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House of the Dead 4 for PSN took almost a year to port

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So House of the Dead 4 is finally going to hit a home console, I have wanted a home version ever since I first laid eyes on it way back when SEGA released their ‘next gen’ trailer with Virtua Fighter 5 and (cough, cough) Sonic 06. The new PS3 port is built from the Lindbergh arcade board, the same board that runs Virtua Fighter 5, its supposed to make PS3 porting easy.

“It took almost a year to adapt The House of the Dead 4 for the console, from the initial game design to the product,” a Sega representative explained in an e-mail to Siliconera. “The main obstacles in converting The House of the Dead 4 from the Lindbergh board to the PS3 were the OpenGL and the data format conversion.  Also, the PS3 has only 256MB of RAM while the Lindbergh board has 1GB, making the conversion challenging.”

 “We did more than simply upscale the resolution to 720p. We brought the game render buffer up to 720p as well,” says SEGA “This makes the graphic quality and resolution far superior to all of the previous versions. In addition, we have re-made almost all of the UIs [user interface] in HD resolution.”

House of the Dead III recently made its way to PSN, featuring Move support plus a ton of unlockables. I want to say as an arcade fan, I’m glad SEGA is putting in work on these ports. I think SEGA has had a bad reputation due to their Genesis and Dreamcast ports. I’m glad they are willing to sit and make this title look spiffy on screen.

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The Website of the Dead launches, prepare to suffer like G did

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Kori-Maru from our forums has launched his newest blog and it’s all about The House of the Dead. He is striving to make his blog the number one go to site for all things House of the Dead, so if you guys have any feedback or would like to help him out, leave your comments in the comment box.

The Website of the Dead joins other fan sites created for a specific franchise. Like NiGHTSintoDreams, Shining Force Central and even an Outrun site. I’m a SEGA fan and I love these little sites that have fans that are passionate about the games and write tons of articles on little stuff most of us would miss. The House of the Dead III comes out on PSN tomorrow for $6.99, are you ready?

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Binary Domain US/EU demo gets dated

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If you have been waiting for an English demo of Binary Domain while all your friends gobbled up the Japanese demo on the first of the month, then your wait is almost over. You can expect the PS3 demo tomorrow (February 14) and the Xbox 360 one on Wednesday (February 15).

Binary Domain comes out in North America on February 28th, 2012. Are you ready?

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Sonic 4: Episode 2 will only have one throwback level

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Over at the official SEGA of America forums, a fan brought up the ultimate question. Are we going to suffer through throwbacks the whole time like episode one? Good news, Sonic 4 brand manager Ken Balough says that no, we won’t. He confirms that only one of the zones is a genuine throwback.

Also there is going to be a nice unveiling later this month. Now, he does admit that fans will call anything a throwback, only because it’s a similar environment. Read his full response after the jump.

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SEGA announces The House of the Dead 3 and 4 for Playstation Network

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As if SEGA’s 2012 lineup was not shaping up to be their finest as a third party publisher, the developer has just announced that the arcade exclusive The House of the Dead 4 will be finally making its way onto console as an exclusive for the Playstation Network. SEGA has announced that The House of the Dead 3 as well to be released on February 2012 for the Playstation Network, followed by The House of the Dead 4 releasing sometime in Spring 2012.

It is not known if the Playstation Move controller would be required to play the titles. With Yakuza: Dead Souls also releasing in March, SEGA will be giving gamers plenty of opportunities to shot down zombies en masses.

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Rumor: Sonic 4: Episode 2 to feature Tails and Metal Sonic?

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According to the original rumor, the last bit of info confirms that Tails will be playable. Not only that, Metal Sonic would be the main villain. I guess there was something to that marketing for Sonic CD. Reading the info that the source gave, it seems the version he got was pretty early and sections of it weren’t completed yet.

“You can select either Sonic or Tails before loading the first stage, but selecting Tails simply grants you playing as Sonic with a Tails life icon and ‘Tails got through Act X’ messages.”
“The level design consists of many bottomless pit areas and failing to avoid Metal Sonic after he teleports usually results in death.“

I’ll be publishing the full e-mail later tonight for the interested. This seems like a given, at least to me. After Sonic CD coming out ‘before’ they announced this? I pretty much knew it was going to have Metal Sonic. Tails was a given because he was introduced in Sonic 2, so introducing him in Episode 2 makes sense. Like you can assume that Knuckles will be in 3.

