Lets Talk About Playstation 2

greedostick

Obsessed Neo-Fan
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PS2 is one of the greatest consoles of all-time, but I feel like no one ever talks about it anymore. A lot of the games that made the console great have since been re-released, and/or remastered. I think that is a big part of the reason why I never hear about it.

When I do hear about PS2, it's normally just some collector going on about how rare that shit game Rule of Rose is.

Let's talk about some of your favorites on the console that still hold up, that haven't been remastered.

Here are some of mine.

1. R-Type Final
2. Gradius II & IV
3. Gradius 5
4. The Onimusha series (Resident Evil in Feudal Japan)
5. Mother Fucking Skygunner!
6. Victorious Boxers: Ippo's Road to Glory -- AKA best boxing game EVER!
7. Katamari Damacy -- One of the, if not the most original games I have ever played.
8. Maximo: Ghosts to Glory & Army of Zin
9. Rygar: The Legendary Adventure -- Short, but still the best version even though remade on Wii

Finally, I'd like to talk about a game I'm probably in the minority of.

10. Tsugunai: Atonement.

Tsugunai was such a great RPG. Instead of centering around some kids that go out to save the world, you played as a mercenary named Reise, who died trying to steal this idol. The whole point of the game was to "atone" for your sins. You did this by running around taking on quests for local town folk. Unbeknownst to them, you would possess their body, and help them get their life together.

Tsugunai was just such an original game, even though it wasn't perfect by any means, it really pulled you in.

The metascore is basically shit tier, but I find it odd such an original RPG got blasted so hard.

Anyway, I think it was a great game.
 
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titchgamer

Guerilla Warrior
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I think the reason nobody talks about it is the same as nobody talks about megadrive etc that much.
Its retro so the only people who would care are the kids who had one in school and collectors.

Everyone else only cares about PS4 now.

However I still have my PS2, Its hooked up to a HDD now to save the laser but still runs great and is one of my fave consoles ever.

Ime a big lover of the Resident Evil series and Metal Gears. Also it had some of the best light gun games ever made on it imo.
(Ime a real light gun lover)
And resi dead aim was just the bollocks!
 

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
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Posts
12,514
I think the reason nobody talks about it is the same as nobody talks about megadrive etc that much.
Its retro so the only people who would care are the kids who had one in school and collectors.


What the fuck are you talking about? The Genesis was HUGE.
 

titchgamer

Guerilla Warrior
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What the fuck are you talking about? The Genesis was HUGE.

Totally agree, But so was the PS2!

Still old tech and nobody really cares anymore except people like us.

Go out in the street and see how many people still have a mega drive set up in a bedroom or something lol
 

sylvie

NG.COM TEMPTRESS
20 Year Member
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Mar 15, 2011
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Totally agree, But so was the PS2!

Still old tech and nobody really cares anymore except people like us.

Go out in the street and see how many people still have a mega drive set up in a bedroom or something lol

you r dumb
 

greedostick

Obsessed Neo-Fan
15 Year Member
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Totally agree, But so was the PS2!

Still old tech and nobody really cares anymore except people like us.

Go out in the street and see how many people still have a mega drive set up in a bedroom or something lol

All you have to do is go to a local game store (not gamestop), to see people talking about retro video games. It's not uncommon for me to hit up 1 or 2 retro game shops on the weekend and BS with the owner, and random people coming in about stuff like PC Engine, and Mega Drive. The remasters of games from the PS2 era don't help it much, and more importantly, the fact that the vast majority of gamers/collectors are Nintendo fanboys that refuse to buy inferior Sega, Sony, and XBOX consoles and games.

The reason Sega and retro Playstation consoles seem more popular here, is because people here know their games, and what really makes a game good, unlike the sea of Nintendo collectors you find in the wild.

We are a united community respect to taste in games.
 
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greedostick

Obsessed Neo-Fan
15 Year Member
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Ell oh ell at the PS2 being called "retro."

A kid that came into my work wearing a Nine Inch Nails Downward Spiral shirt a few months back told me "I enjoy classic rock". Made me feel pretty old.

I think we're getting there brother....
 

ggallegos1

Cholecystectomy Required.,
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Posts
5,153
I enjoyed my PS2 and played a few games recently. Max Paynebyolds up well, and I played the shit out of the burnout series, and a few others

Shadow of the Colossus
Burnout series
Kingdom hearts
Final Fantasy X and XII
Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3
Devil May Cry
Resident Evil 4
Shadow Hearts
Prince of Persia
God of War
Jak and Daxter
Killzone
Ratchet and Clank
Rez
Yakuza

Most have HD remasters or were ported to newer system's, but I did spend a large amount of time with these games.
 

titchgamer

Guerilla Warrior
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Posts
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All you have to do is go to a local game store (not gamestop), to see people talking about retro video games. It's not uncommon for me to hit up 1 or 2 retro game shops on the weekend and BS with the owner, and random people coming in about stuff like PC Engine, and Mega Drive. The remasters of games from the PS2 era don't help it much, and more importantly, the fact that the vast majority of gamers/collectors are Nintendo fanboys that refuse to buy inferior Sega, Sony, and XBOX consoles and games.

