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Summer 1999...People all over the world were enjoying playing their PSones, which at that time probably enjoyed the best period of its life..The games that were coming out were fantastic and the news of the hotly-aniticipated titles were on everyones lips. But just a few months earlier, something has shook the world. Something that everybody knew was coming, and people everywhere started whispering to each other. The excitement of the games in that period of time was over-shadowed by an announcement of a....PS2-a next-gen console produced by Sony. By that time almost everyone had a Psone-and no wonder-in just 4 years it achieved more than any other console ever did. People were gobsmacked by the 32-bit graphics that made people look at games in a different way. The games were also second-to-none with titles like Tomb Raider and Ridge Racer available to buy soon after the consoles release. Some of those titles are still played in households all over the world and enjoyed by millions.
And this is precisely why so many people were excited when the news of the new super-console console have leaked out of Sony's headquarters. People who owned a PS and played the quality titles the console offered, knew what the whole fuss was about. After Dreamcast's flop, the door was open to anyone who could develop a piece of hardware that could change the gaming world.
And people knew that Sony are the perfect candidats for the job. They are one of the biggest companies in the world and many people in the past trusted Sony more than their own neighbours.
So here we were, few blurry details before our eyes and EVERY single PS magazine devoting at least 40 pages to the new console. And that was before we even knew what it would look like! The sort of hype the news produced is unimaginable.
As the months went by it started to become more and more obvious that Sony are working on something very special indeed. The games promised for the launch and the year after the console's release at the time seemed fantastic. People not exactly hungry for quality games at the time since the PS delivered the goods constantly, still could be seen dribbling at the sight of the titles for the Sony's new creation.
As time drew closer to the Japanese launch of the console people had no choice but to sit and watch as the lucky people of the Land of The Rising Sun smiled cheekily and pre-ordered the console that still kept us Europeans amazed at what it can do. The technical demos we have seen at gameshows such as E3 plus the footage of games like GT2000 left our jaws glued to the floor.
More and more magazines dedicated their pages to PS2 as PS was slowly going downhill. But after the Japanese release of the PS2 the games were still pouring out and there was more to come.
But only couple of weeks after the Japs got their precious machines technical problems started rising to the surface. The DVD player didnt seem to be working properly since the data that was included on the special memory card had errors in it so some PS2's refused to run DVD's. Some didnt even work at all, but that didnt stop the japanese from buying more and more consoles.
But suddenly the West has become more suspicious of Sony's new creation. They turned their confused faces to Sony, who quickly reassured everyone that the UK and US gamers will not experience the same problems as the japanese gamers. As the launch date in US and UK neared, many simply couldn't contain their excitement. But, and there had to be another but somewhere, it didnt turn out as well as everyone expected.
Just couple of months before the UK launch, suddenly it became apparent that Sony simply wouldnt allocate enough PS2's for everyone. Sony decided to go on with their dubious pre-order system that left many customers angry at Sony. Many queued up outside their local games shops from midnight of the 7th September 2000 in order to make sure that they get their PS2 on the luanch day over 2 months later. In other words the pre-order scheme cost Sony a number of angry customers and nothing but a lot of head-ache to put it mildly.
And then came the day....26th November 2000-if I remember correctly.The day when thousands of people became *ill* and many offices were disturbingly empty.
If you happened to be going home from a pub on that night,passing a high-street on the way home (in fear not to wake up your loved ones) you would have seen a bizarre scene. Hundreds of people standing near a closed shop, all talking quietly between themselves and looking at their wacthes anxiously. You would probably pinch yourself to find out whether this is an effect of consuming to much Carlsberg in one night. But, no, you wouldnt be dreaming or hallucinating.You would, infact, be witnessing a load of passionate gamers waiting to pick up one of the biggest and most anticipated *gadgets* of the year-a Playstation 2.
However, as people were coming out of their local EB with the smiles wider than their faces, you could still see some concern in their eyes. You would of course ask them-"Well you seem to be very happy, but is it just me or something is bothering you?". And their reply would be something like "Well, where are the games?I got this SSX thing. Dont know if thats any good and er...a memory card. Thats about it". O, right...so where are all those promised gems Sony have told us about just a few months earlier. No GT2000 eh...hmmmm. Something's not right.
And that was just it. Only 2 or 3 games worth owning at the launch of the "biggest and most advanced console ever to grace the earth". A bit shabby dont you think.... And I am not saying that other consoles had brilliant launches because it is very hard to develop games on a console you know very little about and we must be thankful that they are some people who put everything they had into making couple of must-have games for the launch of the console. But seriously after all the hype the PS2 generated, people expected a little bit more of the console.
Some other minot concerns like the price of the memory card and only 2 controller ports on the PS2 itself made people think more whether they made the right choice.
