Old Magazine Chat

Strange time for gaming that in between N64 and Cube, felt similar with Wii U and Switch.

I posted last time issue 26 of the Dreamcast Magazine, and I have issue 27 so you would think that would be next but no you would be wrong as Issue 30 (which I have but will use scans) has a review for a certain Dreamcast game which comes out again in 7 days time.

Cover of this best of the year edition


Some how they managed a 8 page review of Sonic Adventure 2



Remember a time when SEGA did great sports games



One for Cappa



Light Gun games, a genre that has faded away



This always seemed ahead of it's time



Something else SEGA used to be great at



This was The Club before The Club



We come to the one I was talking about coming out again next week



Something that shows what the DC was best at



This is still online and I really should sort out a DreamPi for my DC, so I can play it along with a bunch of other games



That is basically the whole mag the rest of the 50 pages is cheats, a guide to Shenmue II, adverts for other magazines etc no reader mail or anything like that this time.

I will end on this

I must admit, seeing so many 90%-scores would make me doubt the impartiality of the magazine more than praise the quality of the machine's games. Not even N64 in its heyday used to be that forthcoming! It's a shame, as some of the writing's clearly quite good (what I can squint of it, the last page anyway); but I can't help remembering NGC slapping a 70% (I think?) on Sonic Adventure 2. Sums it up for me a bit.

Well, it's the 10 best games of the year that I can sort of understand the scores but some like Outtrigger which I didn't play to years later didn't feel like a 90% game but not all games hold up.

What you bring up has been talked about a few times for sites dedicated to one platform be it NLife, Switch Magazine, VITA Lounge (when it was around) that like Drunka has said in the past, actually read the reviews, not the score and hopefully that's decent.

It's a fair and correct point, although some of the text is a bit squinty for that! Not your fault, natch, an inevitable consequence of the process.

Ah, the halcyon days of games mags breaking down their scores by graphics, gameplay and whatnot.

I was also raising an eyebrow at the amount of 90%+ scores before seeing it was a top 10 of the year rundown. Fair enough!

Even so I think there's a few you could question that are in the 90's, like Headhunter, I really enjoyed this game back in the day but no way would I say it's worth a score of 92% but I guess that's official magazines for you.

This is actually an unofficial magazine which I don't know if it's better or worse and looking at Headhunter back in the day it got 8/10 from EDGE, 9/10 from Eurogamer, 9/10 from IGN, 8/10 from Gamestyle, 7/10 from Gamespy that a 92% isn't that mad of a score.

Looking back at Sonic Adventure 2 which Balla brought up again similar scores from elsewhere at the time but it is crazy as if you look at the ports of both games like a year later the scores and down in 7's on avg even from the same outlet that my theory of hey it's a Dreamcast (replace with a single platform) game give it a high score from Dreamcast magazine (replace with a single platform website or mag) goes out the door.

JayMoyles wrote:

I was also raising an eyebrow at the amount of 90%+ scores before seeing it was a top 10 of the year rundown. Fair enough!

I’ll admit to having made this mistake too.

masofdas wrote:

This is actually an unofficial magazine which I don't know if it's better or worse and looking at Headhunter back in the day it got 8/10 from EDGE, 9/10 from Eurogamer, 9/10 from IGN, 8/10 from Gamestyle, 7/10 from Gamespy that a 92% isn't that mad of a score.

Oh the fact it's unofficial magazine makes it all the more weird for me then......and I wouldn't agree with most of those scores either, as I always thought the game was hovering around a 7 or an 8 at a push as I enjoyed it but nothing truly blew me away.

Maybe, with the Dreamcast struggling somewhat, the magazine was trying to drum up some hype for folks buying as many Dreamcast games as possible to support the console. Even with them being an unofficial mag, if the console died off, they'd die off too so there's an incentive for them bigging the games - and by extension, the console - up.

...although, you'd have to imagine only Dreamcast fans would be buying a Dreamcast mag that far into the console's lifespan so, hey, preaching to the choir and all!

Yup I could definitely see that being the case, I also know for Headhunter it was described by a lot as the Dreamcasts Metal gear which might explain a few of the high scoring reviews.

That does make sense Jay but like I pointed out outlets that covered all systems gave Headhunter a high score as well, who have no real benefit of doing so but we had the Kane & Lynch review stuff a few years and now the whole plagiarism stuff does make you think.

