Just got a PS2. Need games for it. Everyone is like “Oh you should get some of the Silent Hill games”. My dear friend those are like over a hundred bucks on ebay if ur lucky.
Haiiiii first post :3
An example of something I thought was neat. Final fantasy 8 can be bought for only 40AUD. (That's only 26USD).
To get ahead of you. No. Katamari wasn't released for PAL. :(.
I'm just poor, I'll save up for a copy of God Hand in like a decade ya know? For now I need the hidden gems that are cool. I already know that the Metal Gear games are good Ive been online before. They're also expensive :(.
@Jade_Fae Just to let you know, the sequel We Love Katamari was released in the PAL region. The original Katamari Damacy was not though. I even found a few on ebay.au for you to hunt down!
I'd make a list of titles you want and work through them - accepting some will be more expensive than others of course. And there are options for modifications to add storage to run the games from, but if you want to keep it original then discs are out there.
this is a bit of a cheat but making yourself a Free McBoot memory card and playing backups is just about the cheapest it can get, assuming you have the right tools. If you aren't into playing back-ups, it would still let you play import games which tend to be a lot cheaper.
I've been on a PAL PS1 and PS2 tear recently. Basically almost anything PS1 is expensive as heck, PS2 is a mixed bag but non-main stream JRPGs are usually expensive.
If you want an Insert Credit PAL PS2 game there is a copy of SOS: The Final Escape (aka Disaster Report) going on eBay for $40 AUD.
@joyousfrog See this is a great idea I just sorta… The thing about buying a game for real is that it forces me to get games I actually want to play. Whenever I can just download a bunch of roms I'm like a kid in a candy shop. I grab like 80 titles. The problem is that I then get overwhelmed and play none of them.
@Jade_Fae Oh I‘m actually totally the same way, import games feel like a nice compromise, they’re very affordable, but you get the great experience of checking out some cool box art and flipping through a manual and such, and the whole thing feels a lot more intentional. Downsides being you‘ll need to deal with parsing another language, and, again, you would need something like Free McBoot to play imports, since the PS2 is region locked…
I like J4U and Surugaya, but maybe other folks have better recommendations for where to get imports :-)
Also, I saw you’re a fellow game dev student, check your school‘s library :0 My school has a big ol’ wall of PS2 games for students to check out, it's how I got to play prohibitively expensive games like Def Jam Fight for NY and Silent Hill 3.
Jak II, Jak 3 and Jak X are all basically masterpieces. You can tell they are masterpieces because there is a large online contingent of gamers who will take every opportunity that they are mentioned to decry them. They are often compared negatively to the original Jak & Daxter, which is a good game. But Jak II, 3 and X are masterpieces, and they should be played immediately. Yes, they have flying cars and guns in them, and a somewhat unwieldy control system matched with difficult gameplay. (Rhythmically pounding on table) This is what it means to be a compelling game!
Also the Ratchet & Clank games, those are fun too. Not _as_ fun, the controls are too good.
Forgive me if this doesn't help but if having something physical in your hand is something that helps you play, if you get a FreeMCBoot, you can played burned discs. You need to download the iso and ESR patch it so there is a slight bit of effort there that marks it out as more than just grabbing roms.
I'm a UK PAL so I'm just going off UK ebay on these recs to buy:
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In your first post you said the Metal Gear games are expensive. In the UK MGS 2 and 3 are £2 a go so if you need help sourcing copies, I'm happy to get some and mail them
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Way of the Samurai (1 NOT 2) rules
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Tenchu Wrath of Heaven
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Tokyo Xtreme Racer
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Flipnic
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R Type Final
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Genji
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Gungrave
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Onimusha 1, 2 and 3
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Outrun 2006
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Ridge Racer V
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Resident Evil 4 (I know everyone has heard of this but it is the best game ever made and very cheap on PS2)
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Japanese copies of Silent Hill games are cheaper and have English VO. You need a way to play import games and google translate on your phone for item/puzzle text but that's a way to get them without the western prices
Poor people deserve to play classic games even more than rich people who should just buy the newest thing. Retro gaming can be the most bang for the buck, since they‘re so easy to play backups on nowadays! You’ve already done the hard part IMO which is finding a working unit at a reasonable price.
The Hacks & Hardware mods thread has had a ton of PS2 discussion. I recommend getting a $10 FreeMcboot memory card (someone on the forum could even make you one!…)
I‘ll mention a few more that haven’t been so far. These are all based on UK prices and availability.
These are in the sub-£5 realm:
Burnout
Everybody's Golf
Final Fantasy X and XII
Freedom Fighters
Lumines Plus
Mercury Meltdown Remix
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (the other two are not as beloved but are fine)
Rocky (not Rocky Legends)
Sega Bass Fishing
Soul Calibur 2
SSX Tricky / SSX 3
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4
Winback
XIII
These are a bit more expensive but still inexpensive:
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
Burnout 2 + 3
Crazy Taxi
Devil May Cry 1 + 3
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
It’s hard to know what cheap means to different people, but going off “only $40” in the first post, here’s a copy of Grandia for $40 (if you can put up with the inexplicable “ubisoft exclusive” cover). Here’s an ex-rental Dragon Quarter for $30 (doesn’t have a real cover though). Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land can be had for similar prices, as can Shadow of Memories. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, too. Bushido Blade is around there as well, but R-Type Delta seems to cost a little more.
If you want something arcade-y, Burnout 3 is fun! It is about $15USD over here, but I’m not sure if you all had as many printings of it. It is a racing game, but the Crash levels are closer to physics puzzles. It is video games as heck.
