6th Generation Appreciation Thread (PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, Dreamcast)

[kinger8938]

The more I think about it, this generation has to be my favourite. May have been a case of being the right age at the right time, I'm not too sure, but each system here brought something to the table.

The Dreamcast gave us arcade perfect experiences in the home, the PS2 just gave us a massive catalogue of such variety, the Xbox really ran with online play and made it work, then the Gamecube gave me personally some of my favourite games of all time.

Which system did you own, what were your favourite games etc?

 

[LewisRaz]

I had fully moved onto PC by this point. I did have exposure to the PS2 and XBOX through friends and have massive nostalgia for playing HALO co-op on that machine. Dont really feel much for this generation tho. I guess we all have different experiences

For me the 16bit ERA was the best console times.

 

[barmyllama]

I've owned all of them after they were relevant.

I was a PC gamer by the time they all came out, I'd been massively into the Master System, MegaDrive and original Playstation before then.

I did buy a brand new PS2 after seeing a TV advert for Gran Turismo 3. The one where the car just pulls over and takes in the view. That blew me away and I literally went out and bought the console and the game there and then. I played it to death and when I'd had enough I went back to PC gaming. Gave the console to the kids and I think they had a few games for it, but I didn't paly any of them.

My son had a GameCube and I played a decent amount of Mario Sunshine and have played that game through to about 60 odd shines a couple of years ago.

I've also played through the first Jak & Daxter game and Ratchet and Clank on the PS2. But despite owning well over 200 games for it at one point, it just doesn't do it for me.

My brother had a Dreamcast, which at the time I saw as a poor relation to PC gaming with it's Windows logo, keyboard and modem.

 

[kinger8938]

I sort of went to PC gaming during or on the back of this generation I believe.

I cant remember the specifics but I had a PS2 while I was in my first year of secondary school so I was about 11. Played games like Tony hawk, Crazy Taxi, the bad Crash bandicoots and lots of Bond games (I wasnt exposed to the proper great games until much later).

Then I went on to Gamecube, I remember using some Birthday money on the console and the Resident evil remake, probably a few years older. I really wanted Smash but it was either out of stock or not out yet at that time so I just had Resi until Christmas! And I'll admit, it was a bit scary for me, even though I loved 1-3 on PS1, the Graphics were just that much better... (starting to question my mums parenting )

Christmas came around, DVD shaped case in hand, unwrapped it and.. dad had got me Turok Evolution . It wasnt Smash, but I really enjoyed it.

Stayed on Gamecube and fell in love with games like Wind Waker, Smash Bros (eventually) etc until my Brother got an Xbox that he just didnt use. So I became hooked on Halo, and a terrible game called Brutal Force? I think that was it, bad 3rd person game. I then explored the world of online gaming with the release of games like Halo 2, and Burnout 3 takedown.

I guess this Gen also started a down hill trend. Halo 2 had Paid for DLC Map packs! Slippery slope and the industry lapped it up

 

[elh_2009]

I had just finished school not long after the ps2 launched and had just started working, I remember getting one straight away, I got a gamecube on launch day because I love Nintendo and the xbox not long after launch. Dreamcast well I didn't get one of them till about 5 years ago but one of my mates had one at the time and he loved it.

For me the previous generation holds fonder memories but this generation had some of the best ever games and games that really changed the industry, gta 3, halo and resi 4 exclusive to gamecube are just a few.

 

[almoststew1990]

I can't help but think the PS2 was the best of that generation. Such a wide range of games, so many high quality games simply through the number of games for the system, generally reliable enough console (I've had about 5 since 2002 or so and one that I got at a carboot sale had a broken laser after a year or so but the rest never missed a beat), decent controller (mmmm full analogueness), got quite cheap towards the end. Yeah the gamecube has the trump of being powerful and small and the xbox is very powerful and can get online "quite well", but overall I think the PS2 was the best. I can't imagine recommending a GC or Xbox to anyone today.

I also think it was the best era of gaming to be honest. Consoles powerful enough / DVDs big enough for some very large worlds (San Andreas) very nice looking graphics (God of War, MGS 3, GT4) very complete games (err... Tony Hawks 4?) but also not the massive time and money pit that developing games has become today. So there are quite a range of "A" and "AA" games like... errr... Simpsons Hit and Run, Spider Man 2, Gun, From Russia With Love... and I say this as someone who was most active gaming on a xbox 360 / PC after the PS2 era!

(Also I'm a huge Dreamcast fan but even I will admit that no DVD storage / player, one analogue stick, silly memory cards, silly game cases, not so many mature games... it's not the best of that generation!)

 

[pingwing]

That really is the gen that blew me away as soon as I saw it, every console was impressive and had something unique going for it. Only the N64 managed to do the same previously and nothing since.

My 12th birthday was about 2 months after the PS2 was launched and that was my present, it was unbelievable! Even if I only had Orphen sicon of sorcery and theme park world (that ran terribly on my pc at the time). That was well and truly a game changer for 12 year old me following my N64 and got ten's of thousands of hours out of it until I ended up with a dead laser at 16. Had 7 fat ones at one point (pilled on top of each other) as fiddling the lasers on broken ones to play GT4 was my thing as a teenager till I was given a slim. I think I have my 10th now (Silver fat one) just to relive the classics of Jak and Daxter, GT4 Burnout 3 and a couple of others.

My best mate at the time had a Dreamcast from launch day and when that was canned in 2001 I had to buy it (a TENNER with a bundle of games). The arcade at home experience and general all round madness of the console means I've had 4 over the years and collect like mad for it (I think there's about 50 odd games for it now in the box). Our friendship at the time was based on that intense rivalry on DC games (see Chu Chu rocket for one of the funniest teenage rivalries) and playing through all the arcade classics with the correct controllers, who honestly makes a fishing rod for a games console?!?

