Xbox has superior graphics Xbox has just as many good launch titles as PS2 did. PS2 had SSX and not much else. Xbox has Halo."
Cute, you think people buy consoles for the graphics. Maybe in the US... which would explain why it's the only country where the Xbox isn't considered a joke.
The PS2's launch games are immaterial to the argument- we don't all go back to the starting line just because MS is still tying its shoelaces.
It's laughable that Halo is considered to be a 'killer app'- a poorly-implemented FPS that looks and plays worse than nearly anything in the genre released on the PC in the last two years, put together by a third-rate developer desperate enough to sell out to MS. Roll on Metroid Prime.
The rest of the world isn't fooled by marketing and fancy graphics- they can see that the Xbox is the most expensive console, that offers the least in the way of games and functionality. Big whoop, it has net hardware that you can't use yet, and a HDD that no game utilises. It's already dead in Japan, and where the (good, not Acclaim/EA) developers go, the gaming public will follow. This means Gamecube (outselling Xbox by 5 to 1 or more in Japan, probably will in EU too) and PS2 (already sold several tens of millions).
Enjoy playing your (Hungarian built) American console, cultural imperialist dummy.
My Abit mobo (bought about a year ago) has had the ACPI switch expunged from its BIOS for a long time (although thankfully enthusiasts have released hacked BIOSes that re-enable it). ACPI = Bad news if you wanted to use most combinations of popular sound and video cards. I have never seen a PC where ACPI does everything that it promises (e.g. Instant On), even when it doesn't totally fuck the machine.
WPA, SDMI, ACPI, IE. I guess limiting consumer choice is Microsoft's core business these days.
You're right, Oscilloscope Tennis developed by William Higinbotham was the first video game. But don't expect any of these foo's to listen to you, they're too busy trying to one-up each others' reminisces of Space Wars.
Seeing as Nintendo are the largest video games company in the world by some considerable margin, it's hard to see how you could be more wrong. You don't get to the top of that particular hill through luck.
Sega may have been in financial dire straits, but don't knock the DC. It was a good piece of hardware that failed to get decent marketing or the faith of the company behind it. Now with Sega concentrating on software, they are in a formidable position to compete. Not many other companies are making everything from MMORPGs to handheld games and covering every format out there.
PS2 has sold more hardware units because it's been out for close to two years now. GC is level pegging it with Xbox afaik, although the fact that MS are bullying retailers might skew that. Plus of course the GC (like every other console in history) doesn't have a massive software library within the first six months. Oh, and the Xbox has only launched in the US, making comparisons even more irrelevant.
Anyway, seeing as this article was about an arcade board (possibly the last great arcade board..?) let's try to stay on topic.
I'm going to keep it brief because the Xbox is now toast, history, garbage, 3DO, yesterday's news, anyway.
This was rumoured for ages even before the xbox was released. Only certain vendors will be able to make peripherals work with certain Xboxes. You can imagine that third parties wanting to sell a keyboard or mouse for the xbox will be screwed by this. After all, if you put a mouse and keyboard on an xbox, then you can put a web browser on it. And oh shit, looks like Mr. & Mrs. Joe Middle America's Windows PC is gathering dust.
When will people get it that the xbox doesn't deserve our money, or even for us to lend it credibility. It's not a console, it's just an electrified games industry consumer and publisher reaming machine.
If it wasn't for the Flash Linker business, I'd now say 'Buy a Gamecube'. Hell, seeing as only the games matter I'll say it anyway. Buy a Gamecube.
Sadly, the timeline only predicts as far as 2100, so there is no indication as to when BT will actually enable the majority of their customers access to ADSL services.
Still, the development of cryogenic suspension should give this country's hapless telecoms monopoly victims something to do while we wait to get connected.
Great... another in-depth article by someone who knows a great deal about hardware but sadly nothing about games. Just some of the problems (note that these mistakes are being made time and time again, while articles are quick to hype up the elements Microsoft percieve they have strengths in: playiing into MS's hands by carelessly ignoring the gapiung holes in their 'strategy'):
Network Gaming is *so* important: It didn't save the Dreamcast though, did it? The PC will always be the superior online gaming platform, unless the Xbox suddenly grows a keyboard, a dozen well-established MMORPGs, and a modding community. Also, bear in mind that Allard's "broadband vision" will exclude the vast majority of gamers especially in Europe (only 50% can get broadband in the UK, at a massively optimistic estimate).
