No time to update. Been busy with school and job hunting and yadda yadda yadda.
At any rate, barring a major incident, today is the day I finally get a PlayStation 2. I would have had one on launch day (had it pre ordered and all) but finances prohibited me. Actually, I wouldn’t even be able to get one now had it not been for the fact that my parents kicked me a graduation wad (yes, I am spoiled). I guess I had better graduate, then.
As for availability – it helps that when you quit a retail software store you don’t sever ties. Tee hee.
Having said all that, I don’t plan to get any games for the system just yet. Main reason is that I have a ton of homework to do (next week is the last week of school, and then finals) and I don’t need the distractions. Just the idea of my PS2 with its blue LED humming and playing all the DVD’s that my APEX AD-600A can’t play too well (like anything from Total Movie magazine – plays fine just with bad artifacts, or anything with Seamless Branching) and maybe popping in a PSX demo disc. The PS2 comes with no demo disc, and why is that? I mean, it could. Of course, I guess I just answered my own question. You place a demo disc in a system to help sell it. Sony’s not trying to sell the PS2 – the PS2 sells itself.
Yep, Sony did everything they could to bung this one up. They scaled back the shipment. They had no first party launch titles. They even lost developers (like Oddworld Inhabitants) and exclusive properties (like Crash Bandicoot). To top it off they launched what was essentially a DVD player with PSX/PS2 capabilities built in (but so that you don’t forget that it’s a game machine they make you control the DVD’s with a Dual Shock controller or make remotes unintuitive). And yet they had a better launch day than Dreamcast did – 500,000 units sold (all of them) as opposed to 9/9/99’s 400,000 units.
I guess they figured it might look bad to have a million units out there and not all one million sell. It’s a kick to Sega’s groin that Sony had a better launch day despite scaled back production. Actually, I don’t know what the real reason is – I really believe it might be as simple as difficulties producing the Emotion Engine chip – but it does all seem suspicious and convenient.
There’s a guy at the office who said “hey man, have you seen the PlayStation 2? Madden 2001 looks awesome!” Looks awesome. Nevermind that NFL2K1 has better play (or so I am told – not a football guy myself). Nevermind that the graphics are only marginally better than Dreamcast. Nevermind that Dreamcast has been around for over a year, and has lots more titles, and is actually available this Christmas. Madden 2001 looks awesome. That’s the reason the Dreamcast will go down – Sony has the masses going for it.
Granted, I’m fueling the fire. I’m part of the reason that that particular unnamed software store will be out of PS2’s by the end of the day (I stiffed someone out of getting their pre-ordered unit today, no doubt). I have a slew of Dreamcast games, but I’ll probably play the hell out of SSX (the only game I see worth buying immediately). Hell, I’ll probably plop down for a PSX (PSOne) game or two.
Am I addicted? Perhaps. No, definitely. But anyway, I never owned a Saturn or a PSX and I’m getting a PS2 today. I’m gonna fire it up, play a few games (next week) and sit back to watch the console wars. Me and the other 700,000 people who were lucky enough to get their paws on a PS2.