• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Was the Dreamcast actually powerful at launch? Or the beneficiary of no competition?

Was the Dreamcast a powerhouse at launch?

  • No

    Votes: 124 10.9%
  • Yes

    Votes: 1,014 89.1%

  • Total voters
    1,138
@PaintTinJr Please just stop you are embarrasing yourself.

m6V4f1c.png
VPBWOtA.png
QE0CEAf.png
xFQ916A.png


And the difference is way bigger with Splinter Cell Chaos Theory.
The way 2 years between 2 consoles releasing would make a game look this different...nowadays many games can only wish to look as good as TLOU2 which released originally on a 2013 PS4. We're in 2025.

I really can't imagine what Sny will use to tell us a PS6 in a time cross-gen is getting bigger and bigger and graphical enhancements are getting smaller and smaller.
 

Outtrigger will be fun to check out online, it's an arcade arena FPS with a decent engine, never wavering from 60fps, unlike Quake III & UT. Sadly, most maps leave a lot to be desired being single rooms with some cover objects. Only a couple are bigger with some verticality, like the timestamped. Still, it goes to show the system could have had a game to rival the big names with an engine like this, if only it wasn't held back by its arcade roots restricting the design to the simplest of the genre's basics. This with more weapons and bigger maps/more modes of play would have been amazing.
 
Last edited:
Oh since we are talking about HL, I don't know if it was posted on thread already but there have been some updates in the Xash3D port, although it's slowing down a lot when NPCs are on screen it usually has a better frame rate than leaked HL WinCE port.

 
Last edited:

Outtrigger will be fun to check out online, it's an arcade arena FPS with a decent engine, never wavering from 60fps. Most maps leave a lot to be desired, being single rooms (so, arenas) with some cover objects. Only a couple are a bit more complex with some verticality, like the timestamped.

Outtrigger has always been a sleeper on the graphical side. It is on the top DC FPS visuals with Quake 3, but is not widely remebered. Game is fun, graphics are awesome, but control sucks. It has like a dozen of control pre-configurations but not allowing to customize sucks. You can get use to some of the pre-configured inputs though.
 
Yeah, it even has picture in picture pop up for some deaths and such like modern games, it's really polished without missing a beat. It's just a simpler game than its big name brothers, but the engine could have definitely handled much more, if only it had been expanded more like Sega Rally 2's port (but this is for it to compete with modern games really, for its own day it was crazy already to have all that with online play on a home console for sure). I wish I could find footage of the other bigger maps in the game but I only found some shitty quality not 60fps videos of one or two, the video I did post probably misrepresents that alongside what I mentioned about most maps, there's a handful that are big and complex enough, if blockier than QIII's. It also has the neat variation of night time (with rain on some) and glowing textures for lights etc. that can look pretty slick & stylish.

On controller it's ok on D1 preset, like MDK2 the face buttons move, stick to look/aim, L/R for jump/fire with big target reticles etc., modern but flipped as usual. Edit: seems like keyboard and mouse can be fine too but instead of WASD you can do ESDF, just a slight shift. Better than the arrows, lol.​
 
Last edited:
Both in feature set and real time polygon rates it should be smack dab in the middle.
The GC is not a great real-time polygon pusher, you may have read something like 12 million, 10 million polygons, these numbers are possible in tech demos, however, the GC is not a conventional console, its hardware is not very flexible, this means that any programming movement outside of what Nintendo proposed in the chips will cut the polygon count in half, which is why only Factor 5's game exceeds 6 million polygons per second, no other game does that, being up to 5.5 million polygons for 60fps games, but the average hovers at 3 million polygons per second for real-world games, Dreamcast reaches around 1.4 million polygons in real-world games with peaks of 2.4 million in very specific games. Xbox has few numbers available, but 15-22 million polygons can be found in the system's rare 60fps games.
 
