Author Archives: George

SEGA’s Next Big Arcade Game: Transformers Shadow Rising

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SEGA has had a huge presence in license arcade cabinets, all the way from its conception as a company moving on to their golden age of Japanese arcades. SEGA’s next big licensed arcade game happens to be another Transformers title, being a sequel to 2013’s Transformers: Human Alliance. Transformers Shadow Rising has been showing that Amusement Expo 2018 in its early beta stages. The game so far has been revealed to be 75% complete. It is funny though, that the game’s title reminds me of that one Wheel of Time book… 

Our friends over at Arcade Heroes had a big preview on the new upcoming game, talking about how the game is very similar to 2013 Transformers: Human Alliance but with more focus on co-op. SEGA Amusements has also released a press release which you can read after the jump.

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Sonic’s Chief Brand Officer ‘We don’t limit ourselves by genre’

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Sonic the Hedgehog‘s recent games have been pretty focused  by being “action games” or “action platformers”. Hard to pin down a genre for the boost gameplay, but they have been what we expect from the Blue Blur. Sonic the Hedgehog chief brand officer Ivo Gerscovich talked with comicbook.com about the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie and a few other topics. The interview was rather short, only having about seven questions answered. One of the questions he got was what genre Sonic hasn’t covered yet and if they are planning to revisit the Sonic RPG concept that they tried with Sonic Chronicles on Nintendo DS (interview says 3DS. Wrong!):

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SEGA Talk Podcast #14: Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)

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On this episode of the SEGA Talk Podcast we cover one of the most important SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive titles ever released. Sonic the Hedgehog, which was obviously the jumping pad for the Sonic mania craze of the early 90s. On this episode George and Barry discuss the game’s history, our exposure to the game and for the first time we are offering a special YouTube enhanced version of the podcast. We are still working out the kinks and feedback would be appreciated. If you like the show, make sure to leave us a positive five star review on iTunes, it always helps!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – Play Music – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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SEGA has a ‘surprise announcement’ at SEGA FES 2018

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SEGA will be holding a celebration next month in Akihihabara, Tokyo on April 14-15, where they will celebrate their history by including new and old SEGA game in a museum style event.

But that isn’t all that they will have, they will also host Q&A panels, have merchandise stands, competitions, and special guests. But even better, SEGA has also stated that they will have a “surprise announcement” at the event. They are teasing this as a announcement that is “unique to SEGA.” You know what that means? We’ll be disappointed. Sounds like a event I wish I could attend.

But  maybe, just maybe, this could be the official announcement of Virtua Fighter 6. We can dream, can’t we?

[Via: Destructoid]

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Yakuza 6 full game ‘demos’ being revoked by Sony

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According to users on ResetEra, if you go back online with the Yakuza 6 full game ‘demo’, which SEGA released the other day, they will revoke the license transforming it back into a demo. Of course if you want to bypass this and play the full game all you need to do is not connect to the internet.

I’m personally glad to see that the PlayStation 4 has the ability to do something like this, considering that I want the franchise to do well in the West. It would really hurt sales if thousands upon thousands of would be costumers unlocked the full game for free. Even if you got the full game and are planning on playing it early by not being connected online, I urge you to support the series by at least getting the game physically when it comes out in April!

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Shenmue III’s ending will set up a sequel, confirms Yu Suzuki

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SEGA and Shenmue fans have been fighting to get a third installment and closure to the series since back in the early 2000s. Lots of fans where delighted when it was announced that Yu Suzuki, the original creator for the Shenmue series would be asking fans to kickstart Shenmue III. The internet was on fire, with lots of people assuming this would be the last chance to ‘finish the fight’ against famed villain Lan Di.

In a interview with GamersFlag, Yu Suzuki was asked if the ending for Shenmue III would be open (much like the last two games) and suggest there would be a Shenmue IV. This is what Yu Suzuki had to say:

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The Alliance Alive 3DS demo goes live in North America

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Atlus has released a demo for their upcoming The Alliance Alive game on the 3DS, the demo is now live on the North American eshop. The Alliance Alive is being done by the same team (Cattle Call) that made The Legend of Legacy, which we reviewed and thought it was just alright. While it seems that Nintendo and other developers are moving development onto the Nintendo Switch, Atlus still has at least four titles being released for Nintendo 3DS this year.

For European fans, you will be able to download the demo on March 1st. The Alliance Alive hits physical and digital on March 27, 2018.

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Hokuto ga Gotoku gets a great review score from Weekly Famitsu

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The latest issue of Weekly Famitsu has reviewed SEGA’s Hokuto ga Gotoku, the Yakuza Studio’s take on a Fist of the North Star game. The following are the review scores in the latest issue:

 

  • Crossing Souls (PS4) – 7/8/8/7 [30/40]
  • Fortissimo (PS Vita) – 8/8/8/8 [32/40]
  • Hokuto ga Gotoku (PS4) – 9/9/9/8 [35/40]
  • Immortal Redneck (PS4, Xbox One) – 7/7/8/7 [29/40]
  • Lucky Dog 1 (PS Vita) – 8/8/8/8 [32/40]
  • Tower of Babel (Switch) – 7/6/7/7 [27/40]
  • Your Four Knight Princesses Training Story (PS4, PS Vita, Switch) – 8/7/7/7 [29/40]

As for the legitimacy of the scores, a lot of people online agree that Famitsu is a industry magazine that always gives good scores to high bidders. Is it true? Who knows, but I had some hands-on with the Hokuto ga Gotoku demo and quite enjoyed it myself. Now we just wait to see if the game heads west…

[Source: Gematsu]

 

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Yakuza 6 demo pulled from PSN due to it being the full game

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[Update: Have confirmed that there was no exploit, SEGA just uploaded the full game onto PSN instead of a demo. Way to go!]

