Rants: Comparing consoles and games makers through the ages, awarding the crown for handling each genre or type of game the very best! Game ON!
I've just
been scoping out the games listings for the Xbox, Game Cube and taking a
dekko at some pc lists as well.
There's a hub-bub of activity going on atm, although both
the Xbox and GC
are releasing quite low numbers compared to their
respective ancestors this
time during *their* reigns on the throne of greatness.
IMHO, both are having
fairly quiet first seasons, but since a console should
last four years,
there's plenty of time to judge yet.
Nintendo are still swaying the way of the GBA with a lot
of attention and
support being geared towards that successful little
handheld delight.
I was checking out the Xbox's line up and thought "Wow,
some of these games
are really great and I must own them!" (about 20 per cent
made me think
this).
There was just one single, solitary problem. They were PC
ports. Like
Morrowind for example. I want that game. Damn I want it!
I have a PC. Is
Morrowind going to make me buy an Xbox? Hell no.
This confirms what I feared before I even started. There
is *still* not a
single reason for a game-ready, ninja PC owner whose into
games to purchase
or own an Xbox. We simply don't need one.
One could cry 'portability!' but that's not a word I
would use in the same
*country* as an Xbox, let alone the same sentence! ;)
On the other hand...
The GC has reasons to own it, for us PC owners. Here's
just a few reasons to
own one: Mario, Smash Bros, Zelda, Star Fox, MonkeyBall,
Luigi.
Obviously there are more since the GC has more GC-only titles
than either of the Xbox or PS2, since those two have more
pc ports on them
and more titles shared between them. I just can't think
of any more without reading lists, and lists are boring.
This is simply because the Xbox is a glorified mini-pc
which you can't
tweak. The PS2 is pc-like. All three of them (Xbox, ps2
and pc) are very
similar in terms of what they pack and what they'll run
well. The GC is the
only one that isn't using a standard DVD to run games and
is packing a
totally different operating system - meaning for PC
owners like me, the GC
is the only format I'd ever need buy in this generation
if I want to get the
full scope of games. Then, the only ones I'll miss out on
will be the odd
decent Xbox exclusive and the even odder PS2 exclusive
(Shinobi is the only one right now that I know of).
I'll keep looking, but it's looking fairly obvious to me
that my initial
hypothesis: "A game-ready PC owner needs nothing but a GC
to have everything
they need to gaming happiness." , is
right.