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PlayStation 2 impressions[03.04.00] » We've got our hands on Sony's new system -- find out what we think, and why you shouldn't put water and paper clips in the PSX2 at the same time. (Warning signs and wallpaper included!) Sony's PlayStation 2 has quickly become one of the most sought-after systems ever. The hype behind the 128-bit powerhouse slowly built into a near-frenzy as the Japanese release date grew near. So now that the system has finally been unleashed upon the world, one question remains: does it stand up to the hype that preceded it? GIA agent J.T. Kauffman takes a closer look, giving you impressions from the very opening of the PS2's box to the system itself. "Opening the large blue box that the Playstation 2 ships in feels right at home. Upon lifting the top flap, you see a small cardboard shelf that holds the controller (the new DualShock 2), the hookups, and the new 8mb memory card. Anyone that remembers opening their original Playstation will remember that this is exactly how the first was packaged. Removing the items and lifting up the cardboard flap reveals the PS2 system beneath, wrapped in protective padding and held in place with styrofoam. Pulling the system out is surprising at first due to its roughly 7-pound weight. Peering in the box once more will reveal the literature for the system as well as the utility card. "Starting with the more boring items first, it's quite apparent to any first-gen PSXer that the AV cables for the PS2 are identical to the original system's. The power cable, although not a carbon copy, is quite similar too. At first glance, the new 8mb Memory Card appears to be the same as the original PSX memory card. Closer examination reveals that the card is slightly larger, and has less rounded corners. Sifting through the literature that accompanies the system, one can learn very important facts about his or her new PlayStation 2, such as the ever-important 'Fire coming from the disc drive is a bad thing,' message (conveyed through an oh-so-cute picture). Other favorites include 'Dumping water and paperclips into the disc drive at the same time is bad (apparently dumping them in the disc drive at different times is okay),' and 'Small children should not dance on the system.' The remaining papers that come with the system include a service guide, a warrantee card, and a DVD player control guide. "Shoving those things aside, we come to the DualShock 2 controller. Like the memory card, the DS2 is nearly identical to an original Dual Shock aside from the blue 'DualShock 2' that adorns the the area near the cord, above the 'S' in Sony. Picking it up is another story altogether. The DS2 is roughly half the weight of the original, with the spinning weights in the grips being greatly reduced in weight. Very close examination shows that the controller is not totally black, but has small silver specks throughout the casing. In all, it's a very attractive controller. "Now for the system itself. The casing for the PS2 is an absolute work of art. It is truly a sight to behold with your own eyes. While the images of the system have been widely circulated, there are some things that have gone relatively unnoticed. The keen of sight will have seen the five symbols that adorn the area above the drive door. These symbols include the CD & DVD logos (both ROM and Video on the latter), as well as the Dolby and DTS logos. The lights on the reset and eject buttons glow a cool green and blue, respectively, while the system is powered on and active. The former turns red while the system's main power is on if the system is powered down. Noted previously, the PS symbol on the drive door rotates so that it looks correct whether the system is vertical or horizontal. What hasn't been noted previously is the fact that the symbol does not spin freely, but can only be rotated 90 degrees. Ejecting the disc drive shows how the discs magically stay in place while the system is standing upright; Sony has put a small lip on the bottom of the disc caddy to keep the disc from falling. Moving around to the back, one can find that the PCMCIA card slot sports a black plastic placeholder. Ejecting the placeholder reveals an that it sports an embossed PS logo. Attempting to re-insert said placeholder proves to be quite a challenge, and it is not recommended that it be removed in the first place. Another quirk that has gone generally unnoticed is the lack of visible screws; the entire system is void of them. The places that it can be assumed the screws reside be are covered with small square pieces of plastic (which could probably be removed with a bit of effort). The one odd thing about the system's appearance is the lack of the blue triangular stand. While the system is almost always pictured with one of the two stands attached, the system ships with neither. While this isn't a huge deal, it would have been nice to have one in the box. "Hooking the system up and switching it on, the boot-up sequence appears. The black screen fills with a blue smoke and grey boxes, as well as swirling lights. These lights zoom in and become part of the on-screen display, swirling and playing around in a circle. While the boot-up sequence is nice on its own, what makes it even nicer is the fact that it is all rendered real-time. After the boot, two choices appear on-screen: Browser and System Configuration. Selecting the latter causes the screen to morph once again, with more abstract shapes