Game platform decision

[[wcip]Angel]

Gamecube displays error messages...

I'm tempted to call Gamecube something other than "a console" as most consoles I know don't display error messages.

[Socrates]

I have heard about the error messages, but never seen them myself. ;)

It's a thing Nintendo should have dropped, yeah. I agree.

But is is still a better alternative to the other 2.

[[wcip]Angel]

And the messages don't help either:

"An unexpected error has occurred. Please consult your Gamecube user manual."

On page 34 (or something) in the manual it says:
"If you've experienced an error message, turn off your Gamecube and unplug it. Then re-insert the power cable into the Gamecube and turn it back on."

This didn't help. It was not until someone on the Dream Theater board suggested I clean the lense, that I actually got the thing to work. (and this was a brand new machine, so there shouldn't have been anything wrong with the lense.)

I'm also not satisfied with the controller to the Gamecube. When playing RE, whenever I try to press "up" on the little stick to the utmost left of the controller it always becomes "up and right" due to the way you're forced to hold the controller. (left hand is not straight, but faced left) So in order to press "up" you have to press "up and left", which is kind of stupid.

[Socrates]

If you are very disatisfied with the gamecube controller, you can buy a little "thing" that makes you able to use your ps2 control.

[[wcip]Angel]

oooo. I might just have to invest in that when MGS1-remake comes out for the GC.

[Socrates]

Acctually I tricked you there. "ha-ha". I can swear I've read about it in some magazine, but I can't seem to find it on lik-sang now when I looked for it.;)

I guess there is no such thing after all. I'll pm you if I'm wrong again. :P

[Canadian_KM]

Please elaborate. What "horror stories" and why is the Gamecube not worth the money?

IMO - Gamecube is not worth the money because, if you are going to spend that much on a platform, you minds well spend it right... PS2 comes with DVD player, if you dont already have a DVD player this can be very important. Gamecube of course does not, I realize its cheaper but I have played both, and the problem with gamecube I found is that it doesn't have enough games, now as I mentioned PS2 has thousands and thousands more games than both gamecube and xbox. I generally get bored of a new game after about a month, and I find that old games can be just as fun as new games, as long as you have not played them before.

as for the horror stories I have heard about xbox, well for one... something like 50% of the first xboxs to be released had a bug where the cdtray wouldn't open... My friend bought an xbox and there was no controller in the box... (he went down to walmart and they wouldn't give him one at first, he had to fill out some forms and stuff, took a while.) I have also heard some friends say that the games often freeze and simply lose all their saved data...

I also beleive you have to pay extra to get the DVD player for xbox, I may be wrong though.

[Selby]

What "horror stories" ... ?

When the Xbox was first released, Microsoft didn't use a good quality DVD supplier. The DVD problems ran the gamut from drive not accessing certain areas to drive not opening properly, but the biggest problem was that it would prematurely fail. This in and of itself isn't too terrible since the item was completely replaceable (with another Microsoft supplied DVD player). The kicker is that Microsoft knew about this problem several months before the Xbox went live, and figured it would be cheaper to just release it and deal with the fallout and DVD replacements than it would to stop production on the current batch. After the first batch, this problem went away. BUT, Microsoft didn't have to deal with the fallout or DVD replacements financially. They would be happy to replace your drive, for $99.99. A factory defect that they knew about before release but ignored because it wouldn't have been financially feasible but still charged to fix. This burned alot of people. That is the biggest of the console "horror stories" that I know of.

As for my personal opinion, if you like Mario, Zelda, and Metroid, go for the GC. You won't find *too* many mature titles on the GC being that it is a Nintendo product and they tend to gear to the under 12 crowd. Xbox has some good games and good live support, but quite a few people are still bitter about it being a Microsoft product and detract it regardless. PS2 definitely has the library of games to work with. Find the games you want, then find the system they are on. Renting is not a bad idea along with finding a friend who has one and checking it out (I am sure you knew this, but I had to state the obvious ;-) ).

Selby

[Artega]

I'm a Nintendo fanboy, so I've got some things to mention.

I currently own thirteen titles for the GameCube, and between my friend and I, we own sixteen different titles.

I own Super Smash Bros. Melee (exclusive), TimeSplitters 2 (PSS/GCN), The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition (comes with one system package, or can be acquired by subscribing to Nintendo Power or purchasing and registering two of the four "holiday titles"; I subscribed to Nintendo Power)(exclusive), F-Zero GX (exclusive), Resident Evil CODE: Veronica X (DC/PS2/GCN; a mistake on my part, I'm about to complete it, after which I will sell it back to the nearby GameStop for hopefully half of what I paid for it), Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (exclusive), Wave Race: Blue Storm (exclusive), Starfox Adventures (exclusive), The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (exclusive), Metroid Prime (exclusive; Zoid, you guys did an incredible job!), Ikaruga (exclusive), Soul Calibur II (XBX/PS2/GCN; I prefer Link only because Spawn doesn't have his trademark cape), and Metal Arms: Glitch in the System (XBX/PS2/GCN.)

Upcoming games for the GameCube that seem to be considered to be worth watching: Starcraft: Ghost (XBX/GCN; it's a Blizzard game, so you KNOW it's going to be good, despite the "Psi powers"), Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (exclusive; along with some of the original team, Silicon Knights is heading this venture - it's a remake of MGS, along with new features like hanging on to rails and a fully-functional first-person mode), Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (exclusive; I personally don't like the FF series, but the rumor mill is buzzing about this one), Resident Evil 4 (exclusive; you get to play as Leon once again, and they're FINALLY ditching that lame pre-rendered get-up), and Pikmin 2 (exclusive; basically Pikmin with the ability for multiple players and new kinds of Pikmin - do yourself a favor and play Pikmin!)

Some developers that you should keep an eye on: Square-Enix (still mostly PS2 junkies, but they're starting to warm up to Nintendo once again), Silicon Knights (makers of Eternal Darkness, and also MGS:TTS; they are also supposedly still working on Too Human in secret), Nintendo (DUH! First-party games!), HAL Labs (makers of the Super Smash Bros. series of games, among other fun things), and Rare (currently assimilated by Microsoft's machine, but Rare has had a long history with Nintendo, so one could assume that they'll return to the right and the might eventually.)

And, a shameless plug for Zoid: Retro Studios! The rumor mill has been buzzing about Metroid Prime 2, but I'll let Zoid talk about that as he sees fit, since I don't know any hard facts.

I'll let you read reviews about the aforementioned games, since all of my advice would be heavily biased.

[Refrigerator]

Well, here's my opinion....

I myself have a gamecube, and it has served me well :) . SSBM is an awesome game, almost the only reason I bought a gamecube. First person games aren't usually my favorite kind, but Metroid Prime was awesome.
I like inviting my friends over and playing with them so the PS2 wasn't a good choice for me(2 controllers), and I've heard that it's graphics aren't as good as the other two. So, if you really care about that... But it does have Vice City, and apparently it's very very good. Actually, the PS2 has a lot of good games... and most of the Final Fantasies (Fantasys?) too!
The Xbox would have been my next choice. It's got 4 controllers and Halo(:)) That is also an awesome shooter. It along with the PS2 has/have way better online gaming options. The Gamecube has... let's see here, Phantasy Star Online Ep 1 &2.... and.... hmmmm.... Gee..... looks like that's all. Terrible.
But it costs much less than the other two now so if price is a big factor.... (it is to me, that's for sure!)

Alright, now that my rambling has ended, I wish to apoligize for my odd sentence structure beforehand. I'm tired and seem not to be thinking straight right now. Off to bed for me :)

G'night,
Refrigerator

[Artega]

The GameCube lacks real online-play support, such as PS2's PlayOnline, or Xbox's Xbox Live!. Although there aren't any OFFICIAL services for the GameCube, you CAN play games that can be setup for LAN play over the 'net via a service called Warp Pipe (www.warppipe.com). I haven't checked much into this, as I don't own any of the games compatible with this kind of setup, and I don't have a broadband connection, but I've heard that games of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Kirby Air Ride have been successfully played. I would assume that communication would take place via a PC service like AIM.

The GameCube is $99.99 at all stores now, compared to about $179.99 for a PS2, and $179.99 for an XBox. Game prices vary, but most console games cost the standard $49.99; you can pick up several GameCube games (like Super Mario Sunshine, Rogue Squadron II, Metroid Prime, and Starfox Adventures) for $29.99, and you can pick up third-party games for as low as $4.99. I picked up TimeSplitters 2 for $19.99 at a Best Buy.

And don't discount the GameBoy Advance (SP or original) as an option. It may be a handheld, but it has an incredible selection of good games, and it's fairly cheap. There is also the GameBoy Player (basically a GBA that attaches to your GCN) for the GameCube, which allows you to play all GameBoy games (including original GameBoy games like Metroid 2, GameBoy Color games, and GBA games); it can be had for $49.99.

If you look into the GBA, some games you should look at are: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (largely considered the best Zelda in the series), Metroid Fusion (the next step in the storyline; whether it is Metroid 4 or Metroid 5 is unknown - I'd need to know what Metroid Prime is considered), any of the Super Mario Advance series (Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, and Super Mario Brothers 3 are the best of the bunch), Pokemon Ruby and/or Sapphire (it's Pokemon, and despite the cuteness of it all, they're GREAT games), Advance Wars/Advance Wars 2 (turn-based strategy by the awesome developer Intelligent Systems), Fire Emblem (the series finally makes it to America!!!), Golden Sun/Golden Sun: The Lost Age (they look drop-dead gorgeous for psuedo-SNES games, and are both pretty fun; plus, they're about 20-hour games, to boot), and any of the Castlevania series of games (Aria of Sorrow is incredibly addictive and fun!)

Personally, I recommend against the XBox - it's literally a circa-1999 PC in a big, heavy black box.

[Quark]

How's this:
My friend's X-Box freezes on him at least every other day he plays it. Four times it decided to freeze while he was saving a franchise in a football game - forcing a restart until he finally got used to double saving. My other friend has lost about 5 hours in the past week on his hockey game - on a brand new disk.

In the 3 years I've owned my PS2, I've had it crash on me 3 times (one was my own fault, I was goofing off with GTA3's cheats and I pushed the system too hard). I've seen that happen in a single day on the X-box. No sir, I don't like it.

[Artega]

How's this:
My friend's X-Box freezes on him at least every other day he plays it.  Four times it decided to freeze while he was saving a franchise in a football game - forcing a restart until he finally got used to double saving.  My other friend has lost about 5 hours in the past week on his hockey game - on a brand new disk.

In the 3 years I've owned my PS2, I've had it crash on me 3 times (one was my own fault, I was goofing off with GTA3's cheats and I pushed the system too hard).  I've seen that happen in a single day on the X-box.  No sir, I don't like it.

Original specs for the XBox controller.