Lots of people say that they bought every PlayStation ever, but no one has ever actually done it and
For good reason see there are way more
Playstations than most people realize and many of them are darn near impossible to get your hands on
So I asked the team to take a shot at buying one of every
PlayStation ever for me to play on and this is gonna be a lot of fun because as a lifelong PC gamer
There are machines here that I straight up didn't even know existed
But we'll get to those later because first up is the OG the daddy
The PlayStation Now we already did a succinct and if I do say so myself
Adorable rendition of the story of how Sony entered the gaming world in our console tier list video
So today we're gonna focus on the hardware and on the games the original PlayStation came out December 3rd
1994 and thanks to its franchise defining exclusives
Innovative hardware not to mention aggressive price it quickly took the gaming world by storm becoming the best selling home console ever
But there were a lot of different playstations that contributed to that number in fact
There are over 10 fat models 20 plus if you consider a region lock a model
But don't worry if your collection is missing a few of them the differences between many of them are very hard to spot
So bottom line if you're on the market We would recommend one of the later models that fixes some major issues with the earlier ones
But still remains fairly moddable
7500 is the best or hear me out if compatibility with mods
PSIO or a game shark doesn't matter to you. There's always the ps1 not that ps1
This ps1 this smaller lighter version of the original PlayStation cost just 200 dollars
Which made it a great entry point into Sony's ecosystem an ecosystem that got some pretty cool accessories like check out
This little LCD screen attachment with this you can play even when you're away from your station
Okay, but this was probably the bigger deal while the DualShock is
Pedestrian looking at best by today's standards It was the first ish controller with two analog sticks which kicked off a controller design paradigm that
Outside of small refinements has remained largely unchanged to this day
Just like I'll never change the way I segue to our sponsor
Our third specimen is one of this generation's biggest collector's items the net Eurose
Not only had I never heard of this thing. I'd never heard of the concept of it
It's a dev kit see but it's targeted at hobbyists rather than at professional developers
And the aim was to spark interest in game development
It was only available via mail order and cost about
750 us dollars which that sounds like an awful lot for a matte black palette swap and a couple of matching controllers
But here's the kicker it also had no region lock and came with everything you needed to run unsigned software
Directly from a PC. It's hard to imagine modern Sony doing anything that cool
But back in those days Sony had a very try anything twice mindset, which was reflected in the games as well
Now we just got a pick one to play We could go with an obvious choice like Final Fantasy 7 or Tekken or Crash Bandicoot
But that'd be too predictable. We chose Parappa the rapper, which I've never actually played. I'll prepare yourself
Okay, man, what shape did they think people's hands were?
Oh, no, I figured it out games were for kids. Yes. So the curvature is so tight for an adult hand
Which didn't bother me back then because we were kids now
You have a lot of fond childhood memories of this particular game. It's one of my favorites of all time. Sony binger back. I'll pay anything
I'll find it myself We are 30 seconds into this game and I've seen multiple like white American stereotypes that
Make me amaze that this console ever sold overseas. I'm impressed it has voice acting
Yeah, well, that was the power of the CD. You could finally fit voice actors into your game. Oh, hold on. Okay. Oh God
I don't know. I don't know Sony buttons. So this is gonna be really hard. Oh
God Wow, you lost that's the fastest I've seen anyone lose at this game even when I was a baby. I
Could do better than that. That was the tutorial. What's the spot? What spot?
What where in the which star am I trying to hit it on?
Where the thing is but there's three stars, but the stars have nothing to do with it
Look at the thing is that's all you have to hit what I did it that early. Yeah. Oh
Oh, I get it Yeah, you're getting it. I thought as the one went across the thing
I didn't notice that the the icon is the character who's supposed to do it
It's a small screen. It's a really small screen. Okay. I can do this. I can do this
I think one thing that's brilliant about this game is that it's a great tutorial for learning where the buttons are on a PlayStation controller
That's actually genius. Oh, oh, what is that square right the thing?
