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The Facts, plain and simple.

When I'm going through the forum, a lot of times I see people who are misinformed about gaming. I'm not talking about opinions here, but facts. Usually, this comes about from a combination of ignorace and fanbratism, but we can ignore that. For this threads job is not to change your ways of prefering your console (or game) above your life, but to have you more informed about it, know it better. For the record, I own all Nintendo systems, yet, if you read on, Nintendo ain't always in the lead. Remember that before you accuse me of being a fanbrat. Anyways, as I find more people to post wrong info, I'll post more. Or, if you have a topic you'd like settled, just pm me, and I'll add it. And please do. As you can tell, it's kinda sparse right now... Now, on to the truth!

Section one: Console Facts
Section two: Handheld Facts
Section three: Portable Facts
Section Four: Other Video Game Facts
Section Five: Genres and their games


I need help. As you people can see, this thread is still kinda sparse. It was just posted a day ago, but still. Any Facts you wanna know, I'll do my best to find an answer. Find something wrong with my facts? Give me a link, and I'll change it. The truth is in your hands. Don't drop it.
Consoles: The Facts

The Stats:
Xbox is the most poweful console, followed by Gamecube, then lastly (by a larger margin) PS2. I'm sorry to break it to all you people who think Halo 2 would look far better on PS2 or Gamecube, but it's the cold hard truth. Look at the games that are released on all three systems, and if it's a quality game, XBox will always be the prettiest, followed by the Gamecube, and lastly, by a laggy jaggy PS2 version. If you want the stats of the consoles, here they are:

XBox

Basics:

Processor 1 x Intel Pentium III 733MHz
Processor Clock Speed 733MHz
L1 Cache Instruction 32KB, Data 32KB
L2 Cache 128KB
External Bus 6.4GB/s
Internal Data Precision 32-bit Integer, 64-bit Floating-Point

Gamecube

Basics:
Processor 1 x IBM PowerPC "Gekko" 485MHz
Processor Clock Speed 485MHz
L1 Cache Instruction 32KB, Data 32KB
L2 Cache 256KB
External Bus 1.3GB/s
Internal Data Precision 32-bit Integer, 32-bit Floating Point

PS2
Basics:
Processor 2 x Toshiba & Sony Emotion Engine 294.9MHz
Processor Clock Speed 300MHz
L1 Cache Instruction 16KB, Data 8KB, 16K SPRAM

Even if you don't know anything about computers, looking at the numbers, Sony is lowest. Therefore, in power, XBOX > Gamecube > PS2, always and forever.

The Phantom:
The fate of the Phantom?

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/01/30


Consoles sold:
As most of us know, here in the good old US of A, PS2 is in first with Console sales. That's something no-body (that I've seen) disputes. However, quite a few people have debated whether Gamecube or XBox was in second place. I've recently found some numbers that settle that, although they are from late last year:

PS2: 75 million units sold
XBox: 18 million units sold
Gamecube: 16 million units sold

So, as we can see, PS2 is way ahead with no chance of being over taken, so it's just pretty much doing a victory lap until the launch of the Next-Gen systems. Gamecube and XBox, however, are fairly even, with the Gamecube Trailing behind by a few million units. If anyone can find me updated numbers, I'd be greatly appreciative. Thanks for Sailorcancer 2004 for the link that helped me find the info.

Relevent Articles:
XBox uses Halo2 to Herd Players Online

Next Gen:

I'll update this as soon as I get some stats.
Portable Facts
DS and PSP:
The PSP is more powerful that it's current Competitor, the DS. It can do more, graphics-wise than the DS can. It's UMD can hold more than the DS cartrige, allowing for bigger and more graphically complex games. However, both feature a Wireless ability (so you can hook up and play with friends). Using this, the PSP can currently hook up and play through the net, an ability the DS will soon be able to do. However, due to it's complexity and power, the PSP eats up battery power, with the average lasting around 4 hours, depending on settings and the game being played. The DS is more consistent with it's power, lasting an average of 10 hours.
A feature that the DS has that the PSP doesn't is it's touch screen ability. This can lead to many more gameplay options than the PSP, and make other current genre more acessible on the DS, such as Real Time Strategy games. Another feature is it's Backward Compatibility with the GBA. In short, the PSP is between a PS1 and PS2, while the DS is a little more powerful than the N64, (With an added in Game Boy Advance)

Relevent Articles:
Handheld Gaming stats
PSP Battery Life
DS Overview
PSP - Overview

Japanese PSP Defects:
As we all know, the Japanese PSP lauch was plauged by defects. You could hardly take a walk down the street without being killed by a flying UMD. Square buttons wouldn't work, and the PSP would just fall apart before even being taken out of the box! Or so we were told. In truth, these usually occured in about .6 percent of the 510,000 PSPs launched in 2004. And, they were fixed for all the Units sold in 2005, and in the US. So, don't fear about accidently killing your friend with a rouge UMD. Unless of course, you imported yours. ninja

