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A Critical Look At the PlayStation 2: Part II, Peripherals and Software
by Jeremy Horwitz for Gamers Today
After taking delivery of my PlayStation 2 console, I was anxious to determine whether there was any truth to the stories I had heard about its peripherals and software. Was it true that the brand new memory cards have defects? Do the Dual Shock 2 controllers really have pressure-sensitive buttons? Are the first games really just on par with what Sega has released for the much less expensive Dreamcast?
Sony ships every Japanese PS2 console with a new PlayStation 2 Eight Megabyte Magic Gate Memory Card, a memory card which is physically identical to the black memory cards Sony has previously manufactured, but contains two significant technological advancements encryption security technology and much greater memory capacity. Frankly, the Magic Gate security stuff seems pointless for such low-capacity memory cards; a feature that Sony has probably thrown in to prevent unlicensed companies from making cheaper alternatives to Sony's product. The extra memory is great, but companies are already finding ways to quickly use it up: saved games on memory cards are now represented by polygonal 3-D models seeing a rotating Tekken character as an icon is a neat touch, though perhaps not the wisest way to use such limited space. It's great that Sony wants to sell more memory cards, but there should be a development rule against using more than 150k on a single game only the most wasteful developer would consume so much space in saving even the most complex set of variables.
Because the PS2 console does not retain its DVD movie drivers in a ROM or Flash ROM chip, the memory card has become an integral component of the PS2 system it now holds your DVD movie drivers, which can be re-loaded or updated from the machine's included utility disc. Early post-launch PS2 reports had it that memory cards were not working properly, either because the cards themselves were defective or some software was corrupting them. Though I cannot speak conclusively on the memory card defect issue, I can tell you two things: first, the memory card that came with my system has worked seemingly without incident, even though I have been actively using the system and playing Ridge Racer V a game once thought to be associated with memory card problems. Second, and despite the previous point, I have been reluctant to buy a second memory card until Sony officially explains the nature of the problems that affected so many people immediately after the launch. Though I can restore my DVD drivers from the utility disc, I'll be exceedingly upset if I lose my saved games.
Every PS2 also includes a single jet black Dual Shock 2 controller, the "sequel" to the company's popular, well-designed and now-standard PlayStation Dual Shock. For the uninitiated, a Dual Shock has a traditional digital joypad, two analog thumbpads, 12 buttons (four on the top shoulders, six on the face including start and select, and one when each of the analog thumbpads is pressed down), and a built-in rumbling feedback function. The differences between Sony's newest controller and its predecessor are subtle perhaps a little too subtle for some tastes. On the bright side, the Dual Shock 2 has somewhat superior vibrating motors and the twin analog joysticks have been tightened up a little. Sony, however, has been touting pressure-sensitive buttons as the DS2's biggest new feature, but frankly, they don't feel especially well-implemented, either alone or by comparison to how Sega has achieved pressure sensitivity on the Dreamcast and earlier Saturn controllers.
Rather than putting in, say, two or four highly flexible spring-loaded buttons on the top shoulders of the DS2 controller, as Sega has done, Sony hasn't changed a thing about the shape or feel of the Dual Shock, yet added sensitivity to every button except the start and select buttons. This includes the "digital" joypad, too. Because they look and feel the same as digital buttons, it's easy to see why so many people doubted that the buttons were actually pressure-sensitive, but they are you can test the feature in the controller settings menu of Ridge Racer V, where you'll notice just how impractically small is the range of pressure you have to apply in order to differentiate between soft, medium and hard pressure on a given button. If the proof is in the playing, I'm currently dissatisfied: in playing RRV, I haven't felt as if I could actually use the pressured buttons to regulate my acceleration or braking as I could on Dreamcast driving games. Simply put, there's little reason as of today to throw away your old Dual Shock controllers they're PS2-compatible, cheaper, and nearly as good. Given that Sony has touted peripheral compatibility as a PlayStation 2 feature, it's hard to imagine that the company will allow development of PS2 software that requires pressure-sensitive buttons.
The only remaining rumor to address about the PlayStation 2 is the increasingly repeated claim that it's not significantly more powerful than a Dreamcast because the early games have polygon counts comparable to the most recent DC titles and anti-aliasing problems besides. There is only some truth to that rumor throughout most of each game, even though there's a lot to be moderately impressed over, you're unlikely to say "wow, I can't imagine a video game system is doing that." Fundamentally, Ridge Racer V and Tekken Tag Tournament look less like breakthrough titles than noticeably more polygonally complex versions of PlayStation 1 launch titles. What stands out most about Tekken Tag Tournament, for example, is the level of detail in the chest muscles and clothing wrinkles of its characters but then, Dead or Alive 2 for the Dreamcast is probably just as impressive in those respects. And whereas DOA2's backgrounds are clearly fully three-dimensional, Tekken Tag's are bizarre the arcade game used multiple layers of flat 2-D artwork to simulate 3-D, but on the PlayStation 2, there are what appear to be largely 3-D background objects that are circumscribed by camera motions to look like the old 2-D backgrounds. In demo mode, though, the game's camera flies through the backgrounds and reveals a level of 3-D depth that you never, ever see during actual gameplay, which is just plain weird. And shockingly, there are parts of Ridge Racer V that are visually less impressive, at least in conception, than Ridge Racer Type 4 for the PlayStation both games have airport tracks but RRT4's actually shows you driving past massive airplanes, and RRV's does not. RRV's tracks look just like those in the first Ridge Racer, albeit in higher resolution and with only an occasional trace of pop-up in the remote distance.
