Linkstew

I recently played demos of several upcoming games, and here are my bullet point impressions of them:

• GameCube
• 1080: Avalanche - This amused me for a few minutes, and if I can get this for cheap after whatever unforeseeable point I get bored with SSX 3, I might pick this up.
• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike: Attack of the Colons - I don't think I'm going to get this unless I can get it for cheap. It just felt like more Rogue Squadron, without fixing some of the play control issues that have always bugged me about Rogue Squadron. There are other things I'd rather be playing, like...
• Viewtiful Joe - Now this game was one I was unsure about before playing the demo, but after playing it I was totally sold. This games style is just too cool for words, and the fact that it's going to initially sell for $40 just seals the deal.


• PlayStation 2
• ESPN Hockey - It's been a long time since I've played a hockey video game (or any sports video game, for that matter), and I was surprised by how damn complicated it's gotten. The graphics were pretty, and I had fun playing for one period, but I just couldn't imagine playing for much longer than that.
• Hulk - I was amused by this demo, but in the end it was way too short. Still entertaining enough to play the demo twice.
• Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando - This was entertaining enough that I spent probably a half an hour playing with this demo, but it's not a game I'm going to buy. In particular, there was an entertaining racing mini-game, but in the long run it probably would lack depth.
• Roadkill - Um, I did not enjoy this demo at all. The objective was entirely unclear, and the demo was sufficiently buggy that I got my car stuck against a mountain and couldn't move anymore, so I quit playing it.
• True Crime: Streets of LA - This game also bored me silly, and again with the extremely unclear objective.
• SSX 3 - Last but certainly not least... Unfortunately, this demo was really buggy, with me falling through the mountain at times, or getting stuck inside of a rock.... The controls just felt a little off throughout, and the board's interaction with the snow frequently seemed very strange. The demo showed a lot of promise, but considering this game is supposed to be released next month, it was kind of scary... But the latest SSX 3 trailer had much improved board/snow interaction, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. This game has a lot to live up to -- I just hope it can deliver on all of its promises. The only real question will be what platform to buy this game for.


• I also watched a video of XIII, and while I believe it's just a first person shooter, the graphics and style in the trailer were damned awesome. I only have a vague notion of what the story is supposed to be about, but I kind of want to play this just for the graphical/style experience alone... I'll wait and see what the reviews say, though.

So the results: I would buy SSX 3 unless the reviews completely denounced it; I was convinced to not buy Rebel Strike, and to hold off on 1080; And I was convinced to pre-order Viewtiful Joe.

Grr, I can't find my copy of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for the Dreamcast. Does anyone have any clues? Like, did I let you borrow it and clean forgot? Blah, I don't really want to buy the PS2 version and re-unlock everything when I already own it, but I guess that'd be one less Dreamcast game I need to keep my Dreamcast out for...

PlayStation: Evolve, Multiply, Conquer

None of this is surprising to me, really at all, and it's exactly what I think Microsoft hopes to try, too. Nintendo, meanwhile, won't do anything like this, and they'll stick with their "we make games" line. Which is fine. I like games, and I like my TiVo, and I don't need one device to do both of those things possibly less well than my other devices already do it. Of course, if the PSX used TiVo technology, that'd be a whole different story...

I think the game and electronics industry is going to be a very different place two generations of hardware down the line.

Even at $199, I have no desire to buy an Xbox. There isn't a single game out for the Xbox that I want to play.

On the other hand, if I didn't already own a PS2, I'd be all over the $199 PS2, which has dozens of great games that the Xbox doesn't.

Meanwhile, I still love my Gamecube, and the first thing I'm going to do after finals is play Resident Evil.

So I just got back to my apartment in Berkeley, and I was tidying some things up, and making room for my new chair, and I realized that the situation in front of my TV needed some resolving.

So I moved my GameCube to where my Dreamcast once sat, next to my PS2. And I moved my Dreamcast to where my N64 once sat, next to my TiVo/DVD Player. And I moved my N64... into a drawer.

Shhh... He's not dead, he's just sleeping...

