Anyhow, it's here. Finally. Now, everyone can experience the strange beauty of the hypnotizing blue LED, and a lucky few DVD remote purchasers have felt the tragedy of finding out Sony accidentally screwed several manufacturers by mapping the Japanese button assignments in the otherwise much-improved US DVD drivers, thus causing the stop and go buttons to switch functions. Above all, you've finally had the chance to test out Madden, SSX and Tekken Tag Tournament for yourselves.

So what do you think? What rocks? What stinks? What surprises you with how good it is (cough -- Smuggler's Run -- cough), and what is shocking in its suckitude (fill in your own blank here -- The Vent's still playing the good stuff)? We all know it'll eventually be worth the wait. Do you think it is already? Let's hear it. The Vent really wants to know what you think.

There are bound to be a ton of cool (and not so cool) stories about what went down on launch day, and the goofiness that unfolded at Sony's own Metreon here in San Francisco was no exception. Rather than spell it all out in some kind of minute-by-minute journal (which would have to have been written on waterproof Mylar with a wax pencil) The Vent will now present you with the yin and yang of getting your PS2 at the Metreon.

Good: The Metreon, Sony's flagship store, promised it would open its doors at midnight and start selling the long-awaited PS2.

Bad: Have you seen the neighborhood where the Metreon is located? Not the kind of place you want to be at midnight, let alone carrying a PS2 in a big, blue, PS2-logoed shopping bag.

Good: Sony passed out sweaters and ponchos to people waiting in line. Lunches too.

Bad: There weren't nearly enough. And it rained a lot. Then the sprinklers came on (no joke).

Good: After the Metreon closed at 10:00 pm, Sony promised to move the line indoors.

Bad: It took them forever to scare everyone out, and The Vent didn't get in until 11:38.

Good: Sony had several trays of cookies and hot drinks for everyone when they finally entered the building.

Bad: Someone apparently thought that one thermos of coffee for every 50 people waiting shivering in the cold for hours would be plenty. In fact, The Vent isn't even sure it was coffee. The thermoses were all empty long before he got to them.

Good: Sony went to tremendous lengths to keep people from cutting in the line outside the building, assuring that it truly would be "first come, first served," and the stalwart souls who had been there the longest would indeed get first dibs at the goodies.

Bad: They then proceeded to throw it all away by moving the line indoors in random chunks, then further shuffled the single-file ranks by packing people four abreast, destroying any semblance of order and allowing cutters to run rampant. Just ask Charla.

Good: There were plenty of memory cards for everyone.

Bad: They ran out of Dual Shock 2s in about 10 minutes.

Good: Sony had a large selection of games in stock.

Bad: Hardly anyone knew what they were, because nobody at Sony thought to spend five bucks at Kinko's and make enough copies of the list to hand out to the hundreds of people in line.

More bad: Additionally, Sony lost a huge promotional opportunity by not showing demo footage to people waiting in line. There should have been monitors all over that place, at least the indoor path, showing footage of games people could buy right then and there. This was a huge opportunity, because there were an incredible number of people asking one another what games to buy, what games looked the least jaggy, and didn't Gameday look amazing on that big screen inside the store? (Never mind that it was actually Madden 2001.) Guaranteed, if people could have looked at the games during those hours spent in line, they would have bought tons more of them.

Good: It was very easy to get out of line and go to the bathroom once the line moved inside.

Bad: It opened the door to some serious cutting, and for the hours and hours the line was still outside, bathroom runs were a very risky proposition despite Sony's efforts.

Good: Sales began precisely on time.

Bad: The line moved more slowly than a snail with a limp. The Vent was in the 400s in line, and he checked out at exactly 3:28am. Not only did nobody know what items were actually for sale, but somehow, there appeared to be only four registers running, although some 500 people had waited for hours and hours to choose and buy their goodies. Who thought that was good math?

Good: There was music playing inside the Metreon to help pass the time.

Bad: Some of it was great, some of it was awful and some of it just made you scratch your head and say "Who the hell is choosing this stuff?"

Good: There were lots of cool people in line.

Bad: There were also lots of money-grubbing hosers whose only goal was to buy a PS2 and sell it on eBay.

Good: The Vent was ahead of a whole pack of these creeps in line.

Bad: The one directly behind him whined all night, and there were TONS more in front of him.

Good: At one point, Sony realized they could process people a little faster, and a guy came out and said "If anyone has cash, we have an open register that can take you right now!"

Bad: A huge crowd rushed to the front, three got taken in, and the other 30 just stood there and cut.

Good: Sony passed out bracelets, so if you had a bracelet, you were guaranteed a PS2, no matter how many people cut in front of you.

Bad: You still cut, you a-holes, and no amount of rationalization can justify or avoid the simple fact that you're selfish, arrogant and inconsiderate. Where do you get off? The Vent would not want your karma, come judgment day. You suck.

Good: After all this, The Vent got his PS2.

