Definitely the most sought-after console of the 2001 holiday season, people paid $1000 or more for these consoles on eBay, and have offered Blockbuster Video (where you can rent them for $20 for 5 days) over $800 to buy them outright. Even in 2002, the PS2 is an incredibly hot seller, flying out of stores. What is it about this console that demands this much attention?

The Sony Playstation 2 is perhaps the best planned sequel machine of the ones being offered. It can play both audio CD and DVD movies. It can play EVERY Playstation 1 game, since both are CD-based systems. This gives it a built-in base library of hundreds of games.

Many fantastic new games have been created specifically for the PS2. With DVDs holding 4.7 GIG (compared to a CD holding 660 MEG