zex20913
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This was partially in anticipation of God of War II, which I expect to be a phenomenal game.

I also have Kingdom Hearts and Okami. I plan to get Katamari Damacy, We Love Katamari, God of War, and get Shadow of the Colossus back from my friend in due time.

Any other game recommendations? Chrono Cross is probably also on the list.

____________________________

Ezlo
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You got all the good ones planned already, pretty much. Maybe Star Wars Battlefront 2 if you haven't played that yet on any other system.

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[Last edited by Ezlo at 03-03-2007 11:19 PM : How did a B get there?]

tokyokid
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I think you should try Star Wars Battlefront 2. Also any Burnout game would be good, too.

NiroZ
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... Took your time

Anyway, the burnout 3 was pretty fun, even though some of the tracks got rather tedious towards the end. Burnout 4 is probably better.

I'd also recommend the lego starwars series.

Oneiromancer
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Well, I guess I'll just list the games I own on PS2 and short comments on them.

Activision Anthology -- Meh. Not sure why I got it, even though it was cheap.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance -- The first and perhaps best game out of the several later based on this engine.
Bully -- Awesome game, highly recommended if you like GTA-style games at all, and especially if the violence/storyline in those puts you off.
Champions of Norrath -- Based on the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance engine, it's not as good and I still haven't beaten it.
Contra: Shattered Soldier -- Bought it cheap and still haven't played it more than 5 minutes.
Culdcept -- Heard a lot of good things about this game, picked it up relatively cheap when I happened to see it in a store, and then never played it.
Dark Cloud -- While repetitive in spots, it was a fun game. Half dungeon-crawl (action-RPG-like) and half town-building, it was almost like a new version of Actraiser.
Dark Cloud 2 -- Started out fun, but with humongous towns that you practically need to explore every time you build something, it was kind of proof that making your franchise bigger doesn't necessarily mean better. Never finished this, although I was on the final level.
Dead or Alive 2 -- Amusing fighting game, I played a good deal of it when I had roommates and did take it over to a party recently where we had some fun with it again. Easy to pick up and play.
Dragon Quest VIII -- Picked up cheap, I really want to play this but only ended up checking out the FF12 demo (which helped me decide to buy that game when it came out).
Final Fantasy X -- Never beat the game. My ex-fiancee beat it before me and although I didn't watch her, so I still don't know the whole story, that's about when I stopped playing. I tried to pick it up again a few months ago, but really didn't want to grind to survive so I quit again.
Final Fantasy X-2 -- Bought for very cheap, have not played it yet.
Final Fantasy XII -- I loved this game. My favorite of all the second 6 FF games.
Flipnic: Ultimate Pinball -- Actually a quite intriguing game, but the difficulty was punishing enough that I moved on and haven't come back to it yet.
God of War -- Enjoyable but I screwed myself over at one point and just didn't feel like replaying that level at the time...then I never came back to it. It's on my list!
Gran Turismo 4 -- Got it for cheap when it was made a Greatest Hit, but I don't know why I did...I got bored of #3 fast enough that I gave it away when I moved.
Grand Theft Auto III -- The legend. At first when I saw a friend playing this game I was really put off...but then I actually started playing and was hooked. Highly recommended for the correct age group.
GTA: Vice City -- Probably the weakest of the original PS2 trilogy. Still a good game, and I'll pick up Vice City Stories when it comes out anyway.
GTA: San Andreas -- Better than III, one of my favorite games on the system.
GTA: Liberty City Stories -- It was worth $20, but otherwise not really memorable.
Jak and Daxter -- Meh 3D platformer that I never did beat.
Jak 2 -- Should be much better than the first one but I stopped playing in the middle and never came back to it.
Katamari Damancy -- Still working on it. For some reason this game gives me headaches when I play it, so I never beat it.
Kingdom Hearts -- Oh yes, a great game. I wanted to get the sequel, but Clayton demanded that I play the spin-off on the GBA first, which I still haven't done, so I still haven't bought the sequel. When it gets cheaper I'll probably pick it up anyway just to have and hopefully one day play.
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy -- Awesome game, very fun. I might pick up the prequel trilogy one some day but I hear this one is so much better that I probably won't bother.
Maximo -- Echoes of Ghosts and Goblins. This was a fun game, I did beat it, and can probably be found for very cheap.
Maximo vs. the Army of Zin -- The sequel, which I bought for cheap and never played more than the time it took to make sure it worked.
Mega Man X Collection -- Still haven't played this yet, I will some day.
Onimusha -- One of the more highly rated early PS2 games, I got about halfway through before being distracted by a shinier game.
Psychonauts -- If you like 3D platformers at all, then YOU MUST BUY THIS GAME! It has some of the funniest writing of all time...Tim Schafer was the director, as you may know.
Ratchet and Clank -- Yet another 3D platformer, but it didn't capture me enough to play more than the first stage.
Shadow of the Colossus -- An excellent game, but short, so I'm glad I waited for the price to come down. I never really got into Ico but this one was fun, and I did finish it.
Sonic Mega Collection Plus -- Oh, nostalgia, why do you make me perform impulse buys?
Summoner -- Another game that my ex and I played simultaneously and she beat before me, so I kind of stopped playing. Yeah, it's kind of petty, but it was kind of subconscious too. At least for this one I did watch her near the end so I didn't miss out on too much of the story. I tried to start over again later and just couldn't get into it.
Summoner 2 -- Cheap, but ultimately pointless because I never started it.
Twisted Metal: Black -- One of the earliest games on the system, it's very hard to play single-player but is a decent multiplayer game. I say this because I have very few multiplayer games on the PS2, as you can see.

