CarloOos

Street Fighter Anniversary Edition, Metal Slug 3 and OutRun 2 all on Xbox all £15-£20 each. I wouldnt mind that Headhunter:Redemption for a tenner I saw either.

But to get them using the touch screen they have to get them to buy DS's in the frist place. Your missus wouldn't have had a clue had you not bought it, no?

And what do the majority of the public buy consoles off? Face value. Graphics.

I think the DS will spread after time, with the 'had a go on my mates' syndrome.

True, but sometimes you must perserveer with annoyance to enjoy the game more, sort of like playing a lot of Street Fighter to learn all the best moves. Those first few days will annoy the fuck out of you, you'll get beat continually, but once you know how to do that combo you'll fucking love it.

I think you're overestimating the general public there, the EyeToy was incredibly successful but on the Playstation. I doubt it would have made such an impact on the GC, and instead be a brief novelty like Donky Konga.

I don't think the DS will flop on it's arse, obviously gamers are very excited about it, but I don't think it will draw in the public crowds like the GBA has. I think it's more likely to become the GameGear to Sony's Gameboy.

I fucking loved the GameGear.

Yoy know, the last time I got called a 'Fag Brit' from some random yank I asked him where Wales was. To which he responded 'I dont know, I don't care about your stupid towns'.

Of course everyone was crying with laughter, but looking back I find it quite depressing, this guy was 18. I quite literally think that country is in a fucking sorry state, and they're the only ones who dont realise.

The only level which fucked me off completely was the water boss one, because it was the games' mechanics that made it hard and not my own error and/or shiteness at it.

The problem was you had this boss flying about, along with hundreds (literally) of enemies, and so it was easy to lose track of the boss since it could be anywhere above you, and since it was floating over lava so you had to use spells on it. To use spells on it you had to lock onto it because it was flying all over, but locking on was pure trial and error because everytime you pressed it it might lock on to any one of the hundreds of respawning enemies flying everwhere. Annoying as hell, but not impossible.

I found Advance Wars II a much better game than Far Cry 

But would you find it better than Advance Wars 3, with lovely graphics on the PSP? Assuming the gameplay was identical... (Of course it would be called PS Wars or something ridiculous).

You're right though, Advance Wars is taking up more of my time than any other game at the moment, other than Metal Slug Advance.

I hope it's a Doom 2: Hell on Earth remake, since they are porting Doom 2's weapons and enemies. I think a Doom 3 add-on set on Earth has potential.

That is one thing I find refreshing about Bungie, their updates are very much on a frank no-bullshit here it is level, as opposed to the standard PR crap we get off other companies.

They have been banning people who freeze their connections to lag around the map and kill people, apparently.

I've seen it done, mostly in head-to-head matches, and it's disgraceful - especially since in head-to-head there's nobody else who can complain so they'll get away with it. One 'cheater' reply in feedback isn't enough.

Well, they're all from IGN. I havent been hunting looking for dodgey ones, although it appears to only be Tiger Woods that's suffered from being blown up, the other ones have been made smaller surely? I'm not sure how big the DS screen actually is. Harsh though it may be however, you can clearly tell there's a big difference, just compare the trees.

This is in no way an anti-DS topic, and I hope nobody misinterprets it as such, I just thought it was interesting to actually see what they're both capabable side-by-side, purely graphically. Like I said, I just wasn't expecting the difference to be so large.

Yeah that what I was trying to say, no matter how different they are to people 'in the know' to most people they are both basically handheld consoles, and to them they would only need one.

That's a good point with the CD/MP3 player comparison.

Fannies, the lot of you!

The bastard level of Otogi was neither the Crow or 'None Shall Pass', it was the penultimate level where you had to fight FOUR bosses (including the afformentioned fucking Crow) and an assortment of the hardest enemies in an single level, each boss hard as the other with other ANNND fling the hardest, most annoying enemies in the game through 5 shards of of glass to reach one such boss, all while your magic drains. Absolute CUNT it was, by the time you reach the last boss you've got no fucking health, no magic, and because you have no magic your health is fucking draining and if you DIE you have to start it all again.

So, yeah. Roll on Otogi 2.

RRDS is a good example as in pictures it looks a bit shit, but in movement it's quite nice.

Well that's fair enough, but to add some perspective compare the trees from the Ridge Racer screens on the DS and PSP. Such a simple thing looks so siginifcantly different.

