By Shane Satterfield

　　I'm back from a trip to bloody England to answer your questions on this most glorious of Mondays. Got a question or comment? Don't be shy. Send them by clicking here. Now onto the short but sweet Monday edition of The Spot.

　　07/23/2001

Which Sega?

　　-Keith

　　Hey Keith. Thanks for the kind words. I wholeheartedly recommend buying the 2K2 sports games on the Dreamcast if you have one. The PS2 versions will be ports so they won't be enhanced all that much, and you can play the Dreamcast versions online.

Redneck Thunder

　　Yo. Is NASCAR Thunder 2002 the same game as NASCAR 2002, or is it more of an arcade-styled NASCAR game from EA Sports, where as NASCAR 2002 is simulation?

　　Thanks for your time.

　　-Kelly C. Certain

　　NASCAR Thunder is the new name for EA Sports' NASCAR series. I recently checked the game out at an event at EA, and it's looking pretty good. There's real-time car damage that affects your car's performance, and the dents will actually warp the reflections of the surroundings accordingly. I'm not a big fan of the constant left turn that is NASCAR racing, but if you're into that sort of thing you'll likely be pleased with what Tiburon has done with the series.

No More Dragonballz!

　　Hi. I have two questions for you.

　　1. On the first page of this section someone asked about DBZ (Dragonball Z). You told them that all you have seen of the game is teaser footage and I wanna know if I can see that clip anywhere?

　　2. Is Shenmue 1 or 2 gonna be released on PS2?

　　Oh yeah and I have something to say to the people who think that Xbox is going to be successful. Xbox is going to be a powerful piece of crap. All it's gonna be is a cheap and crappy computer. Most of the games are just gonna be ports of games from other systems with an X added to their title.

　　-Ashitaka

　　The footage of DBZ shown at E3 didn't include a lick of gameplay footage. It was composed of clips from the animated series with phrases like "Coming to the PlayStation 2" spliced in between them. Trust me when I tell you that it's not worth the download. No more Dragonball questions until we know more! There's still no word on Shenmue for the PS2, though Sega would be crazy to not release it on all three consoles. As for the Xbox being crap, if you took the time to do some research, you'd see that the Xbox is three times the deal of the PS2 as far as hardware is concerned. If you think the Xbox is going to be a "crappy computer," you obviously haven't seen the shots of the PS2 hooked up to a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse.

PS2 on the PC

　　Is a VGA adapter ever going to be made for the PS2?

　　-Joshua Tang

　　There's no word on a VGA adapter for the PS2 yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if a third-party peripheral maker was in the process of designing one right now.

Gaming in the Dumps?

　　Why is it that video games are getting worse? It doesn't make any sense. The lack of variety of games there are for every system. So I hope you can understand this. Instead of competing with each other, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft should just build one system together.

　　-Remy Lebeau

　　It certainly sounds like a logical decision, doesn't it? But it's not that simple. All three companies would eventually argue over how the console profits should be divided, and then one company would start to think that its games were more important than the other companies' games. It just wouldn't work. I do agree with you that video games are getting worse, though. Fewer companies are taking risks these days, but game developers are not at fault. Most games that attempt something new are met with a cold reception at retail. What do you expect the developers to do? The costs of developing video games are astronomical at this stage in the game, and it's difficult to take risks with $100 million--unless you're Treasure. The best thing you can do is to support companies who are attempting to try something new so that groundbreaking ideas are not being discouraged.

Online Fees?

　　When the PS2 goes online, will I have to pay a separate online fee for each game I want to play online, or will there be one recurring monthly charge for all games? Also, will I be able to connect online through my current Verizon DSL connection? Basically, what I would like to know is how much extra I'll have to pay per month for online gaming on PS2.

　　-Kenyon

　　Sony has been somewhat silent on the matter, but I would assume that most DSL connections should work fine with the PS2. Like games on the Dreamcast, some games on the PS2 will require an extra fee (Final Fantasy XI), while others likely will not (sports games). Sega has asked for $15 for three months of Phantasy Star Online Version 2, so you can assume that Square will ask for about the same for its PlayOnline service for FFXI.

PS2 a Good Deal?

