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GameArts Founder Passes Away

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Last Friday was a sad day for Japanese role-playing game fans. G-mode CEO Takeshi Miyaji, who was also well known for starting up game development company Game Arts, passed away on the July 29. Miyaji was 45 years old.

You may be wondering why this was posted on a SEGA website, but if you go through the developer’s Gameography, you’d find that a majority of their games have found homes on SEGA consoles. Grandia 2 is still one of the best reasons for owning a Dreamcast (it was ported to the PS2, post-Dreamcast days but was inferior to the DC version).

The loss of Miyagi San is a loss for the game industry and fans like us who grew up on true Blue games.  Miyaji San started Game Arts back in 1985 alongside his brother Yoichi Miyaji, who is the current CEO of the company. Game Arts is well known in the gaming community for creating games like Silpheed (Sega CD), and Gun Griffon (Sega Saturn), as well as the Lunar and Grandia series. A few staff members of Game Arts also helped develop Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii.

Rest in Peace Takeshi Miyaji, our hearts go out to his family and friends.

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SEGA releases more Virtua Tennis 4 Vita footage

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SEGA has released just under 6 minutes worth of footage for their Playstation Vita version of Virtua Tennis 4, and the title still looks as good as its console version. The trailer only showcases some match footage and tries to show how the touchscreen function will work in the newest Virtua Tennis title.

[Source: TheSixthAxis]

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Rise of Nightmares achievements hit the web

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Rise of Nightmare’s achievements hit the web, some of the achievements being creeper “Watcher” and others being typically what you expected “Iron Fist.”

There is one issue though, most of the big achievements are locked, so we won’t be able to see them till the game releases. Hit the jump to see the achievements.

Continue Reading ➜

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Renegade Ops joins new PSN program called “PSN Play”

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Sony just announced a new ‘annual’ program they will be launching called “PSN Play”. Basically if you pre-order a ‘PSN Play’ title, you will receive a free PSN theme. If you purchase the title before a date (this time around it’s September 19th) you will get a free piece of DLC for that game.

But, if you get all of the ‘PSN Play’ titles, you will get  a free unreleased game. This time around if you buy all four titles above by September 19th, you will get Payday: The Heist for free. If you have Playstation Plus, you get 20% off on top of that.  Do want. Renegade Ops is out September 13th on PSN.

[Source: Playstation.Blog]

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SEGA Australia gets new junior product manager

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SEGA Australia has a new junior product manager. Khiet Chu, who has 3 years of experience. He’s previously worked with Corporate Express Ltd as product coordinator.

“We are pleased to have Khiet on board and his passion for gaming and previous work experience will make him a strong addition to our team.” – Neroli Baird, marketing manager at SEGA Australia

It is good to see SEGA expand, especially in countries like Australia. Let’s hope they get more studios.

[Source: MCV]

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Hey Kid, You Want to See Some Chemical Plant Zone Gameplay Footage?

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You got it! From Gameswelt.de, and uploaded to Youtube by a Sonic fan (I can only assume) comes the first gameplay footage of Chemical Plant Zone, in both classic and modern flavors. Oh yeah, that means Chemical Plant music remix! These are only snippets of the stage acts, so those weary of full act spoilers don’t need to worry too much.

Thanks to forum user ezodagrom for the heads up!

[Source: Gameswelt.de]

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Review: Captain America: Super Soldier (Wii)

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When Nuckles87 assigned me to do the hands on for Captain America on Wii during E3, I wasn’t too happy. The game just looked like another washed down, crappy port. I was surprised however, at the level of quality the game had. The game is handled by High Voltage. Mainly the HV team that handled Tournament of Legends (poorly reviewed but I thought it was okay). Now, I bought the PS3 version which I love despite how some may feel (No offense Aki), but after playing and beating the Wii version, does it hold up well or is it just another watered-down Wii port? Read on. Read further down for a Bonus Feature.

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Swingin’ Report Show #15: Shark Week

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This is Shark week because Sharky returns on the podcast. Me and him sit down to talk about Binary Domain’s graphics, Sonic physics and much more. This podcast is not for one that is easily offended. Enjoy

[audio:http://www.segabits.com/wp-content/uploads/Swingin_Report_Show_15_Shark_Week.mp3]

[Download] [Archive]

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The Weekly Five: The Best VMU Games

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Despite being over ten years old, VMU games can still be fun! Sure they pale in comparison to modern day handheld devices, but even back when VMUs were new they couldn’t compete with the handhelds of the early 00’s. The main purpose of a VMU was to save your game data, the fact that they could play mini-games was the cherry on top. While the VMU didn’t change the world, at least SEGA didn’t advertise it as the standout feature of the console (subtle dig at the Wii U). While I don’t carry a VMU about with me like I did back in ’99, I still make it a point to occasionally pick up some CR2032 batteries to bring my VMU back to life. What follows are my personal favorite VMU games.

