Sony deserves a lot of credit, but the reason they're not getting it right now is because of the bad press that's resulted from their close association with a crowdfunded game. As fans we don't care about the so-called controversy, and it doesn't change how we feel about their role in Shenmue's revival, but many of us are also not keen to fan the flames and keep the media's damaging words in people's minds.

There will come a time when Sony and Shenmue can be mentioned in the same breath without other gamers jumping to regurgitate the nonsense they've read on Polygon or in GamesMaster, etc, but I don't think that time is now. Especially when the same kind of gamers are already on edge at the moment about the "shadiness" of asking for more money post-Kickstarter, as if that's never been done before.

The closer we get to Shenmue 3's release, the more Sony will get their due. It's just uncomfortable timing at the moment, probably for them as much as anybody.

I think I just "beat" the game this morning. I may have had a better experience with it than some though, since I was actually aware that mission 46 is technically the "last" mission as far as story goes. So knowing that, I may have just been able to appreciate it a little more.
I totally agree that the story as a whole was really weak. The stuff about the parasites was just... long in the tooth. So much prattling on about it, with almost nothing actually happening with it. And everything in the first chapter (the first twenty something missions) seems really loose and unfocused now that I'm looking back on it. It may have just been the fact that I stretched all of this out over 138 hours (holy shit, longest I've ever spent on any game in one playthrough), but judging by Riku's scant 50-hour time and his resulting thoughts, I'm thinking that's not really the case.
Anyway, whoever it was (too lazy to look right now) that said that it seemed like Kojima just had a bunch of ideas for scenes in his head with no plan on how to fit them together... that actually seems about right. There really are some excellent scenes here and there, definitely a number that will stay with me for a long time, just as the rest of the series has. But there just aren't enough of them, and they're all so far apart that you almost start to forget there even is a story.

Have to say I actually really loved the twist though. I was thinking for the whole game that it was going to be something else entirely, but then it kind of threw me for a loop. And as nutty as it is, the now-traditional timeline at the end actually shows that it totally fits within the series as a whole. The game does feel like it just kind of ends with no build-up or climax, but the timeline and the twist do manage to bring the series full-circle; there might be some gaps to fill in or whatever, but it's mostly stuff that only needs to be told and not shown. Surprisingly, MGSV really does bring the series to a sort of close, just as I was hoping Kojima would pull off. The story of the game itself is obviously "unfinished" to a degree, but when considering its place within the full series timeline, it actually segues right into the original Metal Gear.

I'm not going to comment on everything yet, because I still haven't seen some things (this "rain scene" with Quiet hasn't happened yet for me, and I haven't quite finished everything with the "secret" side-story on the medical platform), but I just thought I drop my basic thoughts post-credits. I think it'll actually be about a year or two before I can really place how I feel about the whole thing, but it's certainly got its ups and downs as it stands now.

Absolutely amazing fan-made trailer for the game -- do not watch if you haven't finished the game, since it contains massive spoilers.

Finally, gotta hand it to Super Bunnyhop for actually releasing a good review of MGSV.

http://s10.postimg.cc/4oex6eyeh/Nocon_Kid.png

Many congratulations to NoconKid, who has now been hired as part of the team developing Shenmue 3!

The South Korean super fan has wowed fans across the globe with his homemade HD recreations of Shenmue environments, and his efforts have not gone unnoticed by Yu Suzuki himself.

As the Shenmue III project continues to prove that dreams do come true, we look forward to the detailed world that NoconKid will help to create in the most anticipated videogame sequel of all time.

You can revisit a 2014 interview with Ys Net's newest recruit here .

If you're participating in today's combined #SaveShenmueHD / #Shenmue3 Tweetathon then take a moment to congratulate him using @sseega1.

The topic we had for people to post gamer tags in was just a filled with a bunch of people with under 20 posts posting their username. If we made a Dojo group it would just be filled with random names if it was left open. It would make more sense to myself if there was a private group just for the regular posters on the forum and not open for 50 people with names like RyoHazuki2015 to join.

