Dear Future Gamer

I don't think that games are losing too much sparkle (Feedback, 'Stale Dreamcast', FG48). With each new wave of hardware comes a new style of games playing. The old eight and 16bit days were great, but very two-dimensional. PlayStation brought us 3D games, and N64 fantastic multiplayer in 3D. Now, as we enter the 128bit days, we can expect what I would call 'four-dimensional games'. Shenmue is an example of this, as not only will it put us into a relatively believable 3D world, but it will also take place with a real time scale... unlike every other game I've ever played which allow unlimited time to do tasks. We've been through the age of beat 'em ups, racers and top-down adventures. We're seeing off boring 3D fighters and (Zelda and FFVII apart) crass adventure-RPG games, and now we're entering a brave new videogame world where game-types are merged and the worlds become believable. And I'm happy to jump on into that world and see where it takes me...

Geoffrey Roberts

FG: In Shenmue, you can spend hours playing old Sega games in arcades. And you can spend your winnings from the virtual fruit machine on a virtual can of Coke. Crazy. But we like it.