Discounting Nintendo out of hand: The largest games publisher in the world, the only games company to make a consistent profit throughout the market 'downturn', a company shipping a console at half the price of the bloated Xbox. They're not aiming it at kids- no Nintendo console ever has been- they're aiming at *everyone*. If you think a game is 'kiddie' because of its graphics, you shouldn't be playing games, you should get a hobby you can easily understand.
None of the games covered were evaluated by any metric other than their 'dazzling' (640x480) graphics. No games were compared to the benchmark titles in their genres. (As always, DOA3 is taken on face value to be any good- which it might be if Tekken, VF, Soul Calibur didn't exist.) Blinkered, to say the least.
It really is Atari all over again. The pushing of gimmicks like the Game Voice is especially reminiscient of a company floundering for a new angle, while ignoring the fact that they need decent games and have priced themselves out of the market. Outclassed, outgunned, only selling to the most credulous of casual gamers. I'll be picking up a Gamecube, then a PS2 if I have any spare cash, then upgrading my PC, then picking up a DC with a dozen quality titles on ebay, before even considering an xbox.
This argument could just run and run (and RtCW would still be better, but I digress).
Basically, I find it helps to realise that Half-Life is effectively the R-Type of the FPS genre. Developers can now go on and make more graphically impressive, complex, realistic, deep and engaging FPS games, but millions of sad pedants will come back with "ah, but it's not the same as Half-Life, now there was a game..."
Let's let people make their own minds up. There's a place for Half-Life as well as RtCW. Plus scads of other sub-genres of the FPS. It's not such a tragedy that Wolfy doesn't do anything stunningly new, at least it does what it does very well (and for that matter, name another FPS - ack! except HL! - that has stealth, survival-horror, objectives, big big levels and kick-ass multiplayer out of the box?).
"The genre, already succesful on the PC, has yet to be tested on a console audience"
Huh? What about Phantasy Star Online then?
"If anyone can make the genre not suck, it's Square."
Ah, the call of the fanboy. Square have no prior experience in MMORPGs, so this is idealistic thinking at best. Unless they can find a use for interminable non-interactive FMV sequences in an online multiplayer game, of course.
As has been mentioned, this is old, old news. Kudos to PC Doormat for clobbering together a bunch of tired rumours as an exclusive. The crap 'artist's impression' is a nice touch. Gotta love desperation.
Bye-bye, Future Publishing.
I absolutely agree with this - in fact I was going to cite Shining Force, as well as Front Mission and Faselei! as being about as strategic as you'd possibly ever want.
Just because RTS's often contain no strategy to speak of doesn't mean that all games should be tarred with the same brush... but then hey, this is Slashdot where populism and short attention spans r00l!
And CmdrTaco knows jack about games, just for the record. Wow, DOA3 is coming out for the Xbox. Bog f'n woop, Soul Cally 2, VF4, Tekken 4 are coming out for the GC. Still, cute how he tries to pretend to have l33t knowledge.
Not even going to bother arguing with you - if you still think the aim of the program was primarily to poke fun at Phil Collins and that Morris (widely regarded as the sharpest and most consistently hilarious comedian this country has produced in years) is 'not even close' then there's really no hope of reasoning with you.
Morris is not a hack. Anyone who has watched Brass Eye is aware that the gulling of celebrities is a minor part of the programme. It was done in the original series (FIVE years ago) to debunk the myth that celebs gave a shit about the causes they were publicising - to show that their objective was simply to gain publicity for themselves.
I agree that Brass Eye isn't 'satire', it's simply comedic genius. A pity that you (and the Daily Mail reading masses) did not appreciate it.
And of course, I'm not doubting that you've seen the programme for a second...
...the word 'Myst'. You'd think having endured the first two you'd have cottoned on to how lame this particular non-interactive slideshow series was.
Presumably the multitude of showstopping bugs are a smokescreen to prevent players getting to the creatively bankrupt button-puzzles that constitute the 'gameplay'. Sigh... some problems no amount of patches can fix.
