PlanetDreamcast | Community | Mailbag | 6/30/01

Community - Mailbag 6/30/01 - FV, UT, PS2 and Other Acronyms - by RaptoR Welcome to the PDC Mailbag. Every week we toss in a bunch of letters from our readers and do our best to dazzle you with wit and wisdom. Roughly, that translates to copying/pasting your emails and writing the first thing that comes to mind. But hey, you take what you can get. If you have something you want to contribute to the Mailbag, send it to this address! From: [email protected] Subject: PEN PEN KICKS YO ASS! I AM OUTRAGED YOU REVIEW IS SH*T, YOU MUST OF BEEN DRUNK 2 SLAG OFF PEN-PEN....I HAVE IT....IT IS BUETIFUL And you say we're drunk?? From: [email protected] Subject: Smash Pack 2? First off I'd like to say that i love yer site. It's hard to find good dreamcast coverage. Okay, here's my question. Will there be a Smash Pack Vol. 2 and if so any ideas as to the games that might be on it. Do you guys have any favorites you'd like to see on it. Here is my list; see if you agree. 1. Herzog zwei (the ultimate war game) 2. Dr. Robotnix bean machine 3, shinobi III 4. Nights 5. Forgotten Worlds 6. any alexx kidd game 7. Sonic spinball 8. sword of vermillion 9. shining force IV 10. Last Battle (don't laugh) I'm very interested to know if another smash pack is coming out and what you guys would like to see on it. your loyal reader- adam You're right -- it is hard to find good Dreamcast coverage, but here at PDC we'll keep covering the Dreamcast right up until the end. In addition to the games you mentioned I'd recommend Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Sonic & Knuckles and perhaps Flashback too. I don't think Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (basically glorified Tetris) warrants a place though. It's doubtful whether Sega would include NiGHTS, as it's a Saturn game, but it would certainly be great of they did. From: Rob Owrin Subject: I know I sound picky Knuckles is totally cool. He's optimistic, but not overconfident like Sonic. He doesn't try to act "all that" all the time. But what I like about him is that he acts like the Energizer Bunny. He doesn't give up, especially if something's wrong with the Emeralds. And he has good looks. If you ask me, there should be a Dreamcast title for Knuckles. He deserves one. Stephanie Scott, 11 P.S., real echidnas are butt-ugly. Thanks to Sonic Team for making Knuckles look different. Yep, Knuckles rocks. Knuckles has already had his own Sega game, Knuckles Chaotix on the 32X. Sadly, due to the 32X's lack in popularity, the game didn't sell too many copies. With Sega developing for other consoles who knows, we might see Knuckles starring in another game. From: [email protected] Subject: PS2 sucks... for now I would like to respond to that idiot who wrote in last week saying the 'deadcast' sucks, etc. Well, I hate to inform you that it is not our system that sucks. Not to start a system war, but PS2 really does suck right now. I owned one for a brief time. I was not impressed. In fact, I was irritated that I just spent $300 on a system that isn't half as good as my DC. So I returned it. And most people I talk to say they are disapointed with it. I am not saying it will be a terrible system or anything. I am just saying that, at this moment, the DC is a far better system. Games like Q3: Arena and Crazy Taxi are as good, if not better, on a DC. So to that guy I say....#1: Go to school and learn how to write. #2: Turn in your PS2 and get a real system. #3: You take this stuff way to seriously. Gaming is supposed to be about fun. You're the type of person who wants to beat up a guy who hates Metallica. Who cares? Everyone has their own opinions and choices to make. I would just rather spend #100 and get a bunch of great games (some with online capability) than spend $300 and get a few good games, no modem, 2 controller ports and have a system that looks like a car amplifier. Seems like common sense to me. Keep up the good coverage, PlanetDC. Later. There's no doubt that the PS2 hasn't quite delivered as far as games are concerned so far. We're glad you like the site. :) From: Igor Subject: (none) what about metropolis street racer? Yes, what about Metropolis Street Racer? From: luis fernando peraza llamas Subject: (none) me pasa el juego si si si si lo kiero y si puedes me pasa otros juego Babelfish seems to think you mean... it passes the game to me if if if if the kiero and if you can passes others to me game That still doesn't make an awful lot of sense... From: Francisco Sauceda Subject: sonic I agree completely with your review. SA2 is an amazing game and shouldn't be missed by any Dreamcast owner. I did find something else bad about the game though. Those people who played through the first game will remember how