So I thought about this a lot lately due to someone’s offer to sell me his original Xbox. I was thinking about a reason to buy it. I have a lot of nostalgia for the system and the generation in general. It was the first time I had all the consoles and had enough money to actually afford games for all of them. While I have nice memories of Gamecube and PS2 gaming, the Xbox always holds a special place in my heart because of Halo and other 3rd Party stuff. It was also so damn powerful compared to the PS2. Yet, I still sold it (a PAL Crystal Xbox was it)
The games however, while still great and fun, are often just played better on modern systems. So many games got better ports or have PC versions that are way better when it comes to actually playing them.
I just started to replay Max Payne the other day. I finished the games many times in the past on both Xbox and PC. While it is totally playable on Xbox, it’s much better on PC. Same for Halo. I adore the first games but if I had the choice, I would always prefer the 4k/60 versions on X1X.
Same goes for other systems as well of course. Hard to find a reason to play Twilight Princess for the Gamecube when the Wii U remaster is better imo. I know about the bad remakes like the Silent Hill or Splinter Cell collection but I think those are in the minority.
There are still exclusives of course but I would argue that most of the must plays are already playable on a modern system through bc or a remake.
Another problem with the consoles are video signals/connectivity. Component cables for GCN and Xbox aren’t cheap, the PS2 output/picture quality is imo not great. There are HDMI mods for Gamecube and the OSSC but that stuff is expensive. Best bet is probably a good CRT (especially for the PS2).
Long story short, as someone who always tried to have a rather small, curated collection of selected games that I can replay on a regular basis, it’s hard for me to justify buying a Xbox or even play on my old PS2.
A lot of games certainly have ports elsewhere but ports like that tend to be done on the cheap and have issues. Contemporary PC ports, HD remakes on last gen, and modern rereleases all often leave a lot to be desired with bugs, visual changes, missing effects, or worse. This is leaving aside notoriously awful ports like Silent Hill 2.
Yeah you can get higher resolutions but the art assets are all designed around 480i/480p and they often don’t benefit from HD or look better at their original resolutions.
There’s also a TON of great games that never left GC, Xbox, and especially PS2. And IMO they all play best on their original platforms.
There’s something about popping a tiny disc into the little lunchbox, grabbing an original controller, and playing knowing I have as authentic an experience as possible that makes me want to seek out more games, play more, enjoy more. Same for PS2 and Xbox: I have both set up to play games off SD card but often prefer using real discs; I could play several Xbox games with better framerates and res on an XB1X but it all just feels right on my real system at 480p.
It is unfortunate that getting GC and Xbox to look good costs quite a bit or requires luck. I still don’t understand where the video quality complaints with PS2 come from – maybe you just need better cables? In all three cases though you can always get a period correct consumer CRT and just have a blast even with composite.
I disagree, I would say Gen 6 is one of the best gens IMO. There’s still so many games to get on those systems as well. When it comes to video quality, yes, Gamecube can be expensive for component cables, but just getting a Carby which is 75 bucks and does HDMI is good along with a 150 bucks GCHD Mk-II which does HDMI, Component and Scart for RGB! Yeah GCHD Mk-II is kinda pricey but still cheaper than Gamecube component cables, plus more options so it’s for the best. For Xbox component cables, I found a good third party one for around 20 bucks and works perfectly. I agree with poptart when it comes to games that are played best on those systems along with many games that didn’t leave the systems.
I don’t think so, I think the only thing that I have noticed is playing some of the OG Xbox games is how empty they were. I replayed Otogi and I don’t remember the levels being so blank, I guess my mind always filled it with stuff or something so now coming from more modern consoles it feels weird.
Other than that I think you’re kind of cherry picking games for games, the silent hill/horror games on xbox/PS2 are still I think the best have come out between Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Rule of Rose, etc… There’s plenty of gems of Viewtiful Joe, Legacy of Kain Series (You can play on PC but most don’t have great controls), Katamari series, the best of Tony Hawk series, the contra releases were really good, the Onimusha Series (first just finally got a remake but that’s so recent). PS2 also had a ton of RPGs that were good and will never get a rerelease most likely like Shadow Hearts, .Hack, most of the Shin Megami games, Xenosaga, and more.
