I figured this would be the place to get an opinion, no?
I'm ready to dive into, um, serious gaming and was wondering, Xbox or PS/2, or is there something else?
I have a 47" HDTV and a 5.1 sound system in place. I typically go for the racing genre.
What's the word?
Thanks,
-- Mike
Opinions, please! Xbox or PS/2 or ?
Moderators: AArdvark, Ice Cream Jonsey
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Steve Wahrer
Re: Opinions, please! Xbox or PS/2 or ?
A-well-a everybody's heard about the birdMikeSousa wrote:What's the word?
B-b-b-bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a bird, bird, bird, the bird is the word
Don't you know about the bird?
Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word!
(Papapapapapapapapapapapapapapapa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow. Ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow)
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Jack Straw
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With HDTV and 5.1, you only have one realistic choice.
Xbox has true Dolby Digital 5.1 in every single title, and full support for HDTV/widescreen.
PS2 has 5.1 support for in game movies only, and a handful of EA sports commentary, I believe.
Xbox has Rallisport, PS2 has Gran Turismo 3. They both have Colin McRae 3..
Not sure on PS2 HDTV support but every Xbox game runs in widescreen, most in progressive mode.
Xbox has true Dolby Digital 5.1 in every single title, and full support for HDTV/widescreen.
PS2 has 5.1 support for in game movies only, and a handful of EA sports commentary, I believe.
Xbox has Rallisport, PS2 has Gran Turismo 3. They both have Colin McRae 3..
Not sure on PS2 HDTV support but every Xbox game runs in widescreen, most in progressive mode.
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MikeSousa
re: Xbox
Thanks for not singing to me Jack...Jack Straw wrote:With HDTV and 5.1, you only have one realistic choice.
Xbox has true Dolby Digital 5.1 in every single title, and full support for HDTV/widescreen.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And this mod thing? My setup is no where near the cable modem so I don't think online is a viable option. Apart from the obvious, what else does a mod'ed system do (or maybe more importantly, not do) for me?
-- Mike
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Six months ago I would have said the PS2, easy (except that I would have found a way to work the words "cock" and "natch" in between the comma and the e) but nobody's come out with kick-ass titles at a better rate than the X-box as of late. They have really made up some serious ground.
Before I get into the heart of my message, I would first like to make a quick comment on "Missed Opportunity." At one of my meetings today, my manager was talking about one of our dealings with Microsoft. Someone noted that Microsoft's position in some thing or another was much like how they came up with the X-box -- nobody particularly was out crying for it or demanding it, Microsoft just built it and then said, "go buy it." My manager then asked if anyone at the meeting owned one.
*I* was going to pipe up with, "I was going to get an X-box, except that I cannot fit it through my living room door," followed quickly by, "but I am having some roofers come over to remove my roof so one can be air-dropped into my townhouse"... but I didn't. What can I say. I didn't think everyone else would find the "X-box SI BIG, LOL" comment as funny as I seem to do. But. Anyway, don't let any of the net nerds discourage you from getting an X-box because of the size. That's a desperate tactic that PS2 fanboys use because they now have little else.
I bought the PS2 in the summer because this adventure game called "Ico" came out for it. Though it only has 6-8 hours of gameplay, I have gone so slowly with it that I still haven't finished it yet. It's one of the best games I've ever played. If I didn't have either console right now and was going to pick one, I'd go grab an X-box, because of a game called "Death Row," which is a futuristic sports game with more swearing than any other game on the planet. Mike, I am a simple man, with simple tastes, and the thought of playing a game where I am attempting to shoot a ball into a goal and the game is shouting "MOTHERFUCKER!!" right along with me, well, that's the kind of electronic synergy that fills me with a sense of deep content.
So while I'd recommend them both, I think for racing games you would have better variety with the PS2, due to the fact that it plays all regular Playstation games as well. The Gran Turismo games get a lot of press and have accumulated a lot of accolades, and when I was playing around with the original PS version of Gran Turismo II I could see why. There's a game called Driver that came out a few years back for the PS as well, which, while not a strict racing simulator or anything, was something that I thought was pretty solid as a guy who only has a passing (get it? "passing? haha) interest in the racing genre. The only downside when it comes to Driver is that attempting to look for information on it through a search engine using just the game title is pretty much useless. Strangely, there are a couple sequels in the works for it, one of which will be called ".HTML" and the other will be called "Britney Spears Nude." But I think the URL to the publisher's site is listed in the game manual, so that's not such a big deal.
Oh, and there's Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto Vice City, neither of which will be out for the X-box due to an exclusive deal that Sony signed with the publisher.
Straw makes a great point when it comes to the features that the X-box has and the PS2 doesn't, and I agree with him completely regarding it. Additionally, the X-box is much too difficult for thieves to steal unless they go from house to house with a fission-operated nuclear steam crane (but, then again, be wary of putting the X-box on the second floor of your home!). The X-box is also easier to modify, if you're into that kind of thing. If you have a game that runs for either system, I think that (especially with your setup, Mike) the better overall experience is definitely going to be had with the X-box, what with the HDTV support. But, on the other hand, the PS2 controller is probably the best one out of all the next-gen systems.
I haven't played Rallisport or Gran Turismo III, so I don't know which is better.
Let me see if I can find a list of upcoming titles for both systems. It probably comes down to content, mostly, right? I don't think the purchase of either system will fill you with much regret (and when it came to buying a PS or a Sega Saturn six years ago, that definitely did not end up being the case for a lot of consumers) though.
Before I get into the heart of my message, I would first like to make a quick comment on "Missed Opportunity." At one of my meetings today, my manager was talking about one of our dealings with Microsoft. Someone noted that Microsoft's position in some thing or another was much like how they came up with the X-box -- nobody particularly was out crying for it or demanding it, Microsoft just built it and then said, "go buy it." My manager then asked if anyone at the meeting owned one.
*I* was going to pipe up with, "I was going to get an X-box, except that I cannot fit it through my living room door," followed quickly by, "but I am having some roofers come over to remove my roof so one can be air-dropped into my townhouse"... but I didn't. What can I say. I didn't think everyone else would find the "X-box SI BIG, LOL" comment as funny as I seem to do. But. Anyway, don't let any of the net nerds discourage you from getting an X-box because of the size. That's a desperate tactic that PS2 fanboys use because they now have little else.
I bought the PS2 in the summer because this adventure game called "Ico" came out for it. Though it only has 6-8 hours of gameplay, I have gone so slowly with it that I still haven't finished it yet. It's one of the best games I've ever played. If I didn't have either console right now and was going to pick one, I'd go grab an X-box, because of a game called "Death Row," which is a futuristic sports game with more swearing than any other game on the planet. Mike, I am a simple man, with simple tastes, and the thought of playing a game where I am attempting to shoot a ball into a goal and the game is shouting "MOTHERFUCKER!!" right along with me, well, that's the kind of electronic synergy that fills me with a sense of deep content.
So while I'd recommend them both, I think for racing games you would have better variety with the PS2, due to the fact that it plays all regular Playstation games as well. The Gran Turismo games get a lot of press and have accumulated a lot of accolades, and when I was playing around with the original PS version of Gran Turismo II I could see why. There's a game called Driver that came out a few years back for the PS as well, which, while not a strict racing simulator or anything, was something that I thought was pretty solid as a guy who only has a passing (get it? "passing? haha) interest in the racing genre. The only downside when it comes to Driver is that attempting to look for information on it through a search engine using just the game title is pretty much useless. Strangely, there are a couple sequels in the works for it, one of which will be called ".HTML" and the other will be called "Britney Spears Nude." But I think the URL to the publisher's site is listed in the game manual, so that's not such a big deal.
Oh, and there's Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto Vice City, neither of which will be out for the X-box due to an exclusive deal that Sony signed with the publisher.
Straw makes a great point when it comes to the features that the X-box has and the PS2 doesn't, and I agree with him completely regarding it. Additionally, the X-box is much too difficult for thieves to steal unless they go from house to house with a fission-operated nuclear steam crane (but, then again, be wary of putting the X-box on the second floor of your home!). The X-box is also easier to modify, if you're into that kind of thing. If you have a game that runs for either system, I think that (especially with your setup, Mike) the better overall experience is definitely going to be had with the X-box, what with the HDTV support. But, on the other hand, the PS2 controller is probably the best one out of all the next-gen systems.
