Sony PlayStation 2 review

On a critical note, the PS2 has only two controller ports, while the Xbox and the GameCube have four. You'll need to spend additional money on a four-player Multitap to get all your friends in the game. We also would've liked to see a Memory Stick slot on the front, considering this is a Sony product. Memory Sticks can hold much more data and cost less per megabyte than the PS2 memory cards that you need to buy separately.

Expansion options
While the online service has finally launched, we're still waiting for the impending arrival of the optional hard drive. The company still won't say when it will be available, but its addition would allow for significantly more storage space for updates to existing games. For example, you could download whole new levels for adventure and action games.

The PS2 has a great and ever widening stable of games available, including such PS2-exclusive titles as Grand Theft Auto Vice City. That, along with a competitive $199 price tag (the same as the Xbox and only $50 more than the GameCube) and a robust-looking online option, makes this a compelling purchase. Just bear in mind that the Xbox offers more horsepower and features, most notably a built-in 8GB hard drive. But if your biggest priority right now is the widest selection of games rather than hardware bells and whistles, the PlayStation 2 is still a solid choice.