Mantrhax
25-01-2006, 19:46:39
Postar
100 Best Moments of Playstation
100) PLAYSTATION LAUNCHES IN JAPAN
Hello world! After five years of development that's way too boring to go into, PlayStation arrives in Japan on December 3, 1994. And what a queue! The launch batch sold out on day one, with fantastic arcade driving game Ridge Racer the new system's must-buy. PlayStation is labelled Sony's most important product since the Walkman in the late 1970s. Whoever said that was right.
99) ONE MILLION UNITS SOLD IN JAPAN
By May 1995, over one million PlayStations had been sold in Japan, cementing its place in history and ensuring the Japanese would make lots of games for it. Sony executives have a massive knees-up and probably award themselves huge pay rises.
98) PLAYSTATION LAUNCHES IN THE USA
September 9, 1995, and PlayStation arrives in America. Over 100,000 PlayStations are sold in the first two days of launch.
97) PLAYSTATION LAUNCHES IN THE UK!
Yeah, leave us till last as usual. This is a pattern we've seen a lot of over the last decade, with us Europeans always seeing hot games and PlayStation hardware last. Still it didn't put us off back then - on September 29, 1995, PlayStation launched here, costing 299 quid, which in 1995 was an awful lot of money. The launch games were Battle Arena Toshinden, Moto Toon GP and Ridge Racer - everyone bought Ridge Racer.
96) WIPEOUT LAUNCHES IN THE UK
No, it wasn't a launch game. WipEout was actually part of the second wave of games, designed to be bought once everyone had got bored of Ridge Racer. It's this sort of clever, strategic planning that's got Sony where it is today!
95) S.A.P.S. TAKE TO THE TV
Remember the Society Against PlayStation? This series of adverts, that featured boffins warning us of the dangers of PlayStation, launched what would be the first of many impressive, controversial yet never dull TV ad campaigns for Sony. This one was kind of rubbish, but did the job - and its "never underestimate the power of PlayStation" tagline entered the public vocabulary.
94) LOADS MORE ELSEWHERE
By January 1996, PlayStation's worldwide availability makes it a global phenomenon, shifting 3.4 million units globally - some 518,000 of those in Europe.
93) RESIDENT EVIL COMES OUT
There was a time survival horror didn't exist, and characters didn't rotate on the spot and combine herbs to stay alive. We don't know how society existed without the S.T.A.R.S heroes, who swiftly built one of PlayStation's most important franchises. We'll be getting part five on PS3 next year.
92) PRICE DROP!
May, 1996. Sony isn't just a genius console manufacturer - it's a generous, kindly charity too. Sony Europe hacks the price of a PlayStation down from 299 quid to 199 quid, out of the kindness of its own heart!
91) NINE MILLION... AND COUNTING
October, 1996. Sony says it has shipped nine million PSones around the world in little over a year. Think of all the extra electricity they must be using.
90) TOMB RAIDER BREAKS BOUNDARIES
The angular Lara Croft was a captivating hero, a public superstar and, yes, quite sexy for someone made out of triangular lumps of colour. A series of gradually less impressive sequels follow Lara's breakout first game, but there was always something about her. She and PlayStation are like 'that'. Her latest adventure will hit PS2 early next year.
89) PRICE DROP!
After seeing off Sega's Saturn console, Sony comes over even more generous and hacks PlayStation's price down from 199 quid to 129 quid. History records this as the best bargain of the last millennium.
88) BUILDING MORE
In May of 1997 everything is going right. PlayStation is affordable and has the finest line-up of games any console has ever had. Sony increases PlayStation production and there's already 19 million out there by now.
87) 'SHAPES' AD CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED
Weird, and no doubt internally described as 'edgy', the Shapes adverts ruled TV during 1997, placing the Square, Circle, Triangle and X symbols into Greek restaurants, taxis and kitchens. Secretly, we loved it.
86) FINAL FANTASY VII 'CROSSES OVER '
Weird, this. No one ever really went crazy over these story-driven Japanese adventures until the release of Final Fantasy VII on November 17, 1997. Having already sold 3.5 million copies in Japan, no one's sure how well the adventure series will do over here in car-driving-game-land.