It makes me think I don't want to think about the plagiarism stuff apart from in isolated cases. Miucin was a bastard, but as far as I'm concerned, he was only one bastard.

Hopefully not but dodgy things have happened, I do doubt that was the case of Headhunter, just the reviewers of various publications liked it more and Jas.

Then when it was released a year later on ps2 it got a lot of 7 or 8's but like I said, I didn't hate the game but it's just not the 90 percent plus masterpiece that some say it is.

I enjoyed Headhunter at the time, but yeah, it's not a classic. The Dreamcast mags at the time did hype it up - reminds me a bit of Shadowman or Turok 2 which N64 Magazine held in high regard, yet a few years later they reined it in. It was more Syphon Filter than Metal Gear, don't recall using stealth much.

I think pretty much all the Dreamcast ports to other platforms were scored with the feeling that the PS2/Cube were new systems and Dreamcast ports shouldn't really be getting 90%+ scores, which I do understand. 1999-2002 was also a time where massive changes were taking place. A Dreamcast game from 1999 (such as Crazy Taxi), which looked incredible compared with other games from 1999, wasn't so impressive in 2002, particularly as it had little depth and was kind of included as a mode in GTA3 in 2001. Dreamcast games such as Ecco the Dolphin and F355 were beautiful games in the year 2000, but even by 2001/2002 they showed their age.

Confidential Mission is essentially a predecessor to Ghost Squad for Wii - really fun game. The one game there that probably deserves the high score is Virtua Tennis 2. And Shenmue II, natch.

I would argue Sonic Adventure 2 does but that might be my #nostalgia and being a Sonic fan, also Capcom Vs SNK as if the mechanics hold up and even from playing something like Street Fighter Alpha 3 (I think it was that one) recently shows that's all you need.

The only thing is the DC has so many good fighting games that it is hard to pick it over a Street Fighter, MvC2, KoF in the 2S realm.

masofdas wrote:

I would argue Sonic Adventure 2 does but that might be my #nostalgia and being a Sonic fan, also Capcom Vs SNK as if the mechanics hold up and even from playing something like Street Fighter Alpha 3 (I think it was that one) recently shows that's all you need.

The only thing is the DC has so many good fighting games that it is hard to pick it over a Street Fighter, MvC2, KoF in the 2S realm.

I love me some SEGA, but Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are painfully average games. The cameras are broken, the voice acting is criminal and there's a looseness to the controls that just doesn't feel right. It's like the characters feet move faster than they should - plus you glide when walking. They aren't BAD games, but there are so many better Dreamcast games that it annoys me when the Sonic games get thrown in there with the likes of Soul Calibur and Crazy Taxi - genuine GREAT games. I'm glad Dreamcast Magazine went back and slapped a 75% on the first Sonic Adventure in a later issue.

I'm not a fighting fan - hardcore one at least - but as much as I enjoyed Capcom vs. SNK and Guilty Gear, they aren't 90%+ games.

I whole heartedly have to disagree, I'd easily have Sonic Adventure 2 in Top 25 Dreamcast games.

Not sure on CvS as like you not that's hardcore but might be something there like hardcore sim racing games.

I'd call Sonic Adventure and it's sequel painfully average games too, and yet I'd probably still have them in a Dreamcast Top 25!

There's some all right stuff in that Dreamcast Magazine GotY list, but imagine if you'd planted £400 on those back in the day and called those your console's best games - I don't think you'd have been all that chuffed with the quality. I didn't in 2000, though I bought Crazy Taxi 2 for £25 sealed in 2003 - an obscene amount for a 'retro' game when I was fourteen - and I was gutted with it. "Wasn't so impressive".

Well, it was 2001 what you'd call the real best games of the Dreamcast would have been gone part from the odd few games.

I could think of a Top 25 without the Sonics easily, though and it would be some great games.

Skies of Arcadia came out in 2001 so it's surprising to see that omitted.
I loved Crazy Taxi 2 at the time but my uncle got me it for £2 in the 2001 summer holidays so I didn't feel ripped off. Ah the days of piracy.

masofdas wrote:

I could think of a Top 25 without the Sonics easily, though and it would be some great games.

Cheers for admitting that the Sonic adventure games were pish.

More like saying that DC has more than 25 great games

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