And then even more problems. Sony were littered with complaints concerning the PS2's. It turned out that some of the first batch of consoles produced for Europe was rushed out so not all of the worked. Right...not really what you would expect from a next-gen console. But luckily Sony managed to sort out the technical side of things by February this year.
People who decided to stick with Sony because of their reputation and what they managed to do with the PS, were a bit disappointed a little bit....until now. Finally, a year later since the PS2 saw the light of the UK skies, we-gamers can finally enjoy some fantastic games. And I am not even going to name them-because I am sure everyone knows what they are. My point here is that there couldnt be a better time to own a PS2 now.
But my question to you guys is whether the PS2 has lived up to the hype it generated some 2 years ago and whether it has reached full potential yet.
Thanks a lot people!!
And this is precisely why so many people were excited when the news of the new super-console console have leaked out of Sony's headquarters. People who owned a PS and played the quality titles the console offered, knew what the whole fuss was about. After Dreamcast's flop, the door was open to anyone who could develop a piece of hardware that could change the gaming world.
And people knew that Sony are the perfect candidats for the job. They are one of the biggest companies in the world and many people in the past trusted Sony more than their own neighbours.
So here we were, few blurry details before our eyes and EVERY single PS magazine devoting at least 40 pages to the new console. And that was before we even knew what it would look like! The sort of hype the news produced is unimaginable.
As the months went by it started to become more and more obvious that Sony are working on something very special indeed. The games promised for the launch and the year after the console's release at the time seemed fantastic. People not exactly hungry for quality games at the time since the PS delivered the goods constantly, still could be seen dribbling at the sight of the titles for the Sony's new creation.
As time drew closer to the Japanese launch of the console people had no choice but to sit and watch as the lucky people of the Land of The Rising Sun smiled cheekily and pre-ordered the console that still kept us Europeans amazed at what it can do. The technical demos we have seen at gameshows such as E3 plus the footage of games like GT2000 left our jaws glued to the floor.
More and more magazines dedicated their pages to PS2 as PS was slowly going downhill. But after the Japanese release of the PS2 the games were still pouring out and there was more to come.
But only couple of weeks after the Japs got their precious machines technical problems started rising to the surface. The DVD player didnt seem to be working properly since the data that was included on the special memory card had errors in it so some PS2's refused to run DVD's. Some didnt even work at all, but that didnt stop the japanese from buying more and more consoles.
But suddenly the West has become more suspicious of Sony's new creation. They turned their confused faces to Sony, who quickly reassured everyone that the UK and US gamers will not experience the same problems as the japanese gamers. As the launch date in US and UK neared, many simply couldn't contain their excitement. But, and there had to be another but somewhere, it didnt turn out as well as everyone expected.
Just couple of months before the UK launch, suddenly it became apparent that Sony simply wouldnt allocate enough PS2's for everyone. Sony decided to go on with their dubious pre-order system that left many customers angry at Sony. Many queued up outside their local games shops from midnight of the 7th September 2000 in order to make sure that they get their PS2 on the luanch day over 2 months later. In other words the pre-order scheme cost Sony a number of angry customers and nothing but a lot of head-ache to put it mildly.
And then came the day....26th November 2000-if I remember correctly.The day when thousands of people became *ill* and many offices were disturbingly empty.
If you happened to be going home from a pub on that night,passing a high-street on the way home (in fear not to wake up your loved ones) you would have seen a bizarre scene. Hundreds of people standing near a closed shop, all talking quietly between themselves and looking at their wacthes anxiously. You would probably pinch yourself to find out whether this is an effect of consuming to much Carlsberg in one night. But, no, you wouldnt be dreaming or hallucinating.You would, infact, be witnessing a load of passionate gamers waiting to pick up one of the biggest and most anticipated *gadgets* of the year-a Playstation 2.
However, as people were coming out of their local EB with the smiles wider than their faces, you could still see some concern in their eyes. You would of course ask them-"Well you seem to be very happy, but is it just me or something is bothering you?". And their reply would be something like "Well, where are the games?I got this SSX thing. Dont know if thats any good and er...a memory card. Thats about it". O, right...so where are all those promised gems Sony have told us about just a few months earlier. No GT2000 eh...hmmmm. Something's not right.
And that was just it. Only 2 or 3 games worth owning at the launch of the "biggest and most advanced console ever to grace the earth". A bit shabby dont you think.... And I am not saying that other consoles had brilliant launches because it is very hard to develop games on a console you know very little about and we must be thankful that they are some people who put everything they had into making couple of must-have games for the launch of the console. But seriously after all the hype the PS2 generated, people expected a little bit more of the console.
