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Sega Rally 2 (DC)
by virtua007
Any videogamer that's worth their controller will know about the Sega Rally series - first developed for arcades in the early 90s, the first title became a smash hit and soon became a much wanted game for Sega's flagship console of the time - The Sega Saturn. A few years passed and the company decided it was time to develop the much ... anticipated sequel. With the Dreamcast now being their moneymaker after being introduced in 1999, the game was quickly ported to the console after the arcade version once again became a smash hit with gamers.
The series was one of the first to actually have several different types of terrain to drive on and to have each of them affect car handling. Nowadays that's seen as a given but back in the 90s this was a revolutionary feature! Sega Rally 2 kept the basic premise and controls the same but added more into the mix and tightened up faults in the original.
The graphics are pretty good, with several locales being presented stunningly on the Dreamcast. Having played the arcade version, I can safely say that graphics-wise nothing has been lost in the conversion. Although dated by today's standards, by no means is the game ugly. The cars are well rendered and resemble their real life counterparts and handle reasonably realistically too.
As far as sound goes, there's nothing to complain about at all. There's a bit of music but that's just there for background noise. What everyone likes here are the sound of the cars as they splash into big puddles and drive over tarmac. There's a sense of satisfaction in hearing these noises, especially if you've kept your car under control throughout. The co-driver gives off directions to you so you can avoid ploughing into a wall at 90mph! His voice isn't anything spectacular but then again, you're not looking for Michael Caine here but realism. The voice does the job and I can't really criticise it.
Gameplay is as solid as ever and is definitely the highlight of the series. The car controls are tight while still offering you lots of freedom in movement. When you turn into a corner, you feel like you did it and it was all your own work and not the controller. I love this aspect of driving games and it's always good to see this feeling being transfered to a console port. The number of cars has been increased from the original so there's plenty of variety from Toyotas to Subarus to Fords and many other car makes. Several levels have been added to the game including Riviera Muddy and Isle, offering you a great selection of race locations to win at!
I absolutely love this game and without a doubt this is the best title in the Sega Rally Series. It's just everything you could want from a car game without losing the arcade feel or becoming too serious for it's own good. For any Dreamcast owner out there, this is a must have title! You can get it for a few pounds online so there's no reason to not snap up a copy and enjoy!
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Tee Off (DC)
by virtua007
Sega's last video games console the Dreamcast didn't have it easy: after the disappointing sales of the Sega Saturn, EA stated that they wouldn't be supporting the console with any of their sports titles. This was a massive blow to Sega and they decided to forge forward by making their own titles and getting 3rd Party developers in order ... to survive. The console wasn't really known for its sports titles but it certainly gave the others a run for their money. Virtua Tennis 1 and 2 were great examples of the sport, Football was covered with the Sega Championship Football game and there were even some Olympics titles released to some acclaim in 2000. As far as golf was concerned however, it never really found a home on the console. Except for this release which crept in under the radar and basically stayed there.
The game is a solid take on the sport the world knows and loves with the developers actually offering a small history lesson on the sport before allowing you onto the World Tour. There are five countries to visit and over 10 characters for you to play as. All of them are in the same cartoony Japanese vein but don't come across as novelty by any means. Each of the countries is basically represented in a cliched form - Australia is set in the desert area, Scotland occurs in a windy contryside moor etc. There's nothing wrong with that; I doubt the developers could do much more with the graphics on offer. They're good but certainly not spectacular, and Sega had proved early on with games like Shenmue that games could look truly spectacular with some effort put in.
The gameplay itself is nice and simple so kids can pick up and play without any hassle. Like the real game there's a selection of clubs, the wind affects where your ball goes and bunkers and rough have an adverse affect on the ball when you take your shot. It isn't aiming for realism so you can forgive it for any issues with an overambitious golf ball. For the most part though the game is solid and fun to play, and was one of the first games I got for my Dreamcast back in 2004!
There's also a bonus mode which still confuses me to hell and back - a form of futuristic golf where you have to hit a ball through several gates and into a beam of light in a set number of shots. It's actually quite difficult at first and doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It seems like a tacked on bonus feature by Acclaim and could have been explained and tweaked better.
Overall however this is a solid and fun golf effort for the Dreamcast that is perhaps overlooked due to it's cutesy graphics. Don't be fooled though, this is a good game at heart. Just don't expect Tiger Woods to be making a cameo in it at any point!
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Worms - Armageddon (DC)
by teamshepherd
The Worms games have been a long running franchise for the Team 17 gaming studio. Since becoming extremely popular in the late 90's, the Worms franchise has gone from strength to strength however a short experiment with making the game in 3D left fans of the series less than satisfied.
Enter Worms Reloaded. This most recent venture ... by Team 17 has taken the game back to it's roots, back to where it originated.
Now this wasn't the first game to take Worms back to it's roots, there was game simply named Worms released as downloadable content for the Xbox 360 and PS3. This slightly updated version of the game took the original, gave it a lick of paint and a map randomizer. It was barebones to say the least. Reloaded has taken over where this version of the game took off. But instead of just replicating the old games, they have taken the age old classic and put a whole new coat of make up on it and then some.
Now for the most part, you can't exactly make Worms any more... well lets say 'Wormsy', and you can tell that Team 17 knew that by trying to change any of the core game play mechanics, they would be missing the point. So instead they added a whole ton of new features such as a customization of your own personal group of worms and AI worms. For each group you can select an accent, a hat of choice, a celebration, a gravestone and a difficulty setting just to name a few.
On top of that the random map generator has a bunch of things you can play around with such as the setting, the object count, the mine count and the fire barrel count. On top of the customization list is the ruleset editor. For any game you can adjust the rules, so for example you can choose which weapons are instantly available and which are only available after a certain number of times. You can even choose just how frequently care packages drop from the skies and if the map has sentry guns on every corner.
Aside from the customization, the Worms team has added several other modes such as a fully fledged campaign.
Overall, Worms Reloaded is everything a genuine Worms fan will be looking for. The concept isn't new and it doesn't claim to be a new innovation in gaming, but for what it sets out today, Worms Reloaded hits every spot and for that I give it four out of five.
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