Halo 2 

The original Halo was a driving force in creating a substantial market share against Sony and Nintendo, and expectations for the sequel were naturally high. Halo 2 delivered upon those expectations in spades, combining an adrenaline-pumping story with a comprehensive suite of multiplayer options making for an experience that keeps you hooked and doesn’t let go. Hundreds of thousands of fans would have fond memories of duking it out against friends, and Halo 2 might just be the defining Xbox experience for a majority of those fans.

GENICHIRO ASHINA – TUTORIAL FIGHT (SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE)

Basically every boss fight in Sekiro can be a hopeless one depending on what kind of a player you are, but the tutorial boss fight against Genichiro Ashina in the opening minutes of the game is actually hopeless. It’s designed as a super-tough encounter, so the average player simply cannot get past it, and losing the fight leads to a a story cutscene where the Wolf’s arm gets cut off. It is technically possible to defeat Genichiro in this encounter, but all this does is give you a slightly altered cutscene, where your arm still ends up getting cut off.

SHENMUE

Many years have passed since Shenmue first came out on Sega’s Dreamcast, but the series’ massive fan following hasn’t waned. Shenmue 1 introduced the industry to a style of game that was way ahead of its time- and though the combat wasn’t the centrepiece, learning new combos and then pulling them off against enemies was deeply satisfying.

Sega ultimately ended up releasing Shenmue 1 and 2 HD, moderate remasters of the classic Dreamcast games to bring fans up to speed ahead of the launch of next year’s Shenmue 3, the long awaited next entry in the franchise. However, once, it was working on something far more ambitious—a full fledged remake of Shenmue.

Eurogamer shared this news today, also sharing footage of the aborted effort. Apparently, the remake was in development for quite a while before budget and resource considerations led to its cancellation. The remake was going to be a substantial overhaul of the original game, featuring, among other things, proper shadow maps, overhauled rendering and geometry, higher resolution textures, advanced lighting techniques such as ambient occlusion, upgrades made to the NPCs, and more. You can look at what it was looking like around the time it was cancelled in the shared footage for yourself below.

While it is a shame we didn’t get the remake, and instead got the relatively more conservative remaster, in the end, at least Shenmue fans got some modernization of the classic games, I suppose. You can play Shenmue 1 and 2 HD on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Shenmue II was a game that was ahead of its times in many ways, featuring an open world, a day-and-night system, a dynamic weather system, and other such features that made its world believable. In this game, many of the features from the first game makes a return while also bringing new features such as being able to ask for directions from random NPCs, and the ability to speed up the game’s clock when needed.

The game’s story sees Ryo continuing on his journey to avenge the death of his father and his journey takes him to new locations such as Kowloon. Combat in the game involves brawling against multiple enemies and also some quick-time events. The remastered version of the game brings some decent visual improvements to the game and it’s definitely worth picking up just so you can play it on modern systems. If you have any difficulty with any particular part of the game, then the following video walkthrough  will help you  out.

While we won’t be seeing Shenmue 3 until next year, the first two games in the series are getting remastered, and will be coming out soon in the West. We’ve already seen several trailers for Shenmue 1 and 2 HD, with its upcoming Western release approaching quickly. Now, Sega has released a brand new trailer for the its release in Japan, and it looks like Japanese gamers will have to wait a while before they get their hands on the remaster.

In Japan, the remastered games will release on November 22 exclusively for the PS4- no PC and Xbox One versions, then. The trailer showcases some cutscenes from the games, and also details the limited edition, which will come with a soundtrack and a special box. Those who buy this edition early will also receive a double-sided poster with the game’s art.

We can’t help but wonder why the game will be releasing in Japan three months later than the Western release. It’s definitely weird- hopefully Sega says something about it in the near future. You can check out the trailer below. Shenmue 1 and 2 HD Remaster will release in the West on August 21 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Shenmue 3 has been delayed to next year, but ahead of that, Sega will give everyone the chance to catch up on the series so far with the upcoming Shenmue 1 & 2 remastered collection, that is out for PS4, Xbox One, and PC next month, on August 21. Today, Sega shared a brand new trailer for that collection.

This trailer actually highlights one of the strengths of the Shenmue games- their almost discomfiting faithfulness to real life. For instance, this trailer compares locations of the real world Yokosuka with their analogs in game, and it is fascinating to see just what extent Yu Suzuki and his team went to to keep things as accurate as possible.

You can check out the trailer for yourself below, and see just how well these games replicated the authentic Japanese atmosphere. As mentioned previously, they’ll be out next month for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, while Shenmue 3 comes out next year for PS4 and PC. Recently, Sega revealed details on the visual enhancements the upcoming remaster would receive over the originals, and just why both the games will be locked at 30 FPS. Read more on that here.

Sega’s HD remasters for Shenmue 1 and 2 finally have an official release date of August 21^st. As announced by Xbox Live director of programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, the remasters are currently available for pre-order and pre-download on the Microsoft Store. Those on the West Coast who purchase the bundle will see it unlock on August 20^th, 9 PM PDT.

Interestingly, Sega itself hasn’t officially confirmed the release date. Regardless, Shenmue 1 and 2 HD Remaster costs $29.99 and will also be available for PlayStation 4 and PC. Despite featuring the same story and gameplay from the earlier Dreamcast versions, the remasters will sport a modern interface.

Players can also choose between classic or modern controls and even experience the game’s Japanese audio for the first time. In the meantime, creator Yu Suzuki is working on Shenmue 3, the long-awaited sequel in the franchise, for PS4 and PC. It’s been delayed to 2019 but development is still progressing steadily.

Shenmue 3 launches next year, finally bringing the main arc of the series to an end. But it is the conclusion to a story that began almost two decades ago- while there many be many fans who remember what happened in the original games, for many, Shenmue is a brand new game, and they have no context as to what led up to the events of the third game.

Which is why a collection of the original two games remastered for modern day consoles would make so much sense. But thus far, an official announcement on that has not been made- although it sounds like one might be in the works anyway.

A Shenmue 1&2 pack appeared for the PS4 and Xbox One on the site of the Czech retailer Alza, and the sites of Slovak retailers Heureka, GetGame and MadGamer (via NeoGAF). The general saying goes, where there is smoke, there is fire- and there’s far too much smoke here to ignore. It seems like a Shenmue collection for both consoles may be in the works after all.

Curiously enough, a PC version is not listed (which is bizarre, since Shenmue 3 is headed to PS4 and PC, but not Xbox One)- that said, there is a possibility that it will be Steam only, which would explain the lack of retailers listing it.

At long last, we will be getting Shenmue 3, finally seeing how Ryo’s epic odyssey ends almost 20 years after it first started on the Dreamcast. The question, though, is, for players who are only just going to be jumping into the series now – and there will be a lot of them who just pick up Shenmue 3 because of the hype, and with no prior familiarity with the series – how will they actually know what is going on in the game? Shenmue is heavily story based, and continuity matters in it. How will players be able to keep up with the story?

The answer to this question has been an obvious HD collection of the first two games. It’s something that players have been asking for for a long time, and something that Sony and Sega have discussed before, but never actually committed to. And while they still have not committed to it, it looks like Shenmue HD may be happening, at last.

The domain for ShenmueHD.com has been registered by Sega of Europe, according to the WhoIs record for the site (via Gematsu)- while the page right now appears to be blank, this suggests that an HD remaster for the first two games may be incoming. An excellent way for modern players to play one of the first truly open world games, and two classic titles that are regarded as among the most important games of all time. As for Shenmue 3, it is currently due for release on PS4 and PC, after having had a very successful Kickstarter.