(Just for the Record "NGC" refers to Nintendo GameCube)
That list [PS2 vs. NGC spec list] is pretty confusing, but I'll show some more details that realy explain what makes Nintendo come out on top. I'll start by detailing the 5 main portions of the system, CPU, Memory, Graphics, Audio, and "Misc", as well as the most important thing, games. I'll describe in detail what the different things mean, in the simplest way I can. Read on and enjoy!
CPU
| Score |
PS2 |
NGC |
tie |
Main CPU
.bits:
..128 |
Main CPU
.bits:
..128 |
0-1 |
.speed:
..300 MHz |
.speed:
..405 MHz |
0-1 |
.FPU:
..6.2 GigaFLOPS |
.FPU:
..13.0 GigaFLOPS |
0-1 |
.cache:
..not on these specs |
.cache:
..32Kx2 256Kx1 |
0-1 |
.bus:
..150 MHz |
.bus:
..202.5 MHz |
0-1 |
.manufacturing process:
..Aluminum interconnects |
.manufacturing process:
..Copper interconnects
..0.18 micron process |
0-1 |
.cooling:
..vents heatsinks & 1 fan |
.cooling:
..vents and heatsinks only |
1-0 |
I/O CPU
.PSX 32 bit CPU
.speed:
..33.8 MHz or 37.5 MHz
..(selectable) |
I/O CPU
.handled by main processor
(easier to program) |
0-1 |
I/O Bus
.size:
..32 bit |
I/O Bus
.size:
..32 bit address, 64 bit data |
0-1 |
.speed:
..33.8 MHz or 37.5 MHz |
.speed:
..202.5 MHz, 1.6 GB/sec peak |
CPU Rating: NGC 1-8
OK, both have equal number of bits, but NGC is faster in overall speed and processing capacity, and is the unprecedented winner in power. The NGC processes DOUBLE the floating point opperations per second (FLOPS) as the PS2. 13.0 billion floating point (numbers with varying decimal point values) opperations each second versus 6.2 billion for PS2. In addition, the NGC processor has a good sized cache memory. 32K of L1 data memory, 32K of L1 instruction memory, and 256K of L2 general cache memory. A cache temporarily stores memory that is used over and over. Cache is unbelievably fast. faster than the main memory. If a game uses some code or data over and over, it can store it in cache for faster access than having to go to the main memory over and over. This speeds up repetitive processing greatly. The bus on the NGC is also faster than the PS2 bus. This allows the other parts of the machine to communicate between the processor faster. It's fairly easy to figure out the more powerful, but what do the next two scores mean? All microchips up until the last few years use aluminum to connect the microscopic parts together. Aluminum is not the greatest conductor, and you require more power to overcome its resistance to electrical current, but more power means it runs hotter. PS2 has 2 fans inside it to keep it cool. NGC has no fans because copper conducts better than aluminum. Better conductor means less power and less heat! The fact that it is made using 0.18 micron (TINY) interconnects, means they are even smaller and use even less power! Apple computer saw the greatness of fanless machines. Nintendo sees this too! There will be no annoying hum in the background to interfere with the audio this new machine will create! More than anything however, fans are mechanical, and will eventualy fail. Fewer mechanical parts mean less chance of a mechanical failure. As for Sony's I/O CPU. It's there for backwards compatibility, and that's understandable. They use it as an interface CPU. Developers must learn to communicate between two completely different CPUs and still have everything work. I think a system tried this multi CPU thing before. I think they called it a Saturn... It just makes things dificult. Still, once programers learn it, it does unload some I/O functions from the main CPU, allowing it to run more game wise programing, but it's so small an amount, that it would hardly be noticed. It does allow backwards compatibility, to I'll just barely edge it to Sony's side. Gamecube uses the main system LSI chip for system I/O. but, if you compare the I/O bus speeds, Sony's little I/O processor begins to look lacking. NGC not only has a wider data I/O bus, but it's faster too, by a lot! it's 6 times faster and 2 times the capacity. NGC pulls an excelent win in the I/O round too, and sony's only point goes to the slower I/O CPU, that despite being slower, allows backwards compatibility.
