A look at the Playstation 2, better for new gamers. (Sony Playstation 2)

Member Name: ojdude

Product:	Sony Playstation 2
Date:	15/05/03 (686 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: -, -, -

Disadvantages: -, -, -

~ Beginnings ~

Video games are fast becomming a major competitor in the entertainment sector. Although they don't receive the same critical respect as film or music, the once 'geeky' hobby is now a global phenomae, and a market worth billions. The video games company that holds the largest share of this market is Sony Computer Entertainment. In 1995 they exploded onto the games scene, at the time considered somewhat of an underdog to Nintendo and Sega.

But Sony had done their homework. Already a well extablished, trusted and 'cool' brand, Sony lent their name to the Playstation project. They released the first Playstation console; a 32 bit, CD-Rom based video games system, with an enthasis on 3D graphics. With a sleek advertising campainge never before seen on such a grand scale in the games market, a target audience of the more mature gamer, a 'sexy-cool' image and a number of exclusive contracts with developers that Nintendo and Sega simply couldn't afford to beat, Sony's debut console was a run away success. It was with this huge success that turned the games market on its head, Sony was revolutionising gamings image and stake in the entertainment business.

Work on Sony's follow up console to the Playstation was announced early, with the inventive name of the Playstation 2. And released in November of 2000, Sony's second playstation was just as successfull as its preedecessor.

~ Technical Details and Performance ~

There are many arguments that the Playstation 2 was rushed into production and resulted in being a far more difficult console to prgram for. This is somewhat true, due to the new technology and desire to have a headstart on the Xbox and Gamecube, the Playstation 2 was designed and produced fast, with less time spent on streamlining it's system. But this hasn't stopped developers lapping it up, the Playstation name afterall is far more powerfull than it'
;s processor. And although technically less superior than it's rivals, the Playstation 2 is still a very capable machine. You might often hear 'hard-core' fans of the other consoles arguing that it is vastly inferior and it's getting too old, but that simply isnt true. So lets take a quick look at the technical spefications:

CPU 128 bit custom multi-media chip
System Clock Frequency: 294MHz
Cache Memory Instruction 16KB, Data 8KB + 16KB (ScrP)
Main Memory: 32MB RDRAM
Memory Bus: 128bit DMA
Co-processor: 2 Parallel Vector Operation Units
Floating Point Performance: 6.2 GFLOPS
3D CG Geometric Transformation: 66 Million Polygons per second

This is mostly just technical jargin, so I'll put it in plain english; The Playstation 2 is a powerfull console, although less powerfull than the XBox or Gamecube, games very rarely suffer from this beyond having slightly less impressive graphics or things that the average gamer simply wouldn't notice, and the avid gamer wouldn't be bothered about. As mentioned above, the Playstation 2 is a very capable machine. To see the Playstation 2 technical specifcations in full, visit this website address for a comprehenive list:

http://uk.playstation.com/hardware/ps2techspec.jht ml

Apart from playing games, the Playstation 2 also doubles as a CD player and a DVD video player. It features Dobly Digital sound and 'DTS'; 'Digital Out'. It's all very digital as you can see, which basically means the sound, picture quality and loading times will be high quality. Which they indeed are. But we'll come to that a bit later.

~ The console and controls ~

The design of the Playstation 2 is sleek and sexy looking. It's desgined to fit with all of your other entertainment systems. A smooth black finish and straight, cut-away body, this is definately the best looking of all consoles. And as for
the main control device; the control pad, it follows the classic Playstation design in everyway. It's comfortable and solid in your hands, control over your games is simple and this control pad is amoung the best you'll find. It's has two analogue (a feature introduced by Nintendo in 1996) which means not only are the control sticks analogue, but so are the buttons. Basically this will mean that, for example, in a driving driving game the harder you press the acceloration button, the more your car will accelorate. Also it features 'Dual Shock' technolledgy; which makes the control pad virate in your hands when some form of action happens in a game (another feature introduced by Nintendo). Over all, the asphetics and ergonomics of the console and its control pad are great, easy control and the very much the feel of a sexy, sophisticated peice of kit. And the ability to mount it vertically is a unique and different idea which works very well.

The console comes with the main unit, a power lead, a scart lead, one controller and a game demo disk. A scart lead is fairly new technology, it fits into the back of most televisions, but older televisions still only have sockets for opticial leads. However you can buy an optical lead for around £9.99. Also, some stores offer package deals, often bundling a Playstation 2 with some games. These deals are more expensive but save you money on the actual games.

~ Games ~

The Playstation brand boasts an absolutely huge library of games. And the Playstation 2 has the original Playstation technology built into it, which means 'backwards compatability'. This means that not only can you play Playstation 2 games, but you can also play any of the original Playstation games. This means that there are litterally thousands of games to choose from. Unfortunately this doesn't garuentee that every game will be good, a vast amount of Playstation and Playstation 2 games are fairly bad game
s, but there are plently of recourses to help you find the good ones (Dooyoo.co.uk being a perfect example).