Besides the above list, I would also recommend the Prince of Persia games...well, mostly the first one. It was multi-platform, I have all 3 on the GameCube. As for PS1 games, Chrono Cross was decent, but if you really loved Chrono Trigger you might be disappointed (I never beat CT so I was impartial on that account). Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is another great game as well, and most people would recommend Metal Gear Solid (although the remade version on the GC may be an option). Finally, I plan on buying Rogue Galaxy when it comes down in price.

Whew, I probably have better things to do than type that all up, but oh well, there it is.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

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[Last edited by Oneiromancer at 03-04-2007 12:12 AM]

NiroZ
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Oneiromancer wrote:
Kingdom Hearts -- Oh yes, a great game. I wanted to get the sequel, but Clayton demanded that I play the spin-off on the GBA first, which I still haven't done, so I still haven't bought the sequel. When it gets cheaper I'll probably pick it up anyway just to have and hopefully one day play.

If you can't get around to playing the GBA version, the wikipedia synopsis is good enough to cover the storyline.

However, I found KHII to be the epitome of mediocrity. I didn't really mind the button bashing in KH, but really noticed it in KHII. The music wasn't that great, and the storyline so bad it was funny (and that's only skimming the surface). I've only played up to Halloween town, but I asked around and apparently you need to get right near the end for it to pick up.

Ezlo
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I have the GBA game lying around gathering dust. I beat it backwards and forwards and never really picked it up again. Do you want me to try and send it to you Onei?

Oneiromancer
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Thanks for the offer, Ezlo, but I actually do own the GBA game. I just haven't played it more than 10 minutes. You might have noticed that theme in my list above.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

jemann
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I'll add my plugs:

Platformers:
Ratchet & Clank (1, 2 and 3): all excellent games. I think number 2 is the best, but it's probably better to play them in order. They get less platformy and more like shooters as the series goes on.
Jak & Daxter: the first one is a fine game, although a little short. Do not go near Jak 2 unless you are a masochist.
Sly Cooper: the first two games are great, although the first one is too short.

Burnout 3 is fun while it lasts, but once you've stopped you're unlikely to come back.

The GTA games are a lot of fun, although age is a consideration. They really come into their own when you're being chased by police/FBI/the army. The aiming system does take some getting used to, especially in GTA III. The difficulty level can also vary wildly.

Oneiromancer
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jemann wrote:
The GTA games are a lot of fun, although age is a consideration. They really come into their own when you're being chased by police/FBI/the army. The aiming system does take some getting used to, especially in GTA III. The difficulty level can also vary wildly.