85) FINAL FANTASY VII DOES RATHER WELL
It sells 500,000 copies in Europe inside a month. Whoever it was at Sony Europe who decided to take the risk gives themselves a massive pay ris
84) KOOKY GAME WINS AWARD
November, 1997. The people's video game awards show gives a 'Golden Joystick' to Parappa The Rapper, declaring it the Best Original Game. And it was, and still is, an alltime classic, mixing up music, rapping and weird cartoon dog. Probably.
83) THEY ARE EVERYWHERE
January, 1998. At least 400 PlayStation games are now available to buy in Europe, with a bewildering 1,150 out in Japan. 200 million PlayStation games have now been sold worldwide.
82) POCKETSTATION RELEASED IN JAPAN
The PocketStation comes out in Japan. Released exclusively in Japan on January 23, 1998, it features an LCD display, sound, a real-time clock, and infrared capability. It also serves as a standard PSone memory card and looks rather cool.
81) BUT NOT IN THE UK
Well, it was a bit of a stupid novelty item anyhow. We probably would've said it was brilliant for a few weeks, then gone off it.
80) PLAYSTATION ENTERS EVERYDAY LANGUAGE
This is how you know when you've really arrived. After little more than two years on sale, 'playing PlayStation' replaces 'playing Nintendo' as the generic phrase used for all 'computer games' when someone old needs to talk about them. We feel strangely proud.
79) DUAL SHOCK ARRIVES
Was it really three years after PlayStation arrived that we got the twiddly-sticks version? In 1998 the Dual Shock anded, and boy did it make a difference when playing Gran Turismo 2. Well done, wobbly stick thing.
78) PRICE DROP!
September, 1997. Now you get even more for your money, as Sony launches a PlayStation 'value pack' containing a console, two controllers and a memory card - all for an embarrassingly cheap 129!
77) NEW TOMB RAIDER
In September of 1997, Sony did a deal to keep Lara Croft exclusively on PlayStation for the near future. As a result, if you want to play the year's biggest game - Tomb Raider II - you need a PlayStation. Everyone not already in possession of one goes out and gets one.
76) PRICE DROP!
Now it's August, 1998, and a PlayStation is a mere 99 - with the world-beating Dual Shock controller in the package too.
75) SONY RELEASES AIBO AND WE STILL CAN'T AFFORD ONE. STUPID INFLATIONARY PAY RISES.
74) DOUBLE LIFE ADS HIT UK
At the end of 1998 Sony tells us that we're all lead a double life through its superpretentious new TV ads. By day you're this, by night you're something else, thanks to PlayStation. Stupid, moody, memorable.
73) EMOTION ENGINE MADNESS BEGINS
On the 2nd of March 1999, Sony announces it's made something called an 'Emotion Engine' to put in its forthcoming PlayStation2. Everyone sort of laughs, expecting PS2 to be a disaster. It isn't.
72) NELL MCANDREW IS LARA CROFT
Of all the models hired to pretend to be Lara at promo events, Nell remains our favourite. Although, of course, we wouldn't kick Lara Weller, Lucy Clarkson or that Dutch one out of bed for farting. We're nice like that.
71) PRICE DROP!
August, 1999 and it's a mere 79.99 GBP, putting it within reach of all but the poorest of pikeys.
70) 20 MILLION PSONES SOLD
In Europe alone by September 1999! Three months later and it's a whopping 25 million!
69) PSW LAUNCHES!
Issue one arrived just in time for Christmas 2000. It's the size of a phone directory and has a free memory card on the front. Everyone says it's great.
68) ANNUAL WRESTLE-OFFS BEGIN
We write our first review of a SmackDown! game, a happy trend that will continue right up to, well, this issue. It's beautiful. Even before Stacy Keibler, we were mad for WWE.
67) LIFE-SIZE LARA POSTER
Money was literally no object for PSW in the early days. Free memory cards, DVDs, posters, glossy brochures - we even used to all spend at least 6 a day on really posh lunches. And who can ever forget PSW 16's Resident Evil fully functioning shotgun! The pinnacle of our cash-blowing promotional strategy was PSW 2's life-sized poster of the then Lara Croft model Lara Weller. .
