When people say things like, "Playstation 2 is the greatest console ever"... why do they even bother buying subsequent hardware?

Because they are prisoners of their nostalgia just like people that think the first game in a series is the best one all the time. Pretty much always the newest consoles is in fact the best one.
 
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TeezzyD said:
@Thirty7ven

You have to admit, it's intriguing that Series X may end up with the most diverse library ever (apart from PC) just based on backwards compatibility alone.

I don't really buy the whole nostalgia angle a lot of people are taking in this thread. Rose colored glasses, be damned. I enjoy plenty of older titles which I didn't grow up with.
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Oh, so that's the reason behind this gem of a topic. Nah fam, nah...
 
I don't know myself.

If Sony released some kind of legacy only console that allowed me to download and play the full PS1 and PS2 library, then I'd probably play that more than the PS5.

I think I'm just sick of modern gaming. My son turned on his PS4 yesterday and every game he wanted to play (FIFA 21, Rocket League, F1 2020 and PVZ) required some kind of update. He just had to leave his PS4 on to update all these games, and with our internet speeds that was an all day job.

My buddy let me borrow Kingdom Come a few months ago and even that, a single player RPG required a large update file, probably to get rid of game breaking bugs that it shipped with.

I just miss the simple days.

I'm old.
 
Well because technology moves on and support drops.

And PS3 wasn't as good. I didn't have as much fun with it as I had with the PS2. There was more online play and interactivity ofcourse, but other than that I felt its lineup couldn't compete and the system was cumbersome (hello installation and update, sorry can't play right now). And a lot of the games appeared on another system anyway, this was not really the case with PS2 (some games were brought over much later).
 
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If old consoles hooked up to modern tv sets and monitors without the need for extra boxes and cables then yes, I would absolutely be playing PS2 games right now.
 
Why bother watching the dark knight rises when the dark knight is clearly the best in the series ?

Best dessert I ever had was on holiday 3 years ago, should I stop eating dessert?

Very weird thread with a very weird perspective. Simply put, every newer generation provides more power than the previous gen. Ergo ps2 graphics/fps/load times/world sizes will never be as "good" as newer generations ( hell, my phone is better than a ps2 at this point).

But things like pricing, game design, unique franchises. These things are timeless. It's why 30 plus year olds (including myself) always rave about when "games used to work day one" and "games used to be a complete package day one" you used to " get the full game at launch".

Honestly any gen with prevelant microtransactions , common broken releases and more remakes than original ideas is inferior to one without it.
 
I think the OP touches on a bit of a problem I have with the gaming community in general.

For me, not every game needs to be a world beater. I find myself buying games depending on my mood and I'm not terribly fussed if a game is just OK.

The community online seems to have two settings. "Oh my got this is one of the best games ever" and "this game is utter garbage.". To the point where anything under 90 on Metacritic is just seen as a bit of a failure.

Maybe this is because we place too much value on criticism and it's also seen as a bit uncool to be overly enthusiastic about a game with an MC score in the 60s to 80s range.

Maybe some people wont play a game with an MC score less than 90. Maybe some won't play unless there is 60fps and 4K resolution. Etc etc.

The best ever games, for me, are ones that I will always go back to. If they are re-released on new hardware I am probably going to pick them up at full price and enjoy the replay. No apologies. Otherwise, I would play them from time to time on the old hardware.

Mostly I'd be playing games that I've picked up here and there on the most recent consoles. It's OK for these to not be GOAT level games. I wasn't expecting them to be.

I thought the first Assassins Creed was incredible. When I picked up AC Odyssey though I was just expecting an OK game. That's what I got, an OK game that's not anything special.

It's good to have new experiences even if they aren't on that "greatest ever" level.
 
When people say best console ever, they mean from an experience point of view. It's almost like when our parents say that the late 70s and early 80s was the best era... they didn't have iPhones but malls were full, every weekend was a dance party, no one knew the effects of drugs or worried about HIV/ AIDS
 
IShowUBasics said:
Because they are prisoners of their nostalgia just like people that think the first game in a series is the best one all the time. Pretty much always the newest consoles is in fact the best one.
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Or people just realise that genuinely great games are a rare thing but still like games enough in general to try out new things.

