Unlockable Content 12.27.06: Looking Back at the Last Gen

Posted by Will Scott on 12.27.2006

We now take a break from your regularly scheduled series to take a look back at the last generation of consoles.

Merry Christmas (or holiday of your choice), and welcome back to Unlockable Content. I'm still Will Scott, and I currently squirreled away at a computer at my parents' home on Christmas day. After a journey of a couple thousand miles, I'm happily resting my weary self and enjoying a fine Christmas bounty. I had quite the gamerly Christmas – I'm now the owner of Gears of War, Guitar Hero II and Bully, as well as an iPod Shuffle. And…well, not quite the owner of a Nintendo Wii, but now equipped with the cash to purchase one as soon as I can track it down.

Today, we're going to step back from our regularly scheduled dissection of a series, and do something almost entirely for my own benefit. We're going to take a look back down memory lane at the last generation of consoles, and what they've meant to me. Let's go in my personal purchase order, shall we?

Playstation 2: The Early Contender

The PS2 was the natural extension of my gaming life. I'd had a Playstation for quite some time prior to getting the new version, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was odd that this was the big machine to buy – all of my friends had the Nintendo 64, and most of my freshman year of high school was spent playing GoldenEye. The PS2 burst on to the scene and it was great, for a while.

My PS2 usage would be the first to go downhill. The main reason was the lack of true multiplayer – sure, I could play with one other friend, but what good is it at a party? I've never been a huge fan of most Japanese RPGs, and Final Fantasy X killed any love I had for the genre for some time. To be fair, some series just worked better here – I still can't play the Tony Hawk series on anything but a Sony product, and the Grand Theft Auto games just felt a bit more right on the system. The memory card just seemed to fill up a bit too fast, and in recent months the machine has been relegated to a Guitar Hero player (except for an all too brief bout with God of War). I'll dust it back off again for the sequel and Bully, with the knowledge that it will probably be sold away soon after God of War II is finished.

The PS2 was an odd experience for me, but it's a powerful testament that the machine is still active next to my 360. My distaste for most of the PS2's content is miles away from most folks (at least, those who call themselves objective), but it's simply because they weren't my style. Japanese RPGs leave me mildly bored (or, with dot Hack, frustrated, annoyed, and disappointed), many of the popular games on the system like Grand Theft Auto simply didn't fit within my comfort zone and the critically acclaimed games like Shadow of the Colossus weren't my style. Even from where I sit on those games, though, I will freely say that the PS2 was likely the best pure gaming machine of the last generation.

X-Box: The Workhorse

I purchased the X-Box a week before Knights of the Old Republic came out, being flush with cash from a new job and desiring a little RPG goodness again. I had no idea that I'd be switching over to the massive machine in good time. It wasn't for the games, necessarily, or anything major – it was because I didn't need a memory card.

You see, I'm a bit of a renter. I enjoy renting video games and beating them quickly, but I really dislike deleting saved files, always figuring I might get the chance to play again. And who really wants to get rid of those little badges of awesomeness that prove you've beaten a game (this was, of course, before the 360 included Achievements). So, I'd go through memory cards on my PS2 quite quickly…until I had the X-Box. It had a massive storage space compared to the tiny PS2 memory cards, so I could rent or buy games with impunity, never having to worry about whether or not I could fit the saved data. Thus, all multi-platform games would make there way on to the X-Box eventually (the Tony Hawk series being a marked exception). The X-Box brought me several of my favorite games – including KOTOR (and KOTOR II, to a lesser extent) and Jade Empire. I even played a bit of co-op Halo with the guys in my hall and bought DDR pads to play with my girlfriend. It was a fun machine to have, both to play alone and with other people. The X-Box went the way of the dodo days after I bought a 360 and realized I had no room in my place to play DDR. I kind of miss the monstrous machine.

My X-Box experience isn't necessarily on par with that of other gamers, but I think it is demonstrative of a certain trend, namely that the system got better with age. The limited amount of RPGs available were great, and the ability to have four players was likely a major selling point. It wasn't just a machine for gamers, it was a machine for people who wanted to be entertained.

The Gamecube: The Party Machine

The Gamecube's purchase was brought on by two simple factors: my girlfriend likes Mario, and the console cost $99 dollars. The economics are normal. My girlfriend's obsession with that little plumber certainly is not. It's not necessarily his main games – don't get me wrong, she likes Super Mario Bros. as much as the next person, but it's the spin-offs that reel her in. Mario Kart, Mario Golf, Mario Party…you name it, she plays it. And routinely beats me at it. It didn't take a lot for me to give in and buy the console, but I can say fairly honestly I almost never played the system alone.

Gamecube gave me the aforementioned Mario stuff, but also games like Hunter: The Reckoning (four player co-op with my girlfriend swearing like a drunken sailor was a college highlight), Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Star Fox Adventures (which I liked, damn it). The ‘cube will be joining the X-Box at an Electronics Boutique near you as soon as I manage to actually procure a Wii.

I'd say my experience was close to that of most Gamecube owners - an initial fascination followed by a brief use as a party machine, and eventually relegating the little box to the closet unless company that wished to play it was about.

That's we've got for this week. The food's in the oven, and I'm due to check it shortly. Next week, we get back on track with our games and respond to some reader feedback about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Until then, keep on reading the other fine columns here in the Games Section, and send me some suggestions for which Wii titles I should buy!