Yeah, I know everyone thinks the generation they grew up with is the best, but I really think the PS2 was the golden age. 3D games were new enough that developers did a lot of experimentation and took risks to made a bunch of really interesting and fun games that would never get made by a big studio today, and the graphics were far enough along that a lot of the games still look really good, especially the ones that leaned into the limitations and used stylized cell shading instead of trying to make it look realistic.
Just to further illustrate your point: The difference between ps1 and ps2 is staggering and was mindblowing. The difference between ps2 and ps5 barely piques my interest.
PS2 library was incredible. Golden era was having a PS2, GameCube, and OG Xbox (and free time)
Yeah, I know everyone thinks the generation they grew up with is the best, but I really think the PS2 was the golden age. 3D games were new enough that developers did a lot of experimentation and took risks to made a bunch of really interesting and fun games that would never get made by a big studio today, and the graphics were far enough along that a lot of the games still look really good, especially the ones that leaned into the limitations and used stylized cell shading instead of trying to make it look realistic.
Just to further illustrate your point: The difference between ps1 and ps2 is staggering and was mindblowing. The difference between ps2 and ps5 barely piques my interest.
AND the early PS2 models had backwards compatibility with PS1 discs, adding that incredible library from the outset.
AND it played DVDs.
It was too good.