With its October 26th release date imminent, GamingcovePS2 contributor Steven Chen decides to spill the beans on Sony's next-gen console.
Unless you’ve been trapped under a very large boulder for over a year with no access to gaming news whatsoever, you’ve probably heard of a little box of wonders that goes by the name Playstation 2. When I first heard that Sony was working on a second Playstation I was a little bit skeptical. I mean, Playstation 2??? Couldn’t Sony come up with a better name than that ? (Note: That was a (bad)joke.) It sounded like something you call a bad sequel to a movie, take Home Alone 2, for example. With the concept of a bad sequel in mind, I expected the PS2 to be little more than an attempt to make consumers spend more money on something they already enjoy, with a few tweaks here and there. Boy was I wrong. Usually I am disappointed when something doesn’t live up to my expectations, but in this case I am more than relieved that the PS2 isn’t what I expected. As I read previews and looked at screenshots I came to realize that this system is going to rock! Now, enough babble and onto what you really want to hear. Answers!
The PS2 hits U.S. stores on October 26, 2000 with an arsenal of great-looking games that use the PS2 to its full ability. And not only does the PS2 have an awesome line-up of upcoming games, but, as you probably know, it is also backwards compatible with all your old favorites from the Playstation. However, you probably shouldn’t expect to see much of an improvement on old Playstation games aside from faster loading times and some simple filtering.
General Cost: $299
Includes:
Dual Shock 2 Analog Controller
8 MB Memory Card
AV Cable and AC Adapter
Dimensions: 12” x 7” x 3”
Supports:
PS2 CDs
PSX CDs
Audio CDs
DVDs
Interfaces:
2 Controller Ports
2 Memory Card slots
1 AV Multi-cable Output
1 Optical Digital Output
1 USB Port
1 iLink Port
1 Type III PCMCIA Card Slot
Internal Computing Power CPU: 128 Bit “Emotion Engine™”
System Clock Frequency: 294.912 MHz
Main Memory Direct Rambus (Direct RDRAM)
Memory Size: 32 MB
Co-processor: FPU (Floating Point Unit):
Floating Point Multiply, Accumulator x 1, and Floating Point Divider x 1 Two Vector Units: VU0 and VU, Floating Point Multiply, Accumulator x 9, and Floating Point Divider x 3 Floating Point Performance: 6.2 GFLOPS
Graphics and Imaging 3D CG Geometric Transformation: 66 Million Polygons per second Compressed Image Decoder: MPEG2
Graphics: “Graphics Synthesizer”
Clock Frequency: 147.456 MHz
Embedded Cache: VRAM 4 MB
Maximum Polygon Rate: 75 Million Polygons per Second (flat)
Audio:
Sound: “SPU2+CPU”
Number of Voices: ADPCM: 48ch on SPU2 plus definable, software programmable voices
Sound Memory: 2 MB
Input/Output Communications
IO: I/O Processor
CPU: Core Playstation CPU+
Clock Frequency 33.8688 MHz or 36.864 MHz (Selectable)
Sub Bus: 32 Bit
IOP Memory: 2 MB
CD-ROM at 24 x speed
DVD-ROM at 4 x speed
The only thing I can find wrong among that list of impressive features is the fact that the PS2 will only have two controller ports. That means paying another $40 or so to pick up a multi-tap if you get sick of beating the living hell out of one person at a time (which is what I’ll be doing to Jolex of GamingcovePC all day come October). Anyway, onto the good stuff. The PS2 will be compatible with your old Dual-Shock controller, but it also comes with a brand new Dual-Shock 2. What’s the difference? Well, you won’t be able to tell by the design. Aesthetically, it is no different from its predecessor, but the old dog has just learned a new trick: Analog. Yes, every button on the new Dual-Shock 2, with the exception of start and select, will be pressure sensitive. I can’t really think of when this would be especially useful but I’m sure some of the more creative (hint, hint) game developers will find a way to use it. The new PS2 memory cards will store as much data as 64 official Playstation memory cards and transfer 250 times faster. No more worrying about which save games you can sacrifice. As far as other stuff you can plug into your PS2, the PS2 also has a USB and an iLink port. USB is a standard port used on PC’s and Mac’s, which means that you might be able to use some of your computer peripherals and other hardware on your PS2. iLink, also referred to as “firewire”, is frequently used buy Sony electronic devices such as camcorders. Rumors that PS2 would come with a hard drive or a modem are false, although U.S. versions of the PS2 will have a 3 ½” drive bay for future add-ons.
Obviously, one of the big questions that everyone wonders about is, “Will my PS2 work as a DVD player?” The answer is a resounding, yes. PS2 comes loaded with a 4x DVD-ROM drive fully capable of playing your favorite DVD Video, (or at least I hope it is) The Matrix. I also have seen pictures of a DVD Remote with a receiver that plugs right into your controller port, estimated at around $30. So if you were thinking about buying a DVD player for your TV, why not just spend an extra hundred and get a PS2? =) And of course, how would you play your old PSX games without a CD-ROM drive? The PS2’s disc drive also reads CD-ROM’s and audio CDs at 24x.
In other stuff, many websites contacted almost every game maker developing games for the PS2, the following is what was released to the press. However, this list excludes potential games developed by Sony, as the guys at SCE have been very quiet about everything. With their contribution, the potential number of releases at launch could be almost 30, as opposed to the 18 titles that came out at the Dreamcast launch.
Madden NFL 2001 EA
Snowboard SuperCross (SSX) EA
NHL 2001 EA
FIFA 2001:MLS EA
Kessen EA
X Squad EA
Swing Away EA
Sim Theme Park EA
Street Fighter EX3 EA
Tekken Tag Tournament Capcom
Ridge Racer V Namco
Summoner Namco
Ready to Rumble Boxing THQ
Star Wars: Starfighter Midway
Unreal Tournament LucasArts
Evergrace Agetec
Armored Core 2 Agetec
Eternal Ring Agetec
Timesplitters Agetec
Fusion GT Crave
Smuggler’s Run Rockstar
Midnight Club Rockstar
The list contains some racing games, sports games, and even an RPG. This may be the first time ever that an RPG has been released with a console at launch. That’s a plus in itself. Okay, now that you’ve got the lowdown on this kickin’ system what are you still doin here??? This console will be out October 26th, pre-orders are being taken now, and the supply is, admittedly, limited. You can buy one by clicking the banner at the right (shameless plug ends here). Now who loves you ?
