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Playstation II Launch Notes From the Field
ksquire writes "Joystick101.org has a
feature on the release of the Playstation II, detailing how the launch was experienced in one sleepy midwestern town and exploring what all of this craziness really means."
Woah-ho-ho... touche'! That was a really great flame! (Note I called it a flame, not a troll; I thought you made some very good points in that napalm storm.)
But keep in mind that it is very easy to forget that VAIOs, AIBOs, PSX2s, etc., all come from the same company that happens to be giving us grief in other sectors. When I see a new gadget, I don't immediately think to run down a mental checklist, to make sure the company is "cool," before drooling and coveting. It's purely a pavlovian response.
HSJ$$*&#^!#+++ATH0
NO CARRIER
Last I checked, Slashdot wasn't some great single consciousness with One Opinion and One Voice.
Some of us are quite likely money grubbing, materialistic, capitalists. A share of those quite likely don't give a damn, as they don't see anyone doing anything wrong.
But I will tell you this - if anyone, it's you who is out of touch with the Slashdot populace. You attribute shame on Rob & Co. for being interested in something, but fail to recognize the scores of geeks who are just as excited as he is.
Either way, don't try to lay down some sort of defacto Slashdot policy - not everyone is interested in conforming to your personal opinions.
- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)
- Jeff
Dolphin and X-Box are far from jokes.
I live in New York City, AKA The Free Market Capital Of The World. Certain stores here have 50 copies of games in stock three days before the official release, never mind after.
:)
Today, I spent two or three hours going through 9 or 10 of them (Hey, I could use an extra 700 bucks...) starting at 10 AM.
Every store that had a preorder list has it filled up through January.
The one place that has no list hasn't gotten delivery (and probably never will, because if it doesn't get there today, somebody hijacked the truck.) That didn't stop the five people ahead of me (and the 800 that were there a half hour before that when the store opened) from grabbing business cards ready to call back.
On my way out of the store the second time I checked it, a guy half a block away stopped me to ask if I came out of there. I didn't even ask; I just said 'they don't have it' and he nodded and kept talking on his cell phone, no doubt with a buddy doing the same thing in the other borough.
The Circuit City I went to immediately afterwards had a neat, pre-printed sign saying 'PS:2: We're sold out (Yes, we're as disappointed about it as you are.)'
My final stop, the Electronics Boutique twenty blocks away, had not only sold out of PS:2's months before, they were actually down to 8 copies of Legend of Zelda.
Not that I've given up or anything. There's two months left in the Ebay season, and if I can't get it here, online awaits
As one of the few people who preordered and got a PS2 today (Fantavision kicks butt!), I can assure you that the PS2 has an optical digital out (TOSLINK) for AC3 and DTS, and that it works fine - I have mine hooked up that way right now, games and DVD's playing just fine.
The DVD playback is improved over the Japanese release, compairing it with my friend's import PS2, which got a bit blocky at times. The DVD playing software has been moved off the memory card into firmware, due to the weird memory card corruption problems in the japanese release.
Supposedly the Macrovision in DVD playback is catching people offguard - a lot of people are having problems using their VCR's as RF converters to go to their TV's, which doesn't work well for some reason. The guys at EB exhorted people to read the manual for this reason.
BBK
This is news for nerds. I'm a /. reader and got my PS2 today. In fact, my /. reading wife waiting out in front of target. It's news to us. Not every story has to be about how some big company is taking some right away.
Once again people snag up a consumer device like there is no tommorow. Not realising that the games suck, the graphics don't mean squat when played on the average tv and the dvd functionality is ok at best.
First: Every console has games that suck. PS2 has a lot of games to launch with. That means that logically, several of these games will suck. That does not in any way mean that all of the games do.
Second: The graphics DO mean something, especially to technophiliac nerds like a lot of the slashdot population happens to be. This sucker is THE MOST POWERFUL game machine on the planet right now. It matters to us.
Third: The DVD functionality is just as good, if not better, than any other DVD player that I've seen yet. It supports all of your standard features (multiple audio tracks, subtitles, etc.) as well as nice little extras (component output, optical digital audio output). It's fully DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 compatible as well, as long as you have a digital sound processor. It also happens to be one of the cheapest DVD players with all of these features.
So how does it feel to spend 500.00 on a console, 2 controllers and one game? How does it feel to play the same Madden that has been out on the PSX for years now?
Somehow, your numbers are a little inflated here. The system comes with a controller, and the extra (official Sony-branded) controller is only $35. Games are $50. I have spent about $400 (after TAX) and I have a console, 2 controllers, and a game. You're off by about a 100 bucks. Need a calculater? Start->Programs->Accessories->Calculator.
And I didn't get Madden, either. That game doesn't look so great IMHO. That's why I got Armored Core 2 (plug plug plug plug PLUG!!!).
Somebody sounds a little sore that they didn't get one...
OK, after about two weeks of playing various games on the Playstation 2 (DOA2, Fantavision, Summoner, Tekken Tag, Wild Wild Racing) I'm completely underwhelmed. The games suck. There's no denying that the PSX2 will be the undisputed heavyweight champ in terms of raw power, but if the games I've played are any indication it'll be a while before there's any point in buying one. Bah. What a let-down.
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PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
... I'm waiting for some real games to come out on the system.
Games always suck at a console's launch. It's a historical fact. The good games start coming out when the designers figure the system out. Did we have games like Zelda: The Ocarina of Time for the N64 at launch? Would we ever have thought such a game was possible? Or what about Metal Gear Solid? Hell, we didn't even get Quake until, well, it must have been at least 2 years after the PC was introduced.
There's only really one game at this point I even want to play on the PS2, and that's Metal Gear 2: Sons of Liberty. That game looks incredibly kick-ass. The original MGS rocked hard on the PSX, I'm sure the next one will be amazing.