The GC is not a great real-time polygon pusher, you may have read something like 12 million, 10 million polygons, these numbers are possible in tech demos
I am curious what are you basing your average on? I am basing the numbers for the GC on Nintendo's own documentation. You think Nintendo was high balling it's own real time figure of 6 to 12 mps?

15 to 22 mps for Xbox seems about right though, but that is certainly not the hypothetical average as Xbox was barely pushed, so it's hardly a fair comparison based on your own metrics.
 
Outtrigger will be fun to check out online, it's an arcade arena FPS with a decent engine, never wavering from 60fps, unlike Quake III & UT. Sadly, most maps leave a lot to be desired being single rooms with some cover objects. Only a couple are bigger with some verticality, like the timestamped. Still, it goes to show the system could have had a game to rival the big names with an engine like this, if only it wasn't held back by its arcade roots restricting the design to the simplest of the genre's basics. This with more weapons and bigger maps/more modes of play would have been amazing.

I found videos of some larger maps but they don't seem like 60fps captures, just imagine it fast, smooth and sharp like the quoted video. Heh, they really tried to ape Quake III's materials look in their own way with those glows, water effects, some reflections and all kinds of other cool stuff, it's ace!

The console QIII/UT ports etc. of the era have nothing on that speed and performance though, shame it wasn't more popular (but again, understandably, given its simpler arcade roots and core).

Alien Front Online is similarly accomplished visually. It drops frames a lot but it's understandable for its destructive chaos. I don't think it has any complex maps (as it's grounded vehicle combat, not nimble humans indoors with multiple storeys), but some are quite big or full of destructible assets.

The fog in the second video is optional, only added when you create an online game under the name FOGFOGFOG or something along those lines (there are a couple other special modifiers too).​
 
Last edited:
The console QIII/UT ports etc. of the era have nothing on that speed and performance though,
Outtrigger runs much smoother and looks very good, but it has really small maps overall. And the AI is beyond dumb. I still enjoyed the game quite a bit. You can also rocket jump in this game.
 
Last edited:
That's what I was talking about, most of the maps are smaller but it handles a handful of bigger ones like in the timestamps (I don't think they're tiny at all) fine. You need to unlock them so most don't see them as it's quite hard to beat the solo modes (and they're not great, much like QIII and UT, it shone online). The game could probably match anything in QIII/UT (size or design wise, just blockier without the spline curves of QIII) and if not there was tons of room to drop to 30 fps instead of 60 to still offer a way better experience than those ports (and so push some extra polygons on top).
 
Last edited:
The character models put certainly Quake 3 Arena and UT to shame. And this is orginally a Naomi ´99 game. What they could had achieved on a first person shooter made with Ninja2? I wonder
 
Since that was discussed in the previous page, Dreamcast could handle a fine Metroid Prime-like imo. Far from the GC's, but still not bad, with the right art style. Less like Half-Life (lol, Idk why that's the proposed comparison), more like Maken X, ideally with equal polish on all the environments, enemies, animations, effects etc., as some are way better than others. It could of course look even better targeting 30fps and ditching some of its larger environments, whatever worked to keep it more consistent and polished than Maken X, especially texture wise as it's at times almost N64-like (maybe at all times but some environments just look way better so they could have less garish and muddy texturing than it appears in some spots but not others, with better art design (or I guess higher budget, which they lacked, evident in the static image cut scenes vs the proper in engine ones).

Skim from the timestamp to 25:10+ for examples of areas and effects in a single level (major end game spoilers if you intend to play it). The engine handles multiple enemies in large areas great and even has some similarities in gameplay, especially with having attacks you have to side dodge, jump over (or even over the enemy/boss to get behind it) while locked on and what not, even if it's mostly melee based with some projectile attacks for some of the forms you can take on. The game's engine shows a ton of promise in visuals and other areas, it's just hard to find decent footage.

