Reviewing The Sega Dreamcast's Retro Shooter Gems

[Music] this is where the fun begins the bizarre trajectory of sega's Dreamcast is really the kind of thing they should be teaching in schools I mean here you got a platform which really just should have been an outright success and yet it ended up becoming yet another in a line of poorly selling consoles despite coming from one of Gaming's biggest powerhouses talk about low budget flights no food or movies I'm out of here a lot like the satin before it with the Dreamcast really shined was in its many arcade ports with titles like House of the Dead 2 Crazy Taxi soulcaliber and Marvel versus Capcom 2 but then it also boasted an impressive library of its own with exclusive titles like jet grind radio Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 and what a lot of people consider to be one of the best Resident Evil games with code Veronica weirdly though despite there being over 600 games made for the platform only a dozen or so of these were firstperson Shooters and it was a genre that seems to be mostly overlooked a part of that might be due to the fact that FPS games are kind of unpopular in Japan but I can't help but also wonder if it had something to do with that incredibly clunky controller which really doesn't lend itself to cohesive movement where Shooters are concerned seem that Sega was so adamant to make their console unique that they defied what was already becoming commonplace with the whole Legacy control layout giving their controller a thumb stick on the left side but then also removing the second thumb stick entirely and devoting the right side of the controller to face buttons this meant that for FPS games you had to use the left thumb stick for aiming and then the right face buttons for moving and strafing what no which is completely backwards and just makes FPS games very uncomfortable to play the solution to this is the Dreamcast official mouse and keyboard however even this wasn't perfect firstly because only handful of games even supported those attachments to begin with but then secondly because you're really at the mercy of the quality of the proofers themselves now a few of you younger viewers might not know this but back in the day before mouses all had lasers they used to use balls yeah not the kind your mum goggles and if any kind of dirt or dust or anything got into these things well you could literally feel that going over the mouse as you moved it around which would instantly mess up your movement this meant you'd have to constantly remove the ball and give it a clean blow into the hole and try to clear the whole thing out which was a constant never ending nuisance I'm going back playing these games now with an older Mouse like this just reminds me of how good we've actually got it these days it's just another example of one of the many first world sacrifices I've had to make for the greater good of this Channel and I not only did this for one game but for more or less every first person shooter they made for the Dreamcast which you know I thought would make for a fun video they're waiting for you Gordon in the test chamber admittedly this ain't going to be the longest list and you can count all the titles in this video on pretty much two hands but you know let's check it all out regardless anyway shall we if nothing else just to really try and shed a bit more light on sega's under appreciated console swans song 3 2 1 start right so first up we've got an alltime classic and I will admit that I am kind of cheating with this one simply because the Dreamcast pter halflife was never officially released but all the same it's never been any kind of secret that developers captivation digital along with Gearbox Software we're working on it alongside the version we eventually got for the PS2 and grabbing a copy of this unfinished prototype or beta or whatever it's supposed to be called is pretty damn easy as well Gordon doesn't need to hear all this he's a highly trained professional now all this was ever intended to be was a port for the base game and on that level it does its job just fine you've got that opening sequence on the tram followed by exploring the black MAA facility and donning that iconic hvv suit before then playing your part in one of the worst workplace incidents of all time my God what are you doing thankfully captivation was smart enough to include mouse and keyboard support with this one which instantly alleviates the issues of having to play through this with the controller and also as well like this version is very similar to the PlayStation 2 Port using a mixture of both old and new models updating the weapons and characters [Music] I also think this whole cheat code system is really clever as well using phrases instead of all these elaborate inputs the cheat code to warp to the opening chapter anomalous materials for instance is Gordon goes to work whereas the one to warp to the we've got hostiles chapter is soldiers visit black Mesa so almost to the point where you could like guess some of these two I mean on a rail as an example is trains and Rockets that's a good idea the main problem this port has though is the performance which is just absolutely horrible with the frame rate of and feeling like it's dropping down into single digits now this makes aiming hard it makes platforming and movement hard it really just makes everything hard in general and by the time you get to the surface tension chapter where you're outside and getting into combat with half a dozen soldiers and enemy Vehicles the whole thing just becomes more or less unplayable saving your progress is incredibly resource expensive as well with save files taken anywhere