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Shenmue III - It's On, It's Off, It's On, It's Off
Thanks to InsertCredit.com for their brief summary of the ever-more-complicated question - is Sega's Shenmue III in production? The site condenses: "Nov. 2001 - AM2 confirms production of Shenmue III is underway... Mar. 2002 - Shin Izakawa, new Shenmue series producer, says Shenmue II XBOX sales will determine release of Shenmue III... Jan. 2003 - Yu Suzuki reveals Shenmue III game designs, expresses desire to make it movie rather than game... July 2003 - Websites report that AM2 confirms Shenmue III will be released, but not where, when or on what. Minor controversy and buzz ensues." GamePro also has a good summary of recent rumors, most of which have either been unattributable or mistranslated. But clearly, Shenmue III was planned at one point - maybe we'll finally find out if it's still being developed at the next Tokyo Game Show?
Shenmue has always been more like a movie. While I did enjoy it, it was mostly just storyline strung together by a few simple puzzles or timing games.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
That's what you get for releasing it on the Xbox. C'mon, 'Cube is beggin' for it! Bring me your nichey, your innovative, your non-mainstream. This is just the sort of thing that could push the little purple/black/silver 'cube past the big, ugly box.
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
Because worldwide the Purple/Black/Silver box has sold more units worldwide.
...can be found on my blog.
It's sad to see this series teetering on the edge of collapse. I remember in the Dreamcast days, it was one of the showcase titles for the system, yet the XBox community all but ignores it. Although I wasn't into this game myself (a little too much tedium for my case), I always thought it was exceptionally well done.
However, I remember reading somewhere that when Shenmue (The Dreamcast version) was originally made, it was intended to be the first part of a 16 part series. Perhaps that was a little too ambitious.
"Do you know about the three blades?"
-"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -EH
Gamecube was designed with this issue in mind. It has excellent disk spanning capability, darned if I can find a reference to it at this time. I'm sure if you looked though this you would be able to find some reference somewhere. They may be small, but Resident Evil on two disks works fine for me.
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
Could you use the word "Shenmue" a few more times, when you next cover this topic.
Any of you guys know where I can find some sailors?
Websites report that AM2 confirms Shenmue III will be released, but not where, when or on what.
When reading that, I found that it summed up the current state of the gaming industry pretty accurately: Nobody knows anything anymore. Not even themselves.
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
I know this game wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but I personally loved both titles in the series. They have a gripping (if a tad bit clichéd) story, a very functional combat system, and loads upon loads of detail that go a long way for suspending your disbelief as you scoured the city in search of clues and situations to lay the smack down on any fools stupid enough to pick a fight with you. The second one was light-years ahead of the first in terms of game-play, and it would be a real shame if SEGA didn't continue the story along.
I guess the almighty dollar (and yen) have spoken though...
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
(see Falcon 4.0)
Shenmue is a niche series. It always will be. Most "graphical adventures" are.
People talk about Microsoft paying Sega for their titles like it's an underhanded thing. Exactly what did Sony do with Rockstar?? Oh, but how dare the Xbox have any good games.
Sony and Nintendo owners can't stand the thought of the Xbox being legitimate. As an owner of all three, I tend to use the Xbox the most (though there was a time where the PS2 was on top and had my attention more).
As someone pointed out, there is some fierce circular logic going on in some of these posts:
1: First Guy: "The Xbox has no good games! I'd never touch it!"
2: Second Guy: "Well look at these great games from Sega and some others! Aren't these the same game serieses you bought a Dreamcast to play?"
3: First Guy: "It's no fair that they're not out on MY console!"
4: Second Guy: "Well you could always BUY an Xbox."
then to reply to 4, GOTO 1 and repeat endlessly
The stories can be appreciated on their own. I played through Shenmue, and very much enjoyed it. I imported Shenmue 2, and played fairly far into it. However, the Dreamcast version was just not up to it. The Xbox version of Shenmue 2 has none of the slowdown affecting the Dreamcast versions, as well as slightly better load times (although KOTOR load times make me eeeh).
If you're going to enjoy games, you have to realize that publishers go to where the money is. If you want to have the consoles on which they publish, spend the money to have them all. I own every major console (excepting the Saturn), and I can safely say that it's very fun to be able to pick up any game and play it.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
If you're going to enjoy games, you have to realize that publishers go to where the money is.
This is just plain silly and brain damaged. Of course I realize that publishers are going to take money they're being given, like Microsoft was giving Sega. That doesn't mean I enjoy "games" any more or less. Maybe you can play a game or watch a movie without seeing the sequel, but that isn't something I do.
If you want to have the consoles on which they publish, spend the money to have them all.
I don't want to have all the consoles on which they publish. I thought my original post made that abundantly clear. Buying an Xbox would be a complete waste of my money. Maybe it isn't for you, I don't know. I don't care where Sega publishes their stuff. If they don't publish it for a platform I have, I won't buy it. *shrugs* Hell, if Microsoft bought off every major gaming franchise as an Xbox exclusive I have enough games in my house that I haven't played more then 10 minutes of to last me the rest of my life, never mind games that I just haven't beaten yet.
"If you want to have the games they publish, spend the money to own all the consoles"
As in, I expect that if you want to keep on top of games and their sequels, you'll be willing to purchase more machines/import games and machines/etc. If it's not that big of a deal and there's no reason to do it, there's no reason to bitch about it, either.
Basically, you either buy an Xbox and enjoy the sequel (or import the sequel for Dreamcast), or you don't whine about something you'd never do. Do you see me whinning that I won't pilot a F-15? If I had an interest in it, I'd do it. Otherwise you're wasting breath better spent playing games.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.