As I mentioned before in my initial report on the PSP wares, the PS2 is still seeing a healthy amount of support from a lot of game studios and there are certainly no shortage of games being released this Fall and Christmas season for the console. Ahh...Where to begin...Let's start with perhaps the most controversial PS2 offering this holiday season none other than Reservoir Dogs. The rep from Eidos eagerly fired up a demo of Reservoir Dogs the minute I came by it and began to show off the look and feel of the game with great pride. I can see why. For the PS2 the game featured some nice graphics, as well as some decent physics and A.I. Oh there was also some blood, well actually there was a lot of blood. The idea behind the game is to play out many of the scenes hinted at in the 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino. Ever wonder what exactly happened to Mr. Blue in the diamond exchange? Well you will find out by playing the scene in the video game. The Eidos rep demonstrated how you can go in either of two moral directions by your actions as you play each character. You can choose to be more of a professional by killing few or no people, and using hostages to help negotiate your escape, or you can choose to be more of a psychotic killer and maim at every opportunity. At the end of each story you play out a rating is displayed showing whether you were more of a professional or a psycho in your actions. The game also features its own cinematic ‘Bullet-Time' effect which you can activate whenever your character's adrenaline meter is full. Reservoir Dogs was impressive enough to me in its execution (there is a pun in there somewhere) on the PS2. Whether or not you make it your first choice of PS2 games to buy this Fall probably depends upon how big a fan you are of the movie and where you stand on the issue of gratuitous video game violence. Somehow I feel the game will be moving quickly off the store shelves. I was only able to get a brief glimpse of the PS2 version of Splinter Cell: Double Agent as the game seemed perpetually busy with so many media types wanting to get their hands on this much anticipated title by Ubisoft. Needless to say the game looks better than ever on the PS2 and contains all the cool features we have come to enjoy in the Splinter Cell games as well as a few new ones like the implemented morality system. As it was explained to me, throughout the game you will have to make moral choices and the decisions you make effects the direction of the storyline adding a whole new dimension to the game. The game features many exotic locales that the series is well known for as well as puts you in a number of breathtaking situations like skydiving (to which I saw the Ubisoft rep demo some fancy aerial maneuvers as Sam Fisher plummeted to earth at high speed) or putting you into the middle of a desert sandstorm or into freezing Arctic waters. For Splinter Cell fans picking up this next installment in the series this is definitely a no brainer as all indications are that it looks to be the best installment in the series yet. Certainly you won't be able to find a more stunning a stealth action game with as many features on the PS2. Rocking up a storm at the Sony preview show was the demonstration of Guitar Hero II. This game is perfect for the anyone who dreams of being a rock star. For starters Guitar Hero II has well over 40 hard rockin' musical tracks from classics to modern day rock anthems that you can play along with in game. As the rep from Redoctane Games explained many of the songs were recorded or re-recorded especially for this game. Guitar Hero II is pretty straight forward, you have a guitar like controller and on the screen is a venue, an animated rock band, and a guitar fretboard coming down center screen. As the song starts the guitar parts to be played are represented scrolling down the fretboard in colored circles that correspond to your guitar game controller. Timing is the key requiring you to concentrate on hitting every note at just the right moment. Hitting the notes correctly on time makes you a rock star and racks you up big points, miss enough notes however and you'll find yourself booed off the stage in disgrace. Of course there are plenty of practice modes and skill levels to get up to speed and rocking in no time. Guitar Hero II also features a new multiplayer co-op mode allowing players to collaborate in order to beat songs, with each guitarist playing a separate guitar track. To all you mom's and dad's out there if your son or daughter is often seen jumping around the house playing air guitar then Guitar Hero II would probably be your best PS2 game choice this Christmas. Taking up more or less center of the game show floor was Square Enix's gorgeous Final Fantasy XII. Demonstrated on a big high-res Sony TV screen it was obviously one of the main highlights of the show. If anything keeps the heart of the PS2 beating strong it's the Final Fantasy series. FF XII, the next installment will probably go down in history as one of the last truly great PS2 games. A description of the story for the 12th instalment of Final Fantasy reads as follows: The story takes place in the world of Ivalice, where the kingdoms of Arcadia and Rozarria are waging a bitter war against one another, and caught in the middle is the kingdom of Dalmasca. When Arcadia invades Dalmasca, the princess Ashe joins a resistance movement; and during the struggle, she meets Vaan, a young adventurer who dreams of commanding an airship. They are quickly joined by a band of allies and together rally against the tyranny of the Arcadian Empire. Some of the features of the game demonstrated to me include how characters move seamlessly between exploration and combat allowing game play to unfold in real time. The game also introduces a "Gambit" gameplay option where you can set up a number of preset actions to situations for yourself and your allies as well as implement the same for all the characters in your group. So for example instead of having to pause the game, choose a character, assign a certain spell, unpause the game and activate the spell you can simply set up Gambits where every time you and/or an ally encounter a certain enemy a certain kind of attack or spell is used. A list of Gambits can be made and will automatically be executed in order, top to bottom, depending upon the situation. All in all it saves you a lot of tedious time pausing the game and assigning actions and spells to each character in your group every time you encounter a foe. Of course you are free to override or change the Gambits at anytime as well as cancel them outright. Among the many abilities you can obtain and use in game are Mist Quickening and Summoning, both of which displaying fantastic cinematics in their execution. Summoning can occur once a character has defeated one of the creatures known as Espers, the creature is then bound to that character and can be summoned by the character in battle. Mist Quickening are kind of ‘Limit-Break' attacks which can be used singularly or in spectacular combos unleashing devastating damage to your foe. The rep for Square Enix also took the time to show me the License board where you can shape the abilities of your character. License points are gained in game by experience and by completing certain tasks; you can then use those points to buy new skills and abilities which begin to fill up your License board which is laid out for your character in a chessboard like grid of squares. Final Fantasy XII looks absolutely gorgeous on the PS2 not only in it's cinematics but regular game play as well. For value over time the game has enough missions, side missions, and achievements to keep you entertained for quite sometime. The rep told me a hardcore RPG player could go straight from beginning to end in about 44 hours but if you include all the side missions and other reachable goals you are looking at over 100 hours of game play at least. If you had only one choice for a PS2 game this Fall/Christmas you couldn't go wrong with PS2 exclusive Final Fantasy XII. Now...If there was one PS2 game this holiday season that could possibly wrestle the top spot away from games like Splinter Cell: Double Agent and Final Fantasy XII it could very well be God of War II. Let me tell you this game looks absolutely stunning, easily the best visual looking of all the titles being shown at the Sony show. In fact I could hardly believe it to be a PS2 title as it looked so good. As the story goes in the original God of War we saw Kratos, a mortal warrior, set upon an epic quest to dethrone a God. In God of War II, Kratos sits atop his Olympus throne, as the new God of War – far more ruthless than Ares ever was. To end his continued torment Kratos must journey to the far reaches of the earth and defeat untold horrors and alter that which no mortal, or god has ever changed: his fate. Everything about this game screams winner as it has stylish combat, a compelling story, a great adventure, and gorgeous environments and animations. Sure some may complain it's just more of the same but in the case of God Of War that's obviously a very good thing. The game was certainly a hit with everyone at the preview show, the people play testing the game seemed very reluctant to let go of their controllers and move on to any other game. From what I saw of God Of War II I was greatly impressed and I strongly suggest picking up this title as soon as it comes available. Overall the Sony Holiday Preview Event was well worth the time. With all the hype of next-generation games It is great to see Sony and its 3rd party developers still making some great games for the PS2 and the PSP. Eliah H