I want a game console

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve managed to get this far in life without ever owning a dedicated game console. My typical M.O. is to get Doom 95 or Myst or Oddworld when they show up on the discount shelf. I recetly saw something that has changed my whole outlook. No, I didn’t go see Tomb Raider, I saw the commercial for Simpson’s Road Rage.

All well and good but what game console do I buy now that I’ve convinced myself to get such a frivolous toy? I’ve got a good entertainment system to connect it to so it boils down to getting a gamecube or spending $100 more for a playstation. I eliminated the X-box on general principal seeing how it’s the spawn of Satan and all that. So games, what are the criteria I should use for choosing a game system?

2

I bought a Gamecube for two reasons. One, it’s $100 cheaper than the other two. Second, it’s the only system in the forseeable future that Resident Evil is coming out of. It’s a good system if you have several gaming friends as the four player action is fast and furious. (Super Smash Bros., Super Monkey Ball.) Of course, controllers cost $35 a piece, so if you want to play four players the $100 difference is negligible.

In your case I would recommend the PS2. It has a base already set. It’s not going anywhere. And there are so many good games out for it already. Grand Theft Auto 3 one among many.

Also, I always knew I was going to get a PS2 eventually. When the price finally drops I’m all over it. If you’re not deep into gaming, you might as well pay the extra $100 now and get a system you’ll enjoy without a doubt. (Or you could just be patient.)

By the way, I like the X-Box. It’s one powerhouse of a system, and it looks like they really did their research and found out what gamers wanted. I just think that the market can’t support three systems and Microsoft is the odd man out. Also, none of their current games excite me.

If you can, do some research before buying. At the very least go to Best Buy and try out all three.

3

Thanks. So far my research consists of reading the web comic strip Penny-Arcade :smiley:

4

I don’t have an XBox, but I really like the look of Reckless. The rest of their games (with the exception of DOA3) are either available on other platforms or just don’t look that interesting/good. OTOH, deep down inside, I know that Reckless probably doesn’t hold a candle to GTA3.

If you like SW, Rogue Leader for the GC is supposed to be pretty cool. If not, the PS2 currently has the best batch of games.

Really, the console buying game is a game of speculation. Kinda like the stock market, only less profitable. Right now the PS2 has Metal Gear Solid 2, Final Fantasy X, Grand Theft Auto 3 (GTA 3), Devil May Cry, Gran Turismo 3, SSX Tricky, Ico, and the best sports games around. It also supports the original Playstation’s games. which while it doesn’t mean too much, it includes a decent puzzle game or two.

Of course, it’s all about the future, right? Personally, I had my PS2 since the Christmas of 2000 and I still haven’t even gotten to touch FFX or make any appreciable headway into SSX: Tricky, GT3, or MGS2. That being said, I’ve probably played my PS2 for at least 400 hours of the games I do have.

XBox, for what it’s worth, has more power under the hood which means much prettier games (most notable in FPS, though who knows what may come down the pipe), though it’s pretty slim pickings in the here and now.

GC, though it doesn’t have any games, with the possible exception of Pikmin, that excite me, comes from the N64 tradition of having pretty good multi-player games, so you may want to consider it for that.

ATM, though, I pretty much have to recommend the PS2. YMMV.

5

PS2.

If you don’t want one of those, I’ve uh, got an Atari Jaguar that I’ll sell ya…

6

Don’t buy a console or console games thinking that the console will give you PC type Quake III or Unreal etc games only with better graphics. The reverse is generally true. A PC with an Nvidia video card and a reasonably fast CPU and RAM (say PIII 500 on up with 256 megs RAM) is going to outperform any console extant in the depth and complexity of the games it can render.

The modern console units (Xbox & PS2) shine in games written specifically for them and will outclass PC’s by a wide margin in the realism and smooth gameplay they can bring to these games. Complex PC games and console games are apples and oranges.

7

Here’s how you go about selecting a home console:

  1. Trust your eyes and ears. Don’t get taken by the hype. If it smells rotten, it’s rotten, no matter what anyone says. “Sure, our selection consists of three ultra-megahyped titles and about 300 sports games right now…but this is THE system to have, trust me!”

  2. Always look at the whole picture. Yeah, the latest Resident Evil or Final Fantasy looks good, but sooner or later you might want a joystick for fighting games (every actually try playing a fighting game with a pad?), probably another controller for those 3- and 4-player parties, a Gameshark when things get too hot to handle (there are “legitimate” reasons for using a Gameshark, although after the first few months you probably won’t care about such nitpicky distinctions)…and a good variety of games, never forget that. The Dreamcast was a great system, but in the total-picture aspect, it failed miserably (not even a halfway-decent joystick, for crying out loud).

  3. Trust your eyes and ears. Get the kind of system you want, not what some overheated hypemeister insists you have to buy <<RIGHT NOW>>. Nintendo has completely alienated me, and I don’t care too much about their old franchises anymore, so there’s no way I was getting a Gamecube. Likewise, the X-Box’s early selection (especially the preponderance of sports/racing titles) hasn’t impressed me at all, and I will not ignore the reliability problems, no matter how many Windows fanatics blithely do so. If you don’t like the system, you won’t like the system. Period.