The player in the video sucks too, it's not the deepest game but you can do a little better controls wise, like dash sideways to dodge and there are some contextual actions like a strong counter move after a successful block (done by just moving backwards which like dodging he also barely does), basic combos etc., it's a bit more fluid and cooler than shown, though the turning speed is definitely lower than it could have been (Metroid Prime also had that issue of course, to a lesser extent). The engine also supports effects like heat haze and fake reflections and specular-like shines and other stuff, including Half-Life-esque lightmaps (maybe it's faked in some other method but there are areas you activate light switches in which brightens/colors them and the darkness also has some kind of fog on top to limit visibility more than just the brightness being turned down) and cool in-engine cut scenes (maybe those aren't 60fps, not sure). Some environments are way bigger than any Prime-like would need, there are progression triggers and all sorts of things. It's an inconsistent and weird game but does most of what FPS or Metroid-Prime-likes need way better than Half-Life's port.​
 
Last edited:
I don't know.... Outrigger looks like ass to me, low poly everything, tiny stages, flat lighting , oversaturated hues, hideous animations, it looks crisp and runs smooth I'll give it that.
 
Disagree I guess. I wouldn't call the timestamped maps tiny and in that first real 60fps video you can see it can do do curves with the castle tower, elliptical staircase etc., the very orthogonal look could be as much about the polygons as the tools they were using for maps. I hope the online mode is functional soon, the channel I posted the footage of Alien Front Online from will be the place to get some great videos of people killing each other in the larger maps. As long as folks play through the solo game to unlock everything of course, lol. I guess it could have a more consistent theme like Alien Front Online's but the engine's rad and if a game on it aimed for 30fps it could increase polycounts. So anyway, the 4 biggest maps in the game are Art Museum & Water Sanctuary (available from the start) and Building & OEDO (unlockable from solo modes) + a couple Dark variants on top.
The character models put certainly Quake 3 Arena and UT to shame. And this is orginally a Naomi ´99 game. What they could had achieved on a first person shooter made with Ninja2? I wonder
Propeller Arena shows some of what they could do a bit later (and in 30fps) but is so different with its huge draw distance in open maps over closed spaces you can cull things within to keep detail up. Still, it looks sweet with great models, textures, particles, self shadows, lens flares, sun glare, etc...
 
Last edited:
When it launched? certainly, at least for consoles. These two racing games released on the same year:

i1lLlYH5UO0B3RH.jpg

64459765-fd33ad80-d0f8-11e9-8a62-bf143fe4a94d.PNG


Now, It would have been the weakest of the gen when the Gamecube and the PlayStation 2 launched. And not only technically, the CD-R storage was way more smaller too, even less than the one in the NGC.
 


I am almost certain that the Dreamcast ports of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 are based on the Sourcenext PC versions. Both RE2 and RE3 on the Dreamcast run under WindowsCE. I think Resident Evil 3 on the Dreamcast uses 640*480 pre-rendered BG's. The game does run at 480p via VGA. They were pretty quick and dirty ports of the PC versions.
 
That video's less than half the story as PS versions appear somewhat enhanced and games made to run on the still super popular PS rarely took advantage of DC's power. Quick and dirty ports with cleaned up/filtered textures and assets, higher resolution and maybe framerate. It can make a huge difference to see the games without dithering, texture and polygon warping, gaps in geometry and low color depth etc., like Soul Reaver, while a few like V-Rally went the extra mile, but others were poor and more like running games on Bleemcast or worse (with the modern homebrew ports like Doom 64 and Wipeout we see Dreamcast could do that tier of games way more effortlessly than some developers achieved, shit, Bleemcast even showed DC was powerful enough to emulate and enhance PS, never mind get proper ports). Games made to utilise the platform showed way bigger differences, like Dino Crisis vs Code Veronica, Rival Schools vs Project Justice or (duh) Soulcalibur. Well, the video includes some of the better stuff mentioned or the likes of Vanishing Point, Space Griffon and (probably wrongly, as they aren't the same games) UFC and Le Mans but yeah, bs.