End of this generation I picked up a cube (another tenner) at uni, I wish I had spent more of my student loan on it as I'm now finally getting the game time into it.

I could never settle on the best on this gen, just never got into the xbox

 

[kinger8938]

Completely agree with the above list of actual industry changing games.

Resident evil 4 showed us how a third person shooter should play, bar a few control issues. GTA 3 gave us the open world formula, and Halo gave us proper first person shooter controls that actually felt good on console.

Theres also Killswitch, not a great game on it's own but from what I can tell it was first or one of the first to nail 3rd person cover based, gameplay then made popular by Gears on the following generation.

Also it was the generation of good licensed games. The Lord of the rings games for example, not bad for film tie ins

 

[Deleted member 77746]

When PS2 slimline had come out I had already moved onto a PC to play games. I still had a PS2 slim though.

 

[mattf]

I owned them all. I like the Dreamcast and Xbox the best out of the gen. I actually have all of them barring the Xbox at the moment.

I used the Dreamcast the most as I have gdemu and have a bunch of games to play

 

[dowie]

I'd skipped some of the earlier generations - had an Amiga 500 plus and a BBC B before that but got a mega drive 2. After that it was a few games on the family PC and then later my own PCs - stuff like Quake and GTA1 -> Vice City.

I bought a dreamcast as a bit of a novelty though barely used it and don't have many games - do intend to make use of it at some point.

Bought the PS2 slim purely for GTA San Andreas which wasn't released on the PC, I also bough Bully/Canis Canem Edit.

Bought the PS3 for the same reason - GTAIV, also bought Red Dead and GTAV

I'm not sure I'd bother getting an original Xbox at this point though I might get a new one and/or a switch at some point if backwards compatible or having original xbox or gamecube games to download.

 

[Steeps]

I remember all my friends having a PS1 while I was in to PC gaming, used to go to LANs but they didn't play online and didn't like the limitation of only 2 players on the PS1. When the Dreamcast was announced with online gaming and up to 4 players locally I was sold and I got one on launch... but my friends didn't. Eventually managed to convince one of them the DC was awesome and we'd spend many nights playing through demo discs of games, virtua tennis 4 player doubles was hilarious, chu chu rocket, re-volt etc. After that gen I went back to PC gaming. I bought a PS3 eventually to try and keep up but it seemed to have the worst parts of PC gaming (huge download patches) and consoles (limited to controller). Once I get my AV set up complete my Dreamcast will be on show as the main console, PS3 there for BD duties.

 

[jellybeard999]

Bought the PS2 slim purely for GTA San Andreas which wasn't released on the PC

Excluding the mobile versions, only the Stories games haven't made it to PC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto

I had an Atari ST, so made do with that for the most part, then got a PS1 as my first console and a PS2 after the initial price drop. Because of this, the PS1 and PS2 are my favourite consoles... I believe nostalgia plays a heavy part in retro gaming.

I'm less fussed about the Gamecube and Dreamcast - though they have some interesting titles, unless you have some affinity to them, there's not enough to warrant going back to them cold IMO. I have inherited an XBox 360, which I believe has some backwards compatibility, but I've not looked into it yet.

 

[dowie]

Excluding the mobile versions, only the Stories games haven't made it to PC

I meant at the time - it was originally released on the PS2 and it was the reason for me buying the PS2 as it wasn't available on the PC at the time.

 

[phatboy]

Still own them all, fantastic machines in their own rights too

So many classics!!!

 

[sja360]

I remember all my friends having a PS1 while I was in to PC gaming, used to go to LANs but they didn't play online and didn't like the limitation of only 2 players on the PS1. When the Dreamcast was announced with online gaming and up to 4 players locally I was sold and I got one on launch... but my friends didn't. Eventually managed to convince one of them the DC was awesome and we'd spend many nights playing through demo discs of games, virtua tennis 4 player doubles was hilarious, chu chu rocket, re-volt etc. After that gen I went back to PC gaming. I bought a PS3 eventually to try and keep up but it seemed to have the worst parts of PC gaming (huge download patches) and consoles (limited to controller). Once I get my AV set up complete my Dreamcast will be on show as the main console, PS3 there for BD duties.

I remember playing 4 player on quake on the ps1, I'm sure there are other games that were 4 player too as they released a multitap for allowing more controllers.

 

[phatboy]

We played a lot of track and field, circuit breakers, pong and bishi bashi special (if you have never played bishi bashi.....you must!) on the ps1

 

[sja360]

We played a lot of track and field on the ps1

Total legend of a game, destroyed our hands smashing the buttons so much though lol I guess the game could have been seen as the early version of wii sport when I think of it now.
Wonder why the game hasn't been reproduced for the modern age. Even for online only.

 

[phatboy]

Total legend of a game, destroyed our hands smashing the buttons so much though lol I guess the game could have been seen as the early version of wii sport when I think of it now.
Wonder why the game hasn't been reproduced for the modern age. Even for online only.

The latest incarnations it got were on the Dreamcast and PS2 as ESPN T&F and T&F summer games on N64....all absolutely brilliant btw

DC version £13 sealed on eBay
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/233191059982

 

[ShortWarning]

My favourite from that generation was the Dreamcast. I remember booting up Sega Rally for the first time on my imported Japanese DC and being blown away. It was the first time I'd felt like I was playing an arcade game at home. Dreamcast>PS2>GC>Xbox although I honestly loved them all.