The Playstation 2 discussion thread!

[Games Of Reference]

As the name would suggest, this is a thread to discuss anything about the PS2, one of my all time favourite consoles!

 

Posts do not have to be explicitly about the PS2, but as long as it's relevant, you can post away. Game stories, reviews, collections... All of it welcome!

 

Some of my first memories with the console was playing Need For Speed Underground 2. The game seems slightly dated due to the Fast and Furious neon and customisation, but it gave you so much freedom to make the car look however you wanted. Fun driving physics also. Very weighty for an arcade racer.

[toiletunes]

I went to the store to buy a used PlayStation and a copy of Twisted Metal. I wound up getting a ps2 and tm2 instead. Great times. That was my first DVD player, too.

I stuck with Namco museum and similar compilations, the tm series, and tomb raider 1. And demolition racer.

[Games Of Reference]

I went to the store to buy a used PlayStation and a copy of Twisted Metal. I wound up getting a ps2 and tm2 instead. Great times. That was my first DVD player, too.

I stuck with Namco museum and similar compilations, the tm series, and tomb raider 1. And demolition racer.

 

 

I believe that the PS2 was my first DVD player too, if I recall. I think what we can gather from your list of games is that there was so many good racing games for the PS2. Such variety. If you wanted simulation, there was Gran Turismo. If you wanted kart racing, there was Crash Nitro Kart. And there was everything in between, such as the great Twisted Metal you mentioned, toiletunes.

 

Thanks for joining in on the discussion!

[Mord]

The PS2 was the first console I paid for new out of my own money. (Earlier consoles/handhelds were either used, or were bought by parents when I was growin' up.)

 

Got it mainly for the JRPGs and fighting games, of which I managed to collect many. Probably a bit too many, given that to this day there are some still crying alone in a corner in their shrinkwrap.

[Newsdee]

I recently picked up a Japanese PS2 slim at a flea market... for some reason I never owned one, although I rented one sometimes back in the day, and played a few games on emulators.

[+save2600]

The PS2 is by far, my favorite modern system. Love the styling, shape and size, functionality of the controller which allows you to play just about anything well, the expandability options such as adding a hard drive, backwards compatible with PS1, plays DVD's (though I rather save the laser for games), plethora of video and sound output options, network/multiplayer online capability and more. Love that it has optical digital out for those of us with external DAC's or 5.1 receivers. USB and Firewire ports too that allow mice, flight sticks, steering wheels and cameras to be used - I/O options are about as versatile as it gets!

 

The system and most of its games just feel right. While many/most PS1 games haven't aged well, I don't feel that way at all with the PS2. Not even after owning and playing PS3 - it's holding up *that* well for me and probably always will. It's all what your expectations are and many of the games I like to play on the PS2 are classics anyway; arcade collections from the 8 and 16-bit days. Driving games like Burnout and Gran Turismo are no slouch though. Neither are just about any of the first person, 3D action/adventure games, racers, flight sims, sports, whatever. The system just does most everything really, really well - even when it comes to 2D.

 

And unlike my PS3 which can't go a few weeks (or is it months? don't know, I never play it anymore) without system, store and game updates - none of that nagging BS with the PS2. And the PS4? After experiencing the PS3 (online updates, games without paper manuals, many games with serious bugs and glitches, controller input lag, Sony leaking personal data and credit card info, wireless controller battery maintenance, etc., etc., etc.), have never - even once, been tempted to purchase one. Am fairly certain I'm done with modern consoles at this point.

 

As far as I'm concerned, the PS2 represents the last of the *real* gaming consoles. It's not just a PeeCee crammed into some stupidly molded plastic, pretending to be a console. Proprietary architecture of the PS2 tells the story there.

 

Oh and who can forget Guitar Hero?!

[Games Of Reference]

The PS2 was the first console I paid for new out of my own money. (Earlier consoles/handhelds were either used, or were bought by parents when I was growin' up.)

 

Got it mainly for the JRPGs and fighting games, of which I managed to collect many. Probably a bit too many, given that to this day there are some still crying alone in a corner in their shrinkwrap.

 

That's the problem: PS2 games are both plentiful and cheap, they'll bound to be a few we've bought and never played. I know there's a few I own...

 

I recently picked up a Japanese PS2 slim at a flea market... for some reason I never owned one, although I rented one sometimes back in the day, and played a few games on emulators.