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Rumor: Sonic 4 Episode 2’s first stage called Cryptic Clock Zone?

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Adding to yesterday’s exclusive rumor on Sonic Episode 2, this time we hope that we are revealing the first stage name for the game. According to the anonymous e-mailer the first zone is going to be titled ‘Cryptic Clock Zone’.

“The first stage is titled Cryptic Clock Zone, set in a dark moonlit stonehenge like area. “

I’m pretty sure if this turns out to be true, that this is an original level idea, unlike the first episode that seemed to borrow themes from past Sonic titles. Or am I wrong? Is there a super secret stonehenge inspired Sonic stage that I missed?

Edit: Put rumor in the title after some sites started running the story as a fact. This is a rumor and has been filed under rumor since I posted it.

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Rumor: Sonic 4: Episode 2 not fixing physics complaints

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We got an anonymous tip from a fellow reader that has actually played Sonic 4: Episode 2 and his opinion on the title wasn’t a positive one. He stated that the game uses the same physics from the first episode.

“I have obtained access to a prototype build via the Xbox Live PARTNERNET program, and what is concerning is that the physics are exactly the same as they were in Episode 1. Yes, letting go of the stick makes Sonic drop like a brick. The reason I am telling you this information is that if it is out in the open, the fans will have a chance to speak out and make Sega delay the game. I am worried if it is left too late Sega will push out yet another disappointing software product.” – Anonymous e-mail

Some fans didn’t seem to hate the new physics, but many did. We have more Sonic 4 information that he leaked, we will be posting something everyday, so come back when you can. Hopefully we can get some screenshots as well.

Edit: Put rumor in the title after some sites started running the story as a fact. This is a rumor and has been filed under rumor since I posted it.

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Renegade Ops Accolades Trailer

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Sega just wanted to remind you how good Renegade Ops was, so they made this accolades trailer! Pretty sure this is exactly the same footage as another trailer just with quotes spliced into it… But hey, why not? It does a good job of showing off what Renegade Ops is all about, driving around and blowing stuff up!

It’s a brilliantly fun game that reminds me of classic top down shooters of the 90’s like Jackle and Desert Strike except in beautiful HD graphics, online play and four player co-op. If you haven’t already got it, go treat yourself it’s on PSN, XBLA and Steam and its well worth it.

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Sonic CD on Android getting lots of one star ratings

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I wake up this morning from a hazy slumber to go straight to the Android market to see if Sonic CD was uploaded. Expecting near perfect scores for the game, I get shocked to see so many one stars rating from users. It seems that a ton of people are angry due to three factors:

  • Most can’t download the additional 270mb of data required. Some are saying that the server got hit too hard.
  • You can’t install additional data to a SD card. It has to be on the phone memory. This is easily fixable and has been fixed for ChuChuRocket in the last update (another Android SEGA game).
  • Doesn’t seem to work with the Nexus Prime, the new ‘Google’ branded Android phone released today.

Come on SEGA, fix your damn servers. There is a reason why you have 63 one star ratings and 69 five star ratings. I have a feeling if the servers worked and people would be able to download their data, that it wouldn’t have gotten such low scores, even if you couldn’t install to SD or work on Nexus Prime. If it makes you feel better, its getting near perfect scores on Apple’s iTunes stores because people can actually download the game.

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Sonic CD is out, it’s cheap and it’s really, really good!

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SEGA have done something fantastic today, something you don’t see big publishers doing very often. They have chosen to reach out to the community and nabbed themselves Christian Whitehead aka ‘Taxman’ and his quite marvelous ‘Retro Engine’. It’s my understanding that Whitehead has been developing his ‘Retro Engine’ for quite some time now and gained a name for himself in the Sonic Community, and I can see why. His re-master release of Sonic CD for XBLA, PSN, iOS, Android, Windows Phone and of course PC is really, really good!

Unlike Backbone’s rather poor and often botched efforts at updating SEGA classics, Christian Whitehead’s ‘Retro Engine’ has given us Sonic CD locked at 60fps on every platform, both Euro/Japan and US sound tracks, new features, playable Tails, a choice of filters and modes, achievements and more… It really boasts the lot!

Hit the jump to find out why I think SEGA should snap up Whitehead and his engine!

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