This actually makes me kind of sad. We haven't really touched the N64 since about July, when we were playing Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Mario Party 3. But since then... It's just gathered dust. I really liked that system... But I don't think I'll be waking him up any time soon, unless I happen to finally buy Zelda: Majora's Mask -- which happens to be the one last N64 game that I really want to play.

I don't know... It's silly. Even though I hadn't touched it for six months, I still feel bad about putting it away. Oh well. It's not like it's that put away -- it'd take me maybe three minutes to set it back up, if the nostalgic urge to play an N64 game really struck me...

Schweet! Final Fantasy X went from being about a month off to being less than two weeks away! Of course, this just means that I'll play it over winter break instead of the other games I'd been planning on playing. So many games, so little time. =\

Hey, look, according to ign xbox, Xbox is winning!

But wait, according to ign cube, The Numbers Don't Lie, and the GameCube has been selling better.

And what blows my mind is that those two articles both cite the same data. To summarize, as of that report the Xbox (with a four day head start) had sold more consoles (in the US) total, but since the GameCube's release, it has been selling better.

My interpretation? They're both selling well, and often selling out completely. And it's kind of silly to shout "Look at me, I'm winning!" after the first 100 meters of a 10 k marathon, especially when the runners have to drag along a lead weight called "limited supply". Meanwhile another million copies of Metal Gear Solid 2 have probably been sold, and Final Fantasy X comes out in less than a month...

Oh, in other news, apparently 2.4 games have been sold for each Xbox sold, which puts it ahead of the 1.9 games/console Nintendo and Sony managed. But I'm sure that has nothing to do with most buyers being required to buy a bundle with 2-3 games.

So here in the first few minutes of round two, Nintendo is claiming the Gamecube is the fastest selling next generation console, and they're sticking to their guns when interviewed about the claim. Microsoft has stayed quiet on the issue, probably because they just didn't have enough consoles available to compete, thus making claims that the Xbox has been selling out moot as a basis of comparison. And though Sony was quick to toot their own horn last year when the shit hit the fan with PS2 sales, they probably won't respond to Nintendo's press release, and they'll end up seeming mature in the face of what looks like bragging from Nintendo.

Never mind the fact that Metal Gear Solid 2 has already 1.8 million copies just in North America, and it's not even Christmas yet. And it was just released in Japan today.

The point is that the PS2 has a huge head start, and it's way too soon to start cheering for any of the challengers to the belt which Sony's currently wearing.

And while Nintendo claims to have sold 510,000 Gamecubes in the first week, way back at the very beginning of round one Sega sold 410,000 Dreamcasts in the first week, and look where they ended up.

Last Friday when I was in Bakersfield, Pi bought a Gamecube and a DVD player from WalMart for less than the cost of a PS2 or an Xbox. Admittedly, the DVD player was on sale for $75, but his total with sales tax was still only $294.22.

Let's do a quick comparison of each of the three contenders for equivalent configurations, shall we? We'll assume a non-sale price of $100 for an external DVD player, and I'll be nice to the PS2 and allow the Gran Turismo 3 bundle to be its entry, and we'll assume 7.5% sales tax as a compromise between Bakersfield's 7% and the Bay Area's BART subsidizing 8ish%.

Gamecube:

• Gamecube console: $199
• Extra controller: $34.99
• Game: $49.99
• Memory Card 59: $14.99
• External DVD Player: $99.99
• Total: $398.96 ($428.88 with tax)

PS2:

• PS2 Gran Turismo 3 bundle: $329.99
• Extra Controller: $34.99
• Memory Card: $34.99
• DVD Remote: $19.99
• Total: $419.96 ($451.457 with tax)

Xbox:

• Xbox console: $299.99
• Extra Controller: $39.99
• Game: $49.99
• DVD Remote: $29.99
• Total: $419.96 ($451.457 with tax)

Um, other fudge work in these numbers: Admittedly, the Xbox has a hard drive and network adapter, but at the moment all the Hard Drive is good for is storing custom music sound tracks and I'm assuming that it can store saved games. And on the assumption that the Xbox's hard drive can store saved games, I didn't add in the price of a memory card on the Xbox.

The Gamecube memory card is smaller than the PS2 memory card, so I probably should have added two Memory Card 59's to my Gamecube total to be more equitable.

