Yearly Archives: 2025
How PSN Store downtime will affect SEGA
I have seen lots of sites covering this news, even some of them being SEGA related sites like this one. But none of them seem to point out how the PSN store will be affecting SEGA. Lets have a overview please.
SEGA was really pushing Virtua Tennis 4 for the Playstation 3. It was first announced for the console last year and even got some cool exclusive content on disc. So why does PSN store being down effect it? SEGA promised exclusive demos for PSN. The first demo hit the PSN store on April 19th, given that it is a few days from when PSN went down, I doubt many people got a chance to try it.
SEGA was set to release their PSN version of Streets of Rage 2 port on May 3rd (tomorrow) to PSN plus users and a week later for all users. Issue is that PSN Store is down. Also set to make its debut was the SEGA Genesis dynamic theme (to America, already out in Europe).
Sony held a conference on Sunday saying that online play, Playstation Home, Trophy synching, and other related abilities will be restored during the week. As for the Playstation Store, it should be up “within the month”.
Yakuza Week – Day 4: Of Demon Ninja Turtles!
“Well, isn’t that strange!”
TWITTER GIVE AWAY – Day 4 of 6
We have just one prize to give away today, but it’s a good one!
Today’s prize is; Yakuza 4 the game, signed by YAZ and the Yakuza 4 Art book!
All you have to do to have a shot at winning this awesome prize is follow us on twitter, CLICK HERE follow SEGAbits and simply retweet this message;
“RT & Follow @SEGAbits – YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 4 – CONTEST! Retweet to win Yakuza prizes! Info: http://www.segabits.com/?p=12213“
We’ll pick a winner at random!
If you don’t win, don’t fret, there will be another chance tomorrow!
Day 3 winners are:
Of the Yakuza 4 game (Signed by YAZ) and branded Chopsticks! – Stinkdeken
Of the Yakuza 4 Art book and branded bowl! – Krup213
Congratulations guys!
Why you should own this game – Day 4 –Reason 4
It’s very rare that a game can be ‘laugh out loud funny’ I find more often than not the attempts to inspire laughter in videogames fall flat and more often then not are pretty cringe worthy.
The Yakuza series is one of the very few videogame series that have got a real, hearty laugh out of me. Whilst the main storylines are a serious affair, just below the surface there is always something to make you chuckle. Be it the often crazy revelations, some over the top heat moves or side missions like outrunning a cross dresser that wants to have his/her way with you. In Yakuza 4 you’ll also encounter some great look-a-likes and Cameos too; such as Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future. Yeah, this game has it all!
Do yourself a favor and look at our side bar, over there on the right. We’ve made it easy for you to buy! Just click on that BUY NOW button!
Round Table: Discussing the PSO2 gameplay trailer
Being hardcore SEGA fans, especially during the Dreamcast era, means we played the crap out of Phantasy Star Online. Epic nights spent with our online friends, destroying monsters. Now that Phantasy Star Online 2 has gotten gameplay footage released, it means we can talk about how awesome this game is shaping up.
Gun-Lord Concept Art & Screen Shots
NG:DEV:TEAM have released the first screenshots of their upcoming Neo Geo and Dreamcast platformer GunLord on their Teaser Site. The images are stamped with the words “ALPHA VERSION” to give us an impression that things might still change.They show off a very interesting art direction, the likes of which we’ve never seen on the Neo Geo or the Dreamcast. Very dark and surreal tones are displayed along with very eerie creatures throughout to give a cryptic feel to the game. The tone is set even more forcefully by what seems to be the game’s theme song by Rafael Dyll of Soniq Factory.
Not sure of what to think of the whole Green Alien though, I guess it would help differentiate Gun-Lord from Contra and Metal Slug but still, humans would be nice too.
Source: Dreamcast-Scene
YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 3: Of Punching Tigers in the Face!
TWITTER GIVE AWAY – Day 2 of 6
Today, like day one we have 2 prizes to give away!
