Date Released: 3 September, 2013 Date Reviewed: 1 October, 2013 Players: 2-8 Length: 20 minutes Replayability: None
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Introduction
SEGA’s Total War: ROME II has recently released for the Personal Computer (PC). Developed by The Creative Assembly (CA) in the UK, the game is set to be one of the biggest PC game releases from SEGA. Combing both real-time battles and sieges – both on land and on sea – and turned-based campaign strategy, the game offers the most grand and expansive Total War experience to date. Continue below to see how the game fared.
Date Released: Winter 2012 for most versions Date Reviewed: February 17, 2013 Genre: 3D Party Racer Players: 1-4 players locally (up to 5 on Wii U), 10 online Length: 3-30 minutes per event, 12-25 hours to unlock all content Replayability: High
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Introduction
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is the sequel to 2010’s crossover party racer Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. Not simply a basic sequel, the game focuses around the concept of vehicles that change during the race to traverse over land, water and the sky with a few courses that even head through lava or outer space. Presented as kid-friendly but designed to be enjoyable for all ages, Transformed is a quality racer for fans of SEGA and the genre. Difficult but not unfair, the game succeeds in making a unique and fun game for groups online or off, but somewhat sloppy direction and awkward marketing attempts keep it from becoming a true classic.
The high-definition remastering of Sonic Team’s classic title for the SEGA Saturn, NiGHTS Into Dreams, is now available for Windows PC on Steam. This updated version of the game, which was released for Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 earlier this year, features enhanced visuals and full support for widescreen displays, as well as new online features including leaderboards and achievement support on Steam. This version also includes a faithful port of the unaltered SEGA Saturn version, as well as several bonus features including art and cinematics from the game. Also included with this version is a port of Christmas NiGHTS, a special version of the game that came bundled with some SEGA Saturn consoles in December of 1996, which features a two complete levels, as well as a number of extra features and content, including new music, art, and game modes all themed around the revelries of the Christmas season.
Date Released: Fall 2012 Date Reviewed: December 5, 2012 Genre: 3D Platformer Players: 1 Player Length: 7 hours for main game, 25+ for extra content Replayability: Very good
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Introduction
Jet Set Radio is the unique 2000 platforming game where players take control of a rebellious group of spray-painting, rollerblading teenagers who intend on seperating the government’s corrupt and overblown power over the people of a fictional variation of a futuristic Tokyo, Japan called Tokyo-to. Originally available on the SEGA Dreamcast, Jet Set Radio has gone on to only have one true sequel, but a strong cult following and has been featured in references and cameos in several unrelated games. This modern high definition version is one of SEGA’s highest quality re-releases of all their past titles to date.
The high definition upgraded version of Jet Set Radio will finally be available for PlayStation Vita users this week for download on the PlayStation Network. It was previously released this fall on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Steam for Windows PC.
Originally launched in 2000 on the SEGA Dreamcast, Jet Set Radio was praised for it’s unique take on the platforming genre, along with it’s graphical style and soundtrack, most of which is included in this version. Modern alterations, such as new camera controls and achievements/trophies have been added, the Vita release includes even more functions, such as optional touch-based spraying.
In addition, Android and iOS versions of the game will be released at the end of month. Jet Set Radio is available on all platforms for $10 USD, the title is set to be the first free game on PlayStation Vita for PlayStation Plus subscribers.
Football Manager 2013, the latest release in SEGA and Sports Interactive’s popular Manager series of games is now available on Steam for PC and Mac platforms and will be out later for numerous mobile devices and PlayStation Portable. Not to be confused with American football, Football Manager 2013 sees players taking the roles of creating and developing their own soccer team and creating a healthy economy for the entire sport.
New features for this year’s version include a new quicker way to play, improved managing roles and several new animations for the matches themselves. In total, the developers claim over 900 additions have been made to this latest release, most of which will be detailed through their blog in the weeks to come.
Hello, friends. We here at the SEGA Source hope that all of our readers had a happy and safe Halloween. Even though most of the festivities have drawn to a close and a metric ton of candy has already been eaten, we’d like to help keep up the frightful spirit of the holiday with our belated second annual giveaway! This time, we’ll be handing out four copies of the 2006 first-person brawler/physiological horror game Condemned: Criminal Origins, which was just recently added to the Steam platform on PC.
