| Grand Theft Auto: Vice City |
released October 2002, purchased October 2002
This was a hotly anticipated purchase, and for a while, I really didn't think it measured up to the hype. It took me a few months of on-again, off-again play before I seriously got into it. My initial reaction was that it just wasn't new enough, that it was just more of the same GTA3 stuff.
Once I warmed up to it, I think this became my favorite GTA game thus far. The faux 1980s setting casts the game in a high-spirited light. It's more broadly drawn, more cartoonish, than the other two in the series... and I think that helps counterpoint the gangland violence and Scarface-inspired plotline. Vice City also gave the radio stations a massive upgrade: more real music and much longer loops.
Vice City proved that GTA3 was no fluke. And although today GTA is the 800lb gorilla of video game franchises, back then it was nice to see a great game get a great sequel.
Memory Score: But there's no way I'm listening to K-ROCK.
| ATV Offroad Fury 2 |
released November 2002, received November 2002
Free from work.
Sucky and boring.
Played it online once.
Ironically, I received another copy when I bought my second PS2, the one that came bundled with the online adapter.
Memory Score: No personality, a million racing games do it better. Only for ATV fans (?)
| Ratchet and Clank |
released November 2002, received November 2002
I remember playing the first Ratchet demo when Mike and Scott were coming over for a Grand Day In. They asked how it was, and I said it was nothing special. I may never have played the actual game had I not received it free from work.
And it turned out to be quite a fun little title. Of course, today it's a franchise behemoth, but then it seemed like a sci-fi Mario clone with guns. Sony did a bang-up job developing this series, which, as I've said, was part of their initiative to invent brand new mascot-based exclusives to help distinguish the PS2.
Still, very Mario64. Later games amped up the weaponry angle (and the sidebar missions), but this one got a lot of play out of jumping platforms and a punishingly short life meter. There was a happy cartharsis to shooting things, but even that seemed like a Sony pastiche on Super Mario Sunshine, which came out a few months prior. They did make main character Ratchet come off as a big jerk... although that personality quirk didn't stick, probably because it was so awkward. This was definitely a prototype; while the Sly series got worse from 1 to 2, Ratchet got better.
Memory Score: Just rising action for game #2.
| SOCOM: US Navy Seals |
released August 2002, purchased January 2003
I bought this one solely for the gimmicky technology.
SOCOM has since become a leading name franchise for the PS2, but I tell you, this first outing did very little to impress me. The single-player missions were too trial-and-error. Your partners had trouble following your commands. And, as I found out once I picked up the broadband adapter, the online game was just awfully ugly. Almost unplayably ugly. Not to mention the eternal battle between the players desparately trying to be tactical versus the chatty losers only interested in screaming obscenities into the mic.
I liked the gag of issuing voice orders with the mic, and I loved that they would talk back to me inside the headset. I wish it had worked better, but it was a fun idea. Maybe they fixed it during one of the 16 sequels that came out, but since this one didn't do much for me, I bailed. I'm not a big fan of games that attempt to be so realistic that they squeeze all the fun out of the gameplay... especially when they look as lousy as this one did.
Memory Score: I think I made it to the third mission
Next week: After my online goes Black, I finally catch up on my Dante, buy Metal Gear AGAIN, and travel to that man-made monument to hubris: Stiver Island.
