The Saboteur is a great game and its a shame we are unlikely to ever see a follow up.
I agree. It isn't the most polished game around but there's something fun about taking down those watch towers, tanks etc. Be it guns blazing or sneaking around. I also found the character Devlin not that bad actually.

Eurogamer: ...Those games are punk, but Killer is Dead is just posturing. It's just product.
They were too crazy for crazy's sake. Killer7 and NMH were crazy with heart. That's the difference.
This actually captures what I've been thinking for a long time. What I liked about killer7 was the more serious, dark undertone mixed with absurd humor. There was more to the game than just a layer of crazy stuff.

You're just getting older and interpreting your not giving a shit about the new generations of stuff as meaning its not good or doesn't have merit. It happens almost everyone.

Believe it or not the shit from when we were teenagers was just as crappy and the people were just as dumb as they are now. Everything just seemed more fun and interesting because it was new and let's face it, we were dumb. Same goes for the previous generations.
I understand your point and it's true that nostalgia can make people talk about the "good old days". Texts from ancient Rome/Greece already talked about dumb, younger generations.

On the other hand, I've read about a measured decline in intelligence worldwide that has been documented for quite a while. As one of the researchers said : why should we expect things to always go forward? Even progress can slow down or even reverse temporarily. Looking at schools they could see a huge difference in level/results and it seems to have slowly declined for a long time with a faster pace around 2000.
This can be extended to art. Researchers compared current pop with older and noticed that the new one literally contained less music and compositional sofistication compared to the 80'ies and earlier. Over here the radio still plays 60'ies to 80'ies songs. Less from the 90'ies and almost never stuff from 2000 and later (except current hits of course).

There are several papers detailing possible causes. Society being too nice so crap art is as valid as a masterpiece. Laziness. Globalization/capitalism (looking for infinite profit) dumbing down. Internet facilitating the spread of dumb ideas faster than ever. Or several controversial studies about "the dumb outbreeding the smart". Modern society leads to educated women having less children, while less educated in general often have more kids and can do so with support from the state.

I think it's laziness plus science/art budgets getting smaller. People marvel at a new smartphone update but just check how fast humanity went from the first flight to standing on the moon. As Neil Degrasse Tyson said : back then people dreamt about the frontier.

By the way, the last possible cause seemed to be quite controversial :P

Edit : Administration/business types infiltrating music, art, games and science have made these fields more corporate-like than before. This leads to less risk which results in mainstream work. Science needs to produce fast results (it doesn't work like that) or it doesn't get funded. The same for music and games where marketing often wins over art etc.

I've read a lot about the changes when Sammy took over and it wasn't too pretty. The way they closed and merged teams was extremely detrimental to Sega. Before Sammy, Sega had teams that were largely specialized in a certain genre and they all had their own culture and management styles. Then Sammy comes along and throws together teams who used to make totally different games..to sometimes have them work on another genre. It surprises me that they still managed to kind of continue considering this.

But on topic : I would almost vote yes these days. I would even rather see Sony buy the rights and try to do the series justice as intended by Yu. Which says a lot coming from me since I used to hate the idea, you know early DC/PS2 era and all ... :P But I actually suspect that Sony could do it justice and make sure that it gets the right attention. I mean, they do support some less commercial games here and there and maybe they could gather some key figures from back then to work on the project?

I don't have a clear favorite but what surprised me was that I didn't find Trevor as menacing as expected. Many outbursts felt comical somehow lacking an undefinable calm evil underneath. So I think that I found Michael the slightly better character in the end with the family dynamic and so on. Considering Franklin they could have shown much more about the conflict between the hood, the people he knew and moving up. It felt a bit unresolved to me.

No disrespect but did you read the article? It says nothing of Sega.
Of course I read it. I never comment on things without reading what it is about. The part about Sega wasn't meant seriously at all. More like : great, with one console out of the way Sega can get back in ;)

So why would this bother anyone? All I and others are suggesting that "Hey if Xbox were to be sold off, Sega would be a nice owner." Wishing this on a Shenmue forum? How dare I have an imagination! Sega exculsives being mined back into full fruition like the days of old? Get out of here idealist! Us realists know sudden change is impossible! Especially when a new CEO has a new direction for the company and certain departments are unprofitable. Nothing could ever possibly change there!
The suggestion didn't bother me. Hell, I just posted in another topic that I would almost prefer that even Sony takes over instead of nothing happening. But I would gladly see Sega come back. They already cooperated for the Dreamcast with Microsoft and were having meetings when the Xbox started. If Microsoft would leave the console business, Sega could pick up from where Microsoft left instead :P

Shenmue 2 is the best shenmue i have completed it 14 plus times
nope shenmue gai is the best shenmue
Make that Shenmue Online. Pre- Yu Suzuki involvement.

