The PS2, X-Box and Gamecube have been kicking about for a good while now and have all had varying degrees of success. At the moment the PS2 seems to have done the best with everyone and their dog owning one. The X-Box and Gamecube have been left scrapping of what remains of the market with Gamecube first pulling ahead but now X-Box looking happy in second place.

I' m lucky enough to finally own all three current consoles and can get the best of all worlds but I' ve noticed something really shocking. The console I got first, my PS2 is now the one I find myself caring the least about. I probably play on my PS2 more than my Gamecube but at the moment I' m more excited about the new Zelda game than almost anything coming my way on the PS2. And what is coming on the PS2 are all sequels too. GTA, Smackdown and Metal Gear Solid.

Thats all good and well but really the console I' m most happy to own right now is my X-Box. I don' t know why but I just feel more happy with it than with the other two. The purring of the machine brings a smile to my face as it starts up. The pulsating green logo on the start-up screen has me staring at the TV in anticipation of my next session on Splinter Cell / Dead or Alive 3 / Star Wars KOTOR (ect). And at the moment it' s the console with the *most* games I' m looking foward to. Sudeki, Fabel, Halo 2, Half Life 2, Splinter Cell 3... and it' s the console that really does all multiformat games the best, I reckon.

But thats just my opinion. What do you lot think?

As it stands right now, here' s how I see things for me:

The GameCube has been a system I' ve kept trying to get myself interested in. I' ve even come really close to forcing myself into getting one, but each and every time, I' d look at the rack of games available, and find that I was unable to locate more than one or two that I' d want to play. It just hasn' t been worth it, and although the GC is having a better lifespan than the atrocious N64, neither has come even close to the glory days of the SNES. On the good side, the new Zelda, Resident Evil 4, and Metroid Prime 2 all look very promising, and hopefully, that will be all I need to pick up my third console.

I bought my Xbox back in the August of 2002, and at first, I was mostly unimpressed. It was basically in the midst (or at the tail end) of the typical " rookie drought," and all I could find that I really wanted to play was Halo, DoA 3, and the surprisingly great sleeper hit, Deathrow. I couldn' t get into Morrowind to save my life. But due to my affinity for FPS, I held onto the system until it finally started to churn out some top titles. KotoR wasn' t for me either, but anyone could tell it was a top-quality game. Then you also had PGR 2, the Splinter Cells (two of my very favorite games of this gen., and certainly best played on Xbox), Ninja Gaiden, and Chronicles of Riddick. With Fable and Halo 2 coming up, I' m very glad I own an Xbox.

The PS2 remains my system of choice simply because of the range and diversity that it displays. I also think that it had one of the best years a console has ever had in video game history, in 2001. That year brought us Red Faction, Onimusha: Warlords, Devil May Cry, Soul Reaver 2, Twisted Metal: Black, ICO, Gran Turismo 3, Grand Theft Auto III, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Final Fantasy X. I was in sheer heaven. For my RPG' s and the top exclusives I can' t get anywhere else (GT, FF, R&C, etc.), the PS2 remains my system of choice. And while it' s clear that the Xbox owned the first half of 2004 (PGR 2, NG, SC: PT, CoR), I think it' s also very clear that the PS2 could own the second half:

Gran Turismo 4
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Suikoden IV
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Xenosaga: Episode II
God of War
Devil May Cry 3
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal

Nothing comes close to touching this, IMO. Tie all of this in with the fact that I can play my 40 PSOne games on the PS2, including classics like Twisted Metal 2, Castlevania: SotN, Final Fantasy VII, Resident Evil 2, etc., and...well, it' s still a no-brainer for me.

But just for the record, I' ve spent most of the last two weeks playing on my SNES.

The next generation is never here. We are in and will forever be in the " current generation" . Once a system is released, it becomes " current" . Kind of like " State of the art" is supposed to mean " futuristic, cutting edge, etc" but in reality it literally just means " current technology" .

As far as a favorite system goes, I do like the Xbox. I feel it provides the most immersive experience with Dolby Digital sound (something neither of the other consoles can do during gameplay) and high definition graphics. There are a bunch of great games for the other two systems for sure. Super Monkeyball is my favorite game of this generation by far. The PS2 is where most of the " average" stuff ends up. But technically, the PS2 is a very low end system with limited capabilites and a general slowness that the other two don' t have. People don' t take the Gamecube seriously because it is purple. Making a system in multiple colors is stupid. It' s not a freakin' iMac. Who likes multiple colors? Kids and girls. And Nintendo is best known for Pokemon which is meant for kids. Image counts for a lot. Nintendo has a difficult time learning and adapting. Perhaps Bernie Stolar will help?

