Hello all,

It has been another quiet week for the Saturn. Although, a few significant titles shipped...first off is Capcom's Vampire Saviour. The game uses the fabled 4Meg RAM cart allowing for near arcade perfect animation and sound effects. Vampire Saviour is the third game Capcom's Vampire (Darkstalkers) series. The Saturn version also adds three characters missing from the original arcade version: Donovan, Phobos, and Pyron. Which brings the number of playable characters to 18. In short, the game lives up to Capcom's high standards.

Over in Europe, Panzer Dragoon Saga and House of the Dead have supposedly managed to slip into a few stores...while other distributors claim a weeks delay (Sega Europe maintains both are out as of April 10th). Both games need little introduction to you so I won't spend time on that. PDS is of course an exceptional title. Not sure? Pick up a copy of the latest Sega Saturn Magazine for a copy of the first disc. House of the Dead is still receiving mixed reviews. CD access time is an issue, as at time the action pauses for a few moments as the next section of the stage loads. The question relating to the blood color is still unresolved. Game-Online, a web site run by Sega Saturn Mags' publisher has a review of the game up and the images they have show red blood. Though no mention to the question is made in the 'review.' Hopefully in the next week we'll have a definite answer. American gamers will have to wait until the first week of May for the official US release.

In the past month, dEX has been obviously slowing down. Part of this is due to the ultimate demise of the Saturn. Also due to time constraints from my school work. Aside from these issues, I've been trying to decide which direction to take the site in terms of content and presentation. Currently, I plan to gradually extend coverage of Sega's next console as more information becomes available. Saturn areas such as Snapshots and The Poll area have remained dormant for far too long. Relevant issues for the polls have become less significant, though I do have a few more planned. With most games released now being from Japan, I do not have direct access to the games or publications from which I normally pull screenshots and other previews. Then, there's the language barrier...

It is time for a change. The site's appearance has remained pretty much unchanged since the last major redesign more than a year ago. dEX has grown to such a size that a redesign would be a major undertaking. One which I do not have the time for right now. I do have some minor changes in planning for the coming weeks. In the long term, some larger changes to the site...

I just wanted to let you know what I have planned for dEX, and to hopefully get some words out of those who receive/read this newsletter. That's all this week, cya!

-Greg