It's pretty sad when supposedly professional journalists at (*spit*) Salon have to resort to writing what is in effect an elaborate troll just to get some attention from the Slashdot crowd. Let's just ignore it. If they're really as clueless as this article suggests, they'll just keep harming themselves.
Hey Salon, way to make enemies with the biggest entertainment industry on Earth.
Wow, games use titillation as a promotional tool, huh? It's not like any other form of pop-culture media does that, is it? Oh wait, yes they do. All of them.
Hmm. Some good points (that have occured to others, natch...) but they don't necessarily add up to success.
Specs I think are pretty much a dead heat between the two machines (bearing in mind however that the GC could be considerably cheaper).
I have to disagree on games though. The xbox seems to have very, very few exclusives worth shouting about. Potential is great, but the enthusiasm of the major (i.e. Japanese) console game publishers to support the machine is limited at best. (For instance Sega and Capcom, both trumpeted as a coup, are keeping their main franchises well away from xbox.)
Halo is probably the only stand-out title, and I don't think it warrants a $300+ dollar outlay when Tribes 2 exists. Nothing else on the machine holds a candle to the GC lineup, and the PS2 second generation titles should be in full swing by then too (e.g. MGS2 and GT3 with FFX approaching - the xbox has nothing to compete in any of those genres.)
Crashes are probably a non-issue really. The main concern I think would be if the hardware turned out to be buggy (and it's been rushed through development, so I'd expect some teething problems in the first batch - just like the PSX).
DOA 3? That was the one they got an 'exclusivity window' for? LOL.
As people with eyes will attest, the Gamecube stole the show. While MS showed nothing new (and certainly nothing that couldn't be had elsewhere), Nintendo had jaws hitting the floor from the press conference onward. Even the (comparatively low specced) PS2 put on a better display. Check http://e3.nintendo.com.
The only card MS have to play is graphics (and that's going to be a non-issue by the time the machine is out). Judging by their site, that's all they care about. They sure as hell know nothing about games. They should stick to what they're good at (as soon as they work out what that is of course:)
It doesn't take a pre-production model crashing to make a laughing stock of the xbox - the weak launch games, outclassed hardware, and directionless 'strategy' espoused by balding 30-something teenager J Allard pretty much annihilate any credibility it might have had. No killer apps, no real exclusives, no point...
The article was mistranslated. This is not the first time one of the less reputable game news sites has jumped on such sketchy "information" and reported it as fact.
Number of references to the story x Number of banner ads on the page (over 10?) = easy money, provided you have no journalistic integrity. Perhaps the fact that the story makes no sense (Yup, Nintendo are *really* likely to can a project they have spent millions on and is eagerly anticipated by gamers all over the world. That's just such good business sense!)
(And a special thanks to all the Slashdot readers who seem to think they are games 'experts', that come out of the woodwork every time there's a gaming story - I'm sure the biggest entertainment software publisher in the world really cares that you think they 'suX0r'.)
The commentary on Robot Wars is impossible to understand even if you're English - it's delivered by some football commentator who sounds like he's on an IV caffiene drip.
Yes, DMan *really* has new users' interests at heart. He wasn't "screwed over" at all. He persistently and deliberately attacked other users on E2. Necessary action was taken. I dunno, perhaps he expected people to put up with his tirades of abuse. It's funny how he acted so surprised about the whole issue and is still bleating about it now.
Having written close to 2,000 writeups on E2 I think I know what finds favour with the majority. I can also conclude that you're talking shite, and if you're not DMan, you're certainly one hell of a rube to believe his bullshit.
Slashdot Mirror
Xbox has superior graphics
Xbox has just as many good launch titles as PS2 did. PS2 had SSX and not much else. Xbox has Halo."
Cute, you think people buy consoles for the graphics. Maybe in the US... which would explain why it's the only country where the Xbox isn't considered a joke.
The PS2's launch games are immaterial to the argument- we don't all go back to the starting line just because MS is still tying its shoelaces.
It's laughable that Halo is considered to be a 'killer app'- a poorly-implemented FPS that looks and plays worse than nearly anything in the genre released on the PC in the last two years, put together by a third-rate developer desperate enough to sell out to MS. Roll on Metroid Prime.
