Author Archives: George

A look at SEGA of Japan’s Yakuza stage show

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LikeaDragonStage4
Did you know that the Japanese love going to stage shows? Did you know that SEGA have made quite a bit of stage shows of their franchises including stuff like Phantasy Star Online 2 and now Yakuza aka Ryu Ga Gotoku? I have to be honest, the stage show doesn’t look half bad from Famitu’s photo gallery and most of the actors fit their roles unlike the Takashi Miike directed ‘Like a Dragon’ movie.

Below you can see a few of the photographs taken from the stage show’s debut. If you want more head over to Famitsu’s extensive gallery.

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3D Streets of Rage 2 screenshots tell you to trust your fists

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If you missed the announcement, SEGA is set to add three more titles to their wave 2 of their 3D Classics on the 3DS. We already got great titles like 3D Fantasy Zone, 3D Outrun and just last week we got 3D Fantasy Zone II. Now we are set to get Genesis/Mega Drive hit titles like 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 3D Gunstar Heroes and of course 3D Streets of Rage 2.

The screenshots give you a taste of what the game will look like on your 3DS before it comes out later this year. It seems that M2, the developers behind this port will be sticking with the original aspect ratio of the game instead of working on making this titles widescreen. I now expect the same will happen with 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and 3D Gunstar Heroes. Also nice to see Yuzo Koshiro gets that big credit under the SEGA copyright like always. A few other things we know is that the game will support local multiplayer (if both 3DS’ have a copy of the game) and a new Quartet mode that allows you to play a single player mode with all characters.

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SEGA still hasn’t registered as an E3 2015 exhibitor

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Waiting for SEGA to announce their upcoming games and have them playable at events like E3? Well, you might be in for a shocker, seems that SEGA isn’t listed in registered exhibitors for this year’s E3.

Am I shocked? No, SEGA has already announced that they are restructuring and moving form San Francisco to the LA area this upcoming June. Sadly with the move comes a lot of the staff leaving and most likely people that helped with these events. I can see SEGA just showing off games with other bigger booths, like Yakuza 5 at Sony’s booth for example.

Personally I find that E3 is slowly becoming less relevant to consumers and wouldn’t mind if SEGA just focused on having their own version of Nintendo Direct where we see all the games coming in an hour long type of live stream. One thing with SEGA is that their fans are spread from Sonic the Hedgehog only fans to Total War only fans, these two fan bases have millions of users and having them come together for one stream will allow you to show them franchises they would otherwise never hear of.

What are your thoughts on SEGA not being registered for a E3 2015 booth?

[via: Sonic Stadium]

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Virtua Tennis 4 being delisted from Steam and other digital stores

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SEGA is going to be pulling sales of Virtua Tennis 4 from digital stores including Steam on April 23rd, 2015. After this day you won’t be able to pick up a copy of the undeserved critically panned tennis game.

If you have a PC, I suggest you purchase a copy right now for $2.99 on Steam, I feel that the game is well worth it even if it has crappy Games for Windows Live tacked onto it. Its a great Tennis game filled with addictive mini-games.

There are reasons why SEGA could have delisted the game, most of the usually fall in licenses expiring. I wonder what this means for the future of the Virtua Tennis franchise?

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Project x Zone 2: Brave New World trailer shows off new Shinobi and Yakuza crossover

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Famitsu.com has now officially spilled the beans on the new upcoming Project x Zone 2: Brave New World video game coming to the Nintendo 3DS this fall worldwide! The game shows off some new crossover characters that will be brand new including SEGA fan favorites (listed below):

List of franchises/characters confirmed:

SEGA:

  • Shinobi (PS2): Hotsuma Hotsuma
  • Yakuza Dead Souls: Kazuma Kiryu and Majima Goro
  • Virtua Fighter: Yuki Akira and Kage-Maru
  • Sakura Wars: Ichiro Ogami and Erica Fontaine

Capcom:

  • Resident Evil: Revelations: Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine
  • Resident Evil 6: Leon S. Kennedy
  • Devil May Cry: Dante and Virgil
  • Mega Man X: X and Zero
  • Strider: Flying Dragon

Namco-Bandai:

  • Tales of Vespera: Yuri Lowell and Flynn Shifo
  • Tekken: Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima
  • .hack//: Kite and Haseo
  • Soul Calibur V: Natsu

Obviously some of the characters listed are returning from the previous game. To see all the tie-ins in the last Project x Zone, here is a complete list. Hit the jump to see screens.

Update: Replaced the Japanese trailer with the English one released by Namco-Bandai USA. Meaning that yes, its going to come West this fall!

Continue Reading ➜

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SEGA launches free-to-play Total War Battles: KINGDOM on Steam

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totalwarkingdom
SEGA has released Total War Battles: KINGDOM out of its closed beta testing phase and is now free to download as an open beta game. The game will allow you to seamlessly play from PC to mobile when the app launches.

Reviews for the game so far have been mixed with the Total War fanbase disliking the game’s use of free-to-play mechanics that are similar to the ever popular mobile title Clash of Clans. The general complaint is that the game doesn’t resemble much of what people like in Total War games and that SEGA is charging people who want to grow wheat instantly instead of waiting 8 hours.

We shall see if SEGA will further tweak the wait time for basic actions or if they will continue down the same path with this game.

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Download the Dead or Alive 5 Last Round texture mod for the ultimate Shenmue fight

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DOAShenmue1
Reddit user Esppiral has posted the following texture modifications for the PC release of Dead or Alive 5 Last Round. Sadly modders haven’t figured out how to swap models (yet?), so the user went in and used a base model and changed the textures to make them look like Shenmue characters. He not only created Ryo (using Jacky as a base model) and Lan Di (using Akira as a base model) but also included the famous dojo.

