PlayStation 2

PlayStation 2

"Live In Your World. Play In Ours."

Developer:	Sony
Release Date:	November 2000
Predecessor:	Sony PlayStation
Successor:	PlayStation 3
Competitors:	Sega Dreamcast Nintendo GameCube Xbox
Generation:	Sixth generation

The PlayStation 2 (PS2 for short) is a game console released in 2000 as the successor to the original Sony PlayStation. It competed against the Sega Dreamcast, the Xbox, and the Nintendo GameCube. It was succeeded by the PlayStation 3 in 2006 and discontinued in 2013.

Why It Rocks

A whopping 3,847 games were released for it. On top of that, virtually every game from its generation is playable on (if not exclusive to) the console, outside of Nintendo's and Microsoft's first-party titles and PC-exclusives.
Backwards compatible with the PlayStation 1, so when the game library of both consoles is combined, the number of games you could play was over 10,000! Also, you can increase the loading speed of the original PlayStation games. This helped because a lot of games released after the PlayStation 2 came out were for the original PlayStation.
New games were released for the PlayStation 2 even after it had been discontinued. In fact, the console was so popular that the last game on it was Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, released two months before the PS4's release date!
Unlike the PlayStation Memory Card which could only hold about 15 slots of data, the PS2 Memory card has a total of 8MB worth of storage capacity, allowing for a large amount of saving files on each. There are also some variations of bigger memory cards, such as a 16MB one.
A hard drive was released for the PlayStation 2 in July 2001 in Japan and in 2004 in North America, technically making it the first released console to have a hard drive before the release of the Xbox in November 2001. The hard drive allows you to store a massive amount of game saves, enhanced certain games, and was used in Final Fantasy XI to allow the game to get updates from the server.
A huge number of very good games many of which were exclusives such as:
- God of War
- Final Fantasy X
- The Ratchet & Clank trilogy
- The Jak and Daxter trilogy
- The Sly Cooper trilogy
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
- Final Fantasy X
- God Hand
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Silent Hill 2
- Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec and 4
- Twisted Metal: Black
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
- The Simpsons: Hit & Run
Iconic startup screen.
It’s interesting to note that the blocks on the screen represent any game played on the Memory Card, and as the player goes through in the game, these blocks become towers. If it fills all the way, the towers will be at the startup instead of the blue galaxy.
Similar to how Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon were the unofficial mascots for the PS1, Jak, Ratchet, and Sly Cooper were the unofficial mascots of the PS2.
One of the first major consoles capable of playing DVDs, which was a selling point when it was released and it also meant games could be stored in DVD discs, one of the reasons it outsold its competitors is that it was the only console at the time that plays DVDs out of the box, as the original Xbox can only DVDs via an add-on that's sold separately.
Remained in production for thirteen years, making it one of the longest-running consoles in gaming history. It stayed alive well into the seventh generation.
A second "slim" model was also released. It takes less shelf space and also has its own Ethernet port to negate the requirement for network adapters and uses a top-loading disc drive to ease up the process of ejecting a disc. It is still backward compatible with the PlayStation 1 games and still plays DVD movies. The hard drive is not compatible with the PlayStation 2 slim model.
Some cases for the games have a small slot to store Memory Cards.
The controller is the essentially same as the PlayStation 1 for more compatibility and can work well on the PlayStation 1.
Brazilians can watch Netflix through a special red disc (no longer supported).
Can be hacked to emulate many games from other consoles like SNES.
1. Hacking a PS2 is fairly easy compared to other consoles and there is various methods of doing so.
Unlike the DualShock 1 controller cable, the DualShock 2 controller cable has a black color which matches the console's color, it also had many colors as well.
There was a Sony Bravia TV with a built-in PlayStation 2 released in PAL regions in 2010.
The earliest US commercials featured tests of how durable it was. One commercial even had it in molten lava!!
One of the earliest consoles to support 1080i through a VGA output. The handful of games that supported this mode include Gran Turismo 4, Tourist Trophy, and a Jackass game of all things.
This console was the first to be able to run an operating system, namely Linux.
The console's hardware was similar to that of the Wii and the PSP, as a result it lasted longer for a while alongside its successor until a few months before the PS4 was released.

Bad Qualities

Most multi-platform games look and run worse on the PS2 due to its weaker hardware, most notably Sonic Heroes, Psychonauts, and various Tom Clancy games. This isn't as big of an issue as it could have been, since most games from its generation were designed with the PS2 in mind and didn't take much advantage of the more powerful competitors, but even then PS2 games ran at a somewhat lower resolution.
Most PlayStation 2 consoles tend to break down easily or suffer the infamous RSOD (Red Screen of Death) which says "Please insert a PlayStation or PlayStation 2 format disc". (Fixed on later models.)
16 MB memory cards aren't supported on many games, and they can be glitched easily, formatting all of your data and making it useless.
The DVD features are rather primitive when compared to modern DVDs.
It was the shovelware target of its generation, more so during the latter half its lifecycle.
The PlayStation 2 is the only console from its generation that required a multitap to allow more than two people playing at once, even the Dreamcast didn't need a multitap. Even the Nintendo 64, which was from the last generation, didn't even need a multitap!
The fat models have no built-in Ethernet port and thus require a network adapter to play online, slim models featured built-in Ethernet port.
Despite being backward compatible with PlayStation games, you still need PS1 memory cards for saving PS1 games.
The slim models have no 3.5" expansion bay like the fat ones did, so you can't insert an HDD on the console (This is a problem that will only harm players if they're playing MMOs such as Final Fantasy XI) (You also can't install Linux).
The SCPH-70000 and SCPH-75000 require an external power brick (but fortunately the brick isn't in the socket part.)
Some bad games from established franchised such as Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly
The slim models were notorious for damaging or destroying discs.
The fat models have terrible durability and can get damaged easily when its dropped from 5 feet which is worse than most other consoles.
There's a Personified Fear leftover from the Original PlayStation, it's actually present in this console.

Maintenance

The ribbon that moves the lens when reading a disc on the slim model can touch the disc while it spins, leaving a big circular scratch on every disc you play. If this happens to you, stop using your PS2 immediately and take it to be repaired.
PlayStation games played via backward compatibility can't save data into a PlayStation 2 memory card, so make sure you own an older PS1 memory card.
Some unofficial game discs such as the ones produced by Phoenix Games can damage your console due to those discs' poor quality.

Reception

The PlayStation 2 is currently the best selling video game system in history selling over 155 million units. Its ability to play DVDs and play PlayStation 1 games was a major factor to its massive success.

Comments

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Mosley likes C.T. Alliance Battle

12 months ago

Score 1

I have this console but it's the slim one!