Or more seriously, after Shenmue 1 and 2 I would like to give honorable mentions to Shenmue Zero and Shenmue : The Boat. Their creators at least cared enough about the series to try and make something while fans wait for an official continuation. According to their resources of course. Actually, they even got Gai beat by having worldwide releases.

I lost another character just after they released their 1.06 patch that would eliminate this once and for all :roll: They would give me back my level and money but forgot the latter.

They're really messing up GTA:O. Glitches, hackers (the "cloud" didn't help) and as you said, most missions are the same : Go there, kill, take what you needed to take, take cover quickly since reinforcements will show up, kill them, drive back.
Some mentioned false advertising since the trailer didn't imply that there would be no heists/content creator/stock market/properties months after the release.

Also, the media are fucking hypocrites. Almost none of them reviewed GTA:O by itself despite Rockstar claiming that it's separate. IGN tried to, lost a character and then decided that the offline is such a masterpiece that a bad online doesn't detract from it :roll: I was looking forward to the game but eventually found LA Noire, Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3 better, memorable overall experiences.

Haha look out it's the grammar police officer mittenz :lol:

No I'm not Japanese just didn't check what I wrote.
Grammar nazis actually and mitts is the furher. Make such a mistake again and you will be promptly shot


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I don't want to be that guy now. But since we're talking about language I would like to mention that it's written Führer :mrgreen:
Or that's how I remember it at least from my latest Nazi party gathering. Eeh, I mean, class.

I like a lot of characters actually and many of them have been named in earlier posts.
But one that I would like to add is Shozo Mizuki, the homeless man at the harbor. We don't know much about him but I got curious when it became clear that he knew about the Hazuki family. I wanted to know how he became homeless, his martial arts skills, etc.
I could check some of my Shenmue guides again, but I don't seem to recall that much more was known about him besides that he had lived at the harbor for three years and knows martial arts.

I also thought that it had a decent amount of extra activities actually. And the fact that finding items often involved some street fighting was great. It prevented the search from getting monotonous.

I read that they are working on a new Sleeping Dogs game. As improvement, it would be interesting if you could enter more stores or have some fighting tournament maybe.
That's really something that I think Shenmue did better than most games : the fact that a city felt more alive since you could enter many stores and talk to people. Instead of the city being like a facade/background scenery in many open world games.

^^And even if you couldn't enter a door in Shenmue/II, Ryo would still at least interact with it, either knocking or trying to pull it open to no avail since it's locked. Gave off the feeling that even if you couldn't enter, something still exists behind it. More games ought to do that kind of thing.
That's exactly what I meant. This made such a huge difference to me. Acknowledging a place, commenting that the store isn't open yet and so on.
I thought of this when playing GTA V. It does have features like a huge map and people walking around talking on their phones. But something small like not being able to walk into a bar that was in a mission makes me feel like I'm not part of the world. There were a couple of places that I wanted to check out instead of just standing outside. But I suppose I'm not the average GTA-fan and too biased by Shenmue ;)

Now playing : nothing after just finishing some games. I will probably start Skies of Arcadia soon. I haven't played it for years but listening to the soundtrack earlier got me in the mood.

When that guy asked about Space Harrier I was thinking : Damn it, don't waste precious time, we're talking about Shenmue specifically here. It might be slightly relevant with Space Harrier being at the arcade, but yeah...

About his age getting mentioned, I don't know if it's really that. I mean, producing and overseeing a game should not be impossible. People with regular jobs are out there. Or looking at art/entertainment there are several actors older than him playing roles. Or musicians older than him on the road, touring.

Good stuff from alimn. While I want Shenmue III to be released this is exactly what I want to hear regarding Yu Suzuki and the series. It really sounds like he does not want to do a shortened version of the story and conclude it all in Shenmue 3. Rather he seems to want to do the whole thing as intended. Which I always preferred since a rushed, cut version of the story in one game would not create the immersive feeling and pace that we like.

@Kenshin, exactly. Giving some insight into what he and his team were capable of with the available hardware at the time. And alimns reaction seems to confirm this.