Okay, here I go --- I have Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Super Nintendo, PS One, PS2, Game Cube and X-Box -- the xbox is my favorite for graphics, PS2 for the amount of games and varitey, the Game Cube for Metroid Prime, the SNES for Super Metroid and Donkey Kong and the handheld ones because they keep the kids quiet in the car!

Tis easy...

While I have a preference for the GameCube I' d have to say that my favorite current generation console is the one with the most shooters on them.

By shooters I' m talking about real shooters NOT first person shooters or gun shooters..

Games like Border Down, Gradius V, Ikaruga, Gradius IV, Shikigami no Shiro II, Giga Wing 1 & 2, Psyvariar 2, Gunbird 1 & 2, Star Soldier, Espgaluda, and even the highly disappointing R-type Final...

To break it down even more, while I like all 2D styled shooters, I have a greater preference for horizontally scrolling shooters over vertically scrolling ones and with that only two consoles come to mind, The Dreamcast(Border Down) and the PS2(Gradius IV, Gradius V, and R-type Final). So in that department, the PS2 appears to be the winner.


With shooters out of the way, let' s tackle my next favorite genre. PLATFORMERS.
I go for platformers with 2D or 2.5D gameplay....

There' s Viewtiful Joe for the GameCube, Klonoa 2 for the PS2, Adventure Island for da GameCube, let' s not forget Donald Duck Going Quackers for the Dreamcast, GameCube, and I think PS2. It' s REALLY tough finding great platformers that fit that criteria this generation in mee opinion but right now the GameCube wins in that department. But come this Fall, the PS2 will become king in that department as it will finally have Viewtiful Joe (the game that swung my platforming vote in favor of the GameCube). There' s also Viewtiful Joe 2 coming out for both the GameCube and PS2--- I' m definitely getting the GameCube version, can' t friggin wait!

It' s amazingly Ironic that the PS2 would win for me considering that I' m one of the biggest Sega fanboys around and live for the day of Sony' s demise, LOL.. But in being fair, the PS2 has won.


I' m also a major wrestling fan and so far NO other console has as good a wrestling game as the Dreamcast to me. Giant Gram 1 & 2 are by far the BEST 3D wrestling games I' ve ever played in my life and Sega REALLY needs to think about licensing their engine out to THQ or deal with the legalities and bring the Giant Gram series over to U.S. shores.

AKI' s wrestling games never appealed to me.

Terry: I take it that you don' t see the Ratchet and Jak series as " Platformers" ? Those four games make up the best in that genre of this generation, IMO, which is strange...considering the fact that I' d expect Nintendo to win this category. But they' re not 2D, though, so...

Yeah I was basically listing the 2D and 2.5D platformers. Ratchet and Clank is fully 3D, Sonic Adventure as much I LOVE it is also 3D.

Klonoa 2 and Viewtiful Joe are god' s gift to 2.5D platform gaming!!



p.s. - Ratchet and Clank is definitely GOOD gaming!! Jak n Daxter on the other hand, it' s not secret that I despised the original and didn' t think too highly of the sequel.. My brief exposure to Jak III did nothing to change my mind. Jak is a series that people either love or hate and for me it' s all hate, LOL :)

Ratchet and Jak

umm... I thought it was called " Ratchet and Daxter" ???

I am a sony girl at heart. so PS2 has my loyalties, followed by the game cube. I am staunchly anti-xbox, can' t put my finger on why, but i don' t like anything x-box. i know i know, i should change my ways, but i will stick with play station.

Hey Rikka,

Don' t be anti-Xbox. You are missing out on some great games. The X-Box always has the best version of multi-platform games and the exclusives are great.

After the Dreamcast went belly-up, I took a serious look at the consoles out there. When I compared them all, the X-Box took the cake. It had the most horsepower, the best exclusives, internet gaming built into the box and the best strategy to roll out online gameplay.

Show the big, bad Black box some love.

It' s true Rikka, you shouldn' t be anti-anything unless you have some good reason behind it. You should at least give some Xbox games a try; the system currently has several of the very best games of this generation (or ever). I could maybe provide a list of some that might interest you, based on your gaming tastes.

Beef Shala: However, I would like to clarify a few things: firstly, its exclusives where the Xbox lags the farthest behind. It' s been their biggest problem since Day 1. While both Nintendo and Sony sport the huge-name franchises like Mario, Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, Zelda, and Metroid, in addition to Sony' s current stranglehold on the platforming and RPG genres, Xbox can' t name a major exclusive franchise. And with both the Metal Gear and GTA franchise heading back into exclusivity with Sony, and both new installments scheduled for this year, it becomes even more obvious. I' ve wanted to see some truly great Xbox exclusives for quite some time, and I finally got some in 2004 (Ninja Gaiden, Chronicles of Riddick), to add to the relatively small list from before.

Finally, I' d go so far as to say that about 90-95% of multi-platform games are best seen on Xbox, but 100% is untrue. EA made several games specifically designed for another platform (PS2) in Medal of Honor: Frontline and NFS: Hot Pursuit 2, and both are far better played on the PS2. But it certainly is true that most multi-platform games are simply best on Xbox (excluding PC). It' s one of the biggest reasons I have my Xbox.

Jus last X-mas I bought my Gamecube. It' s really good. I really would have to say, in my opionion, that it is better than all three. But the PS2 is clearly doin' the best. GC and X-Box are trying to get to second place. I will only buy a X-Box jus for one game. That' s Halo. I' ve played it and I am hooked on it. As for PS2, I am thinking about that because I like Tekken. GO EDDIE!! any who. but yeah #1 in my book GC last place in my book X-Box.

fathom, you are definitely correct that the Box is lacking on the number of exclusives, but the games that they do come out with are for the most part top notch. I am thinking about Riddick, Halo, PGR series, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Doom 3, etc. I guess for the games that I get most excited about, XBox brings the noise.

Also, we won' t talk about EA making better multi platforms for the PS2, that is just bad porting or biased developing. How can you make a game worse on the XBox? They have finally jumped on the XBox live bandwagon, so maybe I will change my mind. But EA is in my dog house.

Well, I own all three consoles (4 if you include my Athlon 64 powered PC), and the Xbox wins it hands down for me. Some people complain about the controller, but I love it. I ain' t a fan of the dual shock and I actually prefer the original " fat controller" to the generally preferred s-type. The graphics are superior, the exclusives are superior, the multiformat games are superior on Xbox (especially now EA is upporting LIVE). Of course, this is all IMO, but thats the point of this thread.

Thats not to say I don' t love the other two though. The Gamecube would be my second choice. The games are too few and far between for it to be the only console I owned, but the sheer class it has produced is enough to push it to second, Mario Sunshine, F-zeroGX, Metroid prime, Eternal Darkness (BEST SURVIVAL HORROR GAME EVER!), Wave Race:Blue Storm, Viewtiful Joe (I am with Terry on this one), Zelda:Wind Waker just make this a machine I could never imagine selling or not owning.

Now we come to the PS2. it was the first one I owned out of all 3 consoles, but for me , it has been the most disappointing. At the time I got it, many games were tempting me on the horizon or were available, but it just never worked out. I bought the machine for GT3 (the GT3 bundle pack in fact) and I just hated this game. Fantastic graphics, but boring, slow, monotonous gameplay. I realise I am in the minority here, but I remind you all, this is just my opinion. Silent Hill 2 was boring and the story just didn' t grab me, MGS:SOL was far too much of a cutscene fest (Splinter Cell blew it away), Devil May Cry (well it made me cry and not out of happiness) etc. You can see where I am going with this. The only game I really enjoyed in the early days was Red Faction and even that was only a " good" FPS compared to some of the better ones on PC.

However, I must admit that my PS2 is still a great machine and receives a huge amount of my play time. For one thing, I am a huge fan of SOCOM 1+2 and play in a clan. The commitments of clan matches and practices takes a lot of my gaming time. As I have said in a previous thread, we were just ranked as the number one UK PS2 clan in the UK Official Playstation 2 magazine. I am also a UK PS2 Beta tester for Sony. They keep sending me free games well before their release to play and test online. Games tested thus far include:

SOCOM 1+2
Twisted Metal Black online
Hardware:online arena
Firewarrior
This Is Football 2004
Destruction Derby online arenas
etc
etc

In fact I get two new games this week from Sony which are both VERY HIGHLY anticipated titles, but I can' t reveal them yet. Sorry. Anyway, again, this eats up a lot of my gaming time. I play my PS2 a lot, but it is the one I would be least sorry to lose.

Yeah Rikka, Beef Shala is right. By hating X-Box you are missing out on a lot.

I was also a huge Sega fan back in ' the day' and despised Nintendo and then Sony. It' s only now looking back I' ve realised that I missed out on a lot. Back then there wasn' t as many multi-format games so you probably aren' t missing out on the same extent. But if I' d have given Nintendo a chance as a kid I' d probably be a big Zelda fan as I loved Wind Waker.

Just out of curiosity, why are you so anti X-Box?

MGS:SOL was far too much of a cutscene fest (Splinter Cell blew it away), Devil May Cry (well it made me cry and not out of happiness) etc.

Heh...I' ve never agreed more with one part of a statement and disagreed more with another part. For the first, I agree 100%. Splinter Cell (and SC: PT) is everything MGS 2 SHOULD' VE been, IMO, although I do understand the people that say that they are very different games. When looking for the ultimate in realism, did it get any better than SC? My favorite game of 2002, and Pandora Tomorrow equaled, if not topped it.

For the second...I' m just baffled. IMO, DMC and NG duke it out for the best action games of this generation. NG was clearly more technically advanced, but needlessly difficult (at times), and the major lack of environment detail and variety bugged me. DMC' s style was, and still is, unparalleled. Lastly, Dante makes Ryu look like Barbie; that dude had about as much personality as a plastic doll.

I' d like to finish my participation by saying that the Xbox has shown me some great stuff in the past 8 months or so, and 2004 thus far has been fantastic. If we had to judge from 2003-2004, I' d go with the Xbox any day. But before that, the PS2 sported what I consider to be the best year in video game history; 2001:

Onimusha: Warlords
Red Faction
Gran Turismo 3
Soul Reaver 2
Devil May Cry
Ace Combat 4
ICO
Twisted Metal: Black
Grand Theft Auto III
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (not my thing, but still great for many)
Final Fantasy X

Of course, 2004 isn' t over yet.

I think my favorite games of this generation probably rank like this:

1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City/Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)
2. Final Fantasy X
3. Splinter Cell/Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Xbox)
4. Gran Turismo 3
5. Devil May Cry
6. Chronicles of Riddick
7. Hot Shots Golf 3
8. Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance I, II/Champions of Norrath (PS2, Xbox)
9. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (Xbox)
10. Madden 2004 (PS2)
11. Suikoden III
12. Halo
13. Medal of Honor: Frontline (PS2)
14. Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball
15. Max Payne 2 (Xbox)
16. Final Fantasy X-2
17. Ninja Gaiden
18. Kingdom Hearts
19. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
20. Deathrow
21. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (PS2)
22. Xenosaga
23. Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War (Xbox)
24. Legaia 2: Duel Saga
25. TimeSplitters 2 (PS2)

I don' t have a GC, obviously. So this isn' t indicative of the BEST games of this generation, which would have to include Metroid Prime, Animal Crossing, FF: CC, F-Zero, Zelda: Wind Waker, etc.

WHOA!!!! Why do i not like the xbox? well, nothing substantial, and i am not saying i would never try it (i have played halo once, I wasn' t a fan of the controller, but the game play handled very nicely)

I am not rich, i am a struggling student, so I don' t get a lot of money to spend on games and systems, so I do not personally own (i have a brother and an inlaw who own them for me) any systems of this generation, and the last on my list would be Xbox. It isn' t a hate thing so much as a word association thing. When i think of xbox i think of microsoft which reminds me of my computer and then i leap to bill gates and then i get mad because windows F*cks up so badly. And so then i hate it all, the entire empire when really it isn' t xbox' s fault, nor microsoft or even bill gates (but can i still hate him?) I just have issues

So, I really don' t hate xbox, personally, I don' t see it fufilling a gaming need for me, any game I have had interest in playing has been released for consoles i already have access to, and the rest of it hasn' t appealed to me enough to save my money up to posess it. Make sense? So, i have given it a small chance, and there is nothign wrong with it, it is just not for me. Come one now, i am allowed to be a Sony lover aren' t i???

I feel you, Rikka.

I don' t have a PS2 for the same reason. I am broke, so when the Dreamcast died I went with the X-Box. I don' t feel a burning need to play anything on the PS2 that I can' t get on the Box (except for VF4 - when is Sega going to make an XBox port).

When there is a PS2 game that I am really interested in, I go to my friend' s house and make him rent/ buy the game.

In response to Fathoms:

Perhaps surprisingly, given that they are similar types of game, I enjoyed Ninja Gaiden whilst Devil May Cry was just garbage. I was aware, even from the Gamerweb days that you were a huge fan of the game. It was top of my purchasing list when it came out and I do think its a very cool game. The graphics were, and still are, superb, the story is decent, the characters are cool. I really really tried and really wanted to love DMC, but I just hated everything about its gameplay. I didn' t enjoy the orb powerup system, the camera angles practically ruined the whole game for me (especially on boss battles), the story started to drag after the excellent opening levels story, ebony and ivory are far too underpowered etc.

Well, you' re certainly the first person I' ve ever come across that referred to DMC as " garbage." Personally, I disliked the low-sitting and sometimes slow-to-react camera in NG more than the camera in DMC. Neither story was all that great, but they both held my interest somewhat. I just had so much more fun with DMC; NG felt too much like a chore. As far as reviewers go, I think they' re extremely split: NG sits at 91.7% at Gamerankings while DMC sits at 91.0%. By far, the two best action games of this generation, and they are followed by Max Payne 2 and Onimusha 2 and 3.

I don' t know how you classify GTA, but if those games are in the same category, then they top all of the aforementioned titles.