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The Week Ending October 17, 1999
Daily editorial
on trends in the gaming
industry and
hot topics.
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Interested in the process of game development? Sound, graphics, code, and design are all covered
in our game design section.
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Shen Mue Delayed
Now that the Dreamcast has been out for just over a month, the reviews are in, and so are the sales numbers: well north of 500,000 units in the United States. Clearly the Dreamcast had a successful launch, but doesn't it seem like all the excitement has almost evaporated? I can't seen to think of one big game due for Christmas that is a "must have" Dreamcast game, perhaps with the exception of Sega's phenomenal NBA 2K, due out later this month. Nevertheless, the biggest blow to the Dreamcast came in the form of an announcement from Sega of Japan that the visually striking Shen Mue, originally scheduled for Japanese release this year, has been delayed until mid-2000. Frankly this doesn't bode well for Sega considering Shen Mue will now likely butt heads with the Japanese launch of the PlayStation 2. Still, I can't help but think Sega needs to get the Shen Mue demo out into the hands of U.S. gamers as soon as possible – Without question, it has double the graphic "wow" factor of a game like NFL 2K, and that's saying a lot. The lingering question now is whether Shen Mue will be enough to fend off an aggressive slate of launch games for the PlayStation 2!
You've got to hand it to Mindscape's publicity department for going full-out on the promotion of Prince of Persia 3D – there's even a TV commercial airing on MTV -- but don't let the smokescreen of publicity fool you: The game is a travesty and sullies the once-sterling franchise. I remember the good old days when Prince of Persia was a great platform game with incredibly fluid character animation; unfortunately this game really bears little if no resemblance to the original two games, except for the fact you brandish a sword and there are a lot of sequins on your outfit. Prince of Persia 3D tries to turn the series into a third person action/adventure, but the result is a game with has unresponsive controls, bad camera angles, and sword battles that get so repetitive you're bored after three minutes of gameplay. File this one under the "milking a franchise" category.
Tomorrow Never Dies
Arguably one of the best console games in recent years was Rare's Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64. The next 007 game, based on the subsequent film, Tomorrow Never Dies, has long been in development for the PlayStation – and delayed more times than the number of women Bond meets in a film – but it looks like the game finally ready to arrive in time for Thanksgiving. There's no question the developers at Black Ops had an onerous task ahead of them in trying to trump Goldeneye, but based on my advance look, Tomorrow Never Dies shows a lot of promise. I'm particularly impressed with the streamlined interface that gives you access to an array of weapons – and options such as a sniper mode – in a quick and user friendly way. Overall, keep an eye out for Tomorrow Never Dies…and speaking of Bond games, what ever happened to that rumored Electronic Arts Quake 3-engine PC Bond game? Now that's something I'm looking forward to seeing if it indeed does exist!
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