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"The Next Console War - Almost upon us"

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Mon 27/12/04 at 21:22
Regular
"rpgfan"
Posts: 29
With magazines starting the hype early about the PS3, Xbox 2 and GC2 it had me thinking who will win next time? Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo? Here are my views on the sucess of each current console.

I have had a Gamecube, Xbox and currently own a PS2, so i can honestly give an accurate review about this subject.

PS2: Sold literally millions upons millions of consoles. Big sucess helped because of hype and the amount of varied games to choose from.

Xbox: For the first console by Microsoft is was a great effort. This is the most powerful console and did sell very well.

Gamecube:

Now, i don't want to sound 'against' Nintendo, but this really was a lousy excuse for a console. The graphics power and processor are faster than the PS2, but the games do not use the power.
There maybe some 'Nintendo Zealots' who will defend their console to the end, but the fact is, it sold barely any units and alot of their games are childish. Some games that i had are really good, such as Super Mario: Sunshine and Eternal Darkness, but with some games developers choosing not to make any games for the console doesn't help. In the beginning stores were taking the GC off their shelves and this limited the sucess of the Gamecube. I don't mean to sound biased, but i do think its fair to say that the other two consoles have done much better.

So what do you people think? I wish each 'new console' ( PS3, Xbox 2 and GC2) good luck in terms of sales and can't wait for the next console war to unfold...
Tue 28/12/04 at 19:31
Regular
"Prefers Tesis"
Posts: 673
Whats with that rumour about their being 3 types of xbox 2's released though? Something like an entry level model with a hardrive and no online play. Then one with the hardrive plus online play and finally a console which is basically just a pc. If this turns out to be true microsoft could well be shooting themselves in the foot. For I think that this is quite a dumb idea. The units with everything will cost more. Probably about £350.00 which I doubt most people would want to pay. The who will want the model with no online play? Plain stupid.

As for nintendo I really feel that they should just give up on the whole console thing and just stick to software. They could still produce games like mario and sonic but just sell the trademarks to the xbox 2 and ps3. Unless they fabricate something really special, I doubt that they will be to compete with xbox 2 and ps3.

By 2006 their may also be more console competition. Their have been many rumours in the past that apple will release a console and a company called phantom. They may be nothing more than rumours, but no one really expected microsoft to make a console did they? Anything could happen.

Even if it isn't the best I'm sure alot of people will just buy the ps3. Purely because they owned the ps2 and are afraid to stray from the crowds of sheep congregading around sony's frankly inferior machine. To the xbox that is. By the way I am not bias as I used to own a ps2. But since it broke after a year, I have been disillusioned with sony ever since.

One things for sure, everybody will have an opinion. People will buy depending of their needs. Some will wantonline play and buy an xbox 2. Others will want more arcady games and buy a gc. Then 3/4 will buy another sony. Once again brownosing a company which isn't great, but just has a cult following in the electronics industry.
Tue 28/12/04 at 18:37
Regular
"Captain to you."
Posts: 4,609
*Highly Excitable* wrote:
> chippxero wrote:
> very good if you like little boxes
>
> Wow, that's deep.

thanks for that oh so important spam. good work... no really
Tue 28/12/04 at 10:36
Regular
Posts: 3,611
*Highly Excitable* wrote:
> chippxero wrote:
> very good if you like little boxes
>
> Wow, that's deep.

About as deep as the carp you and many others post here daily.
Tue 28/12/04 at 10:33
Regular
"Incomprehendible"
Posts: 2,938
chippxero wrote:
> very good if you like little boxes

Wow, that's deep.
Tue 28/12/04 at 10:32
Regular
"Incomprehendible"
Posts: 2,938
Kibitzer wrote:
> Dolores I wrote:
> its just unexcusable.
>
> Pure irony
Tue 28/12/04 at 04:16
"I love yo... lamp."
Posts: 19,577
Alright then Chippxero, I will.

I don't deny that there is indeed slow down in Halo at times, but not that much of it. That's irrelevant really. Most games don't have any slowdown. Xbox is also by far the most powerful console on the market.

As for the controller, it is a natural progression for FPS games from the N64 pad. It makes sense to have more than one analogue stick, one for movement, and one that does the job that the C buttons on the the N64 pad did. Also the two analogue triggers are great for firing in FPS games and for use in racing games as accelerator and brake. Basically the Xbox has almost all the games I ever want released, and many besides that. It is my favourite of this generation by far and up there with the Dreamcast in the all time greats.

The PS2 is just a bit old now. The biggest problem with it however is the vast amounts of really bad or at least mediocre games. Although of course tastes differ, so some would just say rather more generously than me that it has a lot of variety. Which is generally A Good Thing. The online stuff isn't up to much though.

