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Late Night Consoling

by jason bergman, Jan 22, 2003 8:30pm PST
Related Topics – Sega, Atari, Activision, Games: Console

Several people last night wanted to know why I considered the Xbox a console, but not Infinium's planned Phantom, which I dubbed a closed box PC. I admit the difference isn't quite as black and white as it used to be, but I consider a console system a platform that exists to play games, and do nothing else. That's not to say they can't do anything else, as the Dreamcast's web browser and PS2's Linux kit have shown, but they are 99% gaming machines, and most importantly not compatible with PCs. As soon as you throw in PC compatibility, it ceases to be a game system and becomes a closed box PC. I say that, because in order to be PC compatible you need one major thing consoles do not have: a substantial operating system (the Xbox uses a minimal derivative of the Windows kernel, but it's not a full OS). There have been platforms that straddled the line very closely, but I have always considered the Amiga and Atari ST to be computers, not consoles, as they ran spreadsheets, word processors and generally resembled PCs a whole lot more than console systems. So I hope that clears things up somewhat so we can get back to real consoles.

PS2

 .hack on Cartoon Network Cartoon Network announced today that they will be airing .hack//SIGN beginning February 1st. For those unaware, .hack is a series that ties into the upcoming .hack PS2 games, the first of which will be released in this country on February 11th.
GameCube PS2 Xbox Todd McFarlane Q&A GameSpot has conducted a Q&A with Todd McFarlane, the comic artist who not only created Spawn (which appears in the Xbox version of Soul Calibur II), but also shelled out an obscene amount of money for a baseball. The questions deal with his work on Soul Calibur II, for which he also designed a new character that will appear in all versions. He also confirms that Todd Toys will be releasing Soul Calibur action figures.
GameCube AM2 Q&A XenGamers has translated a Q&A with Toshihiro Nagoshi of Sega AM2, who is currently working on the upcoming F-Zero, and is also a creative consultant for Sega HQ.
GameCube PS2 Xbox X2: Wolverine's Revenge Preview A new preview of X2: Wolverine's Revenge is up at IGN, looking at this upcoming third person action game from Activision. While the preview appears separately on their GameCube, PS2 and Xbox sites, they're all the same.
GameCube Metroid: The Movie? According to a story in today's Variety (and subsequently reported here at Gamers.com) a movie based on the Metroid series is in the works, from the people who brought you American Pie and Final Destination.
GameBoy Advance FFTA Uber Soundtrack SquareSoft Japan has announced plans to release a two-CD set featuring 74 tracks that are expanded versions of the songs that appear in the upcoming GBA title Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Given that GBA games rarely have much in the way of decent audio, I think this bodes well for the game.
PS2 Misc. Media GameSpot went a little crazy tonight, so there's tons of new stuff up over there...they have some new shots and movies from the upcoming Xbox mech game Murakumo, new shots from the GameCube port of Ikaruga, new shots from Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus, Sudeki and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (all for Xbox), and new shots from Silent Hill 3 (PS2). Meanwhile over at Pocket.IGN they have some shots from the English language version of Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire for GBA.
Console Game of the Evening: Iron Soldier for the Atari Jaguar (hey, everything else this week has been Jaguar-related, so I guess I've got a theme going). This is one of the better games for the system, and a really fun action title at that.


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