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Grading the Sixth and Seventh Console Generations
GameDaily has up an article grading the current and next-gen consoles on their past and (apparently) future performance. Ratings come with an explanation, which is good because some of them seem just a bid dodgey. Only a B+ for the PS2? Really? From the article: "Considering the competition, the PS2's $129.99 price tag seems downright diminutive. The slim PS2 comes sans fan (meaning potential overheating for long-winded players) but the compact design makes it a must-have for anyone with limited space in the entertainment center. The DualShock 2 is arguably one of the best game controllers of all time and extras can be snapped up for a mere $20 for head-to-head or online multiplayer action." The Aeropause blog has a follow up on the ratings, giving you another perspective on the same consoles.
You can't grade something that hasn't been released. The Dreamcast was an awesome system before game support for it tanked. How would you have graded it before, and after?
For the number of quality games and the low cost, the PS2 is what I'd tell anybody looking for a new console to buy at the moment.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
From the article it appears that the different PS3 bundles will come without component or HDMI cables. Leaving out HDMI I can kind of understand, but even the premium 360 bundle comes with component cables.
that they would get a ps2 now that they can fit one?!
Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.
The DualShock 2 is arguably one of the best game controllers of all time
I'd say there's very good reasons to argue against that. Split d-pad, for one. That's a real thumbwrecker. Nonsensical button names is another big issue. And who can forget putting the analog sticks into a secondary position on a console whose manufacturer openly hates 2d games that would be the only real reason to use the dpad as the primary input?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
B+ for the Ps2, A for 360, A- for Wii, B+ for PS3, A for DS, B for PSP, C for Gamecube, D for Xbox????
It seems like as long as it's next gen you get a B+ and if it's this gen if it's sony you get a B+?
This isn't "Grading" This is "which should I buy for christmas" and the answer they give? any of them. Seriously this isn't a fluff piece, this is enuff piece. A article that is written with just "enuff" to count as an article. No one fails on it, no one wins. It's just "buy what ever you were going to buy in the first place". Personally I'd probably have graded it as follows, remember this is for a new system.
B for PS2, A- for 360, B for Wii, D for PS3, F for Gamecube, D for Xbox, B for DS, B for PSP (only because it plays music)
It's just a summary of the first article, not "another perspective" as the slashdot summary suggests. If you don't want to be bothered with as many pages (and ads) but want to get each grade and a short explanation, read the second article. It even says at the end, "That wraps it up. Total credit for this article goes to GameDaily."
they graded the wii below the 360, but the wii hasn't even been released yet. there's no way they can grade on the future of the console that doesn't even have a present yet. the unwashed masses haven't touched it yet.
"The slim PS2 comes sans fan (meaning potential overheating for long-winded players)"
Wrong. If you take apart a slim PS2, you'll clearly see a fan on the inside of it. However, it's very quiet, which is a good thing. But yes, it does get warm - but the fan keeps the cpu/gpu from melting.
It isn't clear when you use grades, which are region specific, on consoles that are international. For exampe a D where I am from indicates a fail, where as I think at D in the US is a pass.
"the PS2's $129.99 price tag seems downright diminutive."
The ps2 was $399 bro, that's what I paid for my 2!
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Xonk?
This article is fluffy and full of crap, but it did illuminate a Sony statement quite well. I enjoy trying to understand why companies say what they say to new media. Obviously, everything they say is planned and has a purpose except for the rare slip (which contrasts slips that are purposely let out.) Because the intended statement is not always the same as the intended purpose of the statement, it creates a fun little mental exercise. Sony's not-to-recent claim that the PS3 is a 10 year cycle system was quarky but understandable (reassuring customers are getting their money's worth and defending the $500/$600 price.) But what was very strange, and has perpelexed me up until today, was to say the PS2 is also a 10 year cycle machine. Obviously, the PS3 is coming out well before the PS2 has been out for 10 years and it seemed very odd. It seems obvious now. As one might guess Sony doesn't just suddenly realize they are going to miss shipment targets. Signs and symptoms that would suggest this were know well before they finally made the announcement. The PS2 10 year statement was part of a marketing insurance scheme. Look back on Sony news, what do they push a lot beyond the PS3 immenent arrival? The popularity of the PS2, because it certainly isn't the PSP. This of course is not just for their investors' continued good will. It is also important that they keep public opinions about the PS2 positive, while weaving in repeated statements about the PS3's backwards compatability with the PS2. This way, as it has worked out now, they are in a position to push PS2s as an option for those who can't snag one of thier PS3s. Sony Marketing wants us to see PS2 as a perfectly acceptible bridge to the PS3 while we wait for new shipments; focusing on how backward compatability means we wont be "wasting money" on an older system that will be replaced by the PS3 soon. In that light, the PS2 is a 10 year console is a statement of confidence, a marketing reminder, and a subtle admittance to fears that they will not make announced shipments. It's fun to work this sort of thing out, even if I'm completly wrong. Although I think Sony's heading for big trouble, I also think (despite the optimistic corporate face they present) they are not oblivious to it either.
