Today I finally got the PS2 I ordered a week and a half ago. Thanks to EB Games refusing to complete my order unless my shipping address was associated with my credit card, I didn't have a shiny new PS2 to play with last weekend following midterm hell. Though the problems I've had with shipping addresses and my wannabe credit card irritate me to know end, I guess I appreciate their efforts to protect my money. I really should just get a real credit card. It'd solve 84.78% of my problems, while only introducing 34 1/2 new problems into the complex equation of my life.
I got the package within half of an hour of getting to the office this morning, which was unfortunate. All day it sat by my side, calling to me. And yet I couldn't go home and play with it, because I had class, and had to work on a cs project, and had to do some work. An eternity later, I made it home with my package under arm.
The unit itself is very sleek, but it's too big. If I were Sony, I would have made it as wide as the discs, and made it as tall as necessary. It feels very solid compared to the PlayStation, for example, but it makes me wonder how they used all that space, especially when I look at the puny Dreamcast sitting next to it. I don't like the tray loading drive at all. The system has to be on (there's a switch in back) before I can eject the tray to put in my game. The system is also pretty noisy, though I imagine the Xbox will be even worse. My final real comment on the system is that the LEDs on the box are beautiful. One is blue and one is green, and though they're rather harsh and bright, their unique colors make them super cool to look at. No boring red LEDs... except for on the controller. Oops. Way to drop the ball, Sony! A nice blue glow from my controller would have completed the effect.
The first game I popped in there (after turning it on, because I couldn't put in a game until it was on) was Star Wars: Starfighter. This game is the reason I got a PS2. Well, that and the ability to play my PlayStation games. The first thing that hit me about the game was that it took forever (and an evening) to load. After way too many loads, I finally got into the game, had a little fun, and crashed. Upon crashing, I was very displeased to see that the game had to reload the level. As far as gameplay goes, it's pretty much a complete compromise between a simple arcade shooter and a complex computer space flight simulator. This is a good thing. There's a lot of flexibility, but there isn't so much that it'll bog down the casual gamer. Though I played for awhile tonight, I'm still working on perfecting the control. It takes awhile to master, but I'm having fun with it. My only real problem with the game is the horrendous load times. Well, that and the slight visual glitch that happens when the "Mission Completed" banner pops onto the screen. What a shame. So close.
As for SSX -- I didn't spend that long playing it. The load times weren't nearly as bad as Starfighter, but the graphics weren't nearly as amazing nor the courses nearly so complex. SSX looks to be even more difficult to master than Starfighter, but I had a lot of fun just playing it for a few minutes. It made me want to get out and go Snowboarding, which must mean that it's doing a pretty good job. Even the crashes in the game make me wince and think "Ouch! That hurt!"