 

Well, now is as good as a time as any to pick one up! As I stated above, most games for it are fairly cheap, so you shouldn't have too much trouble buying games for it. I myself own the non-slim PS2, and it looks like a black brick.

[Games Of Reference]

The PS2 is by far, my favorite modern system. Love the styling, shape and size, functionality of the controller which allows you to play just about anything well, the expandability options such as adding a hard drive, backwards compatible with PS1, plays DVD's (though I rather save the laser for games), plethora of video and sound output options, network/multiplayer online capability and more. Love that it has optical digital out for those of us with external DAC's or 5.1 receivers. USB and Firewire ports too that allow mice, flight sticks and cameras to be used - I/O options are about as versatile as it gets!

 

The system and most of its games just feel right. While many/most PS1 games haven't aged well, I don't feel that way at all with the PS2. Not even after owning and playing PS3 - it's holding up *that* well for me and probably always will. It's all what your expectations are and many of the games I like to play on the PS2 are classics anyway; arcade collections from the 8 and 16-bit days. Driving games like Burnout and Gran Turismo are no slouch though. Neither are just about any of the first person, 3D action/adventure games, racers, flight sims, sports, whatever. The system just does most everything really, really well - even when it comes to 2D.

 

And unlike my PS3 which can't go a few weeks (or is it months? don't know, I never play it anymore) without system, store and game updates - none of that nagging BS with the PS2. And the PS4? After experiencing the PS3 (online updates, games without paper manuals, many games with serious bugs and glitches, controller input lag, Sony leaking personal data and credit card info, wireless controller battery maintenance, etc., etc., etc.), have never - even once, been tempted to purchase one. Am fairly certain I'm done with modern consoles at this point.

 

As far as I'm concerned, the PS2 represents the last of the *real* gaming consoles. It's not just a PeeCee crammed into some stupidly molded plastic, pretending to be a console. Proprietary architecture of the PS2 tells the story there.

 

Oh and who can forget Guitar Hero?!

 

Absolutely correct! I think the PS1-PS2 era is one of the 'golden ages' for video games, with so many great titles. As you mentioned, there's Burnout (I've played too much of Revenge and 3) with some of the most satisfying driving ever. There's Gran Turismo, with literally hundreds of hours of content. I also remember playing Pro Evolution Soccer, which is weird considering I never much liked football/soccer.

 

And yes, of course, it is a console through-and-through. One of the best!

[+save2600]

The latest and "greatest" systems are just a chore to use comparatively. While I'm disappointed in the way things "evolved" that way, it's alright... not like the industry is making (m)any games that I'd care to play anyway.

[Gabriel]

When the PS2 was released, I was doing my late in life going to school thing. I was completely broke.

My roommate had decided to get one at launch. He knew Wal-Mart was going to get them at a certain date and time, so he went to buy one. Neither he or I thought he would have any problem getting one. No console previous to that had been the slightest bit difficult to get. Even the N64, which had been hyped as somehow "impossible" to get at launch was in plentiful supply.

The PS2 launch was different. There was a line at Wal-Mart when my roommate got there. There was also a guy walking around introducing himself to anyone who showed up. The guy told everyone that he owned all the places in line because he ran a business and planned to sell all the consoles he bought on ebay. However, if someone wanted one of those places in line, he would sell the spot in line for $250 (PS2 extra). My roommate also found out the store manager for the store was in on this arrangement and getting a cut of the profits when he complained. Furthermore, he discovered arrangements like this were going on all over town wherever PS2s were showing up.

My roommate didn't get a PS2 until several months after launch. It still stands as the ONLY console launch I've ever seen where getting the console was difficult. Even the Wii's lack of availability was tremendously overblown.

Moving on over a year, after I got my first real professional job, my first purchase of my first paycheck was a PS2 and Ace Combat 4. My TV had broken down just a few days before, so my first plays on my brand new PS2 were via a tiny 13" TV.

I suppose if I had to name my favorite games on the PS2, they'd be classic compilations. The PS2 is where such collections hit their apex. There are so many great ones for the system. Taito Legends vol 1 is a personal favorite because Phoenix. Ironically, the first time I ever scored 1 million on Laser Blast wasn't on the original cart. It was on the Activision collection for the PS2.

