Holiday cash=Console for me.

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

Do I buy a PS2 now or wait for PS3 (hoping it's backwards compatable) and get a Game Cube?

The PS2 has awesome RPG goodness, but the PS3 is due in fall and will play PS2 games. Besides, the Cube has fun two player games that my girl friend would play.

What do I do?

-Fuzz

[Roderick]

Unless you're a Playstation maniac it's in almost all occasions a bad idea to buy the PS3 immediately. That thing is likely to cost a ridiculous amount of money. Wait one year after its release and the price will drop dramatically. There's still enough life in the current generation of consoles that a purchase is valid and reasonable; certainly for current prices. If you *do* have your mind set on a playstation, it may still be wise to buy the Gamecube. That way you can buy the PS3 as soon as its available for a reasonable price, and you'll have at least two years of fun with the GC.

This is also a wise choice because unlike Sony and Microsoft; Nintendo are still going to support their current console fully for the next year. The other two companies are starting to concentrate more heavily on their next ones. It's Nintendo's belief that there is still a lot of things to accomplish with this generation and I happen to agree with that.

[Chris]

Actually, I would suspect Sony would be the most likely to support its current console for the longest time. Those guys are obsessive about maintaining long life cycles for their consoles.

[Roderick]

I wouldn't know that. But it doesn't invalidate my initial arguments.

[JimmyTheFish]

GameCube is the superior console. With the exception of some Katamari Damacy, I did all my console gaming last year on my cube.

[Roderick]

I personally prefer the Gamecube as well, but I'm afraid to let you know that the above statement is of no consequence at all. Thank you.

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

I heard that the new slim PS2 isn't made for extended play, and (due to the fact that they took out the fan) can over heat despite the fact that they shrunk down the chip size.

Any truth to this?

[MrChlorophyll]

But the tiny PS2 oozes swank, regardless of whatever problems it may have.

Not that I'm that shallow.

Sexay.

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

Are there any good RPGs on the Cube? I like RPGs. My fav classic is Lunar 1 & 2 on Sega CD.

[Twilo]

the PS2 is probably your best port of call for RPG games, as Square-Enix develops almost exclusively for it (there is a "final fantasy" game on the GC though). A number of other good asian rpgs have come out over the years too, but the majority of these are not available in Europe.

As well as that, you have a wonderful back-catalogue of PSOne RPGs (Including ported versions of the Lunar Games) and a number of SNES Conversions.

Three generations of RPG goodness can't be bad.

Then again, a modded XBox could emulate most of that

[Metalmickey]

I'm not going to knock Japanese RPG's as I love them too, but if you want some recommendations of Western ones as well, Summoner 1 & 2 are both fairly good. 1 is more strategic, with bigger parties and more choice of tactics (my dad loves it), whereas 2 is a bit more action orientated (fine for me!), and can be found new for £5-£10 in the UK at least. The following are all very similar, but you should probably also get at least 1 of the following - Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 1 or 2 (good monster bashing action, albeit a bit repeatetive), The Bard's Tale (very funny if you appreciate sarcastic British humour), or Champions of Norrath (great graphics, but with a few random bugs). I've enjoyed them all, but I'm a sucker for that kind of diablo2-esque genre.

Personally, I only settled on my PS2 because of the vast number of games already out for it, and the equally mammoth selection of 2nd hand games on the shelves. If the next generation of consoles comes out with a reasonably short time between them and all are well supported, I'm unlikely to be interested in a PS3 unless it's a damn site cheaper than the others....

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

What does PS2 have in the way of fun two player games?

I know the 'Cube has Mario Cart, Smash Melee (I love being Kirby) and a few others that I can surely sucker my girl friend into playing. What does the PS2 have to offer?

[Chris]

Katamari Damacy!!! Ok, so the actual two-player mode isn't that great, but it's super-duper fun for playing through the single-player mode while handing it back and forth.

[Moosferatu]

Metalmickey, which Dark Alliance game do you think is better?

[n0wak]

I know the 'Cube has Mario Cart, Smash Melee (I love being Kirby) and a few others that I can surely sucker my girl friend into playing. What does the PS2 have to offer?

Gradius V has a two player co-op mode, but I'd only suggest that if you want to end said relationship.

