Every gamer has their favorite console. It's no secret that mine is the Playstation 2. With a love affair spanning 12 years and 230 games, it's officially the longest relationship I've ever had (chuckles).

I remember the first time I got a PS2. It was Christmas 2001. I was 11 years old. My first game was WWF Smackdown Just Bring It, which was the whole reason I wanted the system. I was a big wrestling fan (still am), and Smackdown and Smackdown 2 were my favorite games on the original Playstation. So, I wanted a PS2 just for the newest installment in the series. Little did I know it would last me so long, and deliver so many incredible gaming experiences.

Fast forward to the present day and my collection spans 230 games, and counting. Granted the system has had its fair share of horrors, but I don't know of any system with nearly as many awesome games as the PS2.

It was a system that was made by its game library, not by the quality of the hardware. Technically, the Xbox was the more powerful system of the time, and current gen consoles absolutely blow it out of the water when it comes to specs. But you can't play specs. They're just numbers. You can't back it up without a slew of amazing game titles. And that's exactly what the PS2 has.

I've planned to do this for a while. My plan was to come out with this when the PS2 officially ceased production. It's a few months late, but I will be laying out a comprehensive list of my Top 50 favorite PS2 games of all time. I would like this list to serve a little bit as a primer. For people who haven't experienced the greatness of the PS2, perhaps it will serve as a buyers guide.

I had previously wanted to limit it to 2 games per franchise, but really, after looking at it more, I've decided to only include one game per franchise. This will allow me to include more games. So, that means excluding a lot of sequels, but I felt this would be for the best in the end.

Just an FYI though, as my next 5 blogs will contain the list (10 games per blog). You will not be seeing any Final Fantasy games on this list. Nor will you be seeing any turn-based RPGs at all. This is a "favorite" game list, and therefore it is my opinion only. Turn-based RPGs have never been my cup of tea. The only ones I really loved and got into were Earthbound on the SNES, and the very similarly playing Pokemon games for the various Nintendo handhelds. Other than that, I don't really play them.

I also made the decision not to include any sports titles on the list. Although I will give an honorable mention to NHL 2002, MLB 2005, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, each of which I sank thousands of hours into (I never buy them year by year, I only wanted one game for each sport because I don't follow any sports closely), it just seemed weird including them. The above titles are my personal recommendations though, if you want to track down some really good ones and you don't care about graphics or up-to-date rosters.  

You will also not see any games I don't own. I may have played them, but not long enough to form a good enough opinion. So, you will not be seeing ICO, Beyond Good & Evil, Psychonauts, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance, Black, Okami, Rez, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, or several other notable titles simply because I haven't tracked down copies of them yet.

So that's it. My next blog will be #50 to #41, and I hope you will enjoy my list. Thank you!

- Jason