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I have always been an pretty middle of the pack type gamer,I went through the 8,16,32,64 and now
the 128 bit age and even had my times were I would collect systems of the past to experience some
of the lost games I never got to play such as the Jaguar,3D0,Sega CD,Saturn,etc. and had alot of
memorable times with my Nintendo,Genesis,Playstation and Dreamcast as my main ones I played.
Well were I am trying to get at in this post is my disapointment with
the 128 bit age of gaming and how it could have been better in some aspects.


The 128 bit age started strong with the Sega putting out a revolutionary system in the Dreamcast which
I still think is the best system ever made that could have been.I enjoyed alot of Dreamcast titles
in the height of its success.Sega was ready to be the big cheese again and their system has the
programming friendliness that the Saturn lacked and had some good 3rd party developers to boot.

Well of course Playstation liked being on top and they knew they still had a large market of casual
gamers as well as hardcore gamers who stuck to the Playstation and we know the rest of the story.DVD
technolgy was fixing to hit mainstream and of course Sony would capitlize on it with the release of
the PS2 which include a DVD player as well as backward compatibility in the Playstation One which had
mainstream gamers in Dreamlands.The PS2 sold itself and Sega knew their less powerful Dreamcast
would take a bigger hit than expected,not to mention the upcoming release of Microsoft's X-Box and
the Nintendo Dolphin{Gamecube}.


So of course the PS2 came out and had 3rd party developers putting games out the frame,most of them
crap as most would expect at first until developers got a feel for the PS2's hardware.Dreamcast could
no longer give away their systems as the PS2 was already dominating before the X-Box or the Dolphin
came out.Sega had no choice but to throw in the towel on a great system that was overshadowed by
Sony's marketing genius which had overtaken Sega once again.Sega then decided to give up their dream
of console domination and started focusing on developing a strong software company again.

Not long after the Playstation 2 Phenom and the Dreamcast's early death Microsoft released their first
console system the X-Box with a graphic processor that was as powerful as computer 3-D cards at the time.
People who were disapointed with the PS2's slow start jumped on the Microsoft bandwagan and hoped
for the best.

Nintendo who used to be the heavyweight king with the NES and SNES who just had their first disapointment
in the N64 some years back which was always 2nd to the Playstation through the 32 Bit,64 bit years
decided to save what they considered the best for last and released
their small yet design but effective powerful machine the "Gamecube" which utilized Mini Disk
technology and had a very impressive graphic and cpu chip of its own rivalying the X-Box's.


So the War was on between PS2,X-Box and Gamecube,may the best system win......


PS2 soon struck Gold with their Grand Theft Auto Series and eventual release of Grand Theft Vice City
which was a much have for any game out there because of its easy yet extremly fun gameplay,they also
appeased their RPG gamers who floked to the Final Fantasy Series which was revolutionary in itself,as
well as alot of quality titles that made the PS2 sell even more units.


Microsoft wasnt going out with a fight though,they knew the only way to outdo Sony was to utilize the
X'Box strength in multiplayer gaming over the internet which spawned hit "Halo" which intised more
causual gamers to pick up an X-Box to experience the next generation in video gaming.


By Now Gamecube was still a distant 3rd and looked like they were the oddman out despite sporting
some impressive looking game's graphic wise.The kiddie marketing that haunted them with the N64
ported over to the Gamecube' early days as the Gamecube just simply didnt have enough quality games
or quanity for that matter,but we will get back to them later


Microsoft started turning up the Heat on PS2's empire in late 2003 with advertisments and cranking
out games at the rate of Sony


Sony then started to realize what the X-Box was stumbling upon and started making games to utilize their
recently release network adaptor and put full faith in their Final Fantasy Series and turned it into
a multiplayer event as Halo was for the X-Box,Sony also had their plans to revive old favorite Resident
Evil Series into a muliplayer game "OutBreak" which was a huge hit on their PSOne.

Now Gamecube then realized they were far behind in the race and decided instead of making one huge
move they would make some little ones to try to at least get to 2nd if they possible could,they slashed
the price of the Gamecube during the holiday season of 2003 and then started bringing back old ports
of gaming favorites such as the Zelda Series,Sonics Series and some of the Older Final Fantasy's to
get some of the old school gamers from the late 80's and early 90's to put faith in their system
enough to warrant it as a 2nd System if nothing else to go along with the PS2 and X-Box modern gaming.
They also released a broadband adaptor but few games utilize it.


So in conclusion its mid 2004 and the X-Box is catching up to the PS2 and it looks like the Nintendo is just trying
to break even if they can at this point.I have played all three systems and none of them in my opinion have enough
games I like to warrant buying them,I bought a gamecube once but tired of it after the Resident Evil series was the only
one I could enjoy and took it back for a refund to invest in systems I could burn games for and relive some lost games
I never got to play