PlanetDreamcast | Community | Mailbag | 4/28/00

Community - Mailbag 4/28/00 - More PS2, Online Play, and Game Specific Questions - by BenT It's late, I'm cranky, and I'm not about to come up with an amusing intro anecdote, assuming I could. Just read, dammit. ;) From: Kyle Pietrak Subject: VMU Problems My little brother is having a field day with his VMU.He got verry far on disk 2 of RE:Code Veronica.He quits for a few hours,comes back and the RE:Code Veronica is saying that his VMU isn't formated.And Last time he saved 10 times.How do I get this to stop? Kyle The obvious question is: did you format it before using it? You have to do that for each new VMU you buy. If you had, it may just be a bad VMU. (Since we'd not heard of any Code Veronica corruption problems until yours...) Get a Sega brand VMU, format it (you can find instructions on this in the VMU's manual), and you're set. From: BeBeGunner Subject: copy cat? hen i tell my mates about the games that are coming to dc, they always reply with: "dc just copies the playstation," like tony hawks, and tomb raider. i wish that sega could make some ***king ads to show people the amount of originality in some of dc line up. That's great. Nothing is further from the truth, if you ask me. Sega is nothing if not original. I mean, check out their past and future catalog: Zaxxon, Space Harrier, Phantasy Star, Sonic the Hedgehog, Virtua Racing, Ecco the Dolphin, Virtua Fighter, Sonic and Knuckles, Panzer Dragoon, Sega Rally Championship, NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Chu Chu Rocket, Space Channel Five, Jet Set Radio, Samba de Amigo, Phantasy Star Online. Every single one of these games was extremely innovative, and had nothing even close in terms of competition when they came out (not to mention that many of these, such as NiGHTS, still stand alone). Slag on Sega all you want, but calling them unoriginal is just stupid. From: Jeff Subject: Internet Stuff hey, I've heard that they are making ethernet cards for Dreamcast and I think that's great.I can hook up my cable modem. But, with the news of sega.net giving away free dreamcasts with a 2yr contract, i've been wondering if I will be able to actually use my cable modem with online gaming. Because sega could easilly make it so you would have to have an exclusive sega.net ISP and only those people could join in the games. which brings me to another question. online RPGs. will we have to pay another dreaded fee for online participation like the PC versions do? (everquest comes to mind) because that would surely suck for me, and worse for people who pay sega.net for an ISP on top of that. well, I know that huge multi-national corporations dont care about us, but they could give us a little break now and then so we DONT have to pay them tons o money. P.S., what did you mean in last week's mailbag about your "enemies" at IGN? I thought you were affiliates and I think your kidding, but.... It would be foolish to make the players pay monthly fees for specific games. Sega is in a rather precarious position at the moment, and the last thing it wants to do is piss off fans. I doubt Dreamcast online gaming will have game-related fees beyond the typical ISP stuff. P.S. - We aren't an IGN affiliate... we're part of the GameSpy Network, dammit! But no, IGN is not our enemy. Competitor, yes. Enemy, no. They do some great work, which we admire. Of course, we WILL destroy them someday. In Soul Calibur, that is. From: Jason Xtreme Subject: Online Question In order to play Dreamcast games online (once network avaliable) do you have to subscribe to SegaNET? Or will it work with current ISP? To the best of our knowledge, subscription to Sega.net will be optional for online gameplay. However, it will probably offer better performance than your normal ISP, if all the hype is true. From: Trizum Subject: PS2 and Dreamcast Okay, you might be thinking this is a lame topic, but everyone who "compares" the DC and the PS2 are messed up in the head. First off, Sega's system came out way before the first PS2, and considering how quickly technology evolves and how much cheaper it gets, PS2 is practically a generation apart from the Dreamcast. Sega's system is a technical masterpiece. Sega could have made a PS2 if they wanted to, and made it cost $300-370 dollars, but they didn't. They made a console for gaming, and thats it. Now about a year later, everyone is like "PS2 is better then the DC," well, no shit, it costs $100-200 dollars more, everything about it is more expensive and Sony had more time to develop it and take in the slightly newer technology, that Sega didn't have the oppurtunity to. In conclusion, considering the Dreamcast and Playstation 2 are in completely different price ranges, are almost meant for different things, and are seperated by a year or more of planning (if you can't the release in Japan, to Sony's almost two years) they are both top-of-the-line systems, but are both targetting slightly different audiences. So please stop comparing the two, I mean no shit Playstation 2 will be a little bit more powerful your paying that much more for it... Thanks for your time. Trizum I could see your point if we were constantly comparing a coffee machine and a vacuum cleaner, but we're talking two high end video game systems here. Like it or not, Dreamcast and PS2 are competitors, and there's no getting around