The rest of the world isn't fooled by marketing and fancy graphics- they can see that the Xbox is the most expensive console, that offers the least in the way of games and functionality. Big whoop, it has net hardware that you can't use yet, and a HDD that no game utilises. It's already dead in Japan, and where the (good, not Acclaim/EA) developers go, the gaming public will follow. This means Gamecube (outselling Xbox by 5 to 1 or more in Japan, probably will in EU too) and PS2 (already sold several tens of millions).
Enjoy playing your (Hungarian built) American console, cultural imperialist dummy.
WPA, SDMI, ACPI, IE. I guess limiting consumer choice is Microsoft's core business these days.
You're right, Oscilloscope Tennis developed by William Higinbotham was the first video game. But don't expect any of these foo's to listen to you, they're too busy trying to one-up each others' reminisces of Space Wars.
(Incidentally, I bought a 32X. I consequently couldn't afford a PSX, so hey, it wasn't all bad news.)
Sega may have been in financial dire straits, but don't knock the DC. It was a good piece of hardware that failed to get decent marketing or the faith of the company behind it. Now with Sega concentrating on software, they are in a formidable position to compete. Not many other companies are making everything from MMORPGs to handheld games and covering every format out there.
PS2 has sold more hardware units because it's been out for close to two years now. GC is level pegging it with Xbox afaik, although the fact that MS are bullying retailers might skew that. Plus of course the GC (like every other console in history) doesn't have a massive software library within the first six months. Oh, and the Xbox has only launched in the US, making comparisons even more irrelevant.
Anyway, seeing as this article was about an arcade board (possibly the last great arcade board..?) let's try to stay on topic.
This was rumoured for ages even before the xbox was released. Only certain vendors will be able to make peripherals work with certain Xboxes. You can imagine that third parties wanting to sell a keyboard or mouse for the xbox will be screwed by this. After all, if you put a mouse and keyboard on an xbox, then you can put a web browser on it. And oh shit, looks like Mr. & Mrs. Joe Middle America's Windows PC is gathering dust.
When will people get it that the xbox doesn't deserve our money, or even for us to lend it credibility. It's not a console, it's just an electrified games industry consumer and publisher reaming machine.
If it wasn't for the Flash Linker business, I'd now say 'Buy a Gamecube'. Hell, seeing as only the games matter I'll say it anyway. Buy a Gamecube.
Still, the development of cryogenic suspension should give this country's hapless telecoms monopoly victims something to do while we wait to get connected.
www.broadband4britain.co.uk
Network Gaming is *so* important: It didn't save the Dreamcast though, did it? The PC will always be the superior online gaming platform, unless the Xbox suddenly grows a keyboard, a dozen well-established MMORPGs, and a modding community. Also, bear in mind that Allard's "broadband vision" will exclude the vast majority of gamers especially in Europe (only 50% can get broadband in the UK, at a massively optimistic estimate).
Discounting Nintendo out of hand: The largest games publisher in the world, the only games company to make a consistent profit throughout the market 'downturn', a company shipping a console at half the price of the bloated Xbox. They're not aiming it at kids- no Nintendo console ever has been- they're aiming at *everyone*. If you think a game is 'kiddie' because of its graphics, you shouldn't be playing games, you should get a hobby you can easily understand.
None of the games covered were evaluated by any metric other than their 'dazzling' (640x480) graphics. No games were compared to the benchmark titles in their genres. (As always, DOA3 is taken on face value to be any good- which it might be if Tekken, VF, Soul Calibur didn't exist.) Blinkered, to say the least.
It really is Atari all over again. The pushing of gimmicks like the Game Voice is especially reminiscient of a company floundering for a new angle, while ignoring the fact that they need decent games and have priced themselves out of the market. Outclassed, outgunned, only selling to the most credulous of casual gamers. I'll be picking up a Gamecube, then a PS2 if I have any spare cash, then upgrading my PC, then picking up a DC with a dozen quality titles on ebay, before even considering an xbox.
Basically, I find it helps to realise that Half-Life is effectively the R-Type of the FPS genre. Developers can now go on and make more graphically impressive, complex, realistic, deep and engaging FPS games, but millions of sad pedants will come back with "ah, but it's not the same as Half-Life, now there was a game..."