This is probably enough of this that's probably enough parappa for all of its first generation jankiness though
The PlayStation really was a revolution in the game industry
Get it because spinning discs not cartridges
Of course, all good things must end and the ps2 made the ps1
Completely obsolete doing everything its predecessor did but better not only did it have very complete backwards compatibility with both ps1 games and
Controllers thanks to what was essentially a built-in ps1 CPU
But an even bigger selling point for the mainstream buyers was that the ps2 was also one of the cheapest
DVD players on the market at just
$299 and all of that ignores the Technological jump that this sixth generation beast offered for next-gen games
It's powerful custom hardware not to mention much larger game discs meant not only better graphics
But also more ambitious game worlds mechanics and stories this time in an attractive black shell that
Especially in its vertical stance exudes monolithic power
That is unless you opt for the slim ps2 though
It is worth noting that thanks to the expansion slot on the back the original fat is still the most desirable
PS2 model for many gamers with the 3900 range being the sweet spot
Thanks to its improved laser reliability out of the box hard drive support
Not to mention its ability to use free mick boot to load privateered games
With that said if you aren't planning on sailing the seven C's and you don't care about these
20 or so ps1 games most versions of the slim are also pretty great choices these days
What's a poor choice these days unless you're a hardcore collector is the PSX
This Japan only white behemoth was a harbinger of Sony's next-generation ambitions and
Included alongside a full-fat ps2 a ton of extra features most of which are basically
Useless today. I'm talking media functionality like video audio and image editing not to mention a digital video recorder to pause and play back live
TV on the built-in encrypted hard drive which
Sadly has yet to be cracked and takes out the entire console when it dies
Perhaps most importantly though the PSX introduced the cross media bar before it became the iconic UI of the PSP and the PS3
Which we will get to in a moment, but first There's another ps2 that only the true aficionados will know the Bravia KDL 22 px 300
This is a truly unremarkable 720p class LCD TV
But it has a PlayStation 2 built into the stand man
You would think this thing would have made some serious headlines and who knows maybe it would have
Except that it was released four years after the PlayStation 3 came out
But still we have got to use this for our ps2 gaming. Oh, yeah, baby. Oh, yeah
But first there's one more novel variant of the ps2 that we dropped from our procurement list
But Phil should get an honorable mention anyway the audiovox VOD 10 ps2
It's an all-in-one ps2 gaming system. That's meant for in-car integration
Which sounded so cool, and I wanted it so bad
Until we looked a little closely and realized it's really just a retail ps2 slim that slots into a folding display
That makes it more of an accessory than a console, so it didn't need our criteria for inclusion
Now all we got to do is pick a game not easy on a console with over
4,000 of them many of them on the all-time greatest list. I'm gonna choose the incredible
Medal of Honor European assault because that's the European game that we do have and this is a PAL TV
great
Wow
Holy crap, I forgot how bad early LCDs were
This is shocking like yes ps2 games don't look great
But everything moving in the distance is just like this mirroring. Yes slow motion how smeary it is the smearing is horrible
Wow, it's not helping matters that it's running at 30 FPS. Yes, how could you?