That's funny, I never really had much of an issue with the aiming system...well, especially after Vice City. Now, in Saint's Row on the Xbox 360, I suck at aiming. There's no lock-on, and a lot of people who play lots of FPS's love it, but I suck at it. But in Crackdown, where people complain about the lock-on getting spurious targets, I rarely have that problem. Go figure.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

jemann
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Oneiromancer wrote:
That's funny, I never really had much of an issue with the aiming system...well, especially after Vice City.

Well, actually, I agree. Once you get used to it it's generally better than the free aiming you get in a FPS. In GTA: San Andreas there's a decent learning curve; in GTA III the aiming system is a little less polished, and they sort of throw you in the deep end with one of the early missions. My flat-mate never did get past that point, and I've heard that others have the same problem...

BDR
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jemann wrote:
Jak & Daxter: the first one is a fine game, although a little short. Do not go near Jak 2 unless you are a masochist.

Beat Jak 2. I didn't do it 100% like I did the first, and I did run into a couple bad bugs (being unable to unstick the vehicle your friend is trapped in/you need to use for the mission is not fun) and tough missions, but overall restarting felt more of an annoyance than a truly masochistic experience (If you want to see true masochism in terms of difficulty, I suggest The Adventures of Batman and Robin for the Genesis [or Megadrive, I suppose]; though it's a great teacher in terms of learning the art of persistence), and it was worth it IMO (though I was a big fan of the first, and unless I get really badly burned I'll be hard pressed to remove a sequel to a game I like from my list of things to play and beat). Jak 3 is overall easier, as well, though the ending is perhaps a bit lame (though funny, so I was satisfied).

The first Sly Cooper was fun, but a bit on the easy side; the second is looking interesting in terms of overall play but from what I've heard there's going to be a lot of repetitiveness... I'll still play through it (and the third one) but I may like it less.

Something I've not seen mentioned here: Syphon Filter. The engine used for at least the first two games has serious issues with grainy and fairly buggy graphics (though the cutscenes are of higher, non-grainy/buggy quality [though I won't mind graphical issues unless I can't actually tell WTF is going on or they are so bad I puke/can't play properly]), but the gameplay itself is solid (the air taser and grenade launcher are lots of fun), and the storyline is interesting enough to keep me going. I haven't played the 3rd and 4th yet, but I have them and they are on my list. Oh, and then there's Rez... but you'll only find that on Ebay most likely (such a sad thing, as it's a very fun game). Also, I love Mark of Kri (the axe is such a great weapon, even if those blasted swordsmen can stab you out of your combos), Second Sight (possession is fun and helpful; so are the other powers, and the storyline is really neat), and Freedom Fighters (quite possibly one of the last actually good games done under [of all the companies] EA... no, I'm not joking or an EA shill; I fear for the sequel's quality, and hold hope only because it flew under the radar popularity-wise [which could just end up meaning that there won't be a sequel... *sigh*]).

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[Last edited by BDR at 03-04-2007 07:03 AM]

Banjooie
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There is not nearly enough Disgaea 2 in this thread, though I note sufficient levels of Katamari Damacy.

Mattcrampy
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As a 'European', and thus 'a second-class citizen' (major props must go to Nintendo for their excellent work over the past couple of years taking Europe seriously), we never got Katamari Damacy - EA brought us We Love Katamari, so again props to EA for that. I think you really only need one of the two, as from what I understand the mechanics in the second one are more varied than the first.

Let's see what I have...