Some other minot concerns like the price of the memory card and only 2 controller ports on the PS2 itself made people think more whether they made the right choice.
And then even more problems. Sony were littered with complaints concerning the PS2's. It turned out that some of the first batch of consoles produced for Europe was rushed out so not all of the worked. Right...not really what you would expect from a next-gen console. But luckily Sony managed to sort out the technical side of things by February this year.
People who decided to stick with Sony because of their reputation and what they managed to do with the PS, were a bit disappointed a little bit....until now. Finally, a year later since the PS2 saw the light of the UK skies, we-gamers can finally enjoy some fantastic games. And I am not even going to name them-because I am sure everyone knows what they are. My point here is that there couldnt be a better time to own a PS2 now.
But my question to you guys is whether the PS2 has lived up to the hype it generated some 2 years ago and whether it has reached full potential yet.
Thanks a lot people!!
Page:
>Dreamcast flop?
more like dreamcast stop and the PS2 release date was the 24th :-)
other than that excellent post, definate GAD ;-)
I think the hype around the PS2 did Sony more harm than good, It led people to believe the PS2 is a great machine there and then and left alot of dissapointed people. After the chaos of the launch everything went quiet, people were unsure whether it was a flop or merely waiting for good games to use it properly.
My first impression of the PS2 was "everythings there so use it" I was seeing spectatular graphics with SSX but felt there was very little the developers were actually using. Now a year has passed and look what it's acompished, imagine what the future holds.
I never regretted buying my PS2 at launch but I was a bit annoyed at the way it started to drift, in fact I wrote a whole topic on whats wrong with the PS2, quite a long one too but just when I'd finished I had a read through and all the problems that I'd mentioned had being sorted and everything i had said was just not true anymore so it never got posted.
Put simpely the PS2 had a rocky start leaving alot of dissatified customers, then it became a quiet wonder, GT3 shined some light, then the PS2 just kicked bottom and will continue to do so for many years to come.
Res ;-)
more like dreamcast stop and the PS2 release date was the 24th :-)
other than that excellent post, definate GAD ;-)
I think the hype around the PS2 did Sony more harm than good, It led people to believe the PS2 is a great machine there and then and left alot of dissapointed people. After the chaos of the launch everything went quiet, people were unsure whether it was a flop or merely waiting for good games to use it properly.
My first impression of the PS2 was "everythings there so use it" I was seeing spectatular graphics with SSX but felt there was very little the developers were actually using. Now a year has passed and look what it's acompished, imagine what the future holds.
I never regretted buying my PS2 at launch but I was a bit annoyed at the way it started to drift, in fact I wrote a whole topic on whats wrong with the PS2, quite a long one too but just when I'd finished I had a read through and all the problems that I'd mentioned had being sorted and everything i had said was just not true anymore so it never got posted.
Put simpely the PS2 had a rocky start leaving alot of dissatified customers, then it became a quiet wonder, GT3 shined some light, then the PS2 just kicked bottom and will continue to do so for many years to come.
Res ;-)
Triple_H wrote:
> Finally, I see some good replies to the topics. This is what it should be like
> all the time people. The forums may be having a tough time but with posters like
> we can make this place a little bit better, :)
Aww, thats touching man, :D
Anyway, night all!
> Finally, I see some good replies to the topics. This is what it should be like
> all the time people. The forums may be having a tough time but with posters like
> we can make this place a little bit better, :)
Aww, thats touching man, :D
Anyway, night all!
Finally, I see some good replies to the topics. This is what it should be like all the time people. The forums may be having a tough time but with posters like we can make this place a little bit better, :)
I made a mistake of buying a dreamcast, i loved the console at first but it wasn't the right console for me, in the back of my mind i knew it was the PS2 that was the console i wanted, and when i heard the news of the PS2 coming i was really excited, then the magazines came with the pictures and i knew there and then i had to own one. I stop hearing about the PS2 for a little while after the japanese launch and the the news came that i had been waiting for, the ps2 would launch in the uk in november, i couldn't wait, i knew i had to order one, i was going to wait until i heard about there being a shortage of units.
As november drew closer i began to become really hyped up abou the PS2, i was eagerly awaiting my confirmation letter from sony, and when it finally came telling me i would have a ps2 on launch day i was thrilled to bits, i waiting through 2 months of pain and suffering as sony sent me the blue booklet with all of the upcoming games in, and it made me so jealous that i never had a PS2 there and then.
November Grew Closer and Closer, and i prepared myself for the biggest gaming moment in my entire life, november the 26th, i remember it like it was my birthday , this day was special, the night before i couldn't sleep, the agony of waiting for my little blue box and my games to be collected from the retailer, the suffering was almost over, until...
