Sony PlayStation 2

The **PlayStation 2** (**PS2** for short) is a game console released in 2000 as the successor to the original Sony PlayStation. It competed against the Sega Dreamcast, the Microsoft Xbox, and the Nintendo GameCube. It was succeeded by the Sony PlayStation 3 in 2006.

## Why It Rocks

1. A whopping **3,847** games were released for it. On top of that, virtually every game from its generation is playable on (if not exclusive to) the console, outside of Nintendo's and Microsoft's first-party titles.
2. Backwards compatible with the PlayStation 1, so when the game library of both consoles are combined, the amount of games you could play was over ***10,000***! Also, you can increase the loading speed of the original PlayStation games.
3. New games were released for the PlayStation 2 even after it had been discontinued.
4. Unlike the PlayStation Memory Card which could only hold about 15 slots of data, the PS2 Memory card has a total of 8MB worth of storage capacity, allowing for a large amount of save files on each. There are also some variations of bigger memory cards, such as a 16MB one.
5. A hard drive was released for the PlayStation 2 in July 2001 in Japan and in 2004 in North America, technically making it the first released console to have a hard drive before the release of the Microsoft Xbox in November 2001. The hard drive allows you to store a massive amount of game saves, enhanced certain games, and was used in *Final Fantasy XI* to allow the game to get updates from the server.
6. Huge number of very good games many of which were exclusives such as:
	* *God of War*
	* *Kingdom Hearts*
	* *Psychonauts*
	* *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas*
	* *The Ratchet & Clank trilogy*
	* *The Jak and Daxter trilogy*
	* *The Sly Cooper trilogy*
	* *Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4*
	* *Final Fantasy X*
	* *Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King*
	* *Shadow of the Colossus*
	* *Silent Hill 2*
	* *Castlevania: Lament of Innocence*
	* *Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater*
	* *Gran Turismo 4*
	* *Okami*
7. Similar to how *Crash Bandicoot* and *Spyro the Dragon* were the unofficial mascots for the PS1, *Jak*, *Ratchet*, and *Sly Cooper* were the unofficial mascots of the PS2.
8. One of the first major consoles capable of playing DVDs, which was a selling point when it was released and it also meant games could be stored in DVD discs, one of the reasons it outsold its competitors is that it was the only console at the time that plays DVD movies.
9. Remained in production for thirteen years, making it one of the longest running consoles in gaming history. It stayed alive well into the seventh generation.
10. A second "slim" model was also released. It takes less shelf space and is less prone to breaking than the original model, and also has its own Ethernet port to negate the requirement for network adapters and uses a top loading disc drive to ease up the process of ejecting a disc. It is still backwards compatible with the PlayStation 1 games and still plays DVD movies. The hard drive is not compatible with the PlayStation 2 slim model.
11. Some cases for the games have a small slot to store Memory Cards.
12. The controller is the essentially same as the PlayStation 1 for more compatibility and can work well on the PlayStation 1.
13. Brazil was given a special disc that would allow Netflix users to watch Netflix on their PlayStation 2's (no longer supported).
14. Can be hacked to emulate many games from other consoles like SNES.
15. Unlike the DualShock 1 controller cable, the DualShock 2 controller cable has a black color which matches the console's color, it also had many colors as well.
16. There was a Sony Bravia TV with a built-in PlayStation 2 released in PAL regions in 2010.
17. The earliest US commercials featured tests of how durable it was. One commercial even had it in **molten lava**!!

## Bad Qualities

1. Most multi-platform games run worse on the PS2 due to its weaker hardware. This isn't as big of an issue as it could have been, as most games from its generation were designed with the PS2 in mind and didn't take much advantage of the more powerful competitors, but even then PS2 games ran at a somewhat lower resolution.
2. Most PlayStation 2 consoles tend to break down easily or suffer the infamous RSOD (Red Screen of Death) which says "Please insert a PlayStation or PlayStation 2 format disc". (Fixed on later models.)
3. 16 MB memory cards aren't supported on many games, and they can be glitched easily, formatting all of your data and making it useless.
4. The DVD features are rather primitive when compared to modern DVDs.
5. It was the shovelware target of its generation, especially in the PAL region countries such as Europe and Australia!
6. The PlayStation 2 is the ***only*** console from its generation that required a multitap to allow more than two people playing at once, even the Dreamcast didn't need a multitap.
7. The fat models look very ugly, are extremely heavy, have no built-in Ethernet port and thus require a network adapter to play online and have poor disc lasers, later models fixed that issue.
8. Despite being backwards compatible with PlayStation games, you still need PS1 memory cards for saving PS1 games.
9. The slim models have no 3.5" expansion bay like the fat ones did, so you can't insert a HDD on the console (This is a problem that will only harm players if they're playing MMOs such as *Final Fantasy XI*) (You also can't install Linux).
10. The SCPH-70000 and SCPH-75000 require an external power brick (but fortunately the brick isn't in the socket part.)

## Maintenance

1. If you plan on buying a used PS2 today, it is recommended that you get the slim model since it is more durable than the standard model.
2. The ribbon that moves the lens when reading a disc on the slim model can touch the disc while it spins, leaving a big circular scratch on every disc you play. **If this happens to you, stop using your PS2 immediately and take it to be repaired.**
3. PlayStation games played via backwards compatibility can't save data into a PlayStation 2 memory card, so make sure you own an older PS1 memory card.
4. Some unofficial game discs such as the ones produced by Phoenix Games can damage your console due to those discs' poor quality.

## Reception

The PlayStation 2 is currently the best selling video game system in history selling over 155 million units. Its ability to play DVDs and play PlayStation 1 games was a major factor to its massive success.