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[MushroomSamba]

1. Shadow of the Colossus - For obvious reasons.
2. Okami - Out-Zeldas most Zelda games. Quite possibly the most visually creative game I've played.
3. Final Fantasy X - I'm not even that into JRPGs, but this one blew my mind back in the day.
4. Metal Gear Solid 3 - Best final boss battle ever.
5. Madden 2003 - I've gotten over the Madden franchise by now, but when '03 first introduced online play to the series, it was a watershed moment for me. Went 35-5 in ranked matches before hanging it up.
6. Zone of Enders - Robots! Space! Explosions!

 

[jeremy1456]

Dragon Quest VIII: While one of my lesser favorites in the series is a seriously amazing RPG.

Final Fantasy X-2: The only FF game on the system worth playing. The battle system is awesome and return of job system seriously rocked.

Suikoden V: More than makes up for the travesty that was III, and the mediocre IV. My second favorite Suikoden game overall.

Silent Hill 2: Fucking incredible.

 

[Blablurn]

besides all the metal gear games i also enjoyed FFX, FFX-2, Gran Turismo 4, every Pro Evolution Soccer game, God of War 1 and 2, Silent Hil 2 and Singstar. damn, we had a lot of singstar nights back then.

 

[.JayZii]

Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XII
Persona 3 FES
Persona 4
Shadow of the Colossus
Silent Hill 2

Listing these makes me realize current gen games don't give me the same feeling of discovery as these did. I feel jaded, but I hope that the next few years will lead to some games that are as amazing for current platforms as these were for the PS2.

 

[Shalashaska161]

I got into the PS2 pretty late, and I haven't actually played everything I've bought for it. Still, these are probably my top 5:

Final Fantasy XII - I love exploring in this game. The world they crafted is amazing. It took a bit for me to finally get into it but once I did it became impossible for me to put down.
Ico - Another game with an amazingly well designed gameworld. But the real star here is the story between Ico and Yorda. It absolutely destroyed my 14 year old mind the first time I finished the game.
Metal Gear Solid 2 - This game completely changed my outlook on what games could be. Totally outclassed anything at the time and the story tickled that conspiracy part of my brain in the best possible way.
Kingdom Hearts - The third game on this list where I absolutely love the world and exploration. Plus the story wasn't balls to the walls retarded in this one.
Zone of the Enders 2 - Crazy robot's fighting with missiles and laser swords, whats not to love. And Zero Shifting may in fact be the coolest thing ever.

 

[tearsofash]

Persona 4
Mister Mosquito
SMT: Nocturne
Guilty Gear XX/ Accent Core Plus
Shadow of the Colossus
Castle Shikigami 2
King of Fighters XI
Xenosaga 3

 

[Not a Jellyfish]

I absolute love this game, just like Wetrix on Dreamcast. Amazing.

 

[SentientStone]

Ico
Shadow of the Colossus

Then maybe... MGS3 and ZOE2.

 

[Iron_Scimitar]

 

[Ladyboy101]

DMC 1&3
RE4
CVS2
MGS3

 

[WitchKing701]

God of War 1 and 2
Ratchet & Clank - the entire series was awesome
Disgaea (I spent a horde of hours on this one)

 

[ExMachina]

ICO and Shadow of the Colossus - 2 of my favorite games ever, I replay ICO at least once a year.
Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner - I have a soft spot for mecha-related media and ZoE2 is an awesome experience.
Persona 4 - Persona 3: FES revived my waning interest in JRPGs and I did enjoy that game a lot, but I absolutely loved P4 from start to finish.

I still use my PS2s as beatmania IIDX/fighting game machines. Also replaying or still discovering games for the first time emulated in PCSX2 (playing through FF12 IZJS at the moment)... Such a fantastic library.

 

[Tylahedras]

Someone beat me to Black... god to much good stuff. Another vote for the amazing nocturne as well.

Keep those HD classics coming!

 

[Soma]

Persona 3/4

Man these two games. It's hard for me to prefer one over the other because both of them grabbed me from start to finish. While 4 made a lot of improvements over the third one I still preferred the atmosphere, the story and most of all the ending of 3. Persona 3's ending is hands down one of my favorite endings in a game. Really beautiful. I slightly prefer the characters in 4 mainly because of how they felt like actual high school kids dealing with these situations. Chie is definitely my favorite character. She didn't have a deep back story but she was just so damn likeable.

SOTC

It's pretty much a staple in a lot of "favorite ps2 games" lists. But it is definitely one of the most unique games out there even now after five or six years after its release. The mood, the atmosphere, the mystery, location, and the beautifully designed colossi. Such a great game, I cannot wait for the HD collection.

