[QUOTE=BossHog]All three are great! PS2 is still 'de facto', simply because people are still holding on to thier older games. Why? I don't know. I buy only Madden every year and keep the lastest golf (Outlaw Golf for now) and boxing game Knockout Kings/Fight Night. I had XBox for two and half years and wouldn't trade it for anything else (except for Redskins collectibles). As I will demolish many of my comrades on thier own PS2 in Madden, you'll have to agree that the Xbox controller is a lot more ergonomic than PS2s and GC has that little quirk called the Z button. Most of us guys however, are technophiles. We're itching to buy the next best thing... PS3![/QUOTE]

u ever play hot shots golf 3?

I have an Xbox, but view PS2 as equal to it. I just got it last xmas and up to that time had pretty much taken a 5-year hiatus from video games (other than a few cpu ones). Now I can't get enough of playing ESPN Baseball online.

the xbox is the best machine, and now that Madden does Live, there really is no reason not to get it. it has the best audio and graphics and is always the version EA uses to promote the game, even last year w/o Live. if you want to see the power of its hardware check out Chronicles of Riddick or the xbox versions of Splinter Cell. night and day.

Gamecube has great first party games, IF you like those styles of games. the controller is made for these certain types of games, and has one button LESS than the other consoles. this handicaps Madden and other more involved games. and effectively no online now or ever.

PS2 hardware is undeniably aging, its tough to see every xbox version of PS2 games look 50% better. they have the most games tho and some great exclusives you cant find anywhere else (then again they all do).

if you want the state of the art as far as consoles go, get the xbox. now with EA doing Live, there's no downside.

[QUOTE=illdefined]the xbox is the best machine, and now that Madden does Live, there really is no reason not to get it. it has the best audio and graphics and is always the version EA uses to promote the game, even last year w/o Live. if you want to see the power of its hardware check out Chronicles of Riddick or the xbox versions of Splinter Cell. night and day.

Gamecube has great first party games, IF you like those styles of games. the controller is made for these certain types of games, and has one button LESS than the other consoles. this handicaps Madden and other more involved games. and effectively no online now or ever.

PS2 hardware is undeniably aging, its tough to see every xbox version of PS2 games look 50% better. they have the most games tho and some great exclusives you cant find anywhere else (then again they all do).

if you want the state of the art as far as consoles go, get the xbox. now with EA doing Live, there's no downside.[/QUOTE]

how much is it to play online on the x-box? I've heard that the ps2, or atleast certain games, r free to play online but the x-box requires online fees. is that true? 1 thing I do like about the x-box that the other consoles don't do is the fact that u don't need freakin memory cards for the x-box cuz its got a built in harddrive.

xbox owns online ;) and now has plenty of quality games.
ps2 owns square enix ;) and has a billion game choices (lots of rpgs) + ps1 games, but it doesn't look as nice, and the online stuff isn't nearly as killer... x-box live is really the way to go if you're buying for online gaming.

if you don't know about live, it has instant messaging built in, and you can ask people playing OTHER games if they want to switch discs to play you... much easier to keep track of good friends/gamers, don't know about the cost though... when it came out (forever ago) it was something like 50$ for a full year, but that was before it became really big.

[QUOTE=skinsfanthru&thru]how much is it to play online on the x-box? I've heard that the ps2, or atleast certain games, r free to play online but the x-box requires online fees. is that true? 1 thing I do like about the x-box that the other consoles don't do is the fact that u don't need freakin memory cards for the x-box cuz its got a built in harddrive.[/QUOTE]

$50 for a year im afraid. but its really very slick. most online games for PS2 are free but dont have near the online features Live has. that and for your $50 you get a nice headset, which you'd have to buy separetly for PS2. yeah like i said, gaming $tate of the art. and if you have a digital surround sound setup definitely get an xbox.

kewl, thanks u guys 4 the info. after watching one of the recent stories on sportscenter about atheletes playing video games online a lot, I was thinking that would be kewl as hell to play some skins and maybe beat them, lol.