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"The Third Place"

Playstation, what a company. They've been through thick and thin and they're still going strong. Nintendo was supposed to have a partnership with Playstation, but due to minor disagreements they went their own way.

1995 was the year that everyone (in the UK anyway) saw the Playstation and it impressed many people. It provided great graphics and great gameplay than it's strong contender Nintendo who at the time had the ever popular SNES selling loads in the game market. Playstation however was faster (32-bit), had a great pad that fitted right into your palms and offere a whole lot of gameplay. Release titles like Wipeout and Ridge Racer, certainly gave the Sony developers a boost to their new experience in the industry.
This console appealed more to fans because of its looks, accessibilities and newly presented peripherals like the 1Mb memory card and its games played CDs not cartridges. This allowed more space for more games to be saved, so you could return to your save-point of a game. The playstation had more features than its contender SNES:

Visible and manouvreable saves
1Mb Memory card
Playable music Cds with added touches e.g. echoes

Although, the Playstation had longer load times than the SNES because it ran Cds it was still worth the wait when you wanted to play it. The Playstation introduced the world to a much closer encounter of realism. The SNES brought us great fun and excitement, but most of its games were unrealistic. Following the launch of the Playstation, Gran Turismo was presented. This game had outstanding graphics (at the time), realistic gameplay and lots of never-before-seen modes in a racing game. It absolutely smashed what Ridge Racer did and made everyone notice how racing games should really look like.
Playstation was later challenged by Nintendo's comeback, ther N64. This console doubled the speed and power of the Playstation by having a 64-bit engine, but it wasn't as well received as the Playstation. Some found the pad not as comfortable as the Playstation's and the gameplay was no competition to the Playstation's. The graphics started off very blurry, but in its later stages were improved by its developers. Playstation were further challenged by Sega's comeback out of the blue, the Dreamcast. This was a much faster machine (4 times faster than Playstation), which offered great graphics and very good, enjoyable gameplay. The game I think that really gave Sega a boost with its new console was the release of the very popular Sonic. With this newly improved version from the 16-bit machine, Sonic offered very enjoyable gameplay, great graphics and a certain exhiliration within the game. The 3D environments came across as quite detailed and just the fact of seeing the revolution from the previous Sonic games gave a satisfying feeling. Playstation was been pushed further and further out of the picture until the PS2 was released on the 24th of November 2001 in the UK.
Such great titles as Gran Turismo for the Playstation are still carrying on strong on the Playstation 2. Why is this I hear you ask? This is because of the gameplay and graphics. That is what really matters in games today, how good it plays and how good it looks. The Playstation has offered games like this that have stretched its capabilities, but the Playstaion 2 hasn't done so well in that department. Many of its release titles didn't stretch the PS2 much, they almost seemed rush in an attempt to please fans. Some fans of the Playstation enjoyed these titles, but most didn't. It hasn't been until now that we've actually received games that have stretched the PS2 that little bit, but still not far enough. Such games like Onimusha and the continued revolution of Gran Turismo, Gran Turismo 3, have satisfied most gamers and reassured them that the PS2 is still going to remain strong in the future of gaming.

Bill Gates' XBOX and Nintedo's Gamecube might be better received by gaming fans, but the PS2 has so much capabilities and room for improvement that we just cannot be sure what's going to happen. Already Internet capabilities have been introduced for the PS2 in certain places as well as many advanced peripherals. This is why I think the PS2 is going to carry on strong and even if it doesn't there's always the chance of a PS3!!!

Shocktrooper wrote:
>A fellow Ninty I might be, yet I can't just ignore the blatant fact
> that you're talking out of your backside. PS2 sold tremendously in Japan, and
> also, apparantly, the GameCube's sales have been somewhat "Quiet"
> compared to PS2's and GBA's.


Thank you for saving me some typing, my friend. You have made a powerful ally today. ;-p

No probs. It seemed like a "Must know fact" when writing it.

Ant wrote:
> DeltaJava wrote:
> I once mistakenly took a squirrel to be a cat. But that
> was a long time ago,
> when my brain was a tiny blob of
> squishiness.

Thank you for that intellectual contribution to the discussion,
> Delta. {:)

:D

DeltaJava wrote:
> I once mistakenly took a squirrel to be a cat. But that was a long time ago,
> when my brain was a tiny blob of squishiness.

Thank you for that intellectual contribution to the discussion, Delta. {:)

I once mistakenly took a squirrel to be a cat. But that was a long time ago, when my brain was a tiny blob of squishiness.

Why is it that games are so often rated by the number that appears after the title?

Ant wrote:
> Sequels smchequels, who cares? As long as they're good, I'm happy.

*Looks at
> November line-up of PS2 releases and begins to drool again...*

*Ant then
> realises he's looking at a picture of Jordan, and he looks away innocently*

Ant, you and porno? I didn't know they mix!

Sequels smchequels, who cares? As long as they're good, I'm happy.

*Looks at November line-up of PS2 releases and begins to drool again...*

*Ant then realises he's looking at a picture of Jordan, and he looks away innocently*

19 sequels?

I'm not so sure about that...

Anyway, you'll find that the Playstation got it's sequel name because sequels appeared so frequently.

Take Tombraider, there was a new one every year.

Tekken, Ridge Racer, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy - the Playstation got through a several of these.
These series have been almost completely saturated.

Resident Evil evolved with Veronica and Final Fantasy more story led than gameplay led so it didn't need a mjor revolution. That's why these survived.

Most of the others just bored the market.

Now look at more careful sequelling such as Metal Gear Solid 2.

One big PS game. Konami wait for the giant step of PS2 hardware - a proper advancement rather than just tiring out the franchise.

You'll see that most Nintendo Gamecube games are the same.
Smash Brothers, Wave Race, Mario, all only had one game on the N64 and haven't had a sequel announced until there was a real step in technology to take the game series a big step further.

Also, the PS2 got it's sequel name because it's biggest games normally had a number in it's title.
The Gamecube's biggest games are either totally original (like Pikmin and Luigi's Mansion) or are updates of games that are so old that they're almost forgotten (Waverace for example).

Sure, those statistics might look good on paper but the reputation wasn't gained by statistics on paper and won't be broken by statistics on paper.

The PS2 has squeezed out some originality of late (although more or less always through PC ports) but it'll take something big to down that sequel station stereotype, just as many will always class Nintendo consoles as kiddie toys.

turbonutter>

Crazy Taxi is a dreamcast port also on PS2/Xbox
SSX Tricky is a PS2 port also set for xbox
Dave Mirra is a PS2 port
and so is extreme g3

so 4 multi format ports ;-)