Memory
| Score |
PS2 |
NGC |
0-1 |
System Memory
.Total Main RAM
..36 MB |
System Memory
.Total Main RAM
..43 MB |
1-0
tie |
.Main DRAM types
..main: 32 MB Rambus Ram
...speed: 3.2 GB/sec |
.Main DRAM types
..A-Memory: 16 MB DRAM
...speed: 3.2 GB/sec 100 MHz |
0-1
0-1 |
.High Speed RAM
..none |
.High Speed RAM
..main: 24 MB 1T-SRAM
...speed: 10 ns (12.8 GB/sec) |
0-1 |
.Video Memory
..4 MB dedicated VRAM |
.Video Memory
..2 MB 5ns Frame buffer
..1 MB 5ns Texture cache
..shares main 24 MB RAM |
0-1 |
.Texture compression:
..software only |
.Texture compression:
..S3TC hardware compression |
1-0 |
Storage Medium
.Disk
..size:
...4.7 GB Proprietary DVD
...640 MB Proprietary CD |
Storage Medium
.Disk
..size:
...1.5 GB Proprietary 8 CM mini DVD |
0-1 |
..Compression:
...software |
..Compression:
...S3TC texture compresion |
0-1 |
..speed:
...4x DVD |
..speed:
...128 ns access, 16-25 Mbps |
tie
1-0
1-0 |
.Media functions
..PS2 Games
..PSX Games
..Media player, Computer |
.Media functions
..NGC Games |
tie
1-0 |
.Writable Data
..Memory Cards
...2x Memory card slots
...8 MB memory card |
.Writable Data
..Memory Cards
...2x Memory card slots
...1/2 MB Digicard memory |
0-1
tie |
.Writable Data
..High Capacity
...hard drive slot
...hard drive |
.Writable Data
..High Capacity
...SanDisk SD adaptor
...64 MB SanDisk card...(128 MB card later) |
System Memory Rating: NGC 2-6
Storage Memory Rating: tie 4-4
Combined Memory Rating: NGC 6-10
OK, system memory is complex here. Scoring gets very difficult...
NGC wins the total RAM rank with a nice 43 MB of RAM, vs 36 MB of RAM on the PS2. PS2 has 32 MB of Rambus RAM, the same kind in the N64... Hehe! When you look at the way the RAM is split up, it looks strange. NGC has 2 banks of main memory. There are the 16 MBs of A-memory and the 24 MB 1T-SRAM main memory. The 16 MB A-Memory in the NGC and the 32 MB of Rambus RAM in the PS2 run at similar speeds. Though the PS2 has more main memory (2 times the amount of NGC), this "average speed" memory in the NGC is only an "additional" or A-Memory. The PS2 has no additional memory. NGC as another 24 MB of 1T-SRAM. The 1T-SRAM brings the NGC memory to 40 MB, obviously more than the PS2. In addition, the 24 MB 1T-SRAM is MUCH FASTER than the PS2 or the NGC A-Memory! Here is where things get complex. 1T-SRAM uses a single transistor to create a static memory core. Normal SRAM uses 5 transistors for each memory core on the chip. with the new 1 transistor (1T) technology, you have less parts and interconencts on the chip's surface, so you can pack as much as 6-10 times the memory on the same size/price chip! No consumer device has as much static RAM as the NGC! What makes Static RAM (SRAM) so fast? DRAM (dynamic RAM) such as the Rambus RAM in the PS2 and the A-Memory in the NGC, as well as memory like in average PCs and Macintoshes needs to be refreshed. DRAM is compact and cheap, meaning you can have a LOT of memory in a small space, for a reasonable price, but it is slow, because the memory looses it's data. it fades away. this means you must refresh all the memory in the chip and you have to wait for it to finish before you can read or write memory. This makes it slow. SRAM can be between 4-10 times faster than DRAM, and having the NGC use 24 MB of SRAM means it has the fastest memory of ANY console. Not even X-Box will have that. Finaly, the last item. It looks like I mis-scored the count, but that isn't true. PS2 has 4 MB of Video RAM (VRAM). This is usualy higher speed than main RAM, but it does not compare to SRAM. This 4 MB is dedicated to video and graphics, but this limits the PS2 in many ways, like the limited RAM in the N64 limited it's graphics. The NGC has a trick. First, it has 3 MB of graphics cache memory. There is a 2 MB frame buffer cache and a 1 MB texture cache. That doesn't sound like much RAM, but it's only a cache. both caches run at an unprecedented 5 ns, 2x faster than the main memory, and this allows unbelievable graphics. In addition It just stores