>Considering the DC has been gone for the last few years, I'd tend to disagree. Had serious development continued, it could most certainly hold its own and surpass the PS2, visually, in all the areas I mentioned.
The fact of the matter is, the software released starting during the Summer of 2001 was far and away beyond anything the Dreamcast had ever seen. By that point, the PS2 was about 1.5 years old. The DC lived beyond 1.5 years, my friend. The PS2 was a difficult platform to handle, yet many games were created that went far beyond the capabilities of the DC within a timeframe of serious DC development. Obviously, current PS2 titles are well beyond even those...but that isn't fair, as you say. If you look at the first two years of Dreamcast releases and compare them to the first two years of PS2 development, the PS2 is superior in MOST categories (though not all).
>What's the old saying? a good texture is worth 1,000 polygons? PS2 games at the time looked like shit--geometry bedamned. What DC had was fluid visual balance, plain and simple. The DC's "flat textures" still mop the floor with whatever the PS2 could produce. Games like Shenmue and Soul Calibur still prove this.
I disagree. Many early PS2 games DID look poor, but there were plenty of others that did not. Tekken Tag, Zone of the Enders, The Bouncer, and SSX were all games that stood above Dreamcast offerings. Shenmue proves nothing, as I believe it to be a rather poor looking title in comparison to many offerings (low poly, sluggish framerate, tiny sectors, many low-res textures, etc.)...and Soul Calibur only stands up as a result of artwork (the actual level of detail is MUCH lower than most serious fighting games today). Using textures to make up for lack of geometry is a HORRIBLE idea that I am glad is in the past. It was necessary back then, but that is no longer the case.
>True, however, again, I point out the the fact that serious dreamcast develpment ended years ago. I can guarantee you that, with continuing funding and research (not from small-time, no-name japanese companies, either) , The Dreamcast could have MORE than held its own today. It's a testament to the hardware. And VGA output is easily comparable, if not surpassing 480p in certain cases. (you're dealing with what is essentially the same resolutions--and without the line doubling crap the PS2 normally did due to its native 640 x 240 TV output)
You can guarantee? How so? We can argue this back and forth till the end of time and neither one of us could prove anything. Once again, what was achieved in the same amount of time on both platforms proved that PS2 was stronger hardware. You also realize that progressive scan 480p is the same as DC's VGA output? With a VGA adaptor, all 480p supporting games can be displayed on a monitor in the same fashion.
>Again, I disagree. a number of high-profile and cross platform titles used super sampling, and it shows, especially in screen comparisons. Not that I have the time or the patience to dig them up, :-D
No, they did not. There were, at most, a very limited handful of DC games that used multi-sampling. I want you to dig them up, because I believe you are incorrect.
>I'll give it to you, however, again, I will refer to the fact that DC development never REALLY got to hit its prime like the PS2 did. The DC is still, to this day, more than a match for Sony's box.
Like I've already said, go ahead and compare the same time frame of development between the platforms. The DC is not a match for the direction that modern visuals have moved towards.
>Um, do you live under a rock or something, friend? The first wave was RIFE with problems, to say nothing of our demo kiosk (which had the tendancy to freeze after 3 hours, and multiple replacement units) upon which said comic is ACTUALLY based--it's a
retail joke, man, get over it
.
XBOX was FAAAARRRRR worse in this regard, with kiosks demonstrating everything from fatal errors to skipping video and audio. What did it prove? First gen PS2s were awful, but "overheating" was not one of the problems associated with them.
>Having said that, as the owner of 3 Dreamcasts (and a participant in many a marathon gaming session) I've never once had one overheat. Oh yes, they do get hot--but that's the heat dissipation actually DOING ITS JOB
. You want to talk about issues, I'll gladly refer you to the "PS2 plague" or "Disk Syphallus" that sony's machine continually experiences--or the tidal wave of defective units that came back during the 2002-03 holiday seasons.
The Gamecube is the only machine to have truly escaped a large number of issues. Disc read errors are not related to overheating, and those are, by and large, the most common problems you'll find on PS2 machines.