Demented But Determined.
- Playstation 2: A couple of points docked for some truly sub-par graphics decisions made to pump up the polygon count, but otherwise, this is pretty much the model console. A.
- 360, PS3, Wii: Way the fuck too early to grade. Everybody here knows where the pre-release hype stands.
- DS: A+. You pretty much have to give out an A+ here because of the risk factor, and the fact that it paid off. The DS actually has fun games that can not be meaningfully ported to any other gaming platform. (Kirby's Canvas Curse is the canonical example, methinks; due to the way the game critically depends on the stylus even a mouse could not adequately emulate it.) Actually, A+ for the DS Lite; the DS is probably an A- for being a bit clunky, dim, and sorta ugly, but the Lite fixed all of that.
- PSP: I have not used it, but certainly the followthrough execution has been lacking. I don't think a portable game player can afford optical disk technology yet. I'd cap the score at B- for technical issues, and for most people it's probably even worse due to lack of game selection. (It's not that there are no games, but I sure don't seem to hear about many of them.) The UMD movies were a sick joke and if you grade the device as a whole (not just as a games device) I'd knock it down to C- or even D+ for that; I do not appreciate having yet another proprietary movie medium foisted on me. (But as it is ignorable simply by not buying UMD movies, I'd consider the B- my "real" score.)
- Gamecube: C for business reasons. The console is solid, the games are solid, the marketing apparently didn't execute, they were late to the party, and in general it just didn't make it. However, I note that one of the reasons I find myself interested in the Wii is knowing it opens the Gamecube library up to me; I could totally see buying a Wii, maybe Red Steele and Excite Truck (which would probably be my wife's favorite), then scrounging around in the Gamecube bargain bin/used pile for some of the many things I've missed there, cheap.
- XBox: Sharply differs depending on whether you like the games the XBox had or you didn't. If you liked them, and liked playing them online, B+. If you couldn't care less, D+.
- Dreamcast: B-. I actually liked the quality and the game selection was surprisingly good, especially if you still think it just sort of "died". In some ways it reminds me of the DS, with a high proportion of off-genre or niche games that turned out to be a lot of fun. Personally I find I like the controller better than the PS2, although I'm a big man. The memory cards were kooky and mostly useless. Note that this grade (and all others in this discussion) are "for the time"; obviously the Dreamcast released today would not beat the Gamecube.
But of course the reasons given are more interesting than the actual grades.A few months ago, I joked that it was the PS2 that was going to doom Sony and the PS3 launch. Why spend hundreds of dollars on a new console and mediocre launch games, when you've got smash hits such as Final Fantasy XII and Guitar Hero II instead?
But I realize now that it's actually the opposite. It's the PS2 that may end up saving Sony. Why?
Well, the PS3 launch was already "doomed" in the first place, due to its high cost and low availability. Most of the gamers who are interested in one, just aren't going to be able to get one, unless they want to spend close to a thousand dollars (at least!) on eBay, or get lucky camping out in the wee morning. The vast majority of people that will eventually get a PS3, won't be getting one until next year, once the units are more readily available.
In the meantime, the last thing Sony wants is for these gamers to get interested in the Wii or the 360. The best way to do that is to get these same gamers hooked on PS2 games, until the availability problem is over. That's where your huge franchises, God of War, Final Fantasy, etc. can come to the rescue.
It's certainly working for me. I'm currently addicted to FFXII (although I already have a 360 so it doesn't matter in that respect).
-- jchenx
Aren't grades supposed to be objective?
Tell me what I had to soder the connectors back on for after a botched "let's take apart and look see" That was NOT fun for a solder n00b like me. This was the silver Japanese version (the one with really crappy backwards compatability I hear now), maybe the North Am one's are different?
Agreed. There is a reason that 3 other manufacturer's (MS, Nintendo, and Sega) all put their Analog sticks in the primary position. For 3D games, that's where they belong. I can understand how it happened though, the PS1 controller was only slightly modified from an SNES controller. Then they wanted to add analog support, and didn't know where to put it. Why they left it on the PS2/PS3 in this configuration I have no idea. To me this is a cap in the 360's favor as I would rather interface with that for hours at a time (or a Wavebird, or a Guitar) than the Dual shock or Sixaxis.
I'd agree if they owned no consoles (even when compared to next-gen), but if they already have a PS2 it becomes a bit more difficult.
GameCube has a great set of games (less then PS2, but a lot more then XBox), and it is really cheap ($99 new, less than $50 used) but it's pretty well dead and Twilight Princess may well be the last game released for the console.
XBox has great homebrew applications like XBMC and all the emulators, and it has an alright set of games, but it's price is too much for such an old console, and it's also practically dead.
360 has the benefit of being next gen and having support for the next few years at leat, but it is pretty expensive ($400, and no I would never recommmend anyone pick up the $300 model), and the game library at present is woefully underdeveloped, with only a handful of titles I personally am looking forward to.
