#ARE MY EXCUSE TO USE THAT ENVIRONMENT AND ITS MECHANICS MORE OR LESS TBH

[boof]

after ages of not having a working console my sister and i acquired a secondhand ps2 (and then a ps3 thanks roo) and have spent most of the year playing through our old collection together, so for posterity here are some fresh perspectives on some early-mid 2000s games we used to play:

sly 2 - 👍 good and fun as ever, the best in the series. somehow no matter how many times i’ve played it it’s still worth getting 100% completion every time 

sly 3 - 👎 turns out it’s bad. not heinous but just too gimmicky without much substance

jak and daxter - 👍 prob still my fave platformer! simple and charming, challenging without being too difficult. + a killer soundtrack

jak 2 - 👎 UHHH FUCK THIS GAME. the edgy direction naughty dog tried to take is such a jarring departure from the first game and it just doesn’t work. wandering around the city causing mayhem gta style is entertaining for a while but the actual missions are such a difficult, unfun, unrewarding slog idk how or why i even played it all the way through. might have been excusable if it was less outrageously punishing re: checkpoints and health

jak 3 - 👎 also bad for p much the same reasons. we never beat this game & i remembered why when we gave up in the same spot we did the first time lmao

tales of the abyss - 👍 still a huge favorite!!! there’s some slow moments in the plot and questionable dialogue that hasn’t aged well, but otherwise it remains a fun game w a lot of heart and great characters

ratchet and clank - 👍 not bad. nothing extraordinary? but solid

ratchet and clank going commando - 👍 prob still my fave of the series, expands on the original w/o losing sight of it. the ship levels suck though

ratchet and clank up your arsenal - 👍 i think i liked it more than i used to? i just don’t care for the focus on gunfight missions but the regular levels are cool

kingdom hearts - 👍 TRULY A FOREVER FAVE… i’m not too biased by nostalgia to see its faults, but boy is it still a good and magical time

kingdom hearts 2 - 👎 i wish i enjoyed this game but i just don’t very much. the only thing it has over its predecessor is mechanical & graphic improvements & those sure aren’t enough to make up for what a DRAG everything else is. would be considerably more stomachable if it had like 75% fewer cutscenes tbh

star ocean 3 - 👎 THE WORST. couldn’t even make it through bc it just wasn’t worth it. literally everything about this game sucks and not in a charmingly hilariously bad way

final fantasy x - 👍 i’m love so much…… the story! the characters! the environments! the music! + i hate atb so i really appreciate that the battle system lets me be slow and methodical

i think those are all the titles of note? can’t wait to stay behind the times in 2018 and play even more outdated games