Fast_Blue_Scooby

Right folks, I have a PS2 but am thinking about getting an X Box!
However I am waiting to see if the X Box will drop in price before doing so. However I have read so many conficting reports about the X Box, that I thought it was a good time to ask for some sensible opinions!!!

Would anyone like to tell me the reasons why I should stick to my PS2 and not get an X box, OR the reasons why I should buy an X Box?

I want an overall picture of what people think of the consoles, which one will survive, which one will have the best games coming out for it etc etc. I know Daz is a PS2 supporter but all views I think are important, so can anyone answer the following:

You should buy an X box because......

You should not buy an X box because.......

Thanks.

munna

PS2:-GT3,GTA3(Soon to come out on X-BOX)MGS2,Jak and Daxter,Final Fantasy,

programmers are getting more and more intimate with the PS2 and are now pushing the processor to beyond 80% of usage..it got off to a great start with sales but that was down to the name and company behind it(At the time there was nothing looming on the horizon that worried SONY)..the release games were PAP it took them a whole year to get tripple A games out,such as the likes of GT3 and MGS2..the future does look very bright indeed..games are going to get better alot better.

X-BOX:-..kills all competition on specs alone..on Raw power the processor..Release games have killed off the competition release games with titles like Halo,Project Gotham(Not all That Great to look at)Rallisport Challenge,munches oddysee,..
with other killer apps coming along now if programmers have utilised most of the power of the chip on the release games,where as programmers for the PS2 have done after a year..what will these programmers be able to do to the games after a year of realease of the hardware?..you better believe it X-BOX games are gonna look great compared to the PS2's graphices...
i am not biased towards either of the system's ,.i have both of them..and they both have great games in the present and the future..and they will stylise each game with their own uniqueness..so take your pick..you know that either will fullfill your gaming expectations...have both like me...that way you can play games that are going to stay true to their respective platforms.

it will only be a 2 year wait until PS3 comes out....and then we can have this discussion once again!!!

roadrunner

XBOX sales are beginning to slow down in all three regions now (not good). Best advise is to wait for 6mths to see what happens. IMO the XBOX will have to drop in price to give it a chance of surviving in Europe let alone elsewhere.

Miles

As far as I see it:
Xbox is more powerful than the PS2.
Xbox has better DVD playback than the PS2.

BUT,
the PS2 has a very well developed games market with 100s of games available, the Xbox at the moment has about 15 games available. I've seen claims that there are about 300-400 titles in production for the Xbox, the validity of that I can't vouch for.

DazV

Hold on, hold on...

SHHTOP - THIS IS WAY TOO SENSIBLE A CONVERSATION THREAD

DazV

All we can do is give our opinion

When I first heard Micrsoft were putting together a console with NVIDIA graphics I immediately thought the X-BOX would be some killer piece of kit. By the time this huge ugly box finally made it to market and I saw the games on offer I couldn't help feel disappointed by it, given they knew they had to offer something really good to make their mark.

Potentially X-BOX has the ability to drive games that PS2 could only dream about, but *in my view* there's no sign of them yet.

Personally, I choose the games I want, then buy the whatever console I have to, to play them (some days I like my Dreamcast, others PS2, others my PC). I just haven't felt compelled to buy an X-BOX (yet), or a GameCube for that matter.

On the upside for X-BOX although its been poorly receive in Europe and Japan, its SOOO easy to develope for, you'll have all the PC Games developers porting their games for it. Whether thats a good thing or not is your opinion, but it will ensure there'll be a ton of game to choose from soon.

I would say, go and play one first hand (PC World, Toys R US,etc) then make up your own mind. There's no doubt its here to stay.

-DV

roadrunner

DazV

Read somewhere this morning that US sales are slowing down as well. Agree completely with what you say though but I think people who are considering buying one should wait and see what happens.

rr
The future is bright, the future is not XBOX

Sparks

I'd wait. From what I've read here and at www.eurogamer.net a price cut will have to come this year. I reckon PS2 will get one too.

The way I see it Xbox is over priced. If they port halo etc to PC ( not sure if they will, but there are rumours ) why buy an xbox ? play the games on your PC..

I think the one thing that will kill the xbox is an emulator for the PC.. sure it wont be easy but some clever sod will come up with the idea.

Interested in finding out more about the Xbox architecture.. mainly whats on the hard disk.. just game saves or is some of the "OS" on there ? If it has part of the "OS" on the hard disk what happens when it snuffs it ? you do have to buy an "Xbox HD" ( so you get the data ) or will a normal one be ok ? The disk is certainly the weak point ( i.e. where most failures will occur ).

Don't forget if you want to play DVDs on the Xbox you have to get the controller, about an extra £30 I believe. Has got 5.1 sound though, which the PS2 doesn't.

