[OT] Which Gaming Console to buy?

[SurgicalSteel]

I'll probably be picking up a gaming console in the next few days or so. I'm having a really hard time deciding which one to buy. I'll mostly be playing 1-player games, though I'm not really into First-Person Shooters on consoles (so no Halo or Metroid Prime for me.)

For games, I'm kind of leaning toward the PS2 because of Metal Gear and Grand Theft Auto, and that new Ratchet and Crank game looks pretty sweet.

...

The new Zelda game looks cool, as does Splinter Cell for the X-box.

In the comments that follow, bear in mind that I nurture an animus against Microsoft.


If you will be getting only one console, you have to make a decision: now or later?

If now is your answer, PS2 is your choice.
If later is your answer, XBox is the best choice.

PS2 is "better" now (has far more games), but Xbox will overcome it. PS2 had nearly a 1 year advantage.
XBox has Metal Gear 2 (which is better than the PS2 version).
XBox has SSX Tricky as well.

Personally, I feel that XBox is the better console because it has the best graphics hardware, it has the best connectivity, and it has a hard drive.
Many people have tremedously underestimated the power of the hard drive. That is a 3 GIG cache. Its slow, but its HUGE.
People will be doing things on the XBox we have never seen before.
And there is the connectivity. With Unreal and the XBox network, you will see real online FPS tournaments that were never before possible.
You don't like FPSes.
Fair enough.
But this serves to indicate what it CAN do.

What this all boils down to is there will be new types of games on the XBox, that won't ever be on the other two systems.

By the time this generation of the war is over, the XBox will be making everyone else sick with envy.


Games-wise XBox already has some really good games.
Metal Gear 2: Substance (the best version)
Splinter Cell
Shenmue 2 (also the best version of this)
SSX Tricky
DOA 3

There's enough there, even if you don't like Halo.
And none of this considers the future.


If you are a GTA guy, then PS2 is your only option.
The developer has signed an exclusivity contract that makes the GTA games PS2 only for the next several years.


GameCube is pretty much dead in the water because of a history of poor management decisions.

Make no mistake, I despise Microsoft.
But I never said they were stupid.

 

[Berk]

PS2, why you ask? One, you won't be aiding and abetting a criminal as you would if you bought an xbox. Two, the sheer amount of decent to excellent games.

 

[John Crichton]

Re: Re: Advice

< snip >

Oh, and there are larger controls for sure: Ever seen that one that comes with the 300 dollar mech game that requires an entire table to play with? It's for the playstation! Jesus that thing is huge...

< snip >

You mean Steal Batallion? Naw, that for the Xbox. I have a friend who may be getting an Xbox just for it. Yuck, no thanks.

Anywho, the system for the highest amount of good games at the moment is PS2 (too many to mention in too many genres, destroyes both Cube and Xbox combined). Xbox has a few good games but I think it's the console to own about a year from now. Gamecube is a system with some good games, but I'm a Resident Evil freak so that's why I own one. Plus, Super Smash Brothers is a great multiplayer game that my RPG group plays all the time.

The system for RPG's is PS2 as well. Neither Xbox or Gamecube have any worth mentioning at the moment (will change in 2003). Final Fantasy X is great and I hear Suikoden III is the bomb (those are just off the top of my head).

The other genre I play are sports games. Any of the systems are great for those, except I prefer the PS2 controller with the amount of buttons and comfort (Gamecube controller doesn't have enough buttons! ).

But I say (as have others) to check gaming sites for the games you like and purchase based on that. It's the best way.

 

[John Crichton]

DOH!!

Anyone have any recommendations for good RPG's on the PS2?

I almost ignored the guy who started this thread in the first place.

There is the obvious Final Fantasy X. Suikoden III, if anything like I & II will be great. The new Wild Arms game also looks good (I haven't played it yet). They aren't out yet, but keep an eye out for .hack and Xenosage both due out next year.

Altho I do have to say the the Xbox will have Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic & Fable. And Morrowind (YMMV) is out now. The only think Gamecube has is Phantasy Star Online, but that hardly counts as a real RPG. They are also getting the awesome Skies of Arcadia but that has already been out for Dreamcast long enough to say that it doesn't really matter.