Playstation 2 games, as with Xbox and Gamecube games, come on 'DVD ROM' discs, which provide about 7 times more storage space than 'CD ROM' discs. These means that more data can be stored on the disc, providing more graphics, more sound and music, and generally larger games.

As for the actual games themselves, Playstation 2 has some of the best games on the market, and already heralds some classics. The average price of a Playstation game is around £40, but it also has a budget range of classic games called the 'Platinum' range, which cost £19.99 per game. One of it's most popular games is the 'Grand Theft Auto' series, 'Grand Theft Auto 3' and 'Grand Theft Auto: Vice City' are some of the most revolutionary and superb games to be found and they are exclusive to the Playstation 2 in the console market. There are a lot of great games, but as mentioned above there are a lot of average and sometimes appaulling games. Graphics and sound are of a high standard for most games. Although games found on the Xbox and Gamecube can sometimes be better in this area, this difference is quite small and tiny in comparison to the much larger library of games the Playstation 2 has. Whether you're a fan of sports, action, fighting, first person shooters or any catagory of game you can imagine, the Playstation 2 has a at least a handfull of games for each one, so you're bound to find a game that satisfies you. Gameplay value on good Playstation games is usually very good, although many tend to argue that the Gamecube is the best console in this area. This is somewhat true, but the amount of great Gamecube games which support this is small, and not all types of game are supported nearly as well at the Playstation 2.

~ Saving data ~

To save your progress in a game, you will need a '
;Memory Card' which is sold seperately. Recently the price of memory cards were dropped from around £30 to around £16, but shopping around can be find you some better deals. This is fairly good value, and memory cards for other consoles are simular in price. A Playstation 2 memory card is very much the same as usuing a floppy disk on your computer, you simply slot the memory card into the drive above the control pad socket. The in built software is very easy to use when viewing or editing the content of your memory card, with colourul logo's for saved game. With around 8mb of storage space there's plenty of space for most games. Some games however, take up a very large amount of space and as your collection grows you may need to invest in another or several memory cards. Memory cards for the Playstation 2 are very reliable and never suddenly loose their data, which did happen sometimes ont he original Playstation one memory cards. One let down about Playstation 2 memory cards is that you can only save Playstation 2 game data and not original Playstation game data, which means that you'll need an original memory card for the Playstation one to save your Playstation one games.

~ DVD playback and audio CD's ~

Watching DVD's on the Playstation 2 is simple. You just pop the disk in and you're good to go. Lucily, the control pad is fine for the basic operations on most DVD's, but for the more advanced DVD collector, you may want to invest in a DVD remote control, which costs around £9.99. The picture and sound quality is that of an average DVD player, so unless you're an avid DVD collecter and want only the highest standard in DVD quality, then it's definately not worth buying a Playstation two if you're more interesting in watching movies than playing games. Playing audio CD's is a very minor feature of the Playstation 2, and the quality of sound is only at the standard of a stereo CD player if you have se
perate speakers to your TV, or if you have a very expenive television.

~ Other Accesories ~

There are many extra parts you can buy for your Playstation 2. A major a dissapointment in the system is the fact that there are only two control pad ports. The XBox and Gamcube have four, for that four player game experience. To play four player games you'll need a 'Multi-Tap', with connects to the control pad port and allows four control pads to be simultaneously connected. Multi-Tap's cost around £19.99, but some shops and online stores sell them for much cheaer.

At the back of the unti there is a large empty space hidden by a plasitc cover. This is where you can insert a Moden for online play (see bellow).

Other accessories include vertical and horizontal stands, which are fairly pointless in my opintion.

~ Online Capabilties ~

If you have a broadband connection, soon you could connect your Playstation to a sever run by Sony Computer Entertainment, by buying a modem sepcially made for the console. Once connected, you will be able to play multiplayer games online. Games such as "Tony Hawks Pro Skater 4" could be played with other people from anywhere in the world, as long as they have a Playstation 2 with a connection to the online service.

A modem costs around £30 and a braodband connection can be quite expensive in the UK, and you also have to pay for the online service. So playing games online with your Playstation will not be cheap. If you are very interesting in online gaming, perhaps more interested in it than simply playing games on your own, then the Xbox generally has better online capabilities and a better service. Also having a built in hard drive, the Xbox can download software like extra game levels or information. But the Playstation 2 will have a generally less developed service, and you wont be able to download add ons for your games. However, Sony's online service
will be enough for the casual gamer who doesn't mind paying the money.


~ Summary ~

Over all this is a slick, cool console, with a huge selection of games, high quality graphics and sound and all the extra features you'd expect from a modern games console. Popular and definately here to stay, the Playstation 2 is perfect for casual and avid gamers alike. For the keen online players, Xbox maybe more to your liking. And the standard of gameplay in most games is high. A highly recomended games console.

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