PTE99: The Black Monolith

[Neon Ignition]

Here we are at the penultimate PTE and now it's Sony's turn. Sony has proven itself to be a very formidable force since entering the gaming arena. Whilst their handheld sector has dwindled off in its second generation, no company has probably had the level of consistent success that Sony has had since its first console with each selling strongly in total despite various highs and lows in the companies fortunes.

What are your Playstation memories, your favourite games and anticipated favourite console of theirs?

[Golgo]

PS2 hands down, for me, by dint of the greatest range of games 'ever', from the blockbuster to the utterly bizarre, like the Katamaris and Gregory Horror Show, while also picking up the best 'exclusives' from other consoles (e.g. Killer 7, Resi 4). Was always a bit disappointed by its lack of grunt compared to Xbox and Cube, but it made up for that in software range.

[noobish hat]

PS1, no questions. Tomb Raider, MGS, Soul Reaver, Wipeout, Resident Evil, Parappa the Rapper, Sentient, FFVII, FFIX, Silent Hill, Tomba, R Type Delta, GTA, I could go on all day. Similar to the N64, I strongly remember all the magazines me and my brother used to get, chief amongst them of course being the Official UK PlayStation Magazine. We'd replay the demo disc all month and never needed to rent games like we did with our Mega Drive before it. The mag was probably crap in terms of writing, looking back on it now. I seem to recall they gave Symphony of the Night an average score and lashed it for not having "proper 3D", and there was a big controversy around their bull**** score for the turd that was Phantom Menace. I just remember the mag for being hilarious, and absolutely stuffed with reviews and other features. Compare it to N64 Magazine, which at some points had as few as THREE reviews in an issue, PSM had about 30, minimum. Great, great times, and a library so huge you can still be exploring it now and find things you never even knew about, never mind played.

EDIT: Forgot about Rollcage!

[nakamura]

PS2. Because it does both virtually perfectly. One system will never have as much variety again.

[BaronSqwelch]

Never really cared for Sony, their consoles were always my secondary or even third console before I went PS4 this gen.

The VITA however is my favourite handheld ever.

[Neon Ignition]

I was really, really slow to get onboard with the PS1. It never really clicked with me massively as I was slow onto that gen so had waited it out for an N64. Once that system was faltering and I had the option to get a secondary machine the Saturn was going for a song and the line up appealed much more. I always had access to a PS1 and kept up with their releases but the whole image of it was such a turn off.

It did enough of a trick though that by the time the PS2 was looming I had my eye on it just as much as I had the DC and GC. True to tradition it was painfully slow at getting games out in the first year or two it felt but it was so diverse in content (once you got the machine to run multi-regions).

PS3... I don't know, I just couldn't get on with when it was revealed and announced and for once I didn't buy it at launch. The 360 did the job so well at the time and was on such a roll. It's launch games like Motorstorm, Resistance etc didn't do anything for me. I ended up with one as part of a mobile phone contract in the systems second year when Sony was reeling from its poor launch and from there it stumbled but with each update you could feel it closing quickly on the 360 where MS's complacency was setting in. By the end, I dunno, I think I enjoyed it as a system more than PS2. Just a really good, tick all the boxes format.

PS4. Everything's there. Bar the poor store and screen space wasting UI they got so much right with the console. From that standpoint it really could take the crown in time. But, it's still not delivered anything to really show its clout or to really make a mark (no I haven't forgotten Bloodborne).

So I voted PS4 could take it in time, but currently for me, PS3 was the heart stealer