After reading up on the Xbox and its ability to rip songs for your own personal soundtracks and its ability to do game saves sans memory card, I am really hoping that the hard drive for PS2 will have some similar abilities. Are there any reviews of it anywhere as well as a possible price?

So far all I've heard was game caching, although how well this will be used in the future in questionable seeing that it's an optional accessory.

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See, i've seen RUMORS that they're going to try to top everything that Microsft did with their hard drive... So that would mean song ripping, games saves (although i doubt it), game caching, and numerous online options....

But knowing Sony and their history it'll probably come no where close.

I remember reading also that it's necessary to do any online activity. As far as burning songs, I don't see why it can't. In fact, it seems likely that developers will utilize this feature when making games on the PS2 -- you'll be able to play your own songs while playing the game. This is a feature that won't hurt a game if you do NOT have a harddrive. Herein lies the problem.....not every PS2 owner will purchase the harddrive so maximizing games for its use may be tough for game developers to achieve.

The way they'll solve that dilema is by releasing games (AAA titles probably) that HAVE to have the harddrive to work. I imgaine FFXI MUST HAVE the harddrive, and they'll probably make another one like GT4 MUST HAVE the harddrive... Then you'll see about 75% of the PS2 owners purchasing the harddrive.... Then, with such a large percentage, they can develop games under the assumption that the majority of PS2 owners have the ability to use the harddrive...

But lets face it, if they dont' let you save games, save music, or be very intereactive with the harddrive, NO ONE WILL BUY IT... If they make it some basic thing, that only does game caching no one will get it.

Makes sense to me.
Any word yet on the definitive amount of memory and price?
I've heard the number 40Gb being thrown around.

According to all official word from sony 40 GB is the number they are shooting for...

With such a large harddrive it would make NO SENSE to not include features that would blow away the xbox harddrive... But Sony never fails to amaze me on how it screws up peripherals.

40 GB would allow for online features, game caching, game saves, game demo downloads, music rips, mp3 playback, Game updates, extended levels to games as a bonus to peopel who actually buy the harddrive, downloadable moves, characters, cars, features... The potential is endless... it jsut depends on how sony wants to play this.

Last word from sony was First quarter of 2001 as the release date. But with the pushing back on the online adpaters it wouldnt' surprise me if the harddrive gets pushed back to Q2 or Q3 of next year.

The key to the harddrive's sucess is going to be pricing... I'm not going to pay 150$ for it... If it Poops gold bars i'd still wouldn't buy it for that price. The most i would pay would be 99.99... and that would be for a fully decked out harddrive for alot of features, and would allow game saves (to save me the trouble of having to buy more memory cards.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Last word from sony was first quarter of 2001? Not much word lately?

Seriously, though, I agree with you on the pricing. I'd be willing to pay $100 for an excellent hard drive, but it's got to have everything. I remember the article about Xbox possibly shortening the lifespan of PS2, this hard drive SHOULD lengthen that lifespan, it should be that beneficial. If it doesn't even allow game saves, I'm not sure how much I'd be willing to pay, no where close to $100.

As someone who already owns a PS2 HDD and several games that supports it, let me make it clear that games already utilizing the HDD tend to support both caching and game data saving. Off the top of my head, only FFX doesn't let you save game data to the HDD.

Sorry, 2002

But you make a very valid point. The harddrive should make the System more graphically powerful, should it not??! I remember reading one of the early Sega-fanboy articles bashing the PS2 saying that the PS2 had raw power, but that the PS2 would bottle neck because of the absense of enough video memory.... With the harddrive i would imagine that the PS2 could improve its graphical abilities endlessly...

With a potential Power boost and feature boost like that into a two year old system (at the time of the HDD's most likely release) it could breath many more years into the PS2.. hopefully.

Sorry but you're incorrect. In most cases, having all the HDD space in the world won't improve the graphic capabilities of the system. The HDD is too slow to access data at the speeds on the level of what the system has access to in RAM and embedded DRAM on the GS. You really only save on loading times in most cases.

Being able to put my own music in a game just doesn't appeal to me. I've never understood that as an XBox battlecry (to each his own).

What I think would be cool... NCAA 2003 allowing you to review 'highlights' at the end of the game. Big plays are written to the hard drive and at the end of the game, you get a highlight film. Of course, you could also save youre replays to the drive, but the in-game aspects make it more compelling to me. "Coach, let's see some of the big plays from the first half before the 2nd half kickoff".

Lowering the load times would be beneficial, but I want to hear about features of the hard drive that actually add something to the game.