Tag Archive

SEGA Bans Foreign PSO 2 Players With Latest Patch

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Sad news for anyone trying to connect to Phantasy Star Online 2, SEGA Japan has decided to limit access to the nation of Japan. That means that the 1000s of North American and European players, members of our staff included, are no longer able to access the game from this point forward. It looks like those of us outside of the land of the rising sun will have to wait until 2013 to get a taste of that sweet free to play Phantasy Star Online action.

SEGA’s updated terms of service forbids users from connecting to the game using either an internet connection located outside of Japan or a proxy within the country. No exact reason was stated in the terms of service but it could be because foreign players are believed to be behind a string of hacks, including the removal of Non Player Characters.Read More

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Bonus Edition Announced For Sonic All Stars Racing: Transformed

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Kart Racing is about to see a revival with the upcoming release of Little Big Planet Karting and of course the eventual release of a Mario Kart title on Nintendo’s Wiiu, sometime in the future. SEGA isn’t letting SackBoy be the only one the asphalt with the announcement of Sonic All Stars Racing: Transformed Bonus Edition.

While the title may be quite a mouthful, this latest update to Sonic All Stars Racing includes 29 playable characters from the Sonic, Samba de Amigo, Nights and other series just to name a few. The Bonus Edition for  Transformed offers racers an additional unannounced character as well as rival battles with Sonic’s nemesis Metal Sonic.

Anyone who pre-orders Sonic All Stars Racing: Transformed will automatically upgraded to the Bonus Edition.Read More

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Shogun 2 – Saints and Heroes Elite Unit Pack Now Available

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

SEGA’s Japanese themed real time strategy title, Total War: Shogun 2, just got a booster shot with the release of nine brand new units. These aren’t any regular units either, they are legendary heroes of battle who have been hardened by countless battles and reveled in the defeats of many of their enemies.

These new units include the club wielding Tadakatsu’s Tetsubo Warriors, the spears of Shizugatake and Hanzo’s Shadows, an elite group of Ninja.

All nine of these units are playable in the Single and Multiplayer portions of Total War: Shogun 2. We’ve embedded the official trailer from SEGA below.

[youtube id=”htE4zRkCYH4″ width=”600″ height=”350″]

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Virtua Fighter V: Final Showdown Tutorial Videos

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Virtua Fighter V: Final Showdown is a certainly an impressive game, given it’s $15 price point. We loved it  so much when we reviewed it last month, we gave it an 8.0 calling it “a great fighter with a lot of depth and complexity, but is still simple enough in its execution that a novice player will easily be able to pick up the game and learn very quickly.”

If you still haven’t quite grasped the basics of the game SEGA has released two brand new tutorial videos. One for Lei-Fei and Aoi & another featuring El Blaze and Eileen. These videos not only feature the basic moves but also some techniques to get you started around the ring. At ten minutes in length each these vidoes are sure to take even the greenest newbie and make them into seasoned pro in no time.Read More

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Jest Set Radio Lands On Mobile Devices This Fall

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Sega’s is unrelenting when it comes to their push to see Jet Set Radio on every platform conceivable. Originally announced as an HD remake, featuring several of the original tracks from the Dreamcast classic, for the Xbox Live and Playstation Network the game has now been confirmed for mobile phones.

For all of you worrying whether or not the game will be a faithful recreation, or will even run on your particular favorite flavor of mobile device shouldn’t be too worried. JSR will be coming to both Android and iOS alongside the other four announced platforms.  Even cooler, in the iOS/Android builds of the game you can use your camera to create custom in-game graffiti.

The mobile version of JSR shares the same vague summer release date as its other siblings. We’ll update this story as soon as we get a more specific date.

 

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Sonic Adventure 2 HD Grinds Online This Fall

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Sonic Adventure 2, one of the best 3D Sonic titles from the last generation will be grinding its way onto the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation network later this fall. The announcement was made at the San Diego Comic Con, after word about the port leaked online a few months back.

SEGA’s brief trailer announcing the title acknowledges the leaks, stating that the game will “leak on to consoles this fall”. Not much else is known about the HD port of the game but if the 2009 port of Crazy Taxi and the 2010 port of the original Sonic Adventure are any indication they’ll be up-rezed versions of the Dreamcast original with achievements and possibly the GameCube exclusive Battle multiplayer modes.

I’ve played Adventure 2 on both the GameCube and Dreamcast and both versions still remain in my gaming collection until this day. I look forward to grinding down the streets of City Escape on my SOAP shoes.. Damn product placement, it’s still effective 11 years later.

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Phantasy Star Online 2 Launches In North America Next Year

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

SEGA’s Phantasy Star Online 2 launched in Japan over the July 4th holiday and the amount of buzz in the western gaming press has been more than impressive. SEGA of America confirmed this morning through press release that PSO 2 will be published in North America on Windows PC sometime in 2013.

PSO2  features 3 different classes for players to choose from – magic users, to ranged combat and hand to hand melees. The maps in Phantasy Star Online 2 will also be randomly generated, which is quite different from the original as that game only featured 4 maps with two variations each.

