NightFire Console Differences

Excluding the PC Gearbox and Game Boy Advance games, here's everything I could find that was different between NightFire on the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox.

Will be updated over time.

Title Screen:

PlayStation 2

GameCube

Xbox

GameCube adds the typical "Licensed by Nintendo" into the legal information.

PlayStation has "Press the START button" instead of just "Press START" like the other two.

Menu Music Length:

The main menu music is truncated on PlayStation, leaving its loops to be much shorter. GameCube and Xbox have both tracks in their full length albeit at a lower quality on GameCube.

AV Options:

PlayStation 2

GameCube

Xbox

Different on every console. PlayStation has the most options, GameCube omits the screen adjust option, and Xbox leaves only game-specific options. Turning on widescreen or switching to Mono or Surround for this console requires setting it in the system's own settings which is also how you turn on Progressive Scan.

+ PS2 Exclusive Screen Adjust:

The screen adjust present on PlayStation uses the title screen CG as its background.

+ Progressive Scan:

GameCube

Xbox

On GameCube, you'll be prompted on startup to select whether or not to play in 480p or not.

On Xbox, this must be done via system settings.

On an interesting side note, the PlayStation version features text strings for the progressive scan menu from GameCube. Obviously not possible natively but if hacked using GSM or OPL, the game is completely playable in 480p albeit at 30fps which is less than what you can get with a deinterlacer.

+ Xbox Widescreen Settings:

On Xbox, this is how you switch the aspect ratio.

Laser Watch:

PlayStation 2

GameCube

Xbox

All the hands on the watch are absent on Xbox.

Hitmarkers:

PlayStation 2

GameCube

Xbox

Hitmarkers are not present on GameCube. Every shot/hit that lands on an NPC simply lacks the puff of smoke present everywhere else.

The Ninja:

The Ninja uses different sound effects on Xbox.

Chain Reaction Door:

This door does not make a sound on PS2 or GameCube despite being present in the map's sound bank.

Shuttle Exhaust:

PlayStation 2

GameCube

Xbox

The shuttle exhaust on GameCube is more opaque.

Laser Defense Net:

PlayStation 2

GameCube

Xbox

The laser's outer layer on GameCube is completely different.

Nuclear Explosions:

PlayStation 2

GameCube

Xbox

Equinox's missiles lack their unique explosion effect on GameCube. In most cases, the missiles simply pop out of existence.

I was generous with the GameCube screenshot as it's not the missile exploding but rather the shuttle which is supposed to be obscured by the nuclear explosion.

FMV Error:

GameCube

PlayStation 2/Xbox

The NTSC GameCube release's ending and Die Another Day trailer FMVs features a portion of the right side of the screen on the left side. This was corrected in the PAL release.

TL;DR:

PlayStation 2:

Pros:

• Has all the special effects except for drop shadows.
• Screen adjust in case TV cuts off a part of the image.

Cons:

• Lowest resolution. Runs at 640x448 whereas others run at 640x480.
  
• No progressive scan, runs at 60 fields per second.
• Has the longest load times out of the three.
• Some textures are half the size as GCN or Xbox.
• Has both mid quality and low quality sound effects.
• Exhibits sound issues that can result in sound effects and voice clips being dropped or delayed.
  
• Requires multi-tap for 3+ players.
• Supports only four bots in multiplayer.
• Omits some extra voice clips for bots in multiplayer.

GameCube:

Pros:

• The least prone to slowdowns.
• Added anti-aliasing for vehicle levels.
• Supports six bots in multiplayer.

Cons:

• The on-foot levels have a deflicker filter meaning the whole screen is blurred which only benefits CRT players.
• Whole entire game runs at 16-bit color depth. Others run at 24-bit (except PS2 in vehicle levels).
  
• Lacks certain special effects. This includes hitmarkers (puff of smoke from hitting an enemy).
• Voices in the on-foot levels are compressed.
• Reverb is absent for voice clips and sound effects so nothing echoes as it does elsewhere.
• Using and zooming in/out the scope will occasionally very briefly corrupt the graphics for it.
• Slow fade-outs which means cutscenes end mid-fade. Exposes a scenery change that was meant to happen off-screen in Double Cross.

Xbox:

Pros:

• Has the shortest load times out of the three.
• Has all the special effects plus extra lighting effects.
• High quality voice clips.
• Has almost entirely high quality sound effects with only a few mid quality ones.
• No audio filter like PS2 or GCN.
• Supports six bots in multiplayer.

Cons:

• Has the worst lag spikes. When the game starts lagging, it lags worse than the other two. Basically going in slow motion.
• Loading screens no longer feature objectives and hints.
• Slow fade-outs which means cutscenes end mid-fade. Exposes a scenery change that was meant to happen off-screen in Double Cross.