Top 15 PS2 games

actually I had this list written for a few years but thought now would be a good time to brush-up and publish. I was watching a TV show about guys in prison the other day, and they were saying they had PS2s in their cells and complaining like, 'But who even plays a PS2 anymore?' Hey PS2 had one of the greatest game libraries of all time! Being imprisoned with a PS2 and the best games it had to offer I don't think would be THAT bad

1. GTA3, Vice City & San Andreas (triple pack)



That's right! The 3-in-1 pack I think is allowing me to put all 3 of these games in at number one! These games were the best on the ps2, I actually played 'em backwards, starting with S.A. pretty late (like around 2005?), as was my personal trend in buying games and games consoles long after they had been released. To think the first one came out in 2001 (15 years ago), so guys were playing it back then... warm fuzzy feeling :P

2. Canis Canem Edit ('Bully')

Comin in at number 2 and made by the same guys as the above product. This game was hilarious and the best. It also reminded you of sweet days at school or college, as long as you played when you weren't too old xD I remember I got this after I had graduated college and had moved back home to my parents house, and was going through a kind of lazy, transitional phase, I was at Blockbuster Video (do those places still exist?) and some random guy was just like, 'this game, this game is great' haha he was right!

3. Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter

One of the first games I ever played on ps2, and I was blown away. Just look at that screenshot, can't you just tell that this game oozed quality? The Breath of Fire franchise was already known to fans by this stage (from their quality Super Nintendo and PS1 games), so Capcom did not want to disappoint, and sure enough they did not. At least to me they did not! If I remember correctly this game was met with mixed reviews, in-fact I believe it was round about this time when I started taking official game reviews far less seriously, yes it was around this time (or soon afterward), where the gaming community was basically hijacked by first person shooter games *sigh*. Anyway, yup I'd have to say still remains to this day one of the best games I ever played, incredible story, setting and gameplay.

4. Final Fantasy XII (FF12)

yes, the lead character and game art was somewhat homo-erotic, this I'll have to admit... but this game was fantastic. I actually never played Final Fantasy 10* for the precise reason that the lead character(s) and story seemed kind of queer. The story for FF12 seemed a bit weak to me at times, a heavy medieval setting (similar I suppose to FF9, which I didn't like btw), but the game overall is quite amazing. For it's time, incredible game mechanics, world, combat system and graphics.

*I still haven't played FF10 to this day, though I plan on picking up the FF10 Remaster for the PS3. Actually a few ps2 games were remastered to great effect on ps3, which I'll talk about next

5. Jak II

I used to think this was the best platformer on the PS2, easily. I just thought it was so cool when I first started playing it, and then loved it even more as I got into it. Based in a amazing futuristic and free-roaming city, I was really impressed at what Naughty Dog (guys that made Crash Bandicoot) had done with this game. Not only the gameplay and setting were excellent but the characters also, the game was sleek, refined, fun and even quite sexy! The other Jak games were brilliant also with 1 being more like a Mario-style 3D platformer and 3 more similar to 2 (shooting etc.), I got them all again in the Remastered Collection for PS3! Sony Playstation did so well with this game aswell as...

6. Ratchet & Clank

Another EXCELLENT 3D platform game, which I used to think was marginally worse than Jak games. However in time I would be hard placed to choose a better game. I loved the the characters in Jak & Daxter games and I almost loved them as much here, the story was excellent I must say and very amusing at times. They even brought out a Ratchet & Clank animated film a month or 2 ago which I really wanted to go see but they were only showing it very early on a saturday morning or something xD As per above, I picked up the Ratchet Remastered Collection for the PS3, I don't mind paying good dollar for this stuff for playstation :P

7. Tekken 5

as you may know I'm a huge Tekken fan so this is no suprise. A shame T5:Dark Res or T6 never made it to the ps2 but this was still a great game, the platform/scrolling/Tekken Force side game was fantastic. I've always like those side game Tekken games, reminiscent of old school scrolling fighting arcade games (e.g. Final Fight or Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, my favourite was one called Punisher & Nick Fury), this one in T5 was great, it included jumping platform elements too. The T6 (for ps3/xb360) scenario game I found excellent also, and will probably write about at some point :)

8. Street Fighter Alpha Anthology

Street Fighter 3 never made it to the PS2 in Europe, though annoyingly it was available for Xbox, Sega Dreamcast and American/Asian PS2 gamers. Instead, I suppose we got this game, which was playstation exclusive. Fair enough, this game was quite fun to me, more oldschool seeming than SF3 (which I must admit I loved, especially the character Twelve), but still really good.

