I purchased a Sega Dreacast last Christmas and couldn't be happier. The graphics are jaw-dropping and there's a truckload of games, 200 or so by Christmas 2000, some titles like Shenmu, Ecco the Dolphin, and Soul Calibur could be classified as works of art. As an engineer in the hi-tech field I'm always impressed by a design masterpiece, you can be assured I'm impressed with the Dreamcast. Now let's talk about the PS2, I've studied the Dreamcast and the PS2 for over a year by researching numerous design articles on the Internet and unfortunately for Sony, the word is getting out, the PS2 is a bad design. Sony had great plans for a powerhouse machine, but they all fell apart due to a serious design flaw that traumatizes the entire system. Here's the bottom line, the PS2 is severely limited by an anemic 4 MB Video ram memory in the graphics subsystem, this is the pipeline that controls video output to the screen, everything must pass thru this pipeline before it appears on the television. By comparison, the Dreamcast has twice the size of the PS2 pipeline, or 8 MB video ram memory. This still does not tell the complete story, the Dreamcast has a superior graphics engine that makes it's 8 MB pipeline perform more like 10 times the pipeline in the PS2, yes, that's right, I said 10 times. This gives the Dreamcast the ability to produce screen output the PS2 simply cannot match. This probably sounds hard to believe after all the hype you've heard about the PS2, but sadly, it's true. In a nutshell, Sony built a 750 horsepower Ferrari and then fitted it with a Ford Pinto exhaust system. No matter how much power the PS2 engine can deliver, the entire system is choked by the restricted output and software developers are left frantically scrambling trying to work around the problems this causes. Surely you've heard the PS2 is difficult to develop for, this is the main reason why. The results are quite revealing, if you compare the top games on both systems, you'll notice the Dreamcast is at least as good as the PS2 and many time's it's superior. The best example of this lies with two different fighting games, Tekken Tag on the PS2 compared to Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast, both games launched with the respective system. Namco, one of the finest game development companies on the planet, developed both titles. If it was within Namco's power, you can bet they wouldn't let the spanking new Tekken Tag on the PS2 be outshined by the 18-month-old Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast, but that's just what happened. Soul Calibur is a masterpiece that dwarfs Tekken Tag in any comparison. Another good example is EA Sports Madden NFL 2001 for the PS2 compared to NFL 2K1 for the Dreamcast. EA Sports has everything riding on the PS2 and cannot afford to be outdone by the Dreamcast. In direct comparisons, some say Madden NFL 2001 has slightly better graphics than NFL 2K1, but read almost any review you want, even some on Sony biased sights, and NFL 2K1 is the better game. Moving on, some Dreamcast games are thought to be impossible on the PS2, these are Jet Grind Radio, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure, Ecco the Dolphin, and perhaps a few more. These games either have incredible detail and texturing, fast moving free roaming 3D environments, or both. Because it's choked by it's design, detail texture and fast moving free roaming environments are all difficult for the PS2. In other words, some things the Dreamcast can do with ease are near impossibilities for the PS2. Chances are you haven't heard comparisons like these before, but they appear to be true. A few more things to mention if your considering purchasing a new game console, the PS2 can play DVD's, the Dreamcast can't, that may be a selling point to some. On the other hand, the Dreamcast has an ACE up it's sleeve, it's internet ready out of the box and online gaming for the Dreamcast is here, right now, today, no fool' in. How good is online gaming on the Dreamcast? I've heard nothing but praise and worship for SegaNet, they use a system that reduces lag over an analog modem that makes an opponent across country seem like he's playing in you living room. In the online department Sony has completely botched up, Sega has a much better plan in place and Sony will never fully catch up. One last point, the PS2 plays old Playstation games with the same quality as the Playstation, a certain selling point. On the Sega side, a new software product called Bleem! will give the Dreamcast the ability to play around 400 Playstation games thru emulation, with 4X the screen resolution, graphics filtering, and jagged edge removal that the Sony machines can't accomplish. The Dreamcast will be a better Playstaion than the PS2, even a better Playstation than the Playstation itself. In conclusion, if you're a Sony fan and you don't mind the high price, go ahead and buy a PS2, the games will get better as developers master the system. The PS2 is an adequate machine and will be a smashing success with the following Sony already has, it's just not the revolution in console gaming that all the hype predicted. Now, if you think you want a PS2 because it's a superior machine, forget the hype, save yourself some money and go buy a Dreamcast, you won't be disappointed. The PS2 is vastly overrated and over-hyped, the Dreamcast is underrated and it's time for the truth to even up the score. Lastly, if you are a budget conscious consumer, buy a Dreamcast over a PSone anyday, it's 10X better.... Bottom line, the Dreamcast is a masterpiece of design engineering and it easily rivals the PS2, in many ways it's the superior machine, much to Sony's dismay.