Even the panned Re-Volt is far from just "PS tier geometry & still not locked 60", it clearly renders way more than the struggling PS which is far from a constant 30 so the framerate is probably still at least doubled even if not locked on DC either, plus improvements including lighting/assets/effects.​
 
Last edited:
I allways found the polygons per second metric stupid tbh. They should say how many polygons can have a scene.
It depends how many times per second you want to render the scene.

If you want a 60fps game, you have x number of polygons/sec (assuming no effects or textures)... so divite the number by 60 to get the number of polygons in the scene on each frame (assuming none are hidden).
 
Guys, lets make it short, post/thread is asking if dreamcast was actually powerful at launch, it definitely was, in current terms of graphics it was like 5090 compared to ur xss, when stacked vs first playstation, saturn or even bit later released n64, tech moved like crazy in the 90s, especially 3d graphics.
Proof it was miles above 5th gen consoles is- its officially considered first 6th gen console, weakest but still 6th gen.
Same reason it was able to dwarf psx/saturn/n64 is the reason it looked outdated only few years later, when ps2, NGC and first xbox released only few years later, simply technology progress back then was crazy fast and even 2 years that were inbetween n64 and dreamcast, then another 2 years that was inbetween dreamcast and ps2 were huge, hell ps2 from 2000 vs og xbox from 2002 was crazy big jump too, even more if u consider in the US ps2 launched oct 2000, while much more powerful xbox that had hdd(games like elder scrolls morrowind being possible on it, and u finally didnt need to buy memory cards) launched nov 2001 so only 13 months later...

TLDR: 6th console gen was super competetive with all 4 companies doing their best, putting out tons of high quality musthave exclusives left and right, which was great for us- consumers, ofc some1 had to lose console war, it couldnt be helped, but what we got in the process is amazing games we can enjoy even now- years later.
Final proof of how huge the jump was ps1 vs dreamcast, and keep in mind, dont look at it with ur 2025(it all looks bad vs topend pc) eyes, look at it with ur 1998 eyes aka u didnt see anything above psx/saturn/n64 graphics yet:

PS1 looked even worse than in that video. Not sure why they are comparing Dreamcast to uprezed & zbuffer fixed PS1 footage. (Being emulated they should have used PCSX ReARMed with stock setting)

I assume both are emulated, but Dreamcast looks good even to this day. Especially in VGA mode.
 
Since that was discussed in the previous page, Dreamcast could handle a fine Metroid Prime-like imo. Far from the GC's, but still not bad, with the right art style. Less like Half-Life (lol, Idk why that's the proposed comparison), more like Maken X, ideally with equal polish on all the environments, enemies, animations, effects etc., as some are way better than others. It could of course look even better targeting 30fps and ditching some of its larger environments, whatever worked to keep it more consistent and polished than Maken X, especially texture wise as it's at times almost N64-like (maybe at all times but some environments just look way better so they could have less garish and muddy texturing than it appears in some spots but not others, with better art design (or I guess higher budget, which they lacked, evident in the static image cut scenes vs the proper in engine ones).

Skim from the timestamp to 25:10+ for examples of areas and effects in a single level (major end game spoilers if you intend to play it). The engine handles multiple enemies in large areas great and even has some similarities in gameplay, especially with having attacks you have to side dodge, jump over (or even over the enemy/boss to get behind it) while locked on and what not, even if it's mostly melee based with some projectile attacks for some of the forms you can take on. The game's engine shows a ton of promise in visuals and other areas, it's just hard to find decent footage.