from 80 to even 100 blocks of that Dreamcast vmu I mean like as a point of comparison right most other games take anywhere from 10 to 20 there's no kind of auto save or checkpoints at the start of the map transitions either so when you die it's going to throw you all the way back to your last hard save point [Music] [Music] good morning and welcome to the black Mesa transit system [ __ ] but considering the whole thing is literally unfinished it is probably safe to say there that all of this would have been ironed out for the official release you know had we ever got it the long and short of it though is that it eventually got cancelled after numerous delays and the eventual downfall of the Dreamcast as a platform is the main reason attributed to this port's demise but you can't hel but kind of Wonder just what effect it would have had on this dwindling console had it actually seen the light of day but I guess along with halflife 3 that's something we'll never get to [Music] experience right so up next is what's easily one of the most obscure and less no titles on this list and that's Kiss Psycho Circus The Nightmare on Elm Street child developed by Third L interactive and Tremor entertainment this one's got a pretty interesting premise based off the comic book of the same name where you plays the different members of a kiss tribute band who all get imbued with elemental powers and then have to fight back against some kind of ancient evil that's taken over four different Realms I think you must make a Mad Dash through the gargoyle's Arches to reach the Salvation that lies at its end lady you're scaring us I've often seen it compared to Sir Sam and painkiller which I've got to say is quite a of feet you know considering it came out a year before either of those games what it is really is just a hord shooter where you move from level to level taking out droves of monsters with different Weaponry visually it has a pretty cool Vibe capturing this kind of Otherworldly chaos as you explore all these bizarre worlds and environments and if gaming has taught me anything it's that evil carnivals make the absolute best backdrops as well yeah as anyone lucky enough to have played carnal was going to a test to the problem this one has though is that the whole thing is super repetitive and once you finish that first chapter of which there's four in total it doesn't never really offer up anything all that new exciting and despite playing as the four different members of the band The General structure is still going to be the same for each of them and they more or less have the exact same weapons too so each character starts off with their own unique melee weapon but then that's quickly replaced by the zero Cannon which is like a minigun of sorts that fires out ice shards after that there's what's more or less like a shotgun you got a rocket launcher along with a whip which also kind of doubles as a longrange rifle and there's a means to Grapple up to certain areas and then finally each character has their own unique sort of powerful weapon which does insane damage and uses ammo from one of those other weapon slots throughout each level you're also looking for the next piece of Elder armor starting with the boots the belt mask and [ __ ] ring with HP and giving you slightly more Health points and yeah like it does sound pretty fun but it just really quickly becomes this mundane Loop of doing the same actions over and over and it wasn't helping either that you really only fight the same three or four enemies the entire time mostly just these guys here called The Headless yeah these bizarre looking torsos with spindly spider legs that seem to come at you by the absolute dozen often out of these spawners with would just perpetually spit these [ __ ] out until you destroyed it overall like I wouldn't say it was a bad game but it was definitely superseded by the superior Ser Sam and his subsequent successor with painkiller how's that for Sim iteration I've even seen stories that kiss would just give copies of this game away for free at their concerts which like some people might argue as part of the marketing but I like the think it's because the game was so boring that the only way to get rid of it was to literally throw it away then when you consider that the Dreamcast Port is just the worst soft version all around well then you can start to understand why no one ever talks about this thing I mean for starters this version has no voice acting at all all of the mysterious and captivating narration by that old fortune teller is replaced by well buger all the Roadhouse it all begins here to call upon the star Bearer you must Master his realm [Music] meanwhile visually too it looks far worse than the PC did with a much blurrier image and certain effects like the mirror Reflections are just gone entirely the frame rate is also super inconsistent with it being really sluggish at times again bordering into being unplayable and there was even times when it would hard freeze my console you know like fullon freeze causing me to have to power cycle oh [ __ ] it is also too like a super dark game by default with there being no option in the game to adjust it and the only way that I could fix this was by bringing up the gamma levels on my upscaler but even just the basic gameplay just feels gimped as well for instance all of the powerups from the PC version like those explosive Jack in the boxes are just gone enemies don't have health bars there's no option to quick save during levels and the few kiss tracks we actually got are now completely removed at the end of each chapter on the PC there'd always be some kind of a boss fight to round out that character's