Rants: More on the Xbox / PC / Game Cube debate ...
> = My mate's comments
My comments are in purple
At the end, my brother's additional and seperate (though related!) comments in another, short email are in teal
>First of all I would not say that any games console
>can be classed as being in competition with the PC
>market since there are so so few genres that the PC
>caters for well ...
All the ones that are selling well, it does well. You can get perfect arcade
games on the PC, Mat and Jazz will tell you that. If it a control pad that
tickles your particularly strange fancy then guess what - PCs have a wider
range of pads and sticks and 'commander/claw' controllers (have you even
*seen* the Claw?) and mice and keyboards than any other machine ever made,
including all the Nintendo ones.
Like I said, I think the reason the GC will last
the longest is simple - it's *not* competing directly or even indirectly
with the PC, which means PC owning game-heads will still want one, whereas I
don't know any game-ready PC owners atm who have felt the desperate need to
get an Xbox or a PS2.Remember also that most people do NOT read games
magazines. Check the readership figures in each issue, man they're
impressive but not so if you compare them to the number of units sold. All
of a sudden it hits you - about 10 to 20 per cent of gamers regularly read
paper media. More than that read online but it still not many, most people
go by word of mouth, friend's recommendations. This is something every games
writer will tell you.
Therefore, all the hype and 'this game is the best' stuff reaches only a
select audience. For the rest of us, the game needs to sell itself. I expect
Max Payne's cost has gone down because frankly, everyone who wanted to play
Maxy got it on the pc, where it cost LESS than the reduced price, £29. I
think it's actually even less, now!
Why buy Maxy on the Xbox when you can get it online and patch it, upgrade it
- all for free (Kung Fu, anyone?) ... and interact as well?
>such as FPS (give it over, it's the PC's
>primary genre).
>And second of all, given the choice between playing a
>FPS with a keyboard and mouse set-up or double
>analogue control as previously stated I would take
>analogue joypad control on any day of the week.
You are a rare breed. Over 95 per cent of gamers would strongly, and I do
*mean* strongly, disagree with you. Most FPS players on the PC are
passionate about how much better the pc controls are, how many more buttons
and how much easier it is to drop into at expert level. But even better than
that - we're all forgetting that the PC *has* pads identical to the Xbox,
N64, Snes and many other designs (too many to name) including many versions
of the PSX/PS2 pads, so you can't even use the pad argument anyway!
PCs are plug & play, it's a beautiful thing to own one ;)
And another thing - line ups don't sell copies of a thing either. Only the
few who read these mags who trumpet the great line-ups even know what they
are, the rest of us tend to go by word of mouth and what the shop lists on
it's release board. Go in and watch people, and ask them. Ask the store
owners, and ask the games writers. Everyone knows it's true, and saying it
isn't is rather like saying the pacific isn't wet.
>Well I see the major launch titles just for starters,
>I mean let's see a PC version of Jet Set Radio Future
>shall we?
You named *a* game. A game that whilst it may be good, hasn't reached my
ears once, including in a workplace with a lot of game-nuts who rattle on
about games whenever they visit my room/office.
[Editor's note: Very shortly afterwards,
I was introduced to Jet Set Radio Future and did enjoy watching it played. It seems to be a pretty decent game all round,
though what's really funny in terms of this debate is that I can see the PC handling it absolutely FINE!
Especially baring in mind that joy pad add-ons are plentiful for the PC]
Frankly it can't be that darn special because if it was, I would have seen it or heard about it other
than on a release list which you read out. It may be a good game, but I'm
not going to buy an Xbox for it. I have a PC, and you still haven't given ppl
like myself a single good reason why we *need* to have an Xbox to play the
greatest games.
Of course this would be pretty hard for you to prove since
you don't have a game-ready pc so your only pc comparison is something
which doesn't give you the gaming fill that you need, and no one's disputing
that crap pc owners who cannot upgrade would be well advised to get a GC or
an Xbox. What we are disputing and have yet to see any evidence again
whatsoever is why a game-ready PC owning lad whose sitting there fragging
himself to paradise and back, needs to fork out £300-400 quid for an Xbox starter
kit (depending on time of reading and what the player wants to get with the main control deck).
>shame the PC is only any good for two or maybe
>three different genres eh?
It's good for all the genres there are games on it...because the number of
firms making games for it is huge. Just go into the store and take a look at
all the PC games and count in your head how many genres are *well*
represented. It's loads. Of course if you're being biased (and I'm not
because I *like* the GC and I like consoles, I think for the living room and
friendly gaming they're way better), you'll deny the facts regardless. The
PC mainly focuses on FPS, 3rdPS and RTS at the moment, but that's always
evolving.
Tonight 'Mr Golf' got to witness
the Game Cube for himself. He asked
which was better out of the Game Cube and Xbox. I pointed out the Xbox
stats are marginally better, but that I knew only one person with an
Xbox, and more with a cube, and that personally I saw no use for an
Xbox unless you didn't have a PC.
He instantly piped up that he'd
been
thinking the same thing, i.e. - that anyone with anything better than (in
his words) an Atari for a PC doesn’t need an Xbox. He then corrected
himself that an Atari was a 'cool machine'.
But the point remains, there's someone who's not got a Cube or an
Xbox, but
has the PC and agrees with our PoV; that PC owners need no un-upgradable, 2
year old PC in a box, thanks. And as for controllers, he agrees that
our friend is mad for preferring pads, but if it's pads he wants then the PC
has the biggest accessory range ever, which I've also pointed out before
=P