DIGITAL L.A. THE TOTAL LOW-DOWN ON PLAYSTATION 2 GAMES.

Byline: David Bloom Staff Writer

OK, a couple of weeks of maniacally playing as many PlayStation 2 games as I can has yielded the following collection of observations about the largest library of games ever available at the launch of a new videogame console:

Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore - Beefed-up from the Japanese version, this is the latest in the fighter series and one of the best-looking titles out there on Day One. Oh, and they fight good, too.

Tekken Tag Tournament - DOA2's only immediate competition and another great fighter. I like being able to brawl against others in tag teams. They also wisely added a one-on-one versus mode that wasn't in the Japanese version.

Time Splitters - A super-smooth first-person shooter that runs great even with up to four players (though you'll need a $34 multitap add-on for more than two players at a time). From some of the same people who made the great GoldenEye and Perfect Dark titles for N64, it even has a level editor that lets you create your maps and opponents. Very cool.

Ready2Rumble: Round 2 - The sequel to the fun, multiplatform boxing hit from Midway last year. This one comes with celebrity boxers Michael Jackson and Shaquille O'Neal among others, and some hilarious additions to the original's very funny combatants.

Summoner - A great-looking role-playing game from THQ with dozens of levels, scores of quests and 209 creature types. It should keep you busy for weeks.

Madden NFL 2001 - The stalwart football franchise, already available on the PS1 and PC, goes long with the PS2. You can even see the hair on the arms of the players, it's so realistic. This game gives Angelenos even less reason to care about not having a pro football team in town.

SSX - It's a snowboarding game, sort of, but looks so great and has so many terrific features that such a description does it little justice. A great title that should appeal to the entire family. My 8-year-old son murmured, ``This is the greatest game I have ever played.'' His reference points are a bit limited, but you get the idea. For snowboarding purists, though, I suggest checking out Konami's ESPN Winter X Games snowboarding title, which is designed more for simulation verite' than arcade simplicity.

Smuggler's Run - A wide-open driving game that lets you go just about anywhere to deliver contraband across the border while dodging rival gangs and police. The levels are unbelievably huge and the driving physics are fabulous. It's kind of a cross between the Dreamcast hit Crazy Taxi and Grand Theft Auto and quite engaging.

Ridge Racer V - The latest version of the classic driving series. Minor graphics glitches from the Japanese version have been cleared up, and the game's charms, racing through cities in a series of sleek vehicles, should wow Americans. Ridge Racer has always been a big seller here and Namco should have another big winner.

Silent Scope - Konami's arcade port of its popular sniper game is limited a bit by the lack of a gun controller, but in this age of heightened concern over videogame violence, its absence is no surprise. As it is, the game contains all the arcade levels plus new ones. For those with a steady hand and eagle eye, there's still plenty of fun to be had.

Midnight Club - Another ofeat take on racing, this time based on the illegal racing clubs in Japan and the United States. It's a bit like Midtown Madness in that you can drive about anywhere to get to your goal, and you can bet your car's registration slips in races.

Orphen Scion of Sorcery - Like most heirs, Orphen has been given many gifts, but also like many heirs, Orphen is a lazy bum who doesn't take advantage of them. Activision's adventure/role-playing has plenty of spells and strategy mixed in with the combat. It's an attractive RPG.

Armored Core 2 (Agetec) - Three magic words: Giant robot combat! Giant robot combat! Looks great, with lots of interesting detail in tweaking your own mechanical fighters. But it's a major pain if you get killed. You're back at zero. While that may be ``realistic,'' it's still about game play. Otherwise, a must for lovers of those three magic words.

Four games that won't be available right away but that you're going to want:

Star Wars Starfighter - You pilot your way through a series of space- and land craft from the Star Wars worlds, with remarkable physics. Star Wars fans should love this.

The Bouncer - A gorgeously wrought fighting game with a substantial story line and remarkable cinematic production values, from Square, the company known for great stories and characters and remarkable production values. This may be the most eagerly awaited game on the machine.

Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty - A sequel to the whip-smart PlayStation hit that required cunning and stealth as much as (or more than) firepower to succeed. The PS2 successor, available next spring, looks phenomenal.

Gran Turismo 3 - Another phenomenal-looking sequel to a PlayStation megahit. Sneak peeks from its creators showed remarkable handling of light through clouds or glinting off a moving car, and the range of licensed cars (again involving hundreds of precisely recreated models) looks just as overwhelming as with Gran Turismo and GT 2. If this game doesn't get your motor revving, nothing will.

Site of the Week

3D Groove: The home of one of the niftier pieces of Web programming around, a site that uses a tiny bit of code to create remarkably realistic three-dimensional games.

Where: www.3dgroove.com.

What's cool: Start with megahit RealPool, which has been far and away the most popular game on Shockwave.com's separate site. It's a dead ringer for the PC game Virtual Pool, with lots of detail, realistic physics and knockout game play.

Features: The Groove Alliance, the brainchild of some annoyingly bright Valley kids from Harvard-Westlake, figured out how to squeeze remarkable performance out of online games using a modification of the widely used Shockwave plug-in software. Aside from RealPool, they're offering three other games (Tank Wars, Skyracer and Showdown), and are planning to put in multiplayer capabilities as fast as their partner sites will allow them. Cool stuff from some local boys made good.

You'll like this if: You like simple, fun games that look fabulous and fall somewhere between the usual parlor/card games online and the $50 PC titles that are more trouble online than they're worth.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

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Box: Site of the Week (see text)