frequently used data. The key to NGC's beautiful graphics is the 24 MB 1T-SRAM main memory. Developers can use the 24 MB however they want. If you have a simple game but want stunning graphics, you theoreticaly could have all 24 MB of the main RAM used as Video RAM. The 16 MB A-Memory can be used for the program code. You can use less main RAM for graphics and more for programming if you like as well. It is shared between the processor and graphics chip! This arrangement gives developers a choice of as little video memory as they need, all the way up to 24 MB VRAM, plus the 3 MB texture and frame buffer cache! A potential of 27 MB of video memory (though few developers will likely use this much till the later generation hardware). Add to this the fact that developers can use S3TC (S3 Texture Compression) to compress their textures to 1/6th their normal size and store them on the DVD. That makes the DVD hold up to 6 times the texture data as the PS2 uses. This benifits in many ways. If you use 500 MB of the DVD for program code and polygon models, 500 MB for audio, and 500 MB for textures, the S3TC 1:6 ratio texture compression has the capability of fitting 3 GB of texture data in that 500 MB of space, making such a game DVD appear to the machine to hold 4 GB of data! That 1.5 GB of data doesn't sound so small anymore, and becomes comparible to the PS2 media. Not as nice, but still comparible. The S3TC compression is done in hardware too, and has a minimal impact on performance. Since those textures are smaller, yet hold the same data, you can transfer textures 6 times faster! It also means that since a texture takes 1/6th the space, you can pack 6 times the texture data into the memory. That makes the "mere" 1 MB texture cache the virtual equivalent of 6 MB! That is absolutely massive for a cache's virual or logical size. Nintendo's deal with the makers of S3TC allows them to do the unimaginable at a lower cost! If you used the entire RAM for textures, you could hold 150 MB of texture data at once, though that would never have a use. Few games will allocate that much RAM for video, nor would all the RAM be used for textures. Polygon data and other information must sit there too. Still, the 1 MB cache can store more texture data than the PS2's entire VRAM! Add the 2 MB frame buffer cache and the main RAM (whatever ratio you choose to use) and you have a formidable graphics power house! With the texture compression, it's possible to make the DVD look larger than it is, and as said before, the smaller textures can transfer faster, but that isn't the only thing that speeds the system up. The NGC's mini disc format has a low access time. Because the DVD is smaller, it takes less time for the laser that reads the DVD to reach between the inner and outer edge. That makes finding data faster, infact, closer to the speed of a cartridge than ANY disk medium ever used in a console! The smaller disk size also increases the speed the data actualy transfers. It doesn't compare to a cartridge, but the PSX, PS2, Dreamcast, or X-Box won't dare to compare to the access time or transfer speed of the NGC! In addition, the memory card storage on the NGC is unique. The PS2 wins in the standard memory card round. 8 MB versus 1/2 MB (or confusingly called 4 MegaBITs as Nintendo is famous for... 8 Mbit=1MB). PS2 wins. The NGC also however, has the SD converter card. According to Nintendo, it not only connects larger SanDisk memory cards, but can be used for other possible applications. What those applications are will likely be anounced later, but SanDisk based technology, possibly devices like MP3 players and digital cameras, may be able to be used with this slot. Maybe Perfect Dark 2 will bring back the face mapping? Of course, the primary use for the SD card is the SanDisk 64 MB flash card. Nintendo created an amazing device for the N64, the 64 Disk Drive. It had unbelievable potential for fully immersive games where nearly anything could be recorded for future game