The next morning, the sun was shining i woke up and...oh no i had to wait until 3 o clock to pick my PS2 up, no this could not be happening to me, not after so many months of pain and suffering!
Those 6 hours leading up to me finally grabbing my PS2 were the longest hours in my life.
Finally i walked into the shop, and guess what?, a long que...yet another task to try and stop me from getting my grubby mitts onto a PS2, but no one would get in my way, i finally got to the counter grabbed my PS2 and my game..which should have been two but no timesplitters in stock :(, eidos never produced enough copies in time!! arghh!!
I rushed home, with the ps2 sat next to me, i wanted to unleash all of its power into my home, where it should be!
I sat down, opened it up and it was so small! but possesed so much power, i turned it on and there it was, the PS2's potential, right there, SSX was the first game i put in and man did that show off its power, i had to literally pick my jaw up off the floor, all this time and finally it was there.
I then put a DVD on and i was yet again amazed by its potential as a DVD player, the quality was a jump from my pc dvd player. The the horrible shock struck...it was time to put it away until xmas nooooooooooooooooo!! :-(
Has the PS2 lived up to its potential?, well in my view yes it has, all of the times i went through waiting for it and it will countinue to impress me for many years to come, the potential was there and its been used to show off stunning games, i have never ever been blown away by a consoles potetial as i have with the playstation2, with all of the potential inside that little black box, i and others would be a fool to say that it never had any!
Good Post mate
As november drew closer i began to become really hyped up abou the PS2, i was eagerly awaiting my confirmation letter from sony, and when it finally came telling me i would have a ps2 on launch day i was thrilled to bits, i waiting through 2 months of pain and suffering as sony sent me the blue booklet with all of the upcoming games in, and it made me so jealous that i never had a PS2 there and then.
November Grew Closer and Closer, and i prepared myself for the biggest gaming moment in my entire life, november the 26th, i remember it like it was my birthday , this day was special, the night before i couldn't sleep, the agony of waiting for my little blue box and my games to be collected from the retailer, the suffering was almost over, until...
The next morning, the sun was shining i woke up and...oh no i had to wait until 3 o clock to pick my PS2 up, no this could not be happening to me, not after so many months of pain and suffering!
Those 6 hours leading up to me finally grabbing my PS2 were the longest hours in my life.
Finally i walked into the shop, and guess what?, a long que...yet another task to try and stop me from getting my grubby mitts onto a PS2, but no one would get in my way, i finally got to the counter grabbed my PS2 and my game..which should have been two but no timesplitters in stock :(, eidos never produced enough copies in time!! arghh!!
I rushed home, with the ps2 sat next to me, i wanted to unleash all of its power into my home, where it should be!
I sat down, opened it up and it was so small! but possesed so much power, i turned it on and there it was, the PS2's potential, right there, SSX was the first game i put in and man did that show off its power, i had to literally pick my jaw up off the floor, all this time and finally it was there.
I then put a DVD on and i was yet again amazed by its potential as a DVD player, the quality was a jump from my pc dvd player. The the horrible shock struck...it was time to put it away until xmas nooooooooooooooooo!! :-(
Has the PS2 lived up to its potential?, well in my view yes it has, all of the times i went through waiting for it and it will countinue to impress me for many years to come, the potential was there and its been used to show off stunning games, i have never ever been blown away by a consoles potetial as i have with the playstation2, with all of the potential inside that little black box, i and others would be a fool to say that it never had any!
Good Post mate
I'm happy, nothing for the PS2 launch interested me. But i'm more than satisfied with the games out now.
I think that by hyping the PS2, Sony have spared themselves from marketing the console in the Media. Of course there are PS2 adverts but the hype sold a number of PS2's as well....
Good post there mate.
I think the main reason why the PS2 was so anticipated was on the fact that PS1 did so well, as i think you did too. Sony really showed that they could hack the console market, and that they did. Many say the only reason they did was the fact they had a good advertising campaign, and 'properganda' was used to sell the PS1. Thats true, Sony are very good with the adverts and used this to there advantage in the market, and this is what blew all competition out of the water.
But the fact is that Sony too had a very good console on there hands, at the time of release it was the most powerfull there was, the graphics were something totally new, better than the Saturns and at the time thats what mattered. By the time DC came out PS1 had great games out that everyone loved and played, this meant that there was a large user base on the sony machine and not as many Users went to DC as Sega would have liked. This again was a great advantage and proved to be very good as the DC failed to make much of an impact. PS1 gave us some great games that everyone loved on many genres. Some were ground braking like ISS and Metal gear which was really important, these games all sold, and did more so with more Sony Brains with the platinum range. This idea really took of and benifitted both the customers and the developers as there games were going to still sell for some time to come. The PS1 had and still has a very long life. It is a big success in ever way and this is an important reason why PS2 has done well in its first year on our Shores, and well in its start to life.
