PS2 has some serious competition

tobi

Microsoft Announces Partnership With EA

10 games in the first six months, and EA's hot franchises make the Xbox officially big time.

Get Story Here

Panda

hell yeah!
Gwan X-box!
I fear it may fail like the Sega Saturn,twas actually a pretty good system but their ads were crap, they just couldnt compete with the playstation ads.

Greenbean

Not a chance, xbox will blow everything else out of the water. It just will.

bugs

Oh yeah , EA really make good stuff , hahahahahah i can't think of even one game they actually make rather than publish thats worth 5 mins , and no before anyone whines , fifa is sh1te.
EA rep that comes into the shop will even concur , their own staff think their games suck, must be why he trades in his samples all the time.

Lenny

yeah I'd say its gona be good
to be released in a few months ?
anyone know what month its supposed to be out and a price range ?

:Oj:

Shinji

EA make cack, but it's cack that sells by the bucketload.

diamond_geezer

I am no big fan of M$ but I have seen what their marketing campaigns and financial backing can achieve! Companies like EA don't just decide to develop for a machine @ the drop of a hat - they must be sure that the X-BOX is gonna sell S-H-I-T loads!!!

The specs are impressive and of course M$ have the necessary backing to make cash from any kind of ****ty product they produce.......remember WIN95........LOL......

Will the X-BOX beat the Playstation 2, only time will tell - It's gonna be a hell of a battle though and that should be good for all us consumers......lol......

Blitzkrieger

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Greenbean:
Not a chance, xbox will blow everything else out of the water. It just will.</font>

I wouldn't be so sure - playstation is a household name now, and most people who know who ms are think "I hate ms". The over-riding selling point will be that spotty kids will want to trade games with their mates and if their mates have a ps2.............

Not that I'm not drooling at the thought of the X-Box

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Sorry mom, sorry god.

tobi

From a hardware point of view the X-Box is really going to be next generation, it’s at least twice as powerful as the PS2, but this means very little anyway because it’s software that sells these machines. On this front Microsoft seems to be doing a good job as well, with over 150 game developers signed up (almost everyone). I know I won’t be buying any of these consoles, not until all the cards are on the table and the prices are dropped (which could be quiet a while).

Atomic Pineapple

I would rather Sega signing a deal to blow sonys (and lets be honest) piece of **** out of the water there at least 5 a - class dc titles out for xmas and sonys machine could hardly scratch the surface of the dc xmas line up (Jet set radio Q3 Shenmue MSR ETC..) and PSO and Grandia II next year with tons others if **** sells thats why sony are selling the PS2 The Dreamcast has far superior games hopefully the X-Box will kill sony cos there money grabbing scum bags (so are Microsoft)

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Draffodx
Out of desparition courage is born

Thrasher

Bullfrog made (EA distributed) Populous: The Beginning.....!!!

so there.

Bard

EA may make some cack games, - but at the same time they make some damn fine ones too. What game, in the soccer genre, comes even close to EA Sports' FIFA 2001 ?... none that I can see...

Then again... *cough* ... Fade To Black...

FIFA 2001, while it may not be everyone's cuppa cha' is a good game, and good fun for those that appreciate it. All I ever play on my PC @ home anyway is FIFA 2001, Q3A, the UT Demo, the odd bit of Half Life, - along with a little bit of Solitaire. I don't play games on the 'net these days although if I had my own phone line again, I would. I wonder how the deal between Microsoft and EA will affect EA's commitment to the PlayStation or PS2...

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richindub2

Mm....the ISS series wipes the floor with Fifa.

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UP DA DUBS!!

amp

There's no way in hell I'll ever buy an Xbox.
It's gonna be a tarted up, cut down PC. I've already got 2 pc's and a laptop, thanks very much.

I may well buy a ps2 when the price comes down, it's actually available and the bugs are ironed out. Some time next year then

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Lunacy Abounds! Play GLminesweeper!

Shinji

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
It's gonna be a tarted up, cut down PC.
</font>

You haven't actually read any of the discussion about the console, have you?

Frodo@work

mmmmm im gonna get my self a ps2.
why?
because im gonna get my self a dvd player and for an extra £100 quid i can get my self a games system aswell.
i dont no if i will yous it are not,(yea right) but for a few extra quid why not.

Shinji

Hmm...

Scan SC-2000 DVD Player. Multi-region playback, perfect quality (award winning) output (RGB, S-VIDEO, Composite and UHF all supported), no known incompatibilities, plays DVDs, VCDs, SVCDs, and MP3 CDs. Superb remote control. Price: about £150 stg.

Sony Playstation 2. No multi-region hack available for DVD playback. Output watchable but not considered to be in the same league as dedicated players. Controlled with a dual shock pad - no remote. Known to be incompatible with several discs. No support for RGB output (the best quality output possible). Plays DVDs - no playback of VCD, SVCD or MP3CD. Price: About £300 Stg.

So, for 150 quid extra you get a poorer-quality DVD player and a console that you admit you might not even use. Niiiice.

amp

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
Xbox Specs

Check out what we know so far about the system. (Updated: 05/11/00).

