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"What a line-up.....!"

I've just been looking through the new XBM mag, issue 22, and the line-up of new X-Box games for this year and the beginning of next looks fantastic.

Project Gotham 2
Half-life 2
Freedom Fighters
Colin McRae 4
Conker: Live and Uncut
Driver 3
True Crime
Armed and Dangerous
Star Wars: KOTOR
Soul Calibur 2
Broken Sword
Mafia
Worms 3D
Dead or Alive 4 and DOA online
MOH: Rising Sun
Doom 3
Halo 2
Fable
Shenmue 3
Full Spectrum Warrior
Splinter Cell 2
Tony Hawks Underground

Everyone of those games look to be winners and extremely enjoyable games, and if the rumours are true we could also see a port of Vice City on the way to X-Box, and in this particular mag, they say that GTA3 will be included with Vice City. So to me the future of the X-Box looks very bright indeed and I'm really glad I got it now.

Fights ? Oh you mean pressing a few buttons as barely believable moves are enacted on the screen ? Okay.

Skies of Arcadia is good, but bear in mind the platforms it was/is on. Not exactly much competition on either was there, and the short supply could well have been on purpose to motivate sales ala Steel Battalion...

Whitestripes DX wrote:
> psht
>
> Shenmue games are never hits, far from it.
>
> Both have sold poorly, even the official DC mag only gave the original
> about 80%, despite all it's hype.
>
>
> Personally I think it's terrible though. It's invented a genre of it's
> own; 'story', because that's all it is, there's nothing to play about
> it.

So what do you call Final Fantasy?
It's an "interactive movie" at best
At least fights are real time in Shenmue.

Skies doesn't sell well because they don't make enough copies.

No one can ever find it.

I don't care about sales. Look at Skies of Arcadia. Quite frankly one of the best games ever made and yet it never sold on the Dreamcast until they told everyone it was going to be in short supply.

I know I will love Shenmue 3 as much I did with the first two. Thats all that matters to me.

jim-hat wrote:
> Shenmue 2 was great... so if Shenmue 3 was to be like Shenmue 2, then,
> jim-hat is finding it difficult to understand your argument. Let
> jim-hat give you a pointer, here. If you are going to argue about
> something, the best idea is - to have some knowledge about what you
> are talking about. Otherwise you look silly now, don't you.

jim hat is talking crap, IMO. Sales of a game do not refelct quality, but sales of a game do;

*make retailers happy 'cause it's nice to know you're not going to have about 500 copies of a game left in your inventory.
*make publishers money so they can make more games
*promote a console - high chart sales are seen by 'normal' people as defining true success and popularity.

As Whitestripes points out, Shenmue 2 was basically an interactive story book, that never sold well and certainly only rated above average due to a lack of anything similar on the console at the time. Shenmue 2 scored 8.0 in OXM, hence the sequel, unless it adds major innovations, is bound to score less. Sega does not have the time nor money to reinvent it's graphics enough to make it count, and as sales of MGS2 Substance show, people are rather bored with story games.

Sales=success. As Nintendo are finding out right now, or not actually. Get the sales, get the user base, get the retailer support, get the sales etc Shenmue is a niche title and will remain so. niche is okay for the self styled hardcore gamers but everyone else just wonders why they want to play the games. If I want a story I'll read a book or see a film, or play a game which lets me dictate the course of events more randomly. Shenmue is pure A-B gaming with little chance of failure because progression relies on prescripted events and a certain sequence of events. interactive story telling.

Take, for example, where the gang trick Ryo and he loses his bag. you can't avoid it, there's no way. When you give chase, you can't catch up. That's story telling, and a boring one at that. As Anime it would work, but a game ? SNORE. MGS2 was slightly different in that the story was at least something to think about, but to be honest I couldn't give a toss about Ryo and his vendetta.

BTW, you aren't the Queen so end the third person references, 'cause you look really stupid, sorry, even stupider now.

Practical Magic wrote:

> Shenmue 3 will be more of Shenmue 2, it barely sold well and it's not
> going to be good enough to sell an Xbox to someone alone. Any idea
> that someone who had Shenmue 2 on the DC is going to get an Xbox just
> for it is ridiculous- this is not Japan okay ?

jim-hat wrote:

>Did it ever occur to you, that :-
>Sales of a game do not reflect the quality of the title.

Shenmue 2 was great... so if Shenmue 3 was to be like Shenmue 2, then, jim-hat is finding it difficult to understand your argument. Let jim-hat give you a pointer, here. If you are going to argue about something, the best idea is - to have some knowledge about what you are talking about. Otherwise you look silly now, don't you.

psht

Shenmue games are never hits, far from it.

Both have sold poorly, even the official DC mag only gave the original about 80%, despite all it's hype.


Personally I think it's terrible though. It's invented a genre of it's own; 'story', because that's all it is, there's nothing to play about it.

Say what you want, I'm betting I'll be right. Look at some of the scores some magazines are giving Xbox games, then look at what Games TM and Edge are giving them. You have to look beyond the hype and boundless enthusiasm and be realistic, that way when a genuinely good game does rear it's little green box it's all the better for it. After many years of gaming I know when the time has come to stop putting ill placed faith in what developers and PR people say and to judge on what I see.

Shenmue 3 will be more of Shenmue 2, it barely sold well and it's not going to be good enough to sell an Xbox to someone alone. Any idea that someone who had Shenmue 2 on the DC is going to get an Xbox just for it is ridiculous- this is not Japan okay ?

PG2 is the same game, live - and we've seen online racing games before - with better graphics, which incidentally aren't a great deal above Gran Turismo 4's - yet that's a less powerful console.

Sheesh, it's like the Ninty fanboy bug has spread to the Xbox forum...

And jim hat "I'm a XXat" since when did you see anyone petty enough to whinge about user names ?

Heh!

PM keep coming out with your sheet because its keeping me entertained. Project Gotham 2 and Shenmue 3 a little above average?!

Sorry but you are wrong. I have followed Project Gotham 2 since it first started development. I know it won't mean a lot to you but believe me on this when I say that PGR2 will be one of the finest titles this year. Improved envionmental detail, more cars, bigger kudos mode, more areas, fully licensed shops, same formula. What more do you want? If you didn't like PGR then that is fair enough but to say it will be a little above average is a ridiculous comment to make.

As for Shenmue 3. Its a love or hate series. I happen to love it and they are my favourite games of all time. You don't but that doesn't mean the game will be a little above average. For fans it will be another master piece. For the haters amongst us it will be yet another load of balls. Either way it won't be an average title by a long shot.

And that the people who really wanted Shenmue 2 bought it on Dreamcast the first time it was released.