Sega Nerds

Sega about to open the doors of The Club to Xbox users

Posted by Graham. Filed under Europe, G, Microsoft Xbox 360, News, PC, Sony PlayStation 3. Tagged with Downloads, Fan Stuff, The Club, XBLA.

 

Hot off the press, Sega Europe has just announced that of 9am (GMT) Tuesday 8th January, (that’s tomorrow!), an exclusive demo for The Club will be available, via download, across Europe and Australia, on the Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360.

This news comes a great relief to many Sega/Xbox 360 fans, as last month Sega Europe also released a demo for The Club, but only for the Playstation 3’s PSN.

Here’s the rest of the press release, for your viewing pleasure:

Developed by industry revered development studio, Bizarre Creations, The Clubâ„¢ mixes cutting edge high definition visuals with hyper-addictive score based challenges to deliver the most intriguing and innovative shooter of early 2008.

The demo features:

Sega set to release Yakuza 3 demo soon

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, Japan, News, Sony PlayStation 3. Tagged with Downloads, Fan Stuff, Imports, PlayStation Network, Yakuza 3.

According to everyones favourite German website, Gamefront, Sega look set to release the demo of Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (aka Yakuza 3) on the Japanese Playstation Network.

Yakuza 3 is one of Sega’s most eagerly anticipated games, and from the videos shown, the game does look like it’s going to be pretty damn cool. 

The demo should be released sometime mid January, though no official date has been set.  Also, so far, no demo has been set for release on the US or European markets.  So if you can’t wait, best to try and setup a Japanese gamers account on your PS3s, and learn the way of the Samurai.

The full game is dated for release, March 6 2008, in Japan.

PS3 owners to start Clubbing early in Europe

Posted by George. Filed under Sony PlayStation 3. Tagged with Downloads, The Club.

Thats right, you can now download The Club demo via the Playstation Store. Meaning you will need a Playstation 3 and be a resident somewhere in Europe. Since I fail to fall in both those categories, I’ll whine about it on my personal blog.

So far, there seems to be no indication for a release of the demo on Xbox Live, meaning that PS3 fans get first dibs on the ‘dance floor,’ so to speak ;)

The demo clocks at about 1.7gb’s of pure Bizarre action. The game is slated for release in February of the upcoming year, on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

[via The Forums]

Sega cut down 360 PSU expansion

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, Microsoft Xbox 360, News, PC, Sony PlayStation 2. Tagged with Downloads, Phantasy Star Universe.

It seems Sega will be releasing a stripped down version of PSU: Ambition of Illuminus for the Xbox 360, while the PC and PS2 will be receiving the full version.

The Xbox 360 version, it seems, will no longer feature an offline, single player mode, and will only contain the online portion of the game.

For some people, this will not be a big deal, eversince PSU is designed to be an online game first and foremost, and the offline modes are really just an added bonus.  However, I’m sure many Xbox 360 owners will be fairly annoyed by this news.  I, for one, am not a big fan of PSUs online play, but I actually really enjoyed the single player, offline part of the game.

Sega have not specified why the Xbox 360 no longer has the single player story, but it could be something to do with the game’s size.  The 360 version is download only, and takes up some 1.75 gigs of harddrive.  If you look at the specs for the PC version, you will see that it requires some 9.0 gigs (!!) of harddrive space.

I can understand Sega removing the single player, because of space issues, but I would rather they release two versions of the game - one for download only, (as it is now), and one on DVD, with the single player and multiplayer modes.  That way, those that only want it for online play, can buy the download, and those of us who thought PSU’s online sucked, but enjoyed the single player story, can buy the complete version.

[Source: PSU.com via PS3News]

New Street Fighter HD download to be built using Dreamcast coding

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News. Tagged with Downloads, Dreamcast.

It seems that Capcom are pretty proud of their Dreamcast Street Fighter games, as they are using the code, to help build the new Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (Is it me, or are these titles getting longer…?) 0r ‘SFHD’ for short.

“That was done because the DC (Japanese version) code is easier to work with, and there was already existing network code within the game to start with because the Japanese version had an online matchmaking service.” Rey, at the Capcom Blog, explains. “Now, before you guys start throwing tables in disgust because we are using the DC version and not the arcade version, realize that the DC version was an arcade perfect version. Or at least it was really close.”

Free mobile download: Sega Puzzle Pack Blue

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News. Tagged with Downloads, Mobile, Puyo Puyo.

If like me, you have no good games on your mobile phone, then it it looks like Sega can save the day (Yey!).

You can now download the Sega Puzzle Pack Blue, for free.  The ‘pack’ contains two of Sega’s classic puzzle titles, Columns and Puyo Pop, just right for mobile gaming.

The two games a failry similar, both giving the task of ridding the player’s screen of coloured balls/gems.  Columns (Sega’s classic rival for Tetris) has the player trying to line up gems of the same colour, in order to wipe them out.  While Puyo Pop, has players trying to match up coloured orbs, in groups of 4.

