• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Playstation 2 launched 20 years ago in the US

Out of all of those games, I would say Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was my favorite, alongside Grand Theft Auto III and Final Fantasy X. The PlayStation 2 truly was a console that had something for everyone. Level-5's output was also amazing during that console generation with Dark Cloud, Dark Cloud 2 (Dark Chronicle), and Dragon Quest VIII.
 
The greatest console ever made.

Shame that nothing else came even close to its catalogue of games.

Also, it marked the golden age of survival horror.

Those were simpler, happier times. No day 1 patches and DLCs. No microtransactions. No virtue signaling and forced diversity. No bloated, empty open-world borefests. No pretentious walking simulators...
 
Last edited:
Its either the PS1 or PS2 thats my favourite console. So much for monopoly positions. The Playstation systems delivered despite being alone at the top.

I think the PS2 launch was okay ish. It wasn't great, but not as bad as some made it out to be. TTT, RRV, SSX, Timesplitters were solid games. Some games (mainly ports) looked worse than Dreamcast games which was kind of a big deal back then because Sony promised magic. But the 4 above looked better than pretty much any DC game out there, lol.

Once DMC, MGS2, Silent Hill 2 and GTA 3 came out, any doubt was gone.



I got both at some point, and sold both only to return to the PS2. I wasnt the biggest Nintendo fan, and not a big FPS fan. Felt right at home with the Square RPGs, Tekken ,Ace Combat, DMC, GT etc. Ofcourse GTA and MGS games early.
Coming from ps1/n64 perfect dark was my fav game by far. I was thirsty for fps so when i saw and played halo on xbox, i never looked back. I always did like gran turismo. I played gta san andreas on xbox.
 
And it's still the best Playstation console overall by a country mile.

You will never get this kind of lineup again:

playstation-2-fall-2001.original.jpg



The sheer hype leading up to this thing (fairly or not) has never been matched, and getting your hands on one at launch was nigh impossible. This was what a new console should be like - exciting.


Though the launch titles did kind of suck :-/
There was also Onimusha, Dark Cloud, Soul Reaver and Shadow of memories.
The launch titles didn't matter because games on the first year were legendary
 
Last edited:
One of the happiest days of my teenaged years was the launch of the PS2.

My folks didn't have much so I had to work for it. I got a summer job at 15 and saved up enough money to pre-order the system, Madden 2001, DOA2: Hardcore, SSX, and an 8MB memory card.

Fun times. The PS2 is still the GOAT in my opinion.
 
Amazing console and those games.
But also Playstation is having a strong 2 years. 2020-2021 Playstation exclusives:

Final Fantasy 7 remake
TLOU2
Ghosts of Tsushima
Demon Souls
Spiderman MM
Sackboy
Ratchet and Clank
Gran Turismo 7
Final Fantasy 16
Horizon 2
God of War Ragnarok.
and more hopefully

Thats no slouch
 
Amazing console, terrible launch lineup. The Japanese one was even worse considering that it didn't even have any single first-party title, at all (Fantavision was only released 5 days later, for some weird reason).
 
Hey, I made this thread! I totally forgot.

Honestly - every year when October 26th rolls around, I remember it's the PS2's birthday. Still a legendary system, and I doubt it'll ever be dethroned for me.
 
The greatest console ever made.

Shame that nothing else came even close to its catalogue of games.

Also, it marked the golden age of survival horror.

Those were simpler, happier times. No day 1 patches and DLCs. No microtransactions. No virtue signaling and forced diversity. No bloated, empty open-world borefests. No pretentious walking simulators...
thanks! saved me having to post anything...
 
Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, SSX Tricky, Burnout, NFS Underground + Most Wanted, GTA.

What a console. What a time to be a gamer it was.
 
Was working at a gas station, it was around 10-10:15 pm and a friend pops in and says it's all over the news people are camping out waiting for it. I was ending my shift and doing paperwork, when I said fuck this and left. I waited all night at a best buy and got the last one in the store. Usually I work graveyard so I would have missed out on the launch and had to wait until March when they restocked if I was, so I got lucky and was about to get it, madden, and my first DVD ever Final Destination. I'll never forget going back to work to tell my manager I'm not coming in today after waiting all night, and going home to marvel at madden's graphics, how players looked like they grabbed their helmets and twisted it on right. Thank you to the GOAT of all GOATS for the memories.
 
Launch day I was busy playing Quake 3 online on Dreamcast.

