Following my decision last year to invest in a cheap second-hand PSOne, I have decided to take upon myself the ownership of a PS2. Seeing as the PS3 is due for launch this month, I expected the price of the PS2 to plummett, just as the XBOX did on launch of the 360. Looking at this particullar case, however, I can that this is not going to happen due to two things. 1) The PS2 is still the biggest selling console (who's still buying one?). 2) The PS3 is £425 at launch, which by anyone's standard is costly. In light of this, I plumped for a second hand one in the original larger black design.

So, the PS2 then. I did things backwards. Last week, after being spurred on by a friend of mine (cough .. Mike), I decided to look at the cost of second hand PS2 games. I was very surprised. I thought second hand XBOX games were cheap, but these are just being practically thrown away by retailers, with some titles selling between £3 and £5. I even picked up a copy of ICO new for a fiver. The first game I have decided to play through first is Forbidded Siren (terrible British dub and all), which is a Japanese horror game. If you took Resident Evil, then go on to Silent Hill then go on again, then that's what Siren is. Graphically the game is a bit simple, but PS2 games seem to look somewhere between PS1 games and the original XBOX, but not rough, which was surprising. I guess I wasn't looking for realism.

I have to admit that I am a gaming snob and used to look down on the Sony consoles, but I decided to sit down and write a list of PS2 games that I would like to play. I thought I would be hard pushed to hit 10. I hit 45. That's more than my Gamecube and 360 collection put together. I think it's a matter of proportions. Whilst there are a lot of poor PS2 games and sequels, film cash-ins, etc. there are still many quality titles going back to 2001 that stand up today in 2007. Perhaps one could look at the PS2 as a modern day Sega Megadrive (Genesis to the US folk) as the XBOX could be compared to the SNES.