I loved playing the Time Crisis games (2, 3, and Crisis Zone) on my PS3. Back then I had this HUGE tube TV which weighed probably a legitimate ton. It made playing Time Crisis games great. Sadly, that TV died, and playing light gun games has never been the same. After playing on a gigantic screen like that, downgrading to playing on a 19" set just isn't worth it.

Despite my huge fandom for RPGs, the only series I spent real time with was Xenosaga. I played about half of the first one on the PS2, then finished it on the PS3. I played the second game entirely on the PS3. Then my phat PS3 died early in my play of the third game, and I had to start that installment over on my PS2.

I retired my original fat PS2. It never stopped working. I just decided to let it take a break, just in case at some future date I needed a fat model. For a long time I thought about doing the hard drive thing and getting the system modded to play imports, but I never got around to it.

[Gabriel]

 

Absolutely correct! I think the PS1-PS2 era is one of the 'golden ages' for video games, with so many great titles.

 

Definitely. In those days it wasn't purely about singular big blockbuster titles. Neither the PS1 or PS2 owed their success to singular killer apps that represented the only thing to play on the system. The PS1 and PS2 libraries were broad and deep. No two fans of the system need have anything resembling the same game list. And there are a wide variety of popular games.

 

That was lost in the 360 era when everything drifted to being an FPS or over the shoulder action game that had to sell 10 million copies or it wouldn't break even, and if it wasn't one of those two genres, then it had a print run of 3,000 copies.

[toiletunes]

I can't believe I forgot to mention:

 

Silent Hill.

[spacecadet]

I can't believe I forgot to mention:

 

Silent Hill.

 

Silent Hill was a PS1 game, but you could have played it on your PS2.

 

I remember when Silent Hill 2 was announced - the trailer for it was really unlike anything I'd ever seen from a video game before. It felt like a lot more than a straight survival horror game (a genre I had known and played since the original Alone in the Dark on PC). They had really tried to tell an emotional and really personal story through the genre of survival horror, and that was something really new. Also, the graphics looked amazing. I remember watching that trailer like 15 times in a row when it was first released, then of course I bought the game the day it came out.

 

One kind of interesting thing is that I lived in NYC at the time, and when I bought the game the twin towers were still on fire, and smoke was still wafting over my house. (The game was released on September 24, 2001.) I typically played it late at night, so the atmosphere was just really, really eerie. Also, one night as I was playing at around 2AM there was a small earthquake in New York City that felt like a single big jolt. All of a sudden my entire house felt like it fell about a foot, and everything on my shelves rattled and clanged and some things fell over. That freaked me the hell out - it was just out of nowhere. It being so close to 9/11, a lot of people went outside to see if something else had been attacked (I did too).

 

Anyway, so playing this game is one of the more memorable gameplay experiences that I've had.

[Games Of Reference]

 

Definitely. In those days it wasn't purely about singular big blockbuster titles. Neither the PS1 or PS2 owed their success to singular killer apps that represented the only thing to play on the system. The PS1 and PS2 libraries were broad and deep. No two fans of the system need have anything resembling the same game list. And there are a wide variety of popular games.

 

That was lost in the 360 era when everything drifted to being an FPS or over the shoulder action game that had to sell 10 million copies or it wouldn't break even, and if it wasn't one of those two genres, then it had a print run of 3,000 copies.

 

While I myself am a little more optimistic towards modern gaming, I do enjoy the larger variety the PS2 and other older consoles offers. Not every big game was a shooter. You had platformers, racers, etc. A console for everyone.

 

 

 

Silent Hill was a PS1 game, but you could have played it on your PS2.

 

I remember when Silent Hill 2 was announced - the trailer for it was really unlike anything I'd ever seen from a video game before. It felt like a lot more than a straight survival horror game (a genre I had known and played since the original Alone in the Dark on PC). They had really tried to tell an emotional and really personal story through the genre of survival horror, and that was something really new. Also, the graphics looked amazing. I remember watching that trailer like 15 times in a row when it was first released, then of course I bought the game the day it came out.

