God of War - I felt this was the best in the series by a long shot (GOW II was shit). the pacing was the most consistent, the gameplay was at its purest, and the difficulty was well tuned. the story was also straightforward and to the point, and didn't overstay its welcome like the other games in the series did. the deus ex machina was also acceptable, unlike its sequels which went on to milk the supernatural rather than Kratos just being badass. artistic direction was sublime and it technologically pushed the PS2 to its limits. imo, the entire Hydra opening is a classic gaming moment that will be remembered for a long time.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance - easily the best game in the franchise, superseding even the original and the supposed GAF favourite MGS3. This was the last true technobabble MGS imo that didn't try to oversell itself with bullshit explanations and nonsensical plot points. It put a lot of questions out there that made you think (which sadly MGS4 felt the need to answer) and developed the series characters moreso than any other game. other boons were 60fps, PS2 pushing visuals with a timeless art style... and superior gameplay due to the replay value imposed by dog tags, an Extreme mode that wasn't gimped, and much more genuine sneaking (not monitoring some camouflage percentage to get by every situation). the Substance version is of particular note because of the oodles of extra content. from a boss standpoint, you also cannot beat a fat man on rollerblades, a harrier jump jet, or the sword fight against the tengus in Arsenal Gear.
Shadow of the Colossus -
flawed as it might be, SotC was genuinely one of the most beautiful games I ever played. the story came together to create one of the most memorable endings I have seen, and still regularly debate the meaning of. sometimes the controls can't quite keep up, but I got what they were trying to achieve with making the player physically carry out every single action with the controller, as opposed to just 'press X to win' (fuck you, Bioware). the best part of SotC however is just the epic thrill of fighting the colossi that no other game has bettered, and it does this through a combination of its pacing, the glorious soundtrack, the feeling of the unknown and also the mystery of just how the fuck you take down a 500m tall walking landmass. they are by far the best bosses ever committed to disc.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - a tough call to make between this slice of 80s nostalgia and its successor, the biggest most content rich game I have ever played. but nostalgia wins out - Vice City made the 80s cool once again (no easy feat, thanks to dem shoulder pads) and instilled such a massive cultural throwback in today's children. it was the game to finally solidify GTA's popularity in 3D imo, but more importantly it got people I know listening to Blondie and Iron Maiden again.
Gran Turismo 4 - sadly the final good game Polyphony made. it's utterly pathetic that GT5 could never live up to the legacy of GT4, but perhaps that is more a testament to how great this game is rather than how much of a colossal failure GT5 was. there is something strangely alluring about the car lineup that I can't quite put my finger on (cool things like the official yellow GT4 350Z, Leno's tank car and the Wagon 1886). all is represented with PS2 pushing visuals, beautiful tracks and tons of content. the physics felt really
right too (maybe not fully realistic, but I felt that GT4 had the most satisfying sense of turning momentum). and for a change, the European soundtrack was actually not too bad for a racing game.
Manhunt - here's a copy pasta from an earlier post I made: "The original Manhunt is a classic and one of the best horror games ever made, if not the best; it is also one of the most important game releases this century. It is vile, genuinely unnerving, with a perfectly grim atmosphere that speaks to our depraved souls. In terms of immersion it is still leagues ahead of many games today - forget your Wiimotes and 3D, you cannot get a more convincing experience than hearing Brian Cox hiss through your headset as your controller rumbles in time with Cash's heartbeat. It also managed to back up every sick thing it did with sound reasoning - the exploitative camera angles as you sickle a thug's ballsack were not there out of perversion, they were there because you were inadvertently the star of a snuff movie. It all made so much sense, which is something that can't be said for the exploding meat factories that other games are. It's a funny thing since the game is often unfairly stereotyped as such. There was also the moral dilemma of feeling sorry for Cash; despite the fact that Cash could have done anything to be on death row like molest kids or murder old people, you still felt like he got a shit deal and felt bad for what he had to go through."
Shadow of Rome - coming off the back of my Manhunt praises, this really does seem like the sort of juvenile meat factory that I was talking about (and with being able to slice a man's arm off in a highly comedic fashion and then beat him to death with it, it is a game which is thoroughly proud of this moniker). it is probably one of the most fun games i have ever played, partly due to the gore, but also because of the excellent combat system which revolves around careful weapon management (they break often), and an interesting scoring system in which you must appeal to the crowd after performing a massive combo. running on the onimusha 3 engine, graphically it was great and the story was sort of interesting if a little too influenced by Gladiator (but really is that a bad thing?). the only letdown was the shitty stealth sections which were the norm in 2004/5.
Onimusha: Warlords - another Capcom great, I fondly remember this because it was one of my first PS2 games. It visually blew me away at the time - it was the first attempt at making a 'next-gen' pre-rendered game, so naturally it was jaw dropping compared to the other 3D efforts around it. I also loved the traditional historical Japanese aesthetics which few other games seem to touch (everything always has to be 'stylised' or 'alternative' now with robots and shit). but it's the gameplay and story that kept bringing me back all these years. it is a genuinely good hack and slash game in the Resident Evil style that we all love. the orb collection was a fun mechanic (which many games later aped) and contributed to the grander scheme of trying to get all the weapons levelled up by the end. while cheesy, I did rather enjoy the save the princess plot - simple, but effective. I will always remember the CG intro movie as one of the best in gaming.
Persona 4 - probably the most enjoyable JRPG that I played on the PS2, although I didn't particularly find it to be the 'golden age' that people revered it as: that honor was bestowed upon the 32-bit generation. I'm not going to lie - I did not finish this (but will some day), but the time that I spent with it was the most enjoyable of any JRPG in recent memory. The characters were all brilliant and avoided falling into the typical stereotypes that the genre (*cough* Square Enix) is known for. it was a thoroughly refreshing murder mystery experience that I cannot wait to get to the bottom of when I have more time. the 60 hour length, while appealing to some, is in fact a turn off when time limited.
Red Dead Revolver - probably the biggest reason why I was initially sceptical about Redemption was because Revolver was such a superb game in its own right. For a long time it was the best Wild West game ever made because of its style, grandiose dialogue and of course being one of the best third-person shooters last gen. It was one of the earliest games to ever implement a full cover system (take that, Gears), and that coupled with bullet time and quick draws made it such a well rounded package that only really Vanquish has topped in all areas since. And thankfully Redemption turned out to be a different yet amazing beast itself, so it didn't sully Revolver's reputation.