Possibly hope to beat this game like this Still even on this trash TV you can see what a massive improvement in fidelity the ps2 offered over the ps1
Not right out of the gate necessarily the first ps2 games famously did not really look much better than the last ps1 games as
Developers really unlocked the full potential of that first-generation console, but by the time it was well into its life
It makes per app of the rapper look like Early concept of what 3d gaming might look like hey, there's propper 2 on the ps2. I bet it looks a lot better
It does look slightly better. Yes making my aiming issues worse is the fact that these analog sticks appear to have about
20% of their movement as a dead zone. Yeah, that's just the way things were but there were some improvements like
Analog face buttons so in like Gran Turismo. That's how you would accelerate as you'd press harder on the X button to go faster
Okay, that's pretty cool. I prefer the triggers. We have today
Me too. I also prefer the displays we have today where I'm not seeing six ghost images of this tower
Truly awful while this is probably a worst-case scenario the ps2 overall existed during that
awkward transition period between CRT where the games definitely looked better and flat panels that were sexier not to mention more expensive, but
Really did have crap image quality and input latency
Of course flat panels wouldn't stay crappy forever and with the rise of high definition TVs
Sony's next move would be to raise the bar for home consoles once again
Delivering a leap in visual fidelity that blew away our 2006 eyes
Not to mention our 2006 wallets
That's right. Despite its impressive cell architecture or maybe because of it
The big bad glossy blu-ray machine. Oh, it's heavy landed on the market with a resounding
Out of the gate its cost made it unattractive to gamers and its complexity made it unattractive to developers
Who really struggled? I mean even compared to last gen to differentiate their early ps3 games from the best-looking ps2 titles
Of course by once again including last-generation hardware in the early ps3s
Sony made sure that you could at least still play those older games, but
Here's the thing the ps2 is still the best-selling console ever
So if you really wanted to play older games, you could just you know pick one of those up on craigslist for next to nothing
Now the final ace up Sony's sleeve was supposed to be support for high definition blu-ray movie playback and for that
It did offer a compelling value, but that was only for the handful of folks who cared
Slow adoption of high-definition TVs not to mention the much higher prices of blu-ray discs meant that DVD would continue to be the dominant
Format for years to come in spite of all of this though
Sony stuck it out and the ps3's appeal steadily grew over the course of its lifetime
bolstered by a growing library of Phenomenal exclusives with the real breakthrough moment coming with the introduction of this the less glossy and perhaps more importantly
less expensive ps3 slim at
299 I don't know seems like the price of a game console might be important
Nintendo or not who knows this external shrinkage was made possible by Sony slowly eliminating feature bloat like extra
IO and backwards compatibility along with some major
transistor-sized shrinkage on both the CPU and
GPUs and thank goodness for that because those early model ps3's produced much more heat than their woefully inadequate cooling solutions could move away
Which contributed to a plague of yellow light deaths?
That's a big reason why we would actually recommend targeting an early slim for your collection
Yes, yes, both the CEHA and E can play ps2 games natively, which is pretty cool
But in our mind, that's really not enough to overcome the price difference
Which is so big that you could buy a ps3 slim and a ps2 and a good retro scalar all for less money
Not to mention that it would deliver a noticeably less leggy ps2 gaming experience that recommendation though assumes that you might be interested in
modding if all you care about is playing legal discs late model slims or even the super slim can be a great
Reliable option see instead of a front disc loader We have the back-to-basics top-loading disk drive that kind of reminds me of Buckley's cough syrup
It's ugly, but it works immediately. I have a bunch of thoughts
But I'm not sure if you'll be able to hear them over this freaking console. Is that normal?
