So it’s come to my attention that at the end of this month, it will be two years since the closure of the last server for Playstation 2 (Even though it wasn’t an online console per say). Is that enough of a reason to get nostalgic about Playstation 2? Well in the immortal words of Stone Cold Steve Austin……….Hell Yeah!
Playstation 2 came around the year 2000. I was twenty at the time (Do the math….yes I’m old!). But it wasn’t until GTA Vice City was released that I purchased a Playstation 2.
Yes, I more or less neglected my gaming from childhood until I reached college, mainly because my focus was solely devoted to beer, parties and women. (Mario, I apologize for my lack of focus). It wasn’t until I was living in a rented house with fellow beer/party/women enthusiasts that I went back to consoles.
So why is the Playstation 2 the GREATEST CONSOLE EVER MADE? Well quite simply, when you’re twenty something, living away from home, with very little money in the bank, the Playstation was a ‘no-brainer’. It was the most up to date game console (probably not as powerful as Xbox but who cares!). It’s also your new cd player (yes cds were a thing!) and more importantly it was also your DVD player (dvds were cutting edge at the time….I’m starting to feel old).
And what a time was had! I would be lying if I didn’t mention how many evenings we came home drunk and watched Tenacious D The complete Masterworks on the playstation 2. (We pretty much watched it every night) or Memento, Donne Darko or Shawshank Redemption and wondered about a career in film! This was the cheapest complete entertainment system at the time and this was well known. It’s almost satisfying to remember how singular a choice it was back then to pick playstation 2 as an entertainment system…..it was literally the only choice to make!
So beyond Tenacious D and a thousand other films that we watched, what good games did we play? Well for me GTA Vice city was a huge purchase. I literally got back into gaming (after girls, hormones & beer) because of how excitedly it was described to me by a mate in the pub. I literally bought the game and had to but the console secondary to it just to play it. It was sold to me by my mate as a game you could do anything in. Kill people, buy property, own nice vehicles, date women & earn money through rent. (Only some of these promises were true but funnily enough, later games have tried to incapture my pub mates enthusiasm!)
I loved every second of GTA too. Thanks to the open world, amazing 80’s soundtrack and at the time, amazing graphics and cutting edge game mechanics, I was sold. I was completely sucked back into the gaming world and enjoyed every second. I love the Playstation 2 and the many memories I have………such as :
I can recall the first time I played Guitar Hero on a friends sofa in his granny flat garage. We nailed Franz Ferdinand and felt like Rockstars. We went from that moment to spray painting our plastic guitars and loading modded tracks that we loved ( Never happened, jailbroken Ps2 doesn’t exist I’ve been told!!!! )
Or better yet, the moment where I got to the end of Beyond Good & Evil and spent hours trying to beat it as it was balls difficult but I refused to give up. Another time where a friend I worked with and lived with, literally was playing a game 17 hours straight and rang in sick to work as he hadn’t slept, Leon God bless you!
I can also remember playing ridiculous games such as Eyetoy rubbish sparking my amazing kung-fu skills and also my window washing abilities when perhaps I should have been focusing on my college degree!
Playstation 2 lead to my renewed vigor and more importantly my love for gaming as a young adult. It’s hard not to fall in love with gaming following my experience with such games as Spiderman 2, GTA Series, Prince Of Persia Series, God Of War Series, Driver Series, Metal Gear Solid Series, Bully, Ico, Shadow Of The Colossus, Kingdom Hearts Series, Guitar Heroes, Tony Hawks, Jaks & Dakter
And series is a good word for most of the above. We spent nearly six years with the Playstation 2 and built a lineage of games which have rarely been beaten. A lot of games even now, are reboots or re-imaginings of the original games developed on either ps1 or ps2
So what does the death of Ps2 mean to me? Well for me it’s not dead! It will live forever in my memories and I am forever grateful for the amazing memories it has left for me. Sure I link it to my wild beer/girl/party days so forever the Ps2 will be my guilty party machine!
Comments below folks……What are your nostalgic gaming memories?
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