Hi all!

It's been a quiet week for the Saturn. Even with the Tokyo Game Show few major announcements have been made. New titles announced for the Saturn include: Deep Fear (Sega), two Capcom classic collection sets, Langrisser V (Masiya), Sega World Cup '98 France (Sega), and Super Tempo (Sega).

Starting with Sega's Deep Fear, the game takes place in the oceans. Due to some lower oxygen levels in the ocean, all sorts of strange 'monsters' have begun breeding. As a deep sea explorer, it's your job to find out what exactly is going on...As for Capcom, their classic collection includes two basic volumes: Shooters and A Ghouls 'n Ghosts Collection. The shooter collection includes 1942, 1943 and 1943 Dash. The Ghouls collection contains Ghosts 'n Goblins, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. Another title from Capcom was Vampire Saviour which is slated for a mid April release. The game uses the 4Meg cart so expect a very close port of the arcade version. The latest in the long standing Langrisser series was on display, I have little info on this game, but its expected to make some big advances in the strategy/RPG series and is slated for a June release. Next is Sega World Cup '98 France. Based on the upcoming World Cup in France this game will use a modified version of the World Wide Soccer engine. It is also said to have FIFA licensing (real names finally?!), but I have not confirmed this. Its slated to be released in Japan to coincide with the start of the World Cup in early June. No word on a US or European release. There is also a 'second' version of the game in development...perhaps for Sega's next console? Finally Sega was showing Super Tempo. The game is based on a platformer Tempo which was released on the failed 32X long ago. Its a traditional 2D platformer and is set for an April 29th release.

Now, while everyone has been closely watching the TGS for signs of Sega's next console, I've come across some interesting news taking place in Germany. At this years CeBit '98 in Hanover Germany, VideoLogic and NEC showed off their second gen PowerVR chipset. Reporting from the show, Thomas Pabst of Tom's Hardware Guide was blown away by their demos. One of many quotes: "A knockout...3D performance beyond the Voodoo 2...image quality beyond anything on the market." See the Breaking News area for more of his comments and information on the chips...

Early this week, Sega of America officials disputed statements that all Saturn hardware and software sales would be ceased as of Marth 31st. They claimed that there were translation problems and the SoJ official was misquoted. At this time developers maintain that hardware support will end at the end of March while software support will last until the end of May. SoA continues to shift its focus to the next console's release in 1999.

No new games were released last week, however several are coming this week from Japan: Choro Q Park (Takara), Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel (Gainax/Adventure), House of the Dead (Sega/Shooter), King of Fighters '97 (SNK/Fighting), and Tokimeki Drama Series Vol. 2 (Konami/Dating Sim). The long awaited House of the Dead has so far received very mixed opinions. People who've played the demo version release in Japan weeks ago have commented on it looking great, while others complained of a pixelated mess. We shall see...Next is SNKs King of Fighters 97. The game uses the familiar 1meg RAM cart. From video clips I've seen, it looks very good and is on par with previous NeoGeo to Saturn ports.

Europeans have a game coming up this week, Atlantis from Sega. I have no info on this title other than it is scheduled to ship in the UK on the 27th. Other than that GT Interactive is set to release Atari Greatest Hits, and Maximum Force for the Saturn sometime this month. No other releases are set until April when Euro gamers will see House of the Dead and Panzer Dragoon Saga (April 10th). Due to disagreements between Sega and Virgin, X-Men vs. SF has been pushed back to a summer/fall release in Europe.

In the States, there are no releases until the first of May (April?) when we'll see PD Saga and House of the Dead. The two seem to have slipped back one month on the release schedule according to Electronics Boutique. Working Designs has yet again pushed back Magic Knight Rayearth from an April 2nd to a May release.

That's all this week, thanks for reading..cya!

-Greg