InLikeFlynn, it seems to me that you’ve bought into the belief that Sony and Microsoft are propagating, that Nintendo is for children. If you looked at their game library, you’d most certainly see that isn’t the case. I’ll list a few games off the top of my head that aren’t geared towards children, and some that are even quite adult.
Eternal Darkness
F-Zero GX
Metroid Prime
Resident Evil
Star Wars: Rogue Leader
Viewtiful Joe
1080 Avalanche
Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes
Resident Evil 4
Star Wars Rebel Strike
That’s just a very small portion of GameCube’s library, and which excluded all the titles you might deem “kiddy” such as:
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Mario Golf
Mario Kart: Double Dash
Pikmin
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Smash Brothers Melee
Anyways, that’s a very condensed list, but I really hope you perform some research before you rule out a perfectly viable console (just so it’s known, I own all 3).
It all depends on what you like. What you like may not be what the screaming magazine writer likes. Also, IGNORE the stupid numbers; they tell you nothing. (Approaching two years of PS2 ownership, and nope, still don’t see any gigantic colossal graphical advantage over my Dreamcast.)
Personally, I think the PS2 is the best choice, mainly because it’s very well supported and caters to a wide variety of tastes. Need a “cheat” device, a reliable memory card, and a couple of good joysticks, maybe a multitap later on for those big parties? You can get them from just about anywhere. The controllers are very well designed and have been since the PSX era…hey, don’t mess with a winning formula. And you will not find this kind of variety in the games for any other system…particularly of the non-nerve wracking, non-life and death every damn second, non-10 billion things to remember variety.
The X-Box is a decent system, but unless you’re willing to spend a lot of time learning the games, I don’t think it’s worth it. I hate the excessive learning curve for modern computer games, and I’d certainly never buy a system built with that mindset. Gamecube, eh, it’s got some good stuff, but just too many eggs in too few baskets (which is actually a worse problem now than the old “kiddification” issue).
The controller is the best that I have ever used (as evidenced by the fact that Sony basically kept the design through 2 incarnations of the system) The XBox controller is vaguely reminiscient of a Big Mac in size and shape.
Final Fantasy X (for that matter, all of the FF games, even the PSX games that I own and play on my PS2), Kingdom Hearts, and all of the super cool ‘dark’ action games (Devil may Cry, BloodRayne, etc.)
memory cards- they are portable, my kids can each have 1 that their brother can’t get into (not to mention mine)…an internal HD would be nice, but I like this system- especially with the 8 meg PS2 cards.
I have a Nintendo GameCube. I couldn’t be happier.
I have bought all but two of Nintendo’s first party games – a few second party – and I must say that they are fantastic. And what’s more? With the exception of maybe one of the second party games, I knew nothing about them. In my opinion, Nintendo makes good games that anyone can like. Bring a kid home Super Mario Sunshine or The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and he’ll be plenty happy – if gaming is his thing.
Seems to be most of the people who detest the GameCube have spent very little time with it, and it’s unfair to base an opinion on inadequate experiences. Now I’m not accusing anyone here of this, but when one groups “Mario and co” into a collective category and rules out all of their games based on that one merit…well, that’s just absurd.
Well, as I was the one to use the phrase, I guess I can answer.
First, you’re right- a lot of folks think of the GameCube as a ‘kid’s system’…to a certain extent they are right, as Mario and ilk are very much oriented to younger gamers. I’ve been with that franchise for a looong time, and the only one I’ve really liked to date up to now has been SM3 on the NES. But my boys’ (age 9 and 12) first choice for a system was the NGC so that they could get the new Mario and Zelda games.
My boys have a GameCube at their dad’s place, and I’ve had the luck to give it a test drive- I enjoyed it, but pound for pound, I like the PS2 better. Super Smash Bros. Melee is very cool, and , and yes, I’ve salivated over the new Zelda, but the incredible volume of games that PS2 offers that cater to my interest (from FFX to Devil May Cry to Silent Hill to Dynasty Warriors 4…I could go on) as an adult gamer far outstrips the GC’s offerings (though I have been told that Resident Evil 0 was a good game). I imagine that a lot of the snickering you hear over the NGC comes from gamers similar to me, that enjoy the darker, anime type games, and who know that Nintendo can only invest so much into that target market without hurting their image and sales of their traditional powerhouses.
It is safer to say that Super Mario Sunshine is oriented to young gamers, and appeals to adult gamers. Completing the game requires little effort, but the hidden levels and extra stars are tasks for adults.
Pikmin and Zelda are oriented to adult gamers, and appeal to young gamers. And yes, Pikmin is a difficult game.
It’s a fine line, but there seems to be a great deal of balance. Nintendo sacrifices sex and violence, but it makes for a rather wholesome game. I don’t enjoy that gun-touting crap you see on PS2 so often.
I think it really comes down to a choice between two titles. Would you rather play Halo or Gran Turismo?