MGS 2/3

It's kinda the same case as Persona in I honestly do not prefer one over the other. In MGS2 I much preferred the gameplay but by the end I really didn't care much for the storyline. Got way too convoluted. However in 3 I didn't much care for some of the gameplay elements (wasn't a fan of constantly switching out camo) but the story/ending was amazing. Both were really great games and I had a blast with both of them. The End is one of my favorite boss fights ever.

Suikoden V

This was pretty much my introduction to the Suikoden series. The first 6-7 hours were pretty slow to start but once it got moving, it got me really really interested in the game. I adored the recruitment aspect of the game and building your own forces and rallying your allies together.

Other mentions

Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XII
Odin Sphere
Katamari Damacy
Tales Of The Abyss
Okami

 

[Cels]

MGS2/3
DMC3SE
Okami
FFX, XII
Timesplitters 2, lots of fun was had with this one in particular
Zone of the Enders 2
Gran Turismo 3
Onimusha (my first PS3 game so I have fond memories of being amazed by the graphics and backgrounds...looking back it was a solid game but nothing earthshattering)
Kingdom Hearts (novelty aspect of seeing Square characters depicted the way they were in the game was cool. the game itself wasn't bad either)
Resident Evil 4 (not much needs to be said here)

 

[DanielJr82]

Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XII
Ico
Shadow of the Colossus
Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry 3
Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts II
God of War
God of War II
Dark Cloud
Dark Cloud 2
The Mark of Kri
Jak and Daxter
Jak II
Jak 3
Okami

PS2 gave me a lot of good times.

 

[JaCy]

Dragon Quest VIII
Final Fantasy XII
Tales of the Abyss
Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 3
Shadow of the Colossus
Persona 3 FES

So many awesome games. <3

 

[Alex Connolly]

Kessen series, particularly 3.

Armored core series.

Cold Winter.

Burnout 3.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves.

 

[Grzi]

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
Persona 4
Valkyrie Profile 2
SMT Nocturne
Wild Arms 5
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XII
Kingdom Hearts II
Jak and Daxter
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core
Godhand
Okami
Shadow of the Colossus
Devil May Cry

I still need to play a bunch of games (mostly JRPGs) in my backlog, so the list could change, and I'm probably forgetting some stuff right now.

 

[Flying_Phoenix]

Am I the only person who enjoyed Zone of the Enders 1 more than 2?

 

[RadioHeadAche]

Silent Hill 2-4, Killer7, MGS3:Subsistence, Resident Evil 4, Simpsons Road Rage (yes, I was young, but I played it for years), FFX, the Kingdom Hearts games, Katamari Damacy, and I really loved the PS2 GTA games back then.

 

[Ellis Kim]

Final Fantasy XI: Sunk so many years of my life into this... but I loved it so much
Yakuza: Sooo good
Katamari Damacy: Almost the greatest game ever... if you never play it again
Final Fantasy X-2: Greatest PS2 singleplayer Final Fantasy game, period. Haters be damned!
Metal Gear Solid 2: My first Metal Gear <3
Devil May Cry: My first PS2 game.

I have hard time placing the more esoteric games in my collection, but ICO, Killer 7, and SotC get obvious honorable mentions.

 

[Demon_Knight]

These two need more love:

and of course, everything else already mentioned: Silent Hill 2-4, ICO/SotC, Street Fighter 3rd Strike, Final Fantasy X.

 

[PumpkinPie]

Gotta be Vice City, I love the 80s!

 

[abolisher6812]

Okami - My favorite game on the system. With the recent release of Okami avatars on PSN gives me hope that maybe it will end up getting a HD upgrade.

Shadow of The Colossus - The scale of the game is quite impressive. Team Ico can create a Tic Tac Toe game and I would pay for it.

GTA III - First game I bought for the PS2. For some disturbing reason I enjoyed planting a bomb in a car, parking it on the side of the road and wait for someone to steal it while it blows up. It's the little things in life that make it worth getting up in the morning.

FFX - My 2nd favorite FF game behind FFIX

Everquest Online Adventures - My first MMO and it didn't disappoint, that is until the devs stopped supporting it a year after launch. Most of my PSN friends are from EQOA.

Champions of Norrath
Medal of Honor:European Assault

 

[Why For?]

This thread proves that either not enough people have played Maximo, or no one has any taste.

 

[Melchiah]

This thread proves that either not enough people have played Maximo, or no one has any taste.

The same can be said about the lack of appreciation for Shadow of Memories (A.K.A. Shadow of Destiny) on this thread.