66) MENTAL WEALTH ADS , 1999
Remember Fi-Fi? With the head? Was she real or computer-generated? She was real; half Kate Moss and half onion, and she ranted obscure, meaningless trash, but captured the mood nicely. The last, great PlayStation ad campaign before they went too far with all that 'third place' nonsense.
65) FI-FI'S WORDS IN FULL :
"Let me tell you what bugs me of the human endeavour. I've never been a human in question, have you? Mankind went to the moon. I don't even know where Grimsby is. Forget progress by proxy, land on your own moon. It's no longer about what they can achieve, out there on your behalf, but what we can experience up here and of our own time. And it's called mental wealth." Say what?
64) PLAYSTATION 2 COMES OUT IN JAPAN
Ahh, so this is what the Emotion Engine was for. On March 4, 2000, PS2 arrived in Sony's home country. It goes down rather well, and by the end of the month 1.4 million have been sold. It's going to be a success which means we're not all going to lose our jobs and have to move back to mum and dad's house! Yes!
63) DAVID JAMES BLAMES PLAYSTATION
For him being a bit useless. But this was years ago - what's your excuse these days, you ball-fumbling cock? The disaster-prone keeper alleges playing too much FIFA has somehow impaired his skills, but people in the know think his problems are more deeprooted - he's got olive oil on his gloves, lead in his legs and can't catch for toffee.
62) WORLD FALLS FOR PUBLICITY LIES
Someone comes up with the idea of telling newspapers that PlayStation2 is so powerful that Saddam Hussein is going to use a few of them to control missiles and blow us all up. The press falls for it, and the biggest video game lie of all time gets printed everywhere.
61) PLAYSTATION SPONSORS EURO 2000 TOURNAMENT
Everyone gets free trips out to Belgium and Holland, to enjoy England's disastrous group stage flop, thanks to losing their third match 3-2 to a handy Romanian side full of experienced international journeymen. Sony's still happy though - around 225 million viewers watched each game across the world. Who won? Who cares (France).
60) PS2 UK PREORDERING BEGINS
Sony thinks up some sort of ludicrous scheme whereby you have to fill in a form and hand it to your local game shop to reserve a PS2 at launch. And even then you're not guaranteed to get one, thanks to massive global demand. It doesn't go down very well. But you've got one now, right?
59) PS2 MISSION TO CONQUER THE WORLD BEGINS
PlayStation2 launches in America. An amazing 500,000 machines sell in the first few days. Sony pours itself a large drink.
58) WE GET BETTER GAMES
After criticism of the slightly duff launch line-up overseas, news breaks that we're getting newer, better and 'anti-aliased' Tekken Tag, and our version of fireworkbased puzzle game Fantavision will have a two-player mode and more backgrounds! And did anyone ever buy Fantavision? Did they bollocks! All that effort, wasted.
57) WE GET 33 PLAYSTATION2 GAMES
Compared to the first PlayStation's three launch games, PS2's 33 initial releases is truly phenomenal. Everyone still only buys Ridge Racer 5, but we decide TimeSplitters is the best of the first few games - and will love the 'Splidders for ever more.
56) MORE METAL GEAR SOLID 2 NEWS
The game causes such a stir at games show E3 that the trailer is released on DVD in Japan. Still no sign of the game actually coming out, though.
55) CHRIS DEERING SPOTTED DANCING I N A LEATHER JACKET
This man is the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe - and he knows just how to get down and party.
54) PSW 11 ARRIVES WITH A FREE DVD
And didn't THIS change the whole world of magazines. The first games mag - or any mag at all - to offer a free DVD every month, and for a stupidly generous 2.99, PSW 11 shall go down in history. At least, with us.
53) PRICE DROP!
September 28, 2001 - PS2 comes down from 299 GBP to 199 GBP and positions itself as a slightly more affordable super-console. Just in time for the arrival of Gran Turismo 3, too. It really is like Sony has had some sort of cunning advance plan.
52) GT3 GETS 10/10
Just in time for the 199 GBP price cut too. Yet more evidence that Sony isn't just cobbling this together and does indeed HAVE SOME SORT OF PLAN.
51) SEGA STOPS MAKING GAMES MACHINES
Poor old Sega. PlayStation killed off the Sega Saturn in 1998, then PS2 killed off Dreamcast a few years later. And if Sega was still making consoles, PS3 would've killed that off next year too.
