My boyfriend wants a PS2 game as a gift - I'm lost. Help!

The Game Room
1

Soo…my boyfriend and I are approaching an anniversary, and though I usually don’t ask people what they want for gifts (usually pay attention to them and know what they might like) but I was stumped on what to get him this time besides a Richard Dawkins book. So I asked, he said he’d like a new Playstation 2 game.

Problem is, the only video games I like are old-school, Tony Hawk or Madden, and Guitar Hero. And I only know that boyfriend likes:

Guitar Hero, but he has all 3 already
Burnout
Counterstrike
and he has a Grand Theft Auto game too

He has other games but I don’t remember, most were bargain bin purchases when he first got the PS2. But he doesn’t have too many.

I was looking at some game sites trying to see what games were highly ranked. Looked for “guy-ish” violent games. Here is what I found to be highly rated on a few sites:

Hitman
Tekken
God of War
Metal Gear Solid
Devil May Cry
Twisted Metal

But I have no idea what any of these games are. Counterstrike is his main game pastime outside of Guitar Hero, and I guess that’s a shooter game? So anything sorta similar might be good.

I just want to know what games I can pick from that are high quality - look good, play well, etc. And I can’t go play them all myself to find a good one. So if anyone has played any of these, or any others that you think he might like, please let me know. I really want to get him a cool game, because I know there are a lot of dud games out there that suck. Please help me!

2

Can you get him a gift card to Game Stop or whatever your local game store is?

3

If he likes “simple” violent games go with God of War (it has a sequel out right now too- God of War II, so you could bundle them together for more playability). This seems the “easiest” choice if he liked Counterstrike, but it’s NOT a shooter.

If he likes games of medium difficulty and one that IS a shooter- go with the whatever the newest Hitman game is. But if he’s not that big of a fan, look elsewhere, there are cooler games, but this isn’t bad. Just not the Best.

If he likes “complicated/challenging” Violent shooter type games" go with Metal Gear Solid (they may be releasing them in a bundle pack- where you could get 2-3 of the games all together for a lower price. That would be pretty sweet). Actually a bundle of MGS games would def. NOT suck, hell I’d get into the series if I got a bundle pack of the games. But they’re not for everyone, as it is slower paced.
If he really likes counter-strike, and just games with simple “point and shoot” type of complexity (ie: not much), he may not like this game. As it requires a bit of slower paced strategy and stealth instead of just running around shooting things like crazy.

If he likes really “hard” difficult games- go with the Devil may cry series. But it’s not a shooter, and it is considered quite hard. I may stay away from this one for him.

Tekken is great if he tends to play fighting games with his buddies or you. It’s one where its more fun with other people to beat up on. I’d avoid it though if he doesn’t have a person to play with all the time. And it is getting dated.

Twisted Metal Black- its a mix of racing and shooting. I love it, but again- it’s not for everyone. If he’s owned a Playstation 1 though and had Twisted Metal II, then pick this game up for him.
Otherwise, it could go either way. I really liked it, but i was a fan of the series. As it combines driving around cars, and blowing up other cars. Could go either way.

Also, which Grand Theft Auto did he have? If it was “San Andreas” then yea, don’t go with the other ones. But if he had “Vice City” or an older one (GTA III), then you should pick up “San Andreas” as it really was a better version of the previous games. It would not suck and easily be a “familiar” and fun game.

4

Actually. On second thought, yeah, that’s the best- I’d much rather have a gift card and get my own. So much for my epic post. -_-

5

Sorry about that. :smiley:

6

I think he picked up one of the older GTA games just for fun because used copies of the old ones are like $5-10. I don’t think he plays it much.

I was really hoping to avoid getting him a gift card. This is our one-year anniversary, and he’s well off enough to buy a video game whenever he pleases. But me finding one that he’ll enjoy takes some effort and means a bit more. I’m not holding anyone to any of their suggestions, I just don’t know anything about non-sports PS2 games. And I’m not limited by the ones I put in my OP, there are just a few names that had good ratings on some sites and I’d at least vaguely heard of them before.

7

Resident Evil 4 is one of my favorite games. There’s all kinds of zombie shooting violent goodness. The replay value is high with a varietyof mini games and bonus weapons earned after the first play through (infinite rocket launcher :smiley: ). It’d be my top recommendation.

Mercenaries is basically GTA except with North Koreans.

God of War and it’s sequel are good games. I couldn’t get into them, but I’m in the minority.

There’s the Prince of Persia series. The middle one is a bit on the angsty and girls in buttfloss side, but it’s a solid game trilogy.

8

Yay, game advice threads!