The reason Sega and retro Playstation consoles seem more popular here, is because people here know their games, and what really makes a game good, unlike the sea of Nintendo collectors you find in the wild.

We are a united community respect to taste in games.

Thats basically my point.

The only people who talk about retro gaming are those who are interested in it and we are a small group of the overall gaming community.

If I go into my local game shop the oldest games that will be on display would be PS2 and then only a handful, most of it would be taken up by PS4 and Xbox1.
With maybe 1 area dedicated to PS3/360.

Plus they are normally filled with kids who have no idea about anything pre PS3/xb360 era.

Ime the old bastard in the shop which is depressing even the guys behind the counter are younger than me!

Dont get me wrong, we have game shops dedicated to retro gaming thats full of Atari and Sega etc etc but they are few and far between and the nearest one to me is quite a drive so its a rarity I go.

Thats why I come on forums to talk about old games etc.

Which is another odd thing about the PS2 gen...

Its old enough to be classed as retro and forgotten about by the masses.
But not old enough for those of us who consider stuff of stuff being a certain age to be retro.

Like for me personally the “retro” title ends with the 32bit era machines.
 

GohanX

Horrible Goose
20 Year Member
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Posts
12,490
PS2 is the best system that I never really played much of. I had one at launch (mostly because I was saving for a DVD player, so why not) but never played it much. Objectively, it probably has the best overall library ever with all the great games of that generation and the retro collections. But I generally played the multiplatform games on Xbox or Gamecube since their versions were better, and since I didn't play it that much I don't have a lot of nostalgia. I don't play the retro collections much since they are available elsewhere now. The games I did love are:

Ridge Racer V
Gradius V (this sat permanently in my PS2 for two years)
Motherfucking GOD HAND
Katamari Damacy
Both MGS games
KOF XI
 

Day_Man

Hardened Shock Trooper
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Posts
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A kid that came into my work wearing a Nine Inch Nails Downward Spiral shirt a few months back told me "I enjoy classic rock". Made me feel pretty old.

I think we're getting there brother....

Granted we are all getting old. I think the biggest issue is that kid has no idea what genre of music he is listening to.
 

JoeAwesome

I survived Secret Santa, It wasn't Easy.,
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A kid that came into my work wearing a Nine Inch Nails Downward Spiral shirt a few months back told me "I enjoy classic rock". Made me feel pretty old.

I think we're getting there brother....

They started playing Green Day and Foo Fighters on my classic rock station...
 

ChopstickSamurai

I have earned the, right to PM Rot.,
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A kid that came into my work wearing a Nine Inch Nails Downward Spiral shirt a few months back told me "I enjoy classic rock". Made me feel pretty old.

I think we're getting there brother....

I wore a old Mario shirt to work and a new guy told me he liked NES since he was an "old soul". Just kill me now.

PS2 is my favorite Sony console easily. It took me awhile to get on board after the DC got killed off though.

Personas, MGS's, GTA's, so many great games. Plus it was most likely most of our first DVD players.
 

bubba966

Cinema Ninja!,
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Sep 24, 2013
Posts
1,542
Never owned/played anything for PS2.

Had two systems, one I got on launch day. Buddy begged me to sell it to him for $800 so I eventually folded as there were no launch titles that I wanted to play.

Then another I got in a trade a couple years ago that I gave away. Have had no desire to get another one. Ever...
 

Fuckwit1200

NAM-75 Vet
Joined
Jan 29, 2018
Posts
1,017
yes!
will do! :D
a great platform, if somewhat limited via running psx games from harddisk. :(
many great games, rpg's and cop conversions.
to get a good list of shmups, dig through all regions, namely japanese. :D
half-life DECAY is pretty fun....
in terms of retail preservation, the EASIEST sytem to cater to/for.
as long as you have a dvd9/dual layer compatible disk drive in the computer, all is DVDDECRYPTOR/IMGBURN well. :p
a good last resort, is pull any games from the literal harddisk via WINHIIP....
though that does entail ripping the harddisk out of the console and shoving into a usb enclosure.
there's a few SPEAKLEADER brasilian reatil pirate compilations, the can be adjusted to reside on the harddisk via a TOC/manifest realignment.
not hard, just a bit of a BRAINFOOK.
the SPEAKLEADER retails all have the same exe/disk id, and must be altered so as to not conflict with other comps on the harddisk.
(multi.elf for example.)
 

Psygnosis8

Sieger's Squire
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Oct 30, 2012
Posts
820
So much good stuff that I never finished or even tried. I was in med school at its peak (360 and ps3 came out in my last year, as did the Wii). So I’d play one game for 6 months in spurts.

My faves:

Shadow of the Colossus

Mega Man Anniversary Collection (not as a Saralee a PS2 game but I play the fuck out of it)

Katamari damacy

Mgs2

GTA 3

Ico

It had the greatest arcade in classic game compilations ever. I wish they would reissue some of those with progressive scan. They look like shit on a modern TV.
 

