What are your favorite PS2 games?

About 2 years ago I bought a used working PS2 slim at a local pawn shop for cheap. I would like to make a PS2 play box that contains the console, controllers, memory cards and about 20 good games. I don’t know much about what high quality games were for the console but I would really like to know.

However, for the PS2 I do not like playing any realistic racing games or first person shooters. I would find interest in combat racers, fighting games like Soul Calibur or any other really fun games like that. I think the first person shooter genera are best played on the PC and not on a console.

I do know of games like Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Guitar Hero or God of War, unfortunately I do not have interest playing those games. I am looking specifically for games that are PS2 exclusives or were best played on the PS2 and not any other console.

The best games I own include:

Wipeout Fusion
Shadow of the Colossus

Anyways, what good PS2 games should I keep an eye out for at my local pawn shop or for cheap on Amazon? Your help would be great.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the best (also on PC). I also love Dragon Quest VIII, for combat racing Twisted Metal: Head On is the best.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is the best of the best actually, and it's a prequel set in the 60s, so you can check it out even if you haven't played another MGS game.

Also Silent Hill 2 if you're into psychological horror.

For fighting games, Capcom vs SNK 2, Street Fighter 3 (Anniversary Collection), DOA2, Tekken 5, and Soul Calibur 2 would be the jams.

Pretty much any game from that time was "best played" on the PS2; it was the market leader so of course it was usually the target hardware. If you refuse to play any FPSs on the platform then you're denying yourself some awesome games.

Ace Combat Zero
Beyond Good & Evil
Black
Burnout 2
Champions of Norrath
Dark Cloud
Final Fantasy XII
Freedom Fighters
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy
Hitman 2
ICO
Indigo Prophecy
Kinetica
Okami
Psychonauts
Ratchet & Clank (any one)
Rez
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
SOCOM 3
SSX 3
Timesplitters: Future Perfect
Tony Hawk's Underground

Timesplitters 2
Grand Theft Auto 3
Red Faction 2
Killzone
Tony Hawk Underground
Twisted Metal Black

Damn ps2s were nice.

Bucket said:

ICO

That one is actually on my list of great games to buy.

Bucket said:

Kinetica

I have that one but It is really hard for me to play for some reason.

Timesplitters 1 to 3
Half-life PS2 port
The Warriors
The Punisher
GTA VC and SA
Ratchet and Clank 1, 3 and Gladiator/Deadlocked
Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3
Rayman 2 (known as "revilution") and 3
Tomb Raider Legend
Turok Evolution (might have been Xbox, don't remember that shit)
Headhunter

There was a lot of good shit on that thing, liked my Xbox better though for things like Doom 3, Munche's Oddysee, Morrowind, Strangers Wrath and the fact that Timesplitters 3 could support 10 bots on custom maps on this port rather than the PS2's 7.

Tekken 5
Mercenaries Playground of Destruction
Black
Silent Hill 3/4

The Rachet and Clank games. All of them. I feel the series was at it's peek on the PS2, with the third game being the best. The PS3 games were merely ok.

ATV: Offroad Fury series
MX Unleashed
MX vs ATV Unleashed and Untamed
Hot Shots Golf Fore!
GTA: Vice City
Half Life (PS2 port)
Gran Turismo 4
Crash Nitro Kart
Ape Escape 2 and 3

ATV Offroad Fury series - Solid driving game with races and stunt competitions on fairly open maps. Exploring thw wide maps are fun, and you can even make your own waypoint race tracks in the first game.

GTA3-San Andreas - Any one of these, really. If anything, these were responsible for the PS2.

Mortal Kombat: Deception - Probably the best of the 3D PS2 era MK games. It lacks the rough gimpyness of Deadly Alliance and the stripped down difficulty and lack of unique characters that Armageddon features.

Star Wars: Racer Revenge - More of a personal favorite than a "great" game. Racer Revenge is no Episode I Racer from the PC/N64, but it is a solid sequel with strong combat driven racing. I prefer the lack of weapons in this game, which favors raw brutality or raw speed as your two methods of racing.

Impboy4 said:

Hot Shots Golf Fore!

Tiger Woods is the golf game to get. 2003 or 2004 is a good compromise between arcade style and realism - though realism for an EA Sports game looks a whole lot like useless feature creep.

I like mechas a lot, so Armored Core 3 and its various expansions.
Also the underrated gem Seek & Destroy, taught me a lot about tanks and damn it's so fun, you can customize your tanks with rocket launchers, laser beams, it's crazy and addicting, i recommend it if you want some serious fun.
Also pretty much everyone mentioned above.
And DBZ BT3, to me the best 3D DBZ game there is, it's worth it.

Most of the games I would recommend have already been listed, so I'll go with Urban Chaos: Riot Response. I think it was a highly underrated game, and it came out after the 360 was released, and just before the PS3, so I think it flew under the radar. And extremely enjoyable FPS, with pretty good graphics for the PS2. Not as good as Black's, but good.

