Yeah, so, the Playstation 2 came out about a million years ago, and I just finally got around to getting one last weekend. I’m now in the process of trying to identify which handful of the several-thousand games in the PS2 library I want (that I can still get somewhere).

The actual reason for getting a PS2 was Katamari Damacy. If you haven’t heard of this game by now, you’re probably a sub-rock-dweller, as it’s quite possibly the most universally-adored game since Tetris. The premise is utterly ridiculous: You are a tiny Cosmic Prince. Your father, King of the Cosmos, got drunk one day and managed to destroy all the stars in the sky. He’s decided that it’s up to you to fix the situation, and thus sends you to Earth to roll objects up into large balls (katamaris). When the balls of rolled up things are large enough, they are launched into the night sky where they then turn into stars. Yes. The premise of the game is to make large garbage balls.

Sounds ludicrous, but it’s really fun and silly. If you have a PS2, you should go buy the game. If you don’t have a PS2, you should go buy a PS2 along with a copy of the game. It’s just plain old fun.

Today, Boolean and I went to EB. He needed a copy of Splinter Cell: Something Something for XBox. I tagged along so I could check out the used PS2 bin. The used PS2 bin turned out to be two very large sections of wall, lined floor to ceiling with games. Ho ho! I ended up buying used copies of Bard’s Tale, Shadow Hearts, Silent Hill 3, Beyond Good and Evil, and Final Fantasy X. Five huge games for the price of two-and-a-half new copies. The expensive one was Bard’s Tale, of course, since it’s still on the “New Releases” shelf. The rest ranged from $17 to $24. Given that almost all new games had copies on the used game shelf, I can’t see myself ever shelling out full price for a new PS2 title.

If you have PS2 games to recommend, feel free to drop a comment here. Here are some hints about what I do and don’t like in games:

1) I despise first person shooters of all descriptions. I just suck at them. I doubt driving with my thumbs is going to help that at all.

2) I suck at real time strategy games, and thus hate them. This definitely isn’t going to change because I’m simply too ADD to remember stuff for very long.

3) I like RPGs. The more RPG-y, the better. Favourite RPGs of all time include: Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind, Diablo, Dungeon Siege. Note: I have never finished any of these, see #2 re: ADD.

4) I like action puzzle games, but am of the opinion that most action puzzle games suck. I loved the first Tomb Raider. The rest of them sucked. Everything I’ve tried like Tomb Raider since has sucked. The Thief series had a lot of potential, but they blew it by making me actually have to disable/kill people. The shooting part of the original Tomb Raider was utterly incidental. Note: I also hate jumping/timed puzzles. Prince of Persia came close to being the sort of action puzzle game I like, except there was too much combat. No combat + all puzzles would be ideal. If you know of a game like this (any platform), please let me know.

5) I like sims. Sim City, the Sims, etc. The Sims: the Urbz looks retarded, so don’t recommend that one. I don’t think sim games really translate well to consoles, but maybe there’s an exception to the rule out there somewhere.

6) I like cute games. Katamari Damacy is relentlessly cute. I actually played Pokemon on my GBA for altogether too many hours. Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance sucked up a huge chunk of my life.

Right. Time to hit Egypt to check the beetles, then maybe log in to WoW for a while if it decides to cooperate. Then, maybe Bard’s Tale ’til I pass out. Yay weekends.