The player in the video sucks too, it's not the deepest game but you can do a little better controls wise, like dash sideways to dodge and there are some contextual actions like a strong counter move after a successful block (done by just moving backwards which like dodging he also barely does), basic combos etc., it's a bit more fluid and cooler than shown, though the turning speed is definitely lower than it could have been (Metroid Prime also had that issue of course, to a lesser extent). The engine also supports effects like heat haze and fake reflections and specular-like shines and other stuff, including Half-Life-esque lightmaps (maybe it's faked in some other method but there are areas you activate light switches in which brightens/colors them and the darkness also has some kind of fog on top to limit visibility more than just the brightness being turned down) and cool in-engine cut scenes (maybe those aren't 60fps, not sure). Some environments are way bigger than any Prime-like would need, there are progression triggers and all sorts of things. It's an inconsistent and weird game but does most of what FPS or Metroid-Prime-likes need way better than Half-Life's port.​

Maken X doesn't get enough credit for how good it looks and how smooth it is.

It was also the only DC game where I saw Heat Haze effect on the DC
 
I wouldn't call the timestamped maps tiny (the first one's a night variant which limits visibility except the glowy textures but the night vision power up shows it draws/you can see throughout, as you can in the other day map/variant) and in that very first 60fps video you can see it can do some ok curves with the castle tower and elliptical staircase etc., the very orthogonal look could be as much about the polygons as the tools they were using to make maps. I hope the online mode is functional soon, the channel I posted the footage of Alien Front Online from will be the place to get some great videos of people killing each other in the larger maps. As long as folks play through the solo game to unlock everything of course, lol. I guess it could have a more consistent theme like Alien Front Online's but the engine's rad and if a game on it aimed for 30fps it could increase polycounts.

Propeller Arena shows some of what they could do a bit later (and in 30fps) but is so different with its huge draw distance in open maps over closed spaces you can cull things within to keep detail up. Still, it looks sweet with great models, textures, particles, self shadows, lens flares, sun glare, etc...

I love Propeller Arena! Still play it with my bootleg CD from 2004! Is also the best air-combat visually performer on DC...i even see it above Aerowings 2. Gameplay wise is lit! wouldn´t be possible to finally bring the online mode on that one? Also, soundtrack is awesome! Thanks to it i got the chance to know about some awesome Punk Rock bands like Rise Against, Mad Caddies, No Use For A Name and Consumed!
 
Last edited:
This guy's analysis videos show (spoil, but if you aren't gonna play it) some of the game's content and good aspects (but it's not 60fps footage sadly). I didn't know the Japanese version had all kinds of supplemental material like character bios that weren't translated, sad. It would be cool to get a sequel/successor that is less limited some day (it was Atlus' first full 3D game after all, they could have probably done a lot better in a second effort on the same platform back then, never mind now). More freeform/seamless, brainjacking any enemy/ally rather than the given set of characters etc...

what´s so funny, boi?
Clown used to laugh at any post even implying DC could have had open world games in the vein of GTAIII (even when saying it wasn't about 1:1 ports but similar design adjusted for the platform, building on tech like Crazy Taxi 2's or Headhunter's) but now settles for clutching on the performance lows of a homebrew port (with more complex PC assets) that's still being painstakingly optimised being worse than the already bad parts on PS2 (after laughing still during its early iterations for how it looked purple, lacked effects or needed extra ram and couldn't run from disc). I suppose he now wants to forget he was claiming complete bs like DC can't render transparencies for windscreens just because Crazy Taxi 2 didn't have any for its way more dense and therefore simplified traffic models without interiors (to maintain a blazing fast 60fps). He even laughed at Rockstar's own former technical director saying the game could work on DC and tried to claim that only applied to the game's earliest tests that looked nothing like the final result when it was clear as day those statements were about the game as we know it. MGS2 doesn't have an open source implementation so he feels safer to laugh again, as if RAIDEN1 RAIDEN1 expressing curiosity for something that didn't and won't happen (an AAA production from KojiPro on DC) was claiming it'd be 1:1 the same game! Edit: also I forgot the earlier era of GTA-likes talk where he was liking and siding with posters claiming bs like how GD-Rom can't stream game data, only audio and only PS2's DVD-Rom enabled data streaming (as if audio isn't data and we didn't have streaming game data even on CD-Rom consoles with games like Crash or Soul Reaver - and now GTAIII on DC, though even Crazy Taxi did it before) 🤡
And about "our friend", sometimes he has good points, on certain topics, i´ll give him that...
Hardly, just some very common facts listed like they're taken from wikipedia and that nobody even challenged or said anything for them to need to be mentioned (or only when someone's being as absurd as him like in the GC discussion earlier, though his dissing of GC's capabilities when it has games like RE4 & Rogue Squadrons is still lol, sure, everyone knows Xbox is better - back to said facts almost noone challenges - but the gen also includes the still praised PS2 and DC, GC is more than fine with plenty beautiful games that would have been adored on Xbox too even if ported 1:1).
 