Follow this link, to download your free version now. {Note: We, at Sega Nerds, do not take any responsibility for this download.  So if it doesn’t work on your mobile, or actually contains gay-porn, then we are sorry, but it’s not out fault.  Just a friendly warning}

[Source: MobileMania]

Europe and Australia get some Sega VC goodness

Posted by Graham. Filed under Europe, G, News, Nintendo Wii, Sonic, Virtual Console. Tagged with Downloads, Shining.

For us lucky people living in PAL land, we shall be receiving five fantastic Sega titles this week for our Virtual Consoles.

Unfortunately, some of the games have previously been released in the US stores, but I think maybe a couple may not have made it over the pond just yet, so this is fairly exciting news.

First up we have Crack Down. Now to be honest, I have never played this game before, and have only vaguely heard of it. But in a nutshell, you play as one (or two) CIA operatives going into various buildings, to place time bombs, in order to blow them up. While you have to avoid enemies, bottomless pits and other hazards along the way. Sounds very old school to me. Not to be confused with Crackdown, released earlier this year for Xbox 360.

Number 2 on the list is ESWAT: City Under Siege. Again, I personally have only heard of the game, but never played it. You play as an officer in the Cyber Police Force, whose job it is to clean up the game’s futuristic city. The game is a side-scrolling platform game, where the player defeats enemies and picks up different weapons and armour to build him/herself into the ultimate “Cyber Trooper.’”Sounds a bit like Robocop, I guess, but less camp…

Sega and Glu extend their mobile gaming partnership

Posted by Graham. Filed under Europe, G, News, Sonic. Tagged with Downloads, Mobile.

Glu Mobile Inc., leading global publisher of mobile games, today announced a multi-title extension of its partnership with Sega Europe. The long-standing partnership between the companies that has resulted in critical and commercial success, with Sonic The Hedgehog holding the number one position in the UK according to the official ELSPA mobile games download chart.

“SEGA is renowned for quality, engaging game play, and we’re pleased to extend our relationship to bring more of these world-class games to mobile consumers,” said Jill Braff, senior vice president of global publishing, Glu. “Our relationship with SEGA has already delivered significant success and demonstrates Glu’s ability to bring to market the high quality games with partners that are true to the original title.”

The extension will see Glu publishing additional Sega games for Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Basically most of the PAL regions.

“Glu has been a valuable partner for us over the last two years in bringing key SEGA titles to a vast audience of mobile gamers,” said Alan Pritchard, Managing Director – Europe North, SEGA. “Our extended partnership based on SEGA’s brands & licences and Glu’s mobile expertise, will allow us to continue to bring great games to the consumer on the Mobile platform.”

Some of the more notable Sega titles covered in this extended partnership will be Sonic Golf 2D (due out this month), as well as Sonic The Hedgehog 2, The Golden Compass and Sega Rally.

[Via  GamePress]

Sega Nerds to be mentioned on new CryptoCast

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News. Tagged with Donk, Downloads, Dreamcast, Fan Sites, Fan Stuff.

 

“CryptoCast?  What the hell is that?”  I hear you all exclaim.

Well our good friends over at Cryptic Allusion, the indie-developers famed for the Dreamcast’s Feet of Fury, and the upcoming Donk (also DC) games, have recently started up their very own podcast.  Dubbed the ‘CryptoCast,’ the podcast’s first recording was available from last week, and the next installment is due this Friday (31st August).

For those of you haven’t heard the first episode of the CryptoCast, the two main guys at Cryptic Allusion, Roddy and Dan, talk about their company, what it’s like to be a small developer, and developing games for systems, like the Dreamcast.  In the first episode, they specifically speak about Donk, and give a rundown of what it’s like to port an old game to our beloved Sega console.

Streets of Rage 2 now on XBLA

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, Microsoft Xbox 360, News. Tagged with Downloads, Sega Vintage Collection, Streets of Rage, XBLA.

That’s right, Streets of Rage 2 is now available for the Sega Vintage Collection on Xbox Live Arcade. By the looks of our forums, quite a few of you already know about this, but for those that don’t check XBLA for new releases as often, I’m telling you.

Like all Vintage Collection titles (so far), the game comes with some enhancements such as “smooth graphics” (which I actually think look terrible, but I guess some people prefer them), and achievements. Plus, this version of Streets of Rage 2 features online for two players, in co-op and battle modes.

Speaking of achievements, the game features 12 ways to unlock those much sought-after points. Some of these are incredibly easy, like “pick up a knife” or “pick up a pipe.” But then you get some which seem pretty challenging, like “Hard Win - Beat the game without using a special attack” and “Perfect Win - Beat the game with using a continue.” Just before writing this, I gave the game a quick spin, and I am halfway through level 3 without losing a single life, so I guess I’m almost on my way for the “Perfect Win.”

I should also give a special thanks to one of our site/forums members, Diogo, who interrupted my intense playing of BioShock to inform me that Streets of Rage 2 was now on XBLA. At which point I messaged him back, saved my game and quickly went to the Xbox Live Marketplace. Yes, it seems that even beautiful, modern masterpieces such as BioShock cannot hold me back from some classic Sega gaming!

Streets of Rage 2 will set you back 400 Microsoft Points, and is available in all regions.