SEGA launched a small teaser site for the game. On the site you can check out brief bios for each of three clases & races as well as a pretty good primer if you missed the original game 12 years ago. The site is set to offer wallpapers and videos, but none where available at the time of writing.Read More

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SEGA Closes Multiple European and Australian Offices

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

The house that Sonic built certainly seen better days. The embattled publisher had already closed some operations in North America, and now they’re following suit with closures in Australia and Europe, which will affect an unknown number of employees. Just like the previous closures SEGA has stated that they will be shifting focus in Europe and Australia towards profitable franchises in digitally delivered content.

SEGA has partnered  Koch Media to assist with the publishing of physical goods (ie. packaged retail games) in Switzerland Austria and France, they will however continue to publish physical games in Australia.

We wish everyone affected by the closures all the best, and we hope to hear soon whether some of Sega’s key 2013 titles, like Phantasy Star Online 2 or the next Yakuza title will be affected.

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SEGA Releases London Olympics 2012 for PS3 & 360

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Now you can run the Olympic torch all the way across Europe in the comfort of your home with the release of London 2012: The Official Videogame from Sega. The game replicates the London 2012 experience allowing players to fill their dreams of Olympic glory through either quick play (featuring various Olympic sports) or a full career mode.

London 2012 isn’t a single player only affair either, the game supports PlayStation move and Microsoft Kinect, as well as local play for multiple people. I mean who wouldn’t want to re-create the hundred meter dash in their living room – that isn’t so you run into the family pet or knock over your television.

The game will be available on June 26 for the PlayStation three and Xbox 360 in North America and on June 28 and 29th in Europe.

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Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode II | Review

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Kirk Williford

Sega has been trying for a long, long time to mimic the success of the Sonic games from the Genesis era on the current generation of consoles. Their most recent attempt comes with the Sonic 4 episodes – but that in itself brings up the question of why Sega thinks breaking up a series known for it’s fast pace and progression is a good idea. Is Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 worth it? Simply put: not really.

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SEGA Shutting Down Xbox 360 Phantasy Star Servers

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

The lights will finally go out for SEGA’s Phantasy Star Universe on September 7th, just three short months from now. The Xbox 360 version of the game is actually the last of three released (the game also came out for PS2 and PC) to support online play but that is about to come to an end.

The shutdown of the PSU servers is certainly a blow for the small but dedicated community who have kept the game going all of these years. SEGA did issue a brief statement about the shutdown on their official forums:Read More

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Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown Review

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Matthew Regier

The smooth flowing cinematic fighting experience, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown has touched down upon the Xbox Live Arcade, and the Playstation Network. It has been a few years since the initial release of Virtua Fighter 5: ONLINE and Final Showdown is truly a more polished version updating the graphics, adding two new characters, new stages, and balancing other characters while adding in some new moves to mix it up for veterans while still managing to be friendly for new players.

Players who played Virtua Fighter 5: ONLINE and are switching over to Final Showdown will notice that the character models are a lot less blurry and that the stages are as bright and vibrant as ever,  Enhancing the cinematic combat and giving the game a very crisp colourful look. There are over 20 stages ranging from a construction zone within a city or out in the desert in a tall wooden fest. With each stage being different from one another,  over different geographies,  one thing is certain that you will not get bored of the options available.

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Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown Now Available, Free on PSN+

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Sega’s latest fighting game, Virtual Fighter V: Final Showdown, is now available on PlayStation network and Xbox live. This version of Virtual Fighter V is based upon recent changes that were brought to the arcade version and includes 19 characters, interactive arenas, a new training mode and eight player online matches.

The game is priced at 14.99 USD (OR 1200 Microsoft points) and clocks in at around 2 GB. Sony revealed that the PlayStation 3 version of the game will be free for PlayStation plus members starting this afternoon. What are you waiting for? When I get into the arena and fight!

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SEGA Reveals JSR HD’s Soundtrack

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

SEGA has revealed the final soundtrack for this summer’s re-release of the vibrant graffiti game, Jet Set Radio. The original was known not only for its colorful pallet and use of cell shading but also its use of upbeat J-POP and electronica.

Are you ready to grind rails and tag walls all while avoiding the cops? Not all of the music from the original has made it into the re-release but this new version of JSF does contain music from SEGA’s own Hideki Naganuma and Guitar Vader.

Check out the set list after the jump.Read More

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Jet Set Radio Returns To PS Vita, Xbox & PS3

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

SEGA Europe and SEGA of America announced in a joint press release that SEGA’s Dreamcast classic Jet Set Radio will be returning on the PlayStation vita some time later this year. JSR Will also be released on the Xbox Live and PlayStation Network as well.

This isn’t a straight port of Jet Set Radio either. All versions will render the vibrant version of Tokyo gamers have come to love in high definition. SEGA also confirmed that the original soundtrack from the Dreamcast version will be returning in this version. Om the PS Vita SEGA has implemented camera integration as well as other features.

Are you excited to see the return of JSR? I sure am, as the original was one of the last games I played on my dreamcast. We’ll see more of the game at E3 in just over a weeks time.

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