I think I recall seeing that the Sony Hard Drive/Network Adapter Bundle will be $150 when it comes out this spring, so that puts the final price of the PS2 (even with the bundled GT3) way up above the Xbox.

I expect that the Gamecube Modem and Ethernet adapters will be $50 each when they come out. And a nice portable removable Gamecube Hard Drive is also a possibility.

But, for now, I'd argue that games aren't really taking advantage of the Xbox's network and hard drive features enough to really count them into the overall equation.

Oh, and as long as I'm on the subject, you can get a Dreamcast for $50, and find most of the games and accessories for $10 to $20. If you're really cheap.

If you bought every possible accessory for the Gamecube as they come out, you'd probably end up spending more on the Gamecube than the Xbox in the long run. But most people won't buy all the Gamecube accessories, and most probably already have a DVD player, and most people with an Xbox probably won't ever use the Hard Drive or Network Adapter, so I still say the Gamecube wins the price game.

Besides which, I think being able to pick and choose with the Gamecube is better than Microsoft's Model-TX.

Tonight while browsing Yahoo!, I came across an ad which told me "Taco Bell is giving away 6,755 Xbox™ systems."

"6,755?" I mused. "Isn't that something like... half of the Xbox launch numbers?" ;-)

Well, maybe they're just trying to create a shortage, so they can repeat the success of Sony's PS2 over-hype under-deliver machine. Eh, we'll see.

My anticipation for the Gamecube is building, and being the list monger I am, I felt like breaking down my anticipation. And I think these are some rather revealing lists, really.

• Gamecube:
  1. Super Smash Brothers Melee - This is my number 1 most anticipated game, and that's all there is to say about that. *
  2. Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2 - This game looks fantastic, and though I don't like generic shooters, Star Wars shooters are a completely different story. *
  3. Wave Race: Blue Storm - The original Wave Race was the first game I played on the N64, and I played it quite a lot. Basically, I'm a sucker for quality racing games. *
  4. Pikmin - So cute, and so original! *
  5. Luigi's Mansion - This game looks to have good graphics and original gameplay, and besides, I'm like Luigi way more than I like Mario. *
• Game Boy Advance
  1. Golden Sun - This is looking to be a fantastic little GBA RPG. *
  2. Street Fighter Alpha 3 - Holy Hell! How did they fit this game onto the GBA?? As long as the reviewers confirm that it lives up to the legacy, I'm so there.
  3. Sonic the Hedgehog Advance - I like Sonic, and I like the Game Boy Advance.
  4. Super Mario Advance 2 - Wowie, a remake of the SNES's Super Mario World for the GBA? I can't believe how much the GBA is capable of.
  5. ...
• Xbox
  1. Halo - This is a Bungiegame, damnit. Oh, the anguish! **
  2. ...
  3. ...
  4. ...
  5. ...
• PS2
  1. Final Fantasy X - This game looks to have great graphics, and good god, it's got some of the hottest final fantasy chicks yet!
  2. Metal Gear Solid 2 - Tactical Espionage Action! Based on the demo, this game can't possibly go wrong. *
  3. Soul Calibur 2 - You know, this is a cross platform game, and I fully intend to buy it for the Gamecube when the time comes. I just put it here because my PS2 release calendar is a little bleak, and I didn't want to bump any of the GCN games coming out in the first two weeks for something that might be coming out before my birthday.
  4. Xenosaga - So this might be out before next Christmas, but whenever the time comes, I want to play it.
  5. ...
• Mac:
  1. Myth 3: The Wolf Age - It doesn't look like the non-bungie developers broke the game, so I'm looking forward to it. All the same, I'll read the reviews before I buy, just to make sure. *
  2. Uhh... ***

Now, admittedly, I could have filled in five games for the xbox, but Halo is the only xbox game I really feel a burning desire to play at the moment. I tried to limit the lists to be the games that I really want to play. Of course, the Gamecube list is much longer, so I limited it to the top five (I'm also anticipating Super Monkey Ball, among a few others) games coming out before Christmas (otherwise Zelda would have bumped Luigi off the list, for example).

