General musings about multiple systems
 

I posted this over at CAG, but im also interested to see what my fellow DVD talkers have to say...

So heres my dilemma. Current owner of a 360 & PSP, Current Borrower of a PS2. I'm in my late 20's so Ive being playing since the Atari days.

A friend of mine picked up guitar hero Saturday. After playing it i was instantly hooked. Now at the time I did not have a PS2. But a friend of mine has a slim that she doesn't play that much (only for DDR) So I asked if I could borrow it for a while, she agreed and I run off to Best Buy to purchase my own Guitar Hero. Hook it up with a set of Component Cables, for my Plasma, start to play and I immediately suck.

Upon looking around online, I find that on some HDTV, rhythm games on PS2 can experience lag. This also explains our crappy performance on DDR lately.

So %^&$! I find a great game to bring me back to PS2 and i cant play it.

So being pissed off about it has me rather jaded about games right now. I miss the days of one system, and games working, and not having to worry about x game coming out on x system I don't have.

I love my 360, but after beating Dead Rising, Saints Row, and Lego Star wars, in the last few weeks, it feels kinda done. Only other exclusive title that has my interest for the rest of the year is DOA X2. Smackdown 06 is my other must have, but for once is multi platform this year. Yeah yeah and maybe Gears of War.

PS2 has Justice League Heroes. This is another must for me. Still wish that was being made for 360, and I'm not holding my breath for BC. Other exclusive stuff like Scarface, Sopranos, Bully etc, has me pissed they were canceled for 360. Guitar Hero 2 is reported to run at 480P so maybe that one will run better for me.

And as far as the PSP. Haven't touched it since the day after Tekken was released. Never use the multimedia features, and games just are not there. Syphon filter was the only one i've finished.

Ive always been a Sony fanboy, but gave the 360 a shot for the HD aspect and some of the exclusive stuff like DOA and Dead Rising. Unsure about PS3 (pricey) and Wii (Gimmicky to me, no flames)

So after all this babbling, I'm trying to figure out what system is for me. Is there anyone else out there, who gets tired of going back and forth between systems, just for 1-2 games?

DS

A plethora of great games with even more on the horizon.

Yeah I had a DS, enjoyed it some, but ultimately it hurt my hands to play, and I don't portable game that much anymore

Yeah, I got kind of sick of it, but for differnet reasons.

Having a PS2, X-box, GC and GBA/DS this past gen I tended to get sucked into the hype and buy most of the highly touted games on each. The problem is a lot of them weren't really in the genre's I like the most, or were just my cup of tea, and in general I didn't like a lot of these AAA reviewed titles on teh PS2 and X-box as much as the "B" titles on the nintendo systems.

That combined with a lack of free time, and I'm just sticking with Nintendo only this next gen and keeping the PS2 around for a while to pick up some games like Okami and FFXII etc. and some older ones I missed.

FYI some HDTVs have a "Game" mode that turns off (or reduces) the signal processing so that even though the picture may look a little worse, the lag should be signifigantly better, if not completely eliminated. I've read that on some models, all you have to do is change the label for the video input to "Game" and that'll do it. You may have to do a little research on your particular model of TV to find out what options you have.

As for the topic of multiple systems, I find that I'm not overly bothered by it so far. I tend to be a fairly patient person, though, so I've got no problem waiting until a couple years into a console's life to pick one up. By then I'll know which console has had games released that I'm interested in, and what the future may hold for it. Not only that, but by waiting a year or two I can most likely get the system for a bit cheaper, as well as score some good deals on the earlier games.

The only thing that would make me really want to dig in and get a system at launch any more is if there are some absolutely 100% must-play titles, but I'm finding that there's less and less of those recently.

You think the entire Wii console is gimmicky, but you bought Guitar Hero?

I've never been a multi-console guy, but mainly because I don't have the time or money to devote to multiples, and I don't see that changing in this generation. I hadn't owned any consoles between the Coleco and the Gamecube, so I've definitely gotten used to missing a lot of games. I think I'll be happy sticking with just one console and a PC for gaming for a while.

:lol:

burn!

:blush:

Well maybe to elaborate I do think the Wii has a lot of potential. Im just not sold on it yet. Plus, I'm not really talking about whether or not I want to buy a Wii.

Guess I'm just annoyed when certain games dont go next gen, or are exclusive, etc etc.

I go back to my Dreamcast because I could never find the GC version of Ikaruga in stock. That's about it really, I had no issues with Guitar Hero on my HD.

No lag playing PS2/Guitar Hero on my HDTV. This was a problem in some of the earlier models of DLP RPTVs but my RPTV is fine, I play Beatmania, fighting games and everything perfectly. Basically, anything made nowadays should be fine.

I was just teasing. I wasn't trying to turn this into a Wii thread.

I guess I just don't worry about exclusives anymore. There's always going to be games coming out for systems I don't have. Plus, I buy more games than I play anyway, so I'll just try to focus on the systems that I do have.

In my case I think I'll be picking up only one of the next-gen consoles and maybe eventually a PS2 once the price is low enough. That way I can hit a few of the games I missed out on in this past generation.

This is kind of off-topic but, at the same time, not really...

How long after the 360 was released did Microsoft announce they weren't going to produce the original Xbox anymore? I only ask because with the PS3 and Wii reportedly 100% BC with current gen systems, I could see them each being dropped sooner. If that were to happen it may be hard to find a new PS2 for cheap. If you PS2 or GameCube break down, Sony and Nintendo would much rather you join their current products rather than keep producing the old ones. Used would be your cheapest option then, just as it is now.

Its cool Vegan, I laughed.

I don't remember exactly when, they stopped producing them. I do know a couple of months ago I was talking to a friend at Walmart, and he said they had stopped receiving original X-box's.

Thinking back, I've probably picked up about half of my systems based on specific title(s).

NES - Got for the system itself
Gameboy - Got for the system itself
Genesis - Got for the system itself
SNES - Got specifically for SF2, and to a degree Zelda and Super Mario World
PS1 - Got specifically for Resident Evil and classic game compilations (Williams, Namco)
PS2 - Got for the system itself
Gamecube - Got specifically for the Resident Evil series
PSP - Got for the system itself
XBOX 360 - Pushed into buying based on Dead Rising, plus news that RE5 and GTA4 would be on the system

Now in all those cases there were OTHER games I was interested in, but they weren't enough to get me to buy the systems alone.

The exclusivity thing is a big reason I don't plan on picking up a PS3 for now. There hasn't been one exclusive title announced yet that I'm really interested in. The Wii, on the other hand, does. But the Wii would fall into the 'Got for the system itself' because I feel the system itself has its own merits/distinctions beyond just its library of games.

Well heres news about Guitar Hero at least:

"Activision CEO tells investors to expect RedOctane's hit headbanging series "on every significant new format" starting next year."