Burnout 3 - You crash cars and it makes you go faster. It's a racing game, although there's a poorly-integrated but totally sweet mode where you have to cause the most devastating crash you can. It's almost like a puzzle mode, and it's much much more fun than the game proper.
Canis Canem Edit/Bully - I am easily distracted so haven't delved too far into this. It seems to be basically GTA in school, especially towards the end of the series where the emphasis fell less on spectacular crime and more on the clockwork universe aspects. It apparently is pretty complex in its social interactions, but I can't vouch for that.
Disgaea 2 - A super-deep tactical RPG with a coat of delectible insanity and social irresponsibility. This helps - I get less frustrated at brilliant plots wasted when they're at funny. (I'm looking at YOU, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, with your genius setup and then your mediocre development. Oh how was I disappointed.) I haven't gotten very into it either, but then I get the feeling that 30 hours is 'not very far into it'.
Dragon Quest - Hey, it's the only game released in English under the Dragon Quest name. Other than the board game. Which was probably a bit more interesting, in terms of gameplay, although the story seems to be, shock-horror, pretty well-translated and devoid of angst, which is nice.
Final Fantasy X - There are three schools of thought on the Final Fantasy series, it seems: those who thought FFX was a turgid mess, those who thought FFVII was a turgid mess, and those who think the whole series is a turgid mess. I quite liked FFX - my preferred model for RPGs is to constrain me to one path when I don't know what I'm doing and open things up when I start feeling adventurous. The story's a bit dire, although it's interesting how affirming it can be, and the villain is a bit paper-thin, but this is not exactly an uncommon problem in popular media. But I liked the gameplay and the story sufficed.
Final Fantasy XII - While it doesn't really conform to the whole 'lock me in until I start gnawing at the bars' style of progression, it's still the best one in the series. Yes, even without a psychotic clown. It's satisfying to explore and the story is actually pretty quality.
God of War - You know what? David Jaffe is not really some sort of designer genius. It's a beat-em-up with a Boys' Own Adventure plot with some elements pinched from other genres, and while it's ripper fun and jolly clever in parts it's really only for old hands at gaming. (And thus ends the only description of God of War as written by Enid Blyton.) It's a good game - if you play it all at once, it's completely unforgiving if you stop half-way and play something else for a few weeks - but it's no Spore. Just sort of sick of the hype is all.
Gran Turismo 3 - okay, so I like racing games a bit. Wasn't going to pay for 4 when 3's pretty much the same just less pretty.
Guitar Hero - Expensive, but totally worth it. It's only expensive because you also have to buy the guitar controller, and while you can find and play the game without it, you shouldn't. Super replay value, and you feel like a complete badass. Music's excellent, the game design is perfect and it's at once accessable and complex. There's a reason this won a couple of Game of the Year awards (other than 1up being completely dead to games with stories in them, but whatevs, as the kids say these days).
Ico - I don't really know what to make of Ico. I might just leave it at that. (I would go with Shadow of the Colossus, though - I only got through a third, but it left an impression, it's an excellent game.)
Jak II - I bought this hoping it would be a polished Jak I. It wasn't. Jak I, I feel confident saying, wouldn't make me feel like a jackass for actually spending money to buy it. They took something sort-of-generic-but-still-good and added a whole serving of generic 'badass' attitude. It's just embarrassing, and it's sitting at the bottom of the box it's kept in, in the hope that the suck won't start infecting the other games. Really should eBay it.
Kingdom Hearts - Such a strange idea. Very clunky, but it's more about the environments and what they do with the Disney mythos than it is about the gameplay. I'm put off finishing it by the fact that there doesn't appear to be any sort of conclusion at the end of the game, but I may be mistaken. Anyone who's finished it: is there a satisfying conclusion, and do they explain the islands at the start of the game?
Lumines Plus - This just came out - it's a port of the PSP Lumines with some new skins thrown in, thus getting rid of probably my only real reason to buy a PSP. I understand Lumines is one of those games it takes a little while to get, but it's fun enough without that. Essentially, you're trying to make square blocks, which only clear when the tempo bar sweeps across the playing field. A nice little puzzler with a clever concept.
Okami - Very Japanese, and the translation is rather poor (but it's Capcom, so that's not so surprising), but it's an interesting take on the Zelda formula. Instead of items, you have the ability to freeze the scene and paint on it with a brush. The art direction is particularly exquisite, but it would want to be with a game themed around art.
Psychonauts - Bought this because it didn't sell well enough and it's still a great game despite my views on the first third-to-half. The PS2 port is not great quality, though, which is a crying shame, although it doesn't impact the gameplay much.
Ratchet & Clank 2 - I sort of liked the goofy protagonist of the first game, and thus wasn't so taken by the generic badass attitudinal adjustment Ratchet went through (this may be because it was next to Jak II on the shelf and the suck seeped through). The brilliantly funny universe survives intact, however, and the game's still great fun. It did take a bit of a kitchen-sink approach to the gameplay, but I take that more of a sign of experimentation than anything.
Ratchet & Clank 3 - Still enjoyed it, but I don't think it really held a candle to the second one. I think the superhero plot constrained things a bit, although the robot rebellion was played brilliantly, and the reliance on arena combat was a bit boring. These are nitpicks.
SSX On Tour - I spent a solid year on the GCN version of SSX3. This one's a bit of a misstep, but it's still pretty good fun. I lament the lack of a free-ride option but there's a bit more variation and the visual stylings amuse me.
We Love Katamari - A million roses is a lot of roses. You never really think about it until you're asked to collect them one at a time. A brilliant game, although I say this never having played the first one. (The PAL version includes the FMVs from the first game as unlockables.)

