It's been 10 years since I first played the series and 14 since I first got hyped for it and the Dreamcast. To this day never had that same amazing feeling when I was hyped for DC and Shenmue. Been through many console hype and launches since but all fairly forgettable for me. The DC still stands out to me. Shenmue still one of my fave games. I been hyped for many amazing games since. Some of them in my all time faves as well. I doubt that will ever happen again. 1999 PSone/N64 we loves them and still two amazing systems but were very limited. They were early 3D as before that we were playing SNES/Genesis(Mega Drive) Dreamcast and Shenmue showed us the future of gaming. Shenmue showed us the first time realistic people and free roaming a town and interacting with people. Picking up ordinary objects. I remember reading Next Gen Magazine saying you can sort through each individual tape(showing the screen shot where Ryo dumps the bucket of tapes on the table) also said you could get a job and walk in every building we see. Now keep in mind this is before GTA III. That marvel of new ways to explore and amount of detail was beyond our imaginations. Sure we have seen very open world and very detailed games since but seeing it for the first time will never be topped IMO. Then playing it.Damn. I wish I could experience this again for the first time. I want to have this feeling again in gaming for both DC and Shenmue. I hope it can happen in gaming at all for me.
I posted sme of those mags on Shenmue Dojo main site a long time ago. I would give up HD gaming to go back and experience that wonder again. Might be just me but that period was the most magical moment in gaming for me.