Arc but again this is something that seem to get the chop with the levels just kind of ending and starting the next chapter without any kind of explanation but of course the worst thing this port has going for it is the controls really highlighting the clunky configuration of that Dreamcast controller again making the shooting and just basic navigation a lot trickier than it needs to be what I find even weirder though is that this game supports the keyboard but just not the mouse like did the guy coding in all this stuff just run out of time or something so what we're left with here is a bad Port of a mediocre game and although the PC version might have had some merits here and there they're all but lost like tears in rain on the Dreamcast still though it is nice to see a video game that gives your mom a bit more visibility now the next title in the list is Mark and X something which I almost have to talk about simply for the fact that it's really the only exclusive firstperson game the Dreamcast has Mar de X minina developed by Atlas known for their work on among other things all 42 games in the Persona series and if you know a lot about their Library well then the art style in this one alone is going to be instantly familiar as will the absolute batshit insane writing and dialogue a lot of which either appears to be Lost in Translation or is just a result of bad localization sha the big TV star in India defeat him he sends radio waves through TV that steal people's Souls you have our thanks for flying the deadly skies and by the way prepare to die either way though this is a really bizarre game where you're playing as k a 16-year-old school girl classic who's bonded with the aonomus Marin which is some kind of artificial being that has the ability to take control of a person's body the world in Mar next is one that's in complete turmoil you know kind of like real life with there being growing tensions between the US and China and then all of Europe being in a complete state of disarray so again yet kind of like real life how about we go to another city and with K as Marin's host you travel across the world en listing members from two different factions the blade Masters and the hocky to then defeat some kind of super powerful daty known as Guist we've got to put an end to Guist before it's too late traveling to areas like Moscow London and Athens making it too easily one of the better looking and running games on the platform what is kind of odd though is that some of the cinematics are fully 3D whereas the others are basically 2D slideshows what the hell but the running thing that they've all got going on is that they're all completely unhinged with these flamboyant and cartoonish characters you interact with or looking like a bunch of rejected Digimon villains and that's actually one of the core mechanics of the game where throughout the campaign you're able to frequently interact with and Jack into the minds of all these people all the way have different weapons abilities and BJ ranks what a BJ rank oh my and yes I know it's short for brain Jack but I'm not about to step on the toes of a good [ __ ] joke now truth be told Marin X isn't so much as a first-person shooter as it is a first person hacking slash with the gameplay being mostly melee weapon focused each character you brain Jack into has a different kind of base weapon and then there's a few simple mechanics you'll also need to get the hang of the most important blocking and leaping now blocking is pretty much Essential for obvious reasons and then leaping can be done to get over and behind an enemy leaving them wide open to a critical hit from the back you can also deflect certain attacks but this seems far too inconsistent to me and I think you'd have a better chance of deflecting back raindrops with a pair of Chopsticks so most of the combat is really just about blocking attacks and then parrying or jumping over someone and then hitting them from behind and then the boss fights mostly repeat these same ideas but just on a much more difficult scale where the variety starts to come from though is within all these different abilities for all these various characters like one of the blade Masters for instance has a Charged Up attack that can freeze enemies into blocks of ice and then a quick follow-up hit is going to instantly shatter them I mean what is this hexon another blade master has the ability to hit every enemy on the screen with a lightning bolt which is easily one of the best powers in the game and then to balance this out you lose Health points every time you use one of these abilities preventing the player from just spamming that over and over and overall too like it is worth noting that Mar X is a surprisingly challenging game things start off pretty easy with the first few levels being a total Breeze but then there's like a difficulty Spike about five levels in that is very noticeable and then from that point on like the whole thing just becomes Relentless [ __ ] you do get the odd health kit here and there about the environments but not understanding the basis of the combat system or knowing the attack patents for these recurring enemies is only going to let you get so far the problem though is that this game uses what's more or less tank controls which means you can only move forwards or backwards along with turning left and right you can technically strafe around an enemy once you've locked onto them but if there's more than one of these guys at once well then that whole system starts to go to [ __ ] because there's no way to switch between targets outside of turning lock on off and then back on again and hoping it locks on to someone else the super low