At our current pace (approx. $50,000 a month) I predict we will just barely make 6.5 million, adding one more stretch goal. Not horrible at all. Not the greatest, but not horrible. Still privileged and excited to have been a part of this, no matter what the outcome. Still think everyone here are gaming heroes lol. :P

Confirmed:

Famitsu this week confirms a number of new characters set to appear in Project X Zone 2, including the leaked characters from the Korean version of the game.

The full list of new confirmations include:

Solo Units

Ingrid (Capcom Fighting Evolution)
Ryo Hazuki (Shenmue)
Estelle (Tales of Vesperia)

Enemy Characters

M. Bison (Street Fighter)
Pyron (Darkstalkers)
Black Hayato (Star Gladiator)
Ranmaru (Sakura Wars V)
T-elos (Xenosaga)
Metal Face (Xenoblade)

Event Scene Characters

Ada Wong (Resident Evil 6)
Miles Edgeworth (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney)
Garigliano (Resonance of Fate)
Tarosuke (Yokai Dochuki)
Tiki (Fire Emblem: Awakening)

http://gematsu.com/2015/10/project-x-zone-2-adds-m-bison-pyron-more-enemy-characters

[-X

It's just great that Ryo is no longer a pariah of the SEGA family. He really does belong in the middle of it all.

New pictures:

"Ryo Hazuki Solo unit. Voice actor：Mayasa Matsukaze"

Segata Sanshiro awesomeness at 6:10. Ryo at 7:50 (and for a split-second in anime form at 0:50).

I seriously question the fandom of those unwilling to purchase a $300 used console with two years to save for a game you've waited over a decade for. Simply put its a non issue.

This game looks like complete trash. I swear you guys would cheer for Shenmue branded Ipecac Syrup if Sega was selling it.

No one said to suck their dick.

I happened to see this on Reddit; pretty interesting, especially the old picture of Lan Di.

https://web.archive.org/web/19981203161444/http://www.ign.com/

https://web.archive.org/web/19990218041724/http://dreamcast.ign.com/news/5927.html


Screenshots just in case those links expire

http://puu.sh/kKC2m/b22423df7a.png

http://puu.sh/kKC6T/63f3af7f93.png

http://puu.sh/kKBYM/57931e9dcb.png

shenmue852 wrote: so i really wonder if Nocon being hired to work on Shenmue III was partly to cancel his fan made HD remake, so they wouldn't have to compete with it if they re released.

Um.

No.

so i really wonder if Nocon being hired to work on Shenmue III was partly to cancel his fan made HD remake, so they wouldn't have to compete with it if they re released.

One man cannot compete with a studio of staff who have the code source and all materials. While Noconkid making all the beautiful environments is possible, making all the interactivity and logic behind Shenmue 1 would take one person a very long time indeed.

Noconkid got hired because he's already skilled with UE3+UE4. He can make high resolution environments and present them beautifully. He already mentally dedicated himself to make "Shenmue-something", so why not make history and make Shenmue 3. He's the second fan Ys Net have hired.

This is why I always see Sega making merchandise as a negative, and there are no indications whatso ever, that they will be changing their ways, ever.

Sega needs to wake up, It's not the god damn 80s or 90s anymore, Japan is no longer the strongest gaming market, so making it so merchandise can only be bought in Japan, is a asinine decision.
Honestly, it's quite common for all companies to have region specific merchandise. Given the relatively small quantities of any particular item, not to mention potential licensing issues with regional manufacturers, most merchandise never leaves its country of origin. Thus, Sega (like all publishers) provides licences to manufacturers in each region to make whatever merchandise matches that manufacturer’s area of expertise. Even if this means that both Europe and Japan (for example) end up with similar but separate pieces of merchandise, albeit from different manufacturers.

In turn, the lack of merchandise availability internationally has led to a thriving market of intermediary dealers. This is where the big names like Play-Asia, HobbyLink Japan and AmiAmi have found their niche; businesses with connections to Japan and other regions that import niche items on a massive scale. Plus, there’s always the small independent sellers, like the many people who operate over eBay, selling new Japanese products to people in the West. So while it may be complicated, it’s easier then every before to get hold of Japanese merchandise, no matter where you are in the world.

