PS2 Essentials

I'm sure San Andreas belongs here as well, but I didn't have a chance to buy it before the whole Hot Coffee episode.

Also Jordan, I say start with the 1st Katamari. It's not critical or anything, but I felt like the 2nd was a lot more innovative, and that it's better to step up than down if you're going to choose a sequence.

Final Fantasy X

if you can find it

i should probably play psychonauts and the three shin megami tensei games (smt: nocturne, digital devil saga 1 & 2).

oh yeah: does anyone else find disgaea tedious and unrewarding?

Metal Gear Solid 3
Guilty Gear X2
Street Fighter Anniversary Collection
Zone of the Enders 2

Katamari is great as expected, but I can't play any more stages until my fiance does so as not to discourage her.

ratchet and clank
socom
midnight club 2 (the last 3 came with the system. r&c is so fun!)

also, Rygar

Tell me this though, why the fuck am I able to take the disc OUT of the PS2 and then keep playing the game??

Pro Yakyu Spirits 2005 Climax (Japan)
Katamari Damacy
MVP Baseball 2005
Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy (Japan)
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
Minna No Gorufu 4 (Japan)
Tony Hawk Pro Skater IV
Taiko No Tatsujin (Japan)
Kelly Slater Pro Surfer
John Carpenter's The Thing

revive....any suggestions?

I want something that will make me want to play my PS2 again.

I was thinking of trying to pick up a copy of Onimusha 3 tonight. Has anybody here played it? Is it worth picking up & is it okay to start with 3 if I haven't played the earlier ones?

I was not too impressed with the Onimusha I rented. Not sure which one it was.

Tomb Raider Anniversary
Odin Sphere
Bully
Maximo
God Hand
Herdy Gerdy
R-Type Final
Ys: The Ark of Napishtim
Rogue Galaxy
Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia
Sega Genesis Collection
Virtua Fighter 4
Yakuza

Sly Cooper trilogy

kuon

I have yakuza 2 winging its way to me : )

(not played kuon, just liked the look of the trailer)

seems kind of meh but i haven't played it either. xp to myself but the first three games on my list are str8 up must plays imo they make up part of the all time cannon for me just complete classics.

yeah wouldn't pay more than a few bucks for these games tbh

def going to track down a copy of persona 3; want to try project zero too, heard good things

I want to own Persona 3 really bad but it is still $30 at the used games store (used). wtf?!?!

I ended up getting Rogue Galaxy for $18 instead.

anyone play breath of fire: dragon quarter?

Kuon looks amazing!

Lamp, I'm surprised you rate Suikoden III above V, for me it's the opposite... either way though, I love Suikoden, and I don't even really play JRPGs anymore.

rep harder for iii on story and looks - the trinity added a lot to the game for me and the secret chapters were sick. v had better gameplay but it was blockier and slower too so much less elegant.

anyone ever play the red star? pretty dope imo, it's like a cross between streets of rage style scrolling button masher and ikaruga bullet hell shmup

def worth it if you can pick it up for under £3

anyone got PAL copies of these they're looking to get rid of

mgs3: subsistence
zone of the enders 2: 2nd runner
grandia 2

i have all those games but not PAL :((

i have grandia 2 on dreamcast - it's kinda grindy, then it's a magic, weird evocation, a softly-spoken but deadly articulate curse wished on its whole genre. For like an hour, halfway through. Then it's kind of grindy again.

uhhh backlog
http://4.media.tumblr.com/UmgbcxYFvjkvrl3iUguSeR8Uo1_500.jpg

looks like odin sphere o_O

i've been acquiring a box of p2 games, having never owned one before. i think they're mainly for if i get made redundant, so i don't immediately start to panic with boredom. it's about the same size as cozwn's picture of his backlog two posts previous.

today i was playing SILENT HILL 2 and it occurred to me that its secret progenitor was ZELDA. if you take the snes one as yr zelda in point then you even get the dark world/light world bullshit from it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krzJxIqBSJg

Anybody here ever play this game?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ybZjxJquOs

no, but it even had my gf interested and she hates videogames (except mortal kombat for some reason)

It's a sequel / remake of the PC Engine game Gekisha Boy, btw...
http://ramenjunkie.wordpress.com/2007/10/09/robs-gekisha-boy-review-pce/

What was that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt_sZwVoQv0

wait, what's the PS2 photo-taking game? I'm amazed it's not some mid-system life Dreamcast title