amazing the bosses were. They were huge, except for Chaos 1, and I feel that Sonic Team should have put more emphasis into the boss fights. This time around the bosses are quite small and don't make you excited like those in the prequel. I mean, the FinalHazard in no way compares to the exciting perfect Chaos fight. It was way to simple and simply wasn't as exciting. I mean, they should of added another boss. The Chaos boss fights were many times more exciting then fighting the small robots or main characters in this one. I mean, why two fights against Tails and Robotnick? The first wasn't that exciting, why would they put two? Also, there are tow few Sonic, Shadow levels. those are the best level, but we are treated to the others. That is one part I liked about the prequel, you could play through with Sonic, and go from one extremely exciting level to another. And why not add one more character and put in an Amy level, at least it would have changed the pace a bit. I found it annoying finishing a level with Sonic in less than 5 minutes and having to play a long level with Knucles which is slow and sometimes boring. Well, even with all the bad the game is still very enjoyable. For those that truly play through every level and try to collect every emblem, it will be a blast. The story is quite good and gets really exciting at the end. I can't wait until the next Sonic gme comes out. It would be truly amazing to see what Sonic Team decides to do with their characters. I am already feeling excited about the size that they would make a level on a more powerful machine. The level in SA2 and incredibly huge and beautiful, and it will be hard, even for Sonic Team to make surpass the greatness of this Sonic game. thanks for your time and keep up the great work. We're glad you liked our SA2 review, Francisco. Sonic Adventure 2 is definately one of the best games available on the Dreamcast at the moment. Sadly, it looks unlikely that a Sonic Adventure 3 will appear on the Dreamcast, although now that Sega are developing for the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, we could well see our spiky friend on another platform in the near future. From: Alejandro Martinez Subject: Fighting Vipers 2 I'm a big fan of Fighting Vipers and I would like to now if it came out in the American market for the Dream cast and if so how one can a hold of the game thank you. Sadly, Fighting Vipers 2 was never released in the US. If you want to play it, then get hold of a DCX disk of equivilent, and bag yourself a copy of the Japanese of European version. I'd recomment the Japanese version personally, as it comes with a Shenmue 2 preview movie disk. From: Robert MacDougall Subject: More a question... I was wondering when is this zip drive for dreamcast coming out? digitaltaco says: The Zip Drive peripheral was quietly canned awhile back, and thus will not be making it out. I'm sure in light of the current Dreamcast situation, that is quite understandable. From: Alex Subject: Tisk tisk on your review... Well, first of, great site. But I disagree with you in some of the points you make in your review of Unreal Tournament. You said the graphics were really well done. Hhhmmm... are we playing the same game here? I've owned UT for my computer for nearly 8 months, and on my 2 year old 450 Mhz computer, it runs like a dream. The video card is half decent, but the game runs flawlessly and the graphics are near perfect. The first thing i noticed when i played the DC version of Unreal was the MAJOR drop in graphics. I felt like i was playing Hexen for nintendo 64. (Those who played the game know how horrible the graphics were). After a while i got used to the graphics on DC, but still, they are not close to the PC version of UT, like you stated. The frame rate is fine but the game still looks pretty bad compared to stuff like Crazy Taxi, NBA 2k, etc. Granted, UT has alot more options and things compared to Crazy Taxi, but when you compare the DC graphics to the PC version in terms of quality, your sadly mistaken. - Gunning For Good Graphics I totally agree with you that UT DC's graphics don't match that of the PC version. However, for a Dreamcast game, the visuals are quite impressive. Hexen 64? I wouldn't go that far. Frame rate has always been an issue in FPS games on consoles, but UT does a good job of keeping the framerate as high as possible with lots of detail on-screen. From: jj Subject: (none) Dreamcast...to the kids Playstation2........ for me not by choice though..... jj Your kids are evil, leaving you with the PS2 ;) Another PDC mailbag draws to a close. Never fear, however, because there's a brand new bag of letters to look forward to next Saturday - hooray! Want to say something? Use to this handy address! Until next time!