Prize one: Yakuza 4 Art book & Yakuza 4 branded Bowl!
Prize two: Yakuza 4 game signed by YAZ & Yakuza 4 branded Chopsticks!
All you have to do to have a shot at winning these awesome prizes is follow us on twitter, CLICK HERE follow SEGAbits and retweet this message;
“RT & Follow @SEGAbits – YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 3 – CONTEST! Retweet to win Yakuza prizes! Info: http://www.segabits.com/?p=11998
“
We’ll pick a winner at random!
If you don’t win, don’t fret, there will be another chance tomorrow!
Day 2 winner:
jegarcia
Congratulations!
Why you should own this game – Day 3 –Reason 3
That story!
I love my fair share of Japanese games; in fact, looking at my collection I tend to prefer Japanese games than western games. That said one thing I find the Japanese are trailing behind the West with is really good stories in games. Whilst I’m a firm believer in game play before storyline when it comes to videogames if a game has both it’s always a plus!
Story driven Japanese games are often made for a Japanese audience, (and rightly so) but that often means they’ll be littered with the kind of clichéd characters and plots I’ve seen a hundred times by now are wearing thin. Yakuza games are right on top of the game when it comes to interesting mature plots and compelling, likeable characters and it’s easily as good as any of the top story driven western games I’ve played.
Whilst Yakuza 3 lost a bit of its flair and became quite tame and monotonous at times, Yakuza 4 took the series back to the top of its game with four playable characters each with uniquely thrilling stories and backgrounds.
Do yourself a favor and look at our side bar, over there on the right. We’ve made it easy for you to buy! Just click on that BUY NOW button!
Yakuza Week: Who’s the boss now?
During this generation, I’ve seen a disturbing lack of boss fights, or at least, good boss fights. Thankfully, one of the most enjoyable aspects of any Yakuza game for me has become the boss battles. Yakuza is home to some of the most memorable boss fights in any recent SEGA title and the fourth mainline entry into the series isn’t any different. As with such articles, spoilers for the game follow, so if you happen not to have completed Yakuza 4 yet and do not wish to be spoiled, walk away now, for everyone else, please continue reading to find out my personal five!
Virtua Tennis 4 UK Launch Trailer
It’s the Virtua Tennis 4 UK launch trailer! This trailer focuses mostly on the PS3 version and its Move control scheme. However, rest assured that the game will also be available with the usual controller based scheme for PS3, Xbox 360 (with Kenect) and Wii.
Being developed by the original VT development team in Japan gives me high hopes for this game and with a £1 million marketing campaign it seems Sega do too!
YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 2: Of Heat and Content
Akiyama’s in heat!
TWITTER GIVE AWAY – Day 2 of 6
Today we have just 1 give-away but it’s a good one!
Today one lucky winner will nab 1 copy of Yakuza 4 signed by YAZ and 1 copy of the Yakuza 4 art book.
All you have to do to have a shot at winning these awesome prizes is follow us on twitter, CLICK HERE follow SEGAbits and retweet this message;
“RT Follow @SEGAbits – YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 2 – CONTEST! Retweet to win Yakuza prizes. Info: http://www.segabits.com/?p=11942 “
We’ll pick a winner at random!
If you don’t win, don’t fret, there will be another chance tomorrow!
Day 1 winners:
Of the Yakuza branded bowl & Game – Hibikirush
Of the Art book & Chopsticks – D12W
Congratulations guys!
Why you should own this game, Day 2 – Reason 2:
There is just SO MUCH content.
Have you ever wondered if the price you are paying for the game is worth the content you’re getting? I know I often do. A good game is a good game but I’d like to be kept satisfied for at least 10 hours.
If there is one game that doesn’t skimp on content it is Yakuza 4. There is just so much to do. Beside the main, crime thriller storyline you can do multiple mini games including golf, baseball batting cages, gambling, fishing and many more.
