XBox vs PS2 vs GC [Seeking Constructive Comparisons]

Well.. This pretty much made the news a couple years back, but considering I don't have a TV, I never really paid very close attention.

Its probably Apple vs Orange vs Peer if you do straight comparison of the tech. But I'd like to know more about them, and the difference between them (and maybe even discerning if they are targeting a slightly different audience).

The X-Box is pretty straightforward, if its very similar to a PC (from what I know). There is a P3-733 if I remember right, a NVidia NV30 (or 35? Basically, a souped up GeForce 3).. Not too sure about the HD/Memory. Where did MS source those from? And what does the impact that its mostly a PC? Does it shorten development process in anyway? Make it easier to cross one platform to the other?

I don't know much about the PS2. I vaguely remember the "Emotion Engine". Umm, did it also have other component just for the GFX? How does it compare to the XBox in that arena? I am pretty certain the X-Box is superior in all account (since it came out so much later), but I think there must be more than that. How about FSAA? I remember DoA2 to look better on the DC than on the PS2, whats the reason behind that again? And, quite importantly, the PS2 was supposingly quite hard for developers to work with.. What is the reason behind that?

Lastly.. GC. Well, I honestly don't know much about them. I know the GFX card was made by the team that joined Ati (and made the Radeon?). Their priority seemed a bit different from PS2/XBox. They did without the DVD Drive and used their own propriety components storage for instance. How much power does it have in contrast to the PS2, and particularly the XBox? (Any way to make reasonable comparison, or is it too apple vs orange?).

In terms of hardware expansion, do I take it that the X-Box got the edge? I think it support a modified USB.

Well, thats all I can think of from the top of my head. Its lots of questions, I'll definitely look to find some answers myself. But I could use informal feedback from those who knows ;)

I have an xbox, the only reason was I really like Halo and fancied some online arcade racing. Paid £70 for it witH some odds and sods 2nd hand. I prefer a PC for my main game playing but you cant beet a console for co-op games, I also think arcade racers and fighting games work well on consoles. TBH I think the choice is more down to the games you want to play, if they only come out on one format then thats the one to go for, if they are multi format it isnt going to make much difference. Hardware wise they may be different architecture but in real life they give the same results.

Xbox has halo & pes4, Ps2 has GTASA pes4 & GT4.

Xbox is still allowed to be chiped, ps2 aint, xbox can be made to play xvid/divx etc etc (great divx box). Xbox can run linux etc.

Personally would go for xbox, even if you don't have it modded and use the extra functionality, the xbox live function is useful.

But the ps2 does have its advantages.

The list of reasons to get a Gamecube is long, but the simpliest way of putting it is - get a Gamecube, it has more games you'll enjoy playing than the other 2, in my opinion.

Eternal Darkness: Sanitys Requiem.
Metroid Prime.
Viewtiful Joe.
Mario Kart: Double Dash.
Super Mario Sunshine.
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.
Ikaruga.
Super Monkey Ball.
Super Monkey Ball 2.
Wave Race: Blue Storm.
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour.
Animal Crossing.
Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
Super Smash Bros. Melee.
F-Zero GX.
SSX3.
Soul Caliber 2.
Pikmin.
TimeSplitters 2.
Resident Evil.
Resident Evil Zero.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004.
Burnout 2.
Pkikmin 2.
Metroid Prime 2.

in terms of raw power/gfx the list goes

Xbox>GC>PS2

but as you have said the xbox is basically a PC. consequently its very big, ugly and makes more noise than the other 2 :)

I could go on to make all sorts of comparisons now about the hardware, as each console has its unique contorller etc - but they are all abot personal preference. eg I cant stand the xbox controller, imho its horrible to use; whereas the GC one is a masterpiece, and the PS2 one aint far behind.

As flibb said the main difference is in the choice of games you want to play. Firstly - why do you need a console? there are very few console only games worth having, and most of those will become vastly superior pc games anyway. EG a reasonably recent example was GTA:VC. The ps2 version was fun, and the average ps2 owner wouldn't notice this, but it had massive slowdown (ie a low fps) all over the place. You dont really notice it until you play it on a PC with higher resolution and a fps 4x that of the ps2 version :)

But i'm digressing a bit.

