I guess I'd just say that, put simply, you're missing out on some really great game experiences in general. If you don't play single-player games at all, then you could be missing out on a wide swathe of incredible games.

It does depend on what you mean by "single-player" though. What about Bloodborne, which is predominantly single-player in nature, but which has some PvP and cooperative aspects?

@Heirren: I really hope 3D printing expands the options in this area. I've been hunting around to see if there are any mystical "brand new" N64 controllers out there - I'd be willing to pay a large premium to buy one. But alas, I haven't seen anything.

It's really hard for me to say which is my overall favourite. I never owned and Xbox (and was never very interested in owning one), so that's out for me.

As for the other three...well, I loved all of them a lot. I spent a lot of time with all three. I suppose the console I was most excited about was the Dreamcast, because that was the first console I bought in that generation. So when I got it, it felt very "next gen" to me. And honestly, I think it's home to the greatest games Sega has ever made; in some respects it's like the essence of Sega distilled into one platform. :P

So if I was really pressed, I might say Dreamcast was my favourite. I'd probably put PS2 and GameCube on-par, because both had a lot to offer, and I tend to weight Nintendo games a bit higher than all others because of their outstanding quality.

Heya, did you buy this game new or second-hand? If it's second-hand, then the game disc might be dodgy. Try cleaning the disc with warm, soapy water and then gently patting it dry (I've heard this works, I haven't tried it myself...)

If it's a new purchase, then you should be able to return it to the store you bought it from. Alternatively, try calling the Nintendo support line (you should be able to find the number on their web site). Good luck! I hope you're able to play it, it's a wonderful game.

I'd start with GameCube, and then grab N64 later. The primary reason in my view is related to the controller - honestly, finding a second-hand controller that is in good condition is a non-trivial exercise.

The controller itself feels great when it's in good condition, but when the stick is wonky and the housing around it is worn down...it feels like washing yourself with soap covered in sandpaper (or some such terrible analogy...) :P

That's a fair point, although it kind of defeats the purpose of being a retro games collector. :P

Also - and I can't speak for all cases - but certainly in many cases, the emulation is pretty dodgy. You're often not really getting the true feel for how the original games actually look and feel.

Anyway, my recommendation - primarily for reasons of lower cost overall and higher accessibility - is to go with GameCube. The games are easy to get, and you can still get all the accessories/controllers/cables pretty easily. You can even sometimes find brand new controllers out there, which is awesome.

I also highly recommend the other consoles, but there are caveats. For instance, if you want to play NES on a modern HDTV...it's not going to look great. The compatibility just isn't there. I haven't yet invested in one, but I think you'd need an upscaler to even begin to do those games justice. Alternatively, you'd need to have a good old-fashioned CRT TV. :-)

Also, in the case of N64, the plastic housing around the analogue stick is very prone to damage and the stick itself becomes wobbly/loose over time. So if you buy a second-hand controller, it's going to be very hard to find one that "feels new". And honestly, N64 controllers feel really great when they're newer...not so much when they age.

That said, perhaps start with GameCube and see how you go! If you really love it and you're in the mood to dive deeper, then I'd say trace further back in time and pick up a SNES before moving on to even older hardware.

Good luck and enjoy. :-)

Really good question. For me, the games that really never get old are probably the more sandbox-style games that don't necessarily have specific end points. For instance, I played Civilization V for years and years and it's only been in recent times where I've grown tired of it. The fact that I can really define what the "end" point is, and that each match is so long, are reasons why it just never got old for me (well, until recently as I say).

And then there's Cities: Skylines, which is a game I keep coming back to over and over. Again it's that whole sandbox thing; the ability to really create your own world and modify it to your heart's content. That keeps me coming back.

Years ago, it was RTS games that did this for me. I played so much of Command and Conquer: Red Alert...

It's a tough question, because I think that the console world is changing anyway - by that I mean, what we consider a "game console" is changing. I think all game consoles are slowly moving closer to what we see with devices like Apple TV; no physical media at all, all content downloadable, and a box that is focused on games but that provides a platform for all kinds of entertainment.

It could be that console manufacturers are moving closer to an interative hardware development plan, where we see new models every couple of years, but there's still broadly "backwards compatibility" with software. I mean, think of your smart phone, and the way that when a new phone comes out, the older models don't immediately become redundant for new game releases. I can sort of see consoles going in that direction.

As for whether or not they "need" to? Well, I'd actually have said that hardware power is becoming less important over time, not more important. I mean, despite all the comparisons between PC and console graphics, I actually don't see a huge difference there; when you see side-by-side videos, it's rare to see a highly noticeable change from console to PC. Mostly, you get things like better frame rate, longer draw distances, and maybe improved anti-aliasing and stuff...but that's about it. And as hardware evolves, I think it's clear that the horsepower is there, and it's not so much a horsepower problem, but rather an optimisation and porting problem (as well as a disk space problem!)

That said, the key reason why I can imagine the sudden need for more powerful consoles is because of the adoption of VR technology. If Sony and Microsoft are keen to push VR as being a significant part of the console experience (which makes sense - I think VR makes more sense in the living room than it does in the study on a PC), then it's going to be necessary to have the hardware to support it. It won't necessarily make sense to wait another three years to put that into the market if they want to capitalise on early-adoption of VR sooner rather than later.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Nothing too concrete...I guess it all comes back to the broader landscape changing. I'm not sure if frequently-updating console hardware is a good or a bad thing, so long as I'm not constantly being blocked from playing my existing library. For me, backwards compatibility is the biggest hurdle to jump in order to convince me to keep updating my hardware (and obviously in the PC world, that is a non-issue really).

I know this is kind of an obvious answer, but it really depends on your prior experiences I think. If you really love the Dark Souls franchise and you're very familiar with DaS and DaS2, then it's worth getting DaS3.

Dark Souls has a pretty good pick-up-and-play feeling about it, in that you can play for just a few minutes and still make some good progress. And of course, you can play cooperatively and player-versus-player.

The Witcher is, well...such a time-suck! In a good way, of course. I'm still ploughing through The Witcher 3 after a good couple of dozen hours on it (I'm about level 18 now). On the one hand it's great, but it also doesn't lend itself to very short bursts of play, I find (at least for me). As much as I want to get the expansions, I'm afraid of what they'll do to my social life!! :P

So it's very hard to give you a recommendation here.

P.S. As for the performance of DaS3, it really depends what platform you're going for. I have it on PS4, and I can't complain; it's pretty smooth in terms of frame rate, with very occasional dips (which are themselves rare and brief in occurrence). I can't speak for it on PC, and that's a minefield anyway because it depends on your individual PC specs.

Good luck with your decision!

I don't mind the idea that Zelda will be the only playable game on the show floor. Given that this should be a really big game, I'm looking forward to diving into the detail on it. I think Nintendo will need some time to really air out that detail and explain the mechanics, etc...

It sounds like they will have other things to announce, even if they aren't playable. I'm definitely hoping for some more Wii U and 3DS love, but I'm not really sure what they might announce. It'd be good to have at least one big Wii U title to look forward to for the holiday period this year, at any rate.