fov also makes it really tricky to see nearby threats and the lack of any kind of instant 180° spin forces you to manually turn yourself around which just feels incredibly slow and clunky it's also packed with a lot of dumb old school game design [ __ ] as well like the complete lack of checkpoints forcing you to replay entire levels in one go there's really annoying enemy designs here as well like kamakazi dogs kamakazi planes or how about these guys that are like pin stripe wearing Mobsters with butterfly wings what right probably what I find the most annoying though is that you can't skip cinematics so every time you replay a level you've got to sit through that same 60c long intro for the boss fight all over again you know I don't want to be your girlfriend anymore what the hell are you talking about but I will say that trying to summarize Mar X in a video like this isn't entirely fair cuz truthfully there is a whole lot of stuff going on with this one and the frequent narrative choices easily outweigh those minor gameplay grievances I hate doing this but I have a favor to ask you and that's because throughout the campaign you're frequently having to make yes or no decisions during dialogue checks all of which then go on to affect the rest of the story in some pretty profound ways to the point that there's seven or so possible endings you can get in total are you willing to go to India for us or not you'll need certain characters to access certain side areas in C C levels but if you haven't unlocked these characters because you've somehow missed that opportunity well then you're kind of screwed for the rest of that playthrough h i see it's all clear to me now so honestly it's like I probably need to do a full video on this one to truly give it the credit it deserves and even in that 5 or 6 hours I spent with it I still felt like I'd barely scratched the surface of how deep this bizarre nonsensical Iceberg went artificial Gods will reign over this world bye that was [ __ ] brutal up next is a game called out trigger originally developed for the arcade by Seager am2 oh trigger yeah the same crew responsible for such absolute bangers like the virt cop and the virtal fighter series not to mention [ __ ] day Tony USA ladies and gentlemen start your engin and this one is a really good example of the way the Dreamcast was able to effortlessly bring across an arcade title and get it running on a home platform I actually have some pretty vivid memories of coming across this arade cabinet back in the day and I remember too how it had this incredibly awkward upright stand which really made it about as comfortable as sticking a cactus down your pants so the benefit of being able to play it comfortably at home along with the fact that it includes mouse and keyboard support makes this Dreamcast port a far more attractive option good job there's not really any kind of overarching story for this one as far as I can tell you're just playing as one of four members of an anti terrorism Squad taking out enemies in a whole bunch of different Maps this equates to just a series of death matches where you get anywhere from 45 to 90 seconds to kill 10 enemies with each kill giving you a 5-second bonus and that's really all there is to it good job despite there being four characters to initially choose from all of them are really just the same with the differences being purely cosmetic and regardless of who you play as every character gets what's more or less a rocket launcher an automatic weapon and then a bunch of [Music] grenades there's weapon pickups on some of the maps like a flamethrower for instance but there doesn't seem to be any real reason to use anything other than that rocket launcher simply because this one does the most damage by far as this is an arcade game that also means that it comes with arcade game difficulty and even on the so-called normal mode our trigger gets insanely hard very quickly with the latest stages not only making the enemy AI way more mobile and accurate but also giving them a bunch of more Health points and whereas one or two rockets might have killed someone before now it takes like four or five yeah fun there's a so-called training mode here too but all that really would have done is to train people to not be stupid and waste their pocket change on a tutorial mode in an arcade game because all that mode offers is really just kind of like a glorified Shooting Gallery that's impossible to fail good job the Dreamcast Port does offer up an exclusive missions mode which is a couple dozen different challenges most of which are just derivative of the arcade portion things like having you running around in medals in a time limit or killing more terrorists good job and one of the other moot is basically just kill confirmed well you got to grab coins from Fallen enemies to increase your score good job that trigger's biggest problem though is that you are going to start to see the like a Content really early on here with there only being a handful of maps and none of them being all that memorable either it often feels too like these Maps would have been more suited to 1 v1s yeah 1 V one me [ __ ] but then instead you've got like four or five people running around it at once which just makes the whole thing feel very cramped I mean it's like a death match set inside a one-bedroom apartment good job good job shut up you can't skip through the death animation either like you can in other games like Quake three or unreal tournament so when you are fragged you've just got to sit there staring at your corpse for like 5 seconds until you finally respawn the mission mode does offer up a bit more extra content but all you're really