[Googie]

Over the past three years I've been stocking up on PS2 games that I remember playing, so here's my list of current PS2 games

Soul Reaver 2
Blood Omen 2
Legacy of Kain: Defiance
GTA: Vice City Stories
GTA: Vice City
GTA: San Andreas
GTA: Liberty City Stories
GTA III
The Getaway
Scarface
Onimusha
Onimusha 2
Onimusha 3 Demon Siege
Onimusha Dawn of Dreams
Manhunt
Manhunt 2
Bloodrayne
Bloodrayne 2
Mark of Kri
Marki of Kri Rise of Kusai
Max Payne
Max Payne 2
The Suffering
The Suffering Ties that Bind
State of Emergency
50 Cent Bulletproof
Mafia
Red Faction
Red Faction 2
Destroy All Humans
Destroy All Humans 2
Maximo
Maximo: Army of Zin
Twisted Metal Black
Shinobi
The Punisher
Let Lee Rise of Honor
Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven
Rygar
Family Guy
The Thing
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

I ordered Oni a few days ago, and I also ordered The Bouncer.

Now that I have a powerful PC I can emulate PS2 games flawlessly, so I found this list of Playstation 2 games that are rare, so far I downloaded these three PS2 games

Haunting Ground
Kuson
Rule of Rose

So what other cool PS2 games can you recommend me? I know the PS2 had a whole bunch of games that were great, thanks fellas.

[Isao Kronos]

digital devil saga 1 and 2

the shadow hearts games

[Jorpho]

A lot of those have perfectly acceptable PC ports, of course, and I don't know why you would want to use emulation instead.

Several things come to mind.  Most of these are on my shelf, though I never got around to trying any of them.

Namco X Capcom – intriguing, but probably not all that great.
God Hand – Has a lot of fans. Kind of surprising it hasn't been "remastered" yet.
Baroque
Star Ocean: Til The End of Time - also on PS4, apparently.
Breath of Fire 4
Rogue Galaxy
Ico and Shadow of the Colossus – though these have been remastered, of course.
Odin Sphere
Castle Shinigami 2
Bombastic
Rygar
The Sly Cooper trilogy

[Supergamerguy]

A lot of those have perfectly acceptable PC ports, of course, and I don't know why you would want to use emulation instead.

Several things come to mind.  Most of these are on my shelf, though I never got around to trying any of them.

Namco X Capcom – intriguing, but probably not all that great.
God Hand – Has a lot of fans. Kind of surprising it hasn't been "remastered" yet.
Baroque
Star Ocean: Til The End of Time - also on PS4, apparently.
Breath of Fire 4
Rogue Galaxy
Ico and Shadow of the Colossus – though these have been remastered, of course.
Odin Sphere
Castle Shinigami 2
Bombastic
Rygar
The Sly Cooper trilogy

Emulation is usually free and offers customization for many games that cant be found on Steam ports.

Also you can use save states if you dont have the time to dedicate hours upon hours to a game to get through tough challenges.

[thr]

a few PS2 exclusives:

Blood Will Tell
Burnout Dominator
Dark Chronicle
Dot Hack
Drakengard
the Lord of the Rings: the Third Age
Mad Maestro
SMT: Nocturne
Soul Nomad & the World Eaters
Steambot Chronicles
Taiko Drum Master
Tekken 5
Xenosaga

[Jorpho]

Emulation is usually free

Well, sure, you can probably download cracked versions of Steam games and get them for "free" as well.

and offers customization for many games that cant be found on Steam ports.

But often those Steam ports also offer other comparable features.

Also you can use save states if you dont have the time to dedicate hours upon hours to a game to get through tough challenges.

I get that save states might be useful for old 8-bit and 16-bit games that never offered saving to begin with, but for something on the PS2, I would submit that you're just cheating yourself if you're resorting to save states – either that, or you're playing a badly-designed game and should consider something else.

[Supergamerguy]

Well, sure, you can probably download cracked versions of Steam games and get them for "free" as well.

Most people would agree that's completely illegal, since the companies are making efforts to rerelease their titles on modern hardware, as opposed to roms, which are old enough for most companies to ignore any want for an official release and are more of a legal gray area.

I get that save states might be useful for old 8-bit and 16-bit games that never offered saving to begin with, but for something on the PS2, I would submit that you're just cheating yourself if you're resorting to save states – either that, or you're playing a badly-designed game and should consider something else.

Not everybody has the time or will to master a game in order to complete it. For me, I value the experience of playing the game and seeing all it has to offer over repeating the same sections of a game because I get stuck often. I love retro games, but I'm not necessarily the best at them, and there is a huge backlog of games I'd like to play before I become disinterested or unable to play them anymore.




Cant argue with the Steam features tho, Steam rereleases often offer some cool new addendums to original content to make the game feel fresh.

[Googie]

I forgot to mention that I'm giving PS2 emulation a try is because I'm not paying a few hundred dollars on games, Haunting Ground is over $200 from what I saw on eBay for example. Freaking scalpers... >_<

[Supergamerguy]

I forgot to mention that I'm giving PS2 emulation a try is because I'm not paying a few hundred dollars on games, Haunting Ground is over $200 from what I saw on eBay for example. Freaking scalpers... >_<

*NES and SNES Classic flashbacks* 

[SleepyFist]

Dark Cloud 2 / Dark Chronicle
Okage Shadow King (Not great, but Tim Burton-esqe? Some Earthbound vibes too)
Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song
Killer 7
Psychonauts
R-Type Final

King of Fighters Orochi saga is a good one too if you're into fighting games, Dream Match 98 alone is worth the price of admission imo.