The ps2 photo one is Gekibo 2
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-r-77-1-49-en-15-Gekibo+2-70-e5l.html

looks like it came out in Europe too (maybe?), as Polaroid Pete
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=22285

my pal says the Eu release is most likely vaporware

has anyone ever played paparazzi or demolition girl?

my list of obscure to-play games

Polaroid Pete
Air Ranger Rescue Helicopter
Demolition Girl
Love Ping Pong
Paparazzi
Graffiti Kingdom
Way of the Samurai
Naval Ops: Warship Gunner
Panzer Front Ausf B
Ribbit King
Street Golfer
Deep Water
Code of the Samurai
Secret Weapons over Normanday

Secret Weapons over Normandy

This was trash imo

Speaking of obscurities, my brother lent me RoomMania #203 over the weekend, but I haven't had a chance to try to play it yet.

if you want a 2 player arcade game you should definitely get the ps1 Buster Bros. Collection (even though the sequels in the collection kinda suck)

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/19/sony-finally-launches-ps2-in-brazil-or-welcome-to-2000/

WTF

Hey cozwn, did you ever get through that PS2 backlog? Just curious!

lol if by "ps2 backlog" u mean "modern warfare 2" then probably yes

lol no I sold them all for £skrilla£ on ebay

i liked Personas 3 & 4 a whole lot. which out of these PS2 titles would i enjoy the most?
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon

dds2 is probably the best

u can buy it offa czn

really i guess u should get dds + dds2 since the stories are intertwined and the story is the reason why its the best follow up to playing the persona series. its really combat focused tho but it improves on nocturne's system (which was a huge pain imo and really finnicky/spreadsheet-y) and the battles tend to stay tactically interesting rather than press x repeat. its also a quicker, less obsessive game than persona

i have not played the devil summoners btw

played about an hour of dds last night, and its pretty much what i wanted - the battle system is turn based but with some strategy to it, mercifully short cut scenes - the magic upgrade system seems to be similar to the grid thing in ffx? anyway lamp knows atlus, a+ would buy from again.

wow! bof: dragon quarter has to be the most unconventional JRPG I've ever played. I was a bit sceptical at first but after playing it for a while I am utterly hooked now. survival horror role-play gaming at its best. \o/

shining in the darkness, digital devil saga, silent hill, panzer dragoon orta, P.N.03, ico, shadow of the colossus, icewind dale, parasite eve 2

^ this is a list of games I was reminded of while playing

first of all, presentation. it looks a lot like the SMT series, and adds silent hill's grainy video filter to emphasise the dark, gritty atmosphere of the game. it looks dirty and oppressive throughout, underlined further by ryu's, his rival bosch's and nina's character design. they look ghastly (and in nina's case, frail). and there's also that incomprehensible narrator, as in pdo or sotc. to be honest, in my opinion BoF5 is more unsettling than some survival horror games (ie project zero).

then there's the gameplay. only one save slot, and you have to use one of those rare tokens to save? this will never work! thankfully I was proved wrong. it took me a fair while to understand how the game really works, but now I am convinced that capcom wanted to create the ultimate arcadey dungeon crawler. it's a bit like shining in the darkness. you enter the dungeon and try to get as far as possible (leveling up in the process). then when the going gets tough you return to the city hub, buy new items and tackle the dungeon again, which should be easier now that you're at a higher level. only in the this game the battle system is vastly more sophisticated and nearly as good as grandia's. this adds elements from P.N. 03 to the game, in that you will want to do a "perfect run". you can use the environment, traps and area effect spells (!) to your advantage, but as in P.N. 03 you're often overwhelmed when you first enter a new room. the battle system is much closer to bioware's RPGs such as icewind dale than it is to the traditional japanese systems.

next, the story. so... reduced, like ico; nina does look and act a lot like yorda too, come to think of it albeit a bit more proactive. ryu's determination to change fate has sotc vibes, with the twist that ryu is living on borrowed time, what with the D-counter that happily ticks away even if you never change into your dragon form. I have no clue what the ending is going to be like, but somehow I don't expect to see a happy one!

tl;dr sick game

lately i really feel like a week bunkered + playing old videogames again.

lol coz who wrote that?

dude on ~another~ forum

I basically agree

I went on a perilous expedition to a Gamestop in the boondox of LA in the hopes of finding this game for cheap but was foiled by the store's organizational incompetence :(

looks fun as fuck though. I don't really have time for massive RPGs with weeks of playtime (sez the guy who went home and ordered a copy of Persona 4 from Amazon in semi-protest) so a 10-hr arcade-y dungeon crawler sounds like a win to me.