Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: 90s

The Direction of Sega

Posted on by Viljami

There has been a lot of discussion lately about Sega and the statement that they made about not looking so much back. It has also been said that Sega is not a retro game company. They are going to focus more on modern video games. This makes me think about all the classic titles of the past. There is also a question about what new games we are going to see and will Sega bring back their most classic intellectual property like for example Sonic, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and so on.

Nintendo was the first game company to release a mini console. This happened with the release of mini NES that was followed by mini SNES console. This happened in between 2016 and 2017. It is not needed to say that these consoles were very popular. Sega released a bit later a Mega Drive mini console. We have also seen a PlayStation console of this kind among with some Atari, Amiga and Commodore 64 consoles.

Game consumers have been waiting and hoping for something from Sega like a mini Dreamcast or mini Saturn. It has now been stated that this is not going to happen. It is stated that Sega has no interest in bringing new mini consoles that would include some retro games. Instead it was said that the company wants to identify as a modern game company. Fans have also hoped to see something related to Sega CD and/or Sega 32X. This makes me think that we are probably going to see some new game titles that are going to be released in the near future.

I actually have this Sega Mega Drive classic/mini console that I bought for a cheap price, as always, some years back. If I remember correctly it cost me 60 euros. That is a cheap price for a retro game console that comes with several tens of games installed. It is very easy to hook up to your television screen as it has an HDMI connectivity included. It came with two controllers and they were very nice and of a good quality. Sega also released a bit later a second Mega Drive mini console that included some more games including some Sega CD games. There were a total of 53 games included. The first mini console had 40 games included.

For me, personally and as a video game enthusiast, Sega has been very important since the beginning of my interest in video games. I did play some PC games and tried out NES but Mega Drive was the first actual video game console that I owned back in the beginning of 1990s. The system was not so expensive at that time and it had many great games. I also had some friends that had a Mega Drive also so we could swap some games. My favorite games were Sonic 1 and 2, Streets of Rage 2 and Golden Axe just to give you some idea. Later I continued in this path and got my second gaming console and that was PlayStation 1.

As we are waiting for some news about new video games that are going to be released by Sega we also have to think that there probably will never exist a mini console made out of some classic game consoles or games. We just have to accept that and start to look in to the future. Will it be a bright one? We have to wait some more and just see how things start to shape up. What will we see when it comes to the future of Sega? What will we see in the future of video gaming? With these thoughts deep in our minds, or something clever like that I am now ending this blog post. I also wish you a very merry Christmas!

About Sega Dreamcast

Posted on by Viljami

Sega Dreamcast was released 1998 in Japan and 1999 in North America and Europe. Its game library consists of about 600 games. This is considerably lower than all games that were released to PS2, a console of the same era and console generation, that had several thousands of games in its game library.

Some other gaming consoles of this generation were Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2. So, Dreamcast was competing with these giants. This was an era in which we saw definitely more games released than we have in todays world of gaming. It has to said that the competition was tough. PS2 sold most consoles and had the most games in its library while Xbox and GameCube sold well but not as much as PS2. In 2001 Dreamcast was discontinued. It didn’t sell well.

Today Dreamcast is considered to be a definite gem as a retro gaming console. You can get the original console for about 200 euros. It is also possible to play it by emulating Dreamcast on a system like Recalbox that you can run on a Raspberry Pi 5 or PC. Raspberry Pi 5 has enough power to run Dreamcast emulation while some older Rasbperry Pi models might lack this power. We have to consider if this way of playing Dreamcast is actually legit or not. After all every Dreamcast game isn’t available.

I have solved this problem with buying this Dreamcast Collection for PC. I bought it a long time ago but it seems to be totally legal. This collection has four Dreamcast titles in it. While Sega quit manufacturing gaming consoles they still make video games for other systems. There are lots of good quality games still getting released by Sega. This tells something about their position as one of the most legendary game companies in the history of video games.

Sega’s history includes classic consoles like Mega Drive / Genesis, Master System and Saturn. However some of its products weren’t so successful. They did take a wrong direction with releasing 32X and Mega CD. They weren’t commercially successful which evidently lead to some financial problems that lead to discontinuation of Dreamcast.

What are some good games for Dreamcast? There are some role-playing-games like Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II, a boxing game, Ready 2 Rumble, many 2D fighting games, some 3D fighting games, like Virtua Fighter 3tb, Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure, Resident Evil – Code Veronica and many others. The game library is in its entirety a very solid and of good quality. I think that finding a bad game for Dreamcast is a difficult task to complete.

I do have some critic also about Dreamcast. The fact that the controller only has one analog stick makes playing first-person-shooters a bit clumsy. You have to map movement and aiming differently than you would with a better gamepad. Also when compared to some newer consoles Dreamcast lacks some power. But it has to be said that when considering it to be a retro console it handles its business very nicely.

It would be great to get something from Sega today that would be legit and also of good quality when it comes to retro gems like this one. There would definitely be many gamers that would like to buy a mini console, a remake or a completely new game from some of these classic titles. We have to see and wait for what the future holds for Sega fans.

Are You Waiting for GTA VI (or Not) ?

Posted on by Viljami

In this blog post we are talking a bit about the upcoming video game from a video game series that might be the biggest name in the game. I am talking about Grand Theft Auto and especially the sixth game in this series.

I still remember clearly how it felt like playing the first Grand Theft Auto. There were possibilities in this games. You could impact and interact with the world that was inside this two dimensional video game. Violence was present and you could just tear everything apart until there was more and tougher forces on the streets to calm you down.

Many times it was not so necessary to commit violence in the game. But also many times you killed, in the video game, someone for example by driving over a person or shooting someone. I remember what my father said when he realized that I had played a game like this. It could have also been one of the first two Fallout games, also, I don’t remember so clearly.

First two GTA games were golden or at least in my memories they are. I still own a copy of both of them for PS1. However, the third GTA was the game that made GTA series a historically very important. GTA III was released for PS2 and PC in 2001. GTA III had bright colors represented in three dimensional environments. It had many relatable characters.

We saw GTA IV in 2008. It was released for PS3, Xbox 360 and Windows. It was finally 2013 when GTA V was released. It made its way to many consoles going past even whole console generations. I mean that GTA V was first released when it was still the dominant era of PS3 and Xbox 360. When time went by we saw releases for PS4 and Xbox One. This game is also available for the latest and current console generation.

To tell you the truth I never was so excited about GTA IV or GTA V. I tried hard to advance in GTA III but after all failed to finish the game. I think GTA III is the most important game in the series. And the first two GTAs are just so much of a memory for me to dwell in as they bring me so much nostalgia that I prefer to play one of them before I would even start getting into a game like GTA V.

As you can probably tell from the attached image I still have a sealed copy of GTA V for PS4 literally in my hands. I think I bought it for 25 euros and this was already some years ago. You could say that this means I don’t have an interest to play the game. You are actually right with this one. I am not saying it is a bad game. I’m just saying that it isn’t interesting for me.

I could go on about GTA IV or GTA V and how especially the fifth game doesn’t interest me. But there is something happening soon that might take my concentration. What’s happening? There is going to be a new GTA game released. The game is the sixth in the series. This might be a hit. This might be a nice game. For all we know there are lots of expectations for this game to be a success. We can take it as a game for us gamers. We can deal it and review it as a piece of digital art and also a piece of gaming.

So, the final question is, are you expecting this new GTA game? Just ponder it a little while. Think about how you feel about this soon to be released video game right now. Is it going to fail and flop? Is it going to make some developer company some profit? Or would it be the case that it just brings something new to gaming? Whatever it will be we are going to see soon…