SONY PLAYSTATION 2:

King of the Hill… for now
E³ EXPO 2001 COVERAGE
Reported by: Kyle Suggs
ThotMedia Freelance Writer

GAME TECH INFO

SYSTEM SPECS
CPU: 294.912 MHz Emotion Engine
Graphics processor: 147.456 MHz Sony GS
Polygon Performance: 66 million per second
Particle Performance: 150 million per second
Audio Channels: 48
Internet Ready: Future upgrade (additional purchase)
DVD ready: Yes
Max Resolution: 1280 x 1024
List Price $299

M A Y . 2 0 0 1 | L A , C A , U S A

INTRODUCTION
Last year Sony launched their second-generation Playstation system called the PS2. Due to several mistakes on Sony's part, the system could not be manufactured fast enough to meet the growing demands of eager fans. Nonetheless, the PS2 kept chugging along with a minimal install base and unhappy developers. Software makers claim the system is extremely difficult to develop games for and thus the quantity of games was nowhere near Sony's projections.

All this and they are still managing. In fact, here at E3 they have the most playable games on display; they should. They have been out for nearly a year now. The pressure for them will heat up quickly as winter nears. Sony is going to have some serious competition from two fronts.

CORPORATE STRATEGY
The Sony Playstation (PS1) out sold the Nintendo 64 (N64) by more than a two to one ratio. Sony did a fabulous job marketing the system to the “older” crowd. The CD capabilities made development much easier than the N64's cartridge based unit and thus were able to bring more games to market. Although Nintendo's bottom line was incredibly better than that of Sony (Nintendo has over 5 billion dollars in the bank), it is the wide consensus that Nintendo lost the last game console war.

So the Sony PS1 was King of the Hill. In this business it is all about momentum. So as not to sit on their laurels, Sony booted the management staff that made the PS1 so successful, hired new execs and began the process of launching their next system: The PS2. If you are scratching your head trying to figure out why Sony got rid of the first management team, then you are not alone. Ever since then, the project has been riddled with problems.

You may recall last year the chip shortage due to design flaws. This caused a major CPU recall, which cut the number of PS2s that were to launch in half. This shortage of machines lead to massively long lines and a PS2 price tag of 1000 bucks or more on eBay.

To compound this blunder, the fact that the system comes with a DVD player (and a very nice one I must add) lead many software developers to be reluctant to push full support to the system. The game designers were afraid that people were buying the system simply for it's DVD features. Since there is no way to really tell, Sony lost out on many 3rd party titles. In fact, after seeing this, Microsoft scraped its out of the box DVD capabilities on the XBOX. Microsoft requires you to buy an additional $29 remote control for DVD.

Aside from all of this, it is momentum that counts. By the time the new systems arrive in November, the PS2 will have enjoyed a full on exclusivity. They may not have the install base they had hoped to by now due to the shortage of systems and quality 3rd party games, but Sony is slowly picking up the pieces and putting things back together.

SYSTEM SPECS

CPU: 294.912 MHz Emotion Engine
Graphics processor: 147.456 MHz Sony GS
Polygon Performance: 66 million per second
Particle Performance: 150 million per second
Audio Channels: 48
Internet Ready: Future upgrade (additional purchase)
DVD ready: Yes
Max Resolution: 1280 x 1024
List Price $299

GAMES
Here are what I feel to be the TOP games that will be coming down the pipe this year and next for the PS2.

The Good
(Family friendly - a good romping, fun time)

Title	Developer	Comment
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex	Travellers Tales / Konami	Crash is back for another adventure
Jak and Daxter	Sony	Sony lost Crash Bandicoot as a potential mascot. This may be their choice.
Tarzan	Ubi Soft	Think of skate boarding in the jungle.
Tony Hawk 3	Neversoft	Sony is really pushing this title. Tony himself was here at E3 as well as a full invert half pipe where skaters and bikers showed their stuff to the delights of the crowd.
NCAA College Football 2002, Madden 2002, NHL 2002	EA Sports	All nice games

The Bad
(Not so family friendly - contains violence, mature, or occult/new age references)

Title	Developer	Comment
Destiny Warriors	Koei	Typical fighting game
Kinetica	Sony	This clever racing title would be a “Good” game if it were not to the partial nudity of at least one character that I saw.
Onimusha Warlords	Capcom	Adventure game that is intense

The Ugly
(Family? Forget about it - name says it all.)

Title	Developer	Comment
Devil May Cry	Capcom	Your kids are going to literally beg you to get them this title. Take a good look at it before you do.
Resident Evil	Capcom	The Resident Evil franchise is extremely popular and I suspect that this will continue on the PS2.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty	Konami	I watched in horror the press promotional trailer for this game. Although it was am awesome display of animation, I could not shake the extreme violence and gore that it seemed to glorify.



Mortal Kombat 5	Midway	Although this was not at E3, I would like to add it here to let you know that another MK installment is down the road. Won't this title ever go away?

FINAL COMMENTS
The PS2 had the most games at E3 and will most likely have the most games available in November when the XBOX, and Gamecube launch within 3 days of each other. This fact will make it a tempting buy.

The PS2 by far had the most horrific titles at E3. Just realize that with most systems, you can find that “diamond in the rough” game that is suitable for Christians and that provide quality entertainment the whole family can enjoy. With the PS2, you will just have to look a little harder.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this Christian Spotlight review are those of the reviewer (both ratings and recommendations), and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Films for Christ or the Christian Answers Network.