　　I was reading about all of the upcoming consoles, and I was wondering, do you think it was a good idea to buy a PS2 when I had the chance, or should I have waited for the GameCube or Xbox and bought one of those? I'm asking this question because I'm hearing a lot of good things about the GameCube and Xbox that I didn't hear about the PS2. What advantages will the PS2 have that the GameCube and Xbox won't have? Or will the PS2 be outmatched in every way just like the Dreamcast was when PS2 was released? And, will the PS2 continue to be one of the top competitors in the gaming business? My last question is, how will the PS2 compare to the GameCube and Xbox? Thanks for your time.

　　-Chris

　　It's funny. Every time I speak with PS2 developers they're crying the blues about how difficult it is to make games for it. Well, if the console is so darned difficult, quit developing for it. It's as simple as that. These same developers blindly jumping on board the platform without doing any research is what made it such a success in the first place. Everyone bought it assuming that every game on the planet would eventually be released for it. I have no sympathy for the developers who must now take twice as long and spend twice as much money creating PS2 games because they assumed the PS2 was the only viable platform. The way I see it, they made their beds and now they can lie in them. Hopefully these companies will actually work with the hardware before announcing 30 games for it in the next generation. You only made a mistake buying a PS2 if you're interested in having the best graphics on the block or if you'd like to play games online for a reasonable price. Sony is gouging you by asking you to spend $145 on a hard drive and another $30-plus for a Multitap on top of the $300 for the base system. It's by far the worst deal of the three consoles. But I seriously doubt that developers will stop torturing themselves with the PS2 hardware anytime soon due to its installed base, so you should have plenty of games to play.

Monitor or TV?

　　I know that a hard drive and Ethernet adapter will be released for the PS2 later this year, and a separate mouse, keyboard, and monitor. My question is will the monitor work as a normal TV, or just to play PS2 games?

　　-Cloud003

　　The monitor should work just fine as a television.

Having Final Fantasies

　　Hello

　　I've been hearing some stuff about Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX on the PS2.

　　I've been wanting to get Final Fantasy VII for a long time, because it's my favorite game of all time, but I've been holding back and waiting for the PS2 version. Will the PS2 version ever be released? My friend said that final fantasy 1-9 will also be released for PS2 on one DVD. Is this true too??

　　-John Tanahara

　　My question is how can Final Fantasy VII be your favorite game if you're still waiting to play it? Square has announced that it will be bringing FF VII, VIII, and IX to the PS2, but it hasn't stated whether they'll be included in one disc--though I highly doubt it. Your friend is wrong. There will never be one disc that includes all the Final Fantasy games for the PS2.

Budget Bother

　　Will Nintendo release one last batch of Players' Choice titles before the N64 goes down in flames? (Well, it already has.) I'm hoping that Paper Mario and Excitebike 64 will be on their list because I missed out on getting these games when they were first released. And just how do they determine which games will be "budget" titles? Thanks for your time.

　　-Anonymous

　　Nintendo initially announced that for a game to become a Players' Choice title it would have to sell a million copies. But those rules were bent by games like NBA Courtside, which were overproduced and then dropped in price when they didn't sell. Paper Mario may have a chance to become a Players' Choice title because it sold very well, but Excitebike 64 was a major disappointment from a retail perspective. There's no way of really knowing, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Cocky

　　First of all, please don't take this wrong and say I'm biased towards certain companies. This is a general statement and could be said (to a certain extent) towards most gaming companies. Anyway, I have been noticing lately how cocky game companies have gotten. Sony saying the Xbox doesn't have a chance. Microsoft saying it will be the best even though hardly anyone seems to think so. Nintendo hasn't done it as much (as far as I can tell anyway), but I think I heard something about them saying bad things about the Xbox, so even they are doing it a little. Is it just me or is somebody else noticing this too? What do you think about it? I mean, I know I will probably end up buying all three consoles, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't like a company that is cocky (especially when its console hasn't been released!). Thank you very much for your time.

　　-Brendan Smith

　　Yep, it's all about perceived confidence. Regardless of how bleak things may be, companies will never let on like they're worried. It will only make matters worse. A good example of this is Microsoft's recent sales projections for the Xbox. Bill Gates is probably the only person on the planet right now who thinks that 4.5-6 million Xbox units will be sold by the end of the fiscal year. But predicting anything less would be an admission of defeat. Companies will always talk trash about the competition no matter what industry they're in. The video game industry is no different. I don't think I could make it through the year without reading a piercing quote from behind the rose-tinted glasses of Nintendo's Hiroshi Yamauchi every month.

　　That's it for today, friends. Look for a meatier edition on Wednesday. Out!

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