There’s always going to be releases and improvements of old games, especially the most popular ones, but how many of the main SNES/Genesis games haven’t been re-released in the last gen or two? But I think there’s still more than enough good games and content to go back to from that gen just like any other gen.
I personally have no real interest anymore for that gen, especially GC and Xbox.
Maybe someday I’ll pick up a PS2 for some games I never did, but primaly for 2D arcade conversions like Final Fight. By the way I wonder how a 480i machine displays 240p, flickering the same two lines ?
However I preciously keep my DC for the Shenmue’s <3
“Flickering the same two lines” is exactly how 240p works on anything. 480i is the TV norm, 240p is a trick to display a lower Res.
The reason why early consoles used progressive scan was one of memory constraints and lack of computational power. It’s easier to render stuff at a 240 vertical resolution. Once the machines got powerful enough to make moving images with a definition of 480 vertically, programmers used that. And the way to display 480 lines on a TV was to do it with two half frames, two fields.
I rarely played GCN back in the day so I don’t have much nostalgia for it. However, PS2 and Xbox (mostly ps2) were videogame defining consoles for me. A lot of it has to do with being in college at the time and having a ton of free time (compared to now). I still play ps2 regularly and have my Xbox hooked up via component to my HDTV for [see below].
This! I legit rebought an og Xbox for this game only. No regrets. Such a sublime recipe of arcade and sim rally. Ahead of its time.
Richard Burns Rally (PC but was long rumored to come out on Xbox) is a different beast altogether, but those two are on the top of the rally podium IMO.
And because I’m geeking out about rally, one of my favorite rally videos:
More like I found that my PS3 excruciating slow to even make basic actions (like start games, check trophies or change accounts). It had good games, of course, but I find that it was a creatively bankrupt generation, almost no games pushed the media forward IMO.
With a CRT and good cables, it’s a great balance between some modernity and a still experimental era.
It may sound counter-intuitive, but I also think back then they had the gumption to balance difficulty better. More hard sections without save states etc, and sometimes still the repetitiveness as ‘punishment for failing’ - eg you fall off the tower and now must climb it all over again. Recently the only games I’ve played that had that feeling of actual stakes were the Wonder Boy Dragon’s Trap remake.
I like the generation since it was the first where I had disposable income and could play whatever I wanted, so I have a decent collection across the consoles. But I haven’t got a good solution for displaying 480i/576i so they tend to go unused. The OSSC is unpleasant to look at with those consoles even though the responsiveness is decent. The opposite is true if I used the built in TV scaler.
I can easily go back to any gen. But one thing I always hated about the DC/PS2/GC/XB gen was all the console games with fucked up cameras that weren’t customizable. I always use inverted Y axis but often I didn’t have the option. Inverted X axis is the worst, most counter-intuitive thing ever and a lot of Japanese developers loved that shit for some reason that gen. PC games at least almost always gave options.
Gen 6 is my favorite gen and I have no problem going back and playing games from that gen, especially on the DC and XB. I also have a CRT and bust out the light guns every now and then.
Playing some OG XB games on the XB1X is the way to go though.
But XBLA, Wii, WiiWare, VC, PSN, and Steam opened the floodgates to all sorts of smaller and more innovative developers with tons of unique titles. Sure,COD and GTA sort of dominated the AAA trends for a while, but I still think every player was pretty well served by what was being made at the time.
I know that you’re getting at, but as good as some indies were (like Braid, Fez and Limbo), they were derivative (puzzle platformers) and hardly pushing the envelope overall.
I don’t like it, but I consider Minecraft the defining game of that generation.
Minecraft is arguably the most unexpected success in video game history.
I think the most creative achievements in video games were in the PC modding scenes.
Warcraft 3, and Starcraft 1 & 2 custom maps in particular have been extraordinary influential.
And the rise of larger format tournaments in the South Korean mold, with growth in stream views, paved the way for twitch, and esports in general.
