Vice City coming to X-Box

[Guest Flyboy]

I have had ALL the great games that the GC has to offer (except for the ones that hasn't been released) and they just didn't do it for me. Eternal Darkness, Zelda: Wind Waker, Metriod Prime.. they just don't anything for me. At all.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

I'm of the opinion that the X Box is clearly the #3 console right now, and while it hasn't killed console gaming, the fact that they need to keep cutting prices and continue to lose 200 bucks a console just to keep competitive is proof enough to me that the Cube is better than the X Box.

 

Uh... Sega wasn't exactly losing money on the Dreamcast hardware either (it got to the point where it was cheaper than some games, I think.) That's kind of a poor bar to judge by.

 

Sony was eating costs on the PS2 for a while at first (especially at launchtime when they had to overnight air the initial number of systems, which weren't nearly enough to meet demand.) The only reason they aren't is because they're selling so friggin' much that they're rolling in dough.

 

The amount of money MS has been eating per box has been going down with hardware revisions and moving manufacture to another country.

 

I will also say that the PS2 will probably remain #1, as it has the biggest library of games and has a variety of different titles to suit just about anyone.

 

Agreed on this, but as an experiment to see if MS could work in the console market (remember when it seemed ludicrous?) it's been coming along pretty well.

 

the Microsoft hype machine hyping inferior games to the casual gamer who would then accept the crappy games as standard fare thus lowering the overall quality of games for all consoles.

 

Crappy games have been coming out on all consoles for years. Whether it's Roger Rabbit on NES, FF Mystic Quest on SNES, Sewer Shark on SegaCD, anything on 32X, or BMX XXX on the current crop of consoles.

 

Probablly the crappiest game I've seen the "MS hype machine" advertising lately is Teng Shui or whatever the hell that fighting game is called, and Nintendo and Sony have both advertised crappier games before.

 

You can see it in the fact that some 3rd party games that are crap aren't selling well on the Gamecube like they are on the other 2 consoles

 

I don't think nearly any third party games are selling well on the GameCube. Which isn't a slam on it, as I doubt the people buying the system are buying it for any third party titles anyway, so it's fulfilling the purposes of those that buy it, but anyway.

 

the 3rd party games are (for the most part) much worse than what Nintendo puts out, but they aren't as bad as whats available for the X Box

 

That's not even a fair statement! What games for Xbox did you play to say something like that?

 

The hard drive theory hasn't panned out yet, but I still don't see why you need a hard drive in a console

 

Because I'm playing a Splinter Cell mission you aren't. =b

 

And if nothing else, the hard drive stuff makes modded machines godly. Even if you don't like the games, I'd reccomend buying an Xbox and mod chipping it simply because it perfectly emulates just about all the old school systems. There's also a pretty good PlayStation emulator and allegedly even an N64 emu out now. Plus you can stream all sorts of files (Divx, Xvid, ASF, Real, Quicktime, Mpegs, DVD VOB, MP3, pictures, etc) to the Media Player app with a Windows program called Relax and basically have a set-top DivX player.

 

Even if you hate the Xbox, the amount of work and energy being put into the mod chip stuff by the underground community is mindblowing.

 

I don't need some people from a company who for 20 years made OS' for computers tell me what makes a good game

 

Seems to be a lot of hate for them "telling you what to buy" or something. I don't get that. What I can tell you is that I personally think that their presence is a good thing because, if nothing else, it provides a block for Sony. PS2 is of course on top because it had more hype than Jesus and came out a year before, but this certainly won't be the last generation of systems and MS is one of the few companies in the world that can take on Sony, dollar for dollar.

[Guest redbaron51]

X-Box is probably the prototype of the next gen console

[Guest Sakura]

Tao Feng is not crappy. John Tobias rules.

[Guest JaKyL25]

redbaron's probably right, though I don't see future consoles being as physically huge as the Xbox. That thing is massive. It looks like it's gonna eat my Gamecube and pick it's teeth with my GBA.

