Edward's Top PS2 Games

The PlayStation 2 was the first home console system post-N64 for me. The 64 was where I really blossomed as a gamer. Yes, I played my fair share of SEGA Genesis games, but I was still a youngun and things weren't too serious. The N64 was where I started to get more serious. I picked out the games for myself instead of just playing what my parents got me. GoldeneEye and The Ocarina of Time were the first real masterpieces I played that opened up my eyes as to how great games could be--that they could be life-changing and -affirming experiences that I would cherish forever.

The PS2 was when I became a mature gamer however. I decided to stop using strategy guides, since I felt that this was cheating myself as a player, and I really started to focus on actually beating all the games I had, instead of just starting one then giving it up for another one like a cheap, used-up prostitute. The PS2 was a great system and it actually--surprisingly--was able to live up to the mighty legacy of the N64. As I say a few times in the game reviews here, it was the first time that games were able to live up to their potential, as imagined by Daniel and me growing up. Games like SSX: Tricky and Tony Hawk 3 and NBA Street all had intricate trick and combo systems, and games were able to in corporate advanced statistics and leveling systems to clearly show player progress. This was always how the minds of Daniel and me worked growing up, so we had met our match. This is most clearly shown in SSX: Tricky tournaments held between Daniel, Greg, and me. Perhaps later in the month I will post the stats for these mighty tournaments, which included such notable cameos as Matt DeBruycker, Douglas Rickert, and Joe DeBruycker (and Luke Wence!). I wish we had video clips of our snowboard races, but alas, technology had not yet caught up with our mighty intellects at that point. This was pre-JFP.

-Grand Theft Auto III (obviously #1, Daniel and I are the only people who like this game apparently....)
-Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (so many hours put in, so much joy drawn out; "Papparazzi" by Xzibit)
-TimeSplitters 2 (probably more hours than I put into any game until Guitar Hero and TimeSplitters 3 came out)
-Final Fantasy X (epic)
-NBA Street (the PS2 was one of the first systems I got that had so much potential actually unleashed: games like this and Tony Hawk were the kind of games we always wanted to play growing up)
-SSX: Tricky (come on)
-Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (the hidden game that I loved and no one else knew about at the time--the size of the world was staggering--this reminded me most of an update of Banjo-Kazooie, which is easily an all-time game for me)
-Gran Turismo 3 (depth and surprising addictiveness)
-Guitar Hero II (crack)
-Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (beat out Red Faction to make the list based on its innovative controls, ridiculously bad voice-acting, and the amazing co-op, as well as the idea of a person who lives only in his mind and goes places using remote viewing)

Honorable mentions:
-Red Faction (the hidden, ugly cousin of TimeSplitters that is supposedly all about the one-player, but we uncovered the joy of multiplayer, which is building tunnels)
-Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (one of the premier games on the system sadly ruined by my use of a strategy guide--one day I wil go back and beat this, and the first one, in which I was on the last boss)
-Guitar Hero (didn't need two of these on the list, but this had debatably the best setlist of the series)
-Sly Cooper: Thievius Racoonus (the hidden platformer of the holy trinity of the PS2, less well known than Jak or Ratchet)
-Ratchet and Clank (good, funny, but not great like Jak, although I think a lot disagree and I hear the sequels are even better)

--Edward