The Gamecube units wise has sold around the same as the Xbox. Sure, it is doing rather badly - OK - terribly in Britain, but around the world the performance is up there with the Xbox. Graphically it packs quite a lot of power, and it does often use it. Resident Evil 4 for instance looks great. What you will find is that the worst looking games are generally multi format games because they are coded normally without platform specific optimisations. What is rather disappointing about the Gamecube however is that it has NO online play. Alright, that's an exaggeration, it does have online, I've seen the adapters. However it is criminally underused.

As for the games on the Gamecube however... yes most are too childish for my liking now. Some people don't have issues with that because they recognise that there is still great gameplay in those games. but I DO have issues with fat Italian plumbers that do a lot of jumping.

Of course, that is just this generation. Things will change a whole lot for the next one. Microsoft will be on a level playing field with Sony in that their next gen consoles will be out at close to the same time, as opposed to Sony having more than a year of a head start as in this generation.

The Xbox 2 or Xbox Next or Xenon; whatever they call it, it will likely be the most powerful and have a better good games to crap games ratio than the PS3. Online play will again be central to Microsoft's plans in many ways.

The PS3 will also be rather powerful. It will sell well, in fact probably be the biggest console by far in the marketplace as today. Although instead of having two thirds of the market, I expect half to be around the maximum.

The Nintendo Revolution is a bit of an enigma really. Nintendo know they need to embrace online play this time round. They know they need more mature games to captivate the older generation of gamers. But at the same time, if they swing all the way to pandering to older gamers, whilst they would end up targetting the wealthiest gaming age group, they would end up in competition with both Sony and Microsoft, whereas at the moment, Nintendo have a bit of leeway in that they target children and the family market more.

Who knows what will happen for sure though? On paper and in the press the Dreamcast should have been huge, but it was not in the end. Games play a part. Sponsorships play a part. Word of mouth plays a part. But in the end, advertising will in many ways be the biggest player. Advertising influences what is "cool", and that in turn is the biggest seller of consoles and of video games themselves. Otherwise, why would FIFA ever sell?

Roll on the next lot of consoles. I need new fights.
Tue 28/12/04 at 02:31
Regular
"Captain to you."
Posts: 4,609
I used to be a total console monkey, spending all my time playing colourful and fun games. But then SEGA and SNK died and a little bit of my heart died with them. Don't get me wrong it wasn't just Sega and snk i loved, nintendo was another great company. I had my saturn, dreamcast, N64 and neogeo. These machines gave me great pleasure and still do in their own little ways.

I have used the Xbox, PS2 and gamecube but i haven't owned them and so my opinion may just be brushed aside.

The Xbox although i like the size of the console mostly cause it is big like the machines of old. I have played a few games and they don't run like games should on a console. There is blatant jurkiness in serveral games Halo was bad for this, even though xbox owners swear they can't see it. The controller seems a bad design for a console that they are releasing so many Fps games on. Why didn't microsoft have a look at the n64 controller goldeneye was so easy to control and i don't know many people that would disagree.

The PS2 it seems a nice console with the nice simple black case and the funny lines. But it makes alot of noise more so than many pc's i have used. The one thing that i see as a good and bad thing about the PS2 and goes for the PSone too, is that there are so many game types and styles. Yeah this means you can find a game you like out of the hundreds released but i found it hard to find many games that i liked because companies were not sticking to one type of game and trying to improve on it.

The Gamecube this console has come the closest to pulling me back to consoles but fell short for many reasons. Firstly the good things, fun games, (nintendo always make their games fun this is what i love about them) small compact console very good if you like little boxes and lastly they have series of games across all their formats. (many mario games and zelda, i like the sticking to what works) But the controller seems all wrong for the games yeah they got it perfect with the n64 but the joysticks on the controller feel to be in the wrong place to me, often ending with my thumb falling off them. another problem i feel nintendo had was the age range they are aiming at they need to adapt to the new generations of adult gamers, they are too used to aiming for the 11-17 year olds, the people with the money are older than this aim at them too.

Well that is my opinion on the consoles. Feel free to pick at it as i am sure some of you will :)
Tue 28/12/04 at 01:22
Regular
"---SOULJACKER---"
Posts: 5,448
I must say, the responses to this topic were truly, utterly crap. Truly. And Utterly.
Did no one have any real responses?

My two cents are: when Nintendo said after the release of the GC that they may become software only, perhaps they were right. Their games have always been top notch, but the consoles simply have not adapted to the times - even if you don't want a home entertainment system in a box, add features that will get developers on board... such as a bigger advertising budget. Let's face it, the GC looked like a kids toy (a purple cube!), and never lost that image!

Microsoft should continue to pump money into developers, as Sony did with the PS and Microsoft previously did by buying Bungie.

As for Sony, they should continue their worldwide domination by introducing subliminal advertising for MiniDiscs into their games.

SonicRav
Mon 27/12/04 at 22:59
Regular
"Aimar...meh"
Posts: 2,150
No not really, though if my logic in that sentance was utter crap then it would be irony.
Mon 27/12/04 at 22:56
Regular
"END OF AN ERA"
Posts: 6,015
Dolores I wrote:
> its just unexcusable.

Pure irony

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