As for the Dreamcast calendar itself – I think it’s awesome! It’s a promising sign to see Shenmue’s presence as part of the calendar. Sega has been producing much Shenmue merchandise recently and this latest example will only further ensure the future of the Shenmue franchise as a whole. At this rate, Shenmue quickly becoming one of Sega’s most represented franchises.

[...] what it could mean for Shenmue? [...] possible that Sega themselves have something else planned for Ryo's adventures? Is Project X zone even worthy of Ryo? Find out on Game Analyzer.
SEGA has given the rights to Bandai Namco to include Alex Kidd. Therefore, I am 1000% sure that Alex Kidd in Miracle World Returns will happen... Even if Shenmue HD will happen, Ryo Hazuki in PXZ2 does not mean anything for Shenmue's future as handled by SEGA, because it is an unrelated fact. Ryo was also in S&ASR and S&ASRT (even with a tongue on the cheek "SHEN3", not by SEGA, but by Sumo Digital's Steve Lycett), but those didn't lead to anything.

The license for 'Shenmue 3' [not for the entire series, but only for 'Shenmue 3' (assumingly, Yu-san will also need the license for 'Shenmue 4' and possibly so on)] was asked by Yu Suzuki to complete his magnus opus, without any help from SEGA-SAMMY (it could be a sacrilege, for everything Yu-san has contributed to that company, if they didn't allow him to use it; therefore, it is not something big that was done by SAMMY; especially when they did not have the slightest interest for a new Shenmue sequel, and yet again especially in the case / in honour of their past guru, that is Yu Suzuki).

I agree. I'm not talking about resting on our crowdfunding laurels. I'm talking about the pervasive anger and disaffection that has taken root here and elsewhere despite things being better today than they were a year ago for Shenmue fans. People fearing that if we don't raise 10 or even 7 million we will see a Shenmue 3 that tarnishes the legacy of the series. (I actually feel a poorly conceived HD re-release of the first two games would do that more than Shenmue 3 ever could, personally, but I digress.)

I think it's safe to say everyone here and everyone in other Shenmue communities is doing everything they're financially, physically, and mentally able to do to raise awareness about this PayPal campaign. I doubt there's ever been a community of fans, collectively and individually, who have sacrificed more or expended more effort on trying to support a game series. And I agree it's not over yet.

But there's also going to be an upper limit on what we can achieve. No one knows what that limit is, but it's going to be hit (if it hasn't been already,) and all I'm saying is, if that limit is lower than we wish it was, we should still be thankful and happy with whatever we get and not feel embittered or like all is lost... especially when just a few months ago, all really was lost, and we were - to anyone's knowledge - never going to see this game happen in our lifetimes.

That's all I'm getting at.

Haha

Yakuza 5 is launching mid-November.

- http://blogs.sega.com/2015/10/16/top-5-movies-to-get-hyped-for-yakuza-5/
It’s been a while since we’ve talked about Yakuza 5, so we wanted to post a quick update on it. As you know, the digital pre-order lists “Dec. 31, 2015” as the release date. Fortunately, this is not the case – it looks like we’ll be releasing the game mid-November, if all goes to schedule.

Unfortunately, it’s a little later than we would’ve liked, and a few weird development bugs that popped up in localization caused the delay. Without getting too technical, there were just certain parts that didn’t like switching the Japanese text out for English, and we had to actually search through the source code to find a fix, taking more time than we expected. But! Everything is more or less back on track. Once we have details beyond just “mid-November,” we’ll make sure to share them!

Monkei wrote:That's made up by dualshockers

Please don't mistake DualShockers for them.

Monkei wrote:

Anonymous81 wrote:[...] the problem there is not Yu's potentially-not-so-progressive thinking, but bad journalism.

The problem is that someone needs to spread propaganda and Shenmue happened to be in the middle of it.

I'll preorder the book as soon as an English, German or even French version gets announced but Spanish? Count me out. As much as I would like to read the book, I don't read Spanish and I'm not enough of a collector to buy the book without even being able to read it.