The newest consoles always offer something new in terms of performance and graphics but I wouldn't say that when it comes down to pure gameplay they are automatically better.

The popularity of remakes and remasters and the willingness of developers to put resources into updating or redoing old games suggests that there is something to this idea that a lot of the older stuff is better.

I mean, PS5's stand out launch title is a remaster of a PS3 game from a little over a decade ago. Not a new title in an existing franchise or an new IP. Their star launch game is from an independent developer who have commissioned to copy a decade old game from a completely different developer.

Why didn't Sony just buy the rights to the Demon's Souls name and have Bluepoint make Demon's Souls 2? Or why didn't they see the popularity of Nioh and The Surge and Jedi Fallen Order and just release a brand new game?
 
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Greatest for its time.
It's 2020 now.
Deep Purple is also better than modern music lmao, still we look for new albums to listen to. Not hard to understand.
 
It's because people are open to new experiences being better or new tech. I think that the SNES is the best console of all time, but I've enjoyed several different consoles for different reasons. I'm also open to new consoles surpassing the old. The Nintendo Switch is the best console that I've played since the PS2. Why? Not only does it have versatility in how it can be played, but I can also play tons of old games on it as well as remasters of more obscure classics on it too. I can buy tons of arcade games, which I never played, and use a nice arcade stick to create some news experiences. It's really awesome. I will eventually get a next gen console for UHD, enhanced BC, and hopefully new, exciting games.
 
Who said that? I feel like you're fighting a stance no one is actually taking.

It's pretty obvious why a person might claim that, for example, the SNES was their favourite system with the most awesome library, yet still enjoy games released for subsequent systems. You aren't seriously wondering about this.

Do you stop watching movies because you found your favourite?
 
To answer the OP, just because something is great in the past does not mean you cannot enjoy experiences in the future. This is tantamount to asking "Why do you go to movies, knowing they will never be as good as this other movie you saw in the past." New experiences are great and part of the joys of life. Even derivative experiences are a lot of fun, that is why we keep playing, Mario Karts and Zelda, and Final Fantasy. We want more of what we loved in the past even if it isn't the same. In some cases it may be better.
 
TeezzyD said:
The Playstation 2 has an amazing library, and so much of it perseveres in terms of overall quality to an insanely strong degree to this day. The sixth generation of consoles all hold a very special place in my heart, and the Playstation 2 was undeniably the hands-down winner of that generation, despite not packing the most horsepower inside the plastic casing when compared to either the Gamecube or Xbox. The library was phenomenal, including full PS1 backwards compatibility, and had more exclusives than you could shake a stick at. So much so, that I'm still discovering new favorites on PS2 in 2020 that I never got a chance to play previously.

For these reason, people often consider the Playstation 2 to be the greatest console ever. I've read this opinion stated objectively countless times on this forum alone. In my opinion, Xbox 360 absolutely gave it a run for its money and if you consider that Xbox One plays a good amount of Original Xbox and 360 titles as well.... you could even make an argument there too - but so few do.

715847dc7c411b08c7768ab7003254e1


This argument isn't exclusive to the PS2 though. People will say this about SNES, Dreamcast, etc.

I guess my question is, why do people even bother playing the newer games or getting hyped for PS5/Series X when they already have their favorite so readily available?

I don't buy the story that most people have played all there is to play on a library as diverse as PS2/PS1 combined (or 360/Xbox for the sake of argument) yet. Both Sony and Microsoft spent a lot of money on research and development towards new technologies and studio acquisitions to secure that their upcoming products continuously provide a superior gaming experience to their previous iterations. Shouldn't this ensure a better gaming experience overall? Doesn't the truth of GAF focusing so heavily on next gen and current gen right now reflect that directly? Why aren't we all still talking about Dark Cloud 2?!!

As much as I love the now-classics, there's plenty of modern QoL features which retro titles just can't deliver on, and sometimes formerly well regarded games age like milk and feel awfully clunky compared to their modern counterparts.

