Mailbag!
July 2nd,
2002
A
teacher of mine always said there is no such thing as stupid
questions, only stupid people. I would like to believe in a less
cynical viewpoint, but then I get a question like the first one
and it makes me wonder. Want to ask
me your own question? I promise I’ll
answer it no matter how stupid it, or you, may seem to be…
Q: why
can"y ps2 play onps1 (exactly how it came in my inbox,
punctuation and all.)
A: This person
is either really young, mentally disabled, or a little on the
"duh" side. Either way the answer remains the same:
because the two are completely different machines. Although the
PS2 shares a lot in common with the PSone, like the ability to
play it’s games or use it’s peripherals, the PSone shares
little to nothing in common component-wise with the PS2.
____________________________________
Q: You are
on the 15th floor of an apartment building when a fire breaks out
down the hall. It is during the day around 1:00.Smoke has entered
your apartment so it’s difficult to see and breathe. The fire
has cut off the rest of your floor except for the stairs and two
other apartment doors. You are unable to get to the fire stairs
outside so you only have time to check/save one thing before you
must get to the stair and exit.
Do you:
a) Save
your cat of 5 years and exit
b) Check
the first apartment to see if the businessman is home.
c) Check
the last apartment where a mid 60's couple lives.
d) Ran to
the stair alone, leaving your door open in hopes your cat makes it
out.
A: e) Save my
memory cards and make the awful decision to grab my D drive, but
not my C drive…
____________________________________
Q: I keep
hearing from journalists and friends that the PS2 had a really
mediocre launch and hadn't really come into its own software-wise
until a year after its launch (as with any console).
What
puzzles me about this trend of thought is that I think it had a
(dare I say it) great launch line-up. SSX,
Madden
and NHL were top-tier titles and Midnight Club, Ridge
Racer V, Tekken
Tag, Smuggler's
Run, Ready
2 Rumble Boxing Round 2, Street Fighter
EX3, Kessen, Dynasty Warriors 2 and Summoner
were pretty good secondary titles. If you don't believe me, take a
look at the reviews of all of these games; they all received good
to great reviews individually, yet journalists still end up being
hypocritical by bashing PS2's launch line-up as a whole.
It was a
hell of a lot better than the PSX, Saturn and N64 launches.
A: I felt the
same way then that I do now. While the PS2 didn’t really have
the "killer app" that other launches had (The SNES with
Super Mario World, the Genesis with Altered Beast, the Sega Saturn
with Virtua Fighter, the N64 with Mario 64, the Dreamcast with
Soul Calibur, the Gamecube with Rouge Leader, and the Xbox with
Dead or Alive 3) it did have an incredibly solid lineup with a few
standout titles. Sure, there were a few real stinkers, but on
launch day I still manages to find at least 4 PS2 games worth my
hard-earned money, as did most early adaptors. Not to mention that
a few days later Dead
or Alive 2 Hardcore and Timesplitters
hit the shelves. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget a little thing
like breaking console sales records left and right. While I would
admit that it took about a year for the system to really hit its
stride (Metal
Gear Solid 2, Silent
Hill 2, Devil May Cry, Tony
Hawk Pro Skater 3, Grand
Theft Auto 3, need I go on?) the system
didn’t get off to as bad a start as some journalists would like
you to believe. I’ve always suspected just a hint of jealously
over Sony’s unbridled success. Why? Maybe it’s that knee-jerk
reaction of the "hardcore" to hate all things
mainstream, maybe it’s something more, who knows? All I know is
that regardless of any second guess on the part of the media, The
PS2 is the undisputed king of the ring and is set to have a pretty
easy reign for the rest of this console generation.
____________________________________
Note: There’s
one in every mailbag, some rabid fanboy incoherently rambling
about something or other. Here’s this weeks, exactly as I
received it…
Q: so
where r sony's softwarefor ps2, to answer games like Halo. sony
never tried to answer nintendos golden eye. but sony must answer
halo.
A: I choose to
answer your inquiry this way: what is Microsoft’s answer to
Grand Theft Auto 3, True Crimes? That’s PS2 bound as well, so
that ain’t not kinda answer. How about Medal of Honor Frontline?
Trying to scrape together a port of the PC game Medal of Honor
Allied Assault? Allied Assault wouldn’t even be half as good as
Frontline without its online multiplayer aspect? What about Final
Fantasy X, or Devil May Cry, or the Stuntman, or the Getaway? Why
don’t you answer a few of those then I’ll see about getting
back to your question…
I hate to
sound confrontational, but flames tend to get you that way.
Anyway, on to more legitimate question…
____________________________________
Q: Hi
there,
I'm a new
owner of PS2 and like FPS games, bought MOH and Max Payne.
Problem:
after a few minutes playing these games, I get nauseated and get
sick like a dog. Is there anybody in this universe that feels the
same. I feel miserable and lonely. I don't have any problem with
007, agent under fire or GT3. Any suggestions besides stop playing
FPS (haven't touched MGS2, yet)?
A: Some games
just hit me in the inner ear as well, usually heightened if I’m
playing the game while tired. It usually happens to me after long
hours on a first person shooter like Deus Ex, Quake III Arena, or
Medal of Honor Allied Assault, but I’ve been known to run into
that feeling during long Grand Theft Auto 3 sessions or even a few
minutes at a game like Jak and Daxter or Spiderman the Movie.
Basically the nausea and dizziness is motion sickness, usually
caused by the prospective of the game or an overactive camera,
like that found in a game like Medal of Honor Frontline or Max
Payne. There are pills you can take to prevent this, but why
bother? I like to think of it as nature’s way of telling you
that you need to turn off the console and get some fresh air. I
think that solution might also help the "miserable and
lonely" feelings as well, because I doubt that those are a
side effect of motion sickness.
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