My Favorite Console of all Time

In my humble opinion, the original Sony Playstation was by far, the greatest video game console of all time. This is, and will possibly be, my most beloved gaming platform (not counting PCs). I miss the PS, and sometimes I wish I still had one. There are a lot of memories I associate with this machine, and with a lot of its great games. There's much I could put forth as to why I would daresay this system is better than every one that has come after it. Better than the X-Box, PS 2 and 3, Wii and GameCube. But my biggest reason is mainly a philosophical one.

This game was possibly the one best reason to own the system.

For me, the PlayStation represented the complete balance between good graphics and gameplay. Never before or since this system, were the two things so harmonized. Now I'm sure that someone could make a legitimate argument against this. But this is my opinion, based on my own personal feelings about game design and theory. Maybe I could be proven wrong, but it's not about asserting my claim. It's about expressing my personal beliefs and feelings as a gamer.

The Playstation was the first to introduce a lot of things into the gaming mainstream. If it wasn't the first, than it was the first to popularize concepts that hadn't really taken hold before it. Using discs instead of cartridges, full motion video, memory cards and unprecedented production values, made this the most exciting system to use in a long time. While systems and accessories came before the playstation to handle things like FMV, and discs, they never saw the commercial success that the Playstation enjoyed.

One of my favorite RPGs of all time.

For all the advancements that the PS revolutionized, it was still bound by the technical limitations of the time. Which nowadays seems quite funny. I can't help but smile at the bygone era when some games would span multiple discs, like FF 7. It makes me feel all that more nostalgic for the system.

Because of those limitations, developers realized that a game couldn't just look good, it had to actually be good. They didn't forget that a game succeeded or failed on the depth of its gameplay, and not how impressive it could look. Covering over a badly designed game with awe inspiring visuals and effects was still not an option.

One of the most original and fun titles for the PS. I loved putting in my game discs to see what monsters I could get out of them.

Before the fifth generation of consoles, you had the super Nintendo and Sega genesis, as the top competitors in the console field. The graphics, compared to the Playstation and N64's, were crude and primitive. Yet those systems produced some of the deepest and most venerated titles of their time. Fast forward to the Playstation 2 and X-Box. Each possessed a level of graphical quality that far surpassed that of the Playstation's, but can we honestly say that the games for them were as good or memorable?

In the middle of these two extremes, we find the Nintendo64 and Sony Playstation. Where graphics and gameplay met each other in perfect unison. Playstation games were better than those found on earlier systems. The hardware was available to offer more features, process faster, and deliver more computing power, add cinematic graphics and effects, and you had a masterpiece of a console. Like the yin-yang, graphics and gameplay represented two opposing forces in total balance with each other. Once the PS-2 and X-Box arrived, this synchronization would be lost forever.

I was still in high school when the second playstation came out. It was an exciting time to be a gamer. I don't think any console would be this completely hyped up until the Wii. In terms of sales and impact, the PS-2 probably dwarfed its predecessor. I'm not a statistician, so I don't have the sales or production numbers, or anything like that. But the PS-2 was huge, awesome and could be argued at least in terms of popularity, the most successfully marketed system of all time. While I wouldn't argue that the quality of the hardware was exemplary, something was lost between the two playstations. Some indefinable charm or quality that the original PS one possessed.

I saw the games that had come out for the PS-2. No doubt they looked incredible, played incredible, but I couldn't help that something seemed out of place. The graphics almost seemed too good. That developers were starting to lose sight of what made a game great, and instead let themselves get swept up in the sheer entrancing power of the newest visuals and graphics.

One of the most epic, emotionally engaging RPGs for the PS, or any other system.

Look at the most successful games for the PS 1, and I think you'd find that indescribable magic that made them so endearing. Think Final Fantasy 7's, incredibly deep story and scale, coupled with its charmingly simple 3D graphics. A perfect example of a game that used the graphics of the time to complement, not overshadow, its strong narrative, colorful characters, eventful plot and meticulously realized world. Or the simpler, 2D graphics of a game like Lunar, but sprinkling beautiful anime cutscenes throughout its lengthy adventure.

Was there a system before the PS1's, that had over a hundred characters in one of its game's like Suikoden? Did we ever see games so completely creative before the PS 1, like Parappa the Rappa or Monster Rancher? Have we seen any games quite like them since?

A fun RPG with a great opening animation.

To be fair, I believe the balance may be returning. There is hope that the dueling forces of graphics VS gameplay will once again work as one to create truly great games. The mystifying effects of the latest graphics have begun to wear off, and developers are striving harder than ever to recreate the time honored genres we know and love. They have begun to innovate again, and to see the potential not just in delivering good graphics, but delivering a good story, extensive and deep features, and to take games to the next level. However, the PS-1 was the first, and still the only system, that never lost sight of what made a game great.

The memories I have, the afternoons of getting lost in the wonderful worlds of the PlayStation titles, the friendships I made exchanging stories and experiences with the system, will last with me for a long time to come. The playstation doesn't just remind me of good games, but of a simpler time in my life. *sniff* I have to stop now and lament the fact that I can't still pop in a disc of FF7 one more time. But that's ok, being a primarily PC gamer now, there's always Dragon Age. Oh yeah!