Thanks! I originally planned for these posts to just be a screenshot or two, with maybe a little discussion on what’s going on in my latest games (See a few of my first posts). But one of my pet peeves with gaming communities is how everyone just assumes you know the game being discussed. They jump into fine details, or use acronyms or in-game lingo to talk about it, which alienates those who’ve never played the game. Sometimes I’m interested in a game being discussed, but I’ve never played it, so I can’t follow the discussion!
So I figured I’d make posts that introduce games to everyone. If you’ve played it before, it’s a nice refresher of the gameplay and gives you a space to gush about what you loved or hated about it. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a good intro to the game and its story and mechanics.
Also, my other hidden purpose is to force myself to play more games. I have a Steam library of over 3,500 games and I’ve only played 25% of my library (according to SteamDB). So this forces me to pick something new every day and give it a shot. I’m discovering a lot of fun games that I didn’t even know I had in my library! I got a lot of my games through random bundles, so I didn’t even choose a lot of them.
Unlike the Gamecube and Xbox, which used DVD-like discs but just weren't licensed as DVD players (though Xbox later sold a "DVD Playback Kit" meant to cover licensing fees), Dreamcast's GD-ROMs were closely based on standard Compact Disc technology, just with dual-layer discs.
Upgrading the hardware would've increased costs considerably, GD-ROMs were meant to be a lot cheaper than the still very new DVD technology. Tech that did get cheaper by the time the PS2 hit the market nearly two years later, but Sega wanted to be early.
Max Payne 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. It’s the only game I ever finished, then beat 2-3 more times in succession on increasing difficulties just to get a different ending.
After I finish Alan Wake II, I’m considering going to Max Payne 2 (though I have a lot of games I keep piling onto the list of what I want to play. So who knows. The Steam Sale coming up certainly won’t help). If it’s anything like this one I know I’m going to have a good time though. Remedy is masters of their trade it feels like
I love walking sims, exploration games, and mysteries… Kona was such a great title. Really moody and atmospheric. Looking forward to picking up the sequel soon, maybe during this sale. Thanks for sharing!
Dreamcast’s strength was the hardware. Adding a DVD player would have just increased the price out of realistic range. The problem was the software and 3rd party support. The library just could not compete with PS1 and N64 and then the greatest console of all time came out and put it out of it’s misery, the PS2.
There's not really any one reason the Dreamcast failed, but the library being larger doesn't necessarily map to the library being better. The Dreamcast didn't have any heavy hitters on the level of a Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye or Ocarina of Time. In terms of games that are still in the mainstream consciousness, it's probably Sonic Adventure and Shenmue.
The library also had another thing that I think held it back from greater success: ports. Releasing so early, basically in the middle of the lifespan of the PS1 and N64, meant that a lot of the games were cross-platform with one or more previous-generation consoles. It's hard to demonstrate the power of a next-gen console when so many of the exact same games also worked fine on the consoles people already owned.
The other big source of ports in the Dreamcast library were arcade games. Sega was offering the ultimate in home ports of arcade games at exactly the time in the games industry when arcades were collapsing. The Dreamcast was the best way to play basically any cross-platform game that came out in that period, whether it was ported from arcade or lesser consoles, but ultimately they were games you could already play or that you specifically didn't want to.
I don't want to give the impression that the Dreamcast didn't have good or original games, it had both, just not "I must upgrade my console mid-gen"-quality games. It's a library that's aged very well but at the time, not enough people wanted what they were selling.
And part of the PS2’s success was the built-in DVD player which was cheaper than non-console DVD players at the time. So if you were going to buy a DVD player anyway, you were better off buying a PS2, saving some money and getting a console at the same time.
Yeah I feel too many people overlook that in 2000 it was next to impossible to find a DVD player under $500 and then PS2 came out, lots if people who didn’t even game bought them because it was known for being better than anything even close to its price range.
N64 and PS1 have not aged well. I’d absolutely take a dreamcast over the N64 and the PS1 really only beats it on RPGs. If you don’t have nostalgia for the 5th gen consoles, most of the games just aren’t very fun anymore.
Or the weirdly anachronistic mess that is the Dreamcast in general. I mean, it's not easy to visualize today because a lot of the "just a tiny underpowered PC thing" approach ended up winning the day, but the Dreamcast made no sense whatsoever at the time and produced entirely absurd looking games.
Maybe you could try to rationalize the 480p thing as an advantage today, but at the time screenshot comparisons looked a generation apart next to the PS2.
Maybe you could try to rationalize the 480p thing as an advantage today, but at the time screenshot comparisons looked a generation apart next to the PS2.
Which 480p thing? GameCube, PS2 and Dreamcast all output at 480p. Some games on the PS2 can upscale. But they render at that resolution.
Specifically the VGA 480p output, which was a big deal for most use cases.
I imagine there is some regional differentiation here based on HDTV adoption and SCART vs component, but for reference VGA out was still the sole way I had to get any progressive signal for gaming all the way down to my day one Xbox 360 in 2005, which did not have an HDMI out (not that I had any displays with an HDMI in, for that matter).
Yeah, that's the thing about it, right? It has all the pieces of the architecture of a modern console in a world where none of them make sense. Even with the 360 I was probably an outlier, and the reward you got by being able to access 720p video on a CRT PC monitor was much higher compared to a SDTV.
That’s a normal architecture though, all consoles of that generation and at least the one before create the image digitally and just in the last step convert to analog so that the TVs from that time can display an image. The Dreamcast isn’t an outlier in that regard. It made sense to use these components; the strength of the Dreamcast from my point of view was that it was a very complete package at the time. Sure it couldn’t play DVDs, but it was quite earlier than the PlayStation 2, which came in more expensive with subsidies from Sony who as a member of the DVD Consortium (later DVD Forum) and movie studio had a vested interest in broadening the install base for DVD players. Plus Sony manufactured the drives themselves, which have them the numbers, there was no such option for Sega at that point in time.
Anyhow, I liked the Dreamcast for having 4 controller ports like the N64 instead of 2, and I also liked the selection of games because it was very arcade-y, but I had no arcades close by. But I also enjoyed the Sonic Adventures back then (not sure I still would though), Shenmue and Headhunter.
Personally I wouldn’t call the Dreamcast revolutionary, even though it’s my favorite console is all time. My biggest gripe with it isn’t the lack of a DVD drive, this is completely irrelevant nowadays with SD card loaders, but the rarity of Ethernet adapters because of the piracy issue. But it was a good package (I still can’t believe how good SoulCalibur looked back then, it agreed really well which is rare for 3D games from that time) for a fair price and a library that I really enjoyed.
One of my favorite Let’s Play games. I tried to play it myself for 5 minutes before hard noping out. I’ve become a bit braver since my teens, so maybe I should give it a shot myself some day.
But it’s amazing to see just how far you can push HL’s engine.
…my game gear did fine with the external rechargeable battery pack, which was admittedly cumbersome but wasn’t to extend battery life so much as it was to save the expense of buying batteries, but even using AAs i never had a problem with them not lasting through a full play session…
I don’t think the bad graphics are a fair complaint but the ugly ass UI or the game making my PC blow like a military air jet while still looking like poop, (after 10 years) maybe that’s the real problem.
And no, my PC is not under specs, I can play Cyberpunk 2077 or similar games just fine.
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