I remember first going through MGS2. Up until Raiden I thought this was going to be the best gaming experience ever. Still liked it, but the story was just weird looking back on it.
I’m going to give a weird answer, but one of my favourite gaming experiences on the PS2 was Katamari Damacy. I was in Uni and we had some friends that didn’t play games but LOVED Katamari and we would take turns on that.
They remastered some Katamari games on Steam. They’re still very weird and fun.
SSX Tricky
Honorable mentions:
SSX 3
Trapt (Kagero II: Dark Illusion)I played the ever living shit out of Tricky. Nothing hit quite the same after that. I was so excited for the 2012 reboot but it was just ok. I actually hated the rewind power, it felt like cheating, and otherwise it just felt like the attitude changed. It was serious instead of over the top fun. In the age of remastering all the classics EA has made a major miss by ignoring Tricky.
Def Jam fight for NY and Shadow of the Colossus
It’s amazing how utterly unique SotC remains to this day. I remember thinking that nothing could be cooler than grabbing onto that bird’s wing and fighting it high in the air. Still is really cool, actually.
Also the remake is beautiful.
I liked the Katamari Damacy and Legacy of Kain games, also Ico was pretty cool
Gran turismo in all its versions is probably what took most of my time. And GTA.
But let’s go with Silent Hill 2 to highlight something I only played on PS2.
THPS
Katamari
Jak and Daxter was my first ever console game and I loved it to death. If I were ever to speedrun a game, it would be that one.
RE4 and Okami are also high on the list.
Timesplitters 2