 

[plainr_]

lol I bought this for socom 2. talk about expensive 'DLC'. I think those were 129.99 plus we had to buy a magazine for a disc that came with three new maps.

 

[babuchy]

Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil 4

 

[MightyHedgehog]

There are more, but this one is really one of the best ever on the platform.

 

[Nyx]

There's so many, but to name a few :

SSX Tricky
GTA Vice City
Soul Calibur 3
Def Jam FFNY
Tekken Tag Tournament
Burnout Point of Impact

And ofcourse, the most overlooked last-gen game imo :

 

[Always-honest]

God of War.. Didn't play that many PS2 games. I was a Gamecube kinda guy..

 

[KevinCow]

This thread proves that either not enough people have played Maximo, or no one has any taste.

I really wanted to like Maximo, but the save system absolutely killed it for me. I'd probably buy an HD compilation of the two games if they made it so you didn't have to pay to save.

 

[Finalow]

shadow hearts, okami and ar tonelico.

 

[Fjordson]

• Grand Theft Auto III
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
• Final Fantasy XII
• Okami
• Resident Evil 4
• Silent Hill 2
• SSX Tricky
• Guitar Hero II
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
• ICO

And so many more great games not on this list. Makes me realize how much my time was dominated by GTA and Metal Gear with the PS2.

 

[GrotesqueBeauty]

I really wanted to like Maximo, but the save system absolutely killed it for me. I'd probably buy an HD compilation of the two games if they made it so you didn't have to pay to save.

You don't have to pay to save in Maximo vs. Army of Zin. In fact, it pretty much solves all the problems of the first one, and refines everything that worked to boot. It's also easy to find for dirt cheap, so you really have no excuse not to play it. I think it's a safe bet an HD compilation will never see the light of day as Capcom seems to have unfortunately shelved the series for good.

 

[Alcoholikaust]

Okami was the best Ps2 game by a landslide.
FACT

 

[nincompoop]

You don't have to pay to save in Maximo vs. Army of Zin. In fact, it pretty much solves all the problems of the first one, and refines everything that worked to boot. It's also easy to find for dirt cheap, so you really have no excuse not to play it. I think it's a safe bet an HD compilation will never see the light of day as Capcom seems to have unfortunately shelved the series for good.

Army of Zin was made way too easy in response to people complaining about Ghosts To Glory's difficulty. If they had just added the new save system while keeping the punishing difficulty level of GTG it would have been perfect.

 

[ULTROS!]

Final Fantasy X - Love the graphics, sceneries, story.
Kingdom Hearts I and II - Fun battle system.
Suikoden V - Reminiscent of the PS Suikodens, thus making it one of my favorites.
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time - To default, I love almost anything Star Ocean or by tri-Ace.
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria - See above
Silent Hill 2 - Psychological horror rocks..
Silent Hill 3 - I liked the freaky elements of this game, probably my favorite SH game.
We <3 Katamari/Katamari Damacy - Innovative game, the 2nd one upgrades the first one and making it double awesome.
Persona 4 - Love the characters and pacing.
Tales of the Abyss - The first Tales game I've finished, I liked the pacing and battle system.

 

[djtiesto]

PS2 was by far my favorite game system last gen. Even though I started out last gen as a hardcore Dreamcast fanboy, by 2001 the writing was on the wall, and then I got news that Star Ocean 3 was coming to PS2 (SO2 being my favorite PS1 game ever)... so for Christmas 2001 I received a PS2, along with MGS2, Devil May Cry, and FFX. The system is a bittersweet one for me, not only due to it causing SEGA to exit the hardware business, it was also the last home console where Japanese developers really dominated (I vastly prefer Japanese games to western, as well as console gaming to handheld gaming), and was where videogaming started to turn into a pop-culture, dudebro activity (GTA series, Tony Hawk, all those now-forgotten thug-wannabe sandbox titles).

Rez - Sure, it was also on the Dreamcast, and has now been superseded by Rez HD on XBLA, but this was the first domestic release of the game. Which happens to be one of my favorites of all time. It's really the perfect melding of Tron-esque visuals and electronic dance music.

Dragon Quest 8 - Ranks with Skies of Arcadia as one of the best RPGs from last gen. This game did everything right, the beautiful cel-shaded graphics, immersive world, great story, beautiful music, and a high-point in voice acting. After the disappointing DQ9, I'm really hoping DQ10 goes back in this direction.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant - One of the funniest games I've ever played, with a great and unique setting, clever sidequests, awesome design where there isn't any missables (something tons of games can learn from), and a great timing-based battle system in the "Judgment Ring". Definitely one of the best RPGs from last gen.