Still, great stuff from those two guys. Scientific reception of Shenmue as work of art or any kind of appreciation really makes my heart happy. The announcement of S3, Shenmue soundtrack on vinyl, Benjamin Berget's Yu Suzuki biography, now this book - what a fantastic year for Shenmue and its fans, what a year fo Yu Suzuki!

Thank you, Mr Gonzalez and Mr Ramirez! =D>

Damn Germany always gets it the worst in online video streaming.

A VPN would be quite useful if you live in Germany.

Monkei wrote: Rakim: Seems like it, yeah. Wtf. :l

Ziming: Thanks man, I'll try that out next time when I'm on my laptop!

You can also directly download the video, read my second post on this thread

What the hell? This is bullshit.


But you know what? I think it's a good thing we haven't heard anybody say anything about Shenmue HD. It could mean that Sony is deliberately keeping quiet about it and working on another surprise announcement behind the scenes. Could also be wishful thinking of course, but I don't think it's too unlikely.
I think that this description of the Kickstarter campaign is another rhetorical flourish on the part of Marketing Week; when they only glanced at the campaign surrounding Shenmue 3, without bothering to notice all the finer details which have made this awesome game possible. What we have here is ultimately a poorly researched article, certain to cause more trouble, just like every article that mentions Shenmue lately. The state of today's media is truly appalling, when they'd rather incite pointless bickering and baseless doubt, instead of reporting the plain truth.

Still, I agree that there's every chance that Shenmue 1 and 2 HD could be one the way. Marketing Week may not have gotten the scoop but there are plenty of other opportunities between now and the eventual launch of Shenmue 3. Heck, Sony's conference at the Paris Games Week is set to start in just a few hours’ time. I'll personally be watching the stream to see if a representative from Sega makes an appearance on stage. If anything we might see a new Valkyria Chronicles announcement (this ‘Valkyria of the Blue Revolution’ that was recently trademarked) but a nod to Shenmue is always welcome.

Neogaf user @Endless posted a screen capture of the actual article from Marketing Week (was able to access it again) and apparently, the line about re-release of Shenmue 1 & 2 is there:

http://anony.ws/i/2015/10/27/marketingweek.jpg

Neogaf thread source --> http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=183082970&postcount=165

Note that the part about the Kickstarter campaign is now correct.

PS. I registered myself and I can confirm the line is there (Did a printscreen too).

Say what you will about all this baiting, at least Shenmue is being talked about by others besides the hard core fans.

The petition he refers to is likely the one for Shenmue HD.
SEGA of Europe's PR doesn't refer to the petition(s) about Shenmue HD, but the one about many titles of their legacy catalog, that goes with the hashtag #SEGAPCPorts on Twitter: https://www.change.org/p/sega-increase-the-number-of-pc-releases-segapcports

A year and half ago, SEGA of Europe has acknowledged that petition: https://www.change.org/p/sega-increase-the-number-of-pc-releases-segapcports/u/5871530

Not very long ago, SEGA of Europe also dropped a hint on Twitter about PC ports released in the future: https://twitter.com/SEGA_Europe/status/626049764463874049

Fun fact: that petition doesn't explicitly mention Shenmue 1 & 2 HD as one of their requests.

Oh, and SEGA is SEGA-SAMMY now, ha-ha-ha... http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/

If SEGA of Europe wants to see only one petition about Shenmue, then this is it: http://shenmue.link/order/ It has 70K+ signs signed with money. ;)

As long as Gravity Rush is there, hopefully with release dates for 2 and Remastered, then I'll be happy, any other announcements will be a bonus.

EDIT: Underwhelming show. Ancel's new game looks pretty cool though.

Well, Sony's Paris conference has just ended; I found it to a mixed bag honestly. The first hour was kind of slow but the conference picked up towards the end when Sony finally got around to some big announcement. PlayStation VR holds great promise, it's just a pity that no footage of Tekken 7 VR was shown. Quantic Dreams is no longer a mere tech demo but instead a full-fledged game called Detroit: Become Human.

