Sony Playstation 2: $300 Is A Lot of Money!
Written: Nov 14 '00 (Updated Jan 05 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good launch support, a handful of really good titles. Controller, backwards support.
Cons: $300. We've come a long way since the "Only 50 bucks?!" Atari 2600 commercials. Periperhals, games, system in short supply everywhere.
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| Alkaiser's Full Review: Sony PlayStation 2 Slimline Console |
The Playstation 2 is a great machine, with a some great games. I usually never buy a system at launch but there were some titles that impressed me so much, I had to go out and buy it.
Or at least, I had to try.
After standing in the rain for 4 hours before, being turned away at Best Buy, given a WHOPPING $5 coupon, and told that I would not be able to reserve a machine, I wrote a letter to the Better Business Bureau.
Then I went on Ebay on got myself a Japanese Playstation 2 with 5 games. I got it for pretty much face value, which I suppose I should be grateful for. Eventually, I plan to get a modchip for the system and make it a Universal machine like I did with my original Playstation, so it will bypass the region encoding. (screw the DMCA.)
*Important Side Note: Don't try and buy your Mod Chip from modchip.com. All they do is take your money. I had to ask my bank to do a chargeback because after 2 weeks, they had neither sent me a chip, or replied to any of the 4 emails I sent.*
The Playstation 2 can handle an insane amount of polygons. One of Sony's launch titles, Dynasty Warriors 2 will have hundreds of men on the screen attacking, dying and standing still and not be encumbered with slowdown.
Compare this to the N64, which can have probably up to 4 characters on the screen, and it's just rediculous.
Compared to the DC, running Shenmue, a game produced in-house, by guys who have known what the hardware can do for over 3 years, and if it starts to snow, you'll experience some pretty serious slowdown. (It's still a great game, though.)
You won't, however, notice a big jump in the level of graphics quality. The only real difference you notice is that there's a lot more of everything, and detail levels only in cutscenes before are now part of gameplay. The whole game is at the level of a Playstation 1 cutscene. This surpasses the DC in the fact that there can be more of everything on the screen, but if you put them side by side, it's not likely that you're going to notice a huge jump. In fact, because of the anti-aliasing problems that the developers had early on, you may even notice that the DC looks a little better.
The PS2 is the best machine on the market, though. It can't really compare with the PC, because PCs get faster and faster every month, but the PS2 is incredible compared to most other machines.
I can't however, justify the price. It only comes with one controller. Thankfully it ships with a memory card, because you can't find those things ANYWHERE anymore. No games, though. You going to walk out of the store, with, for all intents and purposes, a $300 DVD player.
I'd recommend the Dreamcast as an alternative, however, I'm afraid that after around 50 games, I haven't found many fun games to play with it. (About 8 of 50, I'd rank as "Good/Great".)
I've got 6 PS2 games, and I'd classify 4 of those as Good/Great, so you see the problem here...the most expensive, least accesible system is the one with all the best stuff on it. You could try picking up a DC, and buying up some of the best games for that system for $300, but the problem is that after you do that, you or your kid is going to be dead bored for the next 6 months afterwards, as most of the games enthralling the game world are going to be on the Playstation 2.
*Update*
I've since played a few more games; Kessen, SSX, Gradius III/IV, The Bouncer, and I finally checked out Orphen. While Orphen sucks, and you can pretty much just play Gradius III/IV on an emulator, SSX is a must have, and The Bouncer and Kessen are marginally worth buying, and definitely worth renting depending on how much you like the genre.
However, the DC may drop in price, as Sega has agreed to license the hardware out to other vendors, as it has jettisoned the hardware part of its operations and is only a software developer now. (That's right, the DC is Sega's LAST console. I called this one wayyy back, though.) So, if the new vendor makes the DC cheaper, maybe Sega can continue to get some hits out for their former machine.
So, to finish the review, a quick look at the pros and cons of the new system's features:
DVD Player: This is what stands out foremost in the minds of PS2 owners who want to justify the fact that they plunked down $300 on a game console. It's also the first thing they'll say in defense of said action.
The DVD Player shouldn't stand out that much in your mind. I mean, hoe many of you used the CD Player functions of the DC, and the first Playstation? I did, but only because my computer's CD Audio cable isn't hooked up. Truth is, if you're using your PS2 to play DVDs, you aren't using it to play games, and the PS2 has failed. I haven't popped a DVD into the machine yet, and I don't think too many other PS2 gamers have either. Don't let this be a factor that clouds your mind.
CD Player: Nobody really mentions this, but the PS2 will play music through your machine. There's no real reason to do this, as it doesn't even have a cool visual like the previous PS2 did. It just changes the colors of this spinning cube. Quite lame actually, so stick to putting to PS2 games in your PS2.
Controller: I used to hate the original PS2 controller. It hurt and I couldn't throw a fireball to save my life. Now, after 3 years of being a Playstation game tester, and a game reviewer, I've adjusted to it, but it's still not my favorite. The Dual Shock solves some of the problems with the original controller, and it is the most comfortable controller on the market, not to mention the fact that it's the only pack-in controller with built-in vibration. If you want that from any other system, you have to buy a vibrating memory pack, or a seperate controller.
The other great thing about the controller is that you can use peripherals from the original Playstation. So, I don't need to run out and plunk down extra cash like I did with the DC, N64 and the original Playstation.
Memory Card: 8MB is great, but I'll probably end up going out and picking up a super memory card like I've done with all the other systems. I haven't filled it yet, and it has multiple save games from 6 different games on it, so it's doing a pretty good job so far.
Style: It looks ok. I still don't see any holes for the heat to rise out of like the same ones the idiots who designed the first Playstation forgot to put in. It looks like a car amp, which is kind of interesting, but nothing revolutionary, or super cool, except for the little blue light on the eject CD button. That's kinda nifty. Much better than the default red or green, and I know that LEDs run for 50 cents at your local hardware store, so changing them to be different colors is costing Sony, like 3 cents, max. Other companies should follow suit.
Backwards compatibility: Way cool. Now you can play all your old Playstation games, and sell off your Playstation to offest the cost of the PS2. I would, but my Playstation is universal, and my Playstation 2 isn't. The backwards compatibility applies to Memory cards and controllers. The Memory Cards can be used, but only on Playstation 1 games, and the Playstation 2 memory cards can only be used on PS2 games. Backwards compatibility means that you can play all the big new PS releases on your PS2 like Final Fantasy 9.
Durability: Don't know...haven't done anything stupid to it yet, but I didn't do anything stupid to my original Playstation, and that's lasted me 4 years and counting.
Bottom line...if $450 for the machine 2 games/ or 1 game and a controller fits your budget, then go for it. You and your kid will be glad you did. If it doesn't fit your budget, wait until February, and they'll be all over the place, meaning you can get them cheaper on Ebay. You could also try renting the system at your local Blockbuster video.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Alkaiser
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Member: Clayton Chan
Location: Irvine, CA
Reviews written: 655
Trusted by: 344 members
About Me:
Broke the 700 pound mark on my leg lifts.
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