Sony admits PSP problem, offers free fix
Game Facts
Nintendo Games on Other Consoles:

Let me tell you something. It's not going to happen. Games like Zelda, Mario, and Metroid will never appear on any Sony or Microsoft console. Ever. Despite the fact that the Gamecube is last in sales (more on that later), Nintendo isn't Bankrupt. They recentlly launched the DS, which is doing quite well, and except for the chunk that Sony currently owns (and whatever the hell else makes up 1% of it) Nintendo is in the Lead in Handhelds. So, don't expect them to pull a Sega on us anytime soon. Especially with a new Zelda coming out this year, and a new console (and possibly handheld) out Mid 2006.

GTA: San Andres is AO:

Like I know everybody else has heard about it, the Latest GTA is now an Adult Only title. Before I say why, I'll explain what this means. An Adult Only games is only sold to persons 18 or older, due to extreme violence, or extreme sexual content. Now, I know 18 is only one year older than 17 (for Mature rated games) but, the biggest difference between the two is most large game sellers do not carry AO rated games. So, that means you can't pick up GTA at Wal-Mart, Sam-Goody, Best-Buy, anymore. Now, the reason for this change in rating is due to a hidden mini game found in the game that equates to interactive pornography, though no naughty bits are shown. The mini game was found in the code by some hackers, who released a mod called "Hot Coffee" (so named because the minigame takes place while having coffee with your "girlfriends" wink which allows you to access the mini game (the mod only adds some lines of code that were taken out so that you couldn't access the game). When the acusations came out, Rock Star (Owned by Take Two Studios, I think) called up the ESRB and told them that they'd take a AO rating to get the government off of the ESRB's back. And that's pretty much all that's gone on about it. I've read something about how the Government wants to investigate Rock Star for fraud though, and that's that.
Other Video Game Facts:
ESRB Ratings, percetage-wise:

All of us know about the ESRB, and it's rating system. However, most of us have a flawed view on the number of games that come out this each rating. While the only article I could find for this is a bit dated, I'm sure that the percentages haven't changed much recently.


ESRB
]Last Year, 50 percent of games rated by the ESRB received an E (Everyond) rating, 12 percent were rated E 10+, 24 percent were rated T (Teen), 12 percent were Rated M (Mature) and <1 percent received an EC rating (Early Childhood).


2005 Numbers:

ESBR
Of the all the game ratings assigned by the ESRB in 2005:

50% received an E (Everyone) rating
24% received a T (Teen) rating
12% received an M (Mature) rating
12% received an E10+ (Everyone 10+) rating
1% received an EC (Early Childhood) rating
<1% received an AO (Adults Only) rating





How the ESRB works:

Aeris Esper
So I dunno if this thread is still being updated with new information, but I think a useful addition would be clarification on how ESRB works.

ESRB doesn't play the games they rate. These people don't have the 50+ hours it takes to beat many modern games. So instead, developers prepare a video containing footage of the game. They try to pack all the most questionable content the game has to offer in this video. If the game has violence, language, nudity, or whatever, they make sure the footage they send has that in it. So ESRB watches the video and makes note of its content, then forms a rating based on that.


Here's a link that explains this all in much greater detail:
How the ESRB works, and how it was started.

How Light Guns work:

Common, who hasn't played Duck Hunt? Or House of the Dead? Or any of the Arcade Jurassic Park games? Okay, so light guns aren't that common anymore. Especially with Arcades slowly fading away ( crying Why gaming gods, why? ) But, for those of us who've been around long enough to have played them, I'm betting more than a few of us have no clue how they work. Well, it's not the complicated, really. Inside the barrel of the gun is a light sensor. When you pull the trigger, the screen blanks except for the Target (AKA the Ducks in DH). The light sensor reacts, and if it see white, it counts a hit, if not, it counts a miss. Pretty simple, ne? That's a basic describtion. For something more in depth, here's an article for you to read:

How does the light gun for a video game work?