The fact that PS1 did so well, as i said, showed that Sony can do it in this market, and with the annoucement of PS2 people betted on them doing it all over again. As you say, the more information was given the more people were starting to want this new console. It was being hyped every where, in all magazines, even Nintendo ones, usually trying to slate sony off. The hype was even here, on SR, it was long before the PS2 was released, and still is now.
First the PS2 was released in Japan, America and then Europe. In all cases i beleive we can all agree that yes the launch titles could, not have been better, the games were decent and better than most other launches of consoles, what we needed were more. If i can remember correctly there were only about 10 games available in my local computer shops, not many for the people waiting, and we could have done with more choice. But you have to think, there were only 180,000 consoles first available (i think that figure is correct) so it would have been not a good time for the developers to release all there games at once as not many of them would have sold and the developers would have lost serious money. SSX was the most popular game when first bought, as was TTT and Ridge Racer, these two were big games on PS1 and were expected to sell, and with SSX being so good that was too expected to sell. You have to think if you were a developer with a 'below par game' althought that being your fault, you are going to hang on a while to release the game arent you, and thats why i believe that PS2 got more games in the later months, but a lot of them were poor. However as we are all aware the quality games are really coming thick and fast. Some are already out and are selling fast, others are coming out soon up to christmas and others next year. On the games front, PS2 is set to match PS1's start and even better it.
What first put some people off was that again there were only 2 ports, ok buying a costly machine you dont want to spend too much more but you really could not complain with what you were getting. What would you prefer, 4 ports or the DVD player, thats how you have to look at it. Also some thought the Memory card was a little costly too, yes it was a big price up from the PS1's, but these cards are much bigger and store much more info on, and i doubt you will not need another one for a while, so they are not too bad. On PS1 i bought 5 cards having 30 games. On PS2 i have 14 and have not even used half the cards memory yet!
Triple H wrote :
And then even more problems. Sony were littered with complaints concerning the PS2's.
Right, heres the thing, out of all the PS2's sold in Europe only 5% of them had something wrong with them, and thats not all that many. A lot was made of this, more than it should have. Mainly by watch dog. Did they not think to ask a large majority of people what there PS2 was like are did they just go to the few with broken ones? There were many, many, many more happy people than there were sad. A lot of people got confused too with the 'DVD problem', this was mainly the green screen. This was though not a 'real' problem and was fixed simply with a change of Scart. :S
The only real problem was the slightly not very well organised Pre-order system. I Pre-order mine from SR back in April with SR and thought that was the end of it and i had one, i was wrong, it seemed i had pre-ordered and pre-order form! Luckily SR informed me of this and all was sorted and i got mine 24th of November. however there was a lot of un-happy people out there, though i was not one of them.
As for the main question, has the PS2 lived up to its potential? My answer, Of course not!! How can a machine thats only been out over a year be jugded on that yet? The majority of its games have not even been released yet, or even been thought up of yet. Thats the sort of question you have to ask in a few more years to come.
What i will say is that the PS2 has had an encouraging first year, there have been some good titles, and now the truely great games are coming out which makes the PS2 much more better to own that 6 months ago. In the coming months and years there will be many sold. Also in that time the PS2 will be tested to the full, with its competion coming, that being GC and the X-box. When the time comes that when we can start to guess has the PS2 reached its full potential. Until then, lets just enjoy the moment.
Cheers.
I think the main reason why the PS2 was so anticipated was on the fact that PS1 did so well, as i think you did too. Sony really showed that they could hack the console market, and that they did. Many say the only reason they did was the fact they had a good advertising campaign, and 'properganda' was used to sell the PS1. Thats true, Sony are very good with the adverts and used this to there advantage in the market, and this is what blew all competition out of the water.
But the fact is that Sony too had a very good console on there hands, at the time of release it was the most powerfull there was, the graphics were something totally new, better than the Saturns and at the time thats what mattered. By the time DC came out PS1 had great games out that everyone loved and played, this meant that there was a large user base on the sony machine and not as many Users went to DC as Sega would have liked. This again was a great advantage and proved to be very good as the DC failed to make much of an impact. PS1 gave us some great games that everyone loved on many genres. Some were ground braking like ISS and Metal gear which was really important, these games all sold, and did more so with more Sony Brains with the platinum range. This idea really took of and benifitted both the customers and the developers as there games were going to still sell for some time to come. The PS1 had and still has a very long life. It is a big success in ever way and this is an important reason why PS2 has done well in its first year on our Shores, and well in its start to life.