So, why do we bother with the new consoles when the so-called 'greatest ever' already exist? How many people here apart from myself still even have a PS2 hooked up? What about your original Xbox? Gamecube? Do you play them more than your PS4, Xbox One, and/or Switch?
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The true reason is to put forth our own opinion, and to see other people agree with it, in order to validate our belief in our taste, not what our taste believes.
 
It was the best console "For it's time" I think is a more accurate concept. As in, PS2 in its time was better than PS3 in its time. PS4 in its time was better than PS1 in its time, etc.
 
Some of you are taking this thread way too seriously. Would you rather this was yet another borefest about whether the new consoles fully implement RDNA2? I didn't think so :messenger_beaming:
 
Just because something is the best in its class doesn't mean that you can't use other things.

PlayStation 2 is my favorite console of all time but that doesn't mean I want to miss out on new experiences. Plus who knows, the Switch could have overtaken the PS2 for me, or the PS5, or PC, or the Series X or whatever other systems I decide to try.

Sort of "chasing the dragon"
 
What? This is like saying that, because I consider GTA San Andreas the best game in the series, I shouldn't buy GTA VI whenever it comes out.
 
Because you can't play 282262742627426 times the same games without getting bored sooner or later??

Humans always search for new things to try exactly like reeeee always search for new thing to get triggered by, it's just nature.
 
Seriously these threads are fucking stupid. It's like they pop up so close to launch of new consoles because said poster wants to understand why Playstation is so popular or why people bring up the PS2 era so much.

To compare Xbox 360 to PS2 is not a far comparison even with that era's best games. PS2 is remembered so well because of all the genre defining games that released during it's 8+ year run. From third party games like Grand theft auto, to games like ICO/SHADOW of the colossus, GOD of war, Devil may cry all debuted most of exclusive for a short time on PS2. The amounts of Japanese support, western first party and third party was staggering.

Literally Almost everyone during that era had a PS2.

PS4 is close to that era, but in terms of amount of releases PS2 is still unmatched, and will remain unmatched.

End of Thread.
 
GymWolf said:
Because you can't play 282262742627426 times the same games without getting bored sooner or later??

Humans always search for new things to try exactly like reeeee always search for new thing to get triggered by, it's just nature.
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you can if you have an arcade cabinet
 
petran79 said:
you can if you have an arcade cabinet
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You will eventually get bored even with an arcade cabinet (i don't know what change from pc\console gaming in term of not being boring after a while but ok)

I absolutely love metal slug, i finished the first 3 like 20 times, i will not play these games for another 20 times even with an arcade cabinet at home, but maybe it's just me.
 
GymWolf said:
You will eventually get bored even with an arcade cabinet (i don't know what change from pc\console gaming in term of not being boring after a while but ok)

I absolutely love metal slug, i finished the first 3 like 20 times, i will not play these games for another 20 times even with an arcade cabinet at home, but maybe it's just me.
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I kinda want a Tekken 3 cab
 
GymWolf GymWolf

Fighting games are more versatile and elaborate than other arcade games. I cant see myself living in a world where I grow tired of Tekken. Evem tekken 5 or tag tournament would be tight in cab form. I'd take any of em
 
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Because no matter how great you are - you will get old. PS2 is a legendary console. For me, it is the second after NES.
 
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They are obviously speaking of relative to its time. Albeit, even without considering relative to its time, games might also play a big part in it, whereupon they judge the PS2 library the superior of all consoles, agree or disagree as you must.
Since they can't judge something without purchasing it, they are of course also buying new consoles, otherwise they'd not test the mettle of the PS2 compared to them. Thus their conclusions are "PS2 is (implicit "currently") the greatest console ever". It's not really that complicated.
 
If I could get my hands on a PS2, with mem cards and brand new games to go along with it, I wouldn't bother with much today. No need for fucking installs. No need for patches. No connecting online to play jack fuck and it STILL had some of the greatest games of all time. Nothing since Silent Hill 2 has been able to surpass it, despite all the numerous years in between then and now. Even more powerful hardware can't bridge the gap between Silent Hill 2 and crap like Blair Witch.

So in conclusion, if someone has a brand new PS2 they would like for me to have with some brand new games (I don't do 2nd hand games, especially on disc) then I'd happily stay in the world of the PS2 for a very long time.
 
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