I second Deni's Psychonauts recommendation, with the caveat that it's a little better on the XBOX while still being a fantastic game.

Please go ahead and defend a mediocre game like Zone of the Enders 1. Seriously.

CS, the EB website actually lists all of those games being in stock at my local EB (one game I was interested wasn't there, so I scratched it off of the list myself), so hopefully I'll find them. The past few times they've had huge stacks of PS2 games, but no B2G1 sale, so I didn't bite. Maybe I'll try to hit the store tonight and pick a few games up.

Also, is ZoE1:ZoE2 :: Dark Cloud 1: Dark Cloud 2?

Pretty much RR. That comparison is pretty apt.

Alright, so here's what I wound up getting.

1 PS2 8MB Memory Card (for all the games)
Vexx
Pryzm
Onimusha 2
Onimusha 3
Shinobi
Resident Evil 4
Zone of Enders 2
Grandia III
God of War II
Final Fantasy XII: Collector's Edition
Radiata Stories

They had a case for Okami out, and it was listed as being in stock in their system, but they were hunting through the drawers and couldn't find a copy of it. I substituted it with Grandia 3 (mostly because I'm the only person on earth that liked Xtreme, so I figure I might be the only one that likes 3). I got Vexx and Pryzm because I'm a sucker for mediocre platformers and I've heard they're alright (and they cost $4 each, though one was free). They had 3 copies of Persona 3, but I didn't want to drop $25 on it.

Got the whole thing, plus an Edge subscription incase I ever have to buy another used game this year for $110 including tax. That comes out to about $10 a game, or $9.10 if you consider the memory card a game.

So pretty much the only games left I might want to eventually get are the Prince of Persia series, Psychonauts, Wild Arms 4, Suikoden 5, Persona 3, and Okami.

I didn't like Xtreme at all, RR, but Grandia 3 is a good amount of fun. Come to think of it, I liked it more than I probably would've given that it didn't play like Grandia Xtreme, but more like Grandia 2.

You didn't buy Psychonauts. You're a disgrace. :(

If God of War II cost $25 or more then you are a terrible human being for buying it instead of Persona 3. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun game, but it's also amazingly short. I would've been pissed that I bought it back when it first came out, except it was so short I could still sell it on Ebay for a full refund.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume they just didn't have any copies of Psychonauts.

There was no Psychonauts. :( Someone must have grabbed the copy between yesterday when I checked what was in stock and when I hit up the store this afternoon.

GoWII was $18 (well, it was my freebie with buying Grandia 3 and ZoE2) which I think is still a little steep, but my girlfriend really likes the first God of War, so I figure she'll get a kick out of watching me play this one and maybe that'll give her enough motivation to finish struggling through the first. Also, Persona 3 was $27 which was considerably more expensive than any of my other games, so it would have blown my savings scheme. :(

SouthJag, that's what I'm actually a little worried about with Grandia 3. Pretty much the main reason I love the Grandia series is the battle system. I could pretty much care less about stories in 90% of RPGs nowadays, and that game served up exactly what I wanted. Xtreme was really more of a dungeon crawler with RPG battles than a typical jRPG.

Edit: Can anyone tell me if Rachet: Deadlocked is worth a purchase? I really liked all of the other R&C games (they did a better job with all the sequels than the Jak or Sly teams), but I'm a little wary with how they changed the formula in this one.

Alright, you're excused on GoW II then. Plus it would've been crazy to buy a used copy of the original P3 for even $25 since you can get FES (a bunch of extras/weapon customization added to the main game plus the epilogue that's basically a shorter sequel) for $30 new. I still see copies of that in Sears, so it's not that hard to find.

I haven't really heard anything good about Ratchet: Deadlocked, but I don't think it's supposed to be horrible either. Just kind of meh. It'll always hold a special place in my heart thanks to the Dead Zone episode that revolved entirely around it as the hot must-have Christmas item.

