Meets my needs just fine.
Written: Apr 27 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Graphics, backwards compatibility, DVD player
Cons: Relatively few games right now. Games are $50 each.
The Bottom Line: PSII are mostly amazing, you get the thousands (it seems like) games for the PSI AND a DVD player as a bonus!! Can't go wrong.
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| david74mr's Full Review: Sony PlayStation 2 Slimline Console |
Ok, let me start by saying that I am not a serious gamer. I've had an N64 for three years now and own a total of seven games for it. I mention that because a lot of the other reviews are hyper critical and making all sorts of comparisons to the Sega Dreamcast. I've never played the Dreamcast so I don't know what it is like. All right, enough of that. For me, I wasn't interested in having the fanciest, fastest, game system; I wanted something that I could get a lot of use out of and that had some sort of survivability.
SET-UP
Terribly easy. In less than two minutes, I had everything hooked up and a game loading up.
The instructions said to set the screen to a 4:3 aspect ratio, but I set it to full size and it seemed to work fine.
LOAD TIME
The is obviously going to be highly dependent on the game, i.e. how much memory the game uses and how the programmer's wrote the game. Most of the games loaded quickly, though the Metal Gear demo that came with Zone of the Enders took forever to load. Well, maybe it wasn't forever, but it took a rather long time to load portions of the game that basically just involved walking around a corner. I do not know if this is because it was just a demo.
GRAPHICS
Great. Amazing. If the Dreamcast is just as good, it really doesn't matter to me. All the games that I have played so far (Zone of the Enders, Metal Gear demo, FIFA, Real Pool, Moto racer something, and one of those Army men games) have had really good graphics, especially the first three. Again, this must be a function of the game programmers.
BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
Part of the frustration of buying a new game machine is losing all the other ones you had. Fortunately, Sony made a very smart decision to make the Playstation II compatible with PS One games. To me, this was a huge incentive to buy this. Most of the Nintendo games are for the kiddies and I was always so jealous of those people standing in front of the Playstation games. So, while I wait for the new games to come out for the PS II, I can just play the older games (which are often available at a discounted price) and the new games that are still coming out for the PS I. I changed the settings for running Playstion games in the PS II setup menu, and I would assume that they play faster, but I honestly don't know, since I have no reference.
My only problem so far is that the PS I games apparently don't recognize the the PS II memory card.
DVD PLAYER
Anyone who was expecting a $300 DVD player in the $300 PSII has got to be kidding themselves. That just isn't realistic. The PS II is not a stand alone DVD player; the DVD player is EXTRA. I think the people that criticize the quality of the player aren't remembering that. I personally think that the quality is great. It genuinelly functions as a DVD replacement. Again, this is one of the reason why I got this. Whether or not it will replace your $400 Sony WEGA player, I can't say. I also have had no trouble using the controller to control the DVD. A $10 remote would just be an added convience, but a necessity
ONLY TWO CONTROLLER SLOTS
Think how often you play with more than two people and then think if this is a valid criticism. For me it isn't. For some it will be.
NO GAMES
Ok, there's enough to keep you entertained, but not as much as PSI, N64, or Dreamcast. I'm not too concerned about this as I know more games will come, but it is a little frustrating.
$50 PER GAME
Man, that hurts. Unless you have a big budget, or you don't eat, I highly recommend renting the games before you buy them. I have only bought Zone of the Enders and have rented the others. So far, none of the games, except the Metal Gear demo and FIFA, have really been worth buying, at least for my tastes.
SURVIVABILITY
I'm sorry about the Dreamcast fans, but the fact of the matter is that no matter how good the graphics are, that system is just not going to make it, along with the N64. Now, the same could easily be said of the PSII with the upcoming release of the Microsoft system and the new Nintendo. You can always be waiting for a better system, but right now, the PSII is the best bet.
One more thing. I see auctions on ebay for this thing at prices over $300. Why? I got mine from circuitcity.com for $299 and had it delivered to my door in two days.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
david74mr
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Location: laurel, MD
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
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