Page 1 of Gamecube Release!!!

Just for anyone interested, Gamecube will be released on May 3rd 2002. It`ll be £150stg or €250. Seems pretty reasonable to me. Also there`ll be a good few games on launch day incl. Luigi`s Mansion, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, Tony Hawk`s Pro Skater 3, FIFA: Road to World Cup and Sonic Adventure 2!!!

Of course, while I`m all for GC, I`ve yet to see PAL games running so will reserve judgment. I don`t want to see borders or PAL slowdown...I still remember Street Fighter II on PAL SNES when this came out! Some memories are hard to shake...

Plus Nintendo will reduce the price of GBA later in the year, expecting to go down to between £60-65. :-)

I`ve seen the phrase "60Hz option" bandied about in relation to the European launch of the GC. I don`t know if this is true, but if it is, it will solve the PAL conversion problem at a stroke.

Most Euro Dreamcast games had 60Hz options built in, and it was a huge boon since for the first time, without buying an import or modifying the console, you actually had the option of playing games as they were intended. If Nintendo do the same for the Gamecube I`ll be extremely pleased.

Mike

The price does looks good but it`s still over 4 months away which is a disgrace, so not only will the PS2 and XBox have already taken a major share of the marke but Nintendo will be launching a console during what is traditionally the slowest game sales period of the year. Not smart.

Personally, I wouldn`t be relying on Nintendo to optimize the games so that they run full-screen and at full speed. In fact it was for this reason that I imported my Cube a few months ago and now not only are the games out 3 to 4 months before the dreaded PAL conversions but they run at the speed they were designed to played at. Rogue Squadron runs very smoothly (with the very occassional hickup in frame-rate) while WaveRace is amazingly fast and as smooth as a velvet child.

Fingers crossed that Nintendo finally gets their act together for the European market - importing region 1 dvds is one thing but gamers deserve better.

>>so not only will the PS2 and XBox have already taken a major share of the marke but Nintendo will be launching a console during what is traditionally the slowest game sales period of the year. Not smart.

Well, to be honest I don`t think MS would be in any real position to take a major share, considering PS2 has been here since 2000 and has a good market share at the moment. XBox will make minor gains to start with. There are lots of people who are more sensitive to price and are waiting for Nintendo.

As for DC having the 60Hz option, this was at the insistence of Sega Europe, and wouldn`t have been done by Sega Japan, so thanks to SoE for this feature. It`s one thing to implement the feature, but from experience of speaking to developers (a lot of my friends are still in the industry, I bailed out), a lot have more pressing issues to deal with than a 60Hz option.

The more quality driven devcos will put it in, but also you`ll find a lot of companies won`t bother because it`s an extra day of coding which they could do without.

We`ll see what the outcome is for PAL GameCube. I want one because it`s just small and has far more appealing games for me. I like to dip in and out of arcade/multiplayer games. If Nintendo doesn`t sort out the 60Hz issue then I`ll buy an import.

The PAL GC will have a 60Hz mode - holding down the `B` button as a game is booted will enable it, but it`s still up to the developer if they wish to use it ala Dreamcast. Rogue Leader is the first known PAL game to use it.

And £150 is a masterful price - half the price of an XBox, and with the quality of games like Resident Evil coming out in early summer, I think Nintendo have finally saw the light in Europe.

Pity we only get a choice of purple or black GC`s. Oh well.

I thought that was funny!

GC gets exclusive rights to Resident Evil, while us poor PS2 owners only get D E V I L M A Y C R Y!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hahahah that must of p***ed nintendo off:P

I`ve heard that people are having problems with the poXy-Box overheating, due to M$ using a cheaper 700MHz CPU and overclocking it to 733MHz.

D E V I L M A Y C R Y ? ? ?

O V E R - R A T E D ! ! !

SO IS THE GAMECUBE:P

chuckle