And now we come to part three of my posts on the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and XBox generation of consoles. I saved my favorite one for last, the PS2. Not only is it my favorite console of that generation, but it is my favorite console of all time. This was actually my very first non-Nintendo console, and the only thing I regret is not buying it sooner. The PS2 has some of my favorite series, including “Jak and Daxter”, “Kingdom Hearts”, and “Ratchet and Clank”, along with “Final Fantasy” (which is not my top favorite, but I still like it a great deal, as well). This console seemed to just have a great collection of really fun, really unique games, and I fell in love with it pretty fast. Now I shall list the very many pros and the very few cons (if there are any) of the PS2.
Pros
- Like I said, the PS2 has great games. While the GameCube has more family-friendly games (that can sometimes be a bit too family-friendly), and the XBox seems to have more mature games (a bit too mature), the PS2 struck the right balance in between. The games are not childish, but they are not too adult, either. And some of my favorite games reside on this console, including “Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy”, “Jak II”, “Kingdom Hearts 2”, “Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal”, and “Final Fantasy X”. It’s just such a great console!
- To add to the great collection of games, it is also my only console that appears to be pretty much fully compatible with previous games. So you can expand your game library to include PS2 and PS1 games. Which means another game I adore can be played on the PS2, “Final Fantasy VII”. And you can even use the PS2 controller to play PS1 games. Convenience!
- It’s so quiet. It’s nearly silent. Shh, can you hear it? Nope. You can’t.
- It has good graphics. Not as good as the XBox, but they are still quite good. They are of a very satisfactory quality.
- Big memory cards. Every single game I own for it fits on one card. I only have two others just for backup purposes. You could fit a yacht in those giant memory cards. And I hear people like yachts. They’re that spacious. The memory cards. Maybe the yachts, too.
- Unlike the Cube, I can easily change options when I turn it on. Without a magical voodoo button press. And I can change disks while it’s on. Why can’t you, Cube?
- It is robust. My PS2 is old. And I even got it refurbished, so I don’t even know how old it really is. But, it is the most robust console I have ever owned. Every console freezes occasionally. It happens. Out of all my consoles (other than the PS3, which is much too new to judge yet), this is the only console ever that has never frozen for no reason. Yeah, it froze when I tried to play a damaged “FFVII” disk, but like I said, the disk was damaged. The darn thing froze at the same exact scene three times in a row, then worked fine when I used a new disk. So my PS2 was clearly not the culprit.
- And when consoles freeze, they usually won’t reset. You press the reset button, and nothing happens. You then must turn it all the way off, then back on. Not the PS2. When funky disks have made it freeze, you can just press the reset button, and it’ll actually, wow, reset. Imagine that.
- I had it unplugged for years once. And it still remembered the time when I plugged it in again. (I have no idea how I managed to go that long without playing the dear thing.) The XBox forgets if you unplug it for just a few hours or something.
Cons
- It’s ugly. I love it, but if I must say cons, well, it’s ugly. And those strange ridges aren’t conducive to dusting.
- It’s confusing to use in some ways. Like, why is there a switch in the back? When you first want to use it after it’s been ignored for a while, you switch on this switch on the back, and then you press the power button. It’s weird. And to turn it off, you hold this one button, but to reset it, you quickly press that same button. There is no separate button for on/off and reset. And if that isn’t enough, when you take the disk out, the game keeps going. It just makes me uneasy. I follow the manual exactly, and it says to do it that way, but I do wish the game would stop when you open the disk tray like it does with the XBox.
Um, I really can’t think of any more cons. I just love the PS2. So much. I just love a console that is backwards compatible, extremely reliable, and it has the best selection of games. Like I said, the GameCube is good for people who are fans of classic Nintendo games and games that are more kid-friendly. The XBox is for more mature gamers. And the PS2, well, it’s more my style. These games seem to emphasize not only great gameplay, but great and unique characters and stories. If you like RPG’s or games with RPG-like stories and characters, then this is the console for you. And it certainly is the console for me.
DuckStation 2
Your analysis is spot on. The PS2 is a really, really great machine, It was the first console that we ever replaced with itself…er, I mean, we ran or original PS2 into the ground. When it finally and sadly died we got a slim PS2. We still have the slim PS2, though it doesn’t work very well anymore. And unlike yours, ours is loud. Last time we pulled it out, its weezed its way through a game.
But there was no arguing with the PS2’s power and versatility. Many of it’s games were very pretty, like FFX and Kingdom Hearts.. And the fact that it was also a DVD player AND could play PS1 games…well, say no more! I’d gladly hand over all the money for that now! (That fact that our new PS3 is not backwards compatible is still supremely disappointing.)
We had some wonderful years with the PS2, and maybe we’ll have more in the future. I bet it’s noisy cause its mad that we don’t bring it out very often. Can a console hold a grudge? Maybe it just needs a good cleaning.
I heard the slim PS2’s aren’t quite as well-made as the original model for whatever reason. I wonder if that’s why it’s noisy? And yeah, I didn’t mention that it could play DVD’s, and I never used it for that, but it’s neat that it can. I heard you must buy something extra to play DVD’s on the XBox. How mean. The PS2 could do anything. It could play PS2 games, PS1 games, DVD’s, CD’s I think.
And it’s silly the PS3 won’t play PS2 games anymore. It’s quite a shame, as I believe the PS2 has a better selection of games than the PS3. Luckily, my PS2 works great still and honestly, even if the PS3 could play PS2 games, I wouldn’t want to never use the PS2 again. So in all possibility, even if the PS3 played the games, I’d probably still use the PS2 for PS2 games because I love it so.
And perhaps consoles can hold grudges. My XBox acts up for a few days when I first play it after it’s been ignored for a while, then all of a sudden it works perfectly fine for months. I think it senses that it’s my least favorite….