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

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[Last edited by Mattcrampy at 03-04-2007 11:53 AM]

zex20913
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A quick note on We Love Katamari's 1,000,000 roses--

DON'T DO IT!

Last year, my roommates and I did. We spent several months just collecting roses, about 10,000 at a time. The "reward" was not worth it at all. The only thing it was good for was an excuse to have a party.

____________________________

Ezlo
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Mattcrampy wrote:

Kingdom Hearts - Such a strange idea. Very clunky, but it's more about the environments and what they do with the Disney mythos than it is about the gameplay. I'm put off finishing it by the fact that there doesn't appear to be any sort of conclusion at the end of the game, but I may be mistaken. Anyone who's finished it: is there a satisfying conclusion, and do they explain the islands at the start of the game?

Umm... Sorry to break it too you, but no. Neither does the second one really.

Oneiromancer
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Mattcrampy wrote:
Burnout 3 - You crash cars and it makes you go faster. It's a racing game, although there's a poorly-integrated but totally sweet mode where you have to cause the most devastating crash you can. It's almost like a puzzle mode, and it's much much more fun than the game proper.

I have Burnout Revenge for the XBox 360, and haven't played any of the others. I know that Revenge exists for the original XBox and the PS2, and the only difference is slightly "worse" graphics (but still pretty good of course) and maybe 10 fewer levels (out of over 100). The biggest difference in gameplay is that you get boosts from hitting any car from behind, not just your rivals. At least, I heard that in the other games hitting any of the environmental cars crashed you all the time, not just head-on. Well, in any case, it's probably my favorite game for the 360, although Crackdown is getting close. The Crash mode in Revenge also doesn't seem to be just tacked on, but maybe it is similar to previous versions. It was definitely a whole lot of fun, I'd say 1/5 of the levels in the game were Crash levels, at least 20-25 or so.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Mattcrampy
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The crash levels aren't tacked on, but they are poorly integrated. It doesn't seem like doing the crash levels in Burnout 3 has any effect on the racing, and vice-versa. It would be nice if it did, say if crash junctions also unlocked some race tracks, but no biggie, because the crash junctions on their own are pretty compelling.

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

Oneiromancer
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Ah, I see. Well hmm...doing races definitely unlocks Crash tracks sometimes, and doing Crash tracks tends to unlock other Crash tracks...but you have to do all the races in a difficulty level to unlock the final Grand Prix, I think, so they are somewhat required/integrated. I could be mis-remembering though.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Banjooie
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zex20913 wrote:
A quick note on We Love Katamari's 1,000,000 roses--

DON'T DO IT!

Last year, my roommates and I did. We spent several months just collecting roses, about 10,000 at a time. The "reward" was not worth it at all. The only thing it was good for was an excuse to have a party.

If you were only doing it 10,000 at a time, fo course it's taking you forever. I'm pretty sure it's doable with a grand total of eight hours playtime.

zex20913
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It took us approximately 25 minutes to collect 10,000 roses. About 2500 minutes for the whole thing, or 41 hours, 40 minutes. For it to be 8 hours, that would mean about 5 minutes for 10,000 roses.

I'm not that inefficient.

____________________________

Banjooie
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It's actually doable---I read some guide where you could get about 600-800 roses every 30 seconds, or some such chicanery. Apparently he did his in twelve hours and that included figuring it out.

Me, I'm at about 200,000 right now. If I'm actually trying, a hundred thousand a night isn't too rough. I'm just unbelievably lazy.