sessions. Custom levels, maps, tracks would have been absolutely nothing for programmers to implement. The problem, Nintendo did NOT market this product to it's full potential. They pushed it back, waiting for a specific launch title (Zelda). As we all know, they transfered the game to cartridge, pulled a lot of the 64 MB game, and replaced it with a "tie in" to a 64DD addon game. Developers saw Nintendo's, "let's wait and see" attitude and took the RAM expansion and rejected this oft delayed and neglected diamond in the rough. Nintendo has brought back the 64DD as a solid state flash card so tiny that it'd fit in a gameboy game case (well, they used to exist! :) This massive card isn't just a nice big memory card for saving games, but is also the 64DD reincarnated, and LAUNCHED WITH the system! Nintendo has learned from their 64 mistakes! The PS2 has a hard drive on the other hand. OK, a hard drive is nice, but I carry my N64 to and from friend's places all the time. what happens if a controller cord gets tripped on and the box goes flying. Hard drives are not very shock resistant. I realize it may be convenient, but I don't like the idea of a hard drive in a console just yet. For now, I'll give them a tie. Expensive, fragile, and non flexible hard drive, or medium expense, felible, and durable SanDisk cards. What's easier to take to a friend's place. What's more bang resistant. What gives you better options in the future? I'll take the SanDisk 64 MB flash. maybe the next linup of consoles will truly NEED the hard disk drive. Score it tie or to Sony. I say tie. No matter how you put it, it's a close call on memory. NGC has the System RAM won without even a contest. The DVD storage is on Sony's side, but memory cards sit with NGC (the SD64). It's close, so I call a draw.
Graphics
| Score |
PS2 |
NGC |
0-1 |
Graphics
.processor specifics:
..CPU "Emotion Engine"
..FPU Coprocessor
...multiply accumulator
...divider |
Graphics
.processor specifics:
..Custom PowerPC CPU
...Internal Cache
....32K L1 Instruction Cache
....32K L1 8-way Data Cache
....256K L2 2-way Cache
..FPU Coprocessors
...32 bit FPU
...64 bit FPU |
| 0-1 |
.Vector Units
..Vector Unit VU0
...multiply accumulator x9
...divider
..Vector Unit VU0
...multiply accumulator x9
...divider
..geometric transformation |
.Art-X LSI chip "Flipper"
..fog
..subpixel anti aliasing
..hardware lighting x8
..hardware transform
..alpha blending
..virtual texture design
..multitexture mapping
..bump mapping
..environment mapping
..MIPMAP
..bilinear filtering
..realtime S3TC texture decomresion
..realtime display list decomresion
..hardware motion compensation
..geometry engine |
0-1 |
..manufacturing process:
...Aluminum interconnects |
..manufacturing process:
...Copper interconnects
..0.18 micron process |
0-1 |
..cooling:
...vents heatsinks & 1 fan |
..cooling:
...vents and heatsinks only |
1-0 |
..RGB:Alpha:Z-Buffer
...output: 24:8:32 |
..RGB:Alpha:Z-Buffer
...output: 24:8:24 |
| 0-1 |
..speed:
...150 MHz |
..speed:
...202.5 MHz |
0-1 |
..video cache:
...none |
..video cache:
...1 MB 5ns 1T-SRAM texture
...2 MB 5ns 1T-SRAM frame buffer |
tie |
..video decompression:
...MPEG-2 decompression |
..video decompression:
...MPEG-2 decompression |
0-1 |
.Total System Performance
..6.2 Billion Floating point
..opperations per second |
.Total System Performance
..13.0 Billion Floating point
..opperations per second |
0-1 |
.POLYGON RATE
..Claimed Rates:
...66 Mil-Poly/sec
..Actual Seen Rates:
...2-10 Mil-Poly/sec 1st gen |
.POLYGON RATE
..Claimed Rates:
...Match Seen Rates
..Actual Seen Rates:
...6-12 Mil-Poly/sec 1st gen |
Graphics Rating: NGC 1-8