Bad: Ain't nothing bad about that, baby. Game on!

Venting Back

As mentioned earlier, there wasn't a ton of mail this week. A couple Venters did write in to indulge The Vent's request for a more detailed explanation of the Microsoft anti-trust case. Basically, the big "M" was going a little overboard (read: behaving illegally) in its competitiveness, and got the whistle for cheating. Rules are different when you are considered to have a monopoly, and the economic ins and outs of the situation are the part that The Vent didn't have a handle on (and, incidentally, were the major issues in question). However, Venter Scot R. nailed it on the head when he ended his explanation with "But enough of that shit - it's tiring and beyond our control..." Too true, Scot, and on that note we'll move on. Thanks to all who wrote in (particularly Scot and Jason. You guys really educated The Vent, and he appreciates it).

Moving on, one of the best letters this week was actually two letters, both written by Venter Mike D, who detailed his search for a PS2. This first letter came on the night before the launch...

Do you know what you get when you cross a 10 month and 6 day pre-order (with credit card info) for a PS2 and GameStop.com? Not a damn thing. Assholes couldn't even deliver a 10-month-old pre-order. I couldn't reach them on the phone, they wouldn't respond to my email for a status on my PS2, I checked my credit card for a charge hoping for the best. It's now 9:30pm CST and not a f__king clue as to what they're up to. So now it's off to Wal-Mart to pick up one (PS2) hopefully. P_ss on GameStop.com, I'll never order another thing from them again. Vent now OFF

And the follow-up arrived the day after the launch...

Ok, so the other day I vented about GameStop.com not coming thru with my PS2. Ok, well they did come thru, but just not on launch day as promised. I was so leery the night before launch that I went and stood in line (with 100 others) starting at 11:30pm at walmart hoping to get a PS2. Well the walmart only got 45 units and by the time I could even see the counter (2am) they were gone. So next morning I got up and got ready and headed to kmart (6:30am). Two other folks were there besides myself, one was a couple and the other just a single girl. At around 10 till 7am a worker comes to the doors and says they only have three units and she then proceeded to hand out tickets for the remaining three, one to the couple, the other girl and myself. The worker said come back after 8am when they open. So at 8:45am I went to kmart to pick up my ps2 (woo-hoo). I got back to work about 9:45am and in my inbox was an email from gamestop.com confirming my order shipment and it should arrive by Monday October 30. Well, my ps2 from gamestop.com arrived today (October 27). Now here I sit with two ps2 units, one hooked up and one still sealed in the box. Oh what is a person to do, guess I'll hang onto the second till around thanksgiving then see if anyone else wants it eh?
conclusion:
don't get in a fret or tizzy so quickly or you will end up with two ps2s. is that a bad thing right now though? nah.....
Mike D

Well spoken, Mike. And, with PS2s going on eBay for at least $600 a pop, you really don't have a lot to lose by owning two units. Try to struggle through, okay?

Nonexistent game design of the week:

A few of you wrote in last week regarding the question of previous games that have featured platform treks through the human body. Daniel H. wonders if the SNES Ren & Stimpy featured such an adventure (was that the one with the biting giraffes?) and Ken S. (who, The Vent would wager, also listens to Jim Rome) reached waaaay back to call out Microsurgeon for Intellivision, evidently an old Operation rip-off. Nice one, Ken.

Our game of the week comes from Venter Dave J., who has clearly played his share of RPGs.

Well, here's my game idea. It came to me while playing Star Ocean: The Second Story. Star Ocean was a fun game, but while hacking away at enemies with Claude, I found myself yelling at the screen, "Celine, come on! Southern Cross!" Or "Uh, Rena.... might be nice if you HEALED everybody now..." Then it came to me: The Dreamcast has a microphone! I could yell at the characters and actually have them do what I want!

Game developers are always trying to find ways to make RPG battles more interesting, and one way that they have tried is to put action into the battle, instead of just having turn-based, menu-driven battles. This is a great idea, but the problem comes when you have a party system too. Since you can only hold one controller, you basically can only control one character in your party, while the AI controls the rest (Star Ocean, Tales of Destiny). Yeah, I know you can switch between characters during the battle, but aside from this being a royal pain, as soon as you switch to Celine to get her to cast "Southern Cross," Claude wanders off and gets himself killed.

My idea to solve this problem is to have a party-based RPG where you have a main character that you control in battle with the controller, and then other members of your party (most likely magic users, although it wouldn't have to be) that you can command with the microphone. Just say "Rena, Heal All" and enjoy a life-giving burst of goodness. This allows you to control all the members of your party without all that awkward character switching, AND avoids menu-based battles. It's the Holy Grail of RPG-dom!

So, do you happen to know any of the guys at Tri-Ace or Namco?

Nope. Well, only publicists, and they really don't seem to have much input into these things. You know, there's actually a Dreamcast game in Japan that involves screaming into the microphone as loudly as you can. Where do they come up with this stuff? And why does it sound so fun?