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Is it possible the PS2 is the worst PlayStation console?

this thread title

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Trago said:
I would argue that non of the PlayStation home consoles are bad, it's just that some are better than others. Software libraries are debatable, but when you consider the features, and the time that they were relevant, no one can say that they were bad. Even the PS3, despite a shitty start ended up being a killer console.
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So...one must be the worst of them. :P
 
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MFW I read the part about the PS2 having no games OP cares or wants to play again, I instantly had dozens of games popping on my mind.
 
HF2014 said:
Its a matter of taste. Infamous, Little Big planet, Heavy Rain, God of War, MGS IV, Last of Us, Killzone, Resistance, Uncharted, Ratchet, Gran Tursimo , Demons Souls were more interesting in the time than just Halo, Gears of War , Forza, and Fable. I was an xbox fan on their first generation, but the second one made me switch quick( on also with two red ring of death in one year and free online gaming)
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Of course it's a matter of taste. This whole thread is based on subjectivity.

But even so, comparing the PS3 exclusives line up to the 360 exclusives line up doesn't make much sense in the context of this thread. The comparison should be between PS3 and the other PS consoles.
 
Trago said:
At this point in time, none of them are. They all have great catalogs of games.
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That's not how it works. There has to be something that is the worst. Even if worst means least best. If you make a ranking, something has to be at the bottom, and the thing at the bottom is the worst, even if it's not bad.
 
Zen_Arcade said:
That's not how it works. There has to be something that is the worst. Even if worst means least best. If you make a ranking, something has to be at the bottom, and the thing at the bottom is the worst, even if it's not bad.
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Perhaps 'worst' is the wrong word then. Maybe 'weakest' is more appropriate.
 
It's my least favourite Sony console by a mile. The build quality was their all time worst, and the magic software formula of PSone either changed for the worse, was beaten by Sega, or jumped ship to Nintendo/MS. There were some good PS2 exclusives, but overall Dreamcast and Gamecube carried gen 6 for me.

PSone, PS3 and PS4 were/are all much more interesting pieces of hardware for their time imo, with better software.
 
Zen_Arcade said:
That's not how it works. There has to be something that is the worst. Even if worst means least best. If you make a ranking, something has to be at the bottom, and the thing at the bottom is the worst, even if it's not bad.
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Well if that's the case then no one should even care in the first place because they're all great.

This whole thing is just an exercise in futility. All Playstation consoles have libraries of great games, that's all there is to it.
 
Trago said:
Perhaps 'worst' is the wrong one then. Maybe 'weakest' is more appropriate.
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I mean, that's just splitting hairs. If something is the weakest, it's obviously the worst of the bunch.
CHC said:
Well if that's the case then no one should even care in the first place because they're all great.

This whole thing is just an exercise in futility. All Playstation consoles have libraries of great games, that's all there is to it.
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No one should care about the majority of whats talked about on this forum, because a bunch of it is a matter of opinion. People still do it because they think the discussion is fun. It's still interesting for some people to discuss what they think the worst PS console is, even if they think they're all varying levels of good. If you don't want to be a part of that discussion you could always just leave the thread.
 
petran79 said:
Sega and Nintendo at that time had better marketing (Sega arcades, Nintendo long time classics), making their games appealing even to people who did not own a PS2. While PS2 games catered mainly to PS2 owners.
In another thread I made, some people had not even heard of MGS1!

When Sega and Nintendo finally realized the tastes and trends had changed, the turf was open for Sony to take.
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Ahh I see, it was a while ago so I don't quite remember the atmosphere back then.
 
Great post,

in order for me do the math I would have see which games I enjoyed on ps one & ps2.
than see which console I enjoyed the most.

I think it's really hard tho, nostalgia gets on the way I guess,

it's like saying which games do I like best FF7 or shadow of colossus?
I just cant ...
 
Zen_Arcade said:
That's not how it works. There has to be something that is the worst. Even if worst means least best. If you make a ranking, something has to be at the bottom, and the thing at the bottom is the worst, even if it's not bad.
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You can't force a parent to rank their kids and then declare that the last kid is least loved. You are welcome to argue that one library is better or worse than another, but that doesn't mean that everyone else must take a stand and declare one library the worst.

Personally, I think each library has merit to being the best.
 
Ps2 is regarded highly just because of it's sheer game library. I would like to think that ps2 opened a lot of doors for aspiring devs as well as new IPs by the major publishers. Some examples would be Onimusha, Devil May Cry, and God Hand to name a few. This is in stark contrast to the ps3 gen where japanese devs as well as independent devs have dwindled down making the generation's choice in games rather bleak. We are, however, seeing a resurgence on those AA games again for this gen.

The problem eith ps2 was that you have to wade through the sheer amount of shovelware just to get through the gems of that generation. Answering your question, No OP it is not the worst PS console.