Mattcrampy
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I saw the video where the reward for getting a million roses is revealed. It's not anything spectacular - I mean, it's clearly there to give you something to do if you really can't get enough Katamari.

It mostly gives me something to do between getting meteors.

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

jemann
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Mattcrampy wrote:
Guitar Hero - Expensive, but totally worth it. It's only expensive because you also have to buy the guitar controller, and while you can find and play the game without it, you shouldn't. Super replay value, and you feel like a complete badass. Music's excellent, the game design is perfect and it's at once accessable and complex. There's a reason this won a couple of Game of the Year awards (other than 1up being completely dead to games with stories in them, but whatevs, as the kids say these days).

Oh, ye gods, I knew I'd forgotten to mention something that was glaringly obvious. This is really a great game, with a good range of difficulty levels. The music selection is fantastic. Most importantly, the 'notes' you have to play match up very well to the actual guitar parts. I'll quote from someone else's review:

In the end, you simply need to trust me on this: stop what you're doing, and go get the game, and you will be a happier person. You will feel stupid walking through Best Buy holding a huge box with a guitar and flames on it. If, like me, you're old, you'll feel stupid as teenage girls laugh at you on the checkout line. If you live with someone, you will feel stupid when you walk in the house and explain what it is you just purchased. And then the moment you actually start playing your first round, you will forget all of that and feel smarter than all of the people who are having less fun than you because they're doing something boring and stupid, while you get to play Guitar Hero.

The sequel has a slightly worse song selection, IMHO, but improves on the gameplay. It also raises the difficulty another notch or two. And if you lash out on that extra guitar, you can have a lot of fun with competitive or cooperative play.
[/endplug]
Truly, it is made of awesome and win.

Oneiromancer
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I am definitely going to be getting this game on the 360...I've already preordered it, actually. Achievements and extra downloadable songs makes it worth waiting for, to me.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Mattcrampy
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Yeah, the most compelling thing about Guitar Hero is the work they've done on making the buttons presses match to the song. Even on the easiest levels, it feels like you're really playing the song because the chords are clearly moving up and down on the neck of the guitar.

For the record, I think the 'silliness' part of it lasts only as long as it takes to set the game up. From there, it just sort of makes sense, and gradually gets more and more awesome as time goes on.

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

Stephen4Louise
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Here goes my list of every PS2 game I own.....
GTA : San Andreas - Great game, as long as you don't mind the content. I'm working my way through this one slowly, but enjoying every mission. Most recently I robbed a military base. Great fun
Dragonball Z : Budokai II - Good fun for filling some time. Loads of Dragonball characters to choose from, and good game play. I keep coming back to this one. Beware of other Dragonball titles though, some of them get really awful reviews.
Ultimate Spiderman - I haven't played too much of this yet as I tend to stick to one game until it's done. but first impressions are pretty good. It seems to involve lots of free roaming around the city, finding and completing missions as you go.

And, ummm, that's it. Well, my daughter has some singstar and harry potter games, but that's not really my thing.

Steve.

Yellow_Mage
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Hoi, this topic reminded of games I had that I forgot about. Most people's descriptions I agree about.

ICO - a very short game (about less than 10 hours easily) but I felt it was worth playing. Even more worth playing just to understand the connection between this game and Shadow of the Colossus as both games have a tenuous connection and don't explicitly tell a story but more like your own interpretation is formed as you play the games... which I think it cool. The game itself is attractive and has good design structure but has sort of weak gameplay.

Shadow of the Colossus - a very short game again. It's much more action orientated rather than the exporative and sort of platform/puzzle game that Ico is. Even tho' the game only put 16 bosses and nothing in between other than wilderness and your horse for company. Both of these game aren't strong recommendations as some people will not like them.

Final Fantasy X - the gameplay is decent but the rest of game can be ignored. It's pretty and the story is very meh but I wish it was good, not that it isn't likeable. It was a pretty shallow game and it was weird for it having rather deep gameplay more so than other FF games.

Final Fantasy X-2 - I hate this game. It's on par with Magical Knights: Rayearth. If you managed to play thro' the first hour of the game with cringing, you might like it.

Dragon Quest 8 - recommended by a friend as being "...surprisingly good, dude."

