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[Eddie-Griffin]

Now that we are two years into next gen, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the PS4 and PS2, Sony's two highest selling gaming consoles they ever made, and in terms of home consoles, the two best selling of all time iinm. With PS2 at 155 million and the PS4 at over 117 million.

Both consoles were successful and brought us many fun and high-quality games and third-party exclusives across old and new IP.

Now that the PS4 outside of another year or two of thinning cross-gen releases is finally over, and Sony is no longer counting sales as production ends, looking back how does it fair compared to the PS2 in your opinion?

Do you think the PS4 was worthy successor to the PS2 and took the crown as Sony's best console? Or do you believe the PS2 still reins supreme?

 

[nocsi]

 

[jshackles]

My opinion:

The PS2 had a smaller number of highly polished games that were excellent
The PS4 had a higher quantity of more middle-of-the-road games (still worth playing)

Which one is better overall is objectively based on whether or not you want to play a few amazing games (PS2), or a lot of mediocre ones (PS4)

 

[plip.plop]

PS2 was on another level. It had Socom, Smugglers Run, Mark of Kri, Ring of Red, and Godhand. This list goes on and on.

 

[angrod14]

Part II released on PS4, so PS4 = King.

 

[nial]

The PS2, while great, is quite overrated (people probably think that just because it sold the most, it must be the best). In terms of first-party, for me it's PS1 > PS4 > PS2 > PS3.

 

[Die Namek Ability]

PS2 was great but the PS4 imo had a more memorable library. I was only 14 when we got our PS2 so maybe im falling to recency bias but i would say the PS1 was better than the PS2 as well.

 

[eastcoastkody]

its not even a comparison. PS2 is a runaway for best playstation. And arguably the best console of all time. it was many ppls first DVD player.

It had pretty much no competition for 2 years, so many big name third-party games were Exclusives. Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, Tekken, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts etc.

imagine if PS5 had Tekken 8, Kingdom Hearts 4, GTA 6 and Metal Gear 6 as exclusives lol

Look at the first 2 years of PS2's library. Banger after banger after banger. Compare that to the sad first 2 year lineup of the PS4

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

I voted other for PS1 because of these

FF 7-8-9
FF Tactic
Coolboarders 2
Resident Evil 1-2-3
Tenchu
Silent Hill

 

[Die Namek Ability]

I voted other for PS1 because of these

FF 7-8-9
FF Tactic
Coolboarders 2
Resident Evil 1-2-3
Tenchu
Silent Hill

Twisted metal 1,2, 3
Tomb raiders
Syphon filter
Legacy of kain + soul reaver
Metal gear solid
Gran Turismos
Destruction Durbies

Soooo many great games.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

PS2 was on another level. It had Socom, Smugglers Run, Mark of Kri, Ring of Red, and Godhand. This list goes on and on.

I think Xbox also had that.

 

[kunonabi]

PS4 was a functional games machine but outside of MGSV there wasn't anything super amazing on it for me. A couple of very good games but not much in the way of all time classics.

I was never a huge PS2 fan but there it has enough amazing stuff to put it well ahead of any Sony platform since.

 

[RoboFu]

Ps2 was hardware wise something that may never happen again. A custom gpu that could do transparencies and some post process effects with ease. It could do things that couldn’t be mimicked on the ps3 when they switched to an off the shelf standardized gpu.

Software wise they had an epic year on 2001 with GT3, MGS2, FFX , silent hill 2, virtua fighter 4, thps 4, ico, capcom vs snk just to name a few.

 

[Ozzie666]

That famous 2001 PS2 game poster speaks volumes. We still had light gun games, we had the 3D refinement experiences for Resident Evil, and Tomb Raider. Final Fantasy as well. I think the PS2 era, games and influences (backwards compatibility) was leaps above PS4. I view the PS2 from PS1, as I view the SNES from NES.

 

[small_law]

I think the PS2 is the best console, but the PS4 is far and away the most important. Sony was in bad shape at various times during the PS3's life cycle. Lots of bad decisions forcing more bad decisions. Somehow, Mark Cerny sold Sony Japan on his concept for the PS4 and they absolutely nailed it. The right hardware at the right time with all the right features. It fixed every failing the PS3 had and then some. Absolutely brought Sony back from the brink.

 

[semiconscious]

ps2 kicked the ps4's ass. ps3 came much closer to giving it a challenge...

 

[Rentahamster]

PS2 era was more revolutionary relative to the PS4. There's a lot of different variables, though, so it's really hard to compare. We're also highly biased depending on how old we are too.

