The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
Not N2000, not Dolphin, not StarCube. The name of Nintendo next gen machine is going to be "Nintendo Game Cube". In the same way Nintendo 64 was shortened to N64, this is likely to mean the system will be called Nintendo Cube, and shortened again to N-Cube.
See for yourself, don't take my word for it: cube.ign.com. Other stories on this page paint a bright picture for the system and I'd have to agree.
Lets be honest for a minute. As much as I'd like the Dreamcast to survive (I'm a proud owner of one myself) it's not going to happen. Try and count the number of games you're really looking forward to without mentioning the words 'Shenmue' or 'Metropolis'. Are there any? Probably yes. Enough to keep a platform alive with? Probably no. The DC is a fine machine with some truly great games and isn't an underpowered competitor like the Saturn was. However the fact is it's struggling against other machines from a generation before it and, as a result, will die itself along with them (or perhaps shortly after).
As for the PS2, I could dismiss it because it's fun to do so, as most people do, without justifying why. The IGN article linked to above mentions 4,000,000 PS2 games sold in Japan (for 2,200,000 PS2s). It's been out since March and people have an average of 2 games for it. If, of the 35-ish titles available, you discount the 'big' couple of sellers like TTT you are apparently left with an average of 80,000 sales per game. Does this justify a $2-3million development bill? That'll depend on the international success but, since around half of all PS2s are used as DVD players, will they sell in the long run to people who can get a proper DVD player (one that plays DVDs reasonably well) for less than half the price?
As for the X-box no-one can comment on it. Specs mean NOTHING! Remember Nintendo saying the N64 would be powerful enough to re-create Terminator 2's effects? Microsoft seem to think that they can just walk in with a meaty machine, let other people make games for it and buy themselves the console war by throwing masses of money into the market. Will it work? Why not? It did for Sony.
Note that I haven't picked an overall winner. That's because, of the three main competitors (sorry SEGA), we haven't seen ANYTHING from two of them apart from pointless tech demos. Until we see some games and hear what they play like, or preferrably play them ourselves, we can't comment on them. The N-Cube is apparently being revealed behind closed doors tomorrow at Spaceworld, lets see what they've got to offer before we dismiss it.
See for yourself, don't take my word for it: cube.ign.com. Other stories on this page paint a bright picture for the system and I'd have to agree.
Lets be honest for a minute. As much as I'd like the Dreamcast to survive (I'm a proud owner of one myself) it's not going to happen. Try and count the number of games you're really looking forward to without mentioning the words 'Shenmue' or 'Metropolis'. Are there any? Probably yes. Enough to keep a platform alive with? Probably no. The DC is a fine machine with some truly great games and isn't an underpowered competitor like the Saturn was. However the fact is it's struggling against other machines from a generation before it and, as a result, will die itself along with them (or perhaps shortly after).
As for the PS2, I could dismiss it because it's fun to do so, as most people do, without justifying why. The IGN article linked to above mentions 4,000,000 PS2 games sold in Japan (for 2,200,000 PS2s). It's been out since March and people have an average of 2 games for it. If, of the 35-ish titles available, you discount the 'big' couple of sellers like TTT you are apparently left with an average of 80,000 sales per game. Does this justify a $2-3million development bill? That'll depend on the international success but, since around half of all PS2s are used as DVD players, will they sell in the long run to people who can get a proper DVD player (one that plays DVDs reasonably well) for less than half the price?
As for the X-box no-one can comment on it. Specs mean NOTHING! Remember Nintendo saying the N64 would be powerful enough to re-create Terminator 2's effects? Microsoft seem to think that they can just walk in with a meaty machine, let other people make games for it and buy themselves the console war by throwing masses of money into the market. Will it work? Why not? It did for Sony.
Note that I haven't picked an overall winner. That's because, of the three main competitors (sorry SEGA), we haven't seen ANYTHING from two of them apart from pointless tech demos. Until we see some games and hear what they play like, or preferrably play them ourselves, we can't comment on them. The N-Cube is apparently being revealed behind closed doors tomorrow at Spaceworld, lets see what they've got to offer before we dismiss it.
