CharlotteBMM said:
Yeah, you're more than likely right about the DC version. It's been so long since I've played that particular one, I think I may have forgotten how it truly looked. I just remember that I loved the game and the graphics were very "clean," which is what you eluded to with the good framerate comment. I'm going to have to pick up a copy of the DC version so I can compare as well.
Well, I was able to compare and contrast, last night. The Xbox version is quite spot on with the Dreamcast version. Even better yet, the Xbox version runs the game at least as well as the Dreamcast did. No extra slowdown, at all, induced by the port. Even certain visible glitches you see (with certain camera angles), when taking distinct shortcuts made it through. (Nothing game breaking, but little parts where the camera position reveals outside of a tunnel due to clipping, or clipping below a surface, on specific extremes of the game, where the camera is positioned to do so.) They mapped the switching of cameras to the Y button, and every other button behaves precisely like the Dreamcast, so much, it almost feels in your hands you're playing on a Dreamcast. Holding the controller, and not looking at it, you could almost mistake it for playing on a Dreamcast.
One funny thing is that the Dreamcast version of Hydro Thunder had a noticible load time when going between selecting a track to selecting a vehicle and such, and quite sparse when it came to sounds played during the menu. Oddly enough, the Xbox version behaves precisely like that, with those noticible load pauses between menus. For some reason, I was thinking that aspect would've been eliminated, in the port. However, it remains more-or-less like it always had been.
Fortunately, none of the bugs from the first Dreamcast revision were in this one, so it's based on the Fixed Dreamcast release with that Green "New" sticker on the box. (I remember trading in one version for the other).
However, the water is just how I remembered it. It kind of undulated like it was alive in itself, and the boats bounce around ok, but handle way too well for real boats. The jump button combo works just as well. Even the pseudo-reflection mapping, in the water, comes through.
If there's one thing I would like to try is to put my Xbox through the Hi-def. My Dreamcast typically runs on the VGA box, and I like that look. (I should get that $60 box that converts Hi Def signals to VGA displays)
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