PlayStation 2 at 20: the console that revealed the future of gaming - MW

That said, the titles that debuted were not great. When the PlayStation 2 arrived in Japan on March 4, 2000, the first buyers of the first buyers returned home, including a simulated mahjong and a set of digital trains. The big name titles, Street Fighter EX3 and Ridge Racer 5, are formula targets in a tiring heritage franchise. Meanwhile, Sega's Dreamcast, released a year ago, is home to creative hits like Shenmue, Crazy Taxi and Power Stone. Has Sony tripped after its extremely successful and very original PlayStation?

No, it is not. Developers need only understand this forward-facing console architecture, in particular the Emotion engine with its ultrasonic name, the 128-bit central processor at the heart of the box. , designed to create large 3D environments that can be explored and filled with life.

With hindsight, this may not be the most important hardware decision made by Ken Kuturagi, the technical brain known as the father of PlayStation. His team also equips a DVD player with a DVD player, allowing owners to watch movies and play games - and with prices starting at 39,800 ($ 299 in the United States and £ 299 in the United Kingdom), it is cheap. more than the dedicated DVD players of the time. This makes the PS2 one of the first gaming machines to truly transition from a teenage bedroom to a family living room - especially when a PlayStation TV remote control accessory is released.

Kuturagi has also added support for online games, and although the original machines need a network card and it took a year before the installation was actually supported, this allows potential customers to believe that they will buy in the future. It also brought us Final Fantasy XI, a big step forward in the concept of multiplayer online role-playing games on consoles. Backward compatibility with the original PlayStation also guarantees brand loyalty for millions of owners.

Despite fierce competition from the Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft Xbox, the PlayStation 2 was immediately destroyed, selling more than three million units in Japan in its first year and reaching 20 million people worldwide in late 2001. This machine has effectively opened the era of successful action adventures, with titles like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Devil May Cry allowing players to recover. Box with depth, detailed images and mature themes.

But the popularity of the console and its large global user base also allows a growing range of experimental games to use the power of the Emoticon Tool in very different ways. . From the elegant adventures of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus to the classic psychological thriller Silent Hill 2 and the joy of psychedelic Katamari Damacy, PS2 is home to games that inspire the unique game development scene created in the mid-2000s.

At the same time, European publishers, wanting the content to meet the overwhelming demand for new titles, have started to import a series of lesser-known Japanese titles that will probably never be produced. appeared on the international market in previous generations of consoles. Exotic photography game Polaroid Pete (also known as Gekisha Boy 2), sim conductor Mad Maestro! and soon the precursor of Goose Game, Mister Mosquito, in which you play a boring insect in a suburban family, all imported by British publishers to find drowsiness.

The dashboard also reports interesting experiences in the user interface. The appearance of the Guitar Hero series with its sophisticated controller; Singstar games with their micro USB; Sony Eye EyeToy camera, bringing augmented reality games to the living room; and Buzz succeeds! a series of family puzzle games that come with simple one-button controls - all of which were played with the idea of ​​the meaning of game control, mostly before the release of the Nintendo Wii.

GameCube and Xbox brought new gaming enjoyment to players in the early 2000s, but PlayStation 2 dominated, becoming the best-selling game console of all time with sales of nearly 160 million units. His legacy can be felt in the open world games we currently play, such as Assassin's Creed, The Elder Scrolls and Red Dead Redemption, and some of his greatest hits - God of War, Devil May Cry, GTA, Jak and Daxter - always reused and reinvented for today's players.

At the time, game experts instead of making fun of the emblem of the monumental brand Emotion Engine from PlayStation 2, but in the end, the experiences it delivered fulfilled this promise. From riding a BMX bike on GTA's Chiliad mountain to Colonel Campbell going crazy in Metal Gear Solid 2 and trying to convince players to turn off their console, it's a machine that succeeds and preserves. Privacy allows publishers and developers to play with the rules and respect us as players and explorers. These are fun times.

MW