They get louder with age as there's more and more dust, but there was always a very loud console
To its credit though, this is the first game that I've looked at and gone
Yeah, I could just sit down and enjoy this with no distraction. Looks like a switch one game looks good enough
Well, I shouldn't say no distraction I have this cable pulling on my controller
Which I shouldn't because the six-axis was the first wireless controller that was ever packed in with a Sony console
It had no rumble out of the gate due to ongoing litigation with the DualShock 3 coming about a year later
But hold on a second then. How's the cable Sony's fault Linus? Well because Sony
Integrates batteries into their controllers, which always die
Because batteries die you can buy replacements from places like Ali Express, but most people aren't going through that
So if you're buying used ps3 controllers, just expect it to be dead. This is why I always liked the Xbox approach
Yes, the controllers are heavier because of the double-a batteries, but I never have to deal with this certainly for longevity
It's way better. Oh We didn't mention the analog triggers yet. I really don't like the shape of it. It feels off. No, it's a modern one
No, that's a terrible analog trigger, but having an analog trigger definitely better than not having an analog trigger
This is also one of my least favorite controllers of all playstations. I don't like the wireless latency
I think that it was time for an improvement. I my dream project is rebuilding the boomerang
Controller the banana that they they released when they announced the console, but they never released it because there was too many people
Making fun of it. Apparently it's like the most comfortable controller over the time
Keep juggling you down the road It's crazy that through this entire era of gaming performance was barely even it like a issue on our mind
This is like running at a solid 30 FPS, but racing games now that's almost unacceptable. Oh almost
Another thing we've stopped accepting these days is the brown filter over everything even this game feels like it has like a
Gritty brown filter over all the vegetation. Yeah, everything is just a little gray and brown. I
Get it. It was HD. They were trying to make it look realistic Now movies are going through a similar thing at the same time. Yeah realism in my games not always what I'm after
All right, it's time to move on to the next generation. No, it's not. No, it's not
You may not know this, but Sony released another
Little tiny home console right around the launch of the ps4 the PlayStation TV
This little hundred dollar box was marketed primarily as a remote play device in Sony's big push into the game remote streaming world
Stupidly what they should have done is focus on its best feature
The fact that inside this box is basically a ps Vita just without the screen
I mean it wasn't officially that of course, but once you hacked it and added compatibility back for most games
You could enjoy a surprisingly excellent big screen experience or so. I'm told I never had a Vita. What am I gonna be playing?
You're gonna be playing Batman Arkham Origins because it's a game that shows off some of the technical capacity of this
This looks surprisingly good on the big screen. Yeah, the scaling is not ideal on it
You can only do 720p or 1080i and we currently have 720p
So it's really good on like an HD CRT But who's got in one of those these days?
Dude the Vita was so good We should do another one of these videos just about the Vita like the textures are obviously a little lo-fi
But like it looks not bad not that far off from ps3
It also was the only way to play persona for golden on a big screen for a long time
But now they've sold that on every marketplace, but for
Five years it was basically this neat, but more of a side exploration
Now for a storyline quest Sony's ps4
Parallelogram got off to a very strong start in large part by just keeping it simple
While Microsoft was hanging a connect-shaped elbatross over its confusingly named do-it-all
Xbox one Sony was laser focused on creating a gaming machine for gamers
Released in late 2013 at 399 The ps4 was Sony's first ever console to contain an AMD x86
APU meaning that Architecturally it was more like a gaming PC than any generation that came before it that meant that it was that much
Easier to develop and port games for and boy did we ever get some games
In fact, it was such a strong lineup of exclusives that it would be hard for Sony to evolve beyond it
The ps4 would be followed up by the die shrunk slim and then eventually the pro which was touted as the first true
4k console machine, but uh
Our tests determined that that was a lie as it turned out the pro was basically a moderate GPU upgrade with nearly
Everything else remaining the same probably because Intel was too cool to make console chips and
AMD couldn't build a decent CPU to save their lives back then
No, the true 4k console. It's still not true 4k
the ps5 would arrive in 2020 priced at 399 with a
Unique design that made it a little hard not to worry about Sony and a best-in-class storage solution promised that long loading screens
Would be a thing of the past But aside from that Sony's fifth generation lacked the unique accessories and gameplay innovations that helped previous generations stand out
Oh wait this You have got to be kidding me with all of that said
