Hi all!

This week has been a relatively busy week for Sega. See the news area for the full story on each of these three things...

* They have secured a patent on 3D technology that has to do with changing the viewpoint on the fly in 3D games such as the VF series, and their racing games. Sega believes that many of its competitors games (Namely Namco, Sony, and Nintendo) violate the patent. Sega plans to charge royalties for the use of the technique.

*Sega of US has launched a new $25 million ad campaign called 'Hard Stuff.' The new ads will span print publications, television, and in store promotions.

*Sega has also secured exclusive publishing rights for games developed by Visual Concepts. Recently, VC has been developing games for Electronic Arts. The first game released for the Saturn through the deal will be NBA Action '98.

In the US four new games have been released. As expected The Lost World shipped early last week. Check out the Snaps area for a few screenshots..oh ignore the speculative comments I made about the game there. I have just read a review and the verdict is: Horrid! The sound and graphics are great. While the graphics are 3d, you are limited to a 3D area. But..the control stinks and the gameplay is boring and repetitive. In summary: Just as the movie sucked...the game does too.

Capcom also shipped two new games in the US, Mega Man X4 and Resident Evil: Director's Cut. While RE has been out for quite a long time on the PSX, the game is still quite good. Graphically, it compares extremely well to the Playstation version. Finally, Midway has shipped Maximum Force. I don't have a whole lot of info on the game, the official web site neglects to really give much straight forward info. By the cryptic texts it looks like a game of similar gameplay style to Lethal Enforcers. If that's the case, I think I'll pass.

Over in Japan, SNK has released Samurai Spirits IV: Amakusa's Revenge. The latest (and IMO best) SS game also uses the RAM cart for extra memory. As usual, the quality of the port is quite good. The player is treated with extra smooth animation and excellent control. KSS released their offbeat 3D fighter, Goiken Muyou (Anarchy In The Nippon.) The game draws heavily on elements from the Virtua Fighter Series. Finally, we have another of the popular simulation game genre, Roommate in Summer Vacation.

I don't have much info this week for all you Europeans out there. However, one thing is that World Wide Soccer '98 should be available soon in the UK and elsewhere. If I'm remembering correctly, the game has all the real teams and players from the British leagues. Also included are the French and Spanish leagues. They have the real teams but not the players. Graphically the game is top notch and perhaps even a little improved over the '97 version.

On the site, I've also updated the release dates section to cover October through December. That's all this week, cya!

-Greg