9. Warhammer 40,000 Fire Warrior

This was a massively over-looked game on the ps2. Actually many good Games Workshop games seem to be over-looked, the excellent Space Marine for PS3 and xb360 was underrated also. Fire Warrior was a suberb 1st-person shooter that reminded me a lot of Doom - this can only be a good thing!

10. Legacy Of Kain Defiance

Not only is this game excellent, really fun action adventure, the voice-acting and story are something else. Journey with Rahziel and Kain through a mystical world of demons, gods and vampires. I actually loved Legacy of Kain so much I made a rap song (using sample from the Soul Reaver game theme, it was so cool :P) based around it, which you can find on my YouTube channel :D

Actually, I can link my rap vid right here xD

Like it and comment and stuff!

11. Armored Core: Nexus

Just an amazing game, creating, controlling and fighting with your mech here is a dream. I believe that actually 7(!) Armored Core games came out for the PS2! But Nexus (the 4th I think) was the first that allowed you to control your mech by moving with one analogue stick and aiming with the other (like a modern FPS). The ones beforehand I think you had to aim up and down with the shoulder buttons or something silly like that! Anyhow, Nexus was quite excellent, it even had a bonus game disc that was as good as the main game, though very short. The sequel Last Raven I never played but was told was just as good.

The Armored Core games are best Mech action games I ever played, 4 Answer on my xbox 360 did not disappoint me at all, it was awesome.

12. Black

I think people said this was the best 1st-person shooter on the PS2 and tbh it's easy to see why. Set in modern, realistic settings it's a great game. Also the graphics for this game were just really amazing, it was more like a next-gen game. I actually checked out a gameplay video on YouTube to remind myself of this game and the top voted comment was "this game felt like a ps3 launch title, it was a head of its time" lol.

13. Max Payne

Aptly placed at 13, the story to this game was just brutal. It reminded me of the Marvel Comic The Punisher, gritty, grimy and tragic. The voice-acting was incredible and accompanying Max Payne on his dark adventure is really sublime. My favourite bit is in the Ragnorak club!

The sequel was really good also but the original is best for me, Max Payne 3 on PS3/xb360 was impressive also but I still think the groundbreaking original is best!

14. Scarface

OK quick confession, though I owned this (the cool Collectors Edition version, in metal box), I never got round to playing it on my PS2. I did play the game however, the xbox version, which I played on my xb360! The versions were basically identical.

This came out late in the PS2 and XB lifespan, but it was really good. I loved the beginning, they change the story from the film so that Scarface survives at the end, he escapes out the back of his house when they come for him lol. The guy who does Scarface's voice in the game is not Al Pacino but sounds just like him! 'Ey, I bury dese cockroaches.

Another confession, I didn't actually play that much of the game (I got stuck at one point and never came back to it, a reason being is that my xb360 was left behind at my parents' house) but it was really good what I did play, really similar to a GTA game, with great soundtrack (including a cool Cypress Hill song I noticed) and funny dialogue.

15. Def Jam Fight for NY

Really impressive brawling action featuring famous rappers and other celebrities (of late 90s early 00s era), create-your-own fighter and really amazing graphics.

Yup this had to make the list.

Runners-Ups

Megaman X8 - this was a fantastic 2D platform game, pretty short though

Wild Arms 3 - one of the first games I got on PS2, I liked it alot

Dragon Quest 8 - OK everyone goes on about how great this game was! But I never played it save for 15 mins haha. I'm sure it's great though =/

God of War - holy hell I just started playing the remastered Collection on ps3, could the ps3 be the GOAT due to all the awesome ps2 remasters? something for me to think about