The fact that PS1 did so well, as i said, showed that Sony can do it in this market, and with the annoucement of PS2 people betted on them doing it all over again. As you say, the more information was given the more people were starting to want this new console. It was being hyped every where, in all magazines, even Nintendo ones, usually trying to slate sony off. The hype was even here, on SR, it was long before the PS2 was released, and still is now.
First the PS2 was released in Japan, America and then Europe. In all cases i beleive we can all agree that yes the launch titles could, not have been better, the games were decent and better than most other launches of consoles, what we needed were more. If i can remember correctly there were only about 10 games available in my local computer shops, not many for the people waiting, and we could have done with more choice. But you have to think, there were only 180,000 consoles first available (i think that figure is correct) so it would have been not a good time for the developers to release all there games at once as not many of them would have sold and the developers would have lost serious money. SSX was the most popular game when first bought, as was TTT and Ridge Racer, these two were big games on PS1 and were expected to sell, and with SSX being so good that was too expected to sell. You have to think if you were a developer with a 'below par game' althought that being your fault, you are going to hang on a while to release the game arent you, and thats why i believe that PS2 got more games in the later months, but a lot of them were poor. However as we are all aware the quality games are really coming thick and fast. Some are already out and are selling fast, others are coming out soon up to christmas and others next year. On the games front, PS2 is set to match PS1's start and even better it.
What first put some people off was that again there were only 2 ports, ok buying a costly machine you dont want to spend too much more but you really could not complain with what you were getting. What would you prefer, 4 ports or the DVD player, thats how you have to look at it. Also some thought the Memory card was a little costly too, yes it was a big price up from the PS1's, but these cards are much bigger and store much more info on, and i doubt you will not need another one for a while, so they are not too bad. On PS1 i bought 5 cards having 30 games. On PS2 i have 14 and have not even used half the cards memory yet!
Triple H wrote :
And then even more problems. Sony were littered with complaints concerning the PS2's.
Right, heres the thing, out of all the PS2's sold in Europe only 5% of them had something wrong with them, and thats not all that many. A lot was made of this, more than it should have. Mainly by watch dog. Did they not think to ask a large majority of people what there PS2 was like are did they just go to the few with broken ones? There were many, many, many more happy people than there were sad. A lot of people got confused too with the 'DVD problem', this was mainly the green screen. This was though not a 'real' problem and was fixed simply with a change of Scart. :S
The only real problem was the slightly not very well organised Pre-order system. I Pre-order mine from SR back in April with SR and thought that was the end of it and i had one, i was wrong, it seemed i had pre-ordered and pre-order form! Luckily SR informed me of this and all was sorted and i got mine 24th of November. however there was a lot of un-happy people out there, though i was not one of them.
As for the main question, has the PS2 lived up to its potential? My answer, Of course not!! How can a machine thats only been out over a year be jugded on that yet? The majority of its games have not even been released yet, or even been thought up of yet. Thats the sort of question you have to ask in a few more years to come.
What i will say is that the PS2 has had an encouraging first year, there have been some good titles, and now the truely great games are coming out which makes the PS2 much more better to own that 6 months ago. In the coming months and years there will be many sold. Also in that time the PS2 will be tested to the full, with its competion coming, that being GC and the X-box. When the time comes that when we can start to guess has the PS2 reached its full potential. Until then, lets just enjoy the moment.
Cheers.
Nice post, I thought that the launch was pretty poor with only really 2 good titles ssx and timesplitters but the psx
had a poor launch the only game i can remember being any good was Wipeout.But it has been getting better and better as months have gone and with this new wave of games has finally lived up to all the hype the PS2 recieved before launch and we still have gems like MGS2 and FFX to come and hopefully many more aswell :)
had a poor launch the only game i can remember being any good was Wipeout.But it has been getting better and better as months have gone and with this new wave of games has finally lived up to all the hype the PS2 recieved before launch and we still have gems like MGS2 and FFX to come and hopefully many more aswell :)
Summer 1999...People all over the world were enjoying playing their PSones, which at that time probably enjoyed the best period of its life..The games that were coming out were fantastic and the news of the hotly-aniticipated titles were on everyones lips. But just a few months earlier, something has shook the world. Something that everybody knew was coming, and people everywhere started whispering to each other. The excitement of the games in that period of time was over-shadowed by an announcement of a....PS2-a next-gen console produced by Sony. By that time almost everyone had a Psone-and no wonder-in just 4 years it achieved more than any other console ever did. People were gobsmacked by the 32-bit graphics that made people look at games in a different way. The games were also second-to-none with titles like Tomb Raider and Ridge Racer available to buy soon after the consoles release. Some of those titles are still played in households all over the world and enjoyed by millions.