Oops, if you read our story about the Yakuza 6 demo coming to PSN today and happen to be wondering why it isn’t showing up on the in-game store, now we know. According to Destructoid, the game unlocked the full version (for free) when downloaded. According to Destructoid (and SEGA) people used an exploit and according to other users on twitter it was never locked down (seems doubtful). If you didn’t know the demo weighed in at more than 36GB, of course this mean’t the demo was the full version of the game locked down as a ‘trial’. Once you purchased the full game come April, it would unlock the full game without re-downloading the data. SEGA posted on their Facebook about pulling the demo but didn’t go into detail.

This also puts into question why SEGA would delay Yakuza 6: The Song of Life from March to April, if the game is translated and playable already. Some people think that maybe SEGA had manufacturing issues with the physical copies of the game that lead them to delay it so everyone gets the game day one. Maybe they thought it would sell better if it was delayed, though this doesn’t make sense considering Sony’s God of War is also launching in April. But it seems that some people have unlocked the full game already, thanks to this exploit and are enjoying it for free. What are your thoughts? Did SEGA screw this up?

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SEGA ranked 3rd best publisher of 2017 by Metacritic

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The people over at Metacritic has ranked the best publishers of 2017, determined by the quality of titles released during the 2017 calendar year. SEGA came in 3rd only being beaten by Bethesda Software and Nintendo. According to Metacritic, SEGA’s average score for the year was 75.5%! The worse rated game was Valkyria Revolution with a 55% score and the best was Bayonetta on PC with a 90%. SEGA bested big publishers like Activision Blizzard, Capcom, Ubisoft, Sony, and Square-Enix.

This is more proof that SEGA has been heading down the right direction since they had their huge restructure back in 2015 and got their new CEO Haruki Satomi who promised to earn gamer’s trust again by releasing more high quality software. What are your thoughts on SEGA’s output in 2017? Let us know in the comments below!

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SEGA News Bits: Hokuto ga Gotoku Demo Hands-On Impressions

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SEGA has released their demo for Yakuza Studio’s Hokuto ga Gotoku (Fist of the North Star). The demo had two different modes to try out, one that taught you the basics, while the other mode sends you on a quest to fix your newly acquired vehicle.  On this episode of the SEGA News Bits we discuss our impressions of the demo, how the driving works, how the combat is different from past Yakuza titles and what we noticed in our initial play through of the demo. Check out our video and have you tried out the demo? Let us know in the comments below.

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.

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Yakuza 6 demo out tomorrow, is over 36 GB in size

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The Yakuza 6: The Song of Life demo is hitting PSN on February 27, 2018 and since some regions are ahead of us due to timezones, they can already try out the demo. For example, the English demo has now hit the Australian PlayStation Store revealing that the demo will be 36.53 GB in size! Yeah, its a big one.

So what is in this demo? The Yakuza 6: The Song of Life demo is a prologue. This lets you go through the intro segment where they teach you the basics in controls, what Kazuma Kiryu is doing now and why he is taking care of Haruka’s son, Haruto. Also your save data from this demo will carry over to the full game when it comes out April 17, 2018. This demo is basically the same one they released for the Japanese release.

So what do you think? Too big? Are you picking the demo up to give Yakuza 6: The Song of Life a early look?

[Source: Siliconera]

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Two Point Hospital gets official gameplay with developer commentary

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The upcoming SEGA and Two Point Studios game, Two Point Hospital got some official gameplay with commentary by developers Ben Huskins and Mark Webley. In this gameplay video they show you the basics of creating a hospital in the game, discuss basic gameplay ideas and much more.

From the press release:

“Marvel as the hospital springs up before your very eyes with emergent-cy gameplay there for all to see! You’ll get an idea of patient flow through the hospital and how your soon-to-be multi-million dollar healthcare facility will evolve over time with the introduction of diagnosis rooms, hi-tech treatment areas for all manner of wacky illnesses and a wide-ranging cast of ‘characters’.”

Outside of this, you can also sign up for the Two Point Hospital pass here, where you’ll get updates on new videos and even free in-game items.

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Shenmue III Magic Monaco 2018 Trailer leaks online

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The new trailer for Shenmue III that was shown behind close doors at the Magic Monaco 2018 event yesterday has leaked online. The trailer is using a lot of the same footage found from last year’s trailer but now shows off what QTEs will look like in this brand new title.

Not only that but this new Shenmue III trailer also shows the return of the Boxing arcade game from Shenmue 1. Regardless of all the new stuff shown the footage looks far from final and a ton of animation, mainly facial, is still missing. Considering its been 3 years, who knows how long this game is ‘still in the works’ for.

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Shenmue III update reveals improved graphics and new characters

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Shenmue III has revealed its 80th Kickstarter update and even with 80 whole updates a large part of the game is a big mystery. On this update we got four new screenshots of the game, one of them showing off a brand new character. That new character can be seen above.

Outside of that we have a screenshot featuring a young kid, an elder man and that bad guy we saw in the trailer released last year. First thing I noticed is how improved most of the characters faces are and how more animated they look. Especially the young kid in the gallery below. I still have some issue with how Ryo Hazuki is designed, something is really off about him. It isn’t the graphics, but more how the facial structure and hairline are placed. Seems a little off compared to the way he was designed in past games. But who knows, maybe I’m crazy? What are your thoughts on the brand new screenshots?

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