And for the record, I own all 3 consoles. Altho I wish I'd waited on the Xbox because I haven't even turned it on in months...

My PS2 and Cube are used the most.

 

[Tsyr]

Steel Battalion is 200, not 300, and it's for the X-Box, as mentioned. The main console is three feet long, and that plus the foot pedels weigh in at about 20 lbs. And come on... admit it... some little part of you drools at this thing:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/docs/sbstick.jpg

Yes, I'm weak. Yes, I already have it pre-ordered and a $50 dollar downpayment on it... *shame*

Not, mind you, that the PS2 doesn't own me too... I just plopped down the dough for R.A.D. too, and that's after having bought Suikoden III a week ago... I'm determined to hold out for Vice City on the PC though, despite renting it and loving the heck out of it.

On that note, if you want a kick-arse RPG for the PS2, check out Suikoden III. It's a wonderful game with a great, majestic storyline. Graphicly, it's worlds beyond I and II. It's not QUITE on par with FFX, no, but it's still very good. And I think with what they have they manage to make it more artistic and less show-offy than FFX. That's for the PS2.

Also for the PS2 in terms of RPGs, there is FFX, which I wasn't impressed by, but others like... and don't forget you can play the older FF games on the PS2 as well...

Summoner 2 is pretty good...

I'm really waiting for .hack...

For the X-Box... well... really none right at the moment, except Morrowind... and Morrowind is amazing, well worth a look if your computer can't run it (And it's pretty system intensive on the PC).

In the pipeline (Actualy, a couple of these may be out already, I'm not sure), we have Shenmue II, Fable, Knights of the Old Republic, True Fantasy, Gladius... probably a few more I can't think of off the top of my head.

 

[Uruush]

Steel Battalion is 200, not 300, and it's for the X-Box, as mentioned. The main console is three feet long, and that plus the foot pedels weigh in at about 20 lbs.

Speaking of the X-box and controllers, I always thought these comics were pretty funny (don't view if certain language offends):


http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-03-25&res=l

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2001-11-28&res=l

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2001-08-29

 

[Tsyr]

Speaking of the X-box and controllers, I always thought these comics were pretty funny (don't view if certain language offends):


http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-03-25&res=l

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2001-11-28&res=l

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2001-08-29

Well, I'm one of the Large Handed Folk, so I rather like the X-Box controller

 

[robaustin]

Just want to dispel some myths about the PS2 presented here:

"One word of warning. While i would suggest either the Xbox or PS2, be warned, the PS2 has a tendancy to lost it's ability to play certain discs. Mine won't play most silver discs, however it seems random as to which types of discs it will lose the ability to play."

This seems to be a rare random occurrence - propapgated further only by the fact that those wo have problems tend to be much more vocal thenthose who are NOT having trouble. Remember that there are over 4 million PS2's out there. If even 1% were having that issue - that's 40,000 PS2's having problems. This just isn't so. I'd put the problems at < one quarter percent at most.

"Well, it doesn't play DVD's all that WELL... Search for "PS2 DVD Compatiblity list" or something on dogpile... there is a list of DVDs that just plain don't work with the PS2, for reasons unknown. "

This list has been debunked many times over by folks who have PS2's and say that they can play ALL of these discs fine. including myself. Again - those that have trouble are more vocal about it. As for it not playing DVD's all that well - tell that to my 5/1 surround system and my TV set with S-video. It's my main home theater DVD player and works like charm. Picked up the sony DVD remote for it - fired up my Sony universal remote and I didn't even have to program the remote to do anything. It knew how to use the PS2 right off the bat. Only thing it can't do is turn it on and off.

Point is - don't listen to everything bad you hear n the internet - most of it is NOT true or is true of an extremely small percentage of PS2's. Every company has a defect rate and honestly from what I have seen the defect rate on the PS2 is very low.