May 10, 2000

So how good is the Xbox, anyway? Check out the specs that Microsoft has released about the system:

CPU: 733 MHz Intel
Graphics Processor: 300MHz custom Xchip, developed by Microsoft and nVIDIA
Total Memory: 64 MB
Memory Bandwidth: 6.4 GB/sec
Polygon Performance: 300 M/sec
Sustained Polygon Performance: 150+ M/sec (transformed and lit polygons per second)
Micropolygons/particles per second: 300 M/sec
Particle Performance: 300 M/sec
Simultaneous Textures: 4
Pixel Fill Rate - No Texture: 4.8 G/Sec (anti-aliased)
Pixel Fill Rate - 1 Texture: 4.8 G/Sec (anti-aliased)
Compressed Textures: Yes (8:1)
Full Scene Anti-Alias: Yes
Micro Polygon Support: Yes
Storage Medium: 4x DVD, 8GB hard disk, 8MB memory card
I/0: 4x DVD, 8GB hard disk, 8MB memory card
Audio Channels:64 (up to 256 stereo voices)
3D Audio Support: Yes
MIDI DLS2 Support: Yes
AC3 Encoded Game Audio: Yes
Broadband Enabled: Yes
Modem Enabled: Future upgrade
DVD Movie Playback: Built in
Game Pad Included: No
Maximum Resolution: 1920x1080
Maximum Resolution (2x32bpp frame buffers +Z): 1920x1080
HDTV Support: Yes

In terms of items up for change, the specs to watch out for are the hard drive and the RAM, both of which have been rumored to be getting a bit of a bump up before the system finally ships.
</font>

hmmm sounds like a (heavily) customized pc to me. Except that to sell it competitively they'll have to use the normal console way of making money on the games and a loss on the unit.

So, while I admit the graphics chip is sh!t hot, essentially it's a PC that I have to pay more for games on.

Besides by the time it's released g/cards for Pc's will have moved on massively.

P.s have a w@nk over the pictures at
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/15808.html

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Lunacy Abounds! Play GLminesweeper!
art is everything and of course nothing and possibly also a sausage

Bard

I wouldn't buy an X-Box myself... I'll stick with a nice, upgradable big-ass PC...

It just makes more sense to me. Who's gonna convince me otherwise?

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tobi

The question is will the X-Box put an end to games development on the desktop PC? As amp as pointed out the X-Box “sounds like a (heavily) customized pc”, Peter Molyneux for example (one of the PC’s most prolific game developers) has said

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">“The PC has several drawbacks as a games machine. It is very expensive, regularly needs upgrading, and is very unreliable. Putting this all together you realize that the next generation consoles are at least as powerful as the most expensive PC you can buy today, which means that while certain games will still thrive on the PC the majority of future gaming innovations and revolutions will happen on the next generation consoles, especially when they are connected to the internet.”</font>

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">“The reason I said that Black & White is my last PC led game is because I feel that the next generation consoles are a compelling format which are much more likely to be mass market - I'm sure LionHead will still produce PC games but not first hand.”</font>

With the next generation consoles offering Internet access and the X-Box shipping with a hard disk why wouldn’t more software houses like Lionhead studios develop games for a console, which is based on familiar PC technology and has the potential to reach more costumers.

Don’t get me wrong I’m a big fan of the PC and I hope the X-Box or any other next generation console doesn’t supersede it but it could happen.

[IAR]Nevermind

X-Box will no doubt kill all the other machines out

_CreeD_

There's no way the X-Box, or any other console, will supersede PC's.
All of the flaws Molyneaux listed are true, but we've known them all along and it hasn't stopped us investing in the wee things.
Different markets. Consoles are for the value/pure gaming crowd, PC's are for anyone who has any interest in creation (aswell as games).

The strength of providing an unchanging platform is also the weakness of consoles. last year everyone was saying the PS2 would kill everything, PC manufacturers were refuted to be 'running scared' etc.
Well, we all know that ain't quite true. Same goes for the Xbox. It's edging towards mediocrity spec wise before it's even released. The only reason some of the first batch of games should look nicer than their PC counterparts would be that the programmers know exactly what horsepower they have to work with, and won't have to cut corners to support 2/3 year old machines.....

Energizer1

People,People. We forget of the other console to darken sony's doorstep(Nintendo's Dolphin).As of yet not in production.It will be a late runner like the n64.But it could be the best of the lot. Personally i would opt for the ps2,having owned a ps1 i became a fan and so doomed myself to a life of mindless gaming.

Energizer1

sorry forgot it was out so soon. they all look great. and let the strongest survive.

Greenbean

Alot of people are saying the "X-box is basically a pc" as though its a bad thing. I can't understand why??

Kali

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by amp:
Besides by the time it's released g/cards for Pc's will have moved on massively.
</font>

hmmm whos doing the chip for the xbox?
who currently controls the home and gamer 3d graphics card market?

somehow i doubt nvidia will be releasing any sort of card that will wipe the floor with the xbos before its release.
and i seriously doubt ati will either as its not a threat to them at all.

Shinji

Gamecube isn't a late runner, it'll be in the door before XBox by the looks of it.

The XBox is based on a custom version of the NV20 chipset. Yes, there will be cards for the PC almost as powerful as that when the XBox launches. However, there is simply no way in hell that a developer can use the hardware in the PC as efficently as they can on the XBox, so XBox stuff will still look LOTS better.