ESPGaluda - My favorite STG of all time. The risk/reward system in place here, with the "Kakusei" time-slowdown mode is genius. The music is catchy and controls are tight.

Gradius 5 - Gradius has been a longtime favorite series of mine, the NES version of its spinoff Life Force was the first STG I ever played. And I'm a huge fan of Treasure. The game drags on for a bit too long, but it's a fantastic ride, with some awesome setpieces, sleek and beautiful visuals, and a good but uncharacteristically subdued soundtrack from Hitoshi Sakimoto.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter - Another game with a Sakimoto soundtrack, oh wow. I was a few years late to the party with this one, but positive impressions from NeoGAF tastemakers and seeing it at Circuit City for $6 meant I had to get it. The combat system, like an SRPG without the grid, where you can set up traps for enemies, was great... not to mention the whole SOL system (I like to think SOL stands for "Shit Outta Luck" though ), where you can replay the game and see new events, was a cool concept. A lack of save tokens and oppressive difficulty kept this from being one of my favorites though. Yes I was one of those people who played the game through without starting from scratch or using my D-powers (up until the end, where I spammed the shit out of the bosses with them). It's basically the Vagrant Story of the PS2 gen.

 

[flyover]

And ofcourse, the most overlooked last-gen game imo :

I was just coming in to post this (and Shadow of the Colossus).

So flawed -- and the load times (even some mid-battle load times) are interminable -- but it is my favorite battle system in a game, ever.

 

[Shin Kojima]

Am I the only person who enjoyed Zone of the Enders 1 more than 2?

Pretty likely, yes.

 

[Gvaz]

Xenosaga 1:

While Xenosaga 3 was a improvement over II, It wasn't quite the same. I wish they made more of them but with less bullshit like weapons being locked into the minigame which wasn't that fun.

Also grinding.

Dragon Quest 8:

A semi open world jrpg on the ps2 where you could fly around anywhere and traverse it, even leading to secret places you couldn't otherwise get to? Yes please. Also the graphics were bitching for the celshaded look.

Zone of the Enders:

A neat little thing where you get to drive a mech and blow shit up.

Shadow of the Colossus:

Epic in scale and design, it drew me in pretty deeply though I had some minor complaints.

 

[params7]

Indigo Prophecy was boss. It was a nice change from the usual stuff.
MGS3 was the most epic. It was my first MGS game too.
GTA SA I ended up spending over 150 hours in.

 

[King of the Potato People]

Resident Evil 4 - In my first play-through, I did not think about how important it would be because I was too busy killing Ganados in a number of radical ways. This game is worth the asking price just for the village opening.

Metal Gear Solid 3 - You can wear an alligator hat!

Okami -Beautiful http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6OOFy84zYA&feature=related

Kingdom Hearts - After the convoluted sequels, it's easy to forget that the original game was a gem. The story and game play feel lightweight, combine this with the Disney worlds and the result is a simple, magical game.

Final Fantasy XII - God knows what happened to FF XIII with its isolated series of corridors. That game just highlights how great FF XII is. This game is often judged unfairly for being different, however FF XII did not hold back when it came to presenting a colossal, detailed world. I was expecting more handholding after FF X, then I got lost in Ivalice for more than a hundred hours. Square realised here that Final Fantasy doesn't need to have loads of cut-scenes or random battles, what it simply needs is a brilliantly realised fantasy setting.

 

[kunonabi]

according to my top 50 list:

Eyeshield 21: AmeFuto Yarouze! Ya! Ha!
Final Fantasy X-2
Silent Hill 3
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
Resident Evil Outbreak
King of Colosseum

I'd also add:

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
Persona 4

 

[Deleted member 74300]

Metal Gear Solid 2 + 3
Megaman X 8
Grand Theft Auto 3
Maximo
Jak & Daxter

 

[Gamecocks625]

Socom 3/Confrontation
Hot Shots Golf Fore
Metal Gear Solid 2
Star Wars Battlefront
ATV Offroad Fury 2
Madden NFL 2005
NCAA Football 2003
NCAA Football 2004
NCAA Football 08
Winning Eleven 6
Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007

 

[added_time]

Ratchet and Clank series

R-Type Final

Gradius V

 

[Maxim726X]

Okami, MGS3, Soul Reaver 2 are personal favourites.

Soul Reaver 2 is probably the best written, best acted videogame I've ever played. It also hit every single dial on my nostalgia-meter, allowing me to explore locations from the classic Blood Omen in superb detail.

YES. SR2 was one of those sublime gaming experiences that reminded me of why I love games. What an amazing universe those developers crafted. Shame Defiance didn't take off.