Also, since q was bashing on me for getting Pryzm and Vexx I just want to say that I like platformers since they generally don't have any wasted time due to story and they were both $4 (one of which was free because of Onimusha 2). It was either one of them or the Bouncer. Not really fantastic choices either way.

You should never consider getting Bouncer. Unless maybe if the store is paying you to take it off their hands. Even then it's arguable if it's a good decision.

The Bouncer... wasn't that the interactive movie Square made to test out their motion capture engine?

Agreed. If anything The Bouncer is like that smoking hot blonde you went to high school with but couldn't add for shit or conjugate a sentence if her implants depended on it. Sure she was pretty to look at, sure she had the curves to match the look and it felt OK to handle her but she swore up and down that 2+2=JELLO and you were ultimately left to make sure she went the way of the buffalo for fear she would drop your IQ by association.

Just as a matter of interest, what's your definition of a short game? I only ask as I never finished GoW2 but I can't remember how many hours I spent playing it before I got distracted.

I liked it, but then I like all the R&C games. The only thing different about it is instead of going between planets, you're going between arenas. The game focuses much more on combat instead of combat mixed with platforming/puzzle elements, but I don't think it detracted from the gameplay, and there's still a story to be had.

I think that PS2 players should try the following games :

- Resident Evil 4: the best horror game ever, in my opinion.
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: a good action game.
- Tekken 5: one of the best fighting game ever !
- Tomb Raider: Anniversary: this remake of the first TR game is just excellent.

I just wanted to fill you in on something real quick: There's a decisions before a huge branching off point in the game that'll effect what events you'll experience (and what characters you can recruit) from then until the end. There's also no way of going back and picking the other option. Just a heads up.

Also, Deadlocked is fine. The episodic way the various arena planets are setup is somewhat limiting but the weapon customization system, AI bots, combat and humor definitely make up for it. The New Game+ mode and tons of skill point-based unlockable features will definitely keep you playing this far longer than you would expect.

Wouldn't Subsistence be the better choice, what with that extra content and the new camera? Ultra props for the name, man. I loved that guy AND that game.

http://i36.tinypic.com/2n1xem1.gif

After going back to look at the journal entry I made after beating it, I'd say it was probably 7-8 hours at best. It only took me around 2 weeks to finish it, and I'm pretty slow. I know a lot of people would say that's fine for a platformer like God of War, but most of my problem stemmed from how it could easily have been much longer. It ended just when the story was really picking up, and the Making Of disc showed an Atlantis world they'd planned that could've doubled the length of the game plus an area they dropped that was essentially complete with enemy AI already programmed.

GoW2 was fun while it lasted, but in the end it just left me thinking "that's it?"

I think that was more God of War 2's fault (the bullshit cliffhanger was one more nail) rather than the general lenght of 7-8 hours.

Gears of War, Max Payne, ZOE(2), Portal, Call of Duty 4, etc are all relatively short games, but it's all quality time instead of 20 extra hours of filler. To complain about surface length is completely silly, especially at so low prices.

Yeah, that was my real problem. The more I think about it, the game would've been just fine if it hadn't had the completely unnecessary cliffhanger. It all depends on the game whether length ends up mattering. I mean, I beat Klonoa 2 in less than a week and still loved it.

I think I must play games incredibly slowly compared to a lot of people. I can't remember how long I was playing GoW2 before I stopped but it was a good nine hours at least I'm sure and I didn't even get to the end. It seems to have taken me twice as long to finish my first run at story mode in Too Human than most people too.

Obviously I'm methodical, not just slow...

Okay guys, so I got a couple games from Gamestop as I said I would:

Front Mission 4, Final Fantasy X, and Max Payne 2 (Also Star Ocean but that's a new game and on the PSP :s ) However, since apparently Max Payne 2 is utter shit on the PS2 (Or so says Qwarky), what's another title worth getting in the $9.99 and under Bin?

Looking at their website, you can pick up either Manhunt, Sands of Time or R-Type Final for $9.99

I see Castlevania: Lament of Innocence and Freedom Fighters as well.

Do not