Eurogamer Q&A: Your PlayStation Memories
PS Won
Last week, we asked you to send us your favourite PlayStation memories, and we offered five super-spangly PS4 Pro consoles as a reward for our favourites.
Turns out, you guys have A LOT of memories from the last 23 years of Sony's little magic box - we received almost 3000 entries!
All of them were incredible, and are well worth reading (check the comments on our competition post) but of course there can only be five winners.
So here they are - our favourite PlayStation memories:
rmccolgan80
My very favourite Playstation moment was in Journey. I knew nothing about it except that it'd been recommended by a bunch of people whose opinions I trusted. Let me tell you why:
The game began and very soon after I started, another little guy appeared as I was cutting about the shifting sands of the first area. I wondered if this was an NPC, some kind of character to make the experience feel less isolated. But the more I played, we played, the more confident I was that this was another player, occasionally bleeping a little greeting and exploring the desolate lands alongside me. Despite nothing but that little bleep holding us together, we explored everywhere, each of us guiding the other into dusty little crevices, crumbling buildings or vast hidden caverns.
The deeper we got into the game, the more affection I felt for my mystery comrade; but as that grew, the more worried I grew that they would bail out at some point, having had enough for one sitting. I found I was inexplicably emotionally attached to the little avatar that jumped, slid and glided around the dunes with me and I truly thought that if they were to disappear it wouldn't be the same game.
Yet they never left.
I had doubts that this was the same player all the way through, maybe a new player joined at the start of a new chapter and I hadn't noticed. But it just didn't feel like it. They had the same playing style, the same inquisition and little quirks and the moments we shared felt the same; be it stopping to admire a particularly beautiful view, or the little bleep dance we'd both embraced, wordlessly, during moments that excited us.
We played through the whole game together in one sitting and it was with growing trepidation that I approached the end with them. I wanted to chat with this person again, to say that it'd been such a beautiful experience playing through such a artful game with a complete stranger. But all I could do was bleep.
So imagine the dread building during that final walk, each step slower in the snow. Then imagine the devastating blow upon seeing my fellow journeyman collapse before me. The emotion in this moment totally blindsided me and it's definitely the saddest I've felt in a game. Then I collapsed.
And suddenly, we were back together, soaring upwards. It was an utterly beautiful contrast. Together we ascended up and up to the summit before finally walking, cloak by cloak, side by side, into the light together. It was a truly wondrous moment of gaming for me, delivered by a game in which you can only move, fly and bleep.
Then to top it all off, after sitting through the credits and thinking what a beautiful game I'd just played and shared, 'Companions Met Along the Way' pops up. With one name.
All of a sudden I had a means of contacting this stranger and I did. And, I'm pleased to say, we're friends to this very day. We've never met, we live in different countries, but we chat and game together regularly and have have an absolute blast together, now that we can do more than just bleep to one and other.
I've never played Journey again, nor will I, because it gave me the perfect experience for the game. It really was special.
BuiltByRobots
It was just before Christmas 1997 and I was 12 years old. For Christmas I'd asked for a PS1 with Tomb Raider 2 and Discworld: Missing Presumed.
Whilst rummaging around the house looking for something or other one night after school, I happened to open a cupboard - low and behold my Christmas presents were there, including the PS1 and both the games I'd asked for. Around this time my mum worked nights and I was left to my own devices, so naturally every night when she went to work (hey it was the 90s) I retrieved the PS1 from the cupboard, set it up and cracked on with Tomb Raider 2. I'd pack it away perfectly every night and put it back in the cupboard.
This went on until it was finally wrapped up and put under the tree. Come Christmas Day, I had to feign surprise and pretend like I had no idea. I then proceeded to set the PS1 up, put the Tomb Raider disc in and carry on where I left off. My mum still doesn't know that this happened.
utio
This goes back a long way, to the days of the first PlayStation. No analogue sticks, just a dpad and buttons. Getting perfect laps in racing games could prove tricky, and one of the best racing games at the time was Wipeout 2097 - high speed anti grav racing with weapons that was literally an explosive experience. Speed laps were my thing though. Spending hours trying to shave milliseconds off of my times filled my days.
Which brings me to the memory that has stuck with me all these years. The track was Spilskinanke, a real toughy. The ship was Piranha, and the music was Firestarter by the Prodigy. Just going round over and over, getting perfect laps, improving my times, with Firestarter banging out loud, was just amazing, like I was in a zone where nothing else existed. Absolute gaming perfection.
Kadare
So many PlayStation memories! If I have to pick one, I'll go with the day it all began... My mum bought my sister and I one of the original PlayStations. It was a rainy day with nothing to do outside so we spent all afternoon playing with it - the demo disc, including the tech demos with the T-Rex and the Sting Ray, which blew my mind at the time.
The first games we got were Jumping Flash and a little known marsupial-related title whose name escapes me. More than anything, it's the eternally amazing PS1 bootup sound that still floods me with nostalgia. Since then I've owned every PlayStatation console and have earned almost 30 platinum trophies (some of which are damn good memories in themselves: WipeOut HD, Killzone 2, Metal Gear Solid V.
repartehostias
My fave PS moment undoubtedly came after suffering a stroke which affected my right hand - the day I picked up my controller again and was able to move Lara Croft almost like I used to be able to!
Thanks guys! We'll be in touch with the winners to organise prizes soon.