Of course, if I get MGS2, it'll only be so long until I have to get Metal Gear Solid X, which is apparently coming out on the X-Box. Fuck. Next I suppose Konami will be releasing Metal Gear Solid GAMECUBE.
Anyways, back to my point, the PS2 is pretty much worthless right now. Honestly, how much better are the games than the Dreamcast? I'd rather get the new Zelda game (which also came out today) than any game on the PS2, which says something about the longevity of the N64.
If you're buying it for the DVD instead of the games, what's the point? Buy a real DVD player and get the most out of those DVDs.
I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore. Just ranting on I guess. Did I have a point in there somewhere?
J
If you an Signal 11 mated, you'd create the uber-karma-whore.
X-Men
Tenchu
Spiderman
Orphen: Scion of Sorcery
Sky Odessy
Call to Power II
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
and some other stuff. Anyway, there's some stuff to consider, assuming anyone has any money left after actually buying a PS2.
--
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I'm a little confused. What sort of gamer WOULD queue up for hours in the cold in the middle of the night, but WOULDN'T pay a little extra to get an import which they could have been playing for the last few months?
We've had one at work since the Japanese launch, and it's come out of the cupboard a grand total of *five* time. Four times for Tekken, once for Ridge Racer. Only three people have bothered to borrow it. That's in an office full of gamers.
I rather pity the people who'll be getting their brand new PSX2s home and spending a few sad hours desperately trying to enjoy Tekken TT and Ridge Racer 5. Great games are certainly in the pipeline for the PS2, but they ain't here yet and without them, the box is a bit of a dud.
To a slashdot editor making US90000+ in a plush job that consists entirely of tacking some pithy remarks onto the end user submissions, the release of a $500 soon-to-be-obsolete game console may be the most exciting happening since slashdot sold out to andover. But personally, I couldn't care less.
That the release of the PSX2 is considered of great importance by the Slashdot crew is yet further evidence that the Rob & Friends are out-of-touch with their readership and the (non-adolescent) world.
Go ahead and play with your aibos, vaios, and PSX2s. Feed money to the corporate juggernaut that wants to strip you of your rights. Indoctrinate your readers to do the same. Do this if you will, but don't expect me to play along.
For a site that is supposedly concerned with protecting the 'rights' of its readers, this disregard for important issues is troubling. That you will screech about the outrages done us by the RIAA and MPAA, both Sony-sponsored instruments of corporate oppression, and then turn around and support those organizations monetarily and commercially, is troubling.
I urge all Slashdot readers concerned with preserving their rights against the corporate machine to boycott the PSX2 and all future Sony products until Sony disavows the RIAA and MPAA and any other anti-consumer rights lobbying efforts.
Besides, you won't be missing much. Just consumer electronics you don't really need anyway. And, in five years, you'll be able to pick up a PSX2 at a thrift shop for 20 bucks.
I stood in line at a Minneapolis Best Buy store for 13 hours (worth it). I noticed something kinda cool, the hardcore gamers are alot nicer than some of the parents who tried to get this for their kid.
In the morning, people were starting to get really worn down from the pouring rain and cold throughout the night, but still no one got out of hand. No one that is but the parents of kids that were to lazy to come showed up in the morning about an hour before the store opened. I remember when the Tickle Me Elmo scam went down hearing stories of parents literally fighting with other parents to get a little blue fur-ball. First fights, scratching, whatever, these are grown adults. We saw the same type of behavior when similar parents showed up in the morning for the ps2, they bitched, they moaned, they even tried to just get in line somewhere near the front. But we knew better, we are better than them. After nicely telling them that they need to go to the back of the line, they got very defensive. One lady literally yelled at me for 5 minutes trying to kill time hoping to sneak in when the store opened. We even overheard a different parent arguing that because the people behind us weren't in line at that exact moment, that she should be able to take their spot. When confronted and said that probably wasn't going to happen, her reply was 'well, that's how lines are formed, are you stupid?'. Talk about nice eh? I'm 25 and took off today and tomorrow to play some games. The 12 hours previous to these parnets showing up, 150 people like myseld froze our ass off to get one, not a single incident, everyone was super cool and friendly. When it was getting close to opening, people who might have dozed off in their car or something were woken up by people they never met before saying 'hey man, get up it's getting close'. It's nice to know that us gamers have a better ethic than some of our previous generations when it comes to courtesy and just plain being cool. I don't know if it's just where I live, but overall, I think that these parents need to calm down. If you are a parent who didn't think ahead and didn't get one, relax, it's a video game, your kid will live without it for a couple weeks.
-redial+1
...I look around and notice that every female in the area is connected to a male somehow....
...They all look like college students, and are about half men, half women....
Isn't it odd that geeks seem so ready to line up at all hours of the night, sometimes weeks in advance *cough*Starwars: The Phantom Menace*cough* to partake of these feeding frenzies of American consumerism? I did too, until I figured out the real reason:
American corporations are conspiring to build the uber-geek by selectively breeding male geeks with female geeks at toystores and movie theatres across the nation in order to staff the great technological campaigns of the future. Think about it: those long hours together in darkened parking lots, with nothing but fastfood caffeine for sustenance, snuggling in sleeping bags to ward off the cold, basking in the glow of the occasional palm-pilot and humming the theme to Tron to keep up morale....
And how to get these geeks together? American pilot-programs during the cold war indicated that sociability and people-skills were insufficient. You have to have toys, and they have to be slick:
"Hey, what a neat joystick you have there. Wanna come over to my place and play Mario together? I'll be the Princess and you'll be Luigi *rrowwrrr*."
It's time we put an end to their sinister conspiracy. We don't need them to fall in love. Set free the romantic inside all of you! Love will set you free!
-- Anne Marie