NEWS
Dreamcast launches in Europe
October 14, 1999 - This was the day that Sega unleashed its 128bit beast on the un-
suspecting gamer public. Featuring a Hitachi SH4 RISC main processor and a NEC
PowerVR2 3D accelerator, it's nothing to turn away from light-hearted. For the specs, it
can do about ten times more polygons than the Playstation and four times more than the
Nintendo64. And it's got a modem for surfing the net, too!
But as history has taught us, you can have all the kick-ass hardware you want, if the
software lineup ain't up to scratch then the console will flop - simple as that. It is fortunate
then that there were 14 games available at launch, most of which are quite playable affairs.
Racing game fans are catered for with four titles: Monaco Grand Prix Racing Simulation 2
is the staight port of the UbiSoft PC game launched last year, so it didn't cause any frills
from our part. Tokyo Highway Challenge is a neat Konami arcade racer, but is put down by
dull graphics, shabby gameplay and the fact that there is only one -yes, ONE- track, the
afforementioned Tokyo Highway (not good in our book). Up next is Acclaim's Trickstyle,
which is by and large the most impressive racing game you can currently buy for your DC:
Imagine Wipeout with hoverboards instead of hovercraft and you're halfway there; there are
also stunt contests that add to the longevity of the title. Finally there is Sega Rally 2, the
popular arcade title, and although it's not as good of a home conversion as we hoped, it's
a laugh for a while (it helps if you have friends to play it with).
Upcoming titles include Metropolis Street Racer (looks brilliant), Hydro Thunder and, erm,
Pen Pen Tricelon. We'll reserve judgement until we see some more releases, but look
forward to a Trickstyle Dreamcast/PC review in the not-so-distant future.
Back to top We Want GT2!!!->
