation with Sega of Japan now expecting Ozisoft to act as police for all web sites. Anyway, while the name of the site will change in the coming days the content will remain as strong as ever. In fact I am currently toying with the idea of making this a multi-format site to include upcoming systems as the PSX2 and perhaps X-BOX and Dolphin.
This is where you can come in and help me. Firstly, I am looking for a good name for the site which is not already used around the web. I am also interested in web hosting so if there is anyone out there that runs a hosting service or even if you know one at a reasonable rate please let me know. I would love to get some feedback from you as to what you want improved,changed or added to the site. Please E-mail me at phantom@winshop.com.au or get in touch with me through ICQ at #14948450. I'm not sure where I am heading at the moment but I still want the Dreamcast and my web site to both succeed.
Eidos have confirmed plans to release Sword of Berserk: Gut's Rage in Australia in the coming months. The US version is due in March and it has been hinted that Eidos are considering including more blood then was found in the Japanese version, which was titled Beserk.
Infogrames have confirmed that their RPG Silver is heading for the Dreamcast. The game is currently due around mid-year.
I would somehow doubt that many of you would own a horse racing sim on any Platform mainly because they are rarely released outside Japan where they can be huge. Fortunately for the Dreamcast it looks like Koei are planning on releaseing Winning Post 4 2000 on the Dreamcast which would be another major boost for the system.
I have added a review to Midway and Eurocom's launch title Mortal Kombat Gold.
Sega of Japan has confirmed that Virtua Cop 2 will have superior graphics to and other version. The game has 5 times as many polygons as the Saturn version and twice as many as teh arcade unit. Virtua Cop 2 is scheduled for release in Japan on March 2 at the low prive of 2,800 yen. Hopefully Australia will see the game sooner rather then later, although I wouldn't count on a low pricepoint.
3DO's new action game Army Men : Sarge's Hereos is coming to the Dreamcast. Midway will be handling the conversion of the game which is yet to receive a release date. If you remember 3DO have handed development of their other Dreamcast title , Hereos of Might and Magic III to Ubisoft. That title is due out in March.
Rage will be releasing UEFA Striker in Japan on April 6th. The game has been receiving favourable reviews in Europe and is available in Australia now.
Midway have announced that they are working on a sequel to the hit game Spy Hunter. The Playstation 2 version will be available at that machine's launch in America and the Dreamcast game should be around the same time or a bit earlier.
Maken X has been given an American release date of March 28th. It will be interesting to see how this violent game fares on the Dreamcast.
I recently received an interesting e-mail from en employee of telstra lately. Apparently Telstra staff are being trained to handle support for Dreamcast internet beginning March 1st 2000. The browser disc's are almost complete and the reason why the online component has been delayed is problems setting up the dedicated servers. Unfortunately I haven't been able to validate the source properly however he did point me to a test Dreamcast Application page which looks very good.
Many of you have askem me what has happened to Activision's Vigilante 8 : Second Offense. Well it is still coming but has suffered a slight delay from January until sometime this month.
Sega Soft 6 have announced that they are working on sequels to their popular sports games, Let's Make a Pro Baseball Team and Let's Make a Pro Soccer Team. The development team is also working on a realtime online strategy game.
Sega will release their Dreamcast fising for seperately on March 23rd to coincide with the release of Dazz's Lake Master Pro Dreamcast Plus. The peripheral will retail for 5,800 yen.
Apparently Namco's new Naomi arcade soccer game called World Kicks runs on the Naomi chipset. The game has a unique interface with participants having to kick a ball at the bottom of the cabinet instead of hitting a button. No word yet on a Dreamcast conversion but it's not out of the question. (We might be stuck with normal controls though.)
Jaleco's action game Carrier has been listed with a US release date of February 20th accordig to online retailers. Whether this holds to be true so soon after Japan remains to be seen but it would be a nice change instead of the usual wait.