But I did rent a PS2 along with the two good games (SSX and Tekken Tag), and I was underwhelmed.

Got the console when Gran Turismo released, and at that point the system was firing on all cylinders. The greatest PlayStation.
 
Launch day I was busy playing Quake 3 online on Dreamcast.

But I did rent a PS2 along with the two good games (SSX and Tekken Tag), and I was underwhelmed.

Got the console when Gran Turismo released, and at that point the system was firing on all cylinders. The greatest PlayStation.
I got it and immediately played The Bouncer and regretted my purchase. Then I played Z.O.E. and the MGS2 demo and forgot all about The Bouncer.
 
Had some true classics but if only the video output on the console wasn't so horrendous. Interlaced blur all over the place, headache & vomit inducing at times.
Steven Spielberg couldn't believe he was looking at a video game system that had Jurassic Park level graphics being generated in real time. Don't get me wrong- I know that was...
Jurassic Park Poop GIF by Vidiots
 
Amazing console and those games.
But also Playstation is having a strong 2 years. 2020-2021 Playstation exclusives:

Final Fantasy 7 remake
TLOU2
Ghosts of Tsushima
Demon Souls
Spiderman MM
Sackboy
Ratchet and Clank
Gran Turismo 7
Final Fantasy 16
Horizon 2
God of War Ragnarok.
and more hopefully

Thats no slouch
Better console and lineup 🤷
 
Having a PS2 on launch day felt like being in the future backward compat, renting dvds when the dvd section was just two rows in the video store full of VHS tapes, SSX, Tekken Tag, Street fighter EX3, AC2 and DOA2 great times
 
Launch day I was busy playing Quake 3 online on Dreamcast.

But I did rent a PS2 along with the two good games (SSX and Tekken Tag), and I was underwhelmed.

Got the console when Gran Turismo released, and at that point the system was firing on all cylinders. The greatest PlayStation.
I hear that, I was drowning in kickass Dreamcast games when PS2 came out. As much as I wanted to believe the hype, the launch lineup was underwhelming.

A year later was a different story. I dumped my first girlfriend on the first day of Spring break 2002 and bought a PS2 + Final Fantasy X the same day. I named her Veronica. I enjoyed an entire week of no school, no girlfriend, no responsibilities with her. Great memories man.
 
Last edited:
I hear that, I was drowning in kickass Dreamcast games when PS2 came out. As much as I wanted to believe the hype, the launch lineup was underwhelming.

A year later was a different story. I dumped my first girlfriend on the first day of Spring break 2002 and bought a PS2 + Final Fantasy X the same day. I named her Veronica. I enjoyed an entire week of no school, no girlfriend, no responsibilities with her. Great memories man.

Yeah, for me it was a bit when later my wife and I were visiting friends, and my buddy got one. So we were playing it for a bit, and at that time I was rather impressed with it.

The next week I came home from work and the Gran Turismo 3 bundle was waiting for me along with a copy of Dark Cloud. Gotta say my wife has always been awesome with my hobby - even though she rarely plays anything.
 
To this day, I still think the PS2 console is the best looking tech hardware in history. As a kid, I thought I just seen the coolest thing ever. That dark blue disc, dark blue stand and black theme always pulled me in.
 
Last edited:
To this day, I still think the PS2 console is the best looking tech hardware in history. As a kid, I thought I just seen the coolest thing ever. That dark blue disc, dark blue stand and black theme always pulled me in.
That, and the big blue box it came in is the best looking box I ever saw.
 
And it's still the best Playstation console overall by a country mile.

You will never get this kind of lineup again:

playstation-2-fall-2001.original.jpg



The sheer hype leading up to this thing (fairly or not) has never been matched, and getting your hands on one at launch was nigh impossible. This was what a new console should be like - exciting.


Though the launch titles did kind of suck :-/
How the hell did you forget Ace Combat Zero ? fail lol.
 
I was a Nintendo kid. N64 and then got a GameCube. Then GTA 3 and FFX came out and the rest is history. I traded in so much stuff to help pay for a PS2... totally worth it.
 
I was a pretty late adopter of the PS2. I got a Dreamcast first, and then a GameCube. I did get a PS2 as well but probably not until like 2003.
 
And it's still the best Playstation console overall by a country mile.

You will never get this kind of lineup again:

playstation-2-fall-2001.original.jpg



The sheer hype leading up to this thing (fairly or not) has never been matched, and getting your hands on one at launch was nigh impossible. This was what a new console should be like - exciting.