Being kind of bland but better isn't necessarily a terrible thing and the ps5 fully
Embraces the trend of consoles becoming more PC like which made multi-platform ports much easier and higher quality than ever
While also providing important creature comforts not to mention an attractive price-to-performance ratio that made it a
Solid choice for gamers. This has led to an environment where there are fewer true
exclusives than ever before But the trade-off is that the ps5 can play thousands of games and is often the best place to play them
Other than a high-end PC of course and that's true
Whether you're playing on a fat ps5 or the newer slim ps5
Which sadly is the first big size reduction that we've seen that didn't have a significant jump in efficiency
But hey, at least it fits nicely in our commuter backpack
Lttstore.com now for our biggest baddest
PlayStation yet the true 4k console still not native
The ps5 pro we've got another GPU focused upgrade here with improved raw performance
Improved ray tracing and a new fangled
PlayStation specific upscaling technique that to Sony and AMD's credit can look pretty close to native
Even if it still isn't and even if it's about to be replaced by fsr4
The only question in my mind is are we being too hard on the ps5? I mean we called this thing a
moderate performance bump and sure compared to like the ps2 to the ps1
kind of is but I kind of remember those ps4 games looking kind of sh**. Can we compare these two already? I'm having the ps4 experience
Yeah, let's do a new game three two one go. Hey, there we go. There we go. I could have skipped a long time ago
Yikes
Okay, that is a lot sharper. Yeah a lot smoother
I gotta say for its age though ps4 looks not bad in this game
The cutscenes look really good on ps4 once we get to gameplay it'll be a little more clear to be clear
The one on the left looks like it has vaseline over the screen
I could finish this game at the time is taking you to load in
And you'd have a much more enjoyable experience Another big difference going from the ps4 to the ps5 was unlocking 120 FPS performance modes
Yes, the visual fidelity does go down, but particularly in more competitive titles
It can be a major advantage Even the addition of vrr on PlayStation consoles was a huge deal where
Now games can have a little bit of stuttering But it doesn't matter nearly as much and I've really liked the addition of the 40 hertz modes that are somewhere in between balanced
60 hertz modes and 30 FPS, but they look great and they're you know, just 33 smoother a little bit more playable
Okay, not bad But then I pan the camera
And I gotta say look I never played ribbon west, but I did play zero dawn and that was a freaking
Hard game sometimes when you have to like use a particular kind of arrow to snipe the eye of a particular
bird flying around and doing that with this level of blur
And at this level of input latency Okay, I shouldn't say I don't know if I could beat it because I beat it on a steam deck
Um But it would be harder Yeah To their credit both of these generations support HDR, but even the modest performance impact is
Definitely going to be less felt on the ps5 to be fair. I think the ps5 pro is a little overkill. Like it's so sharp and so
Yeah, we're showing how much we've shown how much uh from the beginning of this
Super generation to the end of the super generation and how it how much improvement there is
Is that how you would describe the ps4 ps5 the super generation a hundred percent?
Yeah, I think that's fair Yeah, like we've had so much improvement that it probably totals more than a generation, but it's still like
You're playing ps4 games on your ps5 like there's very few just ps5 games
Oh, hi
Oh got him again Oh
With that said there's more to this half generation than just performance
That controller is the first PlayStation controller that has ever tempted me
I do not love the ergonomics of any previous dual shock controller
But the dual sense with its better haptics Including these like sick triggers that make your bow really feel like
Drawing a bow, of course you'll pay the price for all of that The ps5 pro is in raw dollars the most expensive console we've ever seen from sony and even adjusting for inflation
Only the launch ps3 exceeds it, which was notoriously
Not very successful and even within the same parts We've seen price increases across the globe and they've kind of
Discretely in the us raised the price of the slim by 50 bucks over the launch even as lifelong pc gamers
I think we can both agree that there's never been a better time to enjoy the tens of thousands of playstation games
Both present and in the past Especially if you're not shy about privateering them for those of you watching
If you want to get an idea of which playstation you should buy in each generation
We're going to put up our chart with recommended models Now
We're also going to segue to our sponsor
Now
If you like this kind of looking back at the history of gaming
Why don't you check out the time we had several young people try some of my favorite childhood games
Video games Have they really changed for the better?
Yes But also in some ways no
We should do another episode of that. I have more childhood games. Sure. I'd be super done
Maybe we could let them play for longer this time. Yes, please
Less people more time