Now what's the point here? First of all, I'm obviously a little more interested in one console than the others. But second, check out IGN's top 10 year 1 PS2 games. All of the games I'd include in my top 10 list are in their list, except several of the games in their list are so obviously a stretch (having to include that many sports/racing games in such a list is just a bad sign), and my top 10 list would have been a top five list instead. What's interesting, though, is if I make a retroactive PS2 anticipation list:

1. Zone of Enders/MGS2 Demo - Z.O.E. turned out to have been a huge disappointment, and the MGS 2 demo was way too short.
2. Gran Turismo 3 - Good game, but I found it frustrating.
3. Star Wars Episode 1: Starfighter - This is the game that got me to buy my PS2. It wasn't bad, but I haven't played it since I beat it.
4. Devil May Cry - I only really started anticipating this game about a week before it came out, after reading some advance reviews. For some reason, the early previews didn't do it for me.
5. ICO - I didn't want to play it until I'd read some reviews. However, it's a game I would have only rented if I weren't borrowing it from my co-worker. Not something I'd want to buy.
6. Onimusha - Another one I didn't want to play until I read the reviews, and once again, I only plan to rent it.
7. Silent Hill 2 - And another one I didn't even know about before it was out.

The moral here is: There are almost as many games I'm anticipating for the Gamecube that come out in the Gamecube's first month as I wanted to play in the whole first year of the PS2's existence. (Though I fully acknowledge that SSX is a great game, I didn't actually desire to play it. It came as part of my bundle, and so it was only an accident that I discovered its greatness) For that matter, if you only count the games I anticipated ahead of time, the GCN wins over the PS2 hands down. Of course, we'll see how these GCN games live up to my anticipation, because my PS2 anticipation was pretty misplaced. Just check out my top 5 year 1 PS2 games:

1. Gran Turismo 3
2. SSX
3. Devil May Cry
4. ICO
5. Oh, wait, I've only played 4 good PS2 games so far... =) (I haven't played Onimusha or Silent Hill 2 yet. Gotta deal with ICO and Devil May Cry first.)

Hm, I wonder what's going to suffer more: My bank account or my final grades. Hm. This so isn't good.

* - due to be released by Christmas. Holy hell there are a lot of them. I have no clue how I'm going to make time for all of these.
** - due to be released by Christmas, but there's no way I'll be playing it any time soon. Damn you Microsoft. You go to hell and you die. You stole Halo and now I have to wait for a Mac port, if it ever happens.
*** - Mac games? Haha, yeah right... There's a reason I'm such; console whore: Mac games don't exist.

So last week, I bought Devil May Cry and I borrowed ICO from a co-worker. And in the case of both games, so far so good! "Finally!" I cried. "PS2 games worth playing!"

First up, Devil May Cry. This game is rated M for Mature, and it more than deserves that rating. This game is gratuitously violent, with a red-trenchcoat wearing, sword wielding, shotgun toting son of a demon on a mission to stop demons from making a mess of things. Sure, this game probably won't give video games a good name with parent groups, but good god is it well done, and it's so cathartic. I got this game on Wednesday, which was conveniently the day of my midterm. So after getting angry at my midterm, I went home and took out my frustration by slashing an enemy into the air and blowing him to pieces with a shotgun. Oh it's some good stuff, let me tell you. It's pure action, and the only flaw I've found so far is that the camera is a little wandery for my tastes. I repeatedly found myself wanting to hit Z and center the camera behind my character, a la Zelda 64.

And then there's ICO, which is simply breathtaking. It reminds me of an old Sierra game, with it's puzzle solving aspects and awe inspiring visuals. You play a young boy trying to escape from a castle filled with some shadow monsters, and your job is to figure out how to get your character and the girl you meet along the way out of the castle (she's not as physical able as you, so you have to find different paths for her than you used for yourself. Now, I've found two flaws in this game so far. First of all, the occasional action sequences where the shadow monsters try to take away the girl and you have to fight them off with a stick are rather irritating. The stick goes *pff* when you strike them, and really, if I wanted to kill some monsters, I'd be playing Devil May Cry and hearing the satisfying sounds of a sword slash and a shotgun blast. Second, the camera is a little wandery for my tastes. I constantly found myself wanting to hit Z and center the camera behind my character, a la Zelda 64.