Playstation2 system: Lets start with the outside. Its a nice blue color, with the word PS2 on the front. It looks just like the Japanese box, except without the Japanese writing on the back. Some people think the box is a bit lighter in color, but I cant tell because I am colorblind. Youll just have to take my word for it. Upon opening the box, on the top flap, youll find the power cord, the RCA cable, and the Dualshock2 controller. After raising the flap, the fun really begins; its the Playstation2. It is wrapped in plastic, and has Styrofoam on three sides. I quickly set up the system, and started playing some games. Here are my first impressions.

SSX: This games flat out ROCKS!! Not since 1080 for N64, has a snowboarding titles been this much fun to play. There are several characters to choose from, and many more that are available to be unlocked. After you select one of the available courses (most have to be unlocked) you can either, take a warmup run, compete, or free ride down. The courses in SSX, are absolutely amazing. Beautiful scenery and unbelievable course design make this game by far the most impressive PS2 Ive played to date. As you start your run (which can last 7 minutes) you can rock back and forth on the start bars to get yourself a better start. As you head down, you are able to punch your competitors to try to get ahead. I didnt do this too often because usually they were too far ahead of me. Pulling off tricks is key to not only winning freestyle events, but winning races as well. If you pull off a successful trick, you are given some boost, which is necessary to keep up with your speedy competitors. I still have much more to accomplish and explore in this game, but so far I would say this is THE launch title to get.

Madden 2001: After playing SSX, I headed off to the gridiron to experience Madden, PS2 style. After taking the field with my Chicago Bears, my first impression was "Wow! These guys are kinda short and stocky looking". After a while you can look past this, but it seems odd that EA didnt do something about the players odd appearance. I choose my first play, I Formation-Sweep left, and broke my huddle. I promptly lost 5 yards, and decided to take to the air. Once I completed a few passes, I found myself marching down the field with ease. The camera view is very conducive to passing, since it zooms out quite a bit after the snap. After playing so much NFL2K1 on the Dreamcast, I found it a bit difficult to control my players when they had the ball. Maddens controls are more momentum based and realistic, making it much more difficult to stop on a dime, and fake out your defender. The super-human diving tackles from Gameday are nowhere to be found here, everything controls as close to real-life as possible. I think its going to take me a few games to really get used to the Madden, but I think it has the makings of a very fine football game.

Dead or Alive2: Hardcore: Am I weird because I think these DOA girls are kind of hot? Dont answer that. My first impression of this game is that it is a nice fighter, but it may not be for everyone. The controls are easy to pick up, and moves are easily reversed, making this game not appear very deep upon first look. As I fought my way through the games story mode, I found that this game's was much deeper than I had first thought. Arena awareness is key here, as there are certain places that you want to avoid getting knocked into. I loved knocking my opponent off the rooftop, and then jumping down towards them to complete the beating. The graphics are very nicely done, especially the characters. The detail in each fighter is incredible, and yes they are very endowed with polygons in certain areas. I thought that some of the backgrounds were less than disappointing, but as soon as I thought that, I would find myself on an amazing looking level. There looks like there is a ton of stuff to unlock, and there are many different play modes to experiment with as well. Its going to be close between this game and Tekken for best fighting game on the new console.

There they are; my thoughts on the new system, and some of its A-list games. Check back Monday for the first of our US PS2 game reviews. For those of you that dont have the system yet, start making plans to get one from the next shipments. Ive been waiting months to finally say this: It is a GREAT system.