Roundtable – PlayStation Memories

It’s been one hell of a rollercoaster ride.

With some stellar momentum, the PlayStation 4 has dominated this console cycle, and with it comes the looming presence of the PlayStation 5. The next console in the Sony family could usher in a new wave of memories. So with that, we here at VGU.tv are going to talk about our memories with PlayStation whether its the hardware, software, or something in-between.

Allan Muir – Site Admin/Co-EIC/PC Snob

The Last of Us (As A Whole)

When I first played The Last of Us back in 2013 on my PS3 I was floored. There was something that separated this game from previous games done by Naughty Dog and most game developers in general. It took a trope that was a joke at that point in time in the form of the “zombie apocalypse” and turned it on its ear. I remember watching the Two Best Friends Play LP and Pat mentioned during the prologue that the things you saw at the beginning of the game hadn’t been seen much in post-apocalyptic games. The perfect example was passing by people on the side of the road whose cars broke down. That was the eerie part, not that you passed them by, but you see them and never see what happens. This type of thing was said by Kenny in Telltale’s The Walking Dead but simply that. It was said and never elaborated upon.

Before there was more information out on the game I assumed it would be a giant escort mission. (Think Resident Evil 4 in a bad way) Certain parts of the game I remember perfectly like the end of Fall and the beginning of Winter. Especially the reveal involving David. I never expected to be playing as Ellie and then when the control is switched back to Joel I knew this game was going to be better than Uncharted 1-3. While the game had a phenomenal single-player mode the multiplayer sort of had a story to it as well. Each player had a community whose survival was key to how you did in multiplayer and what resources you’d find in a match.

The fantastic writing can be seen in the supporting characters such as Bill, Tess, and Marlene, as well as the tragic characters Sam and Henry. This gives you a feeling that you have a story and a world that is not even close to optimal. When comparing The Last of Us to a post-apocalyptic game such as Fallout where there was a literal nuclear apocalypse things got better as time went on. From the beginning of TLoU to the twenty-year time jump, things have not improved at all and have actually gotten worse. With The Last of Us: Part 2 due for release in the next month we will get to go on a sweet revenge epic as Ellie.

Josh Miller

Receiving the Original PlayStation

You never forget your first. How could I? The Christmas of 1998 was special for that very reason. I was at my grandmothers house which we always celebrated once we came back into town. For whatever reason, Santa visited us there instead of our house. It was there he left me one of my favorite Christmas memories – the original PlayStation, the Bruce Willis game Apocalypse, and WWF War Zone.

Of course, I wasn’t able to immediately start playing. Even worse, I couldn’t play that night either. So I did what every kid back then would do – I spent an obscene amount of time looking over the PlayStation box, the game cases, and the game manuals.

To this day, it’s still my favorite Christmas gift I’ve ever received. I look forward to the day when I’ll get to see my sons’ face light up the same way mine did.

Emmett Watkins Jr – PlayStation Stan

Passing PlayStation onto the Next Generation

Considering that the first game I ever played was Spyro the Dragon on PlayStation One, and I’ve been incredibly loyal to the console family ever since I have no shortage of great memories with PlayStation. My fondest PlayStation memories include having my mind blown by LittleBigPlanet on Christmas day of 2008, discovering that my love of terrible licensed platformers finally ended with the purchase of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger on PSP, and my marathon session of Nier Automata that resulted in one of the most jaw-dropping endings of a game I’ve ever played. But none of those have the lasting impact that my actual favorite memory does.

While I was the first PlayStation fan in the house, I wasn’t the only one, and as my little brother began to get old enough to play games, he gained an interest in what I was playing. He wasn’t obsessively watching Gametrailers or anything, but whenever I played, he’d watch enough to have different requests for me.

His actually picking up the controller began well before he actually had a passion for games, and that was thanks to my trophy obsession. I always enjoyed getting platinum trophies, but doing so never required the aid of other players until I picked up Far Cry 3. With requirements like collecting half of the collectibles, and clearing out every base, it was a pretty fair trophy list overall. Getting them all was a blast, but the kicker was the final 6 trophies that required completion of all of the co-op missions. I loved Far Cry 3, which meant I needed to have the manifestation of that love by earning its platinum, so, with no friends who also owned the game, I plugged in my second controller and got my little brother to man it.

He had no clue what he was doing, I had to virtually hold his hand the entire time through every mission. But I could tell that he felt special getting to play the “big boy” game, and I was grateful for his help once that final coop mission was done and my platinum notification popped. But a few weeks after this, he started making his list that fall for Christmas, and that list included what would be his first games console, the PlayStation 3.

That put him on a path, similar to mine, of getting invested in the PlayStation ecosystem. It started with me playing Lego Marvel Superheroes with him that Christmas and eventually lead to me lending him my copies of the Uncharted games so he can experience them on his own. And I’m honored to say that, at almost 17, he’s still accepting my recommendations. In fact, he played Titanfall 2 earlier this year and is nearly done with Mafia III. He’s not as big of a dork as me, but he plays a lot to this day and I like to think that it’s partially due to me planting that seed of curiosity way back when I needed that Far Cry 3 Platinum.

Graydon Webb – The Contrarian American

PlayStation on the Go

We gotta give some love to the Vita here, right? I mean sure, it may have under-performed in terms of sales and was seen as a JRPG machine for most of its lifetime, but personally, I always saw it as the little handheld that could. The glory days of the PSP had fallen to the wayside by the time the Vita hit the scene in 2011. Whereas everyone had a PSP, and it seemed to be the go-to device for onscreen television handhelds, the Vita got far less love from the get-go, and it never seemed to have its own time to shine.

My own memories, however, held the PlayStation Vita in high regard. My launch Vita has done me very good over the last eight years. She’s still kickin’, and is still the handheld I toss in my bag on every trip. In fact, my 3DS barely sees the light of day, as it’s always been my Vita who tags along to conventions, family vacations, and ice skating competitions. One of my fondest memories of all time, as my family would tell you unanimously, is when I brought my Vita to the world ice skating competition – which my sister was competing in – and I discovered OlliOlli for the first time. There truly was no feeling quite like it.

The Vita introduced me to so many amazing games, from Ragnarok Odyssey to Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation. Being honest, the Vita was my first exposure to Uncharted ever, and it’s the only system I have ever played PlayStation All-Stars on. How’s that for some history? So yeah, I’m super thankful for my Vita and the fun it has given me throughout the decade. Here’s to another, more successful PlayStation handheld in the future!