Hmm... Seems so one sided? Well, it is. The PS2 is a vast powerhouse. I will admit that, but notice how they rely on vector processors (the Nintendo 64 used a less powerful vector processor) and arithmatic units (accumulators) to process graphics? The PS2 makes developers create the code for most the graphics effects they want. It has some built into hardware, but the list is no comparison to the graphics effects of the NGC. NGC provides effect after effect, built into hardware. Yeah, you can add those effects to the PS2 via software, but hardware effects are FASTER! I recomend IGN's technical lexicon page. It defines the various terms above. I won't go through each one. I'll grade just the overal system functions and capabilities. I'd get exausted if I did, but put most simply, NGC has the advantage in the effects and the graphics department. Nintendo also opted for the 0.18 micron copper interconnect technology for the system LSI chip. This allows it to be cooled by mere heatsinks and air vents. The PS2 has 2 fans to cool it, one for the CPU and one for the graphics chip Again, this can be a distraction, and leaves the machine with more mechanical parts that can potentialy fail. PS2 does have a wider Z-Buffer. 32 bit versus 24 bit Z-buffer? It's a nice thing, but the question is will 4 MB of VRAM make it worth the while? Speed wise, the NGC continues it's utter domination, 33% faster! PS2 has a 4 MB VRAM, and a standard DRAM main memory, but no video cache that I've heard of. NGC has a shared main memory and VRAM area that consists of 24 MB of 1T-SRAM, and a pair of massive 2 MB and 1 MB graphics caches. Not to mention the additional 16 MB of standard speed RAM. Gamecube has the graphics memory challenge won and left PS2 in the dust trail of it's dust trail! Both PS2 and NGC tie with FMV and video decompression. Both can handle MPEG-2 decompression. PS2 liscenses DVD video technology, at a substancial cost so they can use it to play DVDs. NGC has the decoding technology, but not the liscence for DVDs. other than the fact that PS2 plays DVDs makes no difference. Both tie with identical capabilitys for FMV playback. As for total system performance? 13.0 billion floating point opperations per second (Giga FLOPS) versus 6.2 GFLOPS for PS2 is a rather pathetic difference. NGC performs twice the FLOPS as the PS2! I mentioned this in the CPU section above. This is a MAJOR point. Trust me, NGC beats PS2 in power, with out a doubt! My final point is the Frames per second. Sony and Microsoft are pulling you legs, they are sweet talking you into believing their machines can push 75 million polys per second for PS2 and 150-300 polys/second for X-Box. You need to remember that X-Box, though it may be 733 MHz is going to use a Pentium processor (PIII according to ign xBox). I hate to burst the X-Box bubble, but Pentium, despite it's speed and power, is still a mere 32 bit processor. It may have large busses and lots of speed, but deep inside is still a 32 bit core. They are using a very PCish graphics chip, and they say they can push 300 Polys per second. They are givving you rates for what the machine can do with only minimal effects and no gameplay or real meat to the programming. MS and Sony demos are designed to ignore all but polys. Microsoft still claims that sustained performance will be over 100+ polygons per second, but consider the ratios shown on PS2. 66-75 polys/sec claimed versus 2-10 polys seen (that's what's been seen, the 20 they claim is sustained won't be hit till late 2nd or 3rd generation games) is a 7.5:1 polygon ration between claimed and first generation sustained. even at 300 claimed for X-Box, it comes to 40 polyons per second for first generation sustained graphics. It'll be pretty, but not the oh so unbelievable leap. Nintendo has always had the gameplay over graphics philosophy, and their 6-12 polygons per second claim is EXACTLY what they showed. these were realtime renderings of demo games. A playable Starwars title, Zelda, and Luigi's Mansion, the rendered cars demo, all reached high polygon rates. This is all demos. They have yet to open the system, and I like Nintendo's attitude. They don't make claims and then scurry to reach them in 4 years. They say what the system does with the current generation of software and simply leave it at the fact that it "has greater potential". Don't buy the hype!