that. Sorry. From: The Herrings Subject: Why DC will survive PS2 Being a videogamer that dosen't even understand the programmer language I know little about the actual pragramming stuff. But I do know a little. in a conversation at my local video game store the clerk told me about the PS2 recall. He also told me how sony has put so much hype on PS2 that people will be dissapointed. and with this supposed DVD add on for DC I think that playstation has not already won. I think that people will also will find that they could save lots of money just buying a DVD player. I hope you write back and I think your web site is da bomb. -amature videogammer- Sorry to break it to ya, but by all indications there is no DVD player in the works for the Dreamcast. And, I think you are da bomb, thank you. Your bombitude is immense. From: Jehremy Foster Subject: Sega + Microsoft There hasn't been or never was a lot of buzz about the "talks" between Sega and Microsoft a few weeks ago. I know that talks broke down before MS went to press on the X-box, but IMHO these talks need to resume immediately! I truly believe that a merger between these two would be the absolute best thing for all of the parties involved (Sega, Microsoft and gamers). If the X-box was in fact the DC2 and was backwards compatible that would insure the success of not only the X-box in the long term, but the DC in the short term. This would all but kill the PS2 (well maybe not kill, but it stagger the system badly) Why would anyone buy a PS2, when the DC now is essentially free, has a great software lineup, and a system on-the-way that is much more powerful than PS2 and that will be able to play all the games in their current libraries. There are already a ton of developers behind the X-box and more would come with the Sega tag on the box. Developers would also shy away from the PS2 because of the difficulty in programming for POS2(not a typo). Is there anyone that thinks a merger would suck? Why? I just don't see it. This is a win/win situation, at least for Sega and MS, and a big loss for Sony. Well, at least I have something to pray for. Screw world peace and feeding the hungry, I want Sega and Microsoft together! There hasn't been any word on these supposed talks for awhile. The scenario you paint does sound exciting, but it looks like Microsoft is going its own way with the X-Box. I must admit I'll be secretly happy if Sega has nothing more to do with MS... I guess that's just the /.'er in me. Please excuse. From: Alboit Subject: A Sonic Game Request Alright, I have one of the greatest ideas (what I think anyway) that could be a big hit on the Dreamcast. Go Here http://www.videogamers.com/ggibbon/sonic/museum/stf.htm Its a sonic fighting game (!?!?!) Can you imagine how possibly cool that would be to have a Sonic Fighting Game? I also remember Fighters Megamix, which I think is the best fighting game ever on any system. If they ever make a Fighters Megamix 2, which I heard they are somewhere. They need to add these Sonic Characters in it. Could you imagine say....Fighting Vipers Vs. Sonic Team?!?! OWNAGE!!!!! Thanks for listening, -J-Five I'm disappointed. Every cool little tidbit of knowledge I had to dispense to you about Sonic the Fighters is contained on that page you sent. You may as well go there and read it, if you haven't. Very informative stuff. Bastards. From: Brian Bergstrom Subject: Giga Wing? what happened to giga wing? i thought it was supposed to be out by now. i need my old school shooter!! brian bergstrom Looks like it's finally coming in early to mid May, and at a reduced MSRP of $30. You can bet your rapid fire joystick that I'm snagging this review. :D From: accel Subject: Star Wars Arcade! is sega going to bring "star wars arcade" to the dreamcast? i think thats what its called, it has 3 different missions, one were you destroy the atat's, one were u destroy the deathstar, etc. let me know please please please!!! thanks, ur site rocks, keep up the awesome work. accel I believe you're referring to Star Wars Trilogy. There are no plans for a home version at this point. From: Slipknot00098356 Subject: Resident Evil do u have codes like unlimited ammo and invinsabilaty? iu could please send or o u have a good sie 4 this? Funny you should ask, since the Resident Evil Survivor's Guide just landed on PlanetDreamcast this week. If the code exists, this cool site most likely has it. Click! Also, and this isn't game related, you may find this site useful. From: ChbiReno Subject: Time Stalkers You guys seriously need to rethink your review for Time Stalkers, or get a person to review it who has some sense of imagination. Video Games are supposed to be fun, not realistic. If you just take everything as it not being real, then you're taking the fun out of video games. Ten bucks says you guys thought Final Fantasy VIII was good, too? Pfft. Figures. Erm, I don't see where the heck you're coming from here. Your comments have nothing to do with our review, which never even touched on the dubious topic of video game realism. And I think you owe me ten bucks... I can't stand the two most recent Final Fantasy movi... err, games. (Square fans: no hatemail, please. ;) From: Darrel Decker Subject: Is DC Half-Life really online? Hi Gang, Something struck me rather odd about this game. Everything I have read about it for DC says that it will be just like the PC