Ever since the start of this year, gaming for me has always been about the next generation, the only games I would play were my Xbox 360. If I wanted to go down memory lane I would usually play Castlevania on my DS or go to the Xbox live arcade and play something like Doom or Sonic 2.
Ever since I have finished Uni I have been a bit strapped for cash, not really knowing where the next game is coming from. I remember about a month ago looking at my Xbox 360 collection and thinking “there is not much I want to play here.”
I thought for a second I was losing my gaming touch, I didn’t know what to do really. Sure I would play the odd session of Guitar Hero or maybe do a skirmish battle on Halo Wars, but nothing seemed to get me rilled up anymore. There were the game demos mind, but they were no way long enough and I had no money for the latest release.
This dilemma however was put to a stop about a month ago when I finally hauled my PlayStation 2 out of its very snazzy carry case. As I said before, Gaming for me was about retro or next gen, I was missing out the middle ground completely. Now I look back at that and think….Idiot.
What sparked this off? Maybe it was Leon’s did you miss series, maybe it was the fact Max Payne 3 was coming out soon, or maybe, just maybe I felt that My PS2 just needed to live again.
With all that aside I then looked at my PS2 game collection…..Bugger, I thought. Throughout my Uni life I was trading in things left right and center. Pretty much all my PS2 games had gone, all I had left was Max Payne, the Grand Theft Autos, Devil May Cry 1 to 3 and Kingdom Hearts. Not such a bad collection but hell was I missing some classic stuff. So anyway I got stuck into Max Payne and have been plenty happy since…Ish
Its all well and good having games like GTA, Devil May Cry and Max Payne have lots of playability, but lack of variety. Granted Kingdom Hearts has variety but that games has to take my mood. I was in a bit of a dilemma again, so I went off on a mission, trying to find some damn cheap PS2 classics just to get my collection back up to scratch. Hey if your like me and are looking for some cheap awesome games pay attention because this can help.
Ebay was my first port of call. I thought I wouldn’t go crazy quite yet, and I picked up myself a great copy of Max Payne 2. For the pretty awesome price of…..£1.71. Bargain central. That’s another 10 hours of game play in the bag for under 2 quid.
So I was minding my own business playing Max Payne 2, till I get a call from my partner in crime Leon. Cut a long story short, he is in Blockbuster and he had a copy of Final Fantasy X for the magic price of £4.95. This is FFX! I would happily pay a tenner. So after some posting and a day or two wait I get Final Fantasy X in my collection for under a fiver. Swish!
Not doing to bad so far, until I hit the big bargain yesterday. Popped into my local Pink Planet, where they have a wall pretty much dedicated to old PS2 games. I spent a good hour trawling through it, until I found a copy of Capcom Vs SNK 2. Brilliant I thought, priced at £4.99 I’ll have that.
It wasn’t until I get to the counter the sales assistant says “You do realise its any 3, 4.99 games for a tenner, right?”. Ever see those cartoons where a characters eyes light up with dollar signs when they see a load of cash. Mine did the same here but with the PS2 logo, and the PS2 sound when a game starts up ringing in my ears. So I spent another hour looking through until I found: Soul Reaver 2 and Onimusha. SCORE!
So if you take anything away from this article, be rest assured that the PlayStation 2 still has glory, there are millions of classic titles out there which are begging to be played, at awesome bargain prices. If your not afraid of a little treasure hunting, you can probably almost double your weak PS2 collection for about £20. Which I pretty Much did.
Garv!