Last edited:
This guy's analysis videos show (spoil, but if you aren't gonna play it) some of the game's content and good aspects (but it's not 60fps footage so there's that). I didn't know the Japanese version had all kinds of supplemental material like character bios that weren't translated, sad. It would be cool to get a sequel/successor that is less limited some day (it was Atlus' first full 3D game after all, they could have probably done a lot better in a second effort on the same platform back then, never mind now). More freeform/seamless, brainjacking anyone rather than the given set of characters etc...


Clown used to laugh the same at any post even implying Dreamcast could have had sandbox games in the vein of GTAIII (even when specifically saying it wasn't about actual ports but just games with similar design goals adjusted for the platform) but nowadays has to just clutch on how the performance lows of a homebrew port (upgraded in various ways, like using PC assets) that's still being painstakingly optimised for DC can be a little worse than the already bad sections on PS2 (after also just laughing the same during its first iterations for how it looked purple, lacked effects or needed extra ram and couldn't run from disc as supposedly proving he was right to say it couldn't have any such games even when the developers kept explaining how they're going about the port and how it'll develop further, as it now has). Including laughing at quotes of Rockstar's former technical director saying the game could work on DC and was only cancelled for financial reasons, or trying to misrepresent it as claiming that for the game's earliest tests that looked nothing like the final result. But since MGS2 has no open source implementation he feels safer to laugh again 🤡

Gonna try that Jpn Maken-X version.

And about "our friend", sometimes he has good points, on certain topics, i´ll give him that...But with all that Splinter Cell extravaganza i forgot when it comes to DC he usually does the same he got the nerve to criticize on PaintTinjr. Anyway. This thread isnt about that, it´s about proofs of DC being a totally capable 6th gen machine despite being the less powerful, and it´s more than proven it is! Really hope to see more games defying its limits and shutting some mouths! (in fact, even 24 years ago we had that)
 
I didn't know it's a Flycast developer helping get these games online, that's cool. I tried it on Flycast and it's pretty crazy how well done it is for a 2001 console game, logging on, making/joining lobbies and rooms within and starting a game with up to 6 players (more than QIII/less than UT btw) etc.
 
Last edited:
This guy's pretty good @ DC WipEout, lol. Seems like the port's basically perfected (first iterations actually had you set the draw distance choosing fidelity/performance but now it runs fine maxed so the option's gone). But we're still possibly getting multiplayer added at some point, fingers crossed.
 
Last edited:
I remember Dreamcast having a way cleaner picture compared to Playstation when it released. I still think it was a big loss when it got discontinued – almost everything about it went hard, the logo was great, the first party games were fun, the controller was a little weird but who cares, they could have iterated on that. I think if they would've waited to release it to compete with the PS2 two years later there's no reason it couldn't have went toe to toe with a lot of PS2 games or even gotten its own versions of the Metal Gear Solid games. Huge L for Sega when it died.
 
I only played it a few times, but even then I thought the games looked great. Playing sonic adventure for the first time was amazing.