Games wise the Gamecube has a lot of fun puzzel/adventure games - thats what nintendo are best at. (eg zelda, mario etc etc) Don't discount them just because they look a bit 'kiddie', they are still excellent games that would give you hours of fun.

The PS2 has lots more action/fighting/racing games, thats primarily what its for. but then its main market is chavs, and thats what they like :P Its a good console and its fun for PE4 etc, but I dont think that it can match up to the GC/Xbox in games, sound, gfx or performance. the slowdown thing really gets to me. PLus its a chav console so why would u want one :P

The Xbox..Well objectivly its the best one here, huge range of games with good ones from all the GC and PS2 genres. It can also be modded, run linux, become a divXbox etc etc..So its basically an old pc. Games wise its great tho [an halo 2 looks pretty good :)] But I sitll would never ever ger one. A) its microsoft, B) its still just a pc in an ugly box with an ugly controller, c) its ruined what could have been some of the best games of the year (speaking of Deux Ex 2 and theif 3 here)

just mho :)

btw i agree with vaul, get a gamecube :)

All platforms have their advantages and disadvantages, I own a ps2 and a GC must say happy with em, most the games on the xbox that I wanted to play are on the PC. The gamecube has a few titles coming its way, namely Res Evil 4 :D PS2 has GTA:SA and Getaway:Black Monday has just been released. But at the end of the day, each console has its own list of exclusive titles so its a case of getting all of them.

I've owned all three. I currently still own an Xbox and PS2.

The GameCube was my first of the three, in terms of raw hardware its more than competent and is the most easily portable of the three. It has a wide range of games and if you enjoy Nintendo's games you will like it. It was my first Nintendo console so I have no nostalgia for Mario etc. I only enjoyed 1080: Avalanche out of the Nintendo 1st party titles. The only other exclusive title I had fun with was Ace Golf every other game I enjoyed were multi-platform. At this point I would say that all of the Nintendo titles did come across as very good games, just not my type of games.

The PS2 is the next console I bought, mainly for the anime-esc based titles and a few exclusives. I feel it was a good purchase, but not the spectacular feel of the DreamCast which supplied me with a large portion of my all time favourite games. Its main trump card is having something for everyone. Maybe not the best examples of the genre, but there aren't the genre holes you get with the GC and Xbox. It gets the job done, but won't blow your head off.

I bought an Xbox with the sale of my GC, I'm surprised with how good it is. However I had a very low expectations of its console credibility. It has some of the best driving games available although I'm an arcade fan (Rallisport Challenge 2). Halo(1/2) is nice, but I'm not a natural FPS fan anyway. I'm still working out what I like from its line-up. It seems to have a horrifically large amount of charmless American games (military/'gritty'/sports titles/bad pc ports).

My advice is look at the games you enjoy playing not what magazines/sites rate highly and buy the console that has those. Sod what the fan boys say about your chosen console.

the tech is largely beside the point, though technically the ps2 is considerably weaker hardware wise than the other two.

the real thing to concern yourself with is games, and games only. i have a gamecube, and had a ps2. one of them had games worth playing on, one didn't (for my own ecclectic tastes, i might add).

lok at the game libraries, get the system which has the most of wehat you want

or get all three, so you can play any games at all

Hehe...got all 3 here, and like everyone is saying , it depends what type of game you enjoy. For me the xbox gets played the most tbh cos xbox live is cool :) But since HL2 got released yesterday i'm afraid to say that the consoles can get shoved back in the cupboard. Gotta love the trusty PC :cool: :devilish:

Thanks. The reason I am making the enquiry is not so much because I intend to buy a console in the near future (still without a TV!), but because I am doing some research on the X-Box launch in the UK.

The hardware aspect is one that I am considering, but I am also looking at other factors: The difficulties faced by MS at the time (how much developer support? they bought bungie, so thats one, but how many pledged to make games for them/exclusively for them), competition (mainly PS2, since GC isn't released yet at the time) and such.

It is actually quite interesting.. Mainly because, 1) Yes it is MS, there are few things they can't do, but 2) the console hardware industry is pretty competitive and unforgiving.. Even key players like Sega wasn't able to hang on to it.

As far as hardware goes...

