With great power comes great futility!

[Joelcool7]

Mifely said:
but I don't think you could actually claim them to be "better" looking... just "as good", or nearly so).

I would argue that your list correlates just as much to "installed base" as it does to the inverse of computing power -- since installed base goes up with earlier console releases, and CPU power goes down with earlier releases (when considering competition), this makes sense.

 

You are somewhat correct. But I notice in your argument you only name a few of the more polished GameCube games. Take ResidentEvil4 and ResidentEvil4 on PS2 and sit them side by side and you see the hardware's differances. Capcom tried as hard as they could to directly port RE4 but the PS2 version still looked a little grainy and not as polished as its GameCube counter part. Infact it has been argued that GameCube's ATi/IBM proccessors made it almost as powerful as the X-Box.

You did name some of the best looking games on the PS2 and yes they do look pretty good. But to be honest GodOfWar2 and Shadow Of the Collosus. Games like Sega's Spartan Total War and EternalDarkness which I'd say are the closest game's to GodOfWar on a genre basis do look just as good if not better then their PS2 counter parts. Take a look at Konami's MetalGearSolid:TwinSnakes and compare it to MetalGearSolid3 for example. You can see the differance in hardware strength.

Installed Base plays a role to me but not much of one. PS2 had the largest installed base and PS3 sold worth crap. The Super Nintendo had the largest installed base (From NES/GameBoy) yet the N64 bombed compared to the PlayStation. Brand loyalty does play a role. GameCube is the perfect example it survived pretty much on loyal gamers and hardcore gamers who bought all three systems.

But I don't think even installed base plays the big role. I think its all about game quantity, many would argue Nintendo has always had the best first party titles, yet it still failed with 64 and GameCube. It was quantity that won the PS2's battle and now with Wii it isn't the high quality first party software winning the war alone. It's the quantity of party games shovel ware and innovative software.

It's quantity that wins console wars unfortunetly!