But all that's beside the point; because Sega didn't have a presence at this conference. No mention of Shenmue today, alas. In retrospect not surprising, after watching the conference I got the impression that no publisher outside of Sony could decide whether to take the Paris conference seriously or not. Perhaps next year a few more publishers might bring their A game to the conference but for now Paris is pretty much a fizzer, barely worth the time spent to watch the conference.

I love press conferences so was quite excited for this and man was I let down.

I don't really care for CoD or Battlefront, I don't play racing games other than Mario Kart so Drive Club and GT Sport meant nothing, the only fighter I play is Smash Bros so I don't care for Street Fighter or Tekken. I love the Uncharted series but have never played the multiplayer and have no intention to. The VR game that seemed most interesting was a just a CG trailer. The demo for Horizon barely seemed any different to the one we see at E3. Wild didn't really do much to excite me either and just seemed more like a tech demo then an actual game. I don't like making levels in stuff so Dreams is of little interest. I like Quantic Dream and always hoped they would make the Kara demo into a game but the trailer didn't do much and I still find the original tech demo more exciting.

I can understand someone with a different taste liking all the games that were shown but the main thing I like are the surprise announcements and this didn't really have any that will leave people talking. Be interesting what they have held back as PSX is before the end of the year and we still don't know much about what Sony's first parties are doing.

Just finished Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. Started it way back when it first came out in 2013, but I think I just got distracted by something else before I could finish. So I picked it up this time right in the middle. Just rewatched the cutscenes to remember the story and kept going.
Always a great time, same as any R&C game. I was actually a bit surprised by the jetpack gameplay though; this one must feature some of the largest, most open levels in the series, letting you hover wherever the hell you want within reason. Very fun having aerial battles with other flying enemies like this.
The story is basically just a kind of side-story epilogue to the R&C Future trilogy. It's not bad. Certainly not as epic and grandiose as A Crack in Time was (god, that game was fantastic), but it's always enjoyable playing through any R&C adventure, no matter its relative size.
Kind of bittersweet though; if I'm right, Into the Nexus is technically the "final" game in the original timeline. The new game coming out next year is meant to tie in to the altered rendition of the first game's story that the upcoming movie is going to be doing. And I don't really have a problem with that at all; they aren't really changing anything about the characters themselves, just the basic events that bring everything together. The movie looks great, just about as faithful to the games as any videogame movie could possibly be, so there's nothing wrong with the next games following suit. But Nexus still technically counts as an ending since the established timeline is being abandoned, so to speak. And true endings are always kind of a melancholy thing to me. After thirteen years of adventures, the slate is being wiped clean so they can start over. And does Nexus have a great enough ending to fit such a situation as that?
Not really. It's an okay ending if we were definitely going to see a continuation. But we're not. So it's slightly sad.
Whatever the case, at least the series does indeed have a future, and that's something the be glad about. Can't freakin wait for the next game, and if I'm entirely honest, I'm actually more excited for the movie than I am for any other flick coming out between now and then.