And this is precisely why so many people were excited when the news of the new super-console console have leaked out of Sony's headquarters. People who owned a PS and played the quality titles the console offered, knew what the whole fuss was about. After Dreamcast's flop, the door was open to anyone who could develop a piece of hardware that could change the gaming world.
And people knew that Sony are the perfect candidats for the job. They are one of the biggest companies in the world and many people in the past trusted Sony more than their own neighbours.
So here we were, few blurry details before our eyes and EVERY single PS magazine devoting at least 40 pages to the new console. And that was before we even knew what it would look like! The sort of hype the news produced is unimaginable.
As the months went by it started to become more and more obvious that Sony are working on something very special indeed. The games promised for the launch and the year after the console's release at the time seemed fantastic. People not exactly hungry for quality games at the time since the PS delivered the goods constantly, still could be seen dribbling at the sight of the titles for the Sony's new creation.
As time drew closer to the Japanese launch of the console people had no choice but to sit and watch as the lucky people of the Land of The Rising Sun smiled cheekily and pre-ordered the console that still kept us Europeans amazed at what it can do. The technical demos we have seen at gameshows such as E3 plus the footage of games like GT2000 left our jaws glued to the floor.
More and more magazines dedicated their pages to PS2 as PS was slowly going downhill. But after the Japanese release of the PS2 the games were still pouring out and there was more to come.
But only couple of weeks after the Japs got their precious machines technical problems started rising to the surface. The DVD player didnt seem to be working properly since the data that was included on the special memory card had errors in it so some PS2's refused to run DVD's. Some didnt even work at all, but that didnt stop the japanese from buying more and more consoles.
But suddenly the West has become more suspicious of Sony's new creation. They turned their confused faces to Sony, who quickly reassured everyone that the UK and US gamers will not experience the same problems as the japanese gamers. As the launch date in US and UK neared, many simply couldn't contain their excitement. But, and there had to be another but somewhere, it didnt turn out as well as everyone expected.
Just couple of months before the UK launch, suddenly it became apparent that Sony simply wouldnt allocate enough PS2's for everyone. Sony decided to go on with their dubious pre-order system that left many customers angry at Sony. Many queued up outside their local games shops from midnight of the 7th September 2000 in order to make sure that they get their PS2 on the luanch day over 2 months later. In other words the pre-order scheme cost Sony a number of angry customers and nothing but a lot of head-ache to put it mildly.
And then came the day....26th November 2000-if I remember correctly.The day when thousands of people became *ill* and many offices were disturbingly empty.
If you happened to be going home from a pub on that night,passing a high-street on the way home (in fear not to wake up your loved ones) you would have seen a bizarre scene. Hundreds of people standing near a closed shop, all talking quietly between themselves and looking at their wacthes anxiously. You would probably pinch yourself to find out whether this is an effect of consuming to much Carlsberg in one night. But, no, you wouldnt be dreaming or hallucinating.You would, infact, be witnessing a load of passionate gamers waiting to pick up one of the biggest and most anticipated *gadgets* of the year-a Playstation 2.
However, as people were coming out of their local EB with the smiles wider than their faces, you could still see some concern in their eyes. You would of course ask them-"Well you seem to be very happy, but is it just me or something is bothering you?". And their reply would be something like "Well, where are the games?I got this SSX thing. Dont know if thats any good and er...a memory card. Thats about it". O, right...so where are all those promised gems Sony have told us about just a few months earlier. No GT2000 eh...hmmmm. Something's not right.
And that was just it. Only 2 or 3 games worth owning at the launch of the "biggest and most advanced console ever to grace the earth". A bit shabby dont you think.... And I am not saying that other consoles had brilliant launches because it is very hard to develop games on a console you know very little about and we must be thankful that they are some people who put everything they had into making couple of must-have games for the launch of the console. But seriously after all the hype the PS2 generated, people expected a little bit more of the console.
Some other minot concerns like the price of the memory card and only 2 controller ports on the PS2 itself made people think more whether they made the right choice.
And then even more problems. Sony were littered with complaints concerning the PS2's. It turned out that some of the first batch of consoles produced for Europe was rushed out so not all of the worked. Right...not really what you would expect from a next-gen console. But luckily Sony managed to sort out the technical side of things by February this year.
People who decided to stick with Sony because of their reputation and what they managed to do with the PS, were a bit disappointed a little bit....until now. Finally, a year later since the PS2 saw the light of the UK skies, we-gamers can finally enjoy some fantastic games. And I am not even going to name them-because I am sure everyone knows what they are. My point here is that there couldnt be a better time to own a PS2 now.
But my question to you guys is whether the PS2 has lived up to the hype it generated some 2 years ago and whether it has reached full potential yet.
Thanks a lot people!!