Certainly, good sir.

Behold, teh sex!11!1!

Apparently it's a direct sequel to Twisted Metal 2, you know, the good one.

Doesn't this one have online co-op missions, ala Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven?

Well it was just a vauge assumption, they will defintiely be over £100 and I think the general public has a sort of stigma against buying more than one console/device that has over a three-digit price tag, which is why we get so many people blindly allying themself to one console instead of buying the others and trying them out.

When the console drop to £99 or under that seems to be the point where people finally decide 'well maybe it's worth at try after all'. Although you could argue that the GC has been under £100 for sometime and hasnt sold paticuarly well over here, but it clearly sells enough.

Plus Europe (well, the UK in paticular) almost always gets fucked over for prices even in comparison to import rates, so who knows.

Obviously you're right, but the fact is not everyone has enough money to shell out for two probably £200 pieces of kit, when to the untrained eye they both fill the same purpose. They may offer different experiences, and to us gamers we know that there are distinct advantages to each of them, but I'd imagine the average will buyer opting for one with the most comprehensive list of titles purely to get their money's worth, or maybe not opting to buy one at all because they feel their GBA will suffice.

Personally, while Wario Touch and Feel the Magic intrigue me, I dont think in the long term there will be enough use for the DS's abilities so out of the two I wuld opt for the PSP because their's just so much variety. It's often claimed that they are all remakes and ports, mostly true, but some of the games I feel are perfect for on-the-go gaming. Tony Hawks is one of them with it's quick 2 minute rounds. Finally with a machine as powerful as the PSP a 'proper' Tony Hawks can be replicated and played on the go, and under these circumstances I don;t have any problems with it's games being ports.

I'd imagine so, the screen is probably a way higher resolution considering the DS has so many 3D titles. Fantastic game, I'm finding it even harder than the Xbox Metal Slug 3.

Well, we all know how good Metal Slug is, probably the best graphics on the GBA IMO.

I'll see if there are any more direct comparisons for games on both platforms.

EDIT: There's Dynasty Warriors on them both, but there are currently no screenshots out for the DS version. There's a few for the PSP one:

That's a fair point about Ridger Racer, but it is like looking at the old PS1-PS2 comparisons when regarding Tiger Woods.

Ridge Racer DS:

Ridge racer PSP:

Tiger Woods DS:

Tiger Woods PSP:

Now I'm well aware graphics aren't everything, but I wasn't aware that the hardware gap was that significant. Shame about the battery life, but IGN claimed was 3.5 hours on full brightness in Ridge Racer, and since I cant imagine you often requiring more than the medium brightness option it doesn't look liek such an issues. I'm also more than willing to buy a spare battery you could carry around and switch it with, as opposed to one you clip on the back making it twice as fat.

By the way, has anyone seen the screenshots of the new Twisted Metal on it? It looks absolutely fanatstic, with wireless MP for upto 8 players. I am getting quite excited for the PSP now, and I hope they get those hardware issues sorted out in time for the UK release, I'm not keen on having to wait for the generation of them.

I knew the PSP was more powerful than the DS, but I was still initially impressed by the DS graphics. Viewing screenshots for each of them seperately, I didn't notice such a jarring difference, but side-by-side...that's a whole different stroy. Here's a few comparisons:

Spiderman 2, DS:

Spiderman 2 PSP:

That's fine, I'm often late-night Live-ing on weekends. If I'm ever on just send an invite Preacher.

Fable ruined San Andreas.

See for me it was the opposite, I played San Andreas and thought it did virtually everything Fable wanted to, and better, without actually putting any significant emphasis on such elements. For example, in San Andreas, the locals react to what you wear and call you things acordingly. In Fable, you 'buy' what they call you, which I find really lazy and stupid, it defeats the point of NPC's acknowledging you at all. In Fable they can either cower in fear or be in awe of you, I found it really cheap and limited for a game that based itself around customisation and NPC interaction.

Obviously we're both going off our own opinions here, I can see why people enjoyed Fable, I just happened to think it was poorly made. I havent touched Fable since I got GTA:SA, and admittedly I havent touched GTA:SA since Halo 2, however I have an urge to go back and see the rest of GTA:SA at some point whereas I can't be arsed putting another second into Fable as it is.