 

[GametimeUK]

PS3 all day for me. I just really enjoyed the crazy amount of genres Sony explored in this time.

Combat action games like Heavenly Sword and God of War 3.

Platformers like Little Big Planet.

Different racers like Wipeout, GT, Motorstorm and Modnation Racers.

Your Sony narrative action game with Uncharted and The Last of Us.

FPS like Killzone or Resistance and online shooters such as MAG and Warhawk.

A whole lot of their games seemed so diverse that generation. Some stuff like Lair didn't land and there were some crazy concepts like that card game you had to play with a camera (Eye of Judgement I think it was called).

PS4 has some great games, but the fact I got into PC gaming around the time of launch really soured consoles for me. This gen is different I love the PS5.

 

[quest]

It's not really a fair comparison the PS2 had a lock on a ton of 3rd party games. While the ps4 had a great first party that is only a handful of titles versus the hundreds of exclusive excellent 3rd party games.

 

[El Muerto]

PS2 for sure. A good chunk of the PS4 library were ps2 classics, reboots, remakes, and continuations of ps2 titles.

 

[fart town usa]

Hard to say honestly. I'd say PS2 when you count on the fact that it can play PSX games.

 

[Black_Wolf]

I prefer the PS3 most of all, personally. It felt like the generation where Sony was most diverse in their exclusive (although not all were first party) offerings. A lot of great IP were also born this generation (Uncharted, Resistance, Last of Us, etc).

There were games in every genre - superhero games (Infamous 1 & 2), stealth games (Sly Cooper 4, MGS4), first person shooters (Killzone 2 and 3, Resistance trilogy), third person shooters (Uncharted trilogy), narrative-focused games (TLOU), hack-and-slash games (GoW3, GoW Ascension, Heavenly Sword), platformers (LittleBigPlanet, Ratchet Future Trilogy, Ratchet Into the Nexus), online arena games (MAG, Starhawk, Warhawk) - there was an exclusive in almost every genre that I can think of. This isn't even counting the lesser exclusives of lower quality (Lair, Haze, Ratchet All4One, Ratchet Frontal Assault, etc). Additionally, we also got remastered versions for many of the prominent PS2 and PSP exclusives (Jak trilogy, GoW 1,2, Chains of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta, Ratchet trilogy, Sly trilogy, etc), and we initially had full backward compatibility with PS1 and PS2 games.

The PS4 generation was great, but it feels like many of the games fall into the same third person narrative category (which is, admittedly, a very broad category). Obviously, Horizon, God of War, Spiderman, Ghost of Tsushima, etc all play differently, but they have a similar presentation which makes me miss the diversity of the PS3 generation. In the PS4 generation, we didn't get any first person shooters (outside of Killzone Shadowfall, which came out almost 10 years ago as a launch title), hardly any platformers (Ratchet 2016 remake is the only one of quality), no notable stealth games and not that many new IP (Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon are the two prominent new IP that come to mind). That being said, the PS4 generation had more third party support, which is definitely worth mentioning (the PS3 versions of certain games, like Skyrim and Fallout New Vegas, were terrible compared to the PS4 versions of third party games).

The PS2 generation wasn't my favorite, but I think its one of the most special. From a hardware perspective, it came out at a time that everyone was looking for a DVD player, so it served a dual purpose of both being a console and a media device for non-gamers. It also had great exclusive offerings of its own (Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper) and third party games as well (Grand Theft Auto Vice City, San Andreas, Budokai games, etc).

 

[SolidQ]

PS 1/2, is way ahead than PS4. Tons exclusive games and more enjoyable. PS4 have too small exclusive games library like 15 games only. I'm remember when i was school boy, and sold PC to buy PS2, due big library MGS/ FF/Burnout/Resident evil/JRPG games and many others. For me PS1/2 best consoles all time
I still have PS2 and can play Fatal Frame 2/3, Primal, Ghosthunter, jak and Dexter, Burnout 3, Haunting Ground, Rule of Rose etc

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

That famous 2021 PS2 game poster speaks volumes.

Took that long for it to get games eh? lol.

 

[Doom85]

Definitely my two favorite PS gens. I think I have to stick with 2 for now as:

-the quantity of great-excellent games was unreal. And there are still gems people can discover even nowadays, like, “oh shit, I didn’t even hear about this one!”
-there are still a good deal of PS4 games I haven’t even gotten to, compared to 2 where I’ve played most of the games I’ve gotten for it

That famous 2021 PS2 game poster speaks volumes.