The best guy-type game I can think of would definitely be God of War. It’s a third-person action game, which means moving around the levels killing stuff with various attacks and combos, but it’s also pretty easy to mash through if you’re on a low-to-moderate difficulty. There are little quicktime-event minigames to destroy almost every foe in an over-the-top and gorey fashion, and bosses just become more and more epic as the game progresses. The first game can be found used for under $20, I think, while the second still runs $30-35. They have something of a continuous story, too.

A good analogy to God of War is Devil May Cry - same type of gameplay, different feel and focus. The main comparison I like to make is that DMC doesn’t have a strict block button - if an enemy attacks, you must always dodge or hit first. Much more reaction-based and skill demanding than God of War, in my humble opinion, but that also turns off a lot of gamers who aren’t used to games where frequent dying is a necessary learning experience. The best (but also hardest) game on the PS2 is Devil May Cry 3, which will run $15-20. The series has strong storylines, but they jump around - DMC3 is actually the earliest chronologically.

As for shooters, I always like recommending Timesplitters, with its adjustable difficulty and objective-based levels, but it also has a definite cartoonish feel to some of the characters, so maybe not so much. A poster in an FPS thread a couple days ago mentioned Black, by EA, as a good tribute-to-guns shooter.

A classic realistic FPS would be SOCOM - I think Combined Assault is the latest version, released some months ago. I don’t know much firsthand except that it’s squad-based and the most popular online game for PS2. Another solid Sony-only shooter to research would be Syphon Filter, tho it’s sortof third-person spy action.

Metal Gear Solid is sortof a must-play if he wants to get more into gaming - the series has always raised the bar for realism, storytelling, and action, tho the gameplay itself is a bit quirky. Eventually it’s possible (even necessary) to run-and-gun everything, but for much of the games you’re sneaking around, trying to get through heavily-guarded areas unseen (if you’re good), or explore them to find more weapons, ammo, and mission stuff (if you’re better). MGS2 is one of the first games I know of to make it possible to get through the game without killing anyone, even bosses, and to offer accolades for achieving it. MGS3 gives you a stamina meter which affects your overall health and such, and has you killing animals in the jungle for sustenance. A bundle of the first three games was recently released for $30, but be warned that, if he likes them, it will probably raise desires for the Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 in June. :o

9

I’m just going to speak up here in that I wouldn’t consider Hitman a shooter. It’s as much of a shooter as Metal Gear Solid is in that you CAN go around blowing everybody away with your weapons, but the idea of stealth and disguise is emphasized as well. For the record, I’m pretty sure Best Buy has a Hitman collection bundle and has all three Hitman games for only $30. I got that and didn’t regret the purchase at all.

If he likes shooter like Counterstrike, you might want to try to get him Killzone. It’s (in my opinion) one of the better first-person shooters that was made for the PS2.

I’ll also second Devil May Cry 3 as a great action game, but the story is kind of wild and at some points rather cheesy. It’s also really really hard. If he likes a challenge, you might want to go with that.

But also, yeah, getting him a gift card would also be a good idea. (But not for GameStop! Down with the oppressors!)

10

GTA: San Andreas is the only must-have PS2 game, IMHO.

Well, that or Gran Turismo 4.

11

Have you considered Rock Band? It’s kind of steep but very Guitar Hero-ish.

12

If it can wait until April 29, the new Grand Theft Auto is released then.

13

Not for the PS2.

14

Thanks :smack:

15

Amplitude is a fun music game. If he likes Guitar Hero he’d probably like it. It might be hard to find a new copy of a lot of PS2 games–on the plus side, used ones are only a couple bucks.

Also, Rock Band would be awesome.

16

God of War and God of War 2 are the awesome.

17

Yeah Rock Band is waaaayy too expensive - we decided to go cheaper on the gifts for this since we’re going on a weekend trip too. Even if I could buy it for him, I wouldn’t, because then I’d never speak to him again. :slight_smile: We’re two hours apart so him already having a few crack-like addictive games (Guitar Hero, Counterstrike) and his roommates having a Wii take enough time away. If we get to the point where we live together, we’re definitely getting whatever Rock Band - like game is out then, I’ve played RB and it is fun.

The Killzone recommendation sounds like something I will for sure check out. His PS2 is in his room, and I’m not around much due to distance, so I am trying to stay away from games that are more fun with someone else. I don’t want to get him a Counterstrike replica but it’s one game I know he loves, he says after work he likes going around and shooting stuff for a bit, so I’d feel more confident in a cool first-person shooter kind of game I think. I am still going to look at the other recs in the store to check out the looks though. But are there any more cool first person shooter kind of games?