Hello all!

Ok, so the E3 has come and gone. Prior to the show, it was in question whether or not I would cover it. As evident on the site, I chose to not cover the show. Primarily this was a choice as last week I had finals and was busy studying for those. Also, this E3 for Sega was nothing special. While a few announcements were made concerning the Dreamcast console, nothing of major significance occurred. Some clips from a shooter for the Dreamcast were shown behind closed doors. Developed by Sega of America, the gameplay style resembles Star Fox, though the sheer graphical detail is beyond anything seen on any current console. A few (ugly) screenshots of the demo have made their way onto IGN sites, so it is difficult to tell what level of detail is present in the title. Reports state that the graphics in the demonstration were easily on par with anything seen on the latest Model 3 arcade boards. Bernie Stolar who presented the footage went on to state that the shooter utilizes only 20% of the Dreamcast's potential.

A few details on the console's sound system were also released by Sega. The chipset which is made up of a DSP and RISC processor has been named AICA. Developed by Yamaha, the chipset has hardware support for up to 64 channels of audio. Coupled with 2MB of RAM, the chipset allows for extremely high quality audio on par with high end home theater systems along with real time 3D and studio effects such as reverb, delay, and surround sound. Sega continues to state that Dreamcast's audio chip is as powerful as some entire next generation consoles....Yamaha was also responsible for development of the high speed (12x), high capacity (up to 1GB) CD-ROM drive.

At the E3, third parties also took part in unveiling their plans for the console. Konami of Japan and USA announced that they will be producing several titles, the first being one with the working title of 'Dragon.' It is also rumored that the company is considering Metal Gear Solid and Gradius for release on the Dreamcast as well. Capcom, a long time Sega supporter has announced that they plan to begin a series of mini-RPGs to the console in Japan. Originally the project was planned for the Saturn. Capcom will also be bringing Resident Evil 4 to the console after the release of RE3 on the Playstation.

In America, Sega has announced the first five major developers working on titles for US Dreamcast release: Acclaim, Midway, Interplay, Micropose, and GT Interactive. Citing the companies an elite group...In Europe, several companies have also hinted at plans for DC development. Ubisoft has confirmed their first title called D-Jump, an action adventure game, which will be released in Japan in March '99 and later at the US and European launch of the console. Other developers said to be working on Dreamcast games include Bizarre Creations, Red Lemon, Argonaut, and No Cliche. If you remember, last August No Cliche (then Adeline) was purchased by Sega Europe.

Well then..so what went on with the Saturn at the E3? Not much. Sega did show House of the Dead, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force 3, and Burning Rangers. But nothing new was demonstrated. Both SF3 and BR looked very complete and ready for release. BR is expected this week, while SF3 is listed for the end of June. Working Designs did show Magic Knight Rayearth toward the end of the expo...much to people's dismay, WD forgot to bring a Saturn along to demonstrate the title on. They ended up getting a console express mailed for use at the show. Rayearth is looking complete and is supposed to finally ship on time! WD's web site says July '98 whilst Electronics Boutique claims June 9th.

In Japan, Jaleco released their racer, GT-24 for the Saturn. The game looks pretty good and has not suffered too much in its port from the arcade. About on par with previous efforts. The gameplay is pretty good, but not up to the level of Sega Rally. Expected out this week in Japan are Project X2 (Shooter) and Grandia Digital Museum. Project X2 is the sequel to the hailed shooter from the Amiga This time around Team 17 has given the game a modern treatment using a mixture of ray traced and hand drawn graphics. Project X2 had previously only been out on the PSX receiving rave reviews. Considering the Saturn's superior 2D abilities it will be interesting to see if Team 17 took advantage of them.

Well, that's all this week. Remember, if you haven't voted yet, please do so. One more week to go in poll #12. Topic: After reading about the Dreamcast system, what do you plan to do? Buy a Japanese version, or wait for a local release of the console? Also, what about Saturn support outside of Japan until the 1999 US/Europe release of Dreamcast? Vote at: http://dextremes.com/sega/poll.html.

-Greg