Some have claimed that these first games have anti-aliasing problems that detract noticeably from the graphic presentation, distractions most prevalent on large-screen televisions. Let's be clear about what the problems are, and are not: there are not PS1-style polygonal seams with flickering white or blue dots, as were seen in the original PlayStation Ridge Racer. There are not blurry or chunky, Nintendo 64-style textures. There are two problems edges of objects are visibly jagged against one another, and objects do not appear to be filtered in a manner that makes them look equally smooth as they change dramatically in distance from the front of the screen. Both problems are most noticeable when two sharp colors are right next to each other, as in the black edge of a car against a light gray road or lighter gray building, or the red and white colors of "sharp turn" arrow signs. And both problems are more visible in Ridge Racer V than Tekken Tag, and the filtering issue is barely even present in Tekken Tag.
But in rare moments, Tekken Tag Tournament sneaks something in that definitively shows off something major that the Dreamcast cannot do, say, having 30 or more polygonal characters all moving on-screen at once without slowdown against a 3-D background (see Mokujin's ending), or offering a highly realistic lighting and reflection scheme that the Dreamcast would have to struggle to approach. Ridge Racer V is similar; there's no comparison between the boxy car models and environments in the Dreamcast's most graphically advanced second-generation racing game, Sega GT, and the highly detailed cars and scenes in RRV, but only people who know what they're looking for will notice the differences. Though the PS2 is capable of motion blurring, haze and advanced smoke and particle effects, the environmental effect enhancements here are very subtle; you might note that building windows reflect light, and the brightness of the sun in your face changes based on your elevation and location on each track. But there are moments where you are forced to concede just how close RRV looks to its PS1 predecessors, namely that the tracks are nearly identical to those in the first Ridge Racer and RR Revolution games, and that the tunnels, for example, look no better than those on the PlayStation.
Graphics don't tell the whole story, of course; gameplay, longevity, and sound quality are all important factors in assessing these games. Suffice it to say that Namco hasn't made any radical advances here in fact, they've made literally no advances here. After Tekken 3 and Soul Calibur, fighting games which improved upon the arcade titles' longevity by adding side-scrolling action stages, sporting events, or goal-based role-playing fighting modes, Tekken Tag Tournament has an amusing but relatively disposable bowling mode which adds a laugh but not a real reason to turn on the game again. TTT also provides some of the shoddiest endings in the Tekken series, though trying to unlock all of them will keep you playing as long as any other Tekken title. And the gameplay is all but identical to Tekken 3, a game I loved, but had no pretension of calling innovative. Soul Calibur is simply offering a superior control scheme at this point, say nothing of its more balanced set of moves. On the bright side, Tekken Tag's music is memorably weird, some of the best in the series in my view, though replete with robotic 'vocoder' lyrics that if not so muted would be annoying.
Similarly, Ridge Racer V's music is solid, even where it becomes more lyrical than its predecessors, though Namco is slowly drifting away from the rave music that inspired the series. Its gameplay, sadly, has taken no steps from its predecessors, and in some ways it has fallen back. It fails to integrate some of the driving condition management skills (avoid driving off of cliffs, drive on sloped or bumpy roads) needed in Namco's now aging but pioneering Rave Racer arcade game, has none of the vehicle purchasing components of Namco's PS-original Rage Racer, and makes no other advances in control or other driving technique. This is, in essence, just Ridge Racer Revolution with better graphics, and like RRR, its longevity is distressingly low, unless you really, really think that mirrored tracks and time trials are enough to keep you playing. There is simply no excuse for Namco to reuse the same tracks, albeit with minor changes, every time it releases a driving game. And it would be nice to see something new in the artificial intelligence department; if you're good at the other RR games, you'll probably whip right though this one, because the computerized cars are no smarter or more random than their PS predecessors. They just look prettier, and not enough so.
PlayStation 2 games are taking heat not because they're inferior to comparable Dreamcast titles, but primarily because the first PS2 games fail to flaunt the system's superiority. Sony simply raised expectations beyond a level it could match with its initial software lineup, and Sega was ready with a great line-up just in time for the PS2's launch. Next year, the story will be different; second-generation PS2 games will look dramatically better than DC software, and I predict that it will be many years before Sony's system reaches the limits of its capabilities.
Though fans of Tekken and Ridge Racer will unquestionably want to play these new PS2 editions, and they'll probably be prominent in the system's American launch, there is absolutely no reason for even a fan to rush out and buy them right now. Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast, on the whole, is probably a more impressive arcade enhancement than Tekken Tag, and Dead or Alive 2 is more impressive than both games, combined. Considering their high price tags and merely modest graphic and gameplay enhancements, my strong recommendation would be to hold off and wait until prices drop considerably lower on both the PS2 software and the console itself. If you want to wait for the U.S. release, Sony may have had a chance to fix the various glitches that pervade the design of the system and its components.
