UKNM: The interesting thing about this games debate...

[John Braithwaite]

... is how territorial people can be about their systems (past, current

or future!).


[People who can't be bothered with the 'gaming' chat, don't bother with

this one.. ]


And... lo and behold, we have someone from a PC magazine extolling the

virtues of... surprise, surprise... PC gaming.


The truth is that PCs are expensive and are not built to play games on

(get a card / chip for this, a special pad for that, a plug-in for this

etc.), people buy PCs - sure, but generally the gaming aspect comes

after the purchasing decision (ooops - an assumption, no facts, anyone

got any evidence to prove otherwise?).


A console is cheaper - designed with a comfortable pad to fit snugly in

the hand, you use the TV (usually the largest screen in the house) and

you can sit on the sofa.... IDEAL!!


There is little doubt that Sony will continue its dominance of the

market with it's next system. However I would like to bring into

question its software: In 90% of cases it is sub-standard and in the

other 10% only a small fraction are 'killer apps'. Sure Tomb Raider was

popular, for a couple of outstanding reasons (don't snigger), but it was

a poor game - I played it and got bored quickly. Driver is another

over-hyped (and well marketed) game that is good, but not amazing.

Perhaps the only exception to the rule is Gran Turismo - but that

requires patience and, in fact, doesn't fit into the 'casual gamer'

model that Playstation is really king.


Someone mentioned how much better FIFA 98 was on Playstation than

Nintendo - it's still streets behind ISS on Nintendo... most impartial

magazines admit this (I only read EDGE as the rest are puerile and

generally give anything published for their console over 80% marks).

Also ISS on Playstation is a completely different game than the Nintendo

version (and much worse for the changes).


The *real* gamer will only decide, perhaps, 10% of the market. The rest

is loaded with marketers' dream customers: 'Can I have the latest Tomb

Raider/FIFA/almost the same as the original/ etc. game and here's the

full price because I have to have it now, and not in two months time and

the adverts are really eye-catching so it must be good'.


As for Dreamcast - I wish Sega luck although, unfortunately, most of the

first selection of games have been given a bit of a panning.


John


********************

UKNM is sponsored by Excite UK, visit us at http://www.excite.co.uk.

Email Khalil Ibrahimi

khalilexcitecorp [dot] com (mailto:khalilexcitecorp [dot] com)

 to advertise on Excite.

********************

Change your UKNM subscription use http://www.chinwag.com/uknm.html