Crazy Taxi, 3Sega Dreamcast
Crazy Taxi has been an arcade hit for Sega and anticipation of it appearing on the Dreamcast console has been high. But arcade games rarely convert well for use in the home, as they are designed to be a "quick fix".
Crazy Taxi is a madcap game. The main objective is to pick passengers up from the side of the road and deliver them to their destination as quickly as possible. Quickly in the literal sense. If this means breaking red lights, jumping over bridges, swerving through oncoming cars, doing u-turns or driving on the pavement, so be it.
Pedestrians abound and try as you might to run them over, will always manage to jump out of your way in the nick of time. Running into other cars is easier but your cab is indestructible so the only penalty is loss of time.
The city which you speed around is based on San Francisco so there are plenty of hills and bumps to get your taxi into the air. The more daring and outlandish their journey is, the more money you get. Combinations of "tricks" can be performed to really hike up the meter, but all the "tricks" in the world are useless if you fail to get your customers to their destination on time. Although it suffers somewhat from pop-up, Crazy Taxi looks extremely good and showcases the Dreamcasts graphic capabilities well. The music can be repetitive but comments from your customers regarding your driving skills keep you on your toes.
Repetitiveness is a danger with arcade games but Crazy Taxi overcomes this in several ways. Although the game is basically pick up a person, deliver them to their destination and repeat, the layout of the city and means it will take a long time to figure out the best routes.
Several mini-games add variety. These involve trying to make your cab jump certain distances or bursting so many balloons by driving into them in a certain amount of time.
Crazy Taxi is undoubtedly one of the better games on Dreamcast although a multiplayer mode would have been welcome. Owners of the console can console themselves with this title to alleviate any spasms of annoyance of Sega's seemingly indifferent attitude to making the console's Internet facility available in Ireland.
The highly anticipated PlayStation 2 was released in Japan on Saturday. Its predecessor sold over 60 million units worldwide and a machine exists in almost one in every four Irish households. The new PlayStation will be able to play the vast majority of games available for the current PlayStation. This backward compatibility is clever marketing from Sony. It somehow justifies shelling out for the new machine, as your current PlayStation games will still be playable. But who is going to want to play "old" games on a new machine? And even if you fancy a bit of retro gaming, well, if you keep your old games, why not keep your old PlayStation?
Nevertheless, the machine will be a huge success and will also be DVD compatible, allowing it to show movies. Much of the new line-up, however, will initially consist of revamped versions of titles which were successful on the PlayStation.
Sony has said it will establish the PlayStation 2 as a platform for Internet-based electronic distribution of digital content in 2001. With an Ethernet connection to a broadband network such as digital cable, PlayStation2 users will be able to download computer entertainment. Also in 2001, a PlayStation2 expansion module will be made available as a network adapter (PC card interface) and they will establish an e-distribution server.
PlayStation 2 will be available in Ireland in the autumn. The hype is already simmering - expect it to boil over pretty soon.