Me, I like both, but my PS2 stopped reading discs. I even saw this problem diagnosed, with warranty-voiding workaround, on X-Play (TV show) yesterday. I find it to be an annoying problem, and haven’t used the PS2 since it happened.
Also, I’ve heard (but never experienced) the horror stories of memory cards failing. That’s why I love my XBox so much…the 6 gig hd (8 megs! lol) never breaks, and the XBox disc reader won’t just stop working.
If you play rpg games, like FF, I guess PS2 is the way to go, but I think computer games are better suited to rpgs than console games.
But really, when talking about top-notch console-only games, there are only two that you need to consider: Gran Turismo and Halo. Go to a store that has both and give em a try.
I spent the weeking playing around with a PS2 and GTA:Vice City. As a 100% Xbox only owner, spending a little quality time with a PS2, I arrived at the following conclusion:
controllers, for me, are a non-issue. They both work, they’re both comfortable. PS2’s shoulder buttons would take a little getting used to. The Xbox’s full size controller is confortable, so’s the controller S and the PS2 controller.
Graphics: pretty similar especially when using RCA cables.
Game: okay if violent. I didn’t want to go out and beat up crack-ho’s for money afterwards… I don’t understand the pull of Gran Turismo…is this the game with 6 tracks, and video resolution that degrades when there’s too much to draw on the screen? Sega recompiled parts for GT2000, now shipping with some Xboxes and it really doesn’t showcase the hardware very well.
Game load time: really REALLY slow. Like get up and got get a sandwich slow. That doesn’t happen on the Xbox.
Relative sizes of the consoles don’t bug me much as I’ve got 2700 square feet of house to store it in.
Numbers of games: This is a different issue. I’m finding a general dissatisfaction in the games I’m seeing in GENERAL. Each console has a short list of great games…everything else is Yet Another Platformer, Yet Another Racing Game, or Yet Another First Person Shooter. 2000 games vs. 500 games doesn’t account for much with 99.5% of all games suck.
For every GTA on the PS2, there’s a Splinter Cell on the Xbox (very fantastically amazing game, BTW)
More importantly, I’ve saved a TON of money in upgrading my PC for games, AND I end up playing more games than I ever did on the PC 'cause it’s just so much more comfortable to sit on the couch with a 48" screen and surround sound.
Just so everyone knows, Xbox is getting both GTA3 and GTA Vice City in 2 weeks. Not only that, but they’re improved in various areas.
Ellis Dee - The hard drive is actually 8 gigs.
Mr2001 - Barely any PS2 games support 8 players. Secondly, you’re forced to purchase 2 multitaps, which is at least another 30 bucks. As for the PS2’s hard drive, it will barely be compatible with anything. So far, the only game supporting it is Final Fantasy.
Duder–what differences have been confirmed for the X-box GTA? The only difference I heard about is that you can use the hard drive to make a custom radio station.
In–what type of games do you play the most? Knowing that will help.
** ElwoodCuse** - The confirmed differences are as follows:
-Improved realtime lighting (Actual lighting is now cast from street lamps and headlights)
-Real time reflections on cars
-Higher detailed characters (Actual fingers rendered on characters hands - as opposed to the original’s glued fist
-Improved rain and fire effects
-Skinned characters
-Custom Soundtrack
-High definition support
-Wide Screen Support
-5.1 surround sound capabilities
Game Cube can not play DVDs or CDs if that is important to you.
PS2 can be modified using legal plug in (Game Shark3 or similar) to be usable as a region free dvd player. I expect the same is true for XBox.
When a game is available on both XBox, PlayStaion, and GameCube then in general the XBox version is best, followed by the gamecube version, followed by the PS2 version. The differences are mostly minor and involving graphic processing error reduction, and sound quality. There are exceptions to this rule (notably Hot Pursuit 2) but it is generally sound.
GameCube can be used with a GameBoy in several ways, though I am not sure how good these are.
All have portable options, but only the gamecube is really designed to be used as a portable game system (with battery power pack and lcd screen).
Software availability is much higher for PS2 than the other two systems, both in number of titles, and availability of second hand software. That is without taking into account the very large number of PSX (PlayStation 1) titles that are compatable to the PS2.
I recently (last December) made the Great Platform Choice. I read the magazines to determine what the features were, what the stats were, the comparable sales, the prices, and all that rot.
My conclusions at the time:
Xbox had Halo, Dead or Alive, Baldur’s Gate, Morrowind, and Splinter Cell. Coming out for exclusively for Xbox: Fable, BC, Halo 2. #1 selling game for Xbox at the time: Halo. I’m a longtime fan of Bungie’s work and waiting for the PC version just wouldn’t be easy. There weren’t any other Xbox exclusives that I was terribly interested in.