Damn...
I can halfly relate. I had been having diffuse pain down there over a year ago, got some infection apparently but tests didn't show any bacteria or transmittable diseases (which they suspect first of all). With some pills the pain eventually went away but came back a few months ago. I also have some trouble with a nerve in my back (due to work before) which radiates so I thought that this maybe was the cause.
But I did notice a "floating" lump where the pain seemed to radiate from. Finally they checked with ultrasound two weeks ago and told me that it didn't seem dangerous. Just today I got a letter again, confirming that it was a benign cyst attached to the pipe work down there ;) We'll see.

Typical, I'm gone for a week or two and stuff happens again.

ChaiOgawa>Shenmue 3

My good man! ChaiOgawa = Shenmue 3.

Gotta get my kickstarter going, and put my one elective class of video game design to good use.
Wow, Chai! So I guess it's true when they say that many members never really leave this forum. Even if it's just having a short visit every half decade.

Guys.

It's fucking nothing.

This thread is why the Shenmue fanbase and the games themselves are considered a joke by gamers. Nothing is going to happen.
But the thing is that they are mistaken and are confusing "a joke " with "dedicated" and "worthy of dedication" ;)

Puppeteer

http://youtu.be/0GECUR5Wgyc


Wow.. just finished the last episode in The Walking Dead Season 2. Simply amazing experience. Season 2 was even better then the first.
That's promising. I have it "lying around" but haven't had the time yet to start. The same goes for The Wolf Among Us and a few other games. I'm having a bit of a backlog which would probably be even worse if I owned one of the newer consoles.

Yesterday I was at the store and noticed a gaming magazine containing an interview with two people who worked on The Last Guardian. They basically mentioned that they eventually left the team, things weren't progressing well etc. The magazine is in Swedish so it's not really useful to scan anything. Besides, I don't have access to a scanner at the moment ;)

But I looked a bit on the internet instead and found some information about their small team and project. It's very Shadow of the Colossus-like in style and is supposed to be an open world game with puzzles. I'm curious if their experience might lift the game a bit despite the size of the team.

Platform is pc but others to be anounced. I have to say though that their release date "When it's done" is hilarious considering the circumstances :P

http://www.friendandfoegames.com/devlog-vane/
http://www.friendandfoegames.com/vane
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-24-ex-the-last-gaurdian-artists-reveal-shadow-of-the-colossus-like-adventure-vane

Jesus Christ, I just had a terrible nightmare.
...
MOTHER OF GOD, THE STARING IS WHAT GOT TO ME.

Interesting, detailed dream. I know what you mean with the staring though. A dream (long ago) once had me enter a small bathroom but as soon as I entered I knew there was a presence inside. Still, for some reason I had to check and find out what was behind the closed shower curtains. When I dragged them to the side I saw a hanging corpse over a bath tub with all the skin stripped away. I knew I had to get out but before I could do so the eyes opened and stared intensely. Seconds later there also came a weird, unreliable smile during the staring. First I couldn't move but I then realized that I had to chop it up etc. etc. Anyway, for some reason I can still recall the stress entering the room and that stare years later :P

Random thought : Deus Ex contains quite a bit of foreshadowing when dealing with topics like states, politics and terrorism.

Perfect summary. And indeed, it doesn't make sense. Net neutrality was the whole fucking point when Tim-Berners Lee created the Web while working at CERN! And he has stated this several times, adding that corporate influence was removing some of that democratic aspect.

Speaking of food and regulation. Over here there's a large group on social media who believe/spread that the establishment is deliberately poisoning us by recommending "dangerous food". Practically everything is dangerous to them for various reasons : bread, fruit, cheese, juice,... Behind it is a PR-guy without any chemistry/medicine background, misinterpreting studies. The few scientists who then bother to respond with facts are of course "paid shills". Funny enough his "questioning" followers always happen to be against the scientific consensus. As you said : paranoid shit.

And you're totally correct about those excuses for firing people.


Internet conspiritard Alex Jones ranting about it.
Haha, I've seen his name show up many times when looking up countless topics. He was always delivering "the hidden truth".

I saw someone remark that it's a step forward for landing techniques too. They were discussing the importance of it when it comes to (far) future space colonization.
It appears to be stuck in a cave now in partial darkness : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2832751/Rosetta-s-probe-stable-Philae-confirms-s-holding-67P-scientists-fear-tumbled-side.html
Without sunlight things get a little difficult.

It thought that it looked weird though. Approaching the landing site :
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/11/12/1415826407405_wps_17_RESTRICTED_TO_EDITORIAL_U.jpg

I liked the "selfie" at 16 km with the comet in the background :
http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2014/10/rosetta_mission_selfie_at_16_km/14968938-1-eng-GB/Rosetta_mission_selfie_at_16_km_node_full_image_2.png

You know, according to EA, paying extra is what the people want . They only provide what modern gamers expect as part of the gaming experience. Well, that was their answer at least after an outlash regarding DLC with cut content.

