Game console purchase

[divibisan]

the GBA rocks! I think it's far better than anything else that's out there.

Yes it is because no one is willing to devote the resources to make something better because the GBA would crush it anyway by sheer numbers

The GameBoy was release in the late eighties, and other than the color refresh, it's essentially unchanged for almost 20 years! So essentially, the original GB design was spectacular!

When it first came out it was good, but ir remained unchanged for almost 20 years and it got hopelessly outdated. Because of their monopoly, nintendo didn't need to update or improve their product. I can guarantee you that if they had a competeter in that market the Gameboy would have been updated more frequently and we would have gotten a better product.

Think why XBox has so many mediocre games? It's because people just port to it whatever they have developed for the PS2.

Yes, but that's not the PS2's fault. These large companies make rushed, forulaic, mediocre games for the PS2 and port them directly to the, admittedly more powerful xbox.

the fact that developers are only starting the make their games look really good AFTER PS2's been out for over a year shows that how difficult it is to exploit and code for the console.

This happens with all consoles, the first games look much worse than later. With the GC, there are a few games that look good, but most either look bad or like cartoons (not nesseserily bad, but relatively easy to do) With the PS2, there were a few games that looked great when it first came out too.

True, but look at Quake, Quake II, and Quake III, the premise is the same, the missions are pretty much the same, yet the sequels are also wildly popular!

Yes, they're popular and fun games, but they lack originality. While being the same as other games doesn't make something bad, it just makes it worse. If you sepend $50 on a new game that plays the same as another game and doesn't add something big (a new, fun gimmic) you have, don't you feel ripped off. A games never as fun if you've played a game just like it before.

How about Half-Life? When it came out it looked like just any other FPS clone, yet its game play was dramatically different (it ROCKED)

As I said, it has a gimmic, a good story. Had Half-Life not had a story and had just been a mindless shoot-em-up FPS would it have rocked as much? I don't think so.

Think about it, even though Square is ~20% owned by Sony, it is willing to divert resources (even though through a "third party") to develop for GC and GBA, it does show that Square seens tremendous potential in the GameCube.

Sony doesn't mind that Square is developing for the GBA because that system is not a competitor. As for the GC, the square affiliate says that it is developing square games for the GBA. While they say that they will have GBA-GC connectivity that means one unconfirmed game. I think that the real reason behind this is not that they believe that the GC is a hugely profitable market, but that they are trying to find new profit sources. Nintendo's Fund Q is paying for the porting so Square is not putting that much money on the line by making Nintendo games. Additionally, they are not going to divert resources because they are not making games for Nintendo. Another 3rd party company, with square's permission, is porting the games.

the PS2 is amazing, the GC is amazing, and the XBox is... Well, XBox

Don't get me wrong, the GC is a great system, I just prefer the PS2, and this debate was fun

 

[rinse]

Originally posted by divibisan

... all of the buttons are analog (as opposed to only the sholder buttons).

...Additionally, Sony owns 19% of square and is unlikely to let them make GC games, regardless, FF will always be on the PS2 so that's no reason to buy a GC

All buttons are analog? I doubt it very much... the sqaure, circle, diamond, x buttons are analog? i want to see documentation on that.

Also, check around on nearly any game site, you will see that indeed there are two exclusive Final Fantasy Titles coming to Nintendo this year. One for GBA and one for GCN. The two will link together for additional playmodes.

Nintendo is really going after the 'adult' gamers with this platform as well. Eternal Darkness, Cameo, Metroid, RE, and sseveral other titles prove this. Supposedly Rockstar Games has two to three titles coming to the platform. Read up. 2002 is going to be a great year for the gamecube.

 

[divibisan]

All buttons are analog? I doubt it very much... the sqaure, circle, diamond, x buttons are analog? i want to see documentation on that.

It's true go here

Supposedly Rockstar Games has two to three titles coming to the platform.

Where? I haven't seen anything about that anywhere?

Read up. 2002 is going to be a great year for the gamecube.

Yeah, but a even better year for the PS2

 

[rinse]

I stand corrected on the analog buttons...

For in for on the square / final fantasy games and rockstar titles, take a look at cube.ign.com ...there are 2-3 new items regarding each of them, some in interviews with developers from both companies.

here is another one: http://allcube.com/news/stories/382002182757.asp

and a letter about a upcoming rockstar title:
http://cube.ign.com/mail/2002-04-11.html

a funny list about it:
http://cube.ign.com/mail/2002-04-11.html

some rumbling from Rockstar about E3 this year: http://cube.ign.com/mail/2002-03-29.html

so nothing 100%, but things look favorable.

 

[divibisan]

I haven't gotten much new information on the Nintendo FF games. I read an older article wehere they said that the FF games were not going to be RPGs, but "a new type of game". Did you hear anything about that or what type of game they will be?

 

[rinse]

Originally posted by divibisan
I haven't gotten much new information on the Nintendo FF games. I read an older article wehere they said that the FF games were not going to be RPGs, but "a new type of game". Did you hear anything about that or what type of game they will be?

i know they will not be like the PS titles, exactly... which is fine for me, because while they are beautiful and rich in story... the linearity of the game play seems too limiting to me. i am hoping for a more strategy / explorative scenario based RPG. similar to the roots of the series. i loved those games.

 

[divibisan]

There have been some rumors that they will make a remake of FF Tactics for Psx for the GBA. That would be nice, but I have no idea what they will do w/ the GC. Of course, it will almost certainly come out for the PS2 also so I can find out them. It would be nice to have a strategy RPG.

 

[Fahrvergnuugen]

The gamecube actually has better graphics imo. If you go to www.gamespot.com and read up on the three consoles, you will see that what M$ claims the xbox is capable of, is not how it actually performs. Their specs for polygons per second are like 10x what anyone has actually seen from it.

The GC also has / will have all of the legacy games that we all love [plus all of segas legacy games] Mario, Mario Kart, Zelda, Sonic, etc etc etc.

I think it's pretty cut and dry. The PS2 is already a year and a half old and they still want 300 bucks for it. The xbox runs windows [and they want 300 bucks for it]. And Nintendo is still king for 100 dollars less.

 

[Fahrvergnuugen]

oh. One thing I forgot to mention. People complain because the GC doesn't have a DVD player. Well guess what? The GC is 100 dollars cheaper and you can get a brand new dvd player for about that much that will play dvds better than any console will. I have personally used the DVD player in the PS2 and I think its a piece of crap [it just doesnt work as good as a standalone dvd player]. And in order to even use the DVD player in the xbox you have to "unlock it" with a 30 dollar remote.

It's a game console. It's meant to play games.
When you buy a good stereo, all it has in it is a tuner and pre amps. Lower quality ones come with a bunch of built in "features" and you end up with a device that does a lot of things, but doesn't do any of them really well.

 

[divibisan]

The gamecube actually has better graphics imo. If you go to www.gamespot.com and read up on the three consoles,

It's your opinion, but personally, I think the PS2's are better

The GC also has / will have all of the legacy games that we all love [plus all of segas legacy games] Mario, Mario Kart, Zelda, Sonic, etc etc etc.

The PS2 also has a lot of exclusive games, many more than the GC. It has many really good games in all of those genres.
Also, there isn't anything special about mario or zelda. People act as if the fact that these characters are in a game will make it good. That's not true. There's nothing special about these characters, and you an get the same types of games on every console and many of these are better.

he GC is 100 dollars cheaper and you can get a brand new dvd player for about that much that will play dvds better than any console will.

The PS2's DVD playback is not the best, but it's pretty good. Also, the $100 is fora DVD player and an original Playstation.