When the ps2 came out it seemed less impressive. By that time I had upgraded my socket 7 pc with a voodoo 3 and then did my first full build a pentium 3 with voodoo 5 then GeForce 3 a year later. Consoles seemed like they were garbage after playing unreal tournament, quake3, undying, Alice, black and white, gta3, half life and baldurs gate etc... Back in 2000.

I did eventually get a ps2 9 years later for the missed jrpgs and a few others but never got a dreamcast. I played sonic adventure on my pc years later and it didn't look as impressive as it did on the dreamcast. Was that just because it looked better on crt TV and a console? How do other games compare to ps2 versions?

You think gta3 could of run on a dreamcast? Probably could of saved the system.
 
Last edited:
I only played it a few times, but even then I thought the games looked great. Playing sonic adventure for the first time was amazing.

When the ps2 came out it seemed less impressive. By that time I had upgraded my socket 7 pc with a voodoo 3 and then did my first full build a pentium 3 with voodoo 5 then GeForce 3 a year later. Consoles seemed like they were garbage after playing unreal tournament, quake3, undying, Alice, black and white, gta3, half life and baldurs gate etc... Back in 2000.

I did eventually get a ps2 9 years later for the missed jrpgs and a few others but never got a dreamcast. I played sonic adventure on my pc years later and it didn't look as impressive as it did on the dreamcast. Was that just because it looked better on crt TV and a console? How do other games compare to ps2 versions?

You think gta3 could of run on a dreamcast? Probably could of saved the system.
The original sonic adventure port for PC is notoriously bad and it lacked the lantern engine (lighting system)
 
I am almost certain that the Dreamcast ports of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 are based on the Sourcenext PC versions. Both RE2 and RE3 on the Dreamcast run under WindowsCE. I think Resident Evil 3 on the Dreamcast uses 640*480 pre-rendered BG's. The game does run at 480p via VGA. They were pretty quick and dirty ports of the PC versions.
Literally just finished RE2 on Dreamcast. I enjoyed it. I did feel some areas felt a bit brighter but was able to adjust crt brightness to compensate. I hate how the death sequences are censored though. So annoying.
 
You think gta3 could of run on a dreamcast? Probably could of saved the system?
Its already running on DC on Beta state thanks to community (incluiding some folks here). Also Vice City its running on DC, on alpha state.

About saving the system. When GTA3 was released DC was already discontinued and getting its last games on the west.
 
Nice tour of Skies of Arcadia. Spoilers of course, if you haven't played it (but intend to, as you should). Just wish it was using real DC footage or match it 1:1 with emulation, the high res is nice at a glance but also clashes with/emphasises lower res assets/effects etc.

The video still only scratches the surface of course, I can't mention the game without showing an example of its great one off set pieces with cool effects thrown around like it was no big deal to do.​
 
Last edited:
SEGA pulling the DC when they did was a big mistake considering what happened next. The non sony systems hardly set the world alight. The PS2 didnt have a strong online service, the xbox underperformed in japan and the GC was a quiet system. The DC could have held its own under that. At least for a year since SEGA always thrived in direct competition. Which is why the genesis games were mostly good. DC's death is the equivalent of if SEGA pulled the genesis before the SNES came out. Weak willed japanese management.
 
SEGA pulling the DC when they did was a big mistake considering what happened next. The non sony systems hardly set the world alight. The PS2 didnt have a strong online service, the xbox underperformed in japan and the GC was a quiet system. The DC could have held its own under that. At least for a year since SEGA always thrived in direct competition. Which is why the genesis games were mostly good. DC's death is the equivalent of if SEGA pulled the genesis before the SNES came out. Weak willed japanese management.
Yuji Naka could have produced a reprogrammed GTA3 like the amazing ghouls n'ghosts port he did ALONE for the genesis.

Imagine...
Everyone wanted GTA3 but had to buy an expensive PS2.