Seriously, sounds like a potentially cool poster, please link as I can’t seem to find it on Google.

 

[ReBurn]

I enjoyed PS2 way more. But I was younger and required much less sleep back then.

 

[20cent]

PS2 had tons of exclusive games and genres, PS4 is just an alternative to PC/Xbox beside few IPs. Or at least that's the way I remember it.

 

[DragoonWalker]

My opinion:

The PS2 had a smaller number of highly polished games that were excellent
The PS4 had a higher quantity of more middle-of-the-road games (still worth playing)

Which one is better overall is objectively based on whether or not you want to play a few amazing games (PS2), or a lot of mediocre ones (PS4)

Absolutely untrue. And an insane statement.

The PS2 had quality AND quantity in spades, and much more. It had just about tons of everything, quality games in every genre you can think of. Unique games that only indie devs would make today but with decent budgets at the AA level. Tons of variety, everything from big adventures to weird obscurities to peak Japanese games. I had about a 300+ game library and nearly single one was fantastic and comparable to each other. The polish of AA-AAA games on the PS4 are undermined by their homogeneity, and both mechanics and variety pale in comparison to the endlessly interesting mid-budget titles big studios use to put out.

 

[radewagon]

While the win would always go to a working BC Playstation 3, the PS4 (especially the Pro version w/ an upgraded SSD hard drive) is Sony's magnum opus. In fact, as great as the PS5 is, it's honestly just riding the coattails of the PS4.

 

[bender]

The only PlayStation that I'll here arguments of being better than the PS2 is the PSX. Nothing else comes close to those two.

 

[Rickyiez]

All I know is PS3 is the worst .

PS4 has Bloodborne , that alone crown any system in my heart .

 

[Trogdor1123]

I was always partial to the first one myself

 

[Ozzie666]

Took that long for it to get games eh? lol.

yeah typo obviously..

 

[March Climber]

This poll will unfortunately lean heavily on one option due to the age range of the forum.

 

[GreatnessRD]

It didn't. And nothing after will ever come close to what the PS2 was. An age of well, Greatness.

 

[wvnative]

For me PS2 remains goat, but PS4 became #2 right behind it. I loved the SP renaissance and Japanese publishers came back full swing. Plus great indies and the console itself was mostly excellent.

Doesn't match PS2 due to variety not being quite there, and I feel like multiplayer games completely stalled this generation, if not for that...it MIGHT have at least matched PS2

 

[NightmareFarm]

Objectively better in pretty much every way besides a few games worth playing that aren't on the PS4.

 

[PSYGN]

PS2 was the most impressive to me. The jump from PS1 to PS2 was a lot more noticeable than any other generation. PS4 was also great, but many of the games started getting formulaic as companies started taking less risks with the higher development costs. Also, the push towards microtransacting everything and especially the lootboxes towards the latter half was gross.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

If PS4 could have kept the momentum it had in its first half of life, I would have easily rated it as the best Playstation system of all time. Sadly, it couldn't. So I got a One X and my PS4 just gathered dust halfway through last gen.

 

[Robb]

I doubt any new Sony console will be able to touch the Ps2. That system was the right one at the right time.

 

[buenoblue]

Newer technology is always better. You were just young and naive and full of hope and wonder when ps2 was out. Now your jaded and bitter but if you were the same age when PS4 came out as when ps2 came out you'd be mind blown.

Take away the nostalgia and almost every ps4 game on a technical and design level is light years better than a ps2 game. We have just become old and have seen it all before.

Imagine playing killzone shadow fall or knack in 2000! It would blow your freaking mind.

 

[Fabieter]

It was peak Japanese gaming with the ps2 so as someone who loves japanese games it's ps2.

 

[Perrott]

If PS4 could have kept the momentum it had in its first half of life, I would have easily rated it as the best Playstation system of all time. Sadly, it couldn't. So I got a One X and my PS4 just gathered dust halfway through last gen.

What are you talking about? Momentum in its first year? PS4's 2013-2014 was the weakest year of the console by far:

• Killzone: Shadow Fall (disappointment)
• Knack (disappointment)
• Resogun
• inFAMOUS: Second Son (average game, but widely regarded as inferior to its predecessors)
• The Last Of Us Remastered (a remaster from a game released the year prior)
• DriveClub (broken at launch)
• LittleBigPlanet 3 (came and went without much fanfare, was somewhat buggy at launch from what I remember)

Is that the best PlayStation system of all time to you? Don't make me laugh, the state and quality in which that lineup launched in was pathetic.