"Finished" Assassin's Creed Syndicate ("finished" in quotations because there's still plenty more I can do in it).
As with all AC games, it has some problems, and it doesn't feel as polished as it really should... but holy hell is this ever a huge step up from Unity. Despite liking it well enough on a very basic level, Unity was honestly pretty weak in most of the ways that matter. The gameplay felt weirdly slow, the climbing seemed awkward, combat just kinda sucked (I understand they were trying to mix it up from before, but it just wasn't fun at all), and dammit all, the story felt almost completely pointless by the end. Pretty much a total waste of the French Revolution basis, which could have led to great things, but instead was squandered.
Syndicate fixes pretty much all of that. Gameplay is a little faster, the climbing is finally great (and the grappling hook adds to that a ridiculous amount of fun), the combat is much, much better (feels more like the older games, except the counters don't automatically kill; enemies take a bit of beating first), and the story is a whole helluva lot better. Part of it may be that the enemies this time aren't a bunch of shoehorned-in historical figures (since people of the time still have living relatives, and it'd be kinda shitty to crap all over their ancestors by making them badguys). Rather, the villains are original creations for the first time, and because of it we now have some of the better antagonists in the entire series, who actually receive some amount of development before their inevitable demises (a rare thing in this series; usually they show up in one mission and get killed in the same one). Starrick, the sort of "main" badguy, is probably my favorite; just a really great performance by the actor playing him, understated in most parts, over-the-top when it matters.
Not to mention that Jacob and Evie are such better protagonists than Arno ever was in Unity. At the very least the fact that they have English accents actually makes sense this time (I know I go on about that a lot when talking about Unity, but goddamn did they ever ruin that game by removing any trace of the people being French). But beyond that, they're just quip-ier and more fun to spend an entire game with. Such to the extent that, honestly, I'd love to see another game starring the two of them. It won't happen, but I'd like to see it regardless, and that's what matters.
Even the "modern day" story is soooo much better this time. Not everyone digs it, but at least there's some sort of beginning, middle, and end this time, unlike in Unity where it was basically "Hey initiate, you're going to be diving into the memories of Arno," and then ended with a half-assed "Good job initiate, now you're done... and uh... bye." Nice to see some actual development in the story again, and it ends by pointing in a pretty damn interesting direction. Only problem is, much like Unity, the modern-day scenes are entirely non-interactive. They're just videos. Personally, I always liked actually having a hand in things, first playing as Desmond in the initial games, then playing as an unnamed Animus user in Black Flag and Rogue. Made story developments feel a little more affecting and valuable when you're taking part, rather than just watching.
Otherwise, the only real complaint I have about the game (aside from a slight lack of polish) is that the load times are unnecessarily long, which is something that'll probably be fixed up with patches. Otherwise, definitely one of the best entries in the series for me, up there with Revelations, Rogue, and Black Flag. Now I'm just finishing some things up. Just discovered a portal to a completely separate time period, which is intriguing as hell.
Looking forward to the next game, definitely more than I was after Unity.

And I don't mind saying that Evie is crazy hot . Yeah, I'm sure there'll be talk of her being respectfully-portrayed and all that, because that's the "it" topic these days. And that's nice and all (and true), but whatever. She's a hot character. Great voice and personality and all that. Plus, she looks good in the fight club rings.

Mr357 wrote: Metal Gear Solid 2

The worst Kojima game I've played through, but that's not saying much. 8/10

You are wrong out of 10.

Well, I'm out. This bitterness and consternation is not why I participate in online discussions. Having my posts misrepresented and being told what I can and can't think/feel is where I'm done basically.

For the record: game looks great to me for 3 months. I can and do respect the views of those who disagree. I stand by what I said.

I'm just going to back the game silently and privately other than the tweet-a-thon regularly.
You're not going to stop posting are you? You're a great poster and I really like reading your views on things!

Zoltor, lay off of the Yu bashing. Quite tired of it frankly. You dont have a clue what Suzuki thinks, knows, feels, will decide, likes, dislikes, choses, rejects so stop claimijt to know.

It's the only time you will be told. Keep it up and you will be warned.

December 2017 is just a slated release date. Do you expect them to not have a estimated release date at all? Because that's far worse. Why must you be so demanding of everything involved, even a reasonable release date that means two and a half years of development? Just seems like you're complaining to complain rather than just seeing where this all goes.


He's refusing to accept a paypal window of more then a few months, because it will get in the way of his desired release date(that was Yu's reason he gave, for only having Paypal available for such a short time).

Trust me, Yu has "no" intention what so ever, in allowing Shenmue 3 to take longer the 2 years.

Either Yu is rushing or he truly has no clue on how long games take, when you don't have 300 people helping with it lol.

....I don't know where to start.

Grand Theft Auto IV.

It's the game that led me to buy a gun and kill a man, which is why I'm posting now from a prison cell.

Fortunately we all have PlayStations and mobile phones, so it's no inconvenience, but what made it an important turning point in my life is that without incarceration, I would never have discovered my love for poetry.

And for that, I am eternally grateful to Rockstar. Like a bird is grateful to the wind on which her wings doth sail, across the oceans of her mind while physically in jail.