StarFox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet Comments by Rob Fahey

I tell yah GB don't get me started! Contracting in the UK is not that fun, I wouldn't be too surprised if the EU stepped in at some point on this whole subject...

I pay so many different taxes sometimes I wonder about doing it!

Seems to me, living in the UK, you get smacked down for taking the risk. Running your own business, being self-employed, if you make any money doing this, they take it.

So I'm making my money, I'm gonna sell the flat to some London muppet with more money than sense and I'll be off in the sunset with me purple GC and large suitcases of money. Rent us a boat!

Sorry to spoil your fun with the TVs, but how many of you have seen a BIG (40 inch plus) plasma screen (or any screen for that matter) that doesn't look really bad and fuzzy up close (anywhere within 5 metres) when running standard resolution stuff (basically all TV, all non progressive scan DVDs and games)?

A bit late in the day for this but if you gonna buy a cube its got to be purple, black ones look like big oxo cubes or a deranged Saturn.

Oh aye, the game look all reet as well.

I love my black Cube.
There is something wrong with a guy over 20 who owns a purple one for some reason..

'There is something wrong with a guy over 20 who owns a purple one for some reason..'

Care to elaborate?

[[Alt][F4]] - 07-Aug-2002
I love my black Cube.
There is something wrong with a guy over 20 who owns a purple one for some reason..

Alt, let go of your fear, unleash your inner child, you will be a calmer, more centred person and suddenly women will approach you in the street and ask you for directions :)

Hm, and there was me thinking I must have a big tattoo on the back of my head saying "ask me for directions" or something. Problem is, I have a lousy sense of direction and although I can find my way from A to B, I couldn't tell you what any of the roads I used were called. :)

It's a fact that if women ask you for directions they secretly fancy you :)

RE Alastair;
No, I dare not elaborate on that; some things are better left unknowned my dear man. The human brain can only take so much :)

Otto;
See, that's my whole point Otto;
The guy with a purple waits calmly on the streets for the lass to make a move, while the one with the black cube takes initiative in his own (oversized)hands :P

edit;
(before I get busted by the last sentance, what I meant was he will go to her and ask first.
I've been here long enough to know how you ppl think :P)

"The guy with a purple waits calmly on the streets for the lass to make a move"

Too late, the guys with the purple GC have already got a women. The black GC owners are single, too worried about owning a purple GC because of their mislaid fears concerning their own sexuality. ;)

Ooh common, what kinda of a woman would want a guy with a purple cube ? That's almost as bad as if he owned Xbox :)
What's next, him wearing fluffy slippers ? :P

"Ooh common, what kinda of a woman would want a guy with a purple cube ?"

One that realised that black shows the dust more.

Or if the bloke lets the young lady choose the colour - which is the ideal catch all if you are worried about what a purple cube will do for your reputation.

Ah, I'm late to this thread as my time online has been a bit limited of late :)

My 2 cents:

- Sky digi boxes only output composite and RGB, to the best of my knowledge.

- 100hz.. avoid like the plague, IMHO. I was playing Biohazard (Cube) on my mate's 32" Wega and suddenly realised the picture was all blocky. I just assumed Biohazard looked a bit pap (a shocking assumption, but all I could think of). He then fired up GT3, which I've obviously played to death on my lowly 28" goodmans, and it was blocky as hell too. Thus, I'm assuming the blockyness is due to 100hz. A pretty good assumption, I would say. I gather 100hz also affects tv broadcasts adversely too, in some instances.

- PS2 DVD playback.. if you don't have a standalone player, the playback suffices. TBH, I haven't noticed any noise on region X'd RGB output. And gents, let's be honest here, I suspect 90%+ of people connect their equipment via composite anyway, so the comparison is only valid for "those in the know" anyway.

- Nem, if your TV does progressive scan, you deserve a big mallet over the head if you don't kit your consoles up to take advantage of it.

- purple cube.. my missus bought me my Cube, so it could have been banana yellow for all I cared, so long as I got it.

Hmm doesn't sound too good if all GC owners have got to discuss about their machine is its colour.... ;-)

" Sky digi boxes only output composite and RGB, to the best of my knowledge. " - Grundig ones do composite, RGB and SVideo. I'm pretty sure that its only Pace who don't offer SVideo.

