Who is still sitting on the fence about which system to buy? (1 Viewer)

[Scott Walburn]

I wonder how many people out there are still undecided about which system to get. I keep switching from gamecube to xbox to PS2. I own a hdtv, and have a full dolby digital setup so I was firmly in X-box camp. From a technological standpoint it was killer, then I played Halo, and was blown away. I was definitely getting an x-box, now I've been looking at the release list, and nothing is getting me that excited. Gamecube will have less titles, but Zelda and Mario and Perfect Dark will be amazing, however right now I'm leaning away from this one since I want to see how many games end up on it. Plus it it cheaper so it would be easier just to pick up on a whim, instead of justifying a major purchase like the box or PS2

I said some bad things about PS2 for a long time. Nothing on it really impressed me. Up until a couple months ago I wouldn't have traded it for my dreamcast. Now Ace Combat 4, GTA3, NFL2k2, MGS2, SSX tricky, and alot of other obscure games (like some jetskiing game I played on it) are blowing me away. I am really 50/50 between PS2 and and X-box. I really could care less about the final fantasy games or any RPG for that matter, and I know most of the games on PS2 will end up on X-box anyway. Plus I am dying to see the new Panzer Dragoon game or anything from Sega.

What it boils down to is I'm torn between having the best technology in xbox, but I don't want to buy a system that dies immediately. I previously owned a Saturn, and a Jaguar. I am definitely getting one system before Christmas, and that is probably all I'll get till the next-next generation machines come out. I was just curious if anyone else is having the same problem as me, or if they can provide any insight.

 

[Stephen L]

Oh god Scott you had a DC ,Saturn & Jaguar please don't buy a Game Cube.I went from DC to PS2 last year and just picked up a GCN, you don't seem to have much luck with the longevity of your systems.I like my PS2 & GCN but if I didn't already own a PS2 I would have bought a Xbox.The specs on X are very impressive & I like the harddrive .PS2's library is very much on the upswing as programmers are having a better time with the system after a year.GCN's promise (Zelda ,Metroid etc.), price and SuperSmash Bros Meelee & StarWars hooked me in right away.Looks like whatever sytem you pick you'll have a winner(hopefully).

 

[Ryan Peter]

I now have both GCN and XBox.

Scott, I noticed this in your post:

GTA3, NFL2k2, MGS2, SSX tricky

Tricky is on all systems, as is NFL2k2, GTA3 will be coming out on XBox, and an exclusive form of MGS will be coming out on XBox as well (no one is sure what exactly it'll be yet). I'm not sure what Waverunner game you played on PS2, but there is a pretty good one on GCN, and is actually one of their top launch games, nothing obscure.

I think if you want the HT aspect for gaming, go with XBox. Solid 5.1 right now, and hopefully 720p in the future. At the very least you'll get 480p right now (GCN has 480p too, but not PS2).

Here are some questions you'll have to ask yourself: How much do you like the games that Nintendo does? That's that system's main selling point. Resident Evil also is exlusive for it. How much do you like Final Fantasy games? That's the PS2's main selling point, most of it's other top games should be on one system or another. The XBox does have some promising games coming out in the future. First of all, Bungie has to have something cooking for the future. Not to mention Project Ego. I know I'll be picking up the next UFC game, not to mention the Sega games coming out for it.

Anyway, good luck. I think you already know which system to get. MS doesn't equal Sega, Bill Gates wants market share and he ain't going to quit on this one.

Halo rocks damn hard

 

[Scott Walburn]

Hey, thanks for the help guys. By the way the waverunner game I played was called splashdown I think. I didn't expect anything and it was a lot of fun. Right now, I will still probably get the X-box. I agree that Gates won't bow out of this thing as easily as Sega did. He has near limitless resources, plus I'm a big NASCAR fan so the thought of playing thunder 2002 in dolby digital is quite intriguing. I just hope I don't jinx the x-box the way I did the Jaguar, although for my money there wasn't anything better than a little tempest 2000 and aliens vs predators.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Well Not really Sitting on aFence Ibought a PS2. I wanted a console that had a good wealth of decent games, something that had beenout a bit , so I could get some cheaper used games, So Ipicked up a PS2 a few weeks ago. Now I may still Buy a XBOX, I'm still smarting After Dreamcast, but I would Have to say I go my money out of it. From what I cansee there's only a few games coming in the next few monts on thebox I'd like to play, but there's a bunh of PS2 games. The XBOX is capable of very good graphics, but most of the PS2 carryovers don't vary alot from their counterparts. Maybe I'll pick one up after XMAS

 

[Morgan Jolley]

If you want power, go with the X-Box. It is undoubtedly the most powerful of the three.

If you want a lot of great games right now, go for the PS2. The games are great now and only getting better.

If you want a lot of power with less capabilities than the X-Box (no 5.1 in real-time and max of 480p) and if you like Nintendo games, go for GameCube. Its cheaper, is by Nintendo (which means Nintendo games), and has a few good titles already (Rogue Leader, Super Monkey Ball, Super Smash Bros. Melee on Monday).

I would reccommend PS2. If you don't care about games right now but are looking for the future, go for X-Box. Otherwise, GameCube.

Or just buy them all.

 

[LDfan]

I'm not sure which to get either. At the current prices it's hard not to get an Xbox. Now if Sony dropped the price of the PS2 by $50-100 then that changes everything. Guess the only game that I really really want on the PS2 is Gran Turismo 3.