unlocking there is more Cosmetics even making your own character from scratch is really just choosing from either male or female preset and then giving them a load out based off the other characters I also find it incredibly weird how I can't pause the game at all which I guess on some level makes sense considering it's based off an arcade game but to lack such a basic feature on a version made for a Home console just kind of baffling if you had a couple of mates around or connected to the online mode I guess I can kind of see where You' get some value here but ultimately this thing would just be overshadowed by the vast superiority of Unreal Tournament in Quake 3 yeah which Speaking of is the next game in the list with the Dreamcast Port being developed by raster Productions and released in the year 2000 oo that's tght that's beautiful that's nice and one that's actually a pretty damn good version two with it being about as as close as you can get to the PC without actually playing it one frag left now originally released for the PC in late 1999 it software's Quake 3 arena is largely responsible for popularizing the online shooter genre along with being just a real Pioneer for arena Shooters in general safe to say that without it games like four fortnite pubg and War Zone would never exist in fact specifically war zone considering early versions of the graphics engines used in the Cod series were derived from the ittech 3 engine first used back in Quake 3 and it's always been kind of funny to me how Unreal Tournament also released within monster Quake 3 with the argument over which one is better being like that never- ending debate on whether brunettes are better than blondes or boobs are better than us oh yeah brunettes are better than blondes by the way true but he shouldn't say it anyway you've more or less got the exact same game here you've got all the same character models to choose from all the same game modes weapons and maps in fact they've even included a bunch of Dreamcast exclusive maps to play through there are minor factors to the single player component that have been changed though for instance instead of fighting sge at the end of the first tier you're now fighting Anarchy and the Regeneration power up on that map is replaced with a quad damage and then instead of fighting hunter in the next tier it's now KK overall though not massive changes or ones that really impacted in a bad way but you know worth noting visually it does look good but it's definitely not as sharp or crisp as it was on the PC and the frame rate while mostly solid does take a bit of a hit here and there but never to the point that I found it to be an outright handicap and either way you can still see Lucy's cellulite rid ass cheeks with let's be honest is all any of us are really here for you're godamn right the main visual thing I noticed though was that in the tutorial fight against crash they've removed that mirror that you see when you first load in yeah I don't know what is it with this console and mirrors thankfully though this is yet again another shooter on the Dreamcast that supports the mouse and keyboard making movement and shooting not to mention just basic menu navigation much faster thank God as for the actual downsides well the main one I guess is that you're far more limited in creating your own custom matches with the bot limit being three here whereas on the PC you could have upwards of a dozen Sonic mayhem's awesome soundtrack which is arguably one of the best of all time when it comes to Arena Shooters is replaced as well by one composed by none other than Aubrey hodgers yeah the same guy who worked on the soundtracks for other console ports as well with doom on the PS1 and Quake on the 64 and I wouldn't say that these new tracks are bad but they're definitely just not the same kind of vibe [Music] and some of them honestly sound like something out of an old Power Rangers episode like I'd expect to hear them in the background while the Rangers are beating this [ __ ] out of a guy dressed up as a giant Lobster you know what I mean somehow I expected more from you Power Rangers a lot of those original Quake 3 maps are so memorable to me because of the backing tracks it was almost like a running commentary to the action itself I do think there are some downsides though if you compare it to the version on the PS2 considering that that version was a really good crossover between Quake 3 but also team Arena including new game modes but also weapons from the ladder excellent still though it is kind of hard to faulty what they've pulled off on the Dreamcast and this is absolutely one of those situations where if this was the only way you could place in Quake 3 well then that's hardly a bad thing and in fact I was still surprised at just how much fun this game is once you get back into that familiar Rhythm all the muscle memory of grabbing certain weapons or powerups on some of the maps along with foboss being a great example of an early game filter is something that never dwindles Rags left so overall Quake 3 on the Dreamcast really has an ageed to day yeah just like luc's ass you win now the original Rainbow Six is widely agreed upon to be one of the pioneers of the Tactical shooter genre and went on to become a highly influential title that led to multiple sequels spin-offs rule 34 animations ports with the PlayStation Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast being the first ones in line down on the one hand you've got the PlayStation Port which was pretty much an entirely different game with highly simplified missions a limit of only three operators and the inclusion of actual firstperson weapon models whereas the ones