100Hz - couldn't agree with you more. Its just a botch job most of the time. You get a stable picture but a shed load of artefacts from the coversion from PAL 50Hz. The same is true for a lot of the so called picture enhancements - I've turned them all off on my TV.

edit. Actually the only sky boxes that output SVideo are: -

Pace Sky+
Grundig 2000
Grundig 3000
Grundig /2 series

ssuellid - Indeed. I prefer the picture (which I'll go to great lengths to argue is superior) on my crappy £300 Goodmans than on my mate's £2000 Wega. True, the screen isn't perfectly flat, but is pin sharp (via RGB) compared to this blocky 100hz shit.

Didn't realise the digi boxes did RGB too. The only display option my Panasonic box (19 months old now) has in the display settings is PAL and RGB. True, PAL technically covers composite and svideo, but I would have thought there'd be a specfic option. Haven't tested it anyway, as my TV is orders of magnitude better in RGB mode.

Whizzo - discussing colour requires less effort than theorising how one might engineer a table strong enough to hold an Xbox :)

a table strong enough to hold an Xbox
Plus you've got to make sure the Xbox won't topple over and harm a small child! :-P

Or if the bloke lets the young lady choose the colour - which is the ideal catch all if you are worried about what a purple cube will do for your reputation.

My missus hates my purple cube & thinks it's dead ugly for some reason. She makes me hide it when visitors come. Strange woman.

Otto.. is your missus a Microsoft fanboy then?

Stu - she must be - I think she's european scum in disguise. :(

change of topic - one for the dads out there: link

Purple is ideal colour of choice for women ?
I really don't think so. My guess would be blue or the upcomming stylish silver. Ask around and you will see. (Keep in mind we're talking about 18+ and not children here)
However, if you are buying your gf a console as a gift, eather
a). you have found one that doesn't think 'electronic games are a total waste of time and not worth the price'.
Hence, hang on to her, she belongs to a VERY rare breed :)
b). or is a very poor choice of a gift; there are ALOT more appropriate presents that would make her happy and eventually you later that day my friend :p

As for it(black) accumulating dust, this is greatly exagerated and we are talking about a small cube; how long does it take you to dust it off ? :)

Oh my head hurts with all this techy talk. I wanted the TV cos I like the design. It's primarily for DVD's really.

I got the Tosh info in the post today (very prompt) and it supports component but NOT progressive scan. Only the Strata ones do, so there we go.

"Oh my head hurts with all this techy talk. I wanted the TV cos I like the design. It's primarily for DVD's really. "

- It is a nice looking TV. Well if you get bored its worth turning off the image enhancement bits just to see if they do anything good or bad.

I've turned off all the image enhancements that my DVD and TV offer and the picture is now gorgeous.

Does progressive scan make that much difference?

"Does progressive scan make that much difference?"

Yes, but the big difference is with sources that can output a higher resolution e.g. D VHS, NTSC XBox(supposedly). A DVD player only supports 480p - which is quite a low resolution so the benefits are not massive - less flicker, less artefacts. You can get video scalers that enhance the resolution but then you are in silly money territory.

...expensive, like anything. Multiplied by x 2 if you're in the UK!

The Tosh will do me fine. I like the look, it handles component, rgb and has 3 scart sockets. DD5.1 decoder inbuild and so on. Can't wait to see what Fellowship looks like on this TV, I played it last night on a cr@ppy Bush (composite) and it looked loooovely.

I think I'm right in assuming the UK consoles don't support progressive scan (correct me if I'm wrong here) so it's of no real benefit for me as mine are not NTSC imports.

" UK consoles don't support progressive scan" - someone said that the PAL version of PS2 VF4 supports PAL progressive scan.

Your not missing much by not having DTS either. So far the only difference I have noticed is that the rear effects seem louder.

See now we have DD 6.1 ES and PL2 coming out. It's a nightmare to follow for the layman.

My system currently supports DTS and I can't tell that much difference between this and DD, maybe a certain clarity to the rear speakers, but really that's it.

"See now we have DD 6.1 ES" - thats sort of my next step - adding two side speakers for 7 channel sound. PL2 is quite good and is used rather well in Rogue Leader - it also does quite a good job with TV broadcasts.

Yes, but the big difference is with sources that can output a higher resolution e.g. D VHS, NTSC XBox(supposedly).

I think I'm correct in saying that the Xbox goes all the way up to 1080i (HDTV).

Apparently, DOA3 is something to behold on a HDTV. This is, of course, where plasmas come into their own, until normal HDTVs become the norm.

I've got bog standard stereo fed through my 20 year old amp to my 25 year old fuck-off speakers and it sounds just great.