 

One kind of interesting thing is that I lived in NYC at the time, and when I bought the game the twin towers were still on fire, and smoke was still wafting over my house. (The game was released on September 24, 2001.) I typically played it late at night, so the atmosphere was just really, really eerie. Also, one night as I was playing at around 2AM there was a small earthquake in New York City that felt like a single big jolt. All of a sudden my entire house felt like it fell about a foot, and everything on my shelves rattled and clanged and some things fell over. That freaked me the hell out - it was just out of nowhere. It being so close to 9/11, a lot of people went outside to see if something else had been attacked (I did too).

 

Anyway, so playing this game is one of the more memorable gameplay experiences that I've had.

 

That must've been a really weird situation, especially in that period and the fact that you were playing a horror game. Still, Silent Hill is a masterpiece nonetheless.

[Byron's Reviews]

Ah, yes! The PS2! It's a console that I have a lot of memories with. My brother and I both loved it! We would play games such as Crash, Spyro, various Sonic the Hedgehog titles and many other weirder games like Crazy Frog Racer 2!!!

 

However, our PS2 broke. I must've been about ten when it happened. At that point, I made a decission that I so dearly regret to this day. I sold ALL of our PS2 games...

 

Now, I have a PS3, I can actually play PS2 games again so while I may have been able to buy some new PS2 games, there are still many from my childhood that I no longer have.

 

Oh well, at least I have many great memories with the system and that's all that matters!

 

Thanks for creating this thread, Rhys!

[Games Of Reference]

Ah, yes! The PS2! It's a console that I have a lot of memories with. My brother and I both loved it! We would play games such as Crash, Spyro, various Sonic the Hedgehog titles and many other weirder games like Crazy Frog Racer 2!!!

 

However, our PS2 broke. I must've been about ten when it happened. At that point, I made a decission that I so dearly regret to this day. I sold ALL of our PS2 games...

 

Now, I have a PS3, I can actually play PS2 games again so while I may have been able to buy some new PS2 games, there are still many from my childhood that I no longer have.

 

Oh well, at least I have many great memories with the system and that's all that matters!

 

Thanks for creating this thread, Rhys!

 

Ah, that's awful that it broke but the PS3 will do you fine. Games such as Crash were some of my favourites.

 

As you said, Crash 3 and Crash 4 were, and still are, my faves! Surprisingly, I've not played too much of Spyro... (loses all of his gaming cred)

[Eltigro]

My original Playstation was getting to be worn out. It was doing that thing where you have to turn it upside down to get it to read and play a game. I went to the local Target and got a PS2 bundled with Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec. The PS2 was my first dvd player, also. And the first dvd I watched was The Matrix. I never bought nearly as many games for my PS2 as I did for the Playstation. My financial situation was a little different at the time... having just started to be on my own and having to do stuff like pay rent and electric bills...

 

Fast forward several years...

 

My step-dad died. My mom asks me if I want the video game system he had. "He had a video game system?" I figured it was some cheap knock-off thing or whatever, but I say yes anyway. Even if it's some piece of crap, I could add it to the collection. I get over there and ask my mom about it. She said it's out in some boxes in the garage. (They were in the process of moving when he died and a lot of stuff was still packed up.) I go out there with her and rummage through some stuff... and there it is. A PS2 slim. I question my mom about it... when and why did he get it? Number 1, I thought he didn't like video games and Number 2, he'd had a stroke a while back and had very limited use of his right hand. She just said that he saw it at a garage sale, decided he wanted it and got it. It came with several sports games that I wasn't really interested in, but I still have them on the shelf. Because of the smaller size, it has become the PS2 that I hook up. The old fat one still works perfectly, but this is smaller, so it gets the space.

 

I no longer have the busted original Playstation... I threw it away when I got the PS2.

I never got a PS3 or PS4.

 

But I have two PS2s.

[spacecadet]

I actually owned two PS2's also, both launch PS2's, one Japanese and one US. I don't know why but even as a Dreamcast fan, I was probably more excited about the PS2 launch than any other launch (other than the DC, which I also bought US and JP launch systems of). I paid an ungodly amount for my Japanese PS2 at some local New York store in Chinatown; I think I remember it being like $500 or maybe even more. Then just a few months later, I stood in line all night outside K-Mart to get a US model. (I don't remember where I got all this money!) My friends and I had figured not as many people would be standing outside a K-Mart as actual game or electronics stores, and we were right - I only had 10 people in front of me. No problem, I thought! Then right before opening, a rumor started going around that the store had gotten ten units. I counted again - yep, ten people in line in front of me. I hoped the rumor was wrong. It wasn't - the first ten people got systems and I got shafted.

