At games industry event of the past Sega has always been eager to push the punters around its stand. Some might say too eager as the company vainly tried to interest us in the Mega CD, the 32X, the Saturn and more recently the Dreamcast. This year was different.
The ‘Most Security on a Stand’ award was easily won by Sega. The stand consisted of a series of branded walls with one small entrance that was heavily guarded. We gained access and had a sniff around.
On show were a ton of great looking games across several platforms, though Virtua Fighter 4, now complete, was only showing on a fairly poor quality video loop, proving rumours that the game would finally be playable wholly wrong. The decision by Sega not to show one of the games everyone wanted to see sums up the company’s new attitude to a tee. At E3, it seemed as if the company was saying, “Look, you weren’t interested in what we doing in the past. Now that we are doing some exciting things you can go and take a running jump. We’ll show you in good time.” A refreshing change we’re sure you will agree.
On show for Dreamcast were the following games:
Alien Front Online
Bomberman Online
Crazy Taxi 2
Floigan Brothers
Ooga Booga
Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2
Propeller Arena
Sega Bass Fishing 2
Sega Sports NBA 2K2
Sega Sports NCAA College Football 2K2
Sega Sports NFL 2K2
Sega Sports NHL 2K2
Sega Sports Tennis 2K2
Sega Sports World Series Baseball 2K2
Shenmue II
Sonic Adventure 2
Nothing new from Shenmue 2 was shown which was a shame but new footage of Sonic Adventure was great to see. Rumour has it that the current build of Shenmue 2 is riddled with a bug that is making the game crash continuously. It is said that Sega may soon have to scrap the build if the bug cannot be bottomed out soon, as the problem has all but stopped the development of the game.
The other game from this line-up that deserves a mention is Crazy Taxi 2. Sega had set up an open-top New York taxi in the entrance to E3 with models dressed as the characters posing for snaps.
The latest footage of the game looked splendid, with the rolling demo confirming the ability to pick up multiple passengers. The city is possibly the best looking yet on the Dreamcast and exemplifies the console’s “sparkly” graphical nature.
New Game Boy Advance titles on show included Chu Chu Rocket!, the original Sonic the Hedgehog and a new version of Columns called, at this point in time, Advanced Columns. Chu Chu has been available in Japan for some time now but it was good to hear that it will make up part of the American and European launch line-up.
For the PlayStation 2, Sega has confirmed that the following games are in production:
Virtua Fighter 4
K-Project (working title)
Space Channel 5
Sega Sports NFL 2K2
Sega Sports NBA 2K2
The PlayStation 2 is the first and possibly only title to get a port of the Naomi 2 arcade fighting title Virtua Fighter 4. It is thought that the game will be ported across to the Namco arcade format System 264 which is better equipped to create a port to PlayStation 2, a console that has been dogged with porting and general development difficulties.
The most impressive line-up to come from Sega has to be for the Xbox. The games confirmed as being in development are:
Gun Valkyrie
JSRF - Jet Set Radio Future
Sega GT 2002
House of the Dead 3
Crazy Taxi Next
Sega Sports NFL 2K2
Sega Sports NBA 2K2
A new and possibly exclusive Crazy Taxi leads Sega’s Xbox games selection, along with exclusive House of the Dead 3 and Sega GT 2002. The only game to be shown running at E3 was Jet Set Radio Future which looked fantastic.
"Sega has been a third party publisher for only a few months and already we have an unprecedented lineup for this fiscal year across all platforms," said Peter Moore, president and COO, Sega of America. "Sega has the talent and the experience in making great content to become a publishing powerhouse and once we finish laying the foundation, we will be unstoppable. This is only the beginning for the new Sega."
And it’s true. Sega is now a hot property, not a struggling hardware manufacturer. This point was made loud and clear last week.
The ‘Most Security on a Stand’ award was easily won by Sega. The stand consisted of a series of branded walls with one small entrance that was heavily guarded. We gained access and had a sniff around.
On show were a ton of great looking games across several platforms, though Virtua Fighter 4, now complete, was only showing on a fairly poor quality video loop, proving rumours that the game would finally be playable wholly wrong. The decision by Sega not to show one of the games everyone wanted to see sums up the company’s new attitude to a tee. At E3, it seemed as if the company was saying, “Look, you weren’t interested in what we doing in the past. Now that we are doing some exciting things you can go and take a running jump. We’ll show you in good time.” A refreshing change we’re sure you will agree.
On show for Dreamcast were the following games:
Alien Front Online
Bomberman Online
Crazy Taxi 2
Floigan Brothers
Ooga Booga
Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2
Propeller Arena
Sega Bass Fishing 2
Sega Sports NBA 2K2
Sega Sports NCAA College Football 2K2
Sega Sports NFL 2K2
Sega Sports NHL 2K2
Sega Sports Tennis 2K2
Sega Sports World Series Baseball 2K2
Shenmue II
Sonic Adventure 2
Nothing new from Shenmue 2 was shown which was a shame but new footage of Sonic Adventure was great to see. Rumour has it that the current build of Shenmue 2 is riddled with a bug that is making the game crash continuously. It is said that Sega may soon have to scrap the build if the bug cannot be bottomed out soon, as the problem has all but stopped the development of the game.
The other game from this line-up that deserves a mention is Crazy Taxi 2. Sega had set up an open-top New York taxi in the entrance to E3 with models dressed as the characters posing for snaps.
The latest footage of the game looked splendid, with the rolling demo confirming the ability to pick up multiple passengers. The city is possibly the best looking yet on the Dreamcast and exemplifies the console’s “sparkly” graphical nature.
New Game Boy Advance titles on show included Chu Chu Rocket!, the original Sonic the Hedgehog and a new version of Columns called, at this point in time, Advanced Columns. Chu Chu has been available in Japan for some time now but it was good to hear that it will make up part of the American and European launch line-up.
For the PlayStation 2, Sega has confirmed that the following games are in production:
Virtua Fighter 4
K-Project (working title)
Space Channel 5
Sega Sports NFL 2K2
Sega Sports NBA 2K2
The PlayStation 2 is the first and possibly only title to get a port of the Naomi 2 arcade fighting title Virtua Fighter 4. It is thought that the game will be ported across to the Namco arcade format System 264 which is better equipped to create a port to PlayStation 2, a console that has been dogged with porting and general development difficulties.
The most impressive line-up to come from Sega has to be for the Xbox. The games confirmed as being in development are:
Gun Valkyrie
JSRF - Jet Set Radio Future
Sega GT 2002
House of the Dead 3
Crazy Taxi Next
Sega Sports NFL 2K2
Sega Sports NBA 2K2
A new and possibly exclusive Crazy Taxi leads Sega’s Xbox games selection, along with exclusive House of the Dead 3 and Sega GT 2002. The only game to be shown running at E3 was Jet Set Radio Future which looked fantastic.
"Sega has been a third party publisher for only a few months and already we have an unprecedented lineup for this fiscal year across all platforms," said Peter Moore, president and COO, Sega of America. "Sega has the talent and the experience in making great content to become a publishing powerhouse and once we finish laying the foundation, we will be unstoppable. This is only the beginning for the new Sega."
And it’s true. Sega is now a hot property, not a struggling hardware manufacturer. This point was made loud and clear last week.
Companies:
SEGA
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