Old News: Yakuza 3 coming to U.S.

You ever get behind something, like a book or a movie, without having seen or read it? Defending it and wanting what's best for it? I'm like that with Sega's Yakuza series.

The 3, soon to be 4, games put the player in control of former Yakuza member Kazuma Kiryu as her returns from 10 years in jail. The games have been acclaimed for their realistic depiction of the Japanese crime world as well as for their pacing, story, and fighting system.

But alas this means nothing to me because I havent played any of them. I keep intending too, and I even bought the first one a few months ago but I still haven't popped it into my Playstation. Why? Well, I've been busy and the idea of starting a big series like this is kind of daunting. I'm going to have to put in a lot of man hours to finish the first two.

The other problem is, or rather was, that this summer Sega announced that the third installment of the series wasn't going to be released here in America. Why waste my time on the first two if I'm never even going to get to play the rest?

Today as I was cruising the Internet I discovered that on Sept. 19 Sega announced that Yakuza 3 is currently being localized and is going to release both in Europe and here in the United States. I couldn't be happier. I am however disapointed that it took me 2 weeks to find out about this, apparently concentrating on school has its drawbacks.

Source: 1up

Sega does what Nintendon't

Yesterday marked the ten year anniversary of the release of Sega's Dreamcast system. I bought and loved a Dreamcast a few years after it was released and even though I don't have it anymore I will never forget the system.

My parents bought me a Sega Genesis when I was a did and it changed my life. It was my first experience with video games and from that point I was in love, and because my parents bought me a Sega I would become a Sega fan for life.

When I got my Dreamcast I really wanted it to be the best console I ever played. It had some of my all time favorite videogames. Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, and Powerstone are games that I would still play today if I had them.

Unfortunately the console wasn't as succesful as Sega, and myself, had hoped. The system died and Sega announced that they would no longer be making consoles and only create software. The announcment was sad. And I was sad.

Dolphin free

In talking with people I have realized that most, if not all, of us have unexplainable memories from our childhoods. Strange things. Hazy scenes from movies and TV shows that don't quite make sense after all these years. One memory that never escapes me is playing Ecco the Dolphin for my Sega Genesis.

Yes, some Sega executive thought it would be a good idea to make a game about a Dolphin swimming through the ocean.

Yes, my parents saw the box for the dolphin game...and bought it for their 5 year old son.

What terrible ideas! (Sorry mom, I know you read this)

To top off the weird/uninteresting concept of the game the developers made it brutally difficult. I never got past the second level. But I've been told that the game starts to get really weird strange! The dolphin starts flying into space to fight space jelly fish. Weird stuff. There was even two sequels.

Someday I'd like to give Ecco another shot...not today though.