PS2 is often slated for not having enough "quality" games.. but thats too subjective, what I consider a quality game isn't what you may consider a quality game.

Haven't got either system btw!

NeilT

I bought the Xbox on its release day (having not been impressed with the PS2's games or performance and have played Halo most days since and almost finished it (and it rocks big time )

Only a very hi-spec PC will be able to run games like Halo with the same degree of smoothness and I've heard that an emulator is already available but again its a PC power issue. So even if the game is ported to the PC how many owners will be able to play it?

Give it time, a few price cuts and some new games and we'll see what happens. IMHO once Morrowind, Unreal Championship and Jedi Knight 2 get launched it'll be a major platform (I hope!)


Neil
www.scoobyworld.co.uk
(also a TIVO owner )

Markus

I do like the x-box. I've played a bit with it here (usa) and I like what I see. The pic was not too great, but then I was playing on a rather large rear projection tv, which is not the best in the world, but it was good.

Much as we'd all like to see the x-box fail, just to annoy Billy boy, I hope it does suceede. MS has a huge ammount of cash to throw at it to get it right. Providing they get the online gaming sorted, and quickly, I think it stands a very good chance. I'd like to know how upgradable it actually is though, for example, the GeForce 4 cards are out now and so it would be nice to be able to pop in a new gfx card to help speed things up, it can't be that difficult to do, can it?

The one thing that the PS2 does have going for it is that it has not only it's own, ever growing catalog of games, but that it can play most, if not all PS1 cames, which means there is a huge catalog of games already "there".
This is something the x-box does not have, yet.

I personally think on-line gaming is going to be the main player here, in the USA, nigh on everyone is getting DSL, and the UK is slooooowly gettign there too. This means nice high speed on-line gaming, and chat, and surfing, things that we pay a lot more for in a pc. In the UK the dreamcast was cool, due to the on-line gaming. Chu Chu Rocket was great, but the chat room was the best thing. Quake was great as well, as for Planet-Ring, funky! The problem was the slowness of the modem and the connection problems. DSL might have helped but it's too late now, well for dreamcast at least.

As for what;s on the hard drive, well, from what I know, it's game saves, and mp3's, no OS, as that's on the CD's, why? well, stops it being hacked, plus MS can get more cash this way as developers have to licence the OS to burn onto the CD.

DazV

The OS has 4 copies, ech on its own chip, and yes it has been cracked. Its derived from Win2k, albeit drastically reduced in size.

ChristianR

iTrader: (1)

i thought it was a hoax about the cracking of it.

DazV

Why would it be a hoax ? Do you think its impregnable ?

ChristianR

iTrader: (1)

i am sure i read somewhere it was confirmed as a hoax.


of course i dont think it is, just look at the dreamcast

Sparks

Interesting that its a cut down win2k platform.. MS are still trying to prove that windows is not a modular system ( and thus they can't remove MSIE from it ) to win the on-going court case in the states.. They've already tripped up, look at this..

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24805.html

Far as running xbox games on a PC it would take a high end machine to run them at the moment.. but as we all know PC specs move quickly, in a years time pretty much any new PC would be able to run xbox games...

Lust4Life

The thing is, if you want one why wait 6 months for a £50-£100 cut?

You might as well get one now or wait for a s/h opportunity.

I have a dreamcast and thought long and hard about whether to get a PS2 or an X-Box but it basically came down to the fact that the widely rumoured PS2 price cut to £135 hasn't/didn't happen so I got the X-Box.

Just got to wait for GTA3 and hopefully State of Emergency to be ported now!

Cheers,

Phil

Mr.M

I managed to get hold of an Xbox last week for the sum of £200 (no it's not nicked!). I've also got a PS2.

The first thing you notice about the xbox over the PS2 is the quality of the graphics. It realy does shine compared to the PS2, but when you consider the PS2 chipset is probably 3-4 years old then i expect it to be.

I've only got HALO and DOA3 so can only comment about these games. HALO is a stunning looking game, but there are some visual aspects i don't like which let it down. The biggest one is the frame dropping which is quite noticeable when playing. I'm sure it's down to the developers and not the HW.

To me, each console will have it's #killer# titles which at the moment on the PS2 has got to be GT3. I can't imagine XBox ever deliverying such a quality title due to the amount of time the development team have put in to the GT trilogy. Friends say Project Gotham is good, but it's another arcade race style game and doesn't come anywhere close to the configuration capabilities of GT3 which IMHO makes the game what it is.

It's early days yet. Sega have announced they will port there back catalogue titles to the XBox so hopefully we might see some real quality stuff like Farrari F335 Challenge, 18 Wheeler, etc coming over to the XBOX in the not too distance.

What i've heard from the press and in particular from the developers who are now working on the Xbox is how easy it is to work with compared to the PS2. We should see some great work from the likes of Codemasters (Colin Mcrea 3) and TOCA series.