Can't wait to see what Fellowship looks like on this TV, I played it last night on a cr@ppy Bush (composite) and it looked loooovely.


Aaaaaargh! I really want to get the fellowship of the Ring on DVD now, but I don't want to have to buy it twice when the 4 disk set comes out on nov. 12 (with 30 mins extra footage). Damn voice of reason in my head!

Aaaaaargh! I really want to get the fellowship of the Ring on DVD now

Well I got in with a stinking headache last night and thought 'I'll just watch the extra's disc for tonight' but 10 minutes later I gave in, watched the whole film. The Bridge in Moria still gets to me 4 viewings later.

All this talk of hardware, it's an expensive thing for me. So, it's a gradual buildup of kit, starting with the TV. The DD inbuild into the TV doesn't matter to me, at some point I feel I will get something like a Denon system for sound, as these are getting good reviews across the board. The Sony sound system does ok, it sounds pretty good for a 300 quid setup, but it's limiting.

"I think I'm correct in saying that the Xbox goes all the way up to 1080i (HDTV). "

Yes, but you need the advanced AV pack which supposedly is only compatible with the NTSC XBox.

"Apparently, DOA3 is something to behold on a HDTV. This is, of course, where plasmas come into their own, until normal HDTVs become the norm."

When I was trying out my amp I sat there watching a load of different plasma screens and I'm not impressed with the picture quality - not for 3K plus anyway.

Also I have asked several people if plasma screens are any good or suitable for use with consoles and no one knows. Anyone seen one used?


Nemesis - I recommend the Denon 3802. If your room is quite small then using it with a Mission FS2AV speaker system is ideal.

"Also I have asked several people if plasma screens are any good or suitable for use with consoles and no one knows. Anyone seen one used?"

Sorry I don't know anything technical, but we have a large plasma screen at work for demo purposes, I've seen all 3 consoles running through it, & all I can say is it looks gorgeous...

My mate swears by his (haven't seen it, personally). But then having paid £4k for it, I'm sure he would.

Apparently, he says it makes a shit picture look pefectly shit and is simply jaw dropping for things which take advantage of it (his progressive scan DVD player and of course games which use PS/HDTV modes).

If you want a technical summary, my missus spake thusly of a £5k Panasonic in a shop window:

"picture is a bit shit, isn't it".

Having said that, most shops wire everything through composite, for which they should be shot.

Nemesis - I recommend the Denon 3802. If your room is quite small then using it with a Mission FS2AV speaker system is ideal.

There's alot to be thinking about here, just going into the tech forums is like being in another world! We have some Sevenoaks HIFI shops local, so I think I'll go in there at some point and get some advice.

"We have some Sevenoaks HIFI shops local"

They are usually pretty good and they have a good range of equipment.

Thanks for the plasma feedback lads - I wonder if the gf would agree that a new TV is a better investment than a honeymoon?

I wonder if the gf would agree that a new TV is a better investment than a honeymoon?

Maybe you could combine both!

I looked at the plasma screens at the Sony shop down at Bluewater and I think, really, for that kind of money you need to test it out. Space is a real premium in my flat and a wallmounted TV would be lovely, but I don't think the tech is quite there yet. and the Tosh looks the nu7s.

this is message 100!! woohoo.
*how sad*

ill get my coat...

Starfox Adventures has been out in the US for a couple of days now, and the people from PlanetGamecube don't seem to think it's 'all that'.

PGC Starfox impressions 1

PGC Starfox impressions 2

Many other online reviewers drool over it though, so maybe it's some sort of fallout from the whole MS-buys-Rare situation. But still, I think I'll rent it first...

Interesting. Famitsu panned it as well didn't they?

people complaining about the color being gay.. i tell you, damn insecure twats!

Someone mentioned a few days back that otto has stopped swearing...I see that has been rectified. You do realise that purple is the gay colour?

-Frankly who cares what colour it is as long as it runs?

Mr Sleep - vermin said that, not me! Anyone, all my thoughts on the purple issue may be seen by scrolling up a bit. :)

Anyway, about that planetgamecube quick take, I have to say that actually encourages me. His main grumble is that it's too easy. Me, I like easy. When hardcore gamers say something's too easy, that normally indicates a decent but doable challenge.

Yeah, they didn't like it huh.

Check out the IGN review for a different perspective. I think this is gonna be one of those love/hate games.

Good point, would you swear a bit, just so I don't lose even more face :D

Purple is for players. Sam Jackson wanted a purple lightsaber. So does that make him gay, or is he the coolest MF in town?