 

Sony definitely has the edge in controller design. Both Nintendo and Microsoft's controllers are completely whacked out of their gourd (S-type is an improvement, but still awkward). Sony got it right by mimicking the classic SNES pad and improving on it (added shoulder buttons, duel analog pads, pressure-sensitve buttons, internal vibration, etc.). The only thing I really dislike about it is the shape-named buttons. I know it lends some distinction, but "A, B, X, Y" is just so much more user-friendly (especially in writing) than "Circle, Square, Triangle, X."

 

I was bored, so I just thought I'd point out the only two hardware areas where Microsoft really faltered. Great machine otherwise. I just wish I enjoyed the software more.

[Guest Nevermortal]

Want to know the thing that sold me on the XBox?

 

Not any games, because I never even bought its big launch title, Halo.

 

Not the graphics, because I really don't give a damn.

 

The fucking hard drive sold me. As soon as I heard that, I wanted one like crazy. I HATED memory cards. Absolutely fucking despised them. They'd always get missplaced and they were cumbersome as hell. Then, I learned of the custom soundtracks. It went from a must buy to a no brainer.

[Guest redbaron51]

no way man, the x-box controller is probably the best there is. It fits perfectly where the hands should be.

 

PS2 is cramped if anything, and if i'm using dual shock, i'll be hitting X or Square and moving the right analog stick.

 

Cube's controller is just fucked period.

[Guest redbaron51]

and i agree with nevermortal.

 

the fact is that I have about 20 CD's saved with tons of games hasn't made a dent into my hardrive worth of saving, with also up loads as well.

[Guest Nevermortal]

no way man, the x-box controller is probably the best there is. It fits perfectly where the hands should be.

 

PS2 is cramped if anything, and if i'm using dual shock, i'll be hitting X or Square and moving the right analog stick.

 

Cube's controller is just fucked period.

I agree. The first Xbox controller was fucking awesome.

 

maybe because I'm used to big controllers (Dreamcast/N64)....

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

I didn't like the first Xbox pad, but S is fine by me. Love love love, or something.

 

PS2 is as someone else said just an evolution of the old controllers, but he forgot that the old S/NES pads were very uncomfortable and certainly not ergonomic in the slightest. Still, it'll do, and it's good at arcade style games.

 

GameCube's is... Let's not even go there. It really clicked with Zelda, but nothing else.

[Guest Lethargic]

Well, I will say that I do believe that the inferior game theory has actually started to happen.  You can see it in the fact that some 3rd party games that are crap aren't selling well on the Gamecube like they are on the other 2 consoles.  This is do in part to the fact that the 3rd party games are (for the most part) much worse than what Nintendo puts out, but they aren't as bad as whats available for the X Box (and they sell better on the PS2 just because there are more PS2's owners to sell to).

 

I've had my Xbox for over a year now and I still haven't played ONE game that I would call crap. There have been games that were less fun than others but I haven't played a single bad game yet. I would like to know what all these crap games are supposed to be.

 

The hard drive theory hasn't panned out yet, but I still don't see why you need a hard drive in a console, just as I don't understand why the Gamecube is inferior because it doesn't have a DVD player.  I don't need my video game console to play DVD's, I already have a stand alone DVD player and a DVD player in my computer.

 

You don't understand why you need a hard drive? Well, I dunno, maybe because it lets you SAVE GAMES? I'd much rather have a hard disk that I can save tons and tons of ripped songs, game saves, rosters, created players, downloaded levels and characters, on and on and on (and STILL have tons of room left for more) instead of having to shell out 20-30 bucks to get some shitty stupid ass memory card that holds about 1/10000th of what I can save on a hard disk. After all this time of playing games and saving stuff I still haven't had to delete anything to make room. It seems like this hard drive is friggin huge. The added possibilities that a hard drive gives you are endless. Why in the world people use this as a reason to be anti-Xbox is beyond me. It's one of the greatest things to happen to consoles. Those Sony memory cards are a total pain in the ass and I am very, very, very glad to be rid of the stupid things. I used to have to buy one card to play Final Fantasy with and another to play NBA Live with and another to play something else, on and on. It was a total friggin scam to sucker morons out of money when they could've had a hard drive built into the unit all along just like Xbox.

 

I don't need some people from a company who for 20 years made OS' for computers tell me what makes a good game.