Sega : "Hey guys! What about a $150 Dreamcast GTA3 bundle? 😎"


Humble family: "Ok, fuck the DVD player"
 
Last edited:
Who knows but you brought up a point that I was referring to but go in depth with. By the time, the genesis got into a slug fight with the SNES in 93-94 the genesis hardware was 5 to 6 years old, yet the developers/programmers SEGA had or assembled was making the system pull off things the system wasn't designed for. A system that was starting to age. You mentioned DC mod of GTA3, well that's what I was waiting for with the DC. To see the developers start doing the same type of programming feats they did during the genesis era to produce outstanding games. That was only going to happen had the DC not been cancelled and the desire to outdo their rivals been allowed to take place. Something they clearly lost during their transition to third party. We never got to see any of that playout.
 
Something they clearly lost during their transition to third party. We never got to see any of that playout.
Yeah, the departure/death of a bunch of key people at Sega didn't help but the return of Shuji Utsumi is currently a blessing. (Banana Rumble is a Return to form, Shadow Generations is dope, project Century and VF6 seem ambitious...)
 
Yeah, the departure/death of a bunch of key people at Sega didn't help but the return of Shuji Utsumi is currently a blessing. (Banana Rumble is a Return to form, Shadow Generations is dope, project Century and VF6 seem ambitious...)
For Third Party SEGA, yes. But Third Party SEGA isn't SEGA SEGA. They may be good for this incarnation of SEGA but not necessarily when SEGA games were built on SEGA hardware for arcade or consoles. As for Shuji Utsumi well thats thanks to SEGAsammy CEO Haruki Satomi who has a desire to see SEGA return to their glory days. He tried to do it himself with the Sakura Taisen reboot and Shenmue HDs but failed so he brought in someone who could handle it. Though it did have a cost in the form of Nagoshi leaving.
 
For Third Party SEGA, yes. But Third Party SEGA isn't SEGA SEGA. They may be good for this incarnation of SEGA but not necessarily when SEGA games were built on SEGA hardware for arcade or consoles. As for Shuji Utsumi well thats thanks to SEGAsammy CEO Haruki Satomi who has a desire to see SEGA return to their glory days. He tried to do it himself with the Sakura Taisen reboot and Shenmue HDs but failed so he brought in someone who could handle it. Though it did have a cost in the form of Nagoshi leaving.
Nagoshi under Suzuki was a blessing...
Nagoshi under Nagoshi was a waist of ressources for Sega... (mostly Yakuza)

I'm glad he left because now we have Virtua Fighter, Golden Axe, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio...)
 
Nagoshi under Suzuki was a blessing...
Nagoshi under Nagoshi was a waist of ressources for Sega... (mostly Yakuza)

I'm glad he left because now we have Virtua Fighter, Golden Axe, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio...)
Right on the money. But it wasn't a waste of resources because of Like A Dragon, the issue was SEGA was only spending any money on new IP or AAA projects by Nagoshi, and worst Nagoshi was the main obstacle in JSR and a few other Smilebit games coming back. As well as sabotaging Sakura Taisen reboot by making sure RED company wasnt part of the reboot which was a BIG mistake. No coincidence that the principle key members of JSR suddenly returned to SEGA in 21 once Nagoshi left. I understand a bit of his stance on focusing on new titles and not going back but SEGA was never a one man show and a part of the reason SEGA were light years beyond their rivals was they had a number of talented individuals/developers who were making their own titles. When SEGA became a one man show with Nagoshi...the output dropped. As did the quality of games and the shift of games that were and still are japanese mobile phone exclusives or Nagoshi AAA games. Add the Sonic and Football Manager/Total War updates, a SEGA gamer was starved and suffering a SEGA drought because Sonic and Like A Dragon alone isnt enough to sustain them and western acquired franchises like FM and TW are not on their radar. Hopefully this new regime can balance the new IP with the updates of legacy series and SEGA west. If it goes from one extreme to the other of just doing updates of classic series while only letting RGG Studio do just the AAA new IP then nothing has really changed.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom