Console Discussion n here !

[Hilly]

Bit slow in here, so lets get some discussion going ! Get every one of the regulars and non regulars for that matter to join in.

What in particular do you really really love and hate about the consoles currently and the consoles in the past ?

Favourite console of all time for me has to be the N64, so many hours of fun on that game, Nintendo really know how to make games.
Worst Console: Sega Mega Cd - what was that all about ? Really ? :/

Favourite Gaming Pad - 360 for me, lightweight with a really good feel to it.
Worst Gaming Pad - NES, completely square, hurt your hands after about 10 minutes. Looking back onto it now, it was revolutionary at the time and really didn't matter how it felt, was just good to get away from the joystick, but now with the advances you can just see what a truely awful pad this was

Favourite Game ever. Goldeneye - again on the N64, hours and hours of multiplayer games, managed to complete it with all the time runs too !
Worst Game - quite tough this one, I personally never really got on well with Perfect Dark on the N64. It was the "sequal" to Goldeneye, but never really lived up to it.

What would you like to see on future game consoles ? What's most important for you lot as gamers ? Photo Realistic graphics, complete submersion into the game, Virtual Reality ?

My ultimate console, would be Virtual Reality ala Tron, with a game which is just complete realistic to real life. E.g mavity is the same, real town's and cities. You can choose what you want to do, as in Live a normal life, do what job you want to do no matter how diverse. E.g be a policeman, be a super hero, robber, serial Killer. To me with the diversity that would bring and be completely into the game ala Virtual Reality would mean i'd rarely leave it.

With Virtual reality only about 10 years away how will you react to this ? Being suited up and living whatever you want to live, doing what ever you want to do. Could you see your self being completely immersed into the game ? I can see something like the above leading to complete breakdowns, it would be used as a get away from life, all your troubles will be gone and the art of conversation and social ability would be gone. Ever seen "back to reality" the Red Dwarf Episode, would be how I picture it.

Where else can consoles go from here ? Other than graphics and complete immersion is there any thing else in which will keep the genre going ? Will consoles ever "die"? I'm a bit surprised no one so far has integrated digital tv into their console, as this is all moving towards complete home entertainment systems.

What games are you most looking forward too ? What consoles do you own ?

I have to say although a great console, i'm feeling a little bit let down with the 360. Not by the technology, but with the game catalouge.

So any ways, let's get some discussion into this forum and keep it going. Feel free to chat about anything and everything in here and not just what I have wrote about the above.

Hilly.

 

[da_mic_1530]

will read your whole post after work and contribute


but the mega cd rocked, i loved it

 

[Hilly]

The mega CD had one problem, it was TOO advanced for it's time, there wasn't many games, it was expensive and it died on it's arse.

I've owned nearly all the consoles which there has been to own and that was definately the worst.

My first proper console was the NES, I had spectrums e.t.c before that but they were hand-me-down's from my brother. The NES i won when I was around 5 years old from the official Turtles Magazine. Had to answer a question send my name in, was ab it of a surprise about 2 weeks to a month later when the postman came up to the door and said package for Andrew. At 5 years old a letter is exciting enough, let known a huge brown parcel, with the Turtle's game and NES in it . Since then i've been hooked really,

How many here are going to actually buy the PS3 ? I'm seriously thinking of opting out and going for the Wii, as that looks so much fun.

 

[Chaos]

In todays consoles I love the features like xbox live with online play and voice chat, the community factor, however I still think a lot of todays games are a bit stale, lacking any real inovation. The games on the early consoles where inovative and brought something new to gaming.

Fav console for me would proably have to be the nes, was a great console and had so many good games.

Worst console, hmm maybe the Atari Jaguar, had great specs for the time and failed misserably, just shows how hardware specs means nothing , I love when all the fanboys get heated when talking about the 360 and PS3 hardware, history has shown that the most powerfull hardware dosnt always equal success as a platform.

Fav pad for me would be the 360's feels very confortable.
Worst Pad hmm cant say many have really botherd me.

What would I like to see in future consoles, something new, I like what nintendo are doing with the wii and trying to bring a new twist to the way we play games, whether it will be a success or not time will tell.

I hate the way consoles are going with all the extra fluf thats being added, to them. I dont want to play mp3's view photos, browse the net or watch dvds on a Games Console I want Games and thats it!

Id love the see the resurgence of the bedroom coder on an open console platform where the games are all free and shared and coders exchange information and ideas. There are some intesting consoles being made by people outside of the big corporations, an example is the Hyrda console which is being made that has an architechtire like sonys cell using the propellor chip by parallax. Granted it isnt that powerfulll but this console is being made by a few people, imagine thousands of people collaborating making an open hardware platform with free games would be very cool.

 

[Whoop]

The mega CD had one problem, it was TOO advanced for it's time, there wasn't many games, it was expensive and it died on it's arse.

I've owned nearly all the consoles which there has been to own and that was definately the worst.

My first proper console was the NES, I had spectrums e.t.c before that but they were hand-me-down's from my brother. The NES i won when I was around 5 years old from the official Turtles Magazine. Had to answer a question send my name in, was ab it of a surprise about 2 weeks to a month later when the postman came up to the door and said package for Andrew. At 5 years old a letter is exciting enough, let known a huge brown parcel, with the Turtle's game and NES in it . Since then i've been hooked really,

How many here are going to actually buy the PS3 ? I'm seriously thinking of opting out and going for the Wii, as that looks so much fun.

Wii wii wii !!

My favourite so far is... hmmm Gamecube. I too have owned/do own most console.


Whoop

 

[Pumpkinstew]

With Virtual reality only about 10 years away how will you react to this ?

They were saying that 10 years ago and how far has the technology actually moved forwards? It's quite low on the list of priorities for commercial enterprises because of the high cost and therefore high risk. Most of the architecture is now in a state of readiness (processing speed, network speed, storage capacity) what's missing is the interface. A lot will depend on how seriously the military take the concept and how much is allowed to filter down to commercial applications.

I'm quite excited by the Wii. Depending on how the force stick controller thingy works. I hope it's not the next Virtua Boy or Power Glove. Having said that Twilight Princess is reason enough to get one.
I'll wait on the PS3 to see how the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray shapes up. It means upgrading to a hi-def telly for me too.

You're wrong about the NES having the worst pad. The Mastersystem was just as bad ergonomically but the D-pad wasn't as good and the A and B buttons were too squishy.

 

[DaveyD]

I had a Mega CD, I really don't know why we bought it though, the graphics weren't all that better, and it was far far too expensive (Think I was shocked when I found the £330 reciept). I still have it somewhere. I also have an Xbox and a PS2, and will likely be getting a 360 in the next week or so. Then maybe getting a PS3 at launch with my pre-order, but seeing how it shapes up first.

With regards to the future of consoles, I honestly doubt in my opinion we'll see mainstream virtual reality type systems in the next dacade, perhaps in another form, but once we're at a level of detail we cannot tell the difference easily between a live picture and a game, we'll probably start levelling out at the possibilities graphically, and perhaps more development on user interaction and immersion would be concentrated upon more.

I'm looking forward to more RPG style games now, that aren't just knights magic and goblins, I'd like to see a more modern style RPG with the openness of Oblivion, but a nicer setting. Ideally, I'd want a Star Wars RPG like Oblivion, but I can't have anything, but KOTOR3 will probably be out sometime before 2010, so I'll be happy

 

[~J~]

I'm hoping that with the release of the Wii, and having seen a 'sneaky' clip of what looked like someone shining a torch with the Wiimote, that someone somewhere will make a damn good horror game.

Condemned on the Wii would have been absolutely incredible, actually hitting the thugs and then shining the light around the area to gain evidence would have been a stunning experience, and mark my words, whoever creates somthing like that is gonna be onto a winner.

 

[Psyk]

What would you like to see on future game consoles ? What's most important for you lot as gamers ? Photo Realistic graphics, complete submersion into the game, Virtual Reality ?

My ultimate console, would be Virtual Reality ala Tron, with a game which is just complete realistic to real life. E.g mavity is the same, real town's and cities. You can choose what you want to do, as in Live a normal life, do what job you want to do no matter how diverse. E.g be a policeman, be a super hero, robber, serial Killer. To me with the diversity that would bring and be completely into the game ala Virtual Reality would mean i'd rarely leave it.

With Virtual reality only about 10 years away how will you react to this ? Being suited up and living whatever you want to live, doing what ever you want to do. Could you see your self being completely immersed into the game ? I can see something like the above leading to complete breakdowns, it would be used as a get away from life, all your troubles will be gone and the art of conversation and social ability would be gone. Ever seen "back to reality" the Red Dwarf Episode, would be how I picture it.

That idea is very sci-fi. How would you go about creating a game like that. The amount of resources it would take to create something that big would be incredible. And for you to be able to do anything you want, the devs would have to think of every possibility. I'm not saying it could never happen but it probably wouldn't happen in our lifetime.

I think the next step towards something like that is more believable AI for NPCs. I'm thinking of something in a game like Oblivion where each NPC could have a knowledge database of the world around them. Then there would need to be some method to build their dialogue in real time from this database. Then it would use a text-to-speech engine to actually give this information to the player. Also it would have code to understand natural language for the player to be able to interact.

I wouldn't expect all of this to be implemented at once but maybe over time we might see something like this in a game.

 

[~J~]

As Psyk said, VR will only ever be able to go so far. I'm pretty sure that in our lifetime we'll be able to put on a headset or even some special glasses that will provide a view projected for us to explore. They've had HUD technology for years in planes, and the new BMW cars have it on the dashboard, it's only a matter of a few short years before some kind of transparent OLED is made at a cost-effective price. You'll then probably go through a similar phase of what we've already been through in recent years and that's the 'display' will initially be wired but over time be totally wireless.

The problem you've got to experience total 'virtual reality' (or a way of changing your sensory perception into a digital world, are actually the basics.

How do you walk from one location to another, Oblivion has about 16²m to explore, yet the average front room/bedroom has about 10²ft. Your Virtual Journey is not going to go very far.

Sure you could have something, a-la LawnMower man, where you're encased in a hamsterball kinda affair, walking (and running) would turn the sphere which in motion detected and fed real time. But what about jumping, diving, leaping, crawling, rolling, etc?

The only way I could see a total immersion would be some kinda of neural stimulation (The Nintendo Neu, the Sony Psyche or the Xbox with the Windows-Soul patch).

 

[Eliot]

They were saying that 10 years ago and how far has the technology actually moved forwards? It's quite low on the list of priorities for commercial enterprises because of the high cost and therefore high risk. Most of the architecture is now in a state of readiness (processing speed, network speed, storage capacity) what's missing is the interface. A lot will depend on how seriously the military take the concept and how much is allowed to filter down to commercial applications.

I'm quite excited by the Wii. Depending on how the force stick controller thingy works. I hope it's not the next Virtua Boy or Power Glove. Having said that Twilight Princess is reason enough to get one.
I'll wait on the PS3 to see how the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray shapes up. It means upgrading to a hi-def telly for me too.

You're wrong about the NES having the worst pad. The Mastersystem was just as bad ergonomically but the D-pad wasn't as good and the A and B buttons were too squishy.

technology has moved forward a lot :s in 1996 we were on ridiculously slow computers with win 95 lol now some pcs have 4 gig of ram. in 1996 the n64 wasnt out and we were in ps1 era, now u can get psps, more powerful than the ps1 but i your hand, we have phones that can do video calls and mp3 players that store entire music collections in your pocket, so, i'd say technnology has improved loads, and if it improves at half the rate it has done for the last ten years then it will still be a long way ahead

 

[Psyk]

technology has moved forward a lot :s in 1996 we were on ridiculously slow computers with win 95 lol now some pcs have 4 gig of ram. in 1996 the n64 wasnt out and we were in ps1 era, now u can get psps, more powerful than the ps1 but i your hand, we have phones that can do video calls and mp3 players that store entire music collections in your pocket, so, i'd say technnology has improved loads, and if it improves at half the rate it has done for the last ten years then it will still be a long way ahead

Things have got more powerful but that's it for the most part. There aren't many brand new technologies that have moved things forward, just gradual improvements on old things.

But what about jumping, diving, leaping, crawling, rolling, etc?

And that's the flaw with idea. What fun would a game be if you were limited to your own abilities? The only workable method would be some way to directly wire it up to your brain which of course will require big advantages in neuroscience. Not to mention the thought of having things plugged into your brain isn't a very nice thought.

 

[Pumpkinstew]

technology has moved forward a lot :s in 1996 we were on ridiculously slow computers with win 95 lol now some pcs have 4 gig of ram. in 1996 the n64 wasnt out and we were in ps1 era, now u can get psps, more powerful than the ps1 but i your hand, we have phones that can do video calls and mp3 players that store entire music collections in your pocket, so, i'd say technnology has improved loads, and if it improves at half the rate it has done for the last ten years then it will still be a long way ahead

VR technology hasn't. As least not in the way that gamers would like to see.

Chips have got faster and hard drives have got bigger capacities, but that doesn't tackle the fundamental problem of intefacing within an immersive 3d virtual environment.

 

[Hilly]

In all fairness this is just total speculation, no one will know at this precise time whether or not VR is possible in this lifetime, but just imagine the gaming experience you would get. Like you said jumping e.t.c how would you do that ?

Ok so whats the one thing you would want ? VR would be top of the list for me, but headsets ? Glove's ?

What would be your perfect game ? How would this game hold your attention ? Where would it be set ? For me, i'd want a real to life as possible game, but with the ability to go beyond the realms of possibility. To do what you wanted to do in real life, be the person you wanted to be.

City of hero's when it was out was pretty good, although not a console game, the idea was spot on.

How far are consoles going to go ? Do you think they'll add more and more into the console till it explodes ? With the 360 being able to play mps, picture's, voice chat, webcam chat, movies, games, what else is there ?

Feel free to put in more chat in here, more questions for people, all the random stuff and questions stick them into here, and let's get a good thread with good discussion and debate going like the above one

 

[DaveyD]

PCs and consoles are slowly merging into each other, as consoles are trying to do everything a PC can do. The Xbox was a prime example of this, as it pretty much is a stripped down tuned up PC underneath, and with some illegal modification, users were able to make their Xboxes full media centres.

So once PS3 is here, we're going to see email and internet communication made a lot easier for people at home via the built in web browser, and the 360 will likely follow up with its own browser.

As internet connections get quicker, we'll be seeing more media capabilities such as storage of recorded programs and downloading of full games via content delivery systems instead of having to leave he hous and get your own copy of the game on disk.

 

[Hilly]

Do you agree with the way the console development is proceeding Davey ? What would you like to see ? Do you want to email people on a games console ?

With the development of games being sent over the net, I agree that is a step forward, people like MS will definately do. They already send a lot of content over, and I have no doubt they will be sending even more in the near future.

 

[DaveyD]

Well, there's nothing wrong with having the functionality in the systems at all, as you don't have to use them, as you can still play games effortlessly, which is the whole selling point of consoles, not having to install the game / bother with drivers etc.

Problem with PCs back in the day, they cost skywards of £1500 for something that could use the internet and play the odd game on and do some word processing. PCs have a very anti-social and private style of use, and I would rather send personal emails sitting at a desk with a keyboard and mouse, close to a screen when browsing both the internet and sending messages. I want to be a few feet away from the screen, typing and doing things for that, not a few yards away from a big clunky screen that'll have a slow user interface. That's where I think the console market will be limited, people will have this feature available to them, but I don't think the vast majority of people will use it, as they'll probably have a PC to do all their internet things on.

This is my opinion anyway, we've seen internet devices for TV attempt to try and sell, but they've never really caught on, and therefore you've still go the vast vast majority of internet users on PCs still.

 

[Kamakazie!]

So once PS3 is here, we're going to see email and internet communication made a lot easier for people at home via the built in web browser, and the 360 will likely follow up with its own browser.

made easier? how?
i totally disagree that consoles will make it easier. The interfaces simply aren't a good enough substitute. Typing a deceny length email would take ages on a console will a virtual keyboard on screen. The best its gonna be done is with the DS and the Opera browser as it has handwriting recognition and touch screen. Thouch even the Opera browser doesn't support Flash or PDF's. For email though it will be good.

EDIT: Just seen you other reply... thats more like it

 

[DaveyD]

made easier? how?
i totally disagree that consoles will make it easier. The interfaces simply aren't a good enough substitute. Typing a deceny length email would take ages on a console will a virtual keyboard on screen. The best its gonna be done is with the DS and the Opera browser as it has handwriting recognition and touch screen. Thouch even the Opera browser doesn't support Flash or PDF's. For email though it will be good.

EDIT: Just seen you other reply... thats more like it

Yeah, I didn't go into it enough on that part. It's more, those that can't afford a PC (Though you can easily make one for the price of a PS3), so say for that family that can't afford a PC AND a PS3, they could go for the PS3 if all they wanted was to communicate via the internet, though they'd be disadvantages with no word processing and all that kind of stuff. But saying that, if you can't afford a PC, then you'd probably not be able to afford a HDTV, and E-Mail/Internet on a SDTV would look pretty horrible these days.