Perhaps I'm fixated on the unit's disk tray, since I've already harped on it. But after loading games in and out of this unit I am all the more convinced it is going to spell trouble in some households. Not only does the tray feel like it can crack easily, but disks don't sit in the tray very well when the unit is horizontal. I am not willing to test this myself, but I am wondering how the unit will react when the tray retracts back into the PS2 with a disk that is not seated well. Oddly, the tray seems designed to be used vertically, since there is a lip on the left side of the disk tray (it becomes the bottom of the tray when the unit is vertical), and this ensures your disk is sitting in the tray properly. It also keeps vertically-loaded CDs from falling out when the tray is out.

So far we've run across only one launch title that seems to use the only new feature in the dual analog controller – analog buttons. In Eternal Ring, you can turn the feature on, which lets you control the speed of walking or turning according to how hard you depress the directional keys. At least in this game (and Eternal Ring is no great feat of programming generally), the effect is disappointing. The analog directional buttons only know two states, or so it seems. A standard button press gives you a walking gait and slow turns, but a harder press moves into run mode. Unless there really is a more graduated increase in a button's effect as you press harder, it really just feels like you are toggling between two movement modes.

Playing a few of the first person shooter and adventure games (Unreal, Time Splitters, and Eternal Ring) suggest that Sony may have considered adding a couple of new buttons to the PS2 controller. As all PC FPS players know, mouse and keyboard are nature's way of playing this genre. Gamepads have always been an obstacle in translating FPS shooters to consoles. Unreal for the PS2 is a case in point. Infogrames actually sent the press both mouse and keyboards to use with the game, because even they know their game is unwieldy without them. I continue to struggle to master gamepad movement in the game, which requires coordinated use of both analog buttons. As is true in most of the first-person games I am seeing so far on the system, programmers are trying to mimic mouse movement speeds by putting forward and back movement as well as strafing on one analog stick, with turning and up down looking on the other. Moving, aiming and shooting, the essence of Unreal, requires something akin to two-handed piano playing. You need to be moving both analog sticks at once to create quick, smooth movement and aiming, while a shoulder button provides the shooting.

The point to all of this may be that programmers for the PS2 do not want to make as many of the compromises they had to make in earlier consoles. First person shooters on the PS and N64 often relied heavily on auto-aiming to compensate for the loss of a mouse controller's precision. While some auto-aiming still is present in Time Splitters and Unreal, your movement skills using an analog stick are much more important here than they are in Medal of Honor for the PS, for instance. Players will need to train themselves to use both analog sticks or just get a damned mouse for this thing.