Audio
| Score |
PS2 |
NGC |
0-1 |
Audio Processor
.SPU2+CPU |
Audio Processor
.Custom 16 Bit 101.25 MHz DSP |
0-1 |
..Simultaneous voices:
...48 ADPCM Channels
...defined by software |
..Simultaneous voices:
...64 ADPCM channels
...64 standard minimum
...(expandible) |
tie |
..Sample rate:
...48 KHz (or 44.1)
...select by I/O processor |
..Sample rate:
...48 KHz |
0-1 |
Dedicated Audio RAM
.none |
Dedicated Audio RAM
.Instruction 8KB RAM+8KB ROM
.Data 8KB RAM+4KB ROM |
tie |
Streaming
.yes |
Streaming
.yes |
Audio Rating: NGC 0-3
What can I say. NGC has more channels, has a dedicated audio DSP running at 101.25 MHz, has expandible voices (you can have 64 hardware voices, but add more by software for extreme needs), and it even has a dedicated audio memory for the DSP to use, as well as sharing main memory. It's similar to a mini cache. Yet again, Nintendo finds a way to boost even the most basic functions. The PS2 does have an audio chip but it is controlled by the 32 bit I/O processor. It can be expanded passed the 48 channels by software, but you loose performance for each channel, and 64 vs. 48 is quite a lot! Both sound chips sample at 48 KHz natively, but the PS2 must switch to a 44.1 KHz mode (lower quality) for PSX backwards compatibility.
Miscelaneous
| Score |
PS2 |
NGC |
1-0 |
Miscelaneous
.Backwards Compatibile:
..yes |
Miscelaneous
.Backwards Compatibile:
..no |
1-0 |
.Media (CD/DVD):
..yes |
.Media (CD/DVD):
..no |
0-1 |
.Anti Piracy:
..software, region coding |
.Anti Piracy:
..hardware (regions?) |
0-1 |
.Cooling:
..2 fans heatsinks vents |
.Cooling:
..heatsinks and air vents |
0-1 |
.Ports
..Controllers
...2 |
.Ports
..Controllers
...4 |
tie |
..Memory slots
...2 |
..Memory slots
...2 |
tie
0-1 |
..AV outputs
...AV out (analog) |
..AV outputs
...AV out (analog)
...Digital AV out |
| 0-1 |
.I/O ports
..IEEE1394 (firewire)
..USB |
.I/O ports
..Modem/broadband serial
..secondary high speed serial
..highspeed parallel |
0-1 |
.Controller
..Innovation
...Analog PSX Dual Shock |
.Controller
..Innovation
...Most unique since N64
...Best PS & N64 features |
1-0 |
..Buttons
...8 action + 2 mode |
..Buttons
...7 action + 1 mode |
0-1 |
..Control
...1 d-pad + 2 analog |
..Control
...2 analog + 1 d-pad |
0-1 |
..Alternatives?
...Multitap |
..Alternatives?
...GameBoy Advance
..Wireless Wavebird |
you
decide |
.Odditys???
..vertical stand
..(cooling aid, space saver) |
.Odditys???
..handle
..hot pink display model |
Miscelaneous Rating: NGC 3-8
Well, PS2 takes the DVD/media and the backwards compatibility by storm. Nintendo does not touch this. If you want a DVD player that can play games, go with Sony. Either that or buy a real DVD player and a Gamecube. Nintendo has the ultimate anti piracy tool on the market... Mini DVD disks. They feature physical attributes that make copying extremely dificult. PS2's encrtption, I think, was already broken. PS2 will have a mod chip out very soon! PS2 looses the cooling race, with it's 2 fans (more mechanical stuff to break down). NGC manages a cool time with nothing but heatsinks and air vents. No fans to break down or hum in the background! Although the two tie with memory card slots, the NGC wins hands down by copying the 64 and it's 4 controller ports versus 2 on PS2. PS2 has limited digital video support, while NGC has a full blown digital video output in the rear! Can't wait to pop a NGC onto a VGA monitor or a HDTV! The final list of ports is a hard call. No one port out does another, but I can say this. Sony uses industry standard ports and will need to use a very custom block to make only Sony liscensed devices work in those ports. What's going to happen when people start plugging all sorts of devices into those industry standard ports that the PS2 doesn't recognize. I see a potential for disaster. Sony recently announced that they are gonig for a "computer console". I remember those. Atari, Coleco, and Commodore made those. Small, low power computers with cartridge slots to play games. How many of those products made it? Plus, Sony made a deal with Epson. SOME Epson printer and digital camera products will work on PS2. Apparently, Sony's little computer console idea also includes telling you what peripherals you