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80 |
GTA II |  |
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| The second major release in the Grand Theft Auto series provided various improvements to graphics and gameplay whilst keeping the basic structure of the popular original. The game has you driving around the streets completing missions whilst avoiding cops and gaining respect from the local gangs. In comparison to later games in the series these earlier games feel very different, at this stage Its all a lot more straight-forward, arcadey and action-focused, with a lot more of a pick-up-and-play feel. The Dreamcast version is closer to the PC game in visuals and represents a big improvement over the PS1 port in regards to lighting and effects. | |||||
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79 |
Tech Romancer |  |
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| This oddly titled game is a 3D fighter from genre stalwarts Capcom, one of their more under appreciated titles. The game has you playing as a variety of Gundam-style mechs each with their own selection of weapons and moves. On top of the usual staples you can pick up and use items found on the ground that have defensive and offensive applications, as well as having access to a finishing move which can outright kill an opponent who's on low health. Definitely worth checking out for fans of both fighters, and big destructive mech's | |||||
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78 |
Vanishing Point |  |
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| Good looking arcade racer for the Dreamcast that starts off tricky with some of the earlier cars but soon pulls you in. The game is made up of a selection of championships set up for each car, completing races opens up new cars which in turn have their own championships to play through. This set-up forces you to get good with all the different cars, and keeps the game from becoming monotonous as you can't just pick one car for the whole game. Outside of the main modes the game also has some pretty cool extra's, such as the fun Stunt Mode that has you completing a variety of different challenges. Vanishing Point was originally designed for Dreamcast, but was later down ported to the PS1, avoid that version. | |||||
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77 |
Red Dog |  |
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| This one pleasantly surprised me, its from Argonaut, the team who created the Super FX chip for the SNES. Red Dog is an action game which has you controlling a tank, the game gives you a machine gun shot, as well as rockets which work in a similar manner to rail shooters (you hold the button and sweep the cursor across multiple enemies, let go and it fires off a volley of homing missiles). The interesting element of the gameplay here though is a reflective shield, if you can bring it up in time it will reflect enemy shots back to their source, and mastering this move is crucial to progressing. Some respectable graphics and nice boss fights also help to make it worth checking out. | |||||
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76 |
NHL 2K2 |  |
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| Whilst the first NHL2K game on the Dreamcast was solid, it didn't quite live up to its siblings in quality, this however changed with the 2002 edition which represented a huge improvement. The AI here has been improved, the controls are deep, and the game is smooth and responsive. A great game for Ice Hockey fans. | |||||
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75 |
Castle Shikigami II |  |
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| One of the later official games released for the system (2004), Castle Shikigami is an excellent vertically scrolling shooter and a must for fans of the genre. Here the main gameplay mechanic involves purposefully cutting it close when evading the bullets, as when you are close to touching a bullet your firepower is hugely increased and you can gain more points. Its a graphically impressive game with nice aesthetics and a lot of replayability when striving for score. | |||||
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74 |
Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear |  |
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| Tactical first person shooter where you need to come up with a plan and direct a whole squad through the various missions. Unlike the first Rainbow Six on Dreamcast this supports the much-needed Mouse and Keyboard controls, creating a much more in-depth experience. | |||||
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73 |
Maken X |  |
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| Under appreciated First Person Adventure from the Atlus team most known for creating the Shin Megami Tensei series (and it shows). The game has you sword fighting in a first person perspective, allowing you to both block and rebound shots back at enemies (if you get the timing right). During the course of the game you can choose to take control of different characters, each of which have different strength and weaknesses and each of which lead you down different branching pathways. Unfortunately the localisation team made rather a mess of the game for its western release, its poorly translated and dubbed, has a lot of censorship, and has even been made harder, with the localisers removing health packs and adding health penalties for using certain moves! The US/Euro version definitely loses something, but is still worth checking out. The Japanese version isn't too difficult to play through as the menu's include a lot of English, but you won't know what's going on in the story. | |||||
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72 |
NBA 2K2 |  |
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| Graphically impressive Basketball game from Sega and Visual Concepts which admirably lives up to the high pedigree of the the rest of their 2K series of sports games. | |||||
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71 |
Sega Rally 2 |  |
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| Sequel to Sega's beloved arcade racing game that adds a lot more tracks, options, and modes. Sega Rally 2 is very much an arcade game at heart so don't expect an ultra realistic experience here, this game is all about sliding around corners at high speed and racing against the clock. The port to Dreamcast is respectable but visually disappointing (which is why it dropped placings), its an early release and it shows, still manages to be a lot of fun. | |||||
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