Check out Dell’s new gaming PC:
http://www.dell.com/html/us/products/ces/index.htm
Maybe there is no need to look for the gaming consoles?
What you think?
It already was past in terms of power - but this thing is like some alien PC from the future, sent back in time to embarras us with our puny girly boxes 
Well I would like to have one, but it would cost a fortune with 4 7800 GTX cards and the Intel Pentium Extreme Edition dual core.
PC’s equipped as some armageddon beasts are surely gonna cost you all your savings for the next 20 years.
Gaming consoles are surprisingly cheap considering their computer power, and what you would have to pay for an equilavant PC.
However, most people that have game consoles, also have PC’s. So, wouldn’t it be more practical to spend all that money you spend on a game console to change your PC into a supercomputer and buy a decent LCD monitor? I know I would.
Good point!
The xbox 360 sells at a loss, i wonder how much it would cost if it didnt?
Consoles are not sold for a profit, often they take a loss. The profits are made onthe games and licensing.
The problem with going for a fancy PC vs. a console, other than cost is the social factor. The PC is sitting in an office, being used for boring things like accounting, taxes, homework, etc… Often there is only a plcae for one person to sit at it. The console on the other hand is in the family room or play area. It is connected to a television that everyone can see, with room for several people to be involved. The user experience is vastly different - even when the hardware and software are identical.
Still true for Microsoft whois buyign market share with cash.
Actually not true for Sony products any more, my sources tell me, and was never true for Nintendo.
The problem with going for a fancy PC vs. a console, other than cost is the social factor. The PC is sitting in an office, being used for boring things like accounting, taxes, homework, etc… Often there is only a plcae for one person to sit at it. The console on the other hand is in the family room or play area. It is connected to a television that everyone can see, with room for several people to be involved. The user experience is vastly different - even when the hardware and software are identical.
I got my first ever console for Christmast - a GameCube - and I’m just blown away by the whole experience. So that was what all the fuss was about. I’ll never look back!
It unfortunately has sent me into deeper despair that there isn’t a similarly priced Java+OpenGL console available. The parts that make up the GameCube are now so cheap that such a machine could easily be produced for the same price… etc etc.
Cas 
Some people don’t have TV.
Er… are you sure?
Cas
you could always use a VGA box, sometimes (like with the Dreamcast) they offer much better graphics on a monitor than a tv.
Yeah, my brother was here for the Christmas holidays and brought his XBOX 360 with him. The whole gaming experience is totally different there. Actually, it’s so different that there’s no point in comparing it to a PC.
[quote=“kapta,post:12,topic:25780”]
My bro was looking for a vga cable too, but it appears not even a single cable has been shipped to Greece yet.
since I work for Dell I guess you could call my opinion bias, but… the price for the XPS is actually pretty decent considering the hardware you get (as compared to xbox 360 with the ridiculous “package” differences…). the XPS’ hardware outdoes gamecube and ps2 but I highly doubt any console/PC will compete with ps3 
if you think about it, at this rate the technology will be too advanced for game developers - they won’t have the 3D artists to max out the graphics capabilities. the devs won’t know what to do with so much extra space. kind of a reverse problem than the '80s
Nahh, that won’t be a problem. That’s what sloppy code and overdone details is for
yup gotta agree, no thing as too much power, almost all power is usable when it comes to games.
Perhaps I’m just becoming jaded, but I disagree. Perhaps all power is useable, but is it really useful?
Playstation/N64 offered useable 3D graphics, PS2/Gamecube made things significantly prettier, XBox offered a decent, consistent online service in addition, but the newest batch of consoles from Sony and Microsoft don’t seem to offer anything more than incremental improvements to the current generation. It’s the same games, just with more whizz-bang effects and the nagging feeling that you should buy a new TV in order to use the system to the full.
The exception is the aptly-named Revolution, with a refreshing emphasis on not measuring genital size clock speeds, and the controller that promises to cut through years of entrenched video-game convention and attract a whole new kind of game and audience to the pastime.
Sure, the next-gen consoles have doggedly followed Moore’s law up the transistor-count, but game developers are languishing with the same old genres, and no-one seems willing to take the chance on anything new. So what’s the point of all this power?
In short, I think it’s going to take more than faster processors and graphics cards to make truly new games. IMO, mainstream game publishers are crippled by a institutional absence of cojones:. They are simply unable take any risks on backing a new style of game. This seems to leave it up to the hobbyists to try new ideas, to see what is fun and what sucks, basically to advance the field.
Hobbyist gamedevs: instead of making that generic FPS/RTS/MMORPG, do something fundamentally novel. If it’s fun, polish it till it shines and find a following. If it sucks, ditch it and move on.
Sun: we need a reasonably sized audience, so:
- Make webstart perfect and ubiquitous
- Get a JVM on a console
Reading back, I can’t believe I’ve become such a rambling, curmudgeonly git at 24 years old :-\ Time for sleep…
lol ;D
The Xbox360 and PS3 haven’t/won’t make games any prettier - it’s the artists and programmers that are really doing that, and they’re really just filling up space that’s there for the taking. I barely notice the cheapass graphics on my GameCube anyway as I’m so hooked by the gameplay and incredible production values.
I’d be just as likely to buy Mario Kart on a PS3 as Doom 50. It’s all about the game!!
Cas
have to agree mario kart multiplayer on gc is just awsome fun, too bad the mindless masses out there still go for big graphics and movie license games, if it was only about gameplay companies would try concentrate on it more but sadly they can get away with just doing nice eye candy.