New Consoles

[MikeRox]

Eh?? What are you talking about? The GC was far more powerful than the PS2!

It's all those marketing tripe things. Xbox 120m polygons, PS2 66m polygons, GC 12m polygons.

What they don't tell you is that using those figures, the Xbox and PS2 can only render those polygons unshaded with no textures, lighting, etc. While the GC polygon count was given as an ingame figure. The GC was able to perform some game setups better than the Xbox and was a fantastic piece of hardware. The system didn't even struggle to shift units really, it was only about 2m worldwide behind the Xbox.

What killed it was the lack of 3rd party sales, though a lot of that could be attributed to delaying GC ports by 6 months and releasing them with shoddy framerates/inferior graphics due to the GC having different architechture styles to the PS2 and Xbox. GC was built to stream on the fly, the PS2 and Xbox tended to have everything loaded in at the start hence Nintendo's choice of less but super speedy RAM. I believe it was something like that anyway.

As for Metacritic, who gives a crap what the media say as long as YOU like the game.

I don't really buy all this "I'm hardcore" "you're crappy casual!" etc. a gamer is somebody who plays games. There is no hardcore/casual etc. (yes this includes people playing Petz or Just Dance or whatever) and I feel sad that people feel they need to label themselves a specific type of gamer in order to try and seem cooler/more acceptable or more dedicated than another gamer.

Number of games owned doesn't show hardcoreness, it shows you either have loads of money, love loads of games, or don't ever trade anything in. Anybody using game numbers for bragging rights really needs to check their priorities IMO.

[NemesiS]

I don't like to blow my own trumpet but I'm paid A LOT of money

Then don't........

Someone who's top10 status on the leaderboards. You could be hardcore at anything, but I doubt anyone can maintain hardcore status at more than three games at any given time. Two games is a push.

Take me for example - third highest rated PvP Destruction Warlock in Europe during season7, seventh highest rated Warlock of any spec in Europe.

Yawn........

Why do some people always feel the need to let the world know how small their co ...edit... how unbelievably fantastic they are

[dataDave]

Because I am/can.

I'm seven inches anyway, hardly small.

[speedlolita]

Bet I'd beat you at 3s. d8-D

[gunrock]

It's all those marketing tripe things. Xbox 120m polygons, PS2 66m polygons, GC 12m polygons.

What they don't tell you is that using those figures, the Xbox and PS2 can only render those polygons unshaded with no textures, lighting, etc. While the GC polygon count was given as an ingame figure. The GC was able to perform some game setups better than the Xbox and was a fantastic piece of hardware. The system didn't even struggle to shift units really, it was only about 2m worldwide behind the Xbox.

This is true. You only have to look at the GC and PS2 versions of Resi 4 side by side to appreciate that (especially if you have the US GC version and run in 480p).

In fact, side by side, the GC version of PoP:Sands of Time gives the Xbox version a run for it's money. The PS2 version is masterful, but pales in comparison to both.

[112]

I think we've gone way off topic with the Hardcore factor, but to derail it slightly more with my 3 pence worth. In my mind, hardcore is a generic term...... in which case, all people on this forum could be classed as 'hardcore' because of their interest in gaming.

For me, to be 'hardcore' all you really need is a passion in something. So long as you have an extended interest in whatever it is you enjoy then you can call yourself as hardcore as you like.......

The only thing that we need to be wary of not falling into is that playground mentality of one up manship, or having to be better than the next dude. At the end of the day, why bother and no one cares....... trust me.

Going back on topic, we do peeps feel the first next gen console will pop up? Christmas 2011 sound feasible.......

112

[CMcK]

Late 2011 still sounds a bit too early for next generation systems. MS and Sony are just starting to get profits from their respective systems and both machines have a fair bit left to give yet. Natal and the Sony wand thingy are supposedly going to reinvigorate things and seem like a way to try to appeal to the joypad shy Wii owning market.

I do wonder if the whole green eco friendly bandwagon will affect the developement of the next gen systems? Power consumption will be closely watched and the designers will need to be smarter with their transistor budgets. Makes it seem unlikely anyone will use Larrabee or x86 in the next round of systems. Who knows maybe PowerVR could be used by one of the platform holders this time?

That said I wouldn't be surprised to see a Wii refresh at some point before the HD systems are replaced.

But there will a lot of competition on punters disposable income from stuff like the iPad / Phone / Touch and other CE goods like Blu-Ray and 3DTV.
I think the console manufacturers will be watching closely to see how 3DTV does and more importantly if the broadband infrastructure is in place to allow proper digital distribution.

Besides there's a new Sega system to buy this summer first:

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/31177/new-sega-console-hitting-summer

[Charlie]

When will the next next-gen console show up? The sooner the better as far as I'm concerned.

There's life left in current gen systems, of course, and developers will continue to squeeze greater performance out of them for as many years as they need to but, personally, no game released several years into a console's life ever wows me because it's never significantly better than anything before it.

[donpepperoni]

I'd be surprised if we saw anything sufficiently "next-gen" until after 2012. This year is a write-off with Sony & MS bringing out their white elephants, and I can't see Nintendo doing anything other than maybe bringing out a new colour of Wii.

Considering you usually have to wait a year at least before any newly announced hardware makes an appearance, I can't see it happening any time soon.

If I was a betting man I'd say either Q4 2012, or... if we're all still alive and kicking in 2013... maybe somewhere around then.

[InvisibleKid]

..due to the GC having different architechture styles to the PS2 and Xbox. GC was built to stream on the fly, the PS2 and Xbox tended to have everything loaded in at the start hence Nintendo's choice of less but super speedy RAM. I believe it was something like that anyway.

I just have to correct this... (brace yourselves)

The PS2 is the one designed for streaming data - it only 4MB of VRAM and that includes the framebuffer!

GC is/was a great bit of kit - but it required far too much of a 'special' way of doing things that was frankly, completely different to the other two.

PS2 was a swine to get to grips with - but it wasn't a million worlds away from Xbox's shaders. Sure, shaders were easier and you had to code the PS2's VU units with assembler - but they did the same thing.

GC wanted things in a different way and dictated to you how it should work. The Wii (as it basically is a GC) is no different which is why 3rd parties are running from it. It's too painful and therefore too expensive to work with when you're trying to do two other platforms already - and at least they're roughly similar.

GC/Wii are machines that are designed by Nintendo, for Nintendo. You can see that when you look at the innards long enough. Nintendo can make great games for it, because the unit is designed to make those games - games that are fun, texture nicely and brightly and don't have amazing graphic effects (note I said effects not graphics in general - a lot of Wii games are certainly nice to look at).

I say all this as someone who used to write PS2 renderers, then Wii and now PS3. They're all a pain in the butt in different ways.

My personal favourite was PS2 - I found satisfaction in the pain and that if it didn't work it was my fault not because something in the hardware or system had messed up. I'm still referred to at work as 'PS2 Dave'. Love it.

End rant.