Though the launch titles did kind of suck :-/
A dark day in gaming history the beginning of the end for Sega.
 
While those are good games, what i see is 4 ps4 games and 3 ps5 games, one which is a remake

Nothing compares to that ps2 year
My post was from 2020, little did I know that SM2 & Returnal would be the only other games from Sony going into 2024.
It's fucking Terrible in comparison.
 
A dark day in gaming history the beginning of the end for Sega.
Sega's issues are almost entirely self-inflicted. Feud between US and Japan divisions. 32x, Saturn issues including the "surprise" US release, and many more.

I love Saturn and Dreamcast, mind you, but Sony knocked it out of the park with PS1 and PS2.
 
Think this was the first console I ordered on the internet. Think it was from special reserve which was originally a mail order company.
 
I stood in line at KB Toys and Hobby (RIP) to buy this thing at launch. The first year wasn't great and I played my Dreamcast more, but it picked up steam fast and ended up with an insane library.
 
Sega's issues are almost entirely self-inflicted. Feud between US and Japan divisions. 32x, Saturn issues including the "surprise" US release, and many more.

I love Saturn and Dreamcast, mind you, but Sony knocked it out of the park with PS1 and PS2.
Agree although I have to admit, I'm still slightly bitter.

Dreamcast had an absolutely killer lineup of 1st and 3rd party games across all genres (including even their own better-than-EA sports games). Killer price, modem/ethernet, 480p support, it was awesome.

PS2 launched with nothing but hype and promises. Crazy Ken Kutaragi spouted off so much hyperbolic bullshit, and the gaming media/community ate it up and amplified it. They had everyone convinced it was in a completely different league from anything that came before (remember all the "Toy Story graphics in real time" nonsense?)

Then it launched and … games looked about the same as Dreamcast (some multiplatform games actually looked worse on PS2). Power-wise it got leapfrogged by Xbox and GameCube a year later. The launch window lineup was weak, and you couldn't even buy the damn thing unless you got it bundled with some games/hardware you probably didn't want.

Yeah PS2 eventually delivered but it feels like by all rights, Dreamcast should've been close competition throughout that generation instead of being sent to an early grave. I always wonder how it would've played out if Dreamcast had DVD playback and better copy protection.
 
Agree although I have to admit, I'm still slightly bitter.

Dreamcast had an absolutely killer lineup of 1st and 3rd party games across all genres (including even their own better-than-EA sports games). Killer price, modem/ethernet, 480p support, it was awesome.

PS2 launched with nothing but hype and promises. Crazy Ken Kutaragi spouted off so much hyperbolic bullshit, and the gaming media/community ate it up and amplified it. They had everyone convinced it was in a completely different league from anything that came before (remember all the "Toy Story graphics in real time" nonsense?)

Then it launched and … games looked about the same as Dreamcast (some multiplatform games actually looked worse on PS2). Power-wise it got leapfrogged by Xbox and GameCube a year later. The launch window lineup was weak, and you couldn't even buy the damn thing unless you got it bundled with some games/hardware you probably didn't want.

Yeah PS2 eventually delivered but it feels like by all rights, Dreamcast should've been close competition throughout that generation instead of being sent to an early grave. I always wonder how it would've played out if Dreamcast had DVD playback and better copy protection.
This was all because of Sega's incredibly stupid marketing of the Saturn, the PlayStation was so beloved that the hype for PS2 was going to kill the Dreamcast no matter what. Dreamcast is definitely a cooler piece of hardware in some ways and its sad that it died an early death but the PS2 was probably the perfect console for the perfect time. Its the greatest console of all time imo. The library is staggering and very quickly after launch many amazing games were releasing at what felt like a weekly pace for like 5 years straight. Its a totally different era I wish we could go back to.

Imo the Dreamcast wasn't even the weakest console of the gen, it was the GameCube. GC had a handful of great exclusives but everything else about it was a total afterthought and there was a pretty shocking amount of multi-plat games that even skipped the GC. Also I'm in the camp that does not really care for the GC controller aside from some games like Sunshine or Melee working well with it. Otherwise it feels tiny and uncomfortable.

PS2 >>> Xbox > Dreamcast > GC but they were all good in their own ways. PS2 just eclipsed the rest by how insanely successful it was in nearly every way, its definitive proof nobody gives a crap about hardware specs when you have the best software output in the business.
 
Top Bottom