Your comment reads like you're trolling, especially that "I got an One X and my PS4 just gathered dust halfway through last gen" bit. So you're seriously telling me that your PS4 was collecting dust as it saw the releases of Horizon: Zero Dawn, Persona 5, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, Detroit, Spider-Man, Days Gone, Death Stranding, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, The Last Of Us: Part II and Ghost of Tsushima, while you were allegedly busy with the One X... uhhh... I guess playing that year's variation of Forza, launch-day Sea of Thieves (), State of Decay 2, Crackdown 3 and Gears?

Like, are you kidding me? Please tell me you were trolling all along, 'cause you're really getting me worried right here.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

PS2 >>> PS1 >>>>>>>>>> PS3 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> PS4 = PS5

Nothing compares to the PS2. It had a yuge library of amazing games:
Silent Hill 2,3,4
Final Fantasy 10, 12
Dragon Quest 8
Dark Cloud 1 & 2
Metal Gear Solid 2,3
Zone of the Enders
Suikoden 3, 4, 5
Rogue Galaxy
Siren
Kings Field 4
Harvest Moon: Wonderful Life
ICO & SotC
God of War
Resident Evil 4
Devil May Cry
Fatal Frame 1,2,3
Shadow of Rome
Okami
Burnout 3
Dragon Ball Budokai
Persona 3 & 4
Black
The Warriors
and many, many more....

I mean, seriously, It was a console that had games for everyone. Every single company wanted to make games for it, big or small.
It was hard to find a game that really, really sucked.
Now it's the exact opposite: it's hard to find games that do *not* suck.

 

[coffinbirth]

PS2 is a God-Tier console.
PS4 is not.
/thread

 

[drganon]

On a purely personal level, I got more enjoyment out of the ps4. I didn't have alot of money at the time, so my ps2 games library was somewhat lacking.

Still voted for the ps2 though.

 

[Knightime_X]

Ps4
Because technically not only did it have ps2 games it did them better than ps2.
ps2 didn't have bloodborne either. so....

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

What are you talking about? Momentum in its first year? PS4's 2013-2014 was the weakest year of the console by far:

• Killzone: Shadow Fall (disappointment)
• Knack (disappointment)
• Resogun
• inFAMOUS: Second Son (average game, but widely regarded as inferior to its predecessors)
• The Last Of Us Remastered (a remaster from a game released the year prior)
• DriveClub (broken at launch)
• LittleBigPlanet 3 (came and went without much fanfare, was somewhat buggy at launch from what I remember)

Is that the best PlayStation system of all time to you? Don't make me laugh, the state and quality in which that lineup launched in was pathetic.

Your comment reads like you're trolling, especially that "I got an One X and my PS4 just gathered dust halfway through last gen" bit. So you're seriously telling me that your PS4 was collecting dust as it saw the releases of Horizon: Zero Dawn, Persona 5, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, Detroit, Spider-Man, Days Gone, Death Stranding, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, The Last Of Us: Part II and Ghost of Tsushima, while you were allegedly busy with the One X... uhhh... I guess playing that year's variation of Forza, launch-day Sea of Thieves (), State of Decay 2, Crackdown 3 and Gears?

Like, are you kidding me? Please tell me you were trolling all along, 'cause you're really getting me worried right here.

So, you want to make this a list war? Love those. A lot of those games you listed as what I assume you think are great, didn't do anything for me. I prefer niche games to blockbusters for the most part, so I loved games like Odin Sphere remaster, Tokyo Xanadu, Digimon and Disgaea etc. but didn't care for Spider Man, God of War, Detroit and the like. Sony's Japanese titles became lacking mid cycle.

I even bought a PS4 Pro and it was hugely disappointing. The last half of the PS4's life cycle only had a few blockbusters, most of which I didn't care for, with the exception of FF7R and GoT, that's it. Wifi card went bad, it overheated, was loud and creaked, so yeah, I got a One X and Game Pass and had a much better time. Sue me.

Take your "I don't agree with your opinion, hence you must be trolling!" shtick elsewhere.

 

[pepodmc_]

It was peak Japanese gaming with the ps2 so as someone who loves japanese games it's ps2.

Yeah the same happens to me.
Its impossible for me to choose ps4.
Ps1-ps2 era was peak for japanese companies and games.
Now its all about inclussion and realism (from occident)

 

[DenchDeckard]

Ps2 was beast mode compared to ps4. It had everything imo. I rated the ps2, really liked the ps4.