 

I actually don't remember where I ended up getting a system but I do remember my disappointment was very short lived. I'm pretty sure I got one either the next day or at least that week; I just got lucky walking around to different stores until I saw one on a shelf. I remember it was actually really hot outside when I was walking out of the store with my system, so it being released in October, it had to be very early on that I got it.

 

Eventually tried to mod my import system to play US games so I could keep only one system hooked up, but the PS2 mod chips sucked. Not sure if better ones ever came out, but mine was basically useless - it just didn't work on like 80% of games, so I physically ripped it out of the system.

 

Still have both systems, though neither is hooked up. I do often think about hooking the US system up again (I have way more US than import games, unsurprisingly) - I originally had a launch PS3 too, which had PS2 backward compatibility, but it broke a while back. Sometimes I do miss some of my PS2 games that were never remade, although I have bought a few re-releases for the PS3 and PS4, like the Silent Hill collection and the Final Fantasy X/X-2 remake.

[Eltigro]

Mine's hooked up... it's just hard to see right now. lol

 

 

[Games Of Reference]

My original Playstation was getting to be worn out. It was doing that thing where you have to turn it upside down to get it to read and play a game. I went to the local Target and got a PS2 bundled with Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec. The PS2 was my first dvd player, also. And the first dvd I watched was The Matrix. I never bought nearly as many games for my PS2 as I did for the Playstation. My financial situation was a little different at the time... having just started to be on my own and having to do stuff like pay rent and electric bills...

 

Fast forward several years...

 

My step-dad died. My mom asks me if I want the video game system he had. "He had a video game system?" I figured it was some cheap knock-off thing or whatever, but I say yes anyway. Even if it's some piece of crap, I could add it to the collection. I get over there and ask my mom about it. She said it's out in some boxes in the garage. (They were in the process of moving when he died and a lot of stuff was still packed up.) I go out there with her and rummage through some stuff... and there it is. A PS2 slim. I question my mom about it... when and why did he get it? Number 1, I thought he didn't like video games and Number 2, he'd had a stroke a while back and had very limited use of his right hand. She just said that he saw it at a garage sale, decided he wanted it and got it. It came with several sports games that I wasn't really interested in, but I still have them on the shelf. Because of the smaller size, it has become the PS2 that I hook up. The old fat one still works perfectly, but this is smaller, so it gets the space.

 

I no longer have the busted original Playstation... I threw it away when I got the PS2.

I never got a PS3 or PS4.

 

But I have two PS2s.

 

It seems like we all have some memories attached to our PS2, which is a lovely thing. Great choice with GT3, an amazing racing game, one of the best. I find myself liking GT4 a tad more though, most likely because I owned GT4 before GT3. Seems also that the DVD drive was a bigger selling point than I realise!

I actually owned two PS2's also, both launch PS2's, one Japanese and one US. I don't know why but even as a Dreamcast fan, I was probably more excited about the PS2 launch than any other launch (other than the DC, which I also bought US and JP launch systems of). I paid an ungodly amount for my Japanese PS2 at some local New York store in Chinatown; I think I remember it being like $500 or maybe even more. Then just a few months later, I stood in line all night outside K-Mart to get a US model. (I don't remember where I got all this money!) My friends and I had figured not as many people would be standing outside a K-Mart as actual game or electronics stores, and we were right - I only had 10 people in front of me. No problem, I thought! Then right before opening, a rumor started going around that the store had gotten ten units. I counted again - yep, ten people in line in front of me. I hoped the rumor was wrong. It wasn't - the first ten people got systems and I got shafted.

 

I actually don't remember where I ended up getting a system but I do remember my disappointment was very short lived. I'm pretty sure I got one either the next day or at least that week; I just got lucky walking around to different stores until I saw one on a shelf. I remember it was actually really hot outside when I was walking out of the store with my system, so it being released in October, it had to be very early on that I got it.

 

Eventually tried to mod my import system to play US games so I could keep only one system hooked up, but the PS2 mod chips sucked. Not sure if better ones ever came out, but mine was basically useless - it just didn't work on like 80% of games, so I physically ripped it out of the system.

