My PS2

So my DVD was stolen. There's a silver lining in every cloud, you know. I now could buy a better DVD player. One that had a fast processor and a great graphics card attached to it.

That's right, I bought a PlayStation 2 to compensate for all the stress I got when I was burgled.

I'm not sure if I got a good deal, but people tell me it's not so bad: RM970 for a modified PS2, two 'regular' controllers, an 8MB memory card and 15 games. There are cloned versions available for as low as RM500, but you really don't know what you're getting with them. I wanted to be sure that the DVD component worked fine, so I want for the 'original' version.

Many thanks to E for getting the ball rolling by buying me the Lord of the Rings:The Return of the King PS2 game. On Valentine's day, no less. "So, does that meant that there is a PS2 waiting for me at home?". Of course not - all I had gotten her was a couple of pieces of red thread and cardboard, so it wouldn't have exactly been a fair swap.

Now the games - I haven't really had much of a chance to play them, but here's what I've tried so far:

• Lord of the Rings: Return of the King: Purchased because somebody really wanted to play with Legolas. Nevermind, the grahics look good, and it's fun running around killing things, even if you can't really see what's happening. If you've seen the movie, you get a fair impression what's in store. The only problem? When I try my Gimli Super Dwarf Killing Blow on an Elf, it doesn't work. Just goes right through him. Damn you, cooperative play!
  
• Gran Turismo 3: Beautiful. Really beautiful. And I mean everything. Thi is the racing game with the graphics, the play, the cars, the fact you can tweak them, change their colours, play it like a dolt on automatic or try a higher challenge, all those unlockables, dual play. Absolutely beautiful. I love it to bits. And I get to drive a Mini Minor.
  
• FIFA 2004: A franchise that I've loved from first sight. How couldn't I? Real-life players, real-life clubs, getting the satisfaction of beating Manchester Utd at something.
  
• Winning 11: If you play FIFA because it's pretty, you play Winning 11 because it's got great gameplay. There are tons of nifty moves you can execute and a truly skilled player can play the beautiful game as it should be played: with stylish one-two moves, overstepping and exhillirating dribbling. Us amateurs stick to playing the ball down the flanks and crossing it in.
  
• Tekken 4: If you ask the shops how long do the "non-original" joypads last, they'll shrug and say "six months - if you're playing fighting games, two weeks". And amongst the better fighting games out there is Tekken 4. The controls are simplicity itself, with four directional keys and four punching/kicking keys and that's it. The trick is that these eight keys combine to give you more than sixty attacking moves per character. A beginner gets excited when he hits the right killer move by mistake; a pro revels when the right six button-combo is pulled off. All this (and the good lookin' capoeria-fightin' woman) make it a great button-bashing, joystick-breaking, adrenaline pumping game.
  
• Super Bomberman: Okay, sometimes you play the game because it looks good, other times you play it because it's challenging, and then, there are those times you play because it's just plain silly. Super Bomberman is one that needs another human player to get the most out of it, and another three will be better. Four cute sprites run around the screen dropping bombs in a maze which explode some time after they appear. That's all there is to it really. That and the screams as fellow players try to trap one another (my favoured phrase is "buggerbuggerbuggerbugger").
  
• NBA Street: This game exagerrates all that's great about basketball, with all the jammin', alley-oopin' and hot dribblin' that you can get. It is completely unrealistic, and completely fun. You actually get points for showing off and nothing beats a vibrating joypad when you pull off a stunning off-the-board reverse jam. Fun, pure fun.
  
• PuyoPop: Remember tetris? This is a little like a head-to-head version of that game. With cute characters. And instructions that look Japanese->translated via Rumanian to->English. I don't really know how the game works, but there is a fair bit of strategy in it all. And it's addictive. Play it often enough, and you end up dreaming about falling blobs and cute noises.
  
• James Bond: whats-that-title-I-forget: This is one of those very pretty first-person games that look good and play fairly well, but I doubt I'll finish it because it makes me nauseous. I used to be quite a Quake player in my day, but for some reason, a FPS on a 34" TV screen gives me a whopping headache. And a feeling of wanting to throw up. Shame, really.

Some of the more observant of you may notice that this is nowhere near fifteen games. This is because I have not tried every single one yet. Where on Earth do kids find the time to play?