The Xbox cometh...

[The Mad Hatter]

So the game machine that has the distinction of being larger than a deluxe VCR is being released tomorrow. Whee. Admittedly, Halo looks like it's a darn good game and Dead or Alive is nicely bouncy as usual, but the rest of the launch and future games look completely uninteresting.

Just curious, anyone here actually interested in the Xcrate?

[Vigo Sprax]

I'm interested in it, I'll most likely be buying at least on other console to keep my PS2 happy...which is up in the air right now, I won't get either at launch.

Halo looks awesome, everyone loves it and its seems fairly long for a console FPS. As for everything else for the X-Box launch...I'm slightly interested in Gotham Racing, but thats it.

The most appealing thing to me is the X-Box's sound capabilities, this could be a large deciding factor in X-Box vs Cube, that is if games can implement it properly. Thats one thing I think GC is stupid for doing, if they were smart enough to feature high end, progressive component video why not one of the discreet 5.1 surround sound formats?

[Clayface]

*Turns his fists into giant metal hammers and smashes every friggin' X-Box in sight into tiny little pieces, then changes into a disguise to melt into the crowd*

[Psycho Fox]

Na,I saw the a Game Cube on dispay at Toys 'R Us and it is like totally cute it is even smaller then the Dreamcast. They had a X-Box on dispay too but they had the volume for it at ear split leave so I didn't want to try it out.

BTW anyone know what platform Sega Sports are going? especially Tennis.

[I.R Joey]

Sega sports will be everywhere so that shouldn't determine which console you buy.

As for the X-box, I just recently got to play one at my local Software etc. The controller reminds me of the DC's except somewhat bigger, and with a slightly altered button configuration, and double joysticks.

As for the games I was really looking forward to playing DOA3, but alas I couldn't. I ended up playing Project Gotham (the sequal to a game I already own on Dreamcast called MSR), I'm not much of a racing sim fan though so the games where both lost on me.

[Jowy Blight]

I won't be getting one right now, none of the games (except Halo and DOA) look any good. I'll be getting a gamecube.

[Failure]

Did they fix all of the kinks and bugs that the x-box had a few months back? I remember that stores that were displaying demos had terrible problems with it.

[The Mad Hatter]

For Microsoft's sake, I hope they did. We'll find out soon enough...

I hear Oddworld is a bit of a dissapointment. Dang, I was actually interested in that one...

[Psycho Fox]

Originally posted by The Mad Hatter
For Microsoft's sake, I hope they did. We'll find out soon enough...
... Yhea they totaly *beep*ed up windows CE on the Dreamcast so for their sake I hope they did a better job with the OS on the X-box

[Bird Boy]

I'm bored to tears with it..I played the Oddworld demo, seen DOA3 and Halo clips..and I must say..it looks like crap. My PC (which is rather crappy) could handle graphics like that..and that's sad...

-BB

[RockItShipper]

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1293591459

[Bird Boy]

Originally posted by RockItShipper
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1293591459

o....my...god...that's sad...that's REALLY sad just for a box...

-BB

[Failure]

Originally posted by RockItShipper
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1293591459

What!?!? And they say people people are smarter than chimps.

[Jimmy Kustes]

I think a game system should have a price equal to the amount of games you want to buy. Meaning Playstation 2, X-box, and any niche system like Neo Geo Pocket do not have enough games I want to equal the price of the system itself.

Dreamcast did and because of Rareware: Gamecube will. I'm not a Nintendo fanboy because Nintendo makes more mistakes than most companies, but I will get a Gamecube.

Examples of Nintendo mistakes: Delaying Dolphin more than a year, making the Gameboy Advance only slightly better than the Game Gear, and making Zelda worse than it was a year ago!
If you defend Nintendo on those mistakes you must be a fanboy! End of story!

Also Gamecube has a chance (even if it is slim) of getting Cel Damage, Jet Grind Radio Future, and Metal Gear Solid 2, so i should wait on Microsoft and Sony.

[The Mad Hatter]

Gamespot swears that Cel Damage is coming to the Gamecube, so that's at least one.

As for the mistakes... was delaying the cube a year truly a mistake? Yes, it allowed the PS2 to get a foothold in first, but it allowed Nintendo to take their time to make a well-designed machine, instead of another flawed piece of hardware like the N64.

GBA only slightly better than the Game Gear? Actually, the GBA's specs are three times what the Game Gear was, but you're right, it boils down to games. I never paid attention to the GG games, so I can't judge.

And "they made Zelda worse than it was last year?" I don't follow you... did you mean that you didn't like Majora's Mask? It was vastly different and probably threw a lot of people, but I liked it.

[Jimmy Kustes]

I agree with you on some points, Mad.

I didn't want to commit to when the Game Gear came out but it was around 10 years before GBA, and it had a TV tuner! I didn't own one, but the games looked close enough to the Genesis for the time.

I don't expect the GBA to look totally like Gamecube's graphics because GBA runs on carts. But if Nintendo wasn't a monopoly GBA and its games would be cheaper and have the quality of an N64 cart.

I know graphics, sound, and control are parts of the overall quality which is the gameplay. Gameplay is the whole deal not a category. Sound and graphics are a good determiner of how hard someone worked on a game. If Banjo-Kazooie sounds and looks like effort was put into it, then it problably has good plot and control. If Army Men looks and sounds like slop then it plays like slop. Zelda looked like an elaborate work that was turned into Cel-da (an unoriginal copy) a year later. The exception to this rule are puzzle games.