Want to play these yourself, but don’t have all the Dreamcast titles that offer these extra features? Check out Blue Swirl’s VMU Tool. An awesome application for the Dreamcast which allows you to make a number of (safe) modifications to existing VMUs as well as download game saves and VMU games from the entire Dreamcast library. It even has a VMU emulator, for those too lazy to play an actual VMU.

Continue Reading ➜

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How to get an avatar to show up for your comments

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A few people have been asking me how did I get an avatar to show up in the comment section. Actually, I should have probably posted this awhile back, we are using a 3rd party site for this. Gravatar is a site that allows you to change your avatar and it work with other blogs (SEGA Blog, Sonic Stadium).

Steps:

  1. Go to www.gravatar.com
  2. Sign up (make sure you sign up with the e-mail you use to post here)
  3. Post away.
(Note: It takes awhile for your new avatar to show up)

Gravatar uses your e-mail to choose the avatar. So if you use the same e-mail on another wordpress blog, it will show the same avatar. So lets fill in those avatar spots, no excuses.

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7th Dragon 2020 – First Gameplay

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Here is the first gameplay clips of 7th Dragon 2020 for the PSP. 7th Dragon 2020 is a the sequel to 7th Dragon which was released on the Nintendo DS last year. Unlike 7th Dragon, 7th Dragon 2020 is fully animated in 3D and it looks a lot better for it.

Whilst the first game was set in a semi-present sort of otherworldly universe 2020 will be set in the near future, the year 2020 to be precise! The aim of the game is simple, explore a large open world map, find and kill all 7 dragons that inhabit it… Of course it’s always easier said then done.

The 7th Dragon games are being produced by Rieko Kodama who has worked on a number of great Sega JRPGs including Phantasy Star and Skies of Arcadia.

Hit the jump for the character creation video.

Continue Reading ➜

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Udon releases Valkyria Chronicles Art Book

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I think any gamer who has played or seen Valkyria will attest to the fact that the games unique water colors art style was one of the main draws for the game. I first remember when I saw screen shots of the game I was baffled as to whether they wear concept arts or in game screen shots it wasn’t until I saw the game in motion till I realised this was actually in game.

Anyway SEGA released an Art Book showcasing the beautiful art of the game with the developers and artistis discussing as well. Additionally the art book shows art that didn’t make it in the game such as the swim suit costume for Silveria (cause no art book is complete without objectifying the characters).

So this art book was released a few years back in Japan but Udon has just released a translated copy.

Check out some of the pages from the book at Kotaku.

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Binary Domain gets a ton of new screens

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Most people seem to have a negative opinion of Binary Domain’s graphics, but to be honest, they aren’t bad. People have been saying it looks like Yakuza 3, so it’s bad. First of all Yakuza 3 does not have bad graphics and this title looks better than the Yakuza titles.
One of the first obvious improvements is the sharpness of the picture, Yakuza 3 (and 4) weren’t so sharp. Not only that, the textures look way better. If the areas are as big as those in the Yakuza games, this could be Nagoshi’s best looking title.

That is not saying that the title will be one of the best looking titles for 2012.

Continue Reading ➜

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The Sega Forums Return

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Yep the official Sega forums are finally back online after a very long time, a month maybe? The blog is yet to return but I suspect it’ll soon be up too.

The blog and forum went down after some douche bag hacked into PlaySega and attempted to steal usernames, passwords and other personal information. Luckily Sega were on the ball and had personal information stored as an encrypted code of some kind. As a result of this the forum passwords are no longer linked to the PlaySega accounts so you will need to reset your password before you can post again.

So yeah, go forth and complain about not getting Shenmue 3 and Sonic’s eyes, mouth, spines, colour or shoes.

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Glu Mobile buys out Shinobi 3DS developer

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Glu Mobile is a mobile phone publisher known for putting out tons of licensed games for bigger publishers. They have done Call of Duty mobile games, Transformers and even Sonic the Hedgehog stuff. So it sort of makes sense that they are interested in Griptonite.

Griptonite Games is also known for doing licensed games on handhelds. This includes recent stuff like Captain America: Super Solider and Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters. Griptonite Games supposedly has 200 employees, meaning the buyout will double the employees over at Glu Mobile.

What will they do at Glu Mobile? They will be working on freemium games, which Glu is set to debut in the second fiscal quarter of 2012. What about Shinobi 3DS? I assume they will finish up the work that SEGA is paying for, but I don’t see them returning for a sequel.

[Source: Gamasutra]

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