on the 64 and the Dreamcast followed much closer in line with that original PC version with a Dreamcast in particular again being the closest to the PC tangle down this is also to one of the few times where that controller doesn't actually handicap the controls I mean it still be nice if we could play this with The Mouse and the keyboard but the slower and more methodical nature of the game play means you're less likely to be fumbling around under pressure at least where movement and shooting are concerned the issue though is that they still had to map a couple dozen or so different commands and inputs within the limitations of just how many buttons there actually are on that controller and as a result there is a whole leap of combinations and commands here which are just really clunky to pull off I mean for instance to Simply activate night vision you press down on the d-pad and then the x button to give the go codes you hold the left trigger the start button and then press a all at the same time Alpha Go I mean even just to reload a weapon you need to press down on the d-pad and then the a button and it's like they've all just been kind of mapped at random not really making all that much sense Al go so if you're going to play this one I suggest you do what I did which is to have that manual handy nearby because believe me you're going to be glancing over at it a hell of a lot the only other complaints I'd have for this one more stem from Rainbow 6 itself and not the Dreamcast Port specifically and that is like simply put you've got to accept the fact that you're playing a really old early iteration of a military shooter back from when it was still just a burgeoning genre down the backup now and despite Rainbow Six having this incredibly detailed planning system where you can control every aspect from the kind of guns and armor your operators wear through the even their movement speed and Rules of Engagement that even the absolute best laid plans can still fall victim to those evil gods of RNG man down and with a foolproof system of go codes and coordinated strikes your operatives are still going to frequently get wiped out by some lone terrorists that they just refuse to acknowledge be the backup now but then you replay that same Mission with the same plan a second time and it's like they've all turned into John Wick mbing down the bad guys to Second they enter a room one time I even saw Chavez kill three terrorists in a bar with a pencil with a [ __ ] pencil with a [ __ ] still though this is hands down the best console Port of that original game that is of course unless Ubisoft somehow bring it back in some kind of anniversary edition or something but I think there's a high chance of them making a new Splinter Cell game than there ever is a seeing that happen it's code name it's r in the year 2000 we eventually got the sequel Rainbow 6 Rogue spear which in a way as well is a good example of why bigger is always not necessarily better and I say that because although this one added in more complex environments and missions to get through it also seems to have come at the expense of the AI and I don't know if this is limited to the Dreamcast version because truth be told I haven't played the PC one that much but it just seems like random Mission failures are far more common here in Rogue spear than they ever were in the first game which leads to to a lot of frustration Mission failure down it is sadly to one of the Dreamcast titles it runs like complete [ __ ] and compared to the first game the frame rate is downright sickness inducing as in it makes me sick makes me sick I mean it definitely looks better than Rainbow 6 but is there really any kind of point to a visual upgrade if it's going to come at the expense of basic performance no this one actually supports The Mouse and the keyboard to which yeah is a nice addition but Finly enough I actually found it easier to still use the controller simply for the reason that this port's got a contextual menu from which you can access every single command and mechanic from giving the go codes through to changing your stance or Vision mode Bravo go move it move it well I don't know maybe by this point I've just been like fully indoctrinated to appreciate the controller got it's okay if nothing else though the mouse does become useful when navigating menus during the planning aspects of all the missions and it does make it easier to restart as well well after your 20th death so yes not all bad Mission failure a hostage was killed so as far as tactical Shooters named rogu spear released for the Dreamcast go this one's easily in the top two up next is one of my all-time favorite Old School shooters and that's Raven software Soldier Fortune one of the first proper violent games I ever remember playing and one that to this day is way more fun than it has any right to be originally released for the PC back in 2000 it has you playing as mercenary John Mullins who yeah no way looks like Captain Price from the Call of Duty series globe tring with his buddy Hawk to stop a terrorist organization from releasing some kind of biological weapon sources in Russia report that an unknown organization stole four nukes from an underrot stockpile near Kazan last night yeah so the plots about is original as a 90s action movie but what really made this one Stand Out was the ghoul damage engine which affected how enemies would react when you shot them and some pretty cool ways like shoot someone in the head for instance and it would leave an exit wound or shoot their hands or feet and you could remove them entirely with that kind of surgical Precision that only a spaz 12 can provide oh yeah and the shotgun in this