 

Well, I'd say since you think Nintendo still makes good games, yes you DO need somebody to tell you what makes a good game. haha The last great game that came out of Nintendo was on SNES. There's a reason that GC has slipped to third in the past few months and it ain't because it's purple.

[Guest The Tino Standard]

no way man, the x-box controller is probably the best there is. It fits perfectly where the hands should be.

 

PS2 is cramped if anything, and if i'm using dual shock, i'll be hitting X or Square and moving the right analog stick.

 

Cube's controller is just fucked period.

I suppose this gets into a game of "Whatever Creams Your Twinkie," but personally, I LOVE the PS2 controller. It just fits in my hand like a glove (not the PowerGlove... bada bing!). That X-Box controller (the original one, I still haven't seen the new one, so I can't judge that) was way too cumbersome (hey, just like the console itself). Was there a reason that had to make the controller so big and awkward, just so they could slap a giant green "X-BOX" logo on the middle of it?

 

And as far as the hard drive thing goes, that is absolutely the future of game systems. You're only fooling yourself if you think the next PlayStation will have memory cards (or the Sony people are on crack if they think mem. cards are a good idea).

 

Hard drives, online game play... Those are going to be standard built-in features.

 

I'm still happy I got a PS2 instead of any other system, but yeah, there are definitely some parts of the X-Box that I think lay the groundwork for future systems.

 

Just not the controllers.

[Guest Nightscrawler]

Sigh... I'm stuck with a PS2. I'm not looking forward to any of it's games except HCTP and MGS3.

 

I wish I had a X-box just the Halo games, or at least a Cube for it's franshise games.

[Guest redbaron51]

The only downside to the X-Box controllers is that the trigger buttons are way to sensitive.

[Betty Houle 0]

Own the X-Box. It's awesome.

 

Own the Gamecube. the controller blow but it has a lot of fun games you can't play elsewhere.

 

Why own the PS2??

[Guest fazzle]

Why own the PS2??

Cause it's got more games than Cube and XBox combined?

[Guest Ripper]

Imagine if they swelled the X button and moved it up about a centimeter or two...

 

Thats all I ever have to say and people fall in love with the Cube controller. It fits your hand better than the other 2 and as much as people bitch about the button layout, it isn't that far off from the Playstation controller.

[Betty Houle 0]

Why own the PS2??

Cause it's got more games than Cube and XBox combined?

True. But most of the games I want are available for X-Box or Gamecube so I'm quite hapy without the PS2.

[Guest Lethargic]

I used to love the PS2 controller and thought it was the best. I also used to have a lot of wrist and finger pain though. I never thought it was from that. I thought it was from typing or playing drums and guitar and bass all the time.

 

But I got to the point where I hated the PS2 so I wanted to get one of the others and try. I was thinking I didn't want an Xbox because of that stupid huge controller. But I didn't want a Nintendo cause they already suckered me into getting a N64 and that was a waste of time and I couldn't find a single game on GC that I even thought MIGHT be fun. So I went with the Xbox thinking of it as the lesser of three evils. I hated the controller but got used to it after a day or two of playing PLUS my hand pains completely went away. Gone, vanished, a ghost, a vapor. So now it pisses me off that they're switching to these little dinky pads. I feel like a girl playing with those. It's like holding a popsicle stick now. And I REALLY don't wanna go back to having my hands throbbing in pain like I did with the PS controllers.

[Guest Ripper]

I used to love the PS2 controller and thought it was the best. I also used to have a lot of wrist and finger pain though. I never thought it was from that. I thought it was from typing or playing drums and guitar and bass all the time.

 

But I got to the point where I hated the PS2 so I wanted to get one of the others and try. I was thinking I didn't want an Xbox because of that stupid huge controller. But I didn't want a Nintendo cause they already suckered me into getting a N64 and that was a waste of time and I couldn't find a single game on GC that I even thought MIGHT be fun. So I went with the Xbox thinking of it as the lesser of three evils. I hated the controller but got used to it after a day or two of playing PLUS my hand pains completely went away. Gone, vanished, a ghost, a vapor. So now it pisses me off that they're switching to these little dinky pads. I feel like a girl playing with those. It's like holding a popsicle stick now. And I REALLY don't wanna go back to having my hands throbbing in pain like I did with the PS controllers.

