I got the PS2 Slimline. I was intending to just slap on Killzone and revel in the joy of an old game discovered new. However, I did something else instead. As I had bought an 8MB memory card to go with the console, I thought I'd take a gander as to what was on this used card. What I found was no less than a profile of the person who had used it last - if it was just one person. The games with saved files were: Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, LOTR The Return of the King, Mark Ecko's Getting Up, Fight Night Rounds 2 and 3, 50 Cent: Bulletproof, Harry Bloody Potter Goblet of Fire, NFS Carbon, GTA III, San Andreas and Vice City, MOH Frontline, The Warriors, X-Men: The Official Game, Ratchet & Clank 2 and 3, Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Smackdown, Yu-Gi-Oh, Spartan, Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness and Legend, and finally, Shadow of Rome.

     Now, that's a healthy dose of gaming, right? There's a good mix there. It could have been one kid on his/her own, playing a bunch of action games, sporadically dipping into the more cerebral ones. It could have been the progression of said kid from thirteen to seventeen years of age. Or it could have been absolutely nothing like this, it's just that I'm prejudiced enough to think that I can define a personality from the games on a memory card. Heck, I'm not even sure what point I'm trying to make other than it was cool to essentially 'spy' on somebody's past delictations and that I've written a record of the games, having just now deleted all the data off the old memory card. It's mine, now, you see, and now it's time for me to begin.

     First off, I have Resident Evil 4, which is stupefyingly brilliant and demands to be played through again. I can't help but think this is pointless, however, when Resident Evil 5 is waiting in the wings and it seems to have learnt some lessons from the previous iteration. Besides, I also have Okami, Shadow of the Colossus, Second Sight, MGS3 Subsistence and GT4 to play through all for the very first time. It's difficult to describe my excitement at this point. It's a sense of wonder at what has been, but also a sense of what is yet to be discovered. The simple knowledge that these games exist is no longer enough to satisfy my perceived acceptance of them into the modern canon. They must be tried and judged, which I am of course more than happy to do.

     Er, anyone got a couple of hours I could borrow? I'll give them back, I swear.