CHRISTMAS…

YOU LITTLE…

SHITS.

“Found this while rifling through some old stuff. Just look at the attention to detail. It’s even got a Sonic-branded label inside! They don’t make ’em like they used to, etc etc. And here’s the best bit… you can have it! Keep it, wear it or give it to away to a reader in some UK:R mega competition… the choice is yours.”

“Seriously, it’s only going to charity if you say no. If you do want it, give me a shout soon as I’m leaving the country after Xmas! (don’t print my name please!)” – MR X.

The first person to email UKR saying they want it can have it. Or, at least, we’ll forward your email address to MR X and ask him to post it to you, if he can be bothered. Then you might get it in the post. It’s like a Christmas present.

“Around two years ago I stopped you by the coffee machine and told you about a SEGA restaurant, and you demanded photographic proof. As such I took a photo from the top-deck of the number 2, maybe 82, bus that went past it – one captures it in all its glory, the other one is a bit fuzzy as the bus started moving.

“In any case, two years on, it remains evidence of high class cookery under the SEGA brand. I for one hope there are Sonic shaped potato wedges. Or at least that there WERE as I went past the other day and it was called something else. So there you go, two years ago there was a restaurant on Baker Street called SEGA” – Will.

“When at the supermarket to pick up a cheap A/V switch box, I found a familiar console on the back. Ended up plugging my Dreamcast into it, too. Funnily enough, it had a picture of a PS2 on the front, so alas, the Dreamcast is confined to the back, with no colour, and forced to sit next to a PlayStation1. The shame it must feel” – Rhys.

“Enclosed is a crap picture of the student accommodation opposite my work (yes, I occasionally see students IN THEIR BRAS from the comfort of my desk) which I took with my phone from the bins outside so no-one would see.”

“Anyway, it clearly says ‘204’ and then our beloved DC logo. Obviously this is viral marketing and is pointing at April 20th as a launch day for the Dreamcast 2! Happy Days!” – Nick.

Happy days indeed, unless you’re a UKR reader and were expecting something more interesting today.

It’s OutRun Online Arcade. Its existence was revealed by the Australian censorship people a month ago, but it was such a vague bit of news that it was only deemed suitable to get dumped elsewhere on the network.

But now we have imagery from which opinions may be formed. It looks like SEGA’s making yet another attempt to sell some copies of OutRun2, basically, by redoing the Xbox/PS2 game for online use.

Coming to Xbox Live Arcade. 200 Achievement points in under five minutes.

Also coming to another form of online gaming service that works sporadically on another console. That version will hopefully be marginally worse.

Hopefully, masterful development team Sumo Digital will include some sort of lower-resolution, jerkier frame rate cheat in the PS3 version, activated by holding a few buttons down while it boots up.

Whoever formatted these screenshots for distribution needs severe disciplining. They’re about 100k each – nothing like the file size required to do OutRun justice.

You can see some terrible JPEG artefacting on the full-size versions. It is not good.

OutRun should NOT be SPOILED by JPEG artefacting. When it comes to OutRun, it’s acceptable to email out BMPs and even CMYK TIFFs. We don’t mind waiting a bit longer for them to download. If anything, it just adds to the excitement.

This might mean we get to do another pointless interview with Sumo Digital, in which literally NO FACTS about the game are revealed whatsoever! Like this one. And this one. And this one.

It may also mean that man, whatever he’s called, the one who does the SEGA music quite often, you know, him, is involved. There might also be an interview opportunity there as well. We are already shaking with nervous excitement!

So many fantasies spinning around in our heads right now.

Usually we’d be a bit bored of writing this many captions, but not when it’s OutRun.

20 screenshots, 38 screenshots, 59 screenshots – BRING THEM ON. Resizing images of OutRun games is never a chore. Even the time spent manually inputting the HTML code for the pictures is whizzing by!

The driving featured within the screenshots could be better. We compiled a handy guide to taking screenshots of OutRun a few years back using the PSP version, should you be in the process of taking screenshots for your magazine or blog.

There’s only one other car on the road, here. And the main car is being driven straight at a speed WELL BELOW its potential maximum. This screenshot would NOT have passed the internal UKR OutRun Screenshot Certification process. It’s more than good enough for GamesTM, though.

MINI GAMES!!!

Glorious. Any excuse to fall back into OutRun2 gratefully received in these dark days.