game damn son truly one of the all-time best boom sticks in all of gaming if nothing else easily what are the most undepreciated and that opening level set inside the subway station where you're dissecting the body parts of these countless skin heads has to be up there with the best openings of all time all up it was a fun and brisk experience and it got two console ports shortly after hitting the PC with a version released for the PS2 and then also the Dreamcast with that version being worked on by rcraft and while that name might not sound too familiar it is worth noting that these guys worked on the awesome Men In Black crashdown for the PS1 along with the seminal Barbie suports a couple of years back though if the views on my Barbie video or any indicator well then no one gives a [ __ ] about that game either radical anyway whereas the PS2 version was and still is pretty damn awful really just feeling and looking like what happens if you run the PC game on the lowest possible settings the Dreamcast Port is yet again pretty damn close to the original I mean obviously it doesn't look as sharp or as crisp as its PC counterpart but with the advantage of being yet again another title that supports the mouse and keyboard it really ain't the worst way to experience John mullen's violent escapades I have seen a whole lot of people talking smack about this version to the point that I really went into this one expecting the worst but outside of a dodgy frame rate in a few areas and loading screens that at the worst of times may be somewhat impatient considering that this is a console Port it's really not as terrible as some people make it out to be most of the gore effects seem to be still intact with the damage modeling being more or less identical I'll be damned and about the only thing I noticed is a weird cutaway during that opening cinematic where it seems to refrain from showing Deca executing that random FPC kill saber you've killed the Gang Kill saber you've killed the gang I will say though that the one thing that does put a thorn in my dick hole is the lack of quick saves or points but then considering most of the levels are broken down into shorter segments I don't think it's that much of an issue I can't really comment on what this thing would be like without that mouse and keyboard because I dare not even try it but I'd imagine it' be like trying to give someone a prostate exam while wearing oven mitts but I can say that with the mouse and keyboard it really just feels like I'm playing a slightly crappier version of a great game so yeah you know what loading 's aside this one right here it's okay in my books sadly though now we're going from one really good military theme shooter to one that's really not very good at all with Spec Ops 2 Omega Squad which is a really early example of the whole mil Sim genre this time with large open maps for the play to explore and a somewhat less linear Mission structure dropping you into these expansive environments and letting you choose your own path it's just that most of these missions aren't all that great and you're mostly just moving through these empty areas getting into the occasional gunfights with enemy soldiers there's different classes to choose from like infantry Close Quarters Demolition and snipers but all this really affects is just starting load out which is completely customizable anyway and seeing as almost every single Mission has combat which takes place at medium to long range there's really no reason to not bring a weapon that doesn't have some kind of a scope I mean bringing a machine gun or a shotgun for instance is fine and dandy but it's not going to do you any good if the enemies are all hanging out in a different time don't I do find it hilarious too how a lot of the weapons use that old stock 357 Magnum sound effect that I swear showed up in every single newgrounds.com animation Back in the early 2000s sadly too there's no mouse or keyboard support but again like Rainbow 6 I didn't find this too much of a huge dilemma simply because the combat isn't that fastpaced to begin with I do find it odd though how you get this notification every time you kill an enemy as if you're playing like a multiplayer shooter or something which just kind of seems out of place given the game strictly solo settings despite missions being set in entirely different countries like Thailand Pakistan and Antarctica all that seems to really change is the color of the ground and Mountain textures and each country still has you coordin off into these long ass narrow valleys they truly went from one extreme to the other as well here I mean that opening mission in Antarctica is about as bright as it gets and then the next one after that in North Korea where it's the dead of night is completely pitch black oh yeah and you know what as well like night missions in this game really just do suck hot fasts and you're almost forced to play this entirely with those night vision goggles on an effect which severely limits your fov to the point that it honestly feels like I'm watching bootleg colonoscopy footage and yeah not the good kind either some [ __ ] thought it'd be a funny idea to place landmines around these areas too landmines which are about the size of your pathetic little pin dick making them next still impossible to see unless you're constantly looking out for them which you know is kind of hard to do when the whole [ __ ] thing is set at nighttime honestly every time I try to do something fun or exciting you make it not that way I often just found myself walking around a lot not really sure what I was supposed to be doing there is a map screen which does help here but the objectives are