And it was made by Rocksteady, and people seem to cream their pants over them now. But it was really competent, satisfying gunplay, and it had a cheat system that kind of reminded me of GoldenEye, you had to be good to unlock things, but it wasn't impossible. And it gave you a reason to replay the levels. So yeah, I really enjoyed it, but I think it was overshadowed by the new consoles.

My PS2 game library is rather tiny.

I would say my favorite would be TimeSplitters, although I have only played the Demo and not the actual game (can never find it for sale in stores, also cannot seem to find the PS2 controllers, A/V cables, and AC cable despite having the PS2 and memory cards).

Of the games I owned, I liked Okage and Gran Turismo 4 was OK despite being very repetitive.

My game library however is virtually all OPM Demo discs, which are not a thing anymore. Some games I would play the demos to multiple times such as Ratchet and Clank. I should dig around and find all those demo CDs.

Well... I think the PS2-era represents a period where I became disappointed with games in general. Maybe it's just a matter of taste, since they took a course that don't kept me motivated at all. Some examples can be the major concern with realism and all the cinematographic language. It's kind of interesting and legit, but not exactly my cup of tea. I don't like other things too, like quick-time events, long tutorials or any kind of passive experience like that.

If I really think about it, I guess the PS1\Quake-era was the last one for me in terms of gaming history. :-)

There's a shit ton of JRPGs for the PS2, many of which I've never heard of and I don't think anyone else even cares about. Only reason I know they exist is because they were all my grandmother ever played.

My favorite PS2 games were and are still Mortal Kombat : Shaolin Monks ,GTA San andreas , Sonic heroes, TMNT .

Medal of Honor Frontline. Sure it's an FPS which the OP isn't looking for because they are better played on PC but this was a PlayStation exclusive. A really damn good one too, annoyingly.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein, preferred this version to the PC.
SOCOM 3. Maybe Combined Assault as well.

PaRappa The Rapper 2: Mainly because It's the catchiest rhythm game, and It's story and characters are pretty adorable. Overall It's my favorite PlayStation series.

Sonic Heroes: It was pretty nice, but the FPS gone down to shit sometimes, plus the Special Stages were... Rage Inducing.

Crash Bandicoot The Wrath of Cortex and Crash Twinsanity: It was literally the first Crash game that I even attempted to 100% complete, It was overall pretty fun. And Crash Twinsanity was pretty funny as fuck.

Timesplitters: Pretty cool FPS, It kind of reminded me of SiN (that one forgotten FPS and stuff), level editor and all. It's pretty nice.

Tritnew said:

Crash Bandicoot The Wrath of Cortex and Crash Twinsanity: It was literally the first Crash game that I even attempted to 100% complete, It was overall pretty fun. And Crash Twinsanity was pretty funny as fuck.

Wow, I didn't know there was Crash games on the PS2, or at least i've never heard about them. Interesting (I'm watching the first on youtube now, looks like a cool game).

Sometimes I have the impression that platform games had a decline from this point onwards, in terms of popularity.

How has this thread gone on this long without anyone mentioning the Jak games?

Tritnew said:

Sonic Heroes: It was pretty nice, but the FPS gone down to shit sometimes, plus the Special Stages were... Rage Inducing.

Haven't experienced any low FPS with it, and the special stages were actually easier with PS2 Joystick than on PC .

Sodaholic said:

How has this thread gone on this long without anyone mentioning the Jak games?

I'm honestly surprised no one mentioned PaRappa 2 at first till I did, PaRappa Is literally a hidden gem of a series I guess, at least In terms of wackiness, songs and characters.

I didn't know PaRappa went beyond the PSX

Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 3, Silent Hill 2-4, Run Like Hell, Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City, Manhunt, BloodRayne, Half-Life.

REZ. :3

FFXII: The exploration flowing into combat works well and it's generally quite fun to play, although the characters could probably use a bit more distinction combat-wise (barring basic stats, they pretty much function identically).

Tekken 5: I may have kind of grown up playing Tekken and this one is probably the most fun I've had out of the lot. I like Dark Resurrection on the PSP more though, considering you can equip Yoshimitsu with his Tekken 3 outfit. :P

Mortal Kombat: Deception: I miss the Hara-Kiri. I miss it a lot.

Cyanosis said:

Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 3, Silent Hill 2-4, Run Like Hell, Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City, Manhunt, BloodRayne, Half-Life.

I... Never cared for the Half-Life port for PS2, It's close to a actual port of the Dreamcast version, but eh.

Nobody's mentioned either one of the Katamari Damacy games? ....I actually don't blame anybody for that, if you've been exposed to Post Hell in any capacity. =P

Now, this list isn't just exclusives or not-shooters, as it's easier for me to answer the broad "favourite PS2 games" question:

Devil May Cry 1-3
Midnight Club 2+3
TimeSplitters 2+Future Perfect
Red Faction
GTA Vice City
Destruction Derby: Arenas
Killzone
Goldeneye: Rogue Agent
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 1+2
Guitar Hero 3

That's far from a list of everything I played, but either for good split-screen multiplayer or great action, they're what I'd most recommend. Manhunt and GTA3 get honourable mentions too. I would plug the SOCOM series whole-heartedly, but all the fun there was online and the servers must be long down by now.