I haven't played Rallisport or Gran Turismo III, so I don't know which is better.
Let me see if I can find a list of upcoming titles for both systems. It probably comes down to content, mostly, right? I don't think the purchase of either system will fill you with much regret (and when it came to buying a PS or a Sega Saturn six years ago, that definitely did not end up being the case for a lot of consumers) though.
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Modding your X-box will let you do the following (if there are other features that I forgot about, someone please list them):
-- play games from emulators; you could have every single game that M.A.M.E. supports be placed on your hard drive or a CD or something, and you've now got access to several thousand solid arcade games. If you find Nintendo 64 ROM images on the net you can play those too
-- give the X-box power to play movies or movie files that you've downloaded from the internet in various formats (avi, mpg, Divx, etc)
-- place a larger hard drive in there (the one they give you by default is only, what, 8 gigs?)
-- if you had a few X-boxes, you can get them all on a LAN using a router or a hub, and have them networked together (Jack, does this even require a mod? Or is that a built-in feature)
Argh, that's all I can currently think of. I'm sure there's more. The downside is that Microsoft will forever boot you from their on-line service if they see that your X-box is modified. Additionally, someone is working on a bivouac kit for the X-box that will turn the outer shell into a sturdy, rigid tent that up to 15 wounded or quartered troops can use as a makeshift, temporary base. OK, that last part was a lie. (I hope that all the very positive and truthful things I say about the X-box offsets all the very lame "it's big" jokes I am making in this thread.)
-- play games from emulators; you could have every single game that M.A.M.E. supports be placed on your hard drive or a CD or something, and you've now got access to several thousand solid arcade games. If you find Nintendo 64 ROM images on the net you can play those too
-- give the X-box power to play movies or movie files that you've downloaded from the internet in various formats (avi, mpg, Divx, etc)
-- place a larger hard drive in there (the one they give you by default is only, what, 8 gigs?)
-- if you had a few X-boxes, you can get them all on a LAN using a router or a hub, and have them networked together (Jack, does this even require a mod? Or is that a built-in feature)
Argh, that's all I can currently think of. I'm sure there's more. The downside is that Microsoft will forever boot you from their on-line service if they see that your X-box is modified. Additionally, someone is working on a bivouac kit for the X-box that will turn the outer shell into a sturdy, rigid tent that up to 15 wounded or quartered troops can use as a makeshift, temporary base. OK, that last part was a lie. (I hope that all the very positive and truthful things I say about the X-box offsets all the very lame "it's big" jokes I am making in this thread.)
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!
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MikeSousa
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Worm
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Wanna hear my set up in my room??
NES, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Sega Saturn, SNES, and N64.
I leave the PS2 upstairs I don't play it much ...
I think getting it was a mistake. I only play it for titles I was looking forward to such as AC2, AC3, Gradius III, and IV, and that Contra game. There just seem to be very few good games. I like side scrollers ... I can't find any. I like shooters there aren't any for these systems. New generation games ... really don't seem to interest me. I think you should buy a Sega Saturn. I know what I am doing for the money that may of went to a PS3, ECKS'ER BOCKS, or CUBER GAME is most definately going to a old system like an Atari.
NES, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Sega Saturn, SNES, and N64.
I leave the PS2 upstairs I don't play it much ...
I think getting it was a mistake. I only play it for titles I was looking forward to such as AC2, AC3, Gradius III, and IV, and that Contra game. There just seem to be very few good games. I like side scrollers ... I can't find any. I like shooters there aren't any for these systems. New generation games ... really don't seem to interest me. I think you should buy a Sega Saturn. I know what I am doing for the money that may of went to a PS3, ECKS'ER BOCKS, or CUBER GAME is most definately going to a old system like an Atari.
Good point Bobby!
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Jack Straw
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Hehehee. *I* don't get tired of your incessant barrage of size jokes. Keep em coming, it's interesting to see how many different ways there are to poke fun at the beefy spicy goodness.
HOWEVER... the thing really ISN'T that big! Once you mod one, you see just how little space there is inside there.. there's 3 places you can even physically fit a chip inside there. It comes with the territory of having a full-size DVD drive as well as a full-size IDE hard drive. The only possible way to make it "smaller" would be to build it upwards, but then it would look like some Gamecube-esque mini PC hybrid. And it's probably safe to say they didn't want it to rememble a GC or PC for obvious reasons.