Not only can you waste your money dating the lovely ladies of the game, brining them gifts, buying them food and saying all the right things to see where you can take the relationship. You can even run the hostess clubs where guys pick them up! Design the bar and even dress the woman how you like em!
Not only that there is the battle cage, an underground ‘flight club’ style arena where you fight other hard nuts in brutal battles to see who’s the best. Again, you can even become a trainer and coach fighters; you help them become the best!
If that wasn’t enough, there are the seemingly endless amounts of side missions you can take.
There is so much bang for your buck that most people I know who have played it say that they can be 20 to 40 hours into the game and only on chapter 3 or 4 and many find out that when they finish the story mode they’ve still only completely 30% of the games content.
Do yourself a favor and look at our side bar, over there on the right. We’ve made it easy for you to buy! Just click on that BUY NOW button!
SEGA Sequels: Viking: Battle for Asgard
Every week we bring up mostly retro games we want to see come back. Viking: Battle for Asgard came out in early 2008. Most gamers ignored it for other titles and SEGA fans didn’t know what to expect. Reviews where mixed. But guess what? I loved it and want Creative Assembly to continue the franchise.
Yakuza Week: Favorite Yakuza 4 tunes
In celebration of…I guess we’re calling it Yakuza Week, (rad) I figured it would be appropriate to dedicate some time to the music of the recently-released Yakuza 4. Their soundtracks have been one area that this series has always excelled in, and Yakuza 4 is certainly no exception. The adrenaline-pumping and guitar-heavy soundtrack returns, of course, as do the power balads, and let’s not forget those crazy Japanese karaoke songs. Here are some of the songs I found to be memorable in Yakuza 4, and I encourage you to post/discuss yours in the comments section below!
Sonic Team’s attempt at a Tony Hawk game
Assembler games forum member got his hands on an XBOX 1 devkit. A lot of unreleased games were unearthed, including “SONIC EXTREME”. SONIC EXTREME looks like Sonic Team’s attempt at Tony Hawk… quite literally! You can see Sonic doing Tony Hawk style skateboard tricks.
So yeah… just think. We could have had a Sonic game like this! This was an amusing video to watch and I just had to share it with you guys!
[Source: TSSZNews]
Digital distribution helped SEGA enter new territories
[By the way, PSN is still down!]
SEGA announced last year that they had a whole team dedicated to digital distribution. James Schall, SEGA’s digital distribution manager, spoke about how they have reached new territories due to ESD (electronic software distribution).
“A few years ago the digital team was bolted on to the side of other departments, with a couple of people at most working on the project. Now we have a specific ESD team of six looking after PC titles. Digital enables you to reach out to new territories.” – James Schall, Digital Distribution Manager
Not an expert, but since SEGA doesn’t have too many PC titles I think 6 people handling the job is pretty ample. Maybe I’m wrong? I think digital teams over at SEGA will just get bigger as the market grows on consoles, but after the PSN thing happened, will you rely on a network?
[Source: MCV]
Operation G.H.O.S.T. arcade cabinet
SEGA’s sequel to Ghost Squad is real, so real that here are your pictures of the cabinet you will be playing it on. Sure, it isn’t the best looking cabinet and we have not had screenshots released of in-game yet.
Pretty sure this game will get a US and Europe arcade release, seeing as how Ghost Squad was quite popular here. Maybe if we complain enough we will also get a console port? Worth a try!
[Via: Arcadeheroes]
The Weekly Five: Why We’re Partying Like It’s 2001!
2001 was a great year for SEGA games, but a bad year for SEGA. While a number of amazing titles released, we played them with the knowledge that the Dreamcast was to be discontinued by March. To create a sad analogy, it was like going to Disneyland knowing you had three months left to live. Jump ahead ten years to 2011. All signs point to a great year for SEGA games AND a great year for SEGA. The comparison between 2001 and 2011 doesn’t end there, as you’ll soon learn in this week’s “Weekly Five”. Just why are we partying like it’s 2001? Read on to find out!