Well...its your fault. Who told you to grow and have big man hands...hmm?...HMM??

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

More games doesn't mean better.

 

The only thing on PS2 that I have even a small desire to play is Socom...but the cheats destroyed any fun for that.

 

Xbox and GC rule. (although one year from now when XBox has their onslaught of games I have to have and GC gives me...MArio Kart...GC will probably fall on my list.)

[Guest Lethargic]

Well...its your fault. Who told you to grow and have big man hands...hmm?...HMM??

Actually I don't. That's the weird part. I have pretty small hands. I have carpal tunnel or something from playing drums and from how I used to do data entry all friggin day long. I guess the design of the PS controller aggravated it somehow that the design of the Xbox one doesn't. I thought it was BS when they talked about how they did hundreds of hours of testing to determine the most comfortable pad for that kind of stuff, I guess they really did.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

You know, the whole hard drive thing for saves is a decent idea. But, Nintendo is working on an SD Media Card (The kind that fits into cameras and mp3 players) adapter that will fit into the memory card slot of the Gamecube. Now, SD cards can fit into adapters that can plug into your computer. So theoretically you could store tons of saves (burn em to CDs, trade em on P2P, etc.) And I know some one is going to mention the Dex Drive, but I think this idea is probably better. You can get 32 mb SD cards for around $30, about the same price as 2 regular Mem Card 51s. If they bundle a card, a reader and some sort of software in a package for $50 it would be awesome.

 

With Nintendo's relationship with Panasonic and the fact that they make SD cards, its going to happen at some point on the Gamecube and Im guessing that will be the standard Memory device for the N5 in a couple years.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I don't beleive we'll ever see a console come out again without a hard drive.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

I don't beleive we'll ever see a console come out again without a hard drive.

Im pretty sure I read somewhere that Nintendo was not planning to have a hard drive on the N5.

They might change their mind, but I doubt it.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I hope they at least have an online plan next time.

 

So many games that belong online.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

I hope they at least have an online plan next time.

 

So many games that belong online.

George Harrison, Nintendo of America VP of marketing, has hinted strongly that Nintendo will not be rolling out any online strategy in this generation of hardware, although the company is looking into it for N5. Speaking in an interview with the Puget Sound Business Journal, Harrison commented that "we just don't believe consumers are ready for [online gaming]. Right now, no one's paying for subscriptions. The real test comes when you have to start coughing up $15 a month."

 

He did concede, however, that online gaming is a "consideration" for Nintendo, and said that the company is "looking into it for the next iteration of the GameCube" - the home console which Nintendo is known to have in development at present, but is known only by the moniker "N5". This tends to suggest that we will not be seeing any change in Nintendo's current stance on online gaming. At present, the company supports online game launches from third party publishers (such as Sega's Phantasy Star Online), but claims that it is not planning any online titles itself.

 

Microsoft and Sony have now rolled out online services in all three major global territories for their consoles, but the numbers of subscribers remain relatively low - with estimates for the combined numbers of console online gamers ranging from one to two million players, only a tiny fraction of the 60-million odd installed base of the two consoles. Harrison was speaking to the Business Journal about the future of the GameCube following Acclaim's decision to stop developing new titles for the console, and Microsoft's continued claims to have made significant gains over Nintendo in the "race for second place.

 

Source

 

Nintendo still doesn't believe in online console gaming. And neither do I, at least until I get a broadband connection.

[Guest Lethargic]

That's why Nintendo will end up just like Sega within 10 years, making software for Sony and Xbox. They used to be able to get by with making inferior systems and not keeping up with the other guy's technology, but they're no longer in a war with little Sega. They're in a war with Sony and Microsoft now and those guys have the money to win with. Those guys are gonna spend the money to make the best system they can and are gonna give the fans what they want. Hard drives, online play, etc. If Nintendo continues to think the way they do in the article posted above (and the way they have in the past such as continuing to use cartridge based games way too long), they're gonna get themselves in trouble. Online gaming is no longer the future, it's the here and now, and if they leave things like that out of a so called "next generation" console, they could really be shooting themselves in the foot.