100 Best Moments of Playstation
100) PLAYSTATION LAUNCHES IN JAPAN
Hello world! After five years of development that's way too boring to go into, PlayStation arrives in Japan on December 3, 1994. And what a queue! The launch batch sold out on day one, with fantastic arcade driving game Ridge Racer the new system's must-buy. PlayStation is labelled Sony's most important product since the Walkman in the late 1970s. Whoever said that was right.
99) ONE MILLION UNITS SOLD IN JAPAN
By May 1995, over one million PlayStations had been sold in Japan, cementing its place in history and ensuring the Japanese would make lots of games for it. Sony executives have a massive knees-up and probably award themselves huge pay rises.
98) PLAYSTATION LAUNCHES IN THE USA
September 9, 1995, and PlayStation arrives in America. Over 100,000 PlayStations are sold in the first two days of launch.
97) PLAYSTATION LAUNCHES IN THE UK!
Yeah, leave us till last as usual. This is a pattern we've seen a lot of over the last decade, with us Europeans always seeing hot games and PlayStation hardware last. Still it didn't put us off back then - on September 29, 1995, PlayStation launched here, costing 299 quid, which in 1995 was an awful lot of money. The launch games were Battle Arena Toshinden, Moto Toon GP and Ridge Racer - everyone bought Ridge Racer.
96) WIPEOUT LAUNCHES IN THE UK
No, it wasn't a launch game. WipEout was actually part of the second wave of games, designed to be bought once everyone had got bored of Ridge Racer. It's this sort of clever, strategic planning that's got Sony where it is today!
95) S.A.P.S. TAKE TO THE TV
Remember the Society Against PlayStation? This series of adverts, that featured boffins warning us of the dangers of PlayStation, launched what would be the first of many impressive, controversial yet never dull TV ad campaigns for Sony. This one was kind of rubbish, but did the job - and its "never underestimate the power of PlayStation" tagline entered the public vocabulary.
94) LOADS MORE ELSEWHERE
By January 1996, PlayStation's worldwide availability makes it a global phenomenon, shifting 3.4 million units globally - some 518,000 of those in Europe.
93) RESIDENT EVIL COMES OUT
There was a time survival horror didn't exist, and characters didn't rotate on the spot and combine herbs to stay alive. We don't know how society existed without the S.T.A.R.S heroes, who swiftly built one of PlayStation's most important franchises. We'll be getting part five on PS3 next year.
92) PRICE DROP!
May, 1996. Sony isn't just a genius console manufacturer - it's a generous, kindly charity too. Sony Europe hacks the price of a PlayStation down from 299 quid to 199 quid, out of the kindness of its own heart!
91) NINE MILLION... AND COUNTING
October, 1996. Sony says it has shipped nine million PSones around the world in little over a year. Think of all the extra electricity they must be using.
90) TOMB RAIDER BREAKS BOUNDARIES
The angular Lara Croft was a captivating hero, a public superstar and, yes, quite sexy for someone made out of triangular lumps of colour. A series of gradually less impressive sequels follow Lara's breakout first game, but there was always something about her. She and PlayStation are like 'that'. Her latest adventure will hit PS2 early next year.
89) PRICE DROP!
After seeing off Sega's Saturn console, Sony comes over even more generous and hacks PlayStation's price down from 199 quid to 129 quid. History records this as the best bargain of the last millennium.
88) BUILDING MORE
In May of 1997 everything is going right. PlayStation is affordable and has the finest line-up of games any console has ever had. Sony increases PlayStation production and there's already 19 million out there by now.
87) 'SHAPES' AD CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED
Weird, and no doubt internally described as 'edgy', the Shapes adverts ruled TV during 1997, placing the Square, Circle, Triangle and X symbols into Greek restaurants, taxis and kitchens. Secretly, we loved it.
86) FINAL FANTASY VII 'CROSSES OVER '
Weird, this. No one ever really went crazy over these story-driven Japanese adventures until the release of Final Fantasy VII on November 17, 1997. Having already sold 3.5 million copies in Japan, no one's sure how well the adventure series will do over here in car-driving-game-land.
