Clash of the consol

This as the Nintendo GameCube hits our shores to compete with Microsoft's Xbox and the Sony PlayStation 2.

Microsoft is doing its best to oust market-leader Sony, in the same way Sony did by taking on Nintendo and Sega with the original PlayStation.

The majority of people who are not hardcore gaming fans will be having difficulty working out the pros and cons of the three consoles and wondering which one to spend their cash on - the tried and tested PlayStation 2, the funky GameCube or the Xbox dreadnought.

The undeniable market leader is Sony's PlayStation 2, which has sold more than 28 million worldwide since its launch in October 2000.

The console, which resembles a hi-fi component and costs £199, was designed to not only continue Sony's dominance of the market but to spearhead the company's bid to capture the lucrative home entertainment business.

It can play DVD movies straight out of the box, which is unique among the next-generation consoles.

Although the PlayStation 2 represented an enormous leap over the capabilities of its pre-decessor, it is the oldest of the next-generation consoles and has the weakest technical specifications.

Its central processing unit (CPU), or Emotion Engine, runs at almost 295Mhz and its graphics chip has been clocked at just over 147Mhz. It has 32Mb of main memory but only 4Mb of graphics memory, which has been described as a bottleneck on performance.

What this means in practice is, with everything operational, the PlayStation 2 is the slowest at drawing polygons, the shapes used to create 3-D games.

This is offset by the developers having had longer to work out how to get the best out of Sony's console, while they are still getting to grips with the other consoles' hardware.

The PlayStation 2 was launched in October 2000 with 26 games, although many gamers were disappointed with the quality of the offerings, which included first person shoot-'em-up Time-splitters and beat-'em-up Tekken Tag Tournament, bemoaning the lack of a "must have" title.

Since then titles such as Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, 3-D-platformer Jak and Daxter and action-adventure Metal Gear Solid 2 have arrived to woo gamers.

The catalogue is growing rapidly, helped by strong third-party support for the console.

Although new releases retail at between £39.99 and £44.99, Sony has also recently introduced a Platinum range of older games at £19.99, which is good value.

Owners of the original PlayStation will also be pleased to know the PlayStation 2 is backwards compatible and can be used to play most PlayStation games, which means gamers have an extensive library of inexpensive games at their disposal.

Some peripherals from the original PlayStation can also be used.

Sony has said online gaming is a key part of its video games strategy but the console doesn't come with a broadband adapter, which costs extra. And it does not have a hard drive, which means you must buy a £19.99 memory card to save game information.

Overall, the PlayStation 2's main advantages are its ability to play DVDs, its strong games library and its backwards compatibility.

Its lack of a hard drive and built-in network cap-abilities, together with its £199 price tag, are the main disadvantages.

Nintendo's GameCube does not have a hard drive or built-in network capabilities either and it can't play DVDs but, following recent price cuts, has a recommended retail price of £129, which makes it the cheapest next-generation console, although retailers might decide to charge slightly more.

After the GameCube's Japanese launch, about 300,000 consoles were bought in three days and about four million have been sold altogether.

The console has been designed as a pure video games system because, Nintendo claims, "after all, it is all about games".

The GameCube is by far the most compact of the next-generation consoles, barely wider than a GameBoy Advance, which it can connect to, and four inches high.

It was launched in purple but is being made available in black and orange and has been described in some quarters as a "toy".

But the GameCube is a pretty powerful toy. Nintendo claims its main processing unit (MPU), the 485MHz Gekko and 162MHz graphics processing unit (GPU), can output more than 12 million polygons per second, more than the PlayStation 2 but slightly less than the Xbox.

It has 43Mb of combined memory and its digital signal processor (DSP) supports more than 100 voices and up to 64 simultaneous real-time 3-D voices. Although the console will be able to produce Dolby Digital surround in the long run, most early games will support only Dolby Surround Sound.

It is the first Nintendo console to load games from disc rather than cartridge. The discs hold 1.5Gb of data - twice the capacity of standard CD-Roms but only a third of the capacity of a DVD.

The discs used by the GameCube derive from the DVD format but it cannot play DVD movies.

However, Nintendo has said Panasonic will eventually release a more expensive DVD-enabled GameCube.

The GameCube console has four controller ports, two memory card ports, a standard audio/video output and a digital output for HDTV.

The bottom of the console features a serial port, an expansion port and a network port for a 56k modem or broadband adapter, which are not included, and Nintendo has been relatively slow to embrace online gaming initiatives.

One of the most interesting aspects of the GameCube is its ability to link it to the GameBoy Advance (GBA). Besides being able to use a GBA as an extra controller, Nintendo has said the GBA link cable would provide a bridge between GameCube and GBA software.