Someone asked about RPG's - I tend towards the action based RPG's - Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance was great fun, I'm playing Kingdom Hearts right now. FFX is supposed to be good. Summoner I thought was atrocious BUT I hear Summoner 2 is great. I'm also totally hooked on Super Bust-A-Move and I love to play pool and Pool Hustler is oodles of fun. I also liked SSX, and I have Spider Man but my eye hand coordination ain't the greatest so I sometimes have trouble with it.

--*Rob

 

[Dragonblade]

In the future the Xbox will have the best RPG's. I think it is increasingly the best system to own.

They have Morrowind which is hands down the best console RPG ever made.

They will have Knights of the Old Republic, the only Star Wars RPG. They will have Fable and many more.

They have Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid (better than the PS2 version), Time Splitters, Blinx, and a ton of other cool games.

PS2 has Suikoden 3 which is cool, but forget Final Fantasy X. Its little more than a glorified interactive movie. Its as if Square is a frustrated movie company who makes games because they can't make movies. And increasingly in their games you have less and less control. About the only thing you have control over in FF X is the battle scenes. You have ZERO control over the story line, the characters, nothing. Its all pre-scripted and on rails and there is only a little game play interspersed with tons and tons of FMV. Cool, FMV, but if I wanted a movie I would have bought a DVD.

 

[Kai Lord]

And the winner is...

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I went ahead and picked up the console I was leaning toward from the beginning: the PS2.

It simply had the games I wanted to play.

I bought the console, two memory packs, S-video cable, and four games:

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Ratchett and Clank
Robotech: Battlecry (on sale for $29.95)
Metal Gear Solid 2 ($19.95)

And now I'm going to take the time to utterly gush about one of the games. And that game is Robotech.

Freaking phenomenal! I assumed my time with the first batch of games would be predominantly consumed by GTA, but no, its been almost all Battlecry.

A couple of things first. In junior high and high school, I was pretty much a closet Robotech geek. I watched all the cartoons, read the novelizations of the cartoons, bought the art books, and played the Robotech rpg on a regular basis with my gaming buds.

After high school we pretty much quit playing the rpg but in 1995 both myself and one friend in particular began salivating at the news that a state-of-the-art new game was coming out for the Nintendo 64 called Robotech: Crystal Dreams. My friend and I promptly went out and bought N64's and waited for Crystal Dreams. And waited. And waited and waited and waited. And the damn thing never came out.

Since then I became more interested in the Macross (original Japanese version of the series) side of things and bought the Macross: Do You Remember Love import laserdisc and the Macross: DYRL Sega Saturn side-scrolling game. Finally, I was playing my favorite transformable fighters in a kick-ass video game.

Years pass, and now, here I am, feverishly playing Robotech: Battlecry. And its awesome. First off I can't believe how nostalgic I am for plain old Robotech! I'd seen so much Macross since the old days I'd forgotten how sweet it was just to hear the old Robotech title theme. And they open the game with a montage of in-game action scenes just like the old cartoon! They use footage from the game's missions, I just wish they'd constructed a final pose shot for the end of the montage like they did with the cartoon.

As for the game itself, choosing the cel-shaded look is a stroke of genius that pays off big. It really does look like you're playing the cartoon, from veritechs that transform with the exact same animations to those familiar yellow spherical explosions.

You get to have fun blasting away at Fighter and Battle Pods up in space but my favorite missions are those that take place in cities. Nothing's more satisfying than strafing at a dodging battle pod, watching him flee past the other side of a building, keeping your bead on him as you unload into the building itself, then continuing to blast him with gunfire as he emerges on the other side as the entire building collapses to the ground.

Then there's other little touches like having free reign to transform as you choose, having secondary fire options (like being able to autotarget incoming missiles) and a gun prone to overheating.

One review I read said the game has all the excitement of the battles from the cartoons, with none of the sappy soap opera elements. TDK did such a good job of bringing the cartoon to life (complete with the original voice actors and streaking missiles that sound just like the ones from the cartoon) that I wish they did include the sappy soap opera elements. I want to see Rick's angst and hear Khyron's ridiculous speeches, dammit! Oh well, can't have everything. All in all, a damn fine game. And since its available on all consoles, I recommend that anyone with a game system who has ever been a fan of Robotech to go out and get this game now.