[Jorpho]

Most people would agree that's completely illegal, since the companies are making efforts to rerelease their titles on modern hardware, as opposed to roms, which are old enough for most companies to ignore any want for an official release and are more of a legal gray area.

That's kind of the point, isn't it? If a company is making an effort to rerelease their titles on modern hardware, then does it really make a difference if you're downloading a cracked Steam version instead of downloading the PS2 version from somewhere and emulating it?

Not everybody has the time or will to master a game in order to complete it. For me, I value the experience of playing the game and seeing all it has to offer over repeating the same sections of a game because I get stuck often. I love retro games, but I'm not necessarily the best at them, and there is a huge backlog of games I'd like to play before I become disinterested or unable to play them anymore.

At a certain point you might as well just watch someone else do a Let's Play.

But we're kind of getting off topic here.

[Sliver X]

I finally have machines fast enough to emulate all PS2 games and have been hitting it fairly hard over the past few months. Some I've liked that haven't been listed yet:

Nanobreaker
Black
Contra - Shattered Soldier
Gradius V
God of War
Metal Gear Solid 2 - The Sons of Liberty
Wipeout Fusion
Katamari Damacy
Lara Croft - Tomb Raider
Silent Hill 2/3
Final Fantasy X
Phantasy Star Generations II (Fan translated)
Silpheed - Lost Planet
Ys - The Ark of Napishtim
Soul Calibur III
Tenchu - Fatal Shadows

I get that save states might be useful for old 8-bit and 16-bit games that never offered saving to begin with, but for something on the PS2, I would submit that you're just cheating yourself if you're resorting to save states – either that, or you're playing a badly-designed game and should consider something else.

I would have rage-deleted Shadow of the Colossus without save states.

[Gideon Zhi]

Ys - The Ark of Napishtim

Steam version is absolutely the definitive way to play Ark of Napishtim and is discounted frequently enough, though the PS2 version does have a few exclusive bonus areas.

For myself, I'm going to recommend King's Field: The Ancient City, Everblue 2, and Metal Saga. If you enjoy GUST's stuff, Atelier Iris and Mana Khemia are good and are more RPG-y than modern Atelier titles.

[Noside]

Emulation is usually free and offers customization for many games that cant be found on Steam ports.

Also you can use save states if you dont have the time to dedicate hours upon hours to a game to get through tough challenges.

I should add the cherry on top of this cake, Cheats you can add for a better and pleasant experience with tough games, just for fun and games. 

[Supergamerguy]

I should add the cherry on top of this cake, Cheats you can add for a better and pleasant experience with tough games, just for fun and games. 

Same
*Ninja Gaiden flashbacks*

[thr]

Same
*Ninja Gaiden flashbacks*

speaking of Ninja Gaiden throwbacks, just played through The Messenger. man this game does so many things right.

and cheating is trivial on PC thanks to cheat engine.

[SCD]

Batman: Vengeance
Evil Dead: Regeneration
Fire Pro Wrestling Z
Fire Pro Wrestling Returns
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy
Half-Life
Heroes of Might and Magic: Quest for the Dragon Bone Staff
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
King of Colosseum Red & Green
King of Colosseum II
Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil
Legend of Kay
LEGO Star Wars 1 & 2
Lumines Plus
Okami
OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast
Resident Evil 4
Scooby-Doo!: A Night of 100 Frights
Soldier of Fortune: Gold Edition
Stretch Panic
Super Monkey Ball Deluxe
The Adventures of Cookie & Cream
The Simpsons: Road Rage
The Suffering
Tokobot Plus
Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 & 4
Tony Hawk’s Underground 1 & 2
Viewtiful Joe 1 & 2
Wrestle Kingdom 1 & 2

[aquagon]

Steam version is absolutely the definitive way to play Ark of Napishtim and is discounted frequently enough, though the PS2 version does have a few exclusive bonus areas.

For myself, I'm going to recommend King's Field: The Ancient City, Everblue 2, and Metal Saga. If you enjoy GUST's stuff, Atelier Iris and Mana Khemia are good and are more RPG-y than modern Atelier titles.

I'd recommend Ar tonelico over any of the PS2 Atelier offerings though.

[Jorpho]

Are any of the Fatal Frame PS2 games worth playing, or are they better experienced elsewhere?

I keep losing track of those.

[iridium_ionizer]

Katamari Damacy
Okami
Simpsons: Hit & Run
GTA III
GTA: Vice City
Bully
Red Faction
Black
Timesplitters 3: Future Perfect
Rachet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal
Sly Cooper 3: Honor Among Thieves
Psychonauts
Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King
Beyond Good & Evil
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Burnout 3: Takedown
ICO
Shadow of the Colossus
Rez
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (2005)
Resident Evil 4
Viewtiful Joe
Alien Hominid
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3
Marvel vs. Capcom 2