Jibbajaba

Ralfredacc's Worst Nightmare
10 Year Member
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Posts
5,611
Based on how everyone talks about it, I feel like I should be more in love with the PS2 than I am. I was absolutely in love with my original Playstation, as it's what got me back into video games after a few year hiatus in the mid 90's. I was reading PSM like it was the bible, so I kept up with the progress of the PS2, and was pretty amped to pick one up when it came out.

My room mate and I both waited in line on launch day to get PS2s. I picked up SSX with it, which I loved, but other than that I used the system to watch DVDs and to play Final Fantasy IX (a PSX game). After launch, there really weren't any good games coming out for the system, and the launch lineup was pretty weak. We'd rent or buy games like The Bouncer and Onimusha and Zone of the Enders (which we really only rented for the Sons of Liberty demo disc) and try to like them more than we actually did, and we were both still using our PS2s primarily to play PSX games and watch DVDs. By the Summer of 2001 we both decided to buy gaming PCs and they became our primary gaming platforms.

That's not to say that I wasn't picking up PS2 games. We got GTA III right when it came out and that was of course awesome. But I played the sequels on PC instead, and of course played FPSes there as well. Gran Turismo 3 was a game that I put serious time in to, along with Katamari Damacy. Final Fantasy X was the first game that I ever pre-prdered, and I was so disappointed in it that it turned me off to the franchise for good. I guess I never regretted buying a PS2, but I also never fell in love with it like I did my PS1, and as a result my PS2 library is one of the smallest in my overall collection, right behind the Jaguar and 3DO. That's not to say that I think there aren't a ton of great games for it, but I guess I got tired of waiting around for the system to live up to Sony's hype, and just moved on. I now have a chipped system with a hard drive in it, so I guess now I can go back and check shit out.

Edit: Psygnosis reminded me of another problem with the system. Looked great on a tube TV through composite, but once I upgraded to an HDTV it looked like shit, but it also kinda looks iffy on an RGB monitor because it's interlaced (for the vast majority of games). I need to mess around with it more with my Framemeister, I guess. Or just play it on my 1702 through composite again.
 
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Dochartaigh

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Posts
337
Objectively, it probably has the best overall library ever with all the great games of that generation and the retro collections. But I generally played the multiplatform games on Xbox or Gamecube since their versions were better,

This is my thoughts as well. I LOVED the PS2 back in the day, but that's because I had it before I had the original Xbox - and anymore, I would much rather play the Xbox version of those games (which were available for both systems) since the Xbox version is almost always in 480p which is a pretty huge step-up from 480i (and 480p looks exceptionally nice on a good CRT monitor).

For PS2 exclusives (or at least I think they're exclusives), all I've played quasi-lately is Devil May Cry, Onimusha's, Mark of Kri (don't think this ever got any love but it's AWESOME hack and slash with cool combos like slicing somebodies head off lol), Armored Core 2, Oni....and that's about it off the top of my head. Many other fan-favorites don't seem to hold up (or maybe I never played them back in the day so there's no nostalgia involved).


Also it had some of the best light gun games ever made on it imo.
(Ime a real light gun lover)
And resi dead aim was just the bollocks!

I also totally give the PS2 props for the absolutely best collection of light gun games out of any system - really can't beat it. Not many released all in all, but still the best system if you like light gun games (maybe tie with the original Nintendo - but those are much older style of games).
 
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oliverclaude

General Morden's Aide
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...I would much rather play the Xbox version of those games (which were available for both systems) since the Xbox version is almost always in 480p which is a pretty huge step-up from 480i (and 480p looks exceptionally nice on a good CRT monitor).

Yeah, a 'let's talk about the PS2' will always turn into a 'let's talk about how interlaced sucks'. And it sucks bad.
 

JoeAwesome

I survived Secret Santa, It wasn't Easy.,
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Posts
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I also totally give the PS2 props for the absolutely best collection of light gun games out of any system - really can't beat it. Not many released all in all, but still the best system if you like light gun games (maybe tie with the original Nintendo - but those are much older style of games).

Someone pointed this out in another thread, but the Wii had a very good light gun collection of games.
 

Mr. Mort

Another Striker
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Jan 21, 2014
Posts
324
I never was the biggest PS2 fan. I got one at launch, wanted to get Silpheed with it, but it got delayed. I had no PS2 games for the first 6 months. The system never resonated with me much. There are some games that I loved for the system tho, like VF4: Evolution, God of War 1 & 2, Champions of Norrath, Tekken 5, Shadow of the Colossus, but I was much more into the original Xbox. The visuals were better (480P looked great on my HD CRT), and I had so much fun with Xbox Live games.

That being said, I will say that home light gun games were at their best on the PS2. Time Crisis 2 & 3, Vampire Night, Virtua Cop Rebirth, the Point Blank games, etc. The GunCon2 was probably the best console light gun ever made.
 
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