  4. Remember that you can rent just about every game worth playing, so replay value isn’t that huge an issue. (Most of the Dreamcast’s library was seemingly designed to be “5-and-forget”.) Ideally, the system should have lots of game’s you’d rent and at least a handful of games you’d buy.

  5. Did I mention that you have to trust your eyes and ears and pay absolutely no heed to the neverending bluster of all the company/game store windbags who don’t have a clue as to what they’re hyping and only care about making a sale? :stuck_out_tongue:

And me? Well, it took a while, but I finally broke down and got a Playstation 2. Why? Well, because Sony finally got on the ball and started branching into genres to complement their approximately 50,000,000 sports titles. Mind you, I don’t have anything against sports (one of my current favorites is Swing Away Golf), but a little variety, please! Well, they said it would happen, and to my utter astonishment, it actually did. Then…and ONLY then…I was sold.

Which reminds me…

  1. Don’t be impatient. Don’t spend your hard-earned money on a system before it deserves it. And don’t worry about the system “dying” or “becoming obsolete” in the meantime…it’ll happen eventually no matter what. Buy a system that you’ll be happy with in the present, not some hazy, indeterminate future.
8

An addendum to DKW’s post:

Regarding renting, remember that it’s much cheaper than buying a game. Blockbuster charges you about $5, IIRC, for a 5 day (6, if you include the “return by noon” day) while your average PS2 game costs $40-$50 (Xbox and GC should be about the same).

So, for the cost of the game, you can rent the thing for almost 2 months, which is more than enough to pass most passable (read: non-sports) games. And, really, extras aside, passing a game once is enough for most games and most people.

The exception, of course, being GTA3. :wink:

9

I got an XBox about 4 months ago. It may be the Spawn of Satan, but damned if there arent some great games for it.

Halo
SSX Tricky
Tony Hawk 3
Project Gotham Racing
Silent Hill 2
Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee
Dead or Alive 3
Max Payne

I’ve been very happy with it so far.

(and to those who will try to convince me why I don’t like my Xbox and I need to love PS2, please save it. Go did up one of the 3000 other threads on the subject and I’ll be sure to ignore you over there. Thanks.)

10

If you can only own one console right now, I would have to say go with PS2. I LOVE my GameCube and cannot get enough Super Monkey Ball (and I have heard fantastic things about Super Smash Bros.), but the library of Gamecube-only games is still small.
With the PS2, not only are you getting a large library of fantastic next-gen games (Gran Turismo A-Spec, Grand Theft Auto 3, and the Final Fantasy series pop in my head first, though there are certainly more), but you are also getting a huge library of graphically inferior, but still outstanding games. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night falls into this category. The fact that you get a DVD player with your PS2 is just gravy on the potatos (I already had a DVD player, but it is still a nice touch).

11

mouthbreather , I got your back. Padeye, I’m sure there are a ton of theads out there ~ Xbox vs everyone else. But if you’re looking for a system that you are going to love playing might I suggest hooking up with some friends who have PS2, Gamecube, and/or XBOX. If they currently don’t own what you’re intrested in playing, then rent the games from Blockbuster or whoever. Not only are places renting the games but sometimes the console itself too. Also look into reviews on the web (might I suggest IGN ) and see what the buzz is from people who play it all.

Yes, I have XBOX. And the list of games that mouthbreather are not just ok games to waste away any afternoon, they do kick some ass and are a ton o’ fun! Halo alone has topped many overall game of the year lists (If you need to I’ll provide links).

Have fun with whatever you pick! Let us know what you decide.
~t

12

I wouldn’t discount X-Box just because you don’t like microsoft.

I have one, my best friend has PS-2. The x-box gets a lot more play time.

Also, Halo pretty much just swept the “academy awards” of gaming and took all the big prizes. Halo is an amazing game.

Besides the games listed by mouthbreather:

EA’s NHL 2002
Both Nascar games out are pretty good.
EA’s NFL 2002

and Max Payne needs mentioning again.

I am not saying that the xbox is the best one for you, but taking it out of your list before trying it seems like a poor idea.

I may get a PS-2 as well… MGS2 and GTA3 are worth the price of a PS-2 right there.

13

Here’s how it went:

  1. Played PS2 demo unit at Software Etc. on a crappy flat-screen TV. Said “hey, this looks terrible, PS2 sucks.”
  2. Saw PS2 playing Gran Turismo 3 at Best Buy on a real screen. Said “my god, is that a game? PS2 kicks ass.”
  3. Rented a PS2 and was impressed by every game.
  4. Bought a PS2.

Of course, GameCube and XBox weren’t out at the time. :wink:

But I’d say rent the system before you buy it. Rent them all… better to spend $50 on rentals than regret spending $300 for the wrong system. My suggestions for PS2 rentals: Gran Turismo 3, Metal Gear Solid 2, ICO, Final Fantasy X, Maximo.

Since you’ve already discounted the XBox, it’s PS2 vs. GC… the PS2 is superior hardware, it plays DVDs, and the discs can hold more. However, I suspect the GC will be around longer, and it’s more portable.

Really, it all depends on the games. From what I’ve seen, GameCube tends towards arcade-style “instant fun” games, and PS2 tends towards darker, immersive games. Either way, there’s no substitute for playing them yourself.