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"Getting Left Behind ?"

So, Xbox is down to £159.99 withj two free games, Xbox Live is available soon, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, Sega Gt2002, Elder Scrolls, Blinx and many more are scoring highly and sales are picking up.

On the PS2 front Sony is seeing GTA Vice City fly off the shelves as fast as it can be shipped out whilst console sales continue to go from strength to strength and Sony's Broadband network aims for a 1st quarter 2003 release. With more good games on the way like the Getaway, Kingdom Hearts, WWF 4 and so on, things couldn't be brighter.

Then we have Nintendo, who appear to have spent this years marketing budget on Super Mario Sunshine, and to whom online gaming seems something of a mystery. Starfox Adventures is the next BIG release, but I think from import reviews that it may not be all it's cracked up to be. Resident Evil provided a great, but dated gameplay wise, experience, and Eternal Darkness was good. Timesplitters 2 excelled, which was a good job when you consider the number of FPS games available. Coupl all this with the surrender of Rare to Bill, and I have to wonder what on earth Nintendo's strategy is right now, considering it's the Christmas run up.

If someone this Christmas is looking to buy a console then I honestly don't know how Nintendo expect the GC to do well. Advertsiing is appaling - or non existent in most cases - as are promotions - the Mario bundle was a step in the right direction but not far enough due to it's limited availability. There is the promise of some good stuff next year - Zelda and a few more I cannot remember.

As for online gaming, with Nintendo its like a "what strategy ? WE don't have a strategy !" attitude. Online Gaming will really take off in March 2003 with the official release of both Sony and Microsoft's online services. Imagine an online Mario Kart, or Mario Party 4 ? Nintendo should get Mario away from plumbing and into broadband pipes PDQ !

In short, the Gamecube is rapidly becoming a rerun of the N64 which should not be happening, but it is, and Nintendo as usual - despite promises to the contrary - doesn't care about the situation in Europe, where recent sales figures show the GC is doing a Custer's Last Stand.

Just over 5 months, and it's gone like this already. Pathetic, and Nintendo knows it. The Gamecube is a great machine with excellent ideas - the Wavebird in particular - but there are not enough games to back it up. I've got;

Luigi's Mansion
WaveRace
Tony Hawk's 3
Super Smash Bros
Eternal Darkness
Timespitters 2
NBA 2002
Burnout
Super Mario Sunshine
Pikmin
James Bond
Rogue Leader

And I traded in Resident Evil.

I can honestly say there are no games out right now that I want until Starfox. Even when I had a PS2 from it's launch there were always games coming out that I wanted. I've had an Xbox for a week, and there are loads of games I want for that.

Nintendo are being left behind, they need to get in gear and actually bother to fight for sales this Christmas, not sit back and lose.

~~Belldandy~~

If he doesn't like GC, then what is he doing in here?
Fool.

Belldandy wrote:

Apart from I wouldn't care
> because I wouldn't be bothered about wasting 130.00 on the GC in the
> first place.

Did you just say wasting £130 on a Gamecube?

BURN THE HERETIC, THOU SHALT NOT USE THY TONGUE OF THE DEVIL IN THE CHURCH OF NINTENDO!!!!

BURN THE HERETIC!!

:D

WelshMiyamoto wrote:
> Were not all rich like you Belldandy.
> You're the Boy
> ~~Belldandy~~

Ha ! Rich ? you gotta be kidding me. I earn about £180 a month from part time work, my student loan was spent or accounted for by the end of September, but I don't drink or smoke.

My main income is from Ebay, where I sell stuff I don't want, and resell things I find cheaply. Works well, you should try it !

Besides, even if I was rich, how would that change my opinion of the Gamecube and Nintendo at this moment ? Apart from I wouldn't care because I wouldn't be bothered about wasting 130.00 on the GC in the first place.

~~Belldandy~~

Cyclone wrote:

> Does it really matter? Not to me anymore. I have a good console, good
> games (with some GREAT games in my collection, and more soon to be
> added) and I'm fine with it. Nowt on the PS2 or XBox makes me want to
> spend none existent money on them.

True

Were not all rich like you Belldandy.
You're the Boy
~~Belldandy~~

I agree that Nintendo have to speed up..in terms of marketing, buying francises etc etc. But they still have a load of superb games around- Far better than the really rather balnd offerings of the PS2 and the oddly disappointing (for me) range of the XBox.

But still. If they lower prices......and secure some popular western francises, then we'll see. Broadband is terrible here, so a modem and broadband is a great feature - XBox live would be great - if all of the owners could get it.

But still.

Does it really matter? Not to me anymore. I have a good console, good games (with some GREAT games in my collection, and more soon to be added) and I'm fine with it. Nowt on the PS2 or XBox makes me want to spend none existent money on them.

*sigh*

Unreal Tournament 2003 is the worst FPS I have ever played.


Mario Kart for the GC HAS been confirmed, and the first lot of information is being announced in February.


Ghost Recon is being released this month or December.


Kameo is not Fable


Nintendo's big announcment is the release of Dragon Quest VIII, a game that will undoubtablly double the sales of the GC - In Japan

Tiltawhirl wrote:
> I think you'll find that Xbox live will be launching with quite a few
> rubbish games and no particuarly stand out wet your pants good ones,
> what's with your love of Ghost Recon and Global SWAT? these games
> really are not all that.

Ghost Recon is totally excellent and import reviews back me up on that, with online play and working in teams it'll be excellent, and the one player is decent too - on the PC it was the best of it's genre. Global SWAT is the follow up, long awaited, to Sierra's SWAT 3 - a massive game on the PC several years ago that reached #2 in the December charts on its release that year. Again it emphasises teamwork - great for online play - and is a little different to most FPS in that you have to - sometime- get the bad guys alive, and it's not always obvious who they are. Unreal Championship is also excellent without the resource problems many experienced with the PC version. And I think most of us are past the pant wetting stage yknow....

> Fair enough Unreal Championship depending on the quality of the port
> should be good as long as they don't c0ck it up, Moto GP? why in gods
> name would you want to play that online? similiarly rubbish anyway.
> NFL 2003 I have no comment for.

They're great because you can play online and talk with other people - go over to the Xbox Forum and see - there's several people there involved in the beta and they say themselves they've played whacked and Moto GP far more online than they would have offline.

>
> Fact is that broadband is not widely available in the UK so I can't
> see Xbox live being that big a sucess over here.

You're problem is that your assuming Xbox=crap whatever it is. It doesn't matter about overall availability, it just matters about Xbox owners with, and getting, broadband. And thats quite a high number.

Nintendo are ignoring this, and they'll pay the price for that.

~~Belldandy~~

Tiltawhirl wrote:
> Next year, Gamecubes offline prospects in Europe are looking amazing

*

I agree. F-Zero, Zelda, Metroid, 1080: White Storm and a possible Mario Kart game to name just a few. And if Mario Kart does appear, it would surely dominate the online market with - obviously - online play.

Bleeders wrote:

> Next-year though, it could be a different story entirely and there's
> more to look forward to as well IMO.

Next year, Gamecubes offline prospects in Europe are looking amazing, we'll just have to see what Nintendo have planned..if anything for online gaming.