often just kind of vague giving you like a sentence long description as to what you're supposed to to be doing like you might need to blow up some stuff with satchel charges but it's not going to actually tell you how many satchel charges you need to bring and even during one of the first missions like I got lost searching through a bunch of buildings over and over for 20 something minutes and then it seemed that almost at random the game had decided I'd met the victory requirements and then the mission abruptly [Music] ended well my work is done here what do you mean your work is done you don't do anything the one act of Mercy that spec ops has is that it lets you play any mission in any order removing the need to play through the whole thing in a linear fashion which also means it can show off a whole bunch of varied footage without being forced to play through the game itself all up this is easily one of the worst Shooters released for the Dreamcast and I'd put it in at last place just behind Kiss Psycho Circus so if you're wondering why you've never heard people talking about this entry in the spec ops series well Wonder to know more [Music] [Applause] and this brings us onto the final game in the list and that's another personal favorite of mine with unal tournament originally developed by epic games and released for the PC in 1999 and still too one of the absolute best of the Arena Shooters monster K with some alltime classic Maps classic game modes and weapons like the flat Cannon which is still a force of nature along with one of the most broken rocket launchers ever made allowing you to load up multiple shots at once much like Quake 3 this also got ported to the PS2 and the SGA Dreamcast with there being a lot of positives and negatives with each version and considering they're really just both lesser versions of what we got on the PC I thought it' be far more interesting comparing both of these instead of just one of them so for starters in terms of the base content the PlayStation 2 Port has around 20 or so Deathmatch Maps whereas the Dreamcast has over 40 both versions come with Deathmatch domination and Capture the Flag but for some reason the Dreamcast Port lacks the assault mode and then weirdly too you can only choose to play as a male character in this version whereas on the PS2 you had a whole cast of female characters to play as on that note as well the PS2 has some really cool portrait art for all of these but on the Dreamcast it's just these flat boring low resolution images of those few 3D models you suck to make it even more confusing both games share more or less the exact same UI but where visuals and performance are mostly concerned I'd say the Dreamcast version looks better but runs worse with the frame rate here being honestly some of the worst I've ever experienced on the platform making precise aiming more or less impossible I mean trying to hit enemies sometimes feels like trying to run over a cockroach with a concrete shopping trolley I don't even know what that means they include the capture the flag map facing worlds which is easily one of the most memorable and iconic mat from that original game and the best way to describe how this is incorporated here is brave but foolish brave but foolish my old Jedi friend and again too there were a few times when the game just outright froze my console ouch both versions of the game support mouse and keyboard inputs so it's kind of redundant to bring up those controls but if we're looking at each of them in regards to their respective controllers well then there's no competition man like the PS2 wins hands down learn how to aim I'd even say that the layout of the dual shot controller is second only to playing on a mouse and keyboard and is about as good to control as firstperson shooters ever got outside of that got so overall like what it really comes down to is whether or not you prefer more content over stable performance but considering this is a game that almost entirely relies on quick reflexes and smooth movement you'd be justified for putting the PS2 above that Dreamcast version too easy I will say though that both of these versions censor those W boobs in that tutorial map yeah on the PC you can still see those warlocks as clear as day an event which no doubt turned many a boy into a man whereas on both the PS2 and the Dreamcast those bad boys are hidden away yeah #f free Unreal Tournament I don't think Cliffy B is going to be losing sleep over both of these versions either way and at the end of the day these games still serve their purpose and turned a few more people into Unreal Tournament fans which is really all that matters congratulations you are the winner there still a damn site more fun to play through than unreal too that's for damn sure kill and with that said we're at the end of the video good job I hope that if nothing else I help to bring a new appreciation to some of these older forgotten titles and if there's any other consoles or things you'd like to see me cover well be sure to let me know in the comments section below a [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: GmanLives

Views: 173,076

Keywords: sega dreamcast, dreamcast games, dream cast, retro gaming, video games, fps games, typing of the dead, sonic adventure 2, retro games, sonic adventure, power stone, best dreamcast games, best sega dreamcast games, sega saturn, sega dreamcast games, obscure dreamcast games, soul calibur, space channel 5, best fps games for sega dreamcast, retro gaming pc, best dreamcast horror games, fps games to play on pc, fps games to play, gmanlives, gggmanlives

Id: Hf3ZklVp4X8

Length: 46min 1sec (2761 seconds)

Published: Sun May 05 2024