The Dreamcast Came Out 20 Years Ago Today (In America)

I know it launched in Japan in 1998, but for me the U.S. launch of the Sega Dreamcast holds a special place in my heart. 9/9/1999 was the day the console that was just too ahead of its time and too beautiful to exist went on sale in America. That is 20 years ago today. It had awesome and quirky games I still fondly recall ("Crazy Taxi," "Sonic Adventure 1 & 2," "Seaman," "Shenmue," and the list goes on), was capable of connecting to the internet for multiplayer gaming back when that was a shockingly new concept (outside of PCs). It was a console ahead of its time and the last one Sega released before deciding to focus instead on making games for everyone else's consoles. Nowadays it is commonplace to see Sonic and Mario popping-up in the same game, but back in the 1990's that would have been unthinkable.

The Sega Dreamcast provided some of my happiest video-gaming memories, and it was beloved by countless others too. It literally changed lives and I hold fond memories to this day of the last and best console Sega released--heck, it arguably was the best console ever. 20 years on so many of us still crack that little smile of joy when we think about time playing the Dreamcast, that proves more than anything just how much of an impact it made on those of us lucky enough to have enjoyed it in its too-short prime.

That controller was honestly pretty terrible though.

Oh Snap, "The Last Guardian," Actually Comes Out Tomorrow!

As someone who loved, "Ico," and admired what, "Shadow of the Colossus," set out to do even if I didn't like it quite as much, the long and troubled development history of, "The Last Guardian," is something I've followed off-and-on throughout its many, many, many years (when five years is an eternity in video-games taking nearly double-that is madness). I of course recall when it was announced by Sony how the game was for sure alive and would be out sooner than later, but I thought something would eventually happen to delay it into nonexistence. I mean, these games that enter development Hell either never escape or come back as horrific examples of things that should have stayed dead ("Duke Nukem: Forever," is a prime example). Imagine my surprise then when I was reminded that, 'The Last Guardian," in fact comes out tomorrow.

The reviews that are out so far seem to be quite positive overall and the review entities I tend to trust (Kotaku and Polygon, oh and Rockpapershotgun  is good, but they only talk about PC games) had mostly positive things to say. I am going to try and rent/check out from the library a copy of this soon for sure and look forward to booting it up on my Playstation 4. Oh, and if you have a Playstation 4 Pro you can enjoy even snazzier (apparently) graphics. Though if you already have a Playstation 4 you know my feelings about anyone going out and buying a Pro. So yeah, "The Last Guardian," is actually coming out. Now we just need, "Shenmue III," to be finished and, "Half-Life 3," to at least be announced and all the mythical games will have entered reality in some shape or form.

My Thoughts on the Microsoft and Sony E3 Press Conferences

Because You Gotta Hype Your Games

Over the past number of days we have seen a wide variety of announcements coming from big game publishers, and the companies behind the consoles we know and love. Having read about and witnessed parts (thanks internet videos!) of both conferences for Microsoft and Sony, I had some thoughts about the companies I thought I would share. Oh, and "Fallout 4" was detailed but as that was announced before E3 and is on both consoles it is kind of an outlier in an event that otherwise was more console-specific.

Before you ask, Nintendo did have a conference too, but at this point in the console wars does anybody care about the WiiU (well, anybody besides those intrigued by the fun-sounding "Splatoon")? That's what I thought, so let's talk about the two big boys/girls and what they had to say recently.

After witnessing some of the announcements to come from Microsoft I really was ready to give them credit where credit is due. Backwards compatibility with the 360 (well, some games), an exciting collection of classic games by Rare, the ability to play mods for games, and try out stuff via Early Access (although Microsoft has a different name for it), that all sounded really cool, and honestly very impressive. Then not too long later Sony walked up to the E3 crowd and simply was like...

"'The Last Guardian' isn't dead, 'Shenmue 3' is happening if you fund it on Kickstarter, and we're actually going to release a remake of 'Final Fantasy VII' like everyone keeps begging us to do."

Mic drop.

Little did attendees suspect how crazy things would get.

The sheer improbability--nay-impossibility of all three of those things actually being announced, within the span of a single day, is arguably enough to make the head of a video-gamer explode in shock as if it were that famous scene from "Scanners".

It is funny to think about how the tide can turn. Microsoft's previous mocking of Sony for not letting the PS4 play PS3 games has now vanished into a cloud of mist--that mist probably being tears of joy from all the "Final Fantasy VII" fans who truly thought that game ever happening was literally less likely than getting struck by lightning whilst simultaneously winning the lottery. That's how it goes though.

It's real? It's real!

I mean, Sony announced plenty of other interesting things (for example, "Uncharted 4"), but to just casually take three pieces of what were arguably vaporware and pipe dreams, and then make them real, that's just...just...wow. Now, should you be a big Xbox One fan you could easily argue that the great number of interesting things outweighs some of Sony's surprise announcements. You would have a point, but seriously man, "Shenmue III" was actually announced, that's just wild.

In the end, we--the gamers--win, because a schmaltzy saying like that always sounds good when you don't want to commit to declaring any particular company the "champ" of E3. Okay fine, Bethesda won, because "Fallout 4".

It really doesn't matter if they officially talked about it before E3 and it is going to be on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It's "Fallout" and it will almost certainly be awesome whereas the resurrected games Sony announced could very well be bad and Microsoft having its Early Access could turn out as a failure. "Fallout 4" shall  quite likely be the second coming of everyone's respective Messiah however.