[atsonicpark]

BTW, guys, if you go to btjunkie.org, type in dreamcast, there are 4 or 5 torrents called "dreamcast [EVERY US GAME!]" and they're separated into, like, A-E and shit. I highly reccomend those torrents, they're well seeded and shit and dcisozone only lets you download 1 file at a time. Though most of the best DC games came out in Japan, and you'll want to get those later, you can hurry up and just get all the US games really quickly.. MDK2, Crazy Taxi 2, Soul Calibur, and so on and so on and so on, in a few hours.

BTW, I LOVE the VMU's, the little memory cards, I got a brand new one from amazon.com for $5. Some of the games have VMU games attached to them. In D2, the VMU operates as a compass. In Sonic Adventure, there's a separate Tamagotchi-ish "pet raising simulator" for the VMU.

I forgot to mention.. In D2, there are RPG elements and "hunting" elements. Every time you kill an enemy, you get experience points, which raises your level. This is awesome. The enemies don't drop items, so it's nice that there's a reward for killing them. I've never seen an action game where you get experinece points like that (the Castlevanias that are like Metroid kinda do, though, I guess, if that counts).

OH YEAH -- THERE IS A GLOSSARY ARCHIVE IN THE GAME! So, anything you interact with in some way, there's a neat little description of it in the game!!! This is really cool. In case you didn't understand part of the story, it's in this thing. Also, there's some kinda minor stuff, like the definition/history of pianos and dinosaurs, but it's really really interesting.

Speaking of pianos, there's this dude who plays Mozart for you. You hear a melody at one point and you have to sit at the piano and play the next 5 notes correctly to open a door. Haha. There aren't that many puzzles, really, there are just moments when you need to take a picture of some numbers (the game comes with a camera which saves pictures to the VMU... yeah, Metal Gear Solid 2 did that a few years later.. I have a feeling this game REALLY inspired Killer7 dude, and Hideo Kojima, and the Resident Evil 4 dude) -- or write 'em down.

Anyway, the hunting part... you get a rifle you can zoom in and out.. you get to kill rabbits and moose and birds and cook em (this is done instantly, you kill em and they immediately are "cooked" as meat)... this is surprisingly really addictive, I found myself killing moose for hours. You get medals and different ranks depending on how good you are at killing. Also ,you have unlimited ammo in your rifle and both of your main uzi-type weapons (the bigger weapons have limited ammo, but they're extremely powerful).

Really, the game is just SO ... unobtrusive, I guess.. like, there isn't all these menus and submenus and energy bars getting in the way, you only see that stuff when you press a button.. the game moves REALLY fast, and it's pretty clear where to go, though I've read reviews where people are confused for some reason... the game moves REALLY fast. It's only about 10 hours long, and there are quite a few cinemas, but the storyline is the most interesting one I've ever encountered in a video game...

There is a character who talks about her mom killing herself.. and she turns to drugs (it shows her doing drugs in the game)... she also writes poetry and she plays a song she wrote on a tape.. the tape fucks up and starts playing really really slow, about halfway through the listening session.. again, Metal Gear Solid had some of this banter, and I guess Silent Hill had some more "serious" discussions and stuff.. but there are still some pretty insane things in this game I've never encountered in a mainstream video game before.

THis game is 10 years old and still ahead of its time. Check it out, it will be a game EXPERIENCE you will never forget.