Edit: Plus that was a highly competetive era and for ps2 to take off like that is a testament on how it's not the "worst" Playstation console.
 
Zen_Arcade said:
I mean, that's just splitting hairs. If something is the weakest, it's obviously the worst of the bunch.
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But each of them have their strengths over the other. Maybe it comes down to the game library you grew up with, or you may like more games on a certain console than the last. But 'worst' would imply a lack of quality, or impact that the other consoles had. Now is that true of all the Play Station consoles. I don't think so.
 
pastrami said:
You can't force a parent to rank their kids and then declare that the last kid is least loved. You are welcome to argue that one library is better or worse than another, but that doesn't mean that everyone else must take a stand and declare one library the worst.
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If you're ranking the PS consoles whatever you put at the bottom is going to be worst by definition. I'm not taking a stand, people are already doing it willingly by ranking things themselves.

No one is forcing you to rank the PS consoles, or your children. However, if you're going to go into a thread where the whole basis is to rank the PS consoles or your children, you're going to end up saying one of them is the worst by the sheer fact that you're already in here ranking them. That doesn't mean you dislike or hate whatever you put at the bottom, but it's pretty obvious that you think it's lacking compared to it's competition if you're willingly ranking it and putting it below everything else.

You're welcome to not rank anything at all, but if you're going to do so one of those things is going to be the worst because it's at the bottom.
 
Neff said:
It's my least favourite Sony console by a mile. The build quality was their all time worst, and the magic software formula of PSone either changed for the worse, was beaten by Sega, or jumped ship to Nintendo/MS. There were some good PS2 exclusives, but overall Dreamcast and Gamecube carried gen 6 for me.
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Glad I read this before I posted. This is what I wanted to say as well. PS2 was OK for me and GTA was mainly why I played it. I just couldn't get into FFXII, Grandia III, Kingdom Hearts and Valkyrie Profile 2 Silmeria. Mega Man X pretty much died on the PS2 as well. I was content with the Game Cube and even though the selection of RPG titles were slim Baten Kaitos and Origins as well as Tales of Symphony were my favorite RPGs that generation of consoles.
 
what is all this madness in GAF? OP you first did the homework of knowing the games that are in the ps2? The console is a gold mine for christ sake. Jeez.
 
TheBigG753 said:
As far as the worst Playstation console goes, it's easily the PS1 for me. It had a lot of games, but not too many that were actually great. Nothing that could hang with the best stuff on the N64 at least. It was a very style-over-substance platform in an era obsessed with multimedia.

Whereas PS2 should be in the running for best console, not just Playstation, but overall.

You left out Metal Gear Solid 2 as well. Maybe a few others. Sony's fall 2001 lineup is easily the strongest in history.

To put it in perspective, the Xbox and GameCube both launched that November and each set certain launch sales records at the time. And IIRC the PS2 sold over twice as many consoles that holiday than both of those did combined. I've never seen anything like it. So many huge, great games in such a short window.
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Shit, you're right. I knew my list was at least one superstar short.

But yeah, I agree. That was the strongest game lineup in history. And this topic is crazy.
 
Trago said:
But each of them have their strengths over the other. Maybe it comes down to the game library you grew up with, or you may like more games on a certain console than the last. But 'worst' would imply a lack of quality, or impact that the other consoles had. Now is that true of all the Play Station consoles. I don't think so.
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Worst is subjective to whatever you believe. It doesn't necessarily mean lack of quality. It doesn't matter why you think something is better then something else, but if you do think one thing is better then another then you think the other thing is worse. It's part of the definition of worse.

If you think all PS consoles are equal, which I guess you're free to do, I have to wonder why you would wander into a thread about ranking them and argue against the idea of ranking them in the first place.
 
Zen_Arcade said:
If you're ranking the PS consoles whatever you put at the bottom is going to be worst by definition. I'm not taking a stand, people are already doing it willingly by ranking things themselves.

No one is forcing you to rank the PS consoles, or your children. However, if you're going to go into a thread where the whole basis is to rank the PS consoles or your children, you're going to end up saying one of them is the worst by the sheer fact that you're already in here ranking them. You're welcome to not rank anything at all, but if you're going to do so one of those things is going to be the worst because it's at the bottom.
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Your response to someone saying that each library was great is "That's not how this works." I guess the only people allowed to chime in are those who are willing to rank the libraries?
 
PS2 is GOAT. For one it can actually do 3D games, unlike the PS1. PS3 gen was the beginning of all this season pass, DLC, microtransaction bullshit in consoles.

The variety in the PS2 gen was through the roof, with not one genre dominating everything. Not to mention how great Japanese games were at that time.
 
Zen_Arcade said:
Worst is subjective to whatever you believe. It doesn't necessarily mean lack of quality. It doesn't matter why you think something is better then something else, but if you do think one thing is better then another then you think the other thing is worse. It's part of the definition of worse.