Not N2000, not Dolphin, not StarCube. The name of Nintendo next gen machine is going to be "Nintendo Game Cube". In the same way Nintendo 64 was shortened to N64, this is likely to mean the system will be called Nintendo Cube, and shortened again to N-Cube.
See for yourself, don't take my word for it: cube.ign.com. Other stories on this page paint a bright picture for the system and I'd have to agree.
Lets be honest for a minute. As much as I'd like the Dreamcast to survive (I'm a proud owner of one myself) it's not going to happen. Try and count the number of games you're really looking forward to without mentioning the words 'Shenmue' or 'Metropolis'. Are there any? Probably yes. Enough to keep a platform alive with? Probably no. The DC is a fine machine with some truly great games and isn't an underpowered competitor like the Saturn was. However the fact is it's struggling against other machines from a generation before it and, as a result, will die itself along with them (or perhaps shortly after).
As for the PS2, I could dismiss it because it's fun to do so, as most people do, without justifying why. The IGN article linked to above mentions 4,000,000 PS2 games sold in Japan (for 2,200,000 PS2s). It's been out since March and people have an average of 2 games for it. If, of the 35-ish titles available, you discount the 'big' couple of sellers like TTT you are apparently left with an average of 80,000 sales per game. Does this justify a $2-3million development bill? That'll depend on the international success but, since around half of all PS2s are used as DVD players, will they sell in the long run to people who can get a proper DVD player (one that plays DVDs reasonably well) for less than half the price?
As for the X-box no-one can comment on it. Specs mean NOTHING! Remember Nintendo saying the N64 would be powerful enough to re-create Terminator 2's effects? Microsoft seem to think that they can just walk in with a meaty machine, let other people make games for it and buy themselves the console war by throwing masses of money into the market. Will it work? Why not? It did for Sony.
Note that I haven't picked an overall winner. That's because, of the three main competitors (sorry SEGA), we haven't seen ANYTHING from two of them apart from pointless tech demos. Until we see some games and hear what they play like, or preferrably play them ourselves, we can't comment on them. The N-Cube is apparently being revealed behind closed doors tomorrow at Spaceworld, lets see what they've got to offer before we dismiss it.
See for yourself, don't take my word for it: cube.ign.com. Other stories on this page paint a bright picture for the system and I'd have to agree.
Lets be honest for a minute. As much as I'd like the Dreamcast to survive (I'm a proud owner of one myself) it's not going to happen. Try and count the number of games you're really looking forward to without mentioning the words 'Shenmue' or 'Metropolis'. Are there any? Probably yes. Enough to keep a platform alive with? Probably no. The DC is a fine machine with some truly great games and isn't an underpowered competitor like the Saturn was. However the fact is it's struggling against other machines from a generation before it and, as a result, will die itself along with them (or perhaps shortly after).
As for the PS2, I could dismiss it because it's fun to do so, as most people do, without justifying why. The IGN article linked to above mentions 4,000,000 PS2 games sold in Japan (for 2,200,000 PS2s). It's been out since March and people have an average of 2 games for it. If, of the 35-ish titles available, you discount the 'big' couple of sellers like TTT you are apparently left with an average of 80,000 sales per game. Does this justify a $2-3million development bill? That'll depend on the international success but, since around half of all PS2s are used as DVD players, will they sell in the long run to people who can get a proper DVD player (one that plays DVDs reasonably well) for less than half the price?
As for the X-box no-one can comment on it. Specs mean NOTHING! Remember Nintendo saying the N64 would be powerful enough to re-create Terminator 2's effects? Microsoft seem to think that they can just walk in with a meaty machine, let other people make games for it and buy themselves the console war by throwing masses of money into the market. Will it work? Why not? It did for Sony.
Note that I haven't picked an overall winner. That's because, of the three main competitors (sorry SEGA), we haven't seen ANYTHING from two of them apart from pointless tech demos. Until we see some games and hear what they play like, or preferrably play them ourselves, we can't comment on them. The N-Cube is apparently being revealed behind closed doors tomorrow at Spaceworld, lets see what they've got to offer before we dismiss it.