NOTICE: Just because Nintendo makes something, does not mean it is original! Pikmen has the concept of Lemmings with the plot of Toe Jam and Earl. Cel-da is a copy of Jet Grind Radio, Wacky Races, et al. That doesn't mean its bad, but Nintendo acts like everything they create is 100% original.

Edit: When I compare Cel-da, I compare it to the tech demo not MM.

That sig is the best line so far from the Tick.

[The Mad Hatter]

Okay, I see what you're talking about now.

First off, I can't say for certain about whether the GBA should be more technically advanced. But, the sucker is about half as powerful as a PSOne, and is smaller than a Game Boy Color. Also, the technogeeks who know these sorts of things tend to drool over how well made the GBA is, and considering that Nintendo designed the Gamecube ludicrously well, I tend to put a little stock into their thoughts.

As for the game prices... that's bothered me a bit too. Then again, the carts are half the size of the GBC games, so maybe it's once again a case where technology gets a little more expensive when it's squeezed. Or maybe Nintendo really is weilding a bit of power and is charging too much for those things... it happened back in the original NES days. I really have no way of knowing.

Aha, talk of the infamous "Cel-da." First off, let's get one point out of the way: the game isn't close to being done yet, and no one but internal Nintendo programmers have played it. So it's really impossible to slag it or say it's the best thing ever, simply because we won't know what it's like when it's finished.

And furthermore, we don't know if the game has been simplified. It could be loaded with even MORE deep puzzles than the N64 versions... or maybe it won't. The fact is, we just don't know yet.

That said... have you downloaded the trailers of the game's presentation? The animation was absolutely amazing, it looked EXACTLY like a hand drawn cartoon. The reactions of the pig-men are priceless! If it weren't for the fact that it's Zelda, people would be falling all over themselves with praise for this game.

Yet at the same time, I can see how the "new look" threw people. We've grown accustomed to a more mature-looking Link, and the Dolphin demo of the mature Link fighting Ganondorf looked great, eh? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dissapointed to find that I won't get to play that. But on the other hand, it's Zelda. Nintendo hasn't screwed it up yet and, art design aside, we have no indication that would show that this new one has been screwed up. Again, we'll have to wait and see. But I think the game shows promise, and I'm looking forward to playing it.

And I wouldn't say that the new Zelda isn't a clone of Jet Grind Radio... you don't skateboard and tag graffiti, do ya? :) Honestly, Nintendo might have looked at the style and thought they could work with it. But remember, Miyamoto said waaaaaaay back when Mario 64 came out that his dream goal is to make a video game that plays like a cartoon. This new Zelda is, apparently, his chance to make his dream literal. Though his choice of franchises may be a bit suspect. :)

I'd disagree when you say that Pikmin is like Lemmings... I've played both. I got to try Pikmin at E3, and was instantly hooked. In Pikmin, you can use the little suckers to collect objects, fight enemies, and more. In Lemmings, you just solve puzzles to get them to the end without getting them all killed. Give Pikmin a try... I thought I would hate it, but it was a huge surprise.

Not everything Nintendo creates is 100 percent original... better examples you could have used for that argument would be Mario Party 3 or Super Smash Bros. Melee (which is much like its N64 predecessor). But they do innovate more than most other software companies. And Nintendo doesn't do more crowing about their stuff than any other company... heck, they don't do half the crowing Microsquash has. The ones doing the crowing are the fans, and even Nintendo's direct adversaries (top Sony execs have a ludicrous amount of respect for Miyamoto).

Damn, if I put this much critical thinking to fighting cancer, I'd have the disease licked in no time! :rolleyes:

[I.R Joey]

I know what you mean Hatter, I understand your dilema.

[Jimmy Kustes]

Originally posted by The Mad Hatter
Aha, talk of the infamous "Cel-da." First off, let's get one point out of the way: the game isn't close to being done yet, and no one but internal Nintendo programmers have played it. So it's really impossible to slag it or say it's the best thing ever, simply because we won't know what it's like when it's finished.

I'd disagree when you say that Pikmin is like Lemmings... I've played both. I got to try Pikmin at E3, and was instantly hooked. In Pikmin, you can use the little suckers to collect objects, fight enemies, and more. In Lemmings, you just solve puzzles to get them to the end without getting them all killed. Give Pikmin a try... I thought I would hate it, but it was a huge surprise.



I think Zelda and Pikmin will turn out great, especcially if it is the creator's(Miyamoto) original vision. I just don't agree with websites that say they are completly original. There are only about 7 original ideas in the whole world, so I don't expect Pikmin and Zelda to be 2 of them!

I'm not angry at you because I mostly agree with your arguement. But I am mad at blind websites that will worship anything written Nintendo on it. It's just that I have enough respect for Nintendo to not let them get concieted and lose like they did on N64, so it's best to keep them on their toes! :cool:

As much as Toonzone members like CN, we are also their harshest critics. Nintendo and video game sites, on the other hand, are becoming fanboy central. End of rant.

[The Mad Hatter]

I can understand where you come from... I get tired of blind fan-boys too. Even though I've got Luigi as my avatar and generally enjoy Nintendo stuff, I do know they aren't infallable and have made plenty of missteps, like everyone else. And that doesn't prevent me from enjoying stuff on the Dreamcast or PS2, either. There's way too much good stuff to try to shoehorn yourself into just one system.

So no need to apologize at all!