Edit: Though I sometimes act like I know everything.... I don't. There is something misleading about what I said up there, but luckily I have people like Mishimisa to help me out:
Mishimisa
Just read that article, and I think it's kinda misleading how you mention HOTD and Jurassic Park, etc.
The 'screen blanking white' thing was only for -really- old lightgun games, such as Duck Hunt on the NES, or James Bond on the ZX Spectrum.
Now though, that's all changed...
Take something like HOTD or Point Blank, where you have to rapid-fire like crazy. The screen naturally doesn't flash solid white every time, else it would give people seizures. XD
Plus, it shows a 'hit' on the exact spot of the screen that you shot-- something which wouldn't be possible with the screen-blanking. It's more like an analogue-light-controller if anything, or a stylus/touchscreen like the DS.
There are other 'lightgun' games too, which aren't really lightguns at all... but instead, guns mounted directly onto the cabinet. I think Operation Wolf was like this, but I can't remember if it actually used 'light' or not, or was just a fancy-looking-analogue-controller.
Either way, the point I'm trying to make is... hardly any post-nes games used the 'flashing screen' trick. ^.~


Emulators and Roms:

I'm sure quite a few of us use them, to play classics like games on the NES, Gensis, SNES, ect... But you know what? We aren't legally allowed to. Well, play the game anyways. Emulators, themselves, are legal. They don't enfringe on any copywrite laws, as far as anyone can tell. But, all you can do with them is have them on the computer (to look pretty) or play homebrewed game. Cause ROMs (the game data itself) is not legal. They violate Copywrite laws. Although it used to be that you could have the ROM if you owned the game, and ripped it from the cartrige yourself, to use as a back-up copy. However, I'm pretty sure this has changed recently, as in some of my more recent games say so. 3nodding Another thing. On many sites where you can download ROMs, they say if you don't own the game you have to delete it in 24 hours, or else it becomes illegal. This is bullshit. You don't own the rights to play the game, so as soon as you download it it becomes illegal. In short, don't download ROMs. Cause that'll make you a dirty thief. (guilty, but now clean)

Article to come soon...
Genres and their games:
True story. I, mister "I need RPG's to survive," used to not know what RPG stood for. I turned to my dad, to ask him. Being a Former cop/military nut, his answer was ofcourse, "Rocket Propelled Grenade," Which, now a days, I find hilarious. Anyways, some of us don't exactlly know what games belong in which genre, or what the genres even are. AleyaCaldora has typed up this nice little summary for us, which later I'll add a better listing of which game belong in which genre (cause, no matter how much you all want it, Legend of Zelda isn't an RPG).

AleyaCaldora
This is something I typed up because I was bored.
Enjoy.

I see little info distinguishing the genres of each game, so I thought I'd point them out.

Types of games:
Platformer: Usually a game inviolving jumping from platform to platform, whatever the shape said platforms may take. Combat may also be involved.
Examples: Megaman series, Jak and Daxter, Castlevania.
Subcategories: Platform Shooter, Platform RPG.

Shooter: You've got guns, and there are thousands of enemies.
Examples: Galaga, Star Fox, F-14 Heroes
Subcategory - First Person Shooter: Shoot things from the first person point of view. Often multiplayer Player-versus-Player.
Examples: James Bond, Halo, Marathon

Puzzle: Games designed to melt your brain. The puzzles may take on any form, but they're still puzzles.
Examples: Myst, Ico, Katamari Damacy
Note: This type of game ties closely in with the Adventure genre.

Role-Playing: Once played with pen, paper, rulebook and dice, now with graphics to go with it. Involves gaining experience to increase your characters' strength and skill.
Examples: Final Fantasy, Star Ocean, Fable
Subcategory - MMORPG: Massively Multiplayer Online RPG. Players interact in a constant world over the internet. Normal aspects of RPGs usually apply.
Examples: Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcraft, Ragnarok Online
Other subcategories: Strategy RPG, Action (Hack and Slash) RPG, Online (Not MMO) RPGs.

Adventure: Questing across expansive lands, finding items, tools, and health upgrades to assist you.
Examples: Legend of Zelda, Illusion of Gaia (Needs more.)

Strategy: Direct troops from a top view, and strategize to defeat the enemy troops.
Examples: Warcraft, Starcraft, Age of Empires, Advance Wars
Subcategories: Real-time strategy, Turn based strategy

Simulations: Simulate aspects of life through games. For more info, see subcategories.
Subcategories: Racing simulation, Sports simulation, Hunting/Fishing simulation, Real-life simulation.
Resevered.
uumm.....what is this sad
NewFoundLight
uumm.....what is this sad


Is the title don't "Don't post in here yet!", or did I misspell it? xp
Usagi Ninja
NewFoundLight
uumm.....what is this sad


Is the title don't "Don't post in here yet!", or did I misspell it? xp
sweatdrop but you were all alone and...you...and crying
NewFoundLight
Usagi Ninja
NewFoundLight
uumm.....what is this sad


Is the title don't "Don't post in here yet!", or did I misspell it? xp
sweatdrop but you were all alone and...you...and crying


Awww, thanks, but I gots plans for this thread. 3nodding
Must reserve first page post-
nice one. this should become a sticky just because of all the info, but yet people are still going to argue. you just cant stop them.
Nice Thread, Usagi. You can ask a mod to take that post off you know that... right?

Quotable Conversationalist

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This thread is awesome whee

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