Download the mods here:

If you bought the game on Steam (or any other service) and want to learn how to install texture mods, hit the jump.

Continue Reading ➜

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Craft Lab creates a Sonic the Hedgehog statue using chicken bones

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If you have never seen the YouTube show Craft Lab, the premise is that a Hollywood production designer named Greg Aronowitz (Jurassic Park: Lost World, Terminator 2) takes unconventional materials and makes works of art based on pop culture icons.

On this episode it was decided that they would create a Sonic the Hedgehog statue made with chicken bones. Its pretty interesting and came out pretty awesome, so check out the video above.

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Sonic Runners to get Phantasy Star Online 2 companions later this month

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According to the latest Phantasy Star Online 2 press event, the team has revealed that they are crossing over to Sonic Runners via unlockable companions later this month. The update will allow you to unlock either aa Rappy , Mag or Quna. You can see the unlockable models in the picture above.

Of course since Sonic Runners is still in soft launch, both Sonic Runners and Phantasy Star Online 2 haven’t been released in America yet. While we know that Sonic Runners will eventually come to America, will they still include Phantasy Star Online 2 items, when it hasn’t been released here?

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Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate gets free DLC update with Sonic themed gear

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Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate‘s free Apirl DLC update is out now and part of the update is Sonic the Hedgehog gear for your Palicoes (cat like creatures that can go on missions with you). It seems to unlock the gear you will have to overcome a series of new missions (included for free in the update) that are sometimes very punishing. Last month’s DLC had The Legend of Zelda items and the missions to unlock the items where very hard, so let’s hope that Capcom isn’t going to make us suffer for Sonic the Hedgehog goodness.The update comes with:

  • 14 New quests
  • 2 New weapons
  • 3 Complete armor sets
  • 4 Palico weapons
  • 7 Palico armor sets
  • 1 Bonus Palico: Blue Pal
  • 4 Guild Card backgrounds
  • 2 Guild Card pose
  • 13 Guild Card titles
  • 1 Poogie outfit: Vagaboar

You can check out more information on Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and its DLC over at Capcom-Unity. So, how many of you guys are playing Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and how are you liking it?

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Super Fighter Team announces its reprinting all their Genesis/Mega Drive games

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Super Fighter Team is a developer and publisher which is mostly known for getting commercial distribution rights to pre-existing titles, working with the original team by fixing bugs and translating so they can release the games world wide on their original platform. That would include SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive which they released three titles for. Their debut game was Beggar Prince in 2006, which we posted last year was getting pre-orders for a new reprint to celebrate its 20th anniversary next year.

While Beggar Prince reprints where confirmed last year, this year Super Fighter Team also confirmed that they will be reprinting Legend of Wukong and Star Odyssey (aka Blue Almanac).

But if RPGs aren’t your thing, Super Fighter Team has just posted two new games to pre-order on their site. The first one is a puzzle game called Cascade and the other one is a vertical shooter named Magic Girl: Featuring Ling Ling the Little Witch. It seems that if there is one console that refuses the die its the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, seemly getting more support as time goes by thanks to publishers like Super Fighter Team and Watermelon Games.

What are you thoughts? Picking up any of the games listed here?

[Via: NintendoLife]

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Typing of The Dead: Overkill update adds Custom Dictionaries with Steamworks support

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Steamworks
Everyone knows that typing funny words is part of what makes SEGA’s Typing of the Dead video games so much fun, especially since SEGA embraced the wackiness early on with the first entries to the series. For Typing of the Dead: Overkill, SEGA dipped their fingers in adding DLC for new word content and now it seems they are going to drop all that to allow users to make their own ‘Custom Dictionaries’ of words.

Not only that, SEGA is adding Steamworks support, meaning that you will be able to share your custom dictionaries with all of Steam. Want to make a themed dictionary based on delicate words, words that describe your mom or quotes from ‘Back to the Future’? Well, you are in luck, now you can.

Since SEGA is having their Steam sale, you will be able to pick up Typing of the Dead: Overkill for 75%.

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Sports Interactive releases Eastside Hockey Manager: Early Access Edition

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Sports Interactive used to make more games than just the super popular Football Manager (that is one of the top 5 most played Steam games), they used to make Eastside Hockey Manager but that was discounted back in 2007 due to the games not being able to pay for its development costs, mostly due to the high piracy rates. But much has changed since 2007, more people actually purchase games thanks to the rising popularity of Steam and Sports Interactive is ready to give it another shot.

“We need to prove that there is enough demand to justify resurrecting the series fully. Whilst this version has ‘fake’ data, we want to show that there is a demand for a fully licensed version of the game. That won’t come with this release but, if it’s successful, it means we can go to the leagues around the world and get licenses for future, annualised, versions (in much the same way that we do with FM).”

Eastside Hockey Manager is now available to download in its ‘early access edition’ form for a mere $14.99, but only has support for English. If you are a Hockey fan and want to see this series resurrected then head over to Steam and support it with your wallet. So far ratings on Steam have been positive.

Who knows, maybe SEGA can create in-house games in early access and take fan feedback to shape the series and see if there is an audience for some of their franchises.

[Via: Eurogamer]

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SEGA shutting down service for Initial D Perfect Shift Online on 3DS

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ISO
SEGA Japan has announced that they will be shutting down online services for their free-to-play 3DS game Initial D Perfect Shift Online come this June 30th. Last time we heard from SEGA they where bragging that the game was a success with over 500,000 downloads, but this is was most likely shut down due to SEGA working on a sequel (announced last year).

So what will happen if the service ends and you still have the game on your Japanese 3DS? You can continue to play the game as long as you want, but the game will be offline only.

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