With that said, it is heavy as FAWK. When I bought my brother's the lady at Gamestop complained *three times* about the weight. Once when she got it off the shelf, once when she handed it to me, and she rolled her eyes and made a grunting noise when I wanted to see the date of manufacture before I bought it. Hehehehe.
Ps2 has very very solid racing games, if the games are the determining factor it's a tossup of what TYPE of racer you prefer. For true to life sim type racing, gran Turismo is still untopped. For rally racing, I am deeply in love with Rallisport for xbox, we're getting married by Elvis next summer in Vegas. Colin Mcrae is also a solid single player rally game, out for both systems.
The biggest thing going for PS2 (and the reason I ended up getting one) is the GTA franchise IMO. PS2 has a ton of exclusives. But, for every exclusive released there's 30 games released that are multiplatform and those are best on Xbox, even on a normal TV, at the very least because of 5.1 sound and better picture. Add an HDTV into the mix and that's why I said you really only have one choice.
Also: any type of networking outside the Live service requires a modchip. Basically all the modchip does is allow unsigned code to run - and anything outside of retail games and Xbox live discs are unsigned code.
HOWEVER... the thing really ISN'T that big! Once you mod one, you see just how little space there is inside there.. there's 3 places you can even physically fit a chip inside there. It comes with the territory of having a full-size DVD drive as well as a full-size IDE hard drive. The only possible way to make it "smaller" would be to build it upwards, but then it would look like some Gamecube-esque mini PC hybrid. And it's probably safe to say they didn't want it to rememble a GC or PC for obvious reasons.
With that said, it is heavy as FAWK. When I bought my brother's the lady at Gamestop complained *three times* about the weight. Once when she got it off the shelf, once when she handed it to me, and she rolled her eyes and made a grunting noise when I wanted to see the date of manufacture before I bought it. Hehehehe.
Ps2 has very very solid racing games, if the games are the determining factor it's a tossup of what TYPE of racer you prefer. For true to life sim type racing, gran Turismo is still untopped. For rally racing, I am deeply in love with Rallisport for xbox, we're getting married by Elvis next summer in Vegas. Colin Mcrae is also a solid single player rally game, out for both systems.
The biggest thing going for PS2 (and the reason I ended up getting one) is the GTA franchise IMO. PS2 has a ton of exclusives. But, for every exclusive released there's 30 games released that are multiplatform and those are best on Xbox, even on a normal TV, at the very least because of 5.1 sound and better picture. Add an HDTV into the mix and that's why I said you really only have one choice.
Also: any type of networking outside the Live service requires a modchip. Basically all the modchip does is allow unsigned code to run - and anything outside of retail games and Xbox live discs are unsigned code.
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Lex
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Guest
Yeah, only. So that's what, a million 8 meg memory cards from Sony at 20 bucks a pop?Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: -- place a larger hard drive in there (the one they give you by default is only, what, 8 gigs?)
I just was reminded today about just how much I FUCKING HATE memory cards. Working on the hell desk has shown me just exactly how greedy Sony is. $20 for 8 MEG?!?!?! Pricewatch has a PNY 8mb compact flash for 5 bucks.
Also, if PS1 is any indication, 8mb isn't 8 megaBYTE, it's megaBIT. There is NO REASON why consoles need to have memory cards anymore. My goddamn FREE AFTER REBATE PALM PILOT has more built-in memory than a PS2 memory card. 3 years later, they still haven't come out with a higher capacity one. No need to, I guess, since they're making out like bandits. Same reason they -STILL- haven't come out with a memory stick higher than 128 MB ($90 msrp), Compactflash is $35 for the same size on pricewatch.
"Dude, get an Xbox."
If only for the simple fucking concept of not having to fuck with memory cards.
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Mario
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Roody_Yogurt
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Jack Straw
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Haven't played a second's worth of anything on the Gamecube. I guess if I am biased against anyone, it's Nintendo. I think I have told my own personal horror story of the N64 launch a million times, so I won't make it a million plus one for the sake of eliminating tedium, but one thing that I really don't get as of late is the outright worshipping of their brands by so many console fans.Roody_Yogurt wrote:Has anyone had both Gamecube and Playstation 2 experience, and beyond that, have they compared ports? There are some games only available on those two, and I'd like to hear how the Gamecube compares when it comes to graphics, controllers, and loading times.