And this is precisely why so many people were excited when the news of the new super-console console have leaked out of Sony's headquarters. People who owned a PS and played the quality titles the console offered, knew what the whole fuss was about. After Dreamcast's flop, the door was open to anyone who could develop a piece of hardware that could change the gaming world.
And people knew that Sony are the perfect candidats for the job. They are one of the biggest companies in the world and many people in the past trusted Sony more than their own neighbours.
So here we were, few blurry details before our eyes and EVERY single PS magazine devoting at least 40 pages to the new console. And that was before we even knew what it would look like! The sort of hype the news produced is unimaginable.
As the months went by it started to become more and more obvious that Sony are working on something very special indeed. The games promised for the launch and the year after the console's release at the time seemed fantastic. People not exactly hungry for quality games at the time since the PS delivered the goods constantly, still could be seen dribbling at the sight of the titles for the Sony's new creation.
As time drew closer to the Japanese launch of the console people had no choice but to sit and watch as the lucky people of the Land of The Rising Sun smiled cheekily and pre-ordered the console that still kept us Europeans amazed at what it can do. The technical demos we have seen at gameshows such as E3 plus the footage of games like GT2000 left our jaws glued to the floor.
More and more magazines dedicated their pages to PS2 as PS was slowly going downhill. But after the Japanese release of the PS2 the games were still pouring out and there was more to come.
But only couple of weeks after the Japs got their precious machines technical problems started rising to the surface. The DVD player didnt seem to be working properly since the data that was included on the special memory card had errors in it so some PS2's refused to run DVD's. Some didnt even work at all, but that didnt stop the japanese from buying more and more consoles.
But suddenly the West has become more suspicious of Sony's new creation. They turned their confused faces to Sony, who quickly reassured everyone that the UK and US gamers will not experience the same problems as the japanese gamers. As the launch date in US and UK neared, many simply couldn't contain their excitement. But, and there had to be another but somewhere, it didnt turn out as well as everyone expected.
Just couple of months before the UK launch, suddenly it became apparent that Sony simply wouldnt allocate enough PS2's for everyone. Sony decided to go on with their dubious pre-order system that left many customers angry at Sony. Many queued up outside their local games shops from midnight of the 7th September 2000 in order to make sure that they get their PS2 on the luanch day over 2 months later. In other words the pre-order scheme cost Sony a number of angry customers and nothing but a lot of head-ache to put it mildly.
And then came the day....26th November 2000-if I remember correctly.The day when thousands of people became *ill* and many offices were disturbingly empty.
If you happened to be going home from a pub on that night,passing a high-street on the way home (in fear not to wake up your loved ones) you would have seen a bizarre scene. Hundreds of people standing near a closed shop, all talking quietly between themselves and looking at their wacthes anxiously. You would probably pinch yourself to find out whether this is an effect of consuming to much Carlsberg in one night. But, no, you wouldnt be dreaming or hallucinating.You would, infact, be witnessing a load of passionate gamers waiting to pick up one of the biggest and most anticipated *gadgets* of the year-a Playstation 2.
However, as people were coming out of their local EB with the smiles wider than their faces, you could still see some concern in their eyes. You would of course ask them-"Well you seem to be very happy, but is it just me or something is bothering you?". And their reply would be something like "Well, where are the games?I got this SSX thing. Dont know if thats any good and er...a memory card. Thats about it". O, right...so where are all those promised gems Sony have told us about just a few months earlier. No GT2000 eh...hmmmm. Something's not right.
And that was just it. Only 2 or 3 games worth owning at the launch of the "biggest and most advanced console ever to grace the earth". A bit shabby dont you think.... And I am not saying that other consoles had brilliant launches because it is very hard to develop games on a console you know very little about and we must be thankful that they are some people who put everything they had into making couple of must-have games for the launch of the console. But seriously after all the hype the PS2 generated, people expected a little bit more of the console.
Some other minot concerns like the price of the memory card and only 2 controller ports on the PS2 itself made people think more whether they made the right choice.
And then even more problems. Sony were littered with complaints concerning the PS2's. It turned out that some of the first batch of consoles produced for Europe was rushed out so not all of the worked. Right...not really what you would expect from a next-gen console. But luckily Sony managed to sort out the technical side of things by February this year.
People who decided to stick with Sony because of their reputation and what they managed to do with the PS, were a bit disappointed a little bit....until now. Finally, a year later since the PS2 saw the light of the UK skies, we-gamers can finally enjoy some fantastic games. And I am not even going to name them-because I am sure everyone knows what they are. My point here is that there couldnt be a better time to own a PS2 now.
But my question to you guys is whether the PS2 has lived up to the hype it generated some 2 years ago and whether it has reached full potential yet.
Thanks a lot people!!
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