85) FINAL FANTASY VII DOES RATHER WELL
It sells 500,000 copies in Europe inside a month. Whoever it was at Sony Europe who decided to take the risk gives themselves a massive pay ris
84) KOOKY GAME WINS AWARD
November, 1997. The people's video game awards show gives a 'Golden Joystick' to Parappa The Rapper, declaring it the Best Original Game. And it was, and still is, an alltime classic, mixing up music, rapping and weird cartoon dog. Probably.
83) THEY ARE EVERYWHERE
January, 1998. At least 400 PlayStation games are now available to buy in Europe, with a bewildering 1,150 out in Japan. 200 million PlayStation games have now been sold worldwide.
82) POCKETSTATION RELEASED IN JAPAN
The PocketStation comes out in Japan. Released exclusively in Japan on January 23, 1998, it features an LCD display, sound, a real-time clock, and infrared capability. It also serves as a standard PSone memory card and looks rather cool.
81) BUT NOT IN THE UK
Well, it was a bit of a stupid novelty item anyhow. We probably would've said it was brilliant for a few weeks, then gone off it.
80) PLAYSTATION ENTERS EVERYDAY LANGUAGE
This is how you know when you've really arrived. After little more than two years on sale, 'playing PlayStation' replaces 'playing Nintendo' as the generic phrase used for all 'computer games' when someone old needs to talk about them. We feel strangely proud.
79) DUAL SHOCK ARRIVES
Was it really three years after PlayStation arrived that we got the twiddly-sticks version? In 1998 the Dual Shock anded, and boy did it make a difference when playing Gran Turismo 2. Well done, wobbly stick thing.
78) PRICE DROP!
September, 1997. Now you get even more for your money, as Sony launches a PlayStation 'value pack' containing a console, two controllers and a memory card - all for an embarrassingly cheap 129!
77) NEW TOMB RAIDER
In September of 1997, Sony did a deal to keep Lara Croft exclusively on PlayStation for the near future. As a result, if you want to play the year's biggest game - Tomb Raider II - you need a PlayStation. Everyone not already in possession of one goes out and gets one.
76) PRICE DROP!
Now it's August, 1998, and a PlayStation is a mere 99 - with the world-beating Dual Shock controller in the package too.
75) SONY RELEASES AIBO AND WE STILL CAN'T AFFORD ONE. STUPID INFLATIONARY PAY RISES.
74) DOUBLE LIFE ADS HIT UK
At the end of 1998 Sony tells us that we're all lead a double life through its superpretentious new TV ads. By day you're this, by night you're something else, thanks to PlayStation. Stupid, moody, memorable.
73) EMOTION ENGINE MADNESS BEGINS
On the 2nd of March 1999, Sony announces it's made something called an 'Emotion Engine' to put in its forthcoming PlayStation2. Everyone sort of laughs, expecting PS2 to be a disaster. It isn't.
72) NELL MCANDREW IS LARA CROFT
Of all the models hired to pretend to be Lara at promo events, Nell remains our favourite. Although, of course, we wouldn't kick Lara Weller, Lucy Clarkson or that Dutch one out of bed for farting. We're nice like that.
71) PRICE DROP!
August, 1999 and it's a mere 79.99 GBP, putting it within reach of all but the poorest of pikeys.
70) 20 MILLION PSONES SOLD
In Europe alone by September 1999! Three months later and it's a whopping 25 million!
69) PSW LAUNCHES!
Issue one arrived just in time for Christmas 2000. It's the size of a phone directory and has a free memory card on the front. Everyone says it's great.
68) ANNUAL WRESTLE-OFFS BEGIN
We write our first review of a SmackDown! game, a happy trend that will continue right up to, well, this issue. It's beautiful. Even before Stacy Keibler, we were mad for WWE.
67) LIFE-SIZE LARA POSTER
Money was literally no object for PSW in the early days. Free memory cards, DVDs, posters, glossy brochures - we even used to all spend at least 6 a day on really posh lunches. And who can ever forget PSW 16's Resident Evil fully functioning shotgun! The pinnacle of our cash-blowing promotional strategy was PSW 2's life-sized poster of the then Lara Croft model Lara Weller. .