 

Still have both systems, though neither is hooked up. I do often think about hooking the US system up again (I have way more US than import games, unsurprisingly) - I originally had a launch PS3 too, which had PS2 backward compatibility, but it broke a while back. Sometimes I do miss some of my PS2 games that were never remade, although I have bought a few re-releases for the PS3 and PS4, like the Silent Hill collection and the Final Fantasy X/X-2 remake.

 

That must've been really frustrating, just missing out on the PS2. I can imagine the disappointment. I do like how many PS2 and PS1 games are getting remastered for newer audiences to experience. I am looking forward to the Crash N-Sane trilogy myself!

[jhd]

I was quite late getting my PS 2 -- I only bought it in 2008. The slim model was still available at retail, if not especially plentiful, and the games were still widely available, both new and used.

 

I subsequently bought another slim (new in open box) as a spare/backup system.

 

Before the PS 2, I had an original PlayStation; I bought it second-hand in about 2004. There are a few games that will not work on the PS 2 -- among them Final Fantasy Tactics -- so it still gets some use.

 

I have no desire to own a system that requires regular software updates (or online DRM, etc.), so I do not ever see myself moving on to a PS 3 or 4.

 

I would like to get PS 2 with the hard drive installed, but so far I have not found one. I check every console that I see at thrift shops, just in case.

[RARusk]

You're not going to find a PS2 with a hard drive installed out in the wild - it's mainly a DIY project. It's a bit of effort but once you get it working properly you will never want to use the DVD-ROM drive again. However, not all games will work with a hard drive but I have not heard of anything regarding an SD Card reader replacement for the DVD-ROM drive. My PS2 modification "wish list" includes, in addition to the SD Card DVD-ROM replacement, a device that will allow me to use my PS3 and PS4 controllers on the PS2 and a true HDMI mod that uses the raw digital signals off of the motherboard not upscaling the Component Video to HDMI. I intend to put an SD Card reader into a second Network Adapter I acquired and use those for my games but I have been busy with other gaming projects to do that.

[cimerians]

I bought it on launch, after the PS1 and Dreamcast I was waiting to get my hands on it. I think the first few games I played were Metal Gear and Onimusha. God of War blew me away late in its life cycle, I bought it mainly for action games like Devil May Cry and RPGs...there's a hidden Gem of a western RPG called Drakhen the Ancients gates and of course Champions of Norrath and Baldur's Gate.

Lots of good stuff to play forever, Shadow Hearts, Persona, Ratchet & Clank...... weird stuff too like mister mosquito etc. I have a modded slim and a modded fat with a drive but also have my original. The PCSX2 emulator on PC is pretty damn sweet if you can get it to work.

[jhd]

You're not going to find a PS2 with a hard drive installed out in the wild - it's mainly a DIY project.

 

What about Final Fantasy 11?

 

The game package include a hard drive (albeit a small one). It was clearance priced at Radio Shack (in Canada, at least) ca. 2006 when the Slim model replaced the original, and it ceased to be supported. Perhaps they are all still in the hands of collectors, but I will continue to search.

[RARusk]

Either I didn't know or didn't remember that there was a dedicated PS2 package for FFXII. Still, as you mentioned, the HDD for that is very small and won't work if you want to do multiple game installs (more than four titles) so you're going to need to remove that drive anyway thus you may be better off just getting only the Network Adapter as those are plentiful. Worse, the drive interface for the Network Adapter is IDE which has been long phased out in favor of SATA so you're going to need to find an IDE drive and I don't know how many of those still exist. If you're forced to use a SATA drive you'll need to do some adapting. Luckily, with laptop and SSD drives being so small, you can probably use some SATA/IDE adapters and still make it all fit inside. There is also a small SATA board that you can use for your Network Adapter in which you open it up and swap pieces. There is also a really cool drive cradle that is also a SATA to IDE adapter and is perfect for the PS2 but is Japanese only and is damn near impossible to acquire. You can also use SD Cards with the right adapting but you would have to remove the Network Adapter if you want to switch cards which is why I intend to built the reader into the Adapter so I wouldn't have to do that. Actually, now that I sit here and think about things, I wonder if there is an USB 3.0 to IDE adapter and have a USB plug built into the Network Adapter then use an external USB 3.0 drive enclosure or USB based SD Card reader. Something to research.....