09/18/00

Bring On The PlayStation 2! 

Mix a shinny black case with the blue letters "PS2" directly on the top part of the case (in its horizontal form). A shinny Black Dual Shock 2 Controller and a 8mb memory card (possible, if you fork over the dough). Lets not forget our DVD support and you get Sony's new machine PS2. Its been a year since Sony reviled the PlayStation 2 and we can already feel the heat coming off of October 26. The long awaited successor of the Playstation is almost here and is packed with 36 (According to Official PS Mag but look for about 15-17 titles) titles to back it up! With launch titles as Tekken Tag Team, Armored Core II, The Bouncer, and a fully functional DVD player built right in, this system seems almost unbeatable! Could it be? Already hurting the likes of Sega forcing them to drop the price on the Sega Dreamcast to only $100-130. Making Nintendo go back and forth to the drawing boards wondering how their new system should look like. Then making Microsoft...well nothing except reveal their new system the X-Box. With its help of how many development companies?..... well, to many to count tagging along to make titles for this considered "revolutionary" machine. 

When will the hype end?..... almost never. With pre-order after reserve you will almost be lucky to even touch let alone own one of these until after the holiday season. My question to you is, where is your reservation? With some interesting titles, PS2 will actually be interesting despite what some people will tell you. With titles like Midnight Club, The Bouncer, and Kessen, this system isn't all that bad when it comes to launch titles. My personal favorites being Kessen and The Bouncer, expect me pouring out my money to get these titles. Over all there are some....mess ups. Some of these titles look to be not interesting and horrible when it comes to graphic capabilities of the mighty PS2, one being Tekken Tag Team. Compared to Soul Caliber of the Sega Dreamcast, there is almost no competition. However I'm not speaking in favor of Tekken Tag Team, no I'm speaking in favor of Soul Caliber, why do you ask? Well, graphically compared to Soul Caliber, Tekken Tag Team is actually worst. The graphics in Tekken Tag Team are choppy and not as smooth as those in Soul Caliber. The backgrounds in Tekken Tag Team seem more planned out and much more well designed then the actually characters themselves! This my friends might be a great series, but it appears someone was in a hurry to rush it to make the Japanese PS2 release in May. Hopefully then Tekken might have made a few adjustments, mainly most of the game. 

Will we see the same results here as in Japan? Well, the Japanese release was a great success! With lines surrounding buildings of people who have been there at that very spot for three days waiting, watching, biting, killing, screaming, etc. Then after days of no showers, and no food...well maybe some. The time had finally come! With Sony's doors opening with mounds and mountains of PS2s waiting for a owner, everyone went home and lived happily ever after..hell no! After Sony's release in Japan of the PS2 some problems began to form. - The DVD player on the PS2 was proven not to work! Having to upload the information to even play a DVD and enter a code, this posed some problems. Some of the memory cards used to upload the information ether didn't have the information, or the damn thing didn't work. Luckily, Sony claims that the problems were fixed and everything is okay! - Well the okay lasted only a few days. After the DVD failures, the DVD players that worked could actually copy other DVDs! Well Hollywood didn't find this funny and threatened to use legal action if the problem was not fixed. Well this was difficult for Sony, having to recall well over a few million systems throughout Japan and also the United States. Well after a massive recall Sony pulled it off and actually recalled most systems and fixed the problems. Now so far all is mostly silent in Japan...for now. Now with its U.S. release around the corner, most of us are wondering what to expect? Well, I must say Sony did make it worth its price and did fix it up a little bit. This time the DVD will be built in the system itself and not on a memory card. The memory cards will be able to save more then your previous cards. Well, actually the best part is the fact you can play Playstation games on it! Yep! you can play your original PS games on the PS2. This was a smart move on Sony's behalf. It doesn't stop there though, not only will it play the PS games, it will also improve their graphics. This will make games with terrible graphics look half way stand able. Also, not only will the PS2 play PS games, improve the graphics, but also it is compatible with all the original PS equipment, from controllers, to memory cards. Sony did think about this system and made a great move here. 

So there you have it, what is hoped and told to be the greatest system to ever hit US shores is only a month away. What will happen? Well thankfully for the ability to reserve and pre-order, don't look for people to spend the night at their near-by game store. However, there is bad news. Thanks to the hype, Sony's systems are already sold out! If you want one October 26 don't expect it till say.....next year. With the demand way way up there, even some reservations won't be able to get theirs October 26. Sorry guys, you might not get your PS2 experience till after the holidays. Till then you might want to think about getting a Dreamcast, or maybe just keep you PS and just play the games coming out this Christmas..I hear Tony Hawk 2 is coming out! Over all gamers, if you didn't reserve yours in say Feb (like I did) then don't expect yours till next year. Then again, the PS2 isn't looking all that great but still seems ok. I'm sure the $250-300 price tag is more then enough to scare some of you guys away...not me.

 -Jake-

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