Can PS2 afford to forge its own path?

[Piper]

Some pre-waffle first, sorry!

I remember an early tiny piece, complete with useless image, describing what PS1 was trying to be in PC gamer, quite a long time before it was launched. It alluded a little bit to its potential scale and I remember it said it would 100% require DSL to play (it didn't) which at the time was an odd thing to read. After that I kept one eye on it.

2003 was a slightly different gaming era really lets not forget. WoW hadn't appeared and online gaming was still pretty much far more nerdy than it is considered today, as is the Intraweb full stop. PS1 was, at the time, (and yes it is hyperbole, but accurate none the less) revolutionary. It was trying something new in lots of fundamental ways. It wasn't just another of the Quake/Unreal based engine games. WW2OL did come first, but it launched in a very bad shape. PS didn't really, it worked pretty well and arguably only got worse over time compared to launch.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is must PS2 cater to what has happened to the FPS market in the intervening nine years in order just to sate its potential (free) customer base? Or can it trail-blaze once again? Be different and expect players to grow to like its difference and respect it not sheep herding.

PS2 is aping a lot of features from other games from what we can see but TTK remains a good example to discuss with this? TTK is the quintessential nub of an FPS, get it right and everything else can fall into place. I, personally, never felt that PS1's TTK was "too slow" as is often remarked by "veterans". In many instances you could be dead before you could react, boomers, multiple opponents, Vanguard rounds, quadshot, all sorts. However, it was sufficient in many cases to allow fight/flight reactions when jumped unexpectedly and for a barney to ensue that perhaps the jumper had not expected from the jumpee.

I don't (having not played any of the other FPS's in the intervening nine years [so yes I'm talking out of my arse potentially] because you can't go back to 32/32) understand the desire to forever speed up gameplay. Can someone help me understand it please?


Woot, using brackets inside brackets. I suck.