With two days of game play under my belt, and a touch of sleep, I am better able to stand back and pontificate on my first impressions. First things first.

Several astute Sharky readers picked up the inaccuracies and mis-understandings that come from doing this sort of real-time impressionistic report. So later readers aren't mislead, we'll go back and fix any inaccuracies in the earlier narrative, but for those who don't want to reread my drivel, here are a few clarifications. (For those that do, the index page can be found here - ED)

That Reset and Power switch arrangement that bothered me so much out of the box turns out to be less kludgy than I first thought, but kludgy nonetheless. Apparently the Main Power switch in back is meant to be left on, while the Reset switch has dual functions. A quick depress will reset the machine, while holding the button down for a second or more will turn the unit off entirely. I'm still not wild about having the Reset switch flush against the front of the unit, where its light touch can be triggered pretty easily. I have conversed with a few readers who, like myself, believe that it is their God given right not to have to crack a manual to understand a new purchase. Like me, they caught on to this dual-function Reset arrangement after a few hours of trial and error.

To clarify a few things about which formats the PS2 can handle. In my haste, I forgot that DTS audio is not related to Dolby Digital, but it is in fact a separate standard from another company. Regardless, I still can't get my DTS-capable receiver to recognize a signal from the PS2 as DTS. I'm still trying, however, and will put together a more focused look at the PS2's DVD capabilities early next week. Also, be aware that DVD-ROM games must be written for the PS2 to work, so apparently you can't pop in and play that old Claw game that came with you PC DVD drive. Not that this is any great loss, by the way. On the other hand, Digital Leisure has released all of those Don Bluth arcade games like Space Ace and the Dragon's Lair series in PS2 compatible DVD-ROM format. We're not sure that is a blessing either, but look for my experiences with those titles in the next installment of our PS2 coverage, an overview of all the titles we could glom from the publishers.