Nintendo has built its reputation on strong, family-friendly, first-party games like the Super Mario and Zelda series.

Its games consoles have rarely had the breadth of titles available to other manufacturers' consoles, partly because of its focus on in-house development rather than building relationships with third-party developers and partly because it used the more expensive cartridge format.

However, Capcom's agreement to bring the scary Resident Evil series to the GameCube shows Nintendo is targeting the 20-something market and not just kids.

Loyal third-party developers like Warwickshire-based Rare are also planning more mature titles like the first person shoot-'em-up Perfect Dark Zero.

The outstanding launch titles for the console include Luigi's Mansion, in which the player explores a ghost-filled house, Super Money Ball, which involves manoeuvring a maze to free monkeys trapped inside translucent balls, and jet-ski racer Wave Race: Blue Storm.

Unfortunately, gamers will have to wait for some of Nintendo's more popular characters, like Super Mario, Zelda and Metroid's Samus Aran, to make an appearance but brief video clips of the games, which include Mario Sunshine, have raised hopes for the future.

The main advantages of the GameCube are its price and Nintendo's unrivalled video games experience, which should be compared to its dis-advantages, such as not being able to play DVDs and lack of a hard drive.

Microsoft's Xbox console, which has been reduced to £199 from £299 little more than a month after its launch on the back of slow sales, has a hard drive and is broadband capable.

Perhaps more importantly, it has the might of Microsoft behind it, including a 500 million dollar marketing budget.

The Xbox is about the same size as a VCR and has a front-loading DVD drive but it does not play DVD movies unless you purchase a movie playback kit (£29.99), which unlocks the feature in the Xbox hardware.

It has four USB controller ports, a standard audio/video output and a digital output for HDTV.

It also has an 8Gb hard drive and an Ethernet port to connect to both digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable broadband, which shows Microsoft is banking on a massive expansion in broadband connections over the next few years.

The Intel-developed CPU is based on the company's Pentium III line of processors and clocks at 733MHz. It has a 250MHz GPU and 64Mb of unified memory and is the most powerful of the three consoles, although Microsoft's claims it is three times more powerful than its competitors appear optimistic.

One of the Xbox's big advantages is its sound capabilities. It can broadcast 256 simultaneous stereo voices through 64 different channels, is capable of Dolby Digital and should sound better than the other systems.

The hard drive enables players to save game data and download additional characters, levels and music. A headset is being developed to facilitate online communication in online games.

Although Microsoft is a newcomer to the video game console market, it has announced games from some significant third-party game developers.

The similarity of the Xbox hardware to existing PC hardware will help speed games development.

The majority of Microsoft's domestic developers are used to working on PC games, so the transition to the Xbox platform should not be too fraught.

Among the launch titles, Halo was probably the most impressive. It has been almost universally acclaimed as the greatest first person shoot-'em-up ever.

Other titles include Project Gotham, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding, which contains a staggering 150 songs with additional tracks which can be downloaded to the Xbox's hard drive.

What is not clear is Microsoft's long-term plans for the console.

Many commentators have speculated Micro-soft intends to use the Xbox as the basis for a "home station" - an all-in-one entertainment and home office system.

Although Microsoft has denied the rumours, the commentators have said the machine's raw power will be used to offer a multitude of services.

Excluding its inability to play DVD movies from the box, the Xbox is the most powerful console. The main causes for concern are its cost and Microsoft's lack of video games experience.

Recent reports have shown that, instead of finding a loser, the competition may result in three winners.

Worldwide sales for the three consoles are strong and even the PlayStation 2 has posted increased sales.

Each console has dis-advantages but many of them can be offset. For example, the GameCube cannot play DVDs but its low cost means buying a cheap DVD player in addition is not out of the question.

The video games market is about to enter a period of intense competition and purchasers should shop around for the best deal.

Console and game bundles are already available, further reducing prices.

The current PlayStation 2 Metal Gear Solid 2 bundle includes the console, the Metal Gear Solid 2 game and a memory card for less than £230, saving buyers about £35.

Algy Williams, managing director of Hove-based IT outsourcing specialists Babel Media, which has been appointed by Nintendo Europe as the main content and localisation provider for the GameCube web site, said: "There is probably enough room in the market for three consoles, whereas before there wasn't.

"The price Nintendo has come out with is a very interesting development and recognises the fundamental errors of the initial Xbox pricing model - £299 was way too expensive.

"It's important to remember these consoles appeal to slightly different markets.

"The PlayStation 2 and Xbox have been designed as all-round entertainment devices, while the GameCube is a games device with a range of family-friendly games."

www.nintendo.com
www.playmore.com
www.playstation2.com
www.babelmedia.com