are allowed to attach to the computer. Spend the cash and get a PC if that's what you want. PS2 has a lot of industry options, but the potential for thousands of devices that plug in, but aren't compatible, and users demanding they do. NGC has a communications port, and an additional serial and a parallel port for expansion. They have left their options VERY open. I call NGC as the winner for this round. The controller is another touchy area. Nintendo stated they are not done working on ideas for the NGC controller. I trus Nintendo. I LOVED the N64 controller. Many don't like it, but I do. We'll see. It tied in my opinion. NGC needs at least the 4th shoulder button. I can live without select, but at least make the top edge symetrical and add that button that belongs there! NGC does win in the alternatives category. A Nintendo produces wireless controller and the built in capability to use a GBA as a NGC controller with a private screen is a real winner! PS2 has what? The multitap? Oh! lets give them an add on that gives PS2 what Nintendo has on their system as a standard! Wow... Real inovation there! Finaly, the oddities. I won't judge them, but I personaly like the handle. I'd use it. The vertical stand is a fancy cooling device, but it allso adds looks, space saving to the PS2. Your opinion. I won't grade those.
Games
| Score |
PS2 |
NGC |
1-0 |
Games
.Many 3rd party developers |
Games
.Many 3rd partys unannounced |
| 0-1 |
.Relies on other developers |
.Excelent in house developers |
| 1-0 |
.Square developing titles |
.Square only seen in talks |
| 0-1 |
.Plain old PS2 controller |
.Gameboy Advance interaction |
| 1-0 |
.Large launch titles list |
.Largely unknown launch list |
| 0-1 |
.Too little focus on games |
.Designed for true gaming |
you
decide |
.Your favorite Sony games |
.Your favorite Nintendo games |
Well, people will have their own personal preferences, but Nintendo has the games that I like. Demos for games such as Zelda, Metroid, Luigi's Mansion, Too Human, Wave Race, Pokemon, and Star Wars (a playable version I might add) make me want to wear a drool bucket. Even the older concept videos and screenshots of games like the Rainbow Six like game, Robocop, Picasso, and Saffire and demos such as the cars demo and expecialy the Rebirth demo make me want a Gamecube even more. That's realy all it comes down to. Power isn't everyhing. Gameboy is proof of that. Nintendo has a skill for creation. They can make games that you actualy want to play over and over. With the power behind Gamecube, and the ease with which they claim it can be developed for, they should soon draw more 3rd party developers. Right now, PS2 dominates in 3rd party support, but many are proclaiming their dissatisfaction with the PS2 hardware. Many have also proclaimed the power and simplicity of the Gamecube. I see PS2's domination evening out by launch. I miss Square. I hope that Square's talks with Nintendo are fruitful! I'd hate to lose them again! All we can do is hope and pray for their triumphant return to the Nintendo RPG! By the time E3 rolls around, I believe we will see the masses turn in unison, and they will be gazing upon the cube!
Well, there you have it. As many specs as I know, side by side. One system function to another. I'm sure it looks one-sided, but it's the truth. Xbox is not really mentioned too much in this letter since info is very distant and subject to change. Heck, any of the information here could change. If it does, oh well. One thing I know is that, unless a change to the specs is made, the Xbox uses a Pentium III processor, and despite it's speed and power, it's technicaly still a 32 bit chip. the graphics card may be 256 bit (depends on what they finalize the specs at). Right now, Xbox is too far away to tell. NGC is equaly distant, but given Nintendo's policy and track record for being more truthful (even if more secretive as well), I can believe their info. All information was off of IGN or it's affiliates. I referenced cube.ign, ps2.ign, and xbox.ign as my primary sources of data, so don't think it's all a one sided argument taken from the igncube page data alone.
"Leave luck to the heavens!"
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