Is anyone else freaking amazed that the PS2 is still alive? They are still making games for the thing! And not just crappy movie games that have a version on all the systems but actual AAA games exclusively for the PS2! I've been watching Atlus put out a JRPG like every freaking month for the last 2 years so in my head I was thinking of them as just a fluke. But then I see that Naughty Dog is releasing a new Jak and Daxter on the system! What? In 2009?! I'm amazed. I think I might buy it (gasp, NEW) just to see what a AAA 2009 PS2 game is like.
The PS2 really is a great system, and although it is technically still active the games have plummeted in price. I'm going to launch a buying campaign (or "pogrom" if you will) in which I will hunt down a bunch of classic PS2 games to round out my collection. These are games that defined the system but that I never had interest in playing or just never got around to. I'll see if I can put together a list for a future post. I've already made a couple cursory Game Stop scouting trips and most of these games are under 10 dollars and almost all of them are under 20. I made a list of 7 of them and their total price was less than the cost of a new game for a current gen system. You know how I love value.
My Pogrom will preclude me from getting any new 360 games for a while. The last one I bought was Ridge Racer 6 last week. It was 6 bucks (again, value = <3), very reasonable. It was a launch title so its not state of the art but I can see how it got high marks when It came out. The graphics are very nice for 2005, and the game play is simple but fun. It's an arcade racer all the way, there are no simulation elements at all. After spending the last year churning through Forza 2 it feels refreshing to jump into a racer that's only concerned with fun racing. Ironically Forza 3 just came out. Most of my online racing buddies picked it up, I went in the opposite direction. As an observational aside I was impressed with Namco's ability and willingness to put a full sized instruction manual in with the game. A full 40 pages of info! This truly is the manual of a bygone era. Kudos to you Namco.