Let's let people make their own minds up. There's a place for Half-Life as well as RtCW. Plus scads of other sub-genres of the FPS. It's not such a tragedy that Wolfy doesn't do anything stunningly new, at least it does what it does very well (and for that matter, name another FPS - ack! except HL! - that has stealth, survival-horror, objectives, big big levels and kick-ass multiplayer out of the box?).
Just my dual helping of minor currency.
Huh? What about Phantasy Star Online then?
"If anyone can make the genre not suck, it's Square."
Ah, the call of the fanboy. Square have no prior experience in MMORPGs, so this is idealistic thinking at best. Unless they can find a use for interminable non-interactive FMV sequences in an online multiplayer game, of course.
Bye-bye, Future Publishing.
Just because RTS's often contain no strategy to speak of doesn't mean that all games should be tarred with the same brush
And CmdrTaco knows jack about games, just for the record. Wow, DOA3 is coming out for the Xbox. Bog f'n woop, Soul Cally 2, VF4, Tekken 4 are coming out for the GC. Still, cute how he tries to pretend to have l33t knowledge.
Unless they've been intentionally making sucky games, I suippose. To paraphrase Carel Kapek (R.U.R.) (pardon the spelling):
"Someone has been giving the games decent interfaces - and gameplay!"
Get a sense of humour.
I agree that Brass Eye isn't 'satire', it's simply comedic genius. A pity that you (and the Daily Mail reading masses) did not appreciate it.
And of course, I'm not doubting that you've seen the programme for a second...
Presumably the multitude of showstopping bugs are a smokescreen to prevent players getting to the creatively bankrupt button-puzzles that constitute the 'gameplay'. Sigh... some problems no amount of patches can fix.
Hey Salon, way to make enemies with the biggest entertainment industry on Earth.
Wow, games use titillation as a promotional tool, huh? It's not like any other form of pop-culture media does that, is it? Oh wait, yes they do. All of them.
Specs I think are pretty much a dead heat between the two machines (bearing in mind however that the GC could be considerably cheaper).
I have to disagree on games though. The xbox seems to have very, very few exclusives worth shouting about. Potential is great, but the enthusiasm of the major (i.e. Japanese) console game publishers to support the machine is limited at best. (For instance Sega and Capcom, both trumpeted as a coup, are keeping their main franchises well away from xbox.)
Halo is probably the only stand-out title, and I don't think it warrants a $300+ dollar outlay when Tribes 2 exists. Nothing else on the machine holds a candle to the GC lineup, and the PS2 second generation titles should be in full swing by then too (e.g. MGS2 and GT3 with FFX approaching - the xbox has nothing to compete in any of those genres.)
Crashes are probably a non-issue really. The main concern I think would be if the hardware turned out to be buggy (and it's been rushed through development, so I'd expect some teething problems in the first batch - just like the PSX).
As people with eyes will attest, the Gamecube stole the show. While MS showed nothing new (and certainly nothing that couldn't be had elsewhere), Nintendo had jaws hitting the floor from the press conference onward. Even the (comparatively low specced) PS2 put on a better display. Check http://e3.nintendo.com.
The only card MS have to play is graphics (and that's going to be a non-issue by the time the machine is out). Judging by their site, that's all they care about. They sure as hell know nothing about games. They should stick to what they're good at (as soon as they work out what that is of course :)
Xbox == next gen 3do
Roll on Gamecube.
Number of references to the story x Number of banner ads on the page (over 10?) = easy money, provided you have no journalistic integrity. Perhaps the fact that the story makes no sense (Yup, Nintendo are *really* likely to can a project they have spent millions on and is eagerly anticipated by gamers all over the world. That's just such good business sense!)
(And a special thanks to all the Slashdot readers who seem to think they are games 'experts', that come out of the woodwork every time there's a gaming story - I'm sure the biggest entertainment software publisher in the world really cares that you think they 'suX0r'.)
The commentary on Robot Wars is impossible to understand even if you're English - it's delivered by some football commentator who sounds like he's on an IV caffiene drip.
Having written close to 2,000 writeups on E2 I think I know what finds favour with the majority. I can also conclude that you're talking shite, and if you're not DMan, you're certainly one hell of a rube to believe his bullshit.