Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news From: "Matt Verran" Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english Subject: The Cube Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 22:53:11 +0100 Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE) Lines: 38 Message-ID: <9q54gj$b434@www.netyaroze-europe.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: host213-1-176-26.btinternet.com X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Right well my GameCube arrived today, along with the three launch games. First thing: it's *not* as small as I expected, after already being size-surprised at ECTS and everyone going on about it petiteness it kinda looked about right when I unwrapped it. Next to my PS2 it looks about the same volume. The discs and memcard are genuinely diddy tho. Games: I won't go on about them, there are tons of first impressions about. Basically I agree with what Edge#103 says, Monkey Ball is fantastic, Luigi Mansion is great and WaveraceBS is solid (having not played n64 Waverace I reckon I'm getting more out of it than most would). Power: It's hard to tell but I'd say the GC is the console with the most grunt out of my collection, these launch titles match up graphically to GT3 and Soul Calibur. The amount of geometry, texture detail and complex lighting/shadows in Luigi Mansion surpasses anything I've seen before, but the game does only play at 30fps and there is noticable light banding which I assume is the side effect of having so many light sources, 64bit colour for the next next gen consoles? Controller: It feels lovely and is already my favourite controller *ever* but I do have a few criticisms. It's very "forced-function": A is accept, B is cancel, Z is the select button. The games need to be designed with the pad in mind, I can't see streetfighter for example being too great on it due to the placement on the D-pad. Also the Shoulder triggers are spongy like the NegCon analog button with the digital click at the end of their travel being soft like the face buttons. I think I would prefer the scelextric style triggers like the dreamcast pad and a microswitch digital click, at least thats what I was expecting. Anyway I'm happy. Poor, but happy. Playing top games always gets me in the mood to make my own, inspiration on tap! Matt_V