To enter, first you must follow us on any of the following three: Our Twitter, RSS, or our Official SEGA Art Tumblr. Then, all you have to do is email us at thesegasource@yahoo.com with an image of your favorite SEGA-themed Halloween costumes (could be your own or somebody else’s, but please give credit if you choose to enter another person’s costume) and that’s it — you’ve been entered for a chance to win. Please submit your entries before the contest ends on Monday, November 5th at midnight. Winners will be random selected and we will promptly send out all of the codes to the winners via email after the contest has ended.
Thanks for all of the continued support and best of luck to everyone!
EDIT: The contest is now over. Thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks to SEGA of America for the opportunity to do this giveway. See you next game!
Just in time for Halloween, Monolith Productions’s first-person brawler/psychological horror game Condemned: Criminal Origins (which was released for the Xbox 360 and PC in 2006) has been made available on the Steam platform for Windows. Best known for their first-person shooter/horror series Blood and F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon, Condemned follows suit Monolith’s tradition of blending desperate elements of action, horror, exploration, and puzzle solving into the framework of the tried and true first-person shooter, though Condemned is a shooter only in the most superficial sense. Guns are present in the game, but they are rare — and ammunition is even rarer, making them impracticable and largely unreliable, given other elements of the game and its story. Instead, the focus of Condemned’s combat is based around melee, in which the player can utilize their a variety of improvised weaponry strewn about the environmental, including pipes, axes, cleavers, pieces of rebar, and mannequin parts, and their bare hands to defend themselves against the crazed denizens of the criminal underworld.
The player assumes the role of Ethan Thomas, a crime scene investigator and detective who has been tasked with tracking down a known serial killer, and as such he is equipped with a number of tools with which to examine crime scenes and uncover clues about victims. This leads into the other central part of the gameplay — the investigation, in which the player can examine bodies and uncover clues that might help lead them to the elusive Serial Killer X. Other prominent elements of the game include psychological horror, which permeates throughout all of the game’s dark, grisly environments, as well as the insane humans that stalk Ethan at every turn and other supernatural elements to the story that give the an morose feeling.
At full price the Condemned can be purchased on Steam for $14.99 USD, but as part of it’s annual Halloween Sale, the service is currently offering the game for a sale price of $7.49. We’ve included the game’s original launch trailer after the break.
New downloadable content has been made available for Arkedo Studio’s offbeat platformer Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit. The DLC, which is available in two separate packs, adds a wide variety of brand new content to the game, which was released earlier this month. The first of these two packs, called the Virtual Rabbit Missions, adds 50 new challenges to the game. These missions are time-based and task the player with defeating all of the monsters in a given level in as little time as possible, with a particular focus on speed and efficiency. The second, aptly titled the Pimp My Rabbit Pack, adds over 70 unique items to the game with which the player can customize look of the titular dead rabbit, Ash. Interesting to note is that some of these items make reference to a number of different SEGA games and series, including Shenmue, Golden Axe, and Skies of Arcadia, among others. All of these and more can be seen in the game’s DLC trailer, which we’ve included after the break.
Both packs are available on PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3, Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360, and on Steam for Windows. Virtual Rabbit Missions can be purchased for $4.99, AUD $7.75, £3.69, €4.49 on PlayStation 3 and Steam or 400 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360, while the Pimp My Rabbit Pack can be purchased for $2.99, AUD $4.25, £1.99, €2.49 on PlayStation 3 and Steam or 240 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360.
The Creative Assembly’s Viking: Battle for Asgard has been made available on PC for the first time through SEGA’s fairly recently formed Hardlight development studio. Based on Norse mythology, Viking is a action-adventure with light open-world, stealth and real-time strategy elements. Players take control of the viking Skarin as he forms alliances across several islands of Midgard in a battle against the evil Goddess Hel.
Viking: Battle for Asgard was originally released in March 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It is considered a spiritual sequel to The Creative Assembly’s first console release Spartan: Total Warrior for the Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation 2.
The SEGA Source 