Xbox has an 8GB HD so I wouldn’t have to buy a stupid memory card (which I considered a $30 savings). Xbox also also allows you to save songs to the HD and play them back during games that permit this.
Xbox has built-in broadband and Ethernet-ready system link play. (But truthfully I don’t know anyone else in the neighborhood with an Xbox to play with.)
Xbox allows you to play CDs out of the box (no biggie) but not DVDs (no biggie either, I have a DVD/CD rack stereo component). Besides, the DVD reader in any console game is going to be less crisp and sophisticated than a dedicated DVD player. This wasn’t much of a consideration.
The remaining top-selling titles for Xbox looked interesting to me.
GameCube had Perfect Dark, Zelda, and 15,640 flavors of Mario platformers. Some of the more adult titles for NGC looked pretty good, but they didn’t seem to be the platform’s top sellers. Most of the titles most frequently adored seemed to be platformers. I didn’t have any particular attachments to any of the exclusive titles other than hearing fanboys rave about them.
#1 selling game for NGC at the time: Mario Sunshine. I wasn’t remotely interested.
Gamecube was purple. Online or interlink connectivity sold separately. Controllers felt plastic and cheap.
Gamecube doesn’t play music CDs or DVDs out of the box. No biggie.
The remaining top-selling titles to GameCube looked fairly interesting, but nothing that I was willing to plunk down cash for sight unseen.
PS2 had Gran Turismo III, Baldur’s Gate, GTA, Tomb Raider, and more games than I could count, most of which looked pretty good, but none of which really reached out and grabbed me.
Biggest selling game for PS2 at the time: Can’t remember. It didn’t grab me all that much.
No HD. No interlink play. Online strategy was then (and still now is) very amorphous. No clear developer strategy for online in the near future.
Plays DVDs and CDs out of the box. No biggie. I have a player.
There were a lot of titles to choose from, most of which looked adequate but not extraordinary.
While playtesting on a friend’s PS2 the disc drive failed multiple times. He apologized and said, “Well, they do this a lot. They get hot. And they were designed to suck air in right past the disc’s laser, so they get dust inside really easily.” “Sounds like a bad design,” I said. I haven’t actually researched this, but it did break down a lot as I tried to play it, so I was driven away. If you’re considering this console, you might consider investigating this further and pick a good return policy. Don’t take my anecdote upon this topic as gospel; I’m no hardware engineer.
Given the reviews that I saw in the magazines, there were a lot of really excited previews and a lot of disappointing debuts for every platform; the games were mostly 6s and 7s with occasional 9s and few 10s, for every platform. I ruled out GC because the library didn’t then interest me, and I chose Xbox because I had to have Halo.
Maybe I’ll get the others in the future. Right now my roommate has a Japanese PS2 that he plays imported games on (such as Beatmania 2DX).
Frankly, the facts that you don’t already have a GC, PS2, or XBox and apperantly have no understanding whatsoever of the Gamecube’s library leads me to believe you’re mostly a casual gamer, and thus I would reccomend a PS2.
You have an established library of about thirteen billion games, and you’ll rarely have to worry about a third party game not being released for it. Besides, there are a ton of good PS2 and PSX games for $20 and under. You can build a great library for hardly anything.
Sega has nothing to do with Gran Turismo. You must be thinking of something else.
Depends on the game - GTA Vice City loads for a few minutes at the start of the game, then the only noticable delay afterward is when you go between the islands. Ratchet & Clank has virtually no load time at all. Which games specifically are you talking about?
Incidentally, Splinter Cell is already out on PS2, and GTA is coming to the Xbox.
Great points, Mr2001. Gran Turismo not only has nothing to do with Sega, it is a Sony product. Therefore, I would bet a gazillion dollars it will never be available to any console other than the PS line.
Bungie is Microsoft-owned, so I would bet that same gazillion dollars that Halo will always be XBox only.
Great news on the multi-platform plans for GTA and Splinter Cell. I wish all games were available for all platforms, but it is not a perfect world.
More info on my “Gran Turismo or Halo” point. (I still think those are the only games that matter, but FF is a remarkably popular series.)
I never liked racing games much, but was like a crack addict with Gran Turismo. That game is too good for words. The new one looks every bit as good as I expected it to. I became a tangental motor-head after playing it.
I always actively disliked first-person shooters. I got into Doom 2 after assembling the perfect sound pwad, but I was never great at controlling FPS games in general. But Halo is the greatest game ever made*. It is also too good for words. I finished the one player mode a dozen times over, have played a fair amount online, and wasted oceans of time in 4-player local mode. I am a frag god in Halo, and now like the FPS gaming experience. Halo 2 looks even better than I thought possible.
The only games I would put in the class of Gran Turismo and Halo are Blizzard RTS games and Star Control 2. Both of those are computer only.
Whichever system you choose, you should absolutely get the title it supports.
Except for GT. Gran Turismo and Halo are equally superlative.