If you think all PS consoles are equal, which I guess you're free to do, I have to wonder why you would wander into a thread about ranking them and argue against the idea of ranking them in the first place.
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I'm arguing that all of them have strengths over the other, but they're all great. which is why I think there isn't necessarily a worst PlayStation console. I'd happily itemize all of their strengths over each other if you want. (may be a long post.)

EDIT: Not counting PS4 since we're still in this gen.
 
Neff said:
PSone, PS3 and PS4 were/are all much more interesting pieces of hardware for their time imo
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This is one you're gonna have to elaborate on.
With exception of PSP - I've not seen anything remotely as forward looking as PS2 was in other machines. And given the issues PS3 had with build quality and complaints I read about PS1, I doubt that was particularly far apart between generations either.
 
pastrami said:
Your response to someone saying that each library was great is "That's not how this works." I guess the only people allowed to chime in are those who are willing to rank the libraries?
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No, my reply was to someone saying that none of them are the worst. If you're ranking things, that's impossible. I made no opinion based on the quality of libraries. I never said "You have to think one library is bad." But, by definition, if you're going to rank consoles, be that based on their game libraries, or whatever other metric you make, something is going to come out on the bottom, and that thing is going to be the worst of the bunch. Even if you think the worst of the bunch is still great.
Trago said:
I'm arguing that all of them have strengths over the other, but they're all great. which is why I think there isn't necessarily a worst PlayStation console. I'd happily itemize all of their strengths over each other if you want. (may be a long post.)

EDIT: Not counting PS4 since we're still in this gen.
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I mean, nothing about what you're saying changes the fact that even if they all of strengths over one another, if you were to rank them, something would be at the bottom. Just because you think all of a group of things are great doesn't mean that one of them isn't going to come out on the bottom.

Like, if you love a series of movies, and feel they all have their strengths, and you give three of those movies an A+ and one of those movies just an A, you're still saying the movie you gave an A to is the worst in the series of movies. I think you're just stuck on the idea that worst has to mean bad, which isn't the case.
 
Zen_Arcade said:
No, my reply was to someone saying that none of them are the worst. If you're ranking things, that's impossible. I made no opinion based on the quality of libraries. I never said "You have to think one library is bad." But, by definition, if you're going to rank consoles, be that based on their game libraries, or whatever other metric you make, something is going to come out on the bottom, and that thing is going to be the worst of the bunch. Even if you think the worst of the bunch is still great.
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So we're essentially arguing semantics. Ok, I wont debate this.
 
I've seen many things in my life. But title of this thread is just ridiculous. I don't think there'll be any console with better library than PS2.
 
Sorry ,OP but the worst Playstation console is the PSP Go.

Limited selection of games ( less than the psp ) , terrible price , terrible design , lack of features.

Listing the PS2 is nonsense.The PS2 was feature-heavy with a killer library and was relatively easy to get. what's not to love ?
 
halfbeast said:
the only bad thing about the PS2 is, that it's almost too good.
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Rezae said:
It's the best, but wasn't my favorite. It's library was unmatched, but I found the PS1 to be more magical with 3D being a wild frontier opening new genres and IPs, along with the best batch of RPGs IMO. I bought my PS1 during launch week and it was a great choice (originally went to the store to get a Saturn).

Personally I go in chronological order: PS1 > PS2 > PS3 > PS4
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I'd tend to agree with this.
 
PS2 > PS1 > PS3 > PS4 (for now)

The placing of the PS1 might mostly be nostalgia though. It was definitely a great console, but maybe I'm a bit more rosy about it than the reality. It's possible that my actual opinion would have ps1 and ps3 swapped.
 
TouchMyBox said:
PS2 > PS1 > PS3 > PS4 (for now)

The placing of the PS1 might mostly be nostalgia though. It was definitely a great console, but maybe I'm a bit more rosy about it than the reality.
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Tekken 1/2/3, MGS1, FFVII, FVIII, FF Tactics, FFXI, Parasite Eve, Silent Hill, Gran Turismo, Vagrant Story, Crash Bandicoot...

No its reality
 
This is just crazy. I'm actually at a loss for words. If the console has no games people want to play why are people clamoring for games to be remastered. No OP there are tons of amazing games on the PS2, dated mechanics (or graphics) are the main reason most people are not replaying the games; Not a lack of desire to play the games themselves.
 
Ol No Bones said:
I think PS1 had better JRPGs personally.
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This is a much better discussion, and I would agree.

PS1 had Tactics Ogre Let Us Cling Together, FFVII and IX, Parasite Eve, Breath of Fire III and IV, Front Mission 3, Suikoden II, FF Tactics, Grandia, Wild Arms 1 and 2, Legend of Dragoon, Xenogears...and the list literally just keeps going. PS2 had great ones too but 1 edges out in front for me.
 
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