Jeff

 

[Mark Evans]

I'm in the same boat, sort of. I know I'm going to end up getting a GameCube. But I'm struggling with my urge to pick up a PS2. My personal issue with the PS2 is my remembrance of its launch, which (SSX notwithstanding) blew me away, minus the 'me away' .
However, the PS2 has come out with wealth of titles lately that I'm dying to play. Frequency, BG2: Dark Alliance, Devil May Cry, Onimusha, Grand Theft Auto 3, Metal Gear Solid 2, just to name a few recent examples.
That being said, I still am not enamoured of the system, and I can't put my finger on why. Hard to say. It may be the lack of RPGs. And sorry, but Final Fantasy X is not going to do it for me, RPG wise. I've been sitting on IX for the past six months not even bothering to finish it, so I'm not that anxious to try Square again.
But then, the GC won't exactly be RPG ground zero, so why would I go with that? For me, it's simple: multi-player. My class in school here is close-knit, and we like to game together. Right now we're just playing PSOne titles, but we like anything multiplayer on the consoles. A friend of ours has a PS2, but we can't do any multi-player, because he has to shell out another $40 (Canadian) to get a PS2 multitap. Hardly fair when that costs as much as an extra controller.
The GameCube is cheaper than the PS2, and that money already affords me two extra controllers for multi-play. Throw in already excellent titles like WaveRace, Super Monkey Ball, and Super Smash Brothers: Melee, and the system is off to a good start. Coupled with EA Sports support, a version of SSX on the system, the Resident Evil remake, Eternal Darkness, Soul Calibur II, Klonoa 2, and Nintendo's game stable, and I'm a happy gamer.
I think multi-player and I think GameCube, and the single-player games aren't exactly slouches either. But that's just me. I don't care for First Person Shooters on the console, so the loss of, say, Half-Life or Halo doesn't faze me. This may also be why I'm not leaning towards the X-Box at all, as frankly the technology means nothing to me without games I want to play.
But that's the sort of thing you need to decide for yourself, that's the way I rationalized it, and for me it was all about GameCube in the end, with the PS2 if I ever go nuts and decide to get a second system. If I could afford both, I'd get them, but for now I want the cube.

 

[MathewM]

I just purchased an xbox. It was an impulse purchase, and I always feel guilty after buying a gaming system for some reason, especially a M$ one. With that said, I purchased the Xbox because:

I'm a home theater/tech geek. The only 2 things that I see the xbox missing are a firewire port for add-on connectivty, and some sort of wireless networking card slot. Wireless networking is becoming in my view a necessary, which is to say that with broadband support, online gaming is a given, and who wants to run 100 + feet of cabeling to the closest telephone/modem jack. You might ask why I just didn't buy/build a pc? Because I currently am a Mac laptop user. Gaming on the Mac side is slim, and my Titanium G4 while great for everything else, is not so great for gaming. I've also grown weary of the constant crashes, re-configuring, upgrading and overall complexity of the pc gaming experience. The Xbox will allow for the ease of porting of PC titles and Microsoft has the funds to get the best developers on board. The best advantage of all will be experiencing all of this on my HDTV with DD 5.1 sound.

Anyway, to sum it up, I've outgrown Nintendo. Had a 64, bought all of 3 games for it. Didn't really get my money's worth. I've never owned a Playstation, and never really wanted one...don't know why. Right now, there's a couple of games that look interesting for the PS2, but not to warrant it's $299 sticker price.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Mark-

The PSOne and PS2 only have two ports, but if you invest the money, you can have up to 8 people playing instead of the max of 4 on just one console on the other consoles. Plus, with Gran Turismo 3, you can have 6 people playing, either two per console and 3 consoles or 6 consoles and one per.

Final Fantasy X is very different from FFIX, but if you didn't like IX, you still should wait on X. Other than that, the PS2 still has a lot of RPGs. I don't know them all, but someone else here probably does. I know Xenosaga will be a big one, but I can't remember any others.

It seems like you don't want an X-Box. If its between the PS2 and GameCube, definitely GameCube for you (based on what you said). Right now, it has Super Monkey Ball, plus Super Smash Brothers Melee is coming out on Monday, so there are already some multiplayer games.

 

[MikeM]

Well, I had the same choice to make a week ago. I went with the PS2.

I was able to pickup a used PS2 with extra controller/memory card and 6 sports games (which I like) off eBay for $380. Not bad at all.

I really like the idea of the Xbox, and might get one in the future, but for me there's no rush no with the lack of available games at this point.

 

[Doug Miller]

Well, I made the jump today. I HAD the PS2 up until about April of this year when I felt bored with video games. Now that winter was here, I didn't have anything to do. It was time to buy a new machine. I really liked my PS2, so had a hard time deciding.

BUT, I went with an Xbox. Let me just say -- WOW! The graphics on this are incredible. I had DOA2 Hardcore on the PS2. DOA3 blows this out of the water. The amount of background movement and level of detail is amazing. I also bought Madden 2002, which looked pretty similar to the past PS2 rendition. Another deciding factor in getting the Xbox was the upcoming WWF game. The PS2 looks like a rehash of Smackdown2, while the Raw Is War for Xbox looks like a totally new game.

Very nice. Still getting used to the controller though.

Doug