PS3 just as 360 has years of support ahead of it, and it some pretty excellent titles in development (MGS4, FF13, DMC4, Tekken 5, VF5 and on), but it is very expensive ($500 unless you really need a bigger hard drive), and... did I mention how expensive it is?
Then there's the Wii. It does have a list of some pretty good titles in development (Zelda port, Metroid Prime 3, Smash Bros Brawl), and it's cheap relative to other console, but considering the hardware $250 almost seems like a ripoff, and I can't help but worry that serious additions to classic series will be on 360 and/or PS3, with only spinoffs on Wii (like we've already seen with Resident Evil and Final Fantasy).
I'm almost too embarassed to admit it, but I still don't have a PS2. It's probably what I'll be getting for my next console, but I've been too busy biulding up my library of past consoles to worry about adding a new one.
...
And the PS2 will certainly be a project
Even though MS hasn't been able to sell in Japan, Sony's meager launch of 80,000 PS3 units will be crushed by the Wii The day it launches. With a healthy level of Wii's in the pipeline Nintendo will be the market leader in Japan through the holiday and likely the 1st 3-6 months of it's lifespan. Sony's only hope is to get their manufacturing issues fixed before Nintendo has "Too much of a lead" and developers "Follow to money to the larger userbase" as they did with the PS2.
I bought my Sega Genesis used, so I can't comment on that one. But the US and European versions of the NES (Wikipedia's 3rd gen) came with an A/V cable, and the Super NES (WP's 4th gen) through GameCube (WP's 6th gen) came with a composite "MULTI OUT" cable. The PS1 and PS2 also came with Sony's variant of "MULTI OUT".
It's a workaround for the D-pad patent that Nintendo refused to license in 1995.
I'll grant you the square, but the other three were letters: X (cross), O (circle), and D (triangle, in the form of Greek delta). In addition, you can spell the name of every Microsoft game console using just PS1 buttons: X (cross), Box (square), 360 (circle).
Every Final Fantasy game in the main series except III and XI runs on a slim PS2. Even XIII is for PS2.
I hate what Sony's turned into with the PS3, but there can be no doubt that the PS2 is the console to beat. Sure, it's the least powerful console of the last generation (XBox, GameCube, PS2), but oh boy does it have the software library. If you had no gaming console and you were going to buy one, the PS2 would be the one to get.
I personally love my XBox 360 but it certainly can't match the breadth and depth of the PS2 library. Sold off my original XBox and Gamecube because they were useless.
Unless you want portable, then the DS rules the roost.
"The DualShock 2 is arguably one of the best game controllers of all time." And that's where I stopped reading. Arguably indeed.
- For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.
No, it's not. It is, however, probably the one you're most used to. Maybe it's even the first controller you've ever used. but that doesn't mean that it's a good controller. The shape is extremely awkward and non-ergonomic. You can't really hold the damn thing. The dual analog sticks are useful, but they're positioned all wrong. There are about, hm... well, there's Katamari Damacy which makes use of the dual sticks' position, but for every other game, you have to hold the controller asymetrically in order to use the left analog stick while keeping the right thumb on the buttons.
And don't get me started on the stupid symbols. I still sometimes hit the wrong button if the game tells me to "hit the square button" because I tend to forget the button position during a particularly engaging game.
If people like this controller, it's not because the controller is particularly good (or particularly bad, for that matter - there are way worse controllers). If people like it, it's because they're used to it.
Game cube $99
Wii Controller $70 (169)
Wii sports $50 (219)
+ SD Card reader ($20) (239)
+ Network adapter (20) 259
What spinoff of resident evil was there. I though RE4 was first onto the gamecube
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I think the canonical comparison would be to one of Nintendo's D-Pads. Not the one on the Cube controller, that one sucks. But compare the PS2's (or PSP's) D-Pad to the DS or N64's or SNES's D-Pad, and you'll notice the difference.
Except it very much is. For most games, you have the left thumb on the analog stick and the right thumb on the buttons, so you're holding the controller asymetrically. Which is pretty weird.
The analog sticks were an afterthought introduced after designing the controller (as an answer to Nintendo's N64 controller). I have no idea why Sony never fixed that.
Wii's not getting RE5, it's getting a spin-off from the series.
You forget the backwards-compatability of the Wii. You can get one, and then avail yourself of the Gamecube back-catalog until such time as your Wii Must-Haves are released.
I'm probably going to sell my GC to offset the cost of a Wii as it is; assuming, of course, that backwards-compatability is full on for my game library, and not partial like the XB360/XBox or PS2/PS1.
(Yes, the PS2 had issues with some PS1 games, and even in several of the supported ones I found issues (MGS and poly tearing, for instance))
MGS had poly-tearing on PS1 as well. PS2's backwards compatibility was damn near perfect, the only thing I can remember not working were those stupid Namco Museums.