GTA: San Andreas - from someone that hated Vice City and like GTA 3, this is the only 3D GTA game you need (for the time being... well, you could play Saints Row). Highly recommended.

Tekken 5 - you could have quite a few fighting games on PS2 if you like them. If you could have any 3D fighting game this is the one you could have...

Street Fighter: Alpha Anthology - and this for 2D. I didn't really like Soul Calibur 3 (because it has so rather stupid things in it also warining: it has a glitch that may corrupt your memory card, but it hasn't done anything to mine) but you may find that it's more fun than Tekken 5, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but good luck on finding that game, or finding it cheap.

Devil May Cry 3 - why anyone hasn't said this, I don't know why. Buy it. Maybe get Special Edition if you can find it around.

Devil May Cry 1 - Although the gameplay it rather rudamentary and rough, the game shines enough to warrant playing. Just about. DMC 2 is apparently crap. I still want to buy it tho' (at £3 hopefully one day )

Shadow Hearts - talking of rough games, this game is fair rough but the gameplay is interesting enough to play through the rather insane story. It's often described as a alternative Final Fantasy game. I found this game much more enjoyable than FFX and I played both one after the other. It's more worth playing because of the sequel.

Shadow Hearts: Convenant - I haven't played it, but as it's better than the first one, it must be good.

Final Fantasy XII - Of what I've played it's somewhat like a MMO gameplay wise but with the usual familiarities of a FF game. It's quite fun and has a decent story, but I decided to get Okami instead which I haven't played yet.

Pyschonauts - A really easy buy. It's great.

Kingdom Hearts - it's repetative, it lacks challenge, but it happens to be entertaining enough to keep me playing. However don't think KH2 would be any good. KH1 was lucky to be entertaining because it's pretty much a thread bare game that just about holds together just on substance of being a FF plus Disney game. Or a Disney plus FF game.

Summoner - Only get this game if you are dedicated to finish it. It's easy to get lost, forget what you are doing, etc. So if you put it down it very hard to get back into it. Summoner 2 is much better in terms of that I didn;t refer back to the manual to figure out what to do.

A Burnout game... Well, Burnout Dominator is out (soon?) and unlike Revenge which I think more like a beat em up than a racing game it concentrates soley on racing (no crash mode - yay!), Burnout 3 has some rather repetative races, my favourite Burnout game is still Burnout 2 until I play Burnout: Dominator. IF you want a racing game that has a hint of the "acadey" (which doesn't make sense, put it part of gaming lexicon so bleh) get...

Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition - Remix - My favourite racing game, and I'll say that it's the best one out there at the moment. The NFS:Underground series is pretty much a lost cause because (my opinion) they are stale like my lost socks, and the others such as Most Wanted are only games that you start playing for a bit then forget about them really easily. MC3 happens to be a thoroughly solid street racing game that isn't stuck into the the aesthetic side like Need For Speed post-Underground.

Onimusha series - not too bad. Meaning to find the second one. The first, (been said before I know) is good, but it's a hard game. Hard in the sense that you can screw yourself and you need to start again.

Front Mission 4 - I haven't played, but I've played Front Mission 3 which is a PS1 game. I find that Front Mission are some of the best Strategic RPGs around. I know Disgaea 2 was mentioned, but I find those games are still strongly based around power-levelling and I found it too repetative. Not very tactical. FM3 is. FM4 is apparently dreamy to play, but the story or any of the other aesthetic appeal could of been better that more people would pay attentio to the game. Sadly I haven't been able to find the game. It's rather annoying...

Stephen4Louise wrote:
Dragonball Z : Budokai II - Good fun for filling some time. Loads of Dragonball characters to choose from, and good game play. I keep coming back to this one. Beware of other Dragonball titles though, some of them get really awful reviews.

I disagree. I found Budokai 3 to be solid yet boring and the Budokai 1 and 2 to be rather poor. If you like DBZ you might as well get Tenkaichi 2 to fill you need to play with the most powerful characters in the DBZ universe. I don't like DBZ. I don't really like any of the games to be honest...

Grand Turismo 4 - because it's a GT game. It's not really my thing... fairly realistic - for a game. But I prefer Project Gotham Racing.