Anyway, to sucker in the significant other, you really can't go wrong with either Frequency or Amplitude.

[Metalmickey]

Metalmickey, which Dark Alliance game do you think is better?

If you haven't played either, I'd say get Dark Alliance 2. They're both very similar in terms of quality of fun powers, levels, game length, etc. The second one however, has 5 character types instead of 3, and a few additional interface improvements upon the first.

Fuzzy McBitty, fun 2-player games that you could sucker your gf into, eh? There's some good fighting games like Tekken Tag or Marvel vs Capcom 2, ICO has a co-op mode available after completing it the first time, and racing games of course like split screen Gran Turismo or NFS:Underground, though they're probably not so easy to pick up n' play if you don't like racing already. Adventure games, though not strictly 2 player, are often fun to take turns playing while the other watches, as they're more about working out what to do and watching the story unfold than actually being the controller. So... Beyond Good & Evil, Broken Sword 3, what esle? If you want some zombie action, there's a game out called Obscure that's in a Resident Evil style, set in an American High school. It has 2 characters present for at least 80-90% of the game, and the 2nd character can be controlled either by AI or a second player. I've had a brief go on that and think it could be quite fun.

[nsps]

If you have a couple Gameboy Advances (or up to four), you can do two-player RPG with FF Crystal Chronicles. The single-player isn't as fun, but with multi-player mode you access your menu with the Gameboy and the action is on the main screen. While sometimes awkward, it's also fun. The fight system isn't standard RPG and requires you to run around a bit. The combination of this fighting and the ability to have a more experienced player help figure out some of the element-related material may provide a good way to introduce your girlfriend to RPG (if you want to take that risk).

I haven't played the Zelda game that also uses Gameboys as controllers, but I imagine it works in a similar way.

Also fun if you have another couple with you would be the Mario Party games, particularly four (the first for GC) and the new one, six. Six fixes a lot of the Gameplay problems that five had and introduces the amusingly awkward system of controlling your game by speaking into a Microphone. (It's fun trying to work it in a party/gathering event, probably just annoying otherwise.)

There are many multi-player GC games, so I'm sure you can have a good time. I don't have a PS2, so can't reccommend anything there.

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

I think I'm going to go with a PS2... now to find a good deal. I think I might go used, since I've heard rumors of slim PS2 meltdown.

I want to roll stuff over cows, play some RPGs and kick some butt.

[Jake]

Four Sword Adventures is great fun, but suffers pretty heavily if you don't have 4 players, as no matter how many people you have playing the game requires there be 4 Links on screen, meaning if there are two players, each person has a tag-along Link which follows them around that they occasionally need to take control of to make him stand on a switch or whatever. Or if there are three players one is at a disadvantage as they have to occasionally deal with their second Link character while the other two only really have to worry about themself. Etc. If you have 4 people playing it's an awesome game though. Still fun with less, but the frustration is higher.

[Roderick]

Still, I hear it's good enough singleplayer. Now all we need, though, is Robots that can handle a controller. Or close friends.

[loonyboi]

I recently sold off my GameCube. That thing was just collecting dust.

It all depends on what games you want to play. If you're into GTA and RPGs, go with the PS2.

If you're into whatever it is that Nintendo publishes, go with that.

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

I'm not sure I like the idea of the new Slim Ps2. So should I go used or refurbished?

Anyone know any web sites with sweet deals on mem cards and controllers?

I don't know how it is in Europe, but even used shit is expensive as crap in america.

[MrChlorophyll]

I have a friend who has the slim PS2 and he hasn't had any problems. But he hasn't had it for terribly long either, but does do a marathon Tony Hawk session when the opportunity arises.

And I have the most horrid luck with used stuff. Half the time it doesn't work in the first place for near full price to boot. So I've mostly given up and just take the pain and buy 'em fresh.

But hey, America is a Capitalist nation! I am injecting much needed funds into the economy! I am doing my nation a service!

Good for me.

[Metalmickey]

If possible, try and find a more 'recent' used one. I.e. one of the later models. The first ones, as usual, had more problems, such as useless DVD playback and probably not lasting so long. When the silver ones came out with slightly improved insides, the standard black ones also got improved to match them.

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

I've been giving more thought to buying new.

Has anyone heard anything one way or the other on the slim PS2?