This sums up modern gaming : http://www.vgu.tv/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DLC.jpeg

@Sonikku : Suuure, no worries ;)

Very detailed work.
I don't have any pictures myself (or an installed game with character creation so I could take some) but I know what you mean. I always try to get as close as possible to what I envisioned though never tried to recreate characters. Lately, I forced myself to stop customizing a bit earlier though since it's easy to keep on changing and make things worse eventually.

But I remember that between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 there was a change in settings so an imported character from the first game didn't look exactly right. I remember looking for (and finding) some patch and tips to make the character look like the one you originally had. It's not important for gameplay but having a different looking character would have bothered me.

You're not alone though since my girlfriend and my brother also spend a while creating characters. And I saw Angry Joe mention liking character creation before now that I think of it ;) I guess that it's not too uncommon.

Ok I would like to first bring up N00DL3S, and what started the Jeff vs Jeff (me, the other Jeff) rivalry, even though it was only really a rivalry in the mind of Mr Noodles, and the battle for our affection and lust for our ass holes.
Hilarious way of summarizing/expressing the situation :lol:

Ah, such good times here. In a little over a day, I'll have been here for eleven years.

The one time reporter actually broke some Shenmue news: http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14892
Yeah... I still remember his E3-sessions when he was extra active trying to "provide news".
When asked for proof that he was there he did eventually post a picture. Then claimed that some random guy in the background with his back to the camera was him :lol: I'm not sure now but I think that it was a picture of Yu.
Reporter during E3 :
I'm expecting big things, as my connections in Japan have been on the phone all night.
So, if nothing happens, I'm gonna be giving a half dozen apparant insiders a sev beat down!

http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15894
This topic about some short film aimed at homosexual viewers which used Shenmue references always sticks in my head as a perfect example of over reaction. Some people were seriously outraged! :lol:


I reread a bit of it and was surprised by the different opinions. I remembered it as a bit more one sided for some reason.

Another "revelation" maybe was a member who claimed to have done a porn movie. As proof he mentioned the title months before anything about it was online.

I find it more irritating to think what will happen when Shenmue III is out and the saga is done.
I do remember Yu talking about Shenmue IV a couple of times more recently. So who knows? Maybe it could depend on the funding.

From one interview :
Yu Suzuki : Yes indeed, the story is far away from being completed and to be honest, I do not think that it's possible to end it during Shenmue III. If I had to do it my way, players would experience the ending during Shenmue V. But that seems to be a lot so I'm going to try to finish it within the next 2 games.

As I've said through the years : I would rather get a stellar third game that doesn't conclude the story than get a shitty rushed version that lacks attention to detail and the right Shenmue-spirit. Just so it can be wrapped up in one game. I care more about the journey so to speak than the end in itself in a way.

A great game would make people long for more. A bad one could kind of ruin the legacy instead.

And as Yu said before, the end of the third game is somewhat of a satisfying conclusion. That combined with recent interviews could mean that they might choose not to cut parts of the story to fit it all in one game.

Well, regardless of this Joel Tess thing, Naughty Dog might be involved in a way. The ICE team works there after all so it's not unlikely that they might help out as they do for many Playstation titles.

Naughty Dog is home to the ICE Team, one of Sony’s World Wide Studios central technology groups. The ICE Team focuses on creating core graphics technologies used by all PlayStation developers. The ICE Team has been involved with the development of the PlayStation®4 since its inception, including hardware design, graphics libraries, performance analysis tools, and developer support (hardware evangelism).

Just like Santa Monica helped with Journey and more recently the technical side of The Last Guardian.

I wonder if it's a coincidence that a Shenmue documentary is being made now? It's just that the last years had other things going on like action figures, new jackets, Ryo in All Star Racing, Yu being more public etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIaoXjzIARE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJHv-Mo2j3U


Why does Corey wear two belts?
Common for those who are twice the man. You know, double the stuff to hold up. I'm just guessing though as to its necessity in this particular case.

I think that he was referring to using the touchpad to flip the pages. Not the journal in itself being an interesting idea.

It's good to know that 10 million number. But I'm also slightly worried due to how the Kickstarter campaign is going. Articles like the one from Forbes at the least created extra confusion which was really not needed at this point.

Regarding horses, Besides Shenhua we also had this :
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/REN_03.JPG