appearing. Five boxes appear in the forefront, each containing different options. The first, Clock Adjustment, is already set and running, surprisingly enough. Next comes Screen Size, where gamers can choose between 4:3, Full, and 16:9. The first two choices appear to only affect the System screen and not games, while the latter, being the HDTV ratio, may be brought into gameplay as well. Following Screen Size is Digital Out (Optical) and Component Video Out, both options for gamer's with high-end entertainment systems. Finally comes Language, where both Japanese and English are displayable. Switching to English changes all of the system set-up screens, much like the Dreamcast's langauge switch, although unlike the DC the PS2 continues to display Japanese characters in the memory card screen. "Heading into the Browser, one of the swirling lights leaves the circle and becomes your cursor. This cursor will allow you to select anything that is in the system, including memory cards (both original and PS2 cards), audio CDs, game CDs, game DVDs, and DVD-Video discs. To help you tell them apart, each has a different icon: PS2 cards are black, original cards are grey, and each of the discs is represented by the colored bottoms (black for PSX games, blue for CD PS2 games, and silver for everything else). Selecting the memory card will display the contents of the card in full polygonical glory. At first, only the System Settings, System Driver, and DVD Player Drivers are available to view. Pressing the triangle button will show more information about the selected file. This information includes the files location, the File Type (either Software, Setting Data, or Save File, as well as either Playstation or Playstation 2), the File Size in kilobytes, the last Update Time, and the File Protection (either Copying Prohibited or none). For those interested, both the System and DVD File Drivers feature Copying Prohibited in the File Protection slot. Back in the memory card manager, pressing the circle button enters you into the normal Copy/Delete screen, with the name, Update Time, and Size all being displayed as well. This is also the screen that you get the best view of the polygon icon. While the system files are rather boring, other icons, such as Drummania's, are quite nice (the DM icon being a full model of the Drummania Controller). Even original PSX save file icons get some polygon treatment here, as they are pasted onto a thin box. One part of the Browser that was quite disappointing was the audio CD player. Gone are the selectable on-screen patterns that later PSXs had, replaced by a simple rotating cube. While not many people actually use this feature, there are people that do (such as myself), and the lack of graphical prowess in this area was disappointing. One part of the browser that had to go untested was the DVD Player, as no Region 2 DVDs were on hand to test. Overall, though, the Browser is done quite nicely, and is easily the best memory card/system/disc manager for any platform. "Back at the main system screen (and listening to the soothing ambient ocean sounds that the system provides), pressing the triangle button will jump you to the Version section. This shows what version Unit, Browser, CD Player, PlayStation Driver, and DVD Player you have (the first being the product ID of the system, and the rest all currently residing at versions 1.00). This suggests that these are upgradable, be it through firmware upgrades or simply new memory card files. A very nice feature indeed. A closer look at this section shows that both the PlayStation Driver and the Unit selections have additional options to them. The PlayStation Driver contains the Disc Speed (Compatible or Fast) and Texture Mapping (Compatible or Smooth) options, providing better load times and graphics, respectively. The only option in Unit is Diagnosis (Off or On); I'm not sure what this does, but it sounds like something not to fool with, so I didn't. "The final part of the PS2 set is the Utilty disc, which was a slight disappointment. No demos are to be found save a cheesy MPEG-2 sample file (an underwater scene). The rest of the disc contains a user's manual and the Drivers that are pre-loaded onto the memory card. The user's manual is totally in Japanese, and the Drivers aren't even readily accessable. Instead, one has to navigate through a couple of screens to find them. This is going to be a disc that is a good thing to have, but a disc that not many people will get much use out of. "Although not part of the core PS2 set, one last thing worth mentioning here is the standard game packaging. While it has been known for quite some time that PS2 games use 'modified DVD keepsake-style cases', exactly how they would be modified has been known until now. It turns out that the modification is the addition to a memory card holder, complete with an embossed PS logo, directly above the disc holder. Both PS2 and original PSX memory cards fit snugly into the holder, and are easily removed, yet not easily jarred loose. This should prove to be a welcome addition to gamers that frequently bring their games to friends houses, as well as a good way to store cards on a day-to-day basis. "From here all that is left to do is put a game disc in the system and begin playing. If the games are as high of a quality as the overall system presentation, then Sony's goal of PS2 sales that will eventually top the original system is an achievable one."
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