66) MENTAL WEALTH ADS , 1999
Remember Fi-Fi? With the head? Was she real or computer-generated? She was real; half Kate Moss and half onion, and she ranted obscure, meaningless trash, but captured the mood nicely. The last, great PlayStation ad campaign before they went too far with all that 'third place' nonsense.
65) FI-FI'S WORDS IN FULL :
"Let me tell you what bugs me of the human endeavour. I've never been a human in question, have you? Mankind went to the moon. I don't even know where Grimsby is. Forget progress by proxy, land on your own moon. It's no longer about what they can achieve, out there on your behalf, but what we can experience up here and of our own time. And it's called mental wealth." Say what?
64) PLAYSTATION 2 COMES OUT IN JAPAN
Ahh, so this is what the Emotion Engine was for. On March 4, 2000, PS2 arrived in Sony's home country. It goes down rather well, and by the end of the month 1.4 million have been sold. It's going to be a success which means we're not all going to lose our jobs and have to move back to mum and dad's house! Yes!
63) DAVID JAMES BLAMES PLAYSTATION
For him being a bit useless. But this was years ago - what's your excuse these days, you ball-fumbling cock? The disaster-prone keeper alleges playing too much FIFA has somehow impaired his skills, but people in the know think his problems are more deeprooted - he's got olive oil on his gloves, lead in his legs and can't catch for toffee.
62) WORLD FALLS FOR PUBLICITY LIES
Someone comes up with the idea of telling newspapers that PlayStation2 is so powerful that Saddam Hussein is going to use a few of them to control missiles and blow us all up. The press falls for it, and the biggest video game lie of all time gets printed everywhere.
61) PLAYSTATION SPONSORS EURO 2000 TOURNAMENT
Everyone gets free trips out to Belgium and Holland, to enjoy England's disastrous group stage flop, thanks to losing their third match 3-2 to a handy Romanian side full of experienced international journeymen. Sony's still happy though - around 225 million viewers watched each game across the world. Who won? Who cares (France).
60) PS2 UK PREORDERING BEGINS
Sony thinks up some sort of ludicrous scheme whereby you have to fill in a form and hand it to your local game shop to reserve a PS2 at launch. And even then you're not guaranteed to get one, thanks to massive global demand. It doesn't go down very well. But you've got one now, right?
59) PS2 MISSION TO CONQUER THE WORLD BEGINS
PlayStation2 launches in America. An amazing 500,000 machines sell in the first few days. Sony pours itself a large drink.
58) WE GET BETTER GAMES
After criticism of the slightly duff launch line-up overseas, news breaks that we're getting newer, better and 'anti-aliased' Tekken Tag, and our version of fireworkbased puzzle game Fantavision will have a two-player mode and more backgrounds! And did anyone ever buy Fantavision? Did they bollocks! All that effort, wasted.
57) WE GET 33 PLAYSTATION2 GAMES
Compared to the first PlayStation's three launch games, PS2's 33 initial releases is truly phenomenal. Everyone still only buys Ridge Racer 5, but we decide TimeSplitters is the best of the first few games - and will love the 'Splidders for ever more.
56) MORE METAL GEAR SOLID 2 NEWS
The game causes such a stir at games show E3 that the trailer is released on DVD in Japan. Still no sign of the game actually coming out, though.
55) CHRIS DEERING SPOTTED DANCING I N A LEATHER JACKET
This man is the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe - and he knows just how to get down and party.
54) PSW 11 ARRIVES WITH A FREE DVD
And didn't THIS change the whole world of magazines. The first games mag - or any mag at all - to offer a free DVD every month, and for a stupidly generous 2.99, PSW 11 shall go down in history. At least, with us.
53) PRICE DROP!
September 28, 2001 - PS2 comes down from 299 GBP to 199 GBP and positions itself as a slightly more affordable super-console. Just in time for the arrival of Gran Turismo 3, too. It really is like Sony has had some sort of cunning advance plan.
52) GT3 GETS 10/10
Just in time for the 199 GBP price cut too. Yet more evidence that Sony isn't just cobbling this together and does indeed HAVE SOME SORT OF PLAN.
51) SEGA STOPS MAKING GAMES MACHINES
Poor old Sega. PlayStation killed off the Sega Saturn in 1998, then PS2 killed off Dreamcast a few years later. And if Sega was still making consoles, PS3 would've killed that off next year too.