Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Rez
Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies
Bully
Shinobi
The Warriors
Rygar: The Legendary Adventure
Raw Danger!
Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
Previous lists:
List 1:
Grand Theft Auto 3
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Shadow of the Colossus
Katamari Damacy
God of War
Killzone
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando
Silent Hill 2
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
List 2:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Ico
Spider-Man 2
Jaws: Unleashed
Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Jak 2
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory
Spartan: Total Warrior
Ten games i recommended my friend rent at blockbuster in exchange for ten game recs from him. My rubric was they’re all games you can play for ten minutes and say ok i get it if youre a dad with more important things to do.
Simple 2000 Series Volume 54: THE Daikaijuu aka Deep Water - my fav simple series game, has a clean little central design idea of youre a guy in a little boat and you gotta operate multiple parts of the boat in 3d space. You can just play this game it’s good.
Simple 2000 Series Volume 47: THE Kessen Sekigahara aka Shogun’s Blade - a d-tier musou like that has one level because the whole game is the battle of sekigahara. It has a lot of fog because it’s on ps2 but also because the battle of sekigahara had famously bad weather.
Simple 2000 Series Volume 35: THE Helicopter aka Radio Helicopter - controls well and has a sweet depiction of just your average japanese suburb. Honestly the ps1 version looks way better but this isn’t a ps1 list (can we pls wait at least a couple months before anyone makes that thread)
R racing evolution - it has a really nice yokohama level that you can drive around and go hey! Thats yokohama
(bonus: saru getchu million monkeys - it sucks but it also lets you go hey! That’s [various places in tokyo])
Sub rebellion - it’s by irem. It’s a submarine. It’s pretty good!
Evergrace - i love all of this game but you can get enough out of it by wandering around the first level, meeting the shopkeeper, and going yeah damn the music really does sound like that.
Dog of bay - i dont wanna play this pervert game but it is by cavia and tamsoft! So someone’s gotta do it
Poinies poin - multiple times have i heard my friend say “what is poinie’s poin”. Well the time has come for your reckoning with the truth that is poinie’s poin.
Reign of fire - an essential part of a healthy ps2 diet is at least one hideous action game every ten games you play
Speed racer - it’s pretty good! It’s made in new zealand! I used to know a guy who worked at the studio (later, when they were making mobile stuff)
I’m jealous of all the simple series games that made it to pal land and not america but with the ease of emulation and access now i should really just be grateful for the wealth of eng translations
Enter the Matrix and Path of Neo are both games full of really cool weird shit that is unfortunately tied to a not very good action game. Even the action game is full of cool weird shit, but it just never quite works together. Path of Neo also has the ending where the Wachowskis show up to explain the philosophy of what was going on in one of the endings as stick figures, only to acknowledge that would be a boring video game so they have you fight a giant Agent Smith made of Agent Smith’s instead.
Neither of them are good games, really, but they sure are neat and way more ambitious than a lot of licensed stuff ever manages to be.
Much like Satan showing up in every game to tell you about how long it will be, every game should have a psychiatrist that reminds the player that they are, in fact, a pervert.
Been avoiding this for how generic it will be. But these are all straight off the shelf!
God Hand. obviously. I still haven’t beat it! I don’t care! still better than any Devil May Cry. in a perfect world we got 5 God Hands instead. but 1 is still better than none! someone on this website sent me their copy for free back in 2008/9 and I still have and love it, and no you can’t have it back!
GTA3 was, I think, the last time I experienced the feeling of a game-world being imbued with mystery the way a child’s mind does. it felt packed with secrets, which was why I ilked it. the hype for Vice City was unreal, but nothing can top the first few weeks/months with GTA3 for me.
Final Fantasy X I played this for over 100 hours and was really going the completionist route (something I rarely did) when at a sleepover my friend saved his game over mine, erasing everything. poof. I liked the snappiness of the battle system. story was alright. I don’t like thinking about it!
Ratchet and Clank UP Yr Arsenal when I hear people praise Jak 2 I raise them with this. it’s one of the most gorgeous games on the system and is maybe like a baby’s CONTRA? butter smooth action (maybe too smooth) and lacks the annoying open world design, as I remember it.
Neo Contra, speaking of, yep, no surprise there. I have never been able to get Shattered Soldier to run!
Raw Danger
Ico
Silent Hill 2 - Kind of a holy PS2 trinity of 3 of the most holistically designed vidjas of all time IMO.
Outrun C2C 2006 and Spartan Total Warrior round it out as the best two PS2 games I’ve played in the last few years.
that’s 10!
God Hand
GTA3
Final Fantasy X
Ratchet & Clank UYA
Neo Contra
Raw Danger
Ico
Silent Hill 2
Outrun 2006
Spartan Total Warrior
What gets me about ZOE 1/2, is how different the games are with essentially the same controls. A lot of it is that 1 takes a LOT of constraint because you have to work on not damaging the city but protecting it, which is an interesting idea I haven’t seen in any other action game. Whereas 2 is a lot more about just doing damage and being about the plot. I have love for both.
Global Defense Force Tactics (EDF Daisenryaku)
Colosseum Road to Freedom
Runabout 3 Neo Age
Kaido Racer
Lifeline (just bought the headset, wish me luck)
games I already played and enjoyed a lot:
Suikoden Tactics
Armored Core Nexus
Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3
SEGA Rally 2006
OutRun 2 SP (better than 2006 maybe because you can see the rocket starting, also got translation patched recently)
One of my favorite line readings in any video game is the Suikoden Tactics quest giver when you fail a quest.
“Oh, didn’t quite go so well, huh?”
(seems like the line is hard to find because most people recording playthroughs are only concerned with getting ideal outcomes.)
Been putting this off for a while but lemme think, off the cuff, what are my ten, hmm.
Katamari Damacy
We Love Katamari
Robot Alchemic Drive
Metal Gear Solid 2
Silent Hill 2
Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
Ape Escape 2 (the good one, the Ubisoft one, with the Pokemon voices)
Tekken 5
Way of the Samurai
I’m sure I’m forgetting some, but these are the ones I remember playing the hell out of until I got a 360. Certainly some I wouldn’t go back to now, certainly some I play now that I didn’t then, but, hey, off the cuff!
Katamari Damacy
Castle Shikigami II
Godhand
Gungrave OD
Adventures of Darwin
The Red Star
Rule of Rose
Mobile Suit Gundam: The One Year War
Culdcept
Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
Well, since it looks like everyone’s done posting their top 10s, and no-one else has done it yet, I’m gonna post the games that appeared the most in everyone’s lists with at least 3 votes. For fairness I’m only gonna count your first list (or the one you indicated was your proper list).
Pretty sure I’ll have a few new faves as I get to trying out some of the stuff I’ve got to run in PCSX2 here…will probably take a few weeks to work through. Exciting though! My interest in PS2 is suddenly way higher. Read through the ol’ SB “recommended” Wiki list; still looking for other games I might want to get. (Can’t do flashing ones so that’s stuff like God Hand, RPGs, shmups out. Have got some promising driving games though, even if my ol’ body can only seem to manage d-pad for steering without aches and pains hah. ; D)
I recognize that ZOE2 is better, though.