Oh, and Matt, about Kindgom Hearts - no, they don't explain lots of things. Basically they add things to the end so you end up buying the second game. When I finished it, I really wanted KH2 just to see the ending but i KNEW it was just a scam so you bought the game. So I waited. Being 'European' and a 'second-class citizen', I waited for a long time that my bottom went blue. I just heard bad things about it how it drags it's heels in telling an incomplete story.

That's some of my ideas/comments on games I've played... all that I can remember that is.

____________________________
"Sit and daydream, and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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[Last edited by Yellow_Mage at 03-05-2007 09:26 PM]

BDR
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Virtua Fighter 4 beats Tekken 5 IMO. Mostly because while I still suck at VF4, I know it's because I haven't made enough of an effort in learning good strategy; in Tekken 5 I have issues with mere input (I have input issues with some moves in VF4 as well, but only some...) and it's not much fun to lose because you can't actually manage to do much more than 10-20 moves or so out of the 100+ you might get out of a character. I may, however, have just been spoiled by Soul Calibur 2, which I got before either of them IIRC.

Also: VF4 has a pretty nifty training mode that actually gives you the tools to see how close you're getting to the actual move and where you're screwing up. Tekken 5 lacks this, which is another minus.

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[Last edited by BDR at 03-06-2007 12:03 AM]

malkav11
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Anything from Nippon Ichi's worth a look. Disgaea particularly (who doesn't love exploding penguins?)

I'm not a big platformer fan, really, so Jak and Daxter, which gives you virtually your entire moveset right off the bat and then proceeds to make you jump a lot and not a whole lot else...well, let's just say I didn't love it. Sly Cooper 1 also didn't do that much for me, although it at least had more interesting level design and plot. Ratchet and Clank, on the other hand, hit my sweet spot. Lots of different things to fight and challenges to surmount. Plenty of amusing cutscenes. Very forgiving mechanics. And most importantly, you get upgrades and new weapons on a regular basis. I have 2 and 3 but haven't played them yet as I've not beaten R&C 1 and don't like to play games out of order.

Devil May Cry 1 is great. 3 is also supposed to be great. 2 is not, but you can buy all three for, iirc, $30 as the Devil May Cry 5th Anniversary Collection, so might as well.

I second the vote for Shadow Hearts. It's got a very unusual setting and plenty of interesting storytelling and weird characters. Plus the Judgment Ring mechanic adds a little spice to the combat. (And other things.) Might be hard to find though.

In a similar vein, I heartily recommend any and all of the Shin Megami Tensei games. The US available titles are Persona: Revelations, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (actually the sequel to Persona 2: Innocent Sin, which never came out in the US.), Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 (you really need both as 2 is a direct sequel to 1 with imported characters and everything.), and most recently Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army. In terms of approachability Devil Summoner is your best bet. It's kind of an adventure game/RPG hybrid as you use the powers of your devils to aid your work as a detective. It's a decent newbie SMT game because the game systems are relatively uncomplicated and the story's a bit more prominent than in, say, Nocturne (which is much more of a dungeon crawl.). It's also the only one that's easily found in stores. If any of them are.

If you're at all into survival horror, you should play the Silent Hill games. Creepy as hell.

Disaster Report is lesser known. It should be available at bargain prices and is well worth it. You're a novice reporter assigned to cover an artificial island city. And as you arrive, a devastating earthquake wreaks havoc on the city. You wind up having to survive all sorts of quake-related hazards, along with the effects of aftershock after aftershock, and eventually the complete disintegration of the island. The plot's pretty thin, but the experience is quite gripping. And there are multiple endings, if you really feel like playing through it again (I don't think I'm going to.).

Everblue 2 is a scuba-diving RPG. If that isn't enough to make you want it, I don't know what more I could say in its favor.

Also to be found in the bargain bin: Cold Winter. It's a spy FPS and while I don't traditionally bother with FPS games on consoles (not at all their natural habitat), it has the singular and rather excellent virtue of being written by comics god Warren Ellis. The action itself isn't bad, and there's a mechanic where you can assemble stuff out of household items MacGyver-style that isn't, from what I hear, explored as fully as it might have been. It's no Halo or Far Cry or whatever, but at the prices you are likely to find it, it is, again, more than worth it.