Talking about Shenmue, did you know that Sega did actually make a kind of sequel to the Shenmue series? Called Yakuza. Not sure if the first of these games was released in the west, but Yakuza 2 has just been released in the UK for the PS2 (2 years after its original Japan release).

I've not yet had chance to play Yakuza 2 but do have a copy of the game. Edge gave it a good review so that can't be a bad thing.