I bought a Playstation 2

Yup, I went out this weekend and bought me a shiny silver PS2. Along with that, I also picked up Final Fantasy X and XII, Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, Killer7, and Shadow of the Colossus. I also have coming in the mail Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, for the Gamecube. I've wanted to try out the Metal Gear Solid games for a while, along with some of the other franchises I've missed over the years, so I plunked down the money and am on my way to not-quite-retro gaming bliss. Can you believe I was still in high school when the PS2 came out?

In other news, I recently completed Tomb Raider Anniversary, the remake of the original Tomb Raider. It was fun, but it was interesting seeing how the series has come since it first started. Most of the levels revolved around a hub room, with several rooms branching off. To solve the main hub room puzzle, you had to solve the puzzles in the other rooms first. Tomb Raider Legend was much more linear. You enter a room, solve a puzzle, then go to the next room and solve its puzzle. Anniversary (and I guess, by extension, the original Tomb Raider) felt much more contrived and "game-ish." It didn't bug me too much though. They also dropped some hints that linked Anniversary's story with the story that began in Legend and, I assume, will continue in the recently announced Tomb Raider Underworld. There was also an unexpected but welcome bit of character development.

I honestly don't remember how this played out in the original game, but in Anniversary Lara doesn't kill any body until near the very end of the game. She kicks the crap out of folks a couple times, but comes short of taking their life. Near the end, though, she finally has to kill a man to continue on her quest. After she does, she realizes what she's done and is horrified, and tries to wipe her hands off. She can't wipe the blood off though. They really nailed her animation and facial expressions when all this is going on. Contrast this with Tomb Raider Legend, where the first enemy she meets is a faceless mercenary she casually guns down. I'm wondering if they'll touch on this in the next game.

Anyway, my plan now is to try Shadow of the Colossus and write about it here as I go along. Once I finish that I'll start on Metal Gear Solid, and then maybe Final Fantasy X. I don't want to play all the games in each series in a row or else I'm liable to get tired of them. It should be interesting.