I Nearly Lost My Old Friend

That's right, my poor old trusty launch day PlayStation 2, that I have cared for ever since I brought it home on that cold and wet November night in 2000, was coughing and spluttering recently. The reason for this temporary panic was because I had only just got around to playing God of War. I know what you're thinking, "Jon, you games savvy wizard, what are you doing only just playing a game from 2005?" Well I've got news for you kiddies, it's the real worlds fault! If only I had the time and money, I would have played this years ago, so EXCUSE ME, for being so behind the times!!

Sorry about that, had a moment.

Anyway, God of War inconveniently is one of the rare PS2 games to come on a DVD 9 disc. Put simply it comes on a dual-layered disc. Because my PS2 is getting on a bit, this challenge of reading everything off the disc and playing the game properly, proved to be akin to asking a pensioner to climb 6 flights of stairs whilst carrying 22 full bags from Tescos and an epileptic cat. Put simply, I kept on losing sound, levels were taking around 10 minutes to load and the cut scenes jumped like, well, an epileptic cat. In other words the whole gaming experience was becoming slightly marred.

I scoured the Internet looking for solutions, which ranged from the very simple option of buying a lens cleaning disc to the rather gruesome prospect of opening up my good old PS2 and fiddling with it's guts. I opted for the first option and had very little luck and the unfortunate pleasure of listening to the disc cleaning music that came on the disc (thank you Tescos).

So things weren't looking good, I began to entertain the idea of nice new trendy slimline PS2. A thought I quite liked purely as a consolidation for the loss of my old PS2. And is if by magic, the damn thing started working again! I can't help but think it overheard me talking to someone about purchasing one and got frightened into working condition.

I am honestly over the moon about this, I really do love my PS2, it's one of the few consoles that I was able to buy at launch day and pay full price for. Here's hopping that it doesn't decide to crap out on me any time soon, unlike it's unreliable friend, Mr 360.

As usual, this means that once I finish God of War, I'll post a review, and I'll do my best not to let my failing PS2 influence my score.