Why GC is more "powerful" than XBox

[FirstBlood]

Preach on, brother. This is exactly why the "breakaway cord" is so retarded--it's completely and utterly useless

... Just because the small cords come out four inches, doesn't make it "retarded".

Maybe pulling the cord out of the system by tripping over it can cause damage to the controller port?

[MarkRyan]

Were you playing on Easy? Me thinks maybe.

And throwing is most definitely the best way to kill. And you can't deny that the boss battles have an awesome amount of variety. The game's combat is easily the most advanced--and variety filled--combat of any 3D action game ever. I honestly can't think of anything that comes close to touching ZoE2's combat in any respect.

Oh yeah, Panzer Dragoon Orta--good pick for awesome graphics (forgot I had played that back when I had roommates that had Xboxes). Great art, and good technicalities--I still wouldn't say it beats Resident Evil / Resident Evil Ø, though. Those games make me cry.

[MarkRyan]

... Just because the small cords come out four inches, doesn't make it "retarded".

Maybe pulling the cord out of the system by tripping over it can cause damage to the controller port?

Again dood, go use a Dreamcast and see smart design. I sound like a huge Dreamcast fanboy, but I honestly never liked the Dreamcast much at all beyond its 2D fighting games (I own about 8 2D fighters, and Crazy Taxi).

It's retarded because the execution of a good idea is unecessarily complicated. Why anyone would think to make the cords break in half instead of just pull out of the system easily is completely and utterly beyond my comprehension. I feel the urge to create some sort of whacked analogy, but I can't bring my mind to think of something equally retarded.

[Prince Planet]

Why anyone would think to make the cords break in half instead of just pull out of the system easily is completely and utterly beyond my comprehension.

What is the advantage of having the connection pull out of the system (easily, as you put it) as opposed to break-away cord?

What is special about having the cord simply pull out of the system? That's what happens with every other cord made. You yank on it, and it pops out, or it drags the whole system with it.

How do you make a "loose" connection for the pins, and why would you do this?

Why would you want the stress point to be where the pins are connected, as opposed to being somewhere down the cord where there's no chance of damaging the connecting pins?

Why are you obsessed with the break-away cord?

What the hell is your problem?

[SonofdonCD]

Oh yeah, Panzer Dragoon Orta--good pick for awesome graphics (forgot I had played that back when I had roommates that had Xboxes). Great art, and good technicalities--I still wouldn't say it beats Resident Evil / Resident Evil Ø, though. Those games make me cry.

Here's the thing about Res Evil.

For how great the graphics are, I'm not as impressed as a game like PDO. Orta, unlike Rez Evil, does EVERYTHING in real-time, 60 fps goodness. Rez Evil better look that good, after all it's pre-rendered backgrounds.

That's not to say that the GC isn't doing any work: there are a lot of cool lighting effects going on, and the character models are extremely detailed and good looking. But pre-rendered backgrounds always felt like cheating to me.

It's more impressive when the system can handle everything that a pre-rendered image can, in real-time, especially so that the camera can be moved and you can actually interact with the background more convincingly.

That's why I'm more looking forward to seeing what the GC can do when Res Evil 4 comes out, which I read is this fall.

[Kbu Chan]

What about features specific to the hardware such as Xbox's ability to bump-map? You kinda ignored that stuff but it would definitely play into measuring a console's overall power. Thoughts?

I don't know where you got that idea from (Play perhaps?) but the GC does bump-mapping very well. In fact there are only two games in existence, including high-end pcs, that are fully bump-mapped and run at 60fps (with slowdown), and they are both on GC. Then add in the huge scale of these games and that they are also doing six textures per surface (two more than the XBox's max of four) and have countless moving lightsources.

[Kbu Chan]

Crap. I thought Xbox BG&E was the best rev so I bought that one. Is the framerate really noticeably higher on the GC?

And this business about the horizontal slices. Yes! I hate that! This is specific to Xbox? The same game won't exhibit it on GC? I wouldn't know because I pretty much never buy or play multiple copies of the same game across different systems. Simpsons' Hit & Run has the horizontal slicing hardcore when you rotate the camera and it really bothers me (gives me a headache). I could've avoided this by buying the GC version? Damn.

It's not specific to the XBox, but you see it more there than on the other systems. It's not an issue with the framerate not being locked (who made that up?), it's an issue with the cpu not being able to keep up with what is called "housekeeping". Housekeeping is when the subsystems of a program clean out the leftovers, in this case, the old images aren't being cleaned out fast enough by the cpu. Splinter Cell on the XBox has it really bad. The game was ported twice before it ended up on the GC and the "slices" were completely gone as a result.

[Mzo]

Here's the thing about Res Evil.

For how great the graphics are, I'm not as impressed as a game like PDO. Orta, unlike Rez Evil, does EVERYTHING in real-time, 60 fps goodness. Rez Evil better look that good, after all it's pre-rendered backgrounds.

That's not to say that the GC isn't doing any work: there are a lot of cool lighting effects going on, and the character models are extremely detailed and good looking. But pre-rendered backgrounds always felt like cheating to me.

It's more impressive when the system can handle everything that a pre-rendered image can, in real-time, especially so that the camera can be moved and you can actually interact with the background more convincingly.

That's why I'm more looking forward to seeing what the GC can do when Res Evil 4 comes out, which I read is this fall.

They're not static images anymore. The Cube is streaming looping movies for the backgrounds.

And I don't think it matter HOW the effect was pulled off, so long as it's damned impressive looking (which the GC RE games are).

[Cheebs]

I have yet to hear a single good reason why the cord has to break away in the middle rather than the end.

There is a reason the break away is 4 inches away from the console and not right at it. You must apply force in the direction of the connection to disconect. No matter how loose the connection is, if you try to yank a cord out and pull at say....a 10 degree upwards angle, you will be fighting the friction of the plug against the socket, and the console will likely be yanked off the shelf.

With the 4 inch extension, no matter what direction you pull, the force is always directly along the cord, pulling it apart with ease. The "breaking point" can move along with the cord instead of being fixed in one direction at the console.

In other words, the break away is in the middle of the cord because it is the only way it will break away in all directions.

[SonofdonCD]

They're not static images anymore. The Cube is streaming looping movies for the backgrounds.

And I don't think it matter HOW the effect was pulled off, so long as it's damned impressive looking (which the GC RE games are).

Touché. I actually didn't know that.

But that doesn't change my main point.

I'm not saying it's not a good looking game. On the contrary: they're great looking. But it's not as impressive to me when the system isn't rendering the backgrounds in real-time. To me, that's a true testament to the system's power, not pre-rendered bakgrounds or, in this case, streaming video (SC5 also used this technique, correct?).

I'm still gonna play the game (I played and loved RE remake, haven't gotten to RE0 yet), and I wasn't constantly saying "This game sucks! It's not in real-time!" or anything. Just a thought that I've had ever since these type of games started coming out, beginning with FF7 and the original Res Evil.