The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only.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.
Back when I was a young child playing on my Spectrum games were simple in the main, probably most of them were designed for kids rather than adult gamers. They came on cassettes and cost a few quid each second hand. This was good, as I didn't have any money and all my games were bought for me. As times went on graphics improved, games changed from cassettes to cartridges to CD's to DVD's and the price of games got ever higher. Didn't bother me as I had more money to spend and the prices of games and consoles, even now, seems reasonable to me. Games are now close to film quality in graphics, there are thousands to choose from and if you like games the likelyhood is that there will always be something new that you want to play on.
With the release of the Gamecube and X-Box in Europe gamers now have more choice than ever and many people, myself included will buy two different consoles. Soon, probably when the next generation of consoles is released, it may be normal for an avid gamer to own two or more consoles of the same generation. This will be beacuse, as the average age of gamers increase we have more collective money to spend on luxuries like games consoles. At the moment, the big console manufacturers are to some extent ignoring the people who want to buy a second console, favouring saying why their console is better and why people should sell their PS2s, for instance, in order to buy an X-Box or a Gamecube. At the moment, the X-box is selling by the existence of killer aps that are exclusive to the console like Halo, PGR, and to a lesser extent Amped. But if you own a PS2 you probably already have GT3 and SSX if you like these type of games so the only game that you really really want on the X-Box at the moment will be Halo.
Nintendo do a better job of attracting people to buy the gamecube with exclusive, totally different titles like Pikmin and Super Monkey Ball and the low price. But will the console makers ever begin to think about how their console is going to appeal to people who already own another console and will they start to demand their first and second party developers to make the sort of games that are not yet seen on other consoles. If this does happen and Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft start thinking about two-console gamers then new, innovative games will come flooding in. Originality will no longer be moaned about. These sort of games can be made, but at the moment, developers would rather make a shoddy football game or a below-par racer as it would make them more money. By now if, you're still reading you're probably bored so I will crawl back into my nicely decorated hole and do some much needed maths revision. Your views on anything I have rambled here, greatly appreciated.
For me...
I have a PS2, am happy (Not going to trade it in for another console), have games I enjoy and don't care about other consoles. I won't slate them or praise them just to jump on the current bandwagon (At the moment.. GC. Big surprise there)
I know, why not give some of them to me. The Gamecube and GBA sound fine. Thanks a lot mate ;-)
See Ya ;-)
PinkPig
Oh and 2 computers...
Tis' true though, competition is a good thing because it always means there will be good choice and reason for games companies to get off thier fat butts and make some decent games.
;0)
Back when I was a young child playing on my Spectrum games were simple in the main, probably most of them were designed for kids rather than adult gamers. They came on cassettes and cost a few quid each second hand. This was good, as I didn't have any money and all my games were bought for me. As times went on graphics improved, games changed from cassettes to cartridges to CD's to DVD's and the price of games got ever higher. Didn't bother me as I had more money to spend and the prices of games and consoles, even now, seems reasonable to me. Games are now close to film quality in graphics, there are thousands to choose from and if you like games the likelyhood is that there will always be something new that you want to play on.
With the release of the Gamecube and X-Box in Europe gamers now have more choice than ever and many people, myself included will buy two different consoles. Soon, probably when the next generation of consoles is released, it may be normal for an avid gamer to own two or more consoles of the same generation. This will be beacuse, as the average age of gamers increase we have more collective money to spend on luxuries like games consoles. At the moment, the big console manufacturers are to some extent ignoring the people who want to buy a second console, favouring saying why their console is better and why people should sell their PS2s, for instance, in order to buy an X-Box or a Gamecube. At the moment, the X-box is selling by the existence of killer aps that are exclusive to the console like Halo, PGR, and to a lesser extent Amped. But if you own a PS2 you probably already have GT3 and SSX if you like these type of games so the only game that you really really want on the X-Box at the moment will be Halo.
Nintendo do a better job of attracting people to buy the gamecube with exclusive, totally different titles like Pikmin and Super Monkey Ball and the low price. But will the console makers ever begin to think about how their console is going to appeal to people who already own another console and will they start to demand their first and second party developers to make the sort of games that are not yet seen on other consoles. If this does happen and Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft start thinking about two-console gamers then new, innovative games will come flooding in. Originality will no longer be moaned about. These sort of games can be made, but at the moment, developers would rather make a shoddy football game or a below-par racer as it would make them more money. By now if, you're still reading you're probably bored so I will crawl back into my nicely decorated hole and do some much needed maths revision. Your views on anything I have rambled here, greatly appreciated.