My suggestion to anybody is to own both. Enjoy GT3 on PS2, and have multiplayer games on Xbox (like to see Counter-Strike ported).

Mr.M

Sieze

I have a PS2 and X-box. To be honest in the two games I have (Halo and Project Gotham Racing) there IS occasional slowdown. That I really hate. Naturally the graphics are very lush with lots of lighting but I would argue it doesn't look that much different from a PS2. I am sure frame rate issues will improve with time but don't be deluded by its awesome power...

I bought it for its release games (Halo and PGR) and can confirm they are both awesome. There is also nice line up scheduled. One of the best things about the x-box is its loading times. You can switch it on and play Halo 15 secs later (like the megadrive!)

NeilT

Slowdowns in Halo? - Are you running your Xboxes in 50 or PAL60 options?

Noticed no slowdown at 50hz whatsoever (and have completed Halo and restarted on Legendary) BUT PAL60 does cause a few slowdowns at busy times. So I always run in 50.

Project Gotham Racing is good for 10 mins of fun and the graphics surpasse that of GT3 BUT the game isnt as deep as GT3 IMHO.

Question > Do I need the DVD remote kit to actually play DVD's or
will they just play (with basic DVD functionality) without it?

BTW Can anyone recommend a good 5.1 Amp/Speaker setup for a reasonable price, the Dolby Pro Logic on the TV aint gr8!

Neil
www.scoobyworld.co.uk

Mr.M

Another cool thing in Halo is the inter-scene loading times is pretty much instantaneous. Something you don't get on the PS2.

I haven't rigged it up to my 5.1 amp yet but will be doing this w/e.

Mr.M

Running at 60Hz, will try it at 50Hz.

If it's cheap your looking for then try richer sounds.

NeilT

anyone tried playing Halo in the dark with a decent pair of headphones cranked up?

Now that gets the pulse racing (and doesnt wake up the wife!)

Neil

ps - Halo launches next week in Japan so we'll then see if it starts selling again...

NeilT

yeah, dont bother with the 60hz option - it runs much better at 50!

Mr.M

One thing that gets my goat about both PS2 and XBOX is that they've not got seperate audio outputs from the video.

I've got the Advanced SCART lead for the XBOX but it's got optical output which my amp doesn't have.

I wonder if anybody does a lead that breaks out the audio components from the plug but still lets you drive the SCART from the Advanced SCART cable.

Miles

NeilT - you need the remote and receiver to unlock the DVD playback.

From what I've heard, is that apparently to have DVD playback ability a license has to be paid to the DVD group. MS thought that not all buyers of the Xbox would want the DVD playback ability and hence decided to make it optional.

NeilT

the standard scart cable supplied with the Box is composite plus line level audio - why not just use that?

NeilT

Miles - ta - better get down to curries at lunch to get a kit then...

Jodster

Have an original PS but didn't get a PS2, deciding to wait for X-Box knowing that Microsoft would not let it fail. Collected it on day of release and have enjoyed it so far, Halo definately the best of the four games I have. Used to do a lot of online PC gaming and the look and gameplay of Halo is like the ultiamte version of Unreal on the PC. And a sequel must be planned.

With regards to pricing, wasn't the PS2 £299 when that came out over a year ago? It will no doubt drop in price but not until September I reckon. The question is, is that six month wait worth the fifty pounds you'll save.

Gamecube is almost here and that will get a decent share of the market but won't affect sales of X-Box. I'm sure X-Box is directed towards older game players with more disposable income, hence the advertising.

That Star Wars game for the Gamecube does look sweet though. Wish they'd port that to XB.

XB is the first chapter in MSs home entertainment plan, with a similar looking box planned for next year that will have digital video recording ability, more online interaction, connectivity, etc. I'm hoping it will also support the in-development "blue" laser system which is the next step in the evolution of DVD.

NeilT

Xbox 2 is already rumoured to incorporate broadband Tivo functionality, which is nice

true06

when comparing the xbox to pc this is how i look at it... the xbox in the US is (was when i got it) around $300, to get a PC that is comparable to the xbox in gaming, you will spend a hell of a lot more on the pc... and about the games-- coming in the next few months are some really great games.... my favorite is Battlefield: 1942- its a FPS in WWII and you can hop in tanks, trucks, jeeps, airplanes, crew aircraft carriers and battleships and submarines, you can also crew bombers,there are more than 35 fully interactable vehicles in the game, the game supports up to 64 players online in the same battle at once!!! show me the ps2 doing that..

i have both and ps2 is cool---for gta3, but soon that will be here on the box.

oh and sega is making a xbox sega gt, that is suposed to be a lot like gt3, only with better graphics



[Edited by true06 - 4/13/2002 10:26:45 PM]

[Edited by true06 - 4/13/2002 10:30:52 PM]