Xbox - top of the lot, obviously its a pc of sorts, but its size and weight reflects this. It is possible to load an OS onto it, the 4 controller ports are re-shaped USB plugs, so you can re-wire anything to plug in to the front if you know what you are doing.
The online service on the Xbox is second to none, and you can even sign up to a free xbox gaming service called XBConnect which runs via your computer and works with loads more games that aren't "Xbox Live Compliant".

The PS2 - This is the least powerful. It has one main processor which does the lot, including the graphics. There are sub-processors that deal with the sound etc, but it really is the most basic, yet the hardest console to program for.

The Gamecube - Based on an IBM processor and an ATI 8500 graphics card its potentially a very powerful machine. For some reason it isnt that great at doing particle effects and can look quite fogged when trying, but besides this it can push out some pretty astounding graphics - see Resident Evil 4 for the pinnacle of its power.

Over all I play my Xbox the most, it has a good quality selection of games and there is plenty you can do with the console. Having said that I play my PS2 alot at the moment due to the magnificent new Grand Theft Auto.... My Gamecube collects the most dust as there arent as many new games for it. PaperMario 2 is wicked, as is Animal Crossing, and loads of the older games - sonic mega collection, metroid, zelda etc. I am keeping it for the new Zelda and Rez 4, both out next year.

Also keep on the look out for the new breed of handheld consoles heading our way. "Gizmondo" is already out, stupidly powerful and customisable with some great features (camera, video, mp3, GPS 400mhz processor). The PSP and Nintendo DS are on their way next year, and both are looking really cool!

Ben

Yup.. Next gen console looks interesting :)

Still, at the moment, I am sticking with what is available/known at the time of the X-Box launch. Who partnered with MS for the XBox project?

NVidia for the GFX (the NV??), motherboard (Nforce - dealing with sound, LAN), Intel for the Processor, Samsung for the memory, Seagate/Western Digital for the HD, Thomson Multimedia for the DVD.
I assume the box itself is assembled by MS, but I'll need to double check that.

Did MS get any close partner (and I don't mean Bungie they swallowed) when it comes to games? Any launch exclusives?

I believe a few people make the DVD drives, you can tell by the holes in the tray. One is definitely Samsung as well as Thomson. You might want to check google for information about the various versions of the Xbox and identifying them. It should help with the back story.

Ah, thanks.
Its useful to know that. I am currently using Anandtech Hardware review of the XBox, and I take it that was one of the earlier versions. But the fact there is more than one version is useful. It shows that various manufacturers have different influence on MS. Nvidia for instance probably has more power to negotiate, as they, alone can provide the GFX/Motherboard. The HD, and, according to what you've said, the DVD Drive are made by more than one manufacturer.. In some way, it reduces their influence since MS can always go somewhere else if it is not satisfied (price, quality, whatever).

A major difference between the GC and the Xbox is that Nintendo employed/bought the designs for the GPU from ATI and have control of manufacturing themselves with a percentage/fee going back to ATI. MS buy the chips from Nvidia who fixes the price and controls the supply. My knowledge is 2nd/3rd hand I'm sure someone else can explain it better.

One side that hasn't been mentioned is the ability for more and more visual 'juice' to be squeezed out of a system over its lifetime. This seems very pronounced in the Playstation series. If you compare a launch PS1 football title only the pitch is texture mapped and even then it ripples. Last gen PS1 titles sport players that are reasonably recognisable and have textures.

X-Box - Multi tasking jack of all trades but master of none

PS2 - Big games but slightly shoddy graphics compared to the cube and x-box

Gamecube - Major fun and plenty of biger games now

Personally having played all three extensivley and owning 2 myself i'd buy the cube every time if I was getting a console now.

nintendo employed a small company names ArtX, made of a lot of old sgi people, to design the gamecube gpu. xgi were bougth by ati after the designs were finalised, who integrated much of the tech into the 9500+ series cards, and helped with bringing production to sensible levels

If you game a lot on your pc then I would say get a game cube as the games are often very original and you could never play anything like them on the PC. Just look at the super monkey ball series. I find that a lot of PS2 and XBOX games are too similar to ones avialable on the PC.

On a side note.. Does anyone know where I can find figures on market shares?

I need to find some semi-reliable source of how much of the console game market was controlled by Nintendo and Sony (and other players, whoever they might be) at the time of the XBox launch. I can do vague guesses that Sony had the most, and was gaining, since the GC wasn't released yet, and the N64 at the end of its life cycle. But I could use something more concrete.