A lot of times I'll have already seen a game similar to one of Nintendo's and therefore the Nintendo one doesn't impress me. For instance, the first time that I played the Legend of Zelda, I had already played Gauntlet at the arcade, and already played Ultima III on the PC. I don't remember what the release dates were, and I'm pretty sure that Zelda was right there with those games, if not released significantly ahead of them, but since Zelda was coming up late in my personal chronology, it made it real tough to compare it against those other games. While I liked Super Mario Bros. just like every other kid my age, I have never been big on figuring out "secrets" or anything, so the two sequels to that never really did much for me. Well, that and the fact that I ended up digging Sonic more. Excitebike is a game I'd put in my personal top thirty, but that was only updated once and it was for a system that was hocking cartridges long past the time that I was interested in buying carts.
Politically, there is just one reason to dislike them that arises straight after another. It kills me that for so long Yamauchi got by while pulling his little "pissed off emperor" routine. If you read any story on Nintendo's history there can't help but be one tale that goes on about how the frigging codger was pissed at some third party software company and how he storms into a meeting, shouts at them in Japanese, tells them how he's going to have his ninja army kill every single relative of theirs, and how Nintendo the company is going to piss on their graves before storming out. What a crock of shit. I mean, I buy the fact that shit like that happened, but comport yourself like a fucking adult, old man. He didn't have a shred of respect for any of the third party developers who wrote the really innovative and memorable games for his systems and that's just plain despicable. What a way to drive them to Sony and Microsoft in droves. Stuff like really gets me upset from a personal standpoint, as I can appreciate what it takes to make, test and release a game, feel that it's ridiculous for console hardware manufacturers to grab the percentages that they do (even though I understand, intellectually, why they need to get some part of it) and think that the enormous risks that they had to take in the cartridge era were utterly indefensible by Nintendo. But hey, what did he care so long as the kiddies were gobbling up the new Donkey Kong Country game. I have no idea if the guy who took over is anything like that at all, but I don't exactly see tons of devs looking to sign exclusive deals with Nintendo, so who knows. The only thing that could get me to buy a Gamecube at this point would be (and it's really painful for me to say this) is if that Transformers game that I linked to here on JC a while back was exclusive. (I should preface it by saying that if they are using that crappy new "Transformers Armada" license then all bets are off -- giant robots are still cool, giant robots who have fucking Pokemon in them are certainly not and never will be.)
(Then against, hey, at least Yamauchi gave some props to his resident genius, unlike the fuckers at Namco who gave their boy who designed Pac-Man nothing other than a $35,000 bonus. Eh, takes all kinds.)
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Roody_Yogurt
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I used to be biased against Nintendo, but then, a lot of Sony's actions since they've reached the top have pissed me off. Of course, I was biased against Microsoft to begin with (although I still did buy a X-Box relatively soon after it came up because I thought, hey, it can't be too long until they own the market).
Now I just try to follow the individual games that catch my interest.
Now I just try to follow the individual games that catch my interest.
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Scent of Failure v3.20
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Jack Straw
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The only thing that could make me buy one is if it's ever cracked. Wouldn't mind playing Metroid, I've seen quite a few jizzing reviews, but I ain't shelling out the cayysh for one game (which is, incidentally, what I - er blue- did for PS2, got it for Vice City.) The difference is on the PS2, not only can I play vice city, I can play the formidable stack of burned media I've amassed since learning of my Xmas present.Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: The only thing that could get me to buy a Gamecube at this point would be (and it's really painful for me to say this) is if that Transformers game that I linked to here on JC a while back was exclusive.
They have the recordable mini-DVD's. They've hacked it to allow play from all regions. It can't be that hard to devise some sort of open top swap, like the PS2 covers that just came out. Just a matter of time, it took the PS2 3 years before 100% working mod solutions were available.
In other news, the latest BIOS from the Evox crew (for xbox) allows for in game reset, much like the dreamcast where if you hit all buttons at once the system resets.
ACES for this lazy fucker with a HDD full of games ;)