version ... including network play. Every time I hear about the DC online network Half-Life comes up as being one of the strong online titles. However, Sierra's new DC Half-Life site (sierrastudios.com/games/half-life-dreamcast/) does not indicate anything about it having online support. You would think that this would be one of the biggest features, but they don't mention it. Since the game is scheduled to come out this summer (I'm assuming before the launch of SEGA's online network), it sounds to me like it will be a great single player game and possibly have multiplayer deathmatch via split screen, but you will not be able to go online and frag your friends like everyone wants to. Please tell me I'm missing something, or is this the sad truth? Thanks, -Darrel Good catch. AFAIK the network details of DC Half-Life aren't known yet, but it's looking more and more like it won't feature true online play. Let's hope I'm getting the wrong impression here. We'll see what we can dig up on the topic at E3. From: snowboarder36 Subject: RPGs I just downloaded movies of Eternal Arcadia and Grandia 2 and, I must say, they look incredible. When can we expect to see them hit the US? Their approximate US release dates should be announced at E3. I'm guessing Eternal Arcadia in the fall, but we'll see for sure in two weeks. From: Mike Subject: RoLW I just saw some info in regards to a Record of Lodoss War game on your page. This was the first I had heard of it. Do you know where I can find more information on this game? Is the June 29th date a Japanese release date? If so, will it be out in the US? Also, I think having mailbag topics would be a good idea. That way when the topic is anything like 'PS2 vs Dreamcast' I can ignore it since I am sick of that discussion. -Mike Yes, June 29th is the planned Japanese date. There's no word on a US version, and I doubt it will happen - no Lodoss War game has ever been brought stateside. Here's most of the coverage so far, in chronological order: IGN's TGS Coverage (mostly screenshosts) GameSpot's TGS Coverage Core Magazine Screenshots 1 Core Magazine Screenshots 2 From: presence Subject: Site Feedback Hey there folks, I've been reading various GSI sites since way back in june 97 or so, when there was just PlanetQuake. Therefore I do love the layout of all my regular GSI sites. Except PDC... Why? easy. I read it ON MY DREAMCAST! i don't knoow if any of you have ever bothered to check the site out on a DC, but it looks like shit. It is (variously) too wide, too cramped, hard to make out the text(sometimes anyway), the list goes on... The content however is (like most GSI sites) excellent, so instead of just abandoning PDC, I ask you to consider those of us who actually USE the modem on the DC(and I don't just mean for CCR, fun as it is..) and redesign or give us a reformatted section or SOMETHING. thx 4 ur time. Presence. Believe it or not, when I first started writing for PDC last fall, the first thing I did was check out the site on my Dreamcast. I agree - it's screwed. We may have a remedy for this, but it won't be for a while. We take solace in the fact that IGN is Sega's official online content provider, and even their site doesn't look quite right in the DC browser. :) From: DracMonster Subject: Having a weekly mailbag subject Hey, it works for the classic gaming mailbag. I think having an actual topic gets more people to write in. but you should still allow people to write about any subject they want. (Print the off topic ones at the bottom, like Fragmaster.) Incidentally, do you get many letters from people who think this is Sega's official website asking for technical support or game release dates? Daily Radar occasionally prints such a letter for laughs, and a few mailbags ago you had a letter from someone wanting to order code veronica action figures. Oh, and while I'm rambling here, on the subject of freak letters: Only print them if they are genuinly funny, not just stupid. Frags prints a gazillion freak letters on Planet Halflife, and after the first 700 or so they wear a bit thin... DracMonster 100% of the feedback on the issue of mailbag topics has been positive, so let's give 'em a go. As for freak letters, check out the next one... exactly what you were talking about. So sad... yet strangely humorous. Sigh. And btw, Frags hasn't worked on PHL for quite some time now. Don't blame him! :) From: SoApLoVeR312 Subject: (no subject) will you guys make crazy taxi for sega genisus?because i love that game i always play it in the arcade. write back as soon as possible.thanx You get one guess as to his email domain. Hint: 3 letters. :P From: pachi Subject: whats the framerate on it? 30 or 60? just curious 42. Duh. As I just mentioned, it looks like everyone who bothered to chime in liked the idea of Mailbag topics. Alrighty then - let me try to sound spontaneous here and give us our first topic. A lot of you seem to think PlanetDreamcast is pretty cool (thanks!), but we think it could be even better. A lot better, even. Thankfully, PlanetPS2 will be getting its own dedicated Site Director in the next few weeks, so I'll be able to drop that site and devote all of my time to working on PlanetDreamcast. We'll be working hard to improve it in the coming months, but what would YOU like to see here? Tell us, and we'll print the best suggestions in the next Mailbag. Have a cool weekend!