Still worth buying a Dreamcast? Hell yeah! (Dreamcast in general)

Member Name: JammyB

Product:	Dreamcast in general
Date:	07/04/01 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Loads of high quality games

Disadvantages: Dieing...

After the bad news that Sega has stopped production of the Dreamcast, I have seen many people on forums around the net saying how us Dreamcast owners are stupid, made the wrong decision, should’ve bought a PS2 etc etc. I also see a lot of people who are unsure of what to do now that the Dreamcast is so very cheap, yet it’s failed, hasn’t it?

Well not in my opinion. Yes the Dreamcast is now dying, but there is no question that it has been a success. I can imagine that shops will be taking a lot of stuff off the shelves in the run up to Christmas 2001, but does that mean the Dreamcast should be consigned to the back of the back of wardrobe forever more?

Here’s what’s going down. An excellent console, loads of *high quality* games, decent multiplayer options and a price so good you can buy it all, and still have enough money for the bus ride home :)


The console
---
At only £100 with 5 games, this has to be the most ridiculously low priced console in existence. The Dreamcast is a smallish grey box, an upwards opening GD-ROM (just like a CDROM) on top, and a modem which fits snugly into the corner. Contrary to what most of the ignorant public think, the Dreamcast is not far behind the PS2 graphically, and sits waaay ahead of the 6-year old PSone. Your standard package will come with 5 games (though different deals are available) and a controller. Along with this you’ll be wanting a memory card or VMU (Sega’s memory card / cut-down Gameboy in one). When the nearest competition is the PS2 at £300 for the console along with no games, it’s easy to see why the Dreamcast is out-selling the rest.


The games
---
With around 180 games for the console, you won’t find yourself running out soon. In all my years I’ve never seen such a vast range of high quality titles for a console within such a short period of time. When I talk about quality, I’m not usingth
is term loosely. This strategy is a breath of fresh air when the market is swamped with Sony’s “quantity over quality” policy.
Brand new games retail at £40, which is asking too much too much for any game in my opinion (and me being a student and all :) ). However I’ve amassed a good collection by searching through EB and Game’s bargain bins. Games come as cheap as £5 and up to around £20 for the new quality titles.
As long as you pick the right games (read the reviews, especially mine :) hehe) you’ll find that for £50 you can pick up some of the best games that the gaming world has to offer.


Online
---
I can’t say I’ve used the Dreamcast online as much as I would have liked. At 1p a minute it doesn’t come cheap in our times of flat rate net access for a good percentage of the population. However the times I have spent online have been well worth the money.

Online games include the fabulous Chu-Chu Rocket, a fast paced puzzle game. Not to displease action fans, Quake 3 and the newly released Unreal Tournament will get that adrenaline flowing as you frag other people around the country. This is a major aspect that a lot of other console owners would give an arm and a leg for. The exhilaration after headshotting someone across the other side of the country with a sniper rifle in UT is one that has to be experienced to truly know how it feels. Ooohh satisfaction.


The Future
---
A lot of people have been scared by Sega’s recent announcement to no longer produce the Dreamcast units. I was given my Dreamcast for Christmas 2000 (after much nagging). Yes the Dreamcast stopping production is sad, but even so, the console has been a huge success and I would still buy another right now if I didn’t already own one. Just because the console is dieing doesn’t mean the games that are available now are not fun. Sega have promised 100 more games for t
he system… whilst this looks more and more unlikely, we are sure to see at least some of those games over the next year.
But as I keep saying, even if Sega stopped everything today, no more games, no more anything for the Dreamcast, I would still feel like I’ve got my moneys worth.


That my friends is it.

I hope some of you will see sense and instead of spending £400 on a PS2 plus one game to go with it, you’ll consider what you could have if you invested in the Dreamcast.


If any of you have been influenced, here’s my top 10 list of games which you should seek out:
Soul Calibur, Phantasy Star Online, Metropolis Street Racer, Powerstone (or Powerstone 2), Crazy Taxi, MDK2, Quake3, Unreal Tournament (get a keyboard and mouse as well), Marvel vs Capcom 2, Virtua Tennis, Tony Hawks 2.

Well that’s my brief list with games from different genres, but I command you to read the reviews first. A Dreamcast, plus all of those games, another controller and a memory card can be had for under the £400 price of a PS2 with 1 game. Those games are just the tip of the iceberg, there are enough decent games on the Dreamcast to last you at least until the X-Box or Gamecube come along at least, if not more.

Summary: