EA seems to like killing consoles...

...or, at least bidding them goodbye with a sports title.

I found this article about the last game to be released for PS2 here in North America, FIFA 14, a Soccer game.

According to the article, they were also the company to release the last game for PS1 with, coincidentally enough, another game in the same series, FIFA Football 2005. They were also the ones to bid the GameCube goodbye with Madden NFL 08. I'm surprised that EA still supported a console that came in 3rd out of 4th place for its console generation at least a year after the manufacturer discontinued the product.

Anyway, this got me thinking... How many different systems were sent off into history by an EA title and were they all sports games?

According to this list on Wikipedia, EA published the last title (and it was a sports title every time) for the PS1, PS2, GameCube and the original XBOX with Madden NFL 09. That one amazes me. M$ very quickly dropped support for the first XBOX when the XBOX 360 hit the market in 2005 and EA still supported it four years later?

This makes me wonder why EA has been going back and forth on their support for the WiiU. It seems they don't mind dumping some of their ubiquitous sports titles (that I gleefully ignore anyway since I hate sports) on just about ANY console that might still have an audience. Sometimes, that company just confuses me into NOT buying from them...

As for the PS2, my feelings are a bit mixed. Overall, I like the system. It has very few flaws and the flaws it does have are not important to me. I've had 2 over the years. The first one I bought new in either 2002 or 2003. I don't remember which now. I had a few games for it that were cool like Namco Museum and Twisted Metal: Black. I don't remember any other games I may have had for it at that time.

Anyway, I got bored with it and it just collected dust for a long while. Some time later, I sold it and used the cash to add a lot of cartridges to my N64 collection, including a complete-in-box copy of Perfect Dark.

Fast-forward to the spring or summer of 2011 and I'm serving overseas in Korea. I'm looking through the games at a PX on an American Army base there. I see a new PS2 Slim on sale for about $100. Since I am a collector, I just said 'What the Hell?' to myself and bought it that day. It sat untouched in my room for the rest of my time in that country. It flew home with me in my luggage since I didn't trust Army Transportation NOT to steal it from the crate I had forwarded to my next post in the United States.

Anyway, I brought several game systems with me to the next post, including this PS2, and a number of cheap (yet very good) games. It got connected to the 32" 720p HDTV I bought shortly after settling in at the new post but, I never played it much. The same can be said for many of the other systems I brought here or bought in the local area's civilian economy.

Eventually, I sent it home in a large box with a bunch of books and DVD movies that were taking up space. It's now sitting with most of the other video games that I own in my storage area back home in New Orleans. As much as I like the console, my Wii, DS, 3DS, WiiU and now a PS3 would all take precedence. Same goes for the Retron 3 clone console that plays NES, SNES and Genesis games for me and the Atari 2600 that I found in a local record store.

I will get back to it one day, along with a great many other systems in my collection. And I have 17 good reasons to do so...

• Alone in the Dark
• Area 51
• Atari Anthology
• God of War II
• Grand Theft Auto III
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
• Lumines Plus
• Midway Arcade Treasures 1
• Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
• Mortal Kombat: Deception
• Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
• Pac-Man World 2
• Pac-Man World 3
• Pac-Man World Rally
• SSX 3
• Twisted Metal: Black (includes Online bonus disc)

That is by no means all of the great titles for this industry-changing system but, they are what I have... for now. Collections are never really complete, especially for a system like PS2 that had nearly 4,000 games released for it all over the world...

Currently, I have Black, Okami, Star Trek Voyager - Elite Force and Taito Legends on my list of titles to add to my ever-expanding collection. These games appeal to my tastes or, just seem like they'd be interesting to play. I'm thinking of adding Star Trek: Encounters to the list as well. More research in the form of gameplay videos on YouTube will have to happen first, though. From what I've read, it seems like that pure starship combat game that I've always wanted someone to make for the Star Trek franchise.

Suggestions for other enjoyable titles are welcome. All I ask is that you not list any Sports, RPG or Real-time Strategy titles. For various reasons, I could never get into those genres.

- Lord Publius

P.S. To those who say that many of my PS2 games were just okay or marginal, I say you can have whatever opinion you wish. If I decide I don't like any of them, I'll just re-sell them on Ebay or something similar. There's always someone out there that will buy them for the sake of completing their own collections. I'm only interested in owning the games that I genuinely love. The rest will be re-sold.