OPM: After 12 years the PS2′s long and influential life came to an end this January. Sony announced its production of the console was winding up in a blaze of impressively hard to grasp stats including 153 million units sold along with 1.52 billion pieces of software. Practically anyone with even the most casual gaming interest has owned one, and you’d struggle to find a single gamer who hasn’t got a memory or story linked to the machine. When PlayStation 2′s designer Teiyu Goto said his aim was that, “the design had to inspire a great leap forward” he succeeded.
"Driver was a technical achievement for PS1, a pioneer in cinematic gaming, and an often brutal challenge - TechStomper asks if its brand of 70s car chase antics still holds up."
@Shane Kim
Well, I mean the driving physics hold up. The draw distance, police AI, visuals in general etc do not
One of my all time favorites on PS1. I spent a summer vacation playing this was so good
Sadly youd be hard pressed to find any driving game with better physics these days. But the draw distance really kills it for me
The physics hold up ridiculously well. And the draw distance is a real hurdle at first.
Nonsense. The physics in any modern game or any 360 game is light years beyond Driver.
My thoughts exactly. I bought it at release for full price and got frustrated and bored with it very quickly.
Gran Turismo for PlayStation launched a sub-genre and revolutionised console racing - TechStomper asks is it still worth playing in 2024.
Something we really miss, just turning on the console and having the game start without signing into stuff
@Terry_B I miss having people to splitscreen with, but I can't blame anyone for that :-(
@Terry_B
GT7 actually has 4 player splitscreen. Which is wild in this day and age.
Good news is that Sony released a final update to Gran Turismo Sport to allow it to function offline. Expecting the same for GT7 at some point in the future.
I'm not big into sim racing, but I got sucked into the hype for this one from magazines back then. I just played arcade mode and that was enough for me to feel like I got my money's worth.
Yeah, it's definitely worth playing today. GT 2 has a few interesting fan made graphical mods when played on an emulator as well.
The arcade mode is underrated, it's a great alternative mode and you can even unlock GT HiFi with it.
Cars back then had much more personality then those we see today. Modern cars all about the led lights and the tablet size screens and they all seem alike, back then they could be simpler in design but had tons more personality.
That is something a few people have pointed out - that cars all look the same now. I have to agree that a lot of new vehicles lack personality.
You guys are so anti-fun its depressing, like who tf cares about personality of objects like wtf? Just learn to enjoy stuff as is.
It's hardly anti-fun to remark that some objects look nicer than others.
And everyone has their favourite era of cars, I sincerely doubt many will pick the 2020s a few decades from now.
Dude, like wft cares about personality of objects? What about art? Paintings are objects and they're considered good or bad if they show or lack personality so I ask, wtf are you talking about? Cars are also considered pieces of art, vintage cars, classic cars, classic bikes and so on. Artists are appreciated by the objects they craft, blacksmiths, painters, engineers, designers, so wtf cares about personality of objects indeed... ( Sorry for my English, it's not my native language)
That Corvette Stingray to this day is one of the most ferocious whips ever driven. Overpowered against other cars yes. But to drive it and be that close to losing control, but being in command around those curves, just can't be duplicated.
HiFi mode is also something I miss. There should be a mode in today's GT where it's Mano o Mano and the detail and resolution jump full throttle. In today's games, Max Ray Tracing and lighting and textures to make it look even more real..
A modern HiFi mode would be really cool! It would be really interesting to see how real they could go by stripping it all way back.
And Stingray is a solid choice 👌
HiFi mode in GT1 was only a stripped down 60 fps mode for one track. Should have been called "Performance Mode" or "High Frame Rate" mode.
Not according to Former Playstation president Jim Ryan for he told Time that he doesn't see why anyone would play old games given the advancements in fidelity achieved today.
https://time.com/4804768/pl...
The original PlayStation library has dozens of classics long since forgotten - TechStomper unearths five of these gems which have been lost to time for one reason or another.
Disruptor PS1, a pre Goldeneye console FPS from 1996 (with Command and Conquer type FMV cutscenes) and the first game by a pre Spyro Insomniac Studios directed by Mark Cerny. A good game for its time, and pre Bioshock use of telekinesis type powers. A game sadly almost completely lost to time
I have never even heard of it, so that must be a deep cut. Sounds really interesting and I might dig it out :-)
First one was so good but second one on another level!!!
Still hoping to see a next gen version..
@Cacabunga Yeah, I preferred II for the real-timier combat. I would love to see both remade or remastered.
We need to bring back the golden era of ps1 & ps2 .
We need to see quality games developed with alot of passion to make gamers satisfied .
We need to benefit from new AI technology to bring something new to games something like " nemesis systems " that used in shadow of morder and upgrade it to next level
The economics of games has changed a lot since the PS1 and PS2. As much as I would love a return to those days, it's not not at all likely.
Naughty Dog are just awesome.
Crash Bandicoot -> Jak & Daxter -> Uncharted -> and now The Last of Us! :)
edit -- PS2 was indeed an amazing console, so many great games.
The sales for the PS2 speak for itself
In terms of games: Quality, quantity, and variety
The PS2 is arguably the best video game console of all time
aaaah ... Insomniac. You were so great until you let low review scores persuade you to put multiplayer into RAC. *sad face*
Everyone always talks about PS2 but it was PSOne that changed the whole industry.
It made gaming mainstream, not just for nerds.
It brought in adults, it wasnt just for kids.
I won a PSOne in a nightclub playing Wipeout for godsakes.
It made companies like Microsoft say, man, I'd like a piece of that pie.
It made me spend my holiday money, which I had been planning on using to get my pistol license.
And it had the coolest boot up music too. In fact I'm going to try and download that to use as a ringtone.
Socom helped mainstream online gaming on consoles. socom2 is the best online shooter ever.