Members SuperBacon Posted October 9 Members Share Posted October 9 I'm never gonna play it, but I enjoy reading about such things, but is Shenmue as good as people say? I remember it was a HUGE deal when it came out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jesse Posted October 9 Paid Members Share Posted October 9 11 minutes ago, SuperBacon said: I'm never gonna play it, but I enjoy reading about such things, but is Shenmue as good as people say? I remember it was a HUGE deal when it came out. Yes and no. I think unless you're really into it as a product of its time, it's an absolute chore to play at this point - and in a lot of ways was even at the time. But it did a lot of things that stood out at the time, with it's day/night cycle of gameplay, a very early version of that 'inhabit a person and a living world and navigate it as they would' style of game. As much social/world sim as it is a brawler. I think there's an argument that without it you don't end up getting things like the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series, and I think you can even see some of its influences in the Elder Scrolls series, especially Oblivion with its character AI/desires system. While not the first to do it, there's an argument that it popularised the Quicktime Event, so it can also be celebrated/cursed for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted October 9 Paid Members Share Posted October 9 36 minutes ago, FLips said: Never going to top this. Where do I even go from here? That Crazy Box mode is sensational. I need to see whether there's a way I can hook my Dreamcast to my Projector so I can get some HUGE Crazy Taxi on, although I suspect if I was to do anything like that I'd probably just hook my Saturn up to it and play some Alpha 2 or Daytona USA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedTwoster Posted October 9 Share Posted October 9 39 minutes ago, SuperBacon said: I'm never gonna play it, but I enjoy reading about such things, but is Shenmue as good as people say? I remember it was a HUGE deal when it came out. I played the PS4 re-release and found it to have aged horrendously - terrible voice acting, a corny story and you can virtually hear the creaks in the dated gameplay. In addition to this, after getting the chance to finish the series with a Kickstarter-funded third game, the series creator opted to end that with a cliffhanger, and a fourth instalment seems very unlikely. I wouldn’t bother - although @Jesse‘s brilliant summary gives you a better idea as to why you might, as well as why it’s so important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Scratch Posted October 9 Paid Members Share Posted October 9 On 10/8/2024 at 7:03 PM, FLips said: brilliant soundtrack Yeah yeah yeah yeah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Alan Grant Posted October 9 Share Posted October 9 It’s been a long time since I’ve played Crazy Taxi, but that Offspring song is firmly rooted in my memory. Presumably the game had loads of other songs on the soundtrack, but I can’t recall any of them. Isn’t there a mode where you speed down a ramp and try and make the longest jump at the end? I spent more time trying to break mine and my brother’s record on that than the actual standard game. Nice to see Puggsy get a mention. I had it for the Mega-CD and it was truly atrocious. I could never finish it due to the aforementioned holding an item mechanic that drove me nuts. A few years back I watched a YouTube longplay video of it to see if I was right to give up. Turns out I was. Dino Crisis has just been announced for the PS Plus retro section. I’m curious to see if it holds up as well as the early Resi games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Scratch Posted October 9 Paid Members Share Posted October 9 Crazy Jump was brilliant. The year 2000, me and 3 of my best mates in a motel in Newquay, out of season and with terrible weather and nothing open, playing Crazy Jump for an entire week. One of my best ever holidays that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted October 10 Paid Members Share Posted October 10 I love Shenmue and played it years after it came out - I got a Dreamcast on a whim somewhere in the 2010s, and played it to death. It is clunky, often infuriating, and some of the design choices are just plain esoteric, but I loved it. It's this really weird mix of being (especially for the time) very open world and with lots of little sidebars you can follow (I wasted a lot of time just playing darts), while also rewarding patience and discipline, making sure you only do things at certain times, giving you a curfew you have to be home by, it's just a very peculiar gaming experience, and I think it's become weirder with age and that made it more appealing to me than it might have been at the time of release. That's just me, though. It's the most relaxed, slow-paced kung-fu revenge quest imaginable. Like if Bruce Lee in Fists Of Fury spent half the movie playing Super Hang-On and getting a job at the docks, and only got into three fights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members johnnyboy Posted October 10 Paid Members Share Posted October 10 Sports Jam is a cracking bite-sized sports themed minigame compendium that I think came from an arcade cabinet. I'm not sure that Virtua Tennis 2k2 has ever been supplanted as the best tennis game I've played.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cousin Jim Bob Posted October 10 Share Posted October 10 On 10/9/2024 at 3:00 PM, Jesse said: Yes and no. I think unless you're really into it as a product of its time, it's an absolute chore to play at this point - and in a lot of ways was even at the time. But it did a lot of things that stood out at the time, with it's day/night cycle of gameplay, a very early version of that 'inhabit a person and a living world and navigate it as they would' style of game. As much social/world sim as it is a brawler. I think there's an argument that without it you don't end up getting things like the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series, and I think you can even see some of its influences in the Elder Scrolls series, especially Oblivion with its character AI/desires system. While not the first to do it, there's an argument that it popularised the Quicktime Event, so it can also be celebrated/cursed for that. Toshihiro Nagoshi the Yakuza creater was involved with making Shenmue and in his own words played a pretty big part in actually getting the game finished and released. He certainly took a lot from it moving forward and refined it. I adored it at the time but I am certain it would drive me mad if I attempted a play through now. Will leave it to my memories and it's belting main theme when it pops up in playlists. Jet Set Radio was another one I loved on Dreamcast that probably hasn't held up so well. It still looks and sounds incredible but I can see a lot of people bouncing of it's controls and mechanics. On the other hand those big arcade titles like Crazy Taxi and Soul Caliber have barely aged a day and still play fantastically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted October 11 Share Posted October 11 (edited) Shenmue is just a beautiful bit of art, it was easily the most impressive looking game when it came out and later PS2 games still didn't look as good for a long time. The sheer scope of that living breathing town was quite unlike anything at the time, too, even now most games don't quite nail that feeling. I won't have a bad word said about the weird voiceovers though, but I do wish the original version had the choice Japanese language Edited October 11 by Merzbow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members FLips Posted October 11 Paid Members Share Posted October 11 My GDEmu came for the Dreamcast today so I've spent a few hours since finishing work tinkering with it. I have about 70-80 games installed on a 128gb SD Card ready to play. Got a good mix of expected classics like Crazy Taxi, Shenmue, and House of The Dead. Some recommendations off here like Virtua Tennis 2, Royal Rumble and Dynamite Cop. Then some obscure stuff I've never heard of like Zombie Revenge, Illbleed and Sakura Wars Columns 2. I also picked up a game I think Carbomb recommended me when I was asking for wrestling games a while back; Giant Gram 2000. I've booted up Sonic Adventure 2 and that has resumed where the disc versions crashed so it looks like the proper GDI files are in working order. Obviously it's Ali Express so I received it missing a part I thought I'd get but apparently didn't come in my version, and also no instructions. Thankfully it was just a matter of unscrewing 7 screws, taking the optical drive out in one peice, and plugging this new part in and screwing the top back on. It works and it's going to save me a fortune and that's all that matters! Got my mate over this Sunday to play a load of stuff on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted October 11 Share Posted October 11 Looking forward to hearing about it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members FLips Posted October 11 Paid Members Share Posted October 11 This is what the guts of the Dreamcast look like now for anyone interested. That swirly button is a soft reset button which the Dreamcast doesn’t have (you can also press all the triggers and face buttons to do it) which depending on the settings you choose can either take you back to the list of games or can auto-play the next disc in a multi-disc game. Allegedly runs the whole thing region free too so ROMs don’t particularly matter as long as the TV can display NTSC which is nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members CleetusVanDamme Posted October 11 Paid Members Share Posted October 11 Play Headhunter if you never got round to it on PS2. It's brilliant, it's like someone told Paul Verhoeven to make an MGS killer, with some Resi-like puzzle bits to keep it unique. It could have been a killer app for the console if it wasn't already dead by the time the game was ready to come out (it didn't even get a release outside of the EU). It could have been a big hit on PS2 as well if anyone bothered actually advertising it! It and The Punisher were sadly the only two games I couldn't get working when I set up the PS2 emulator on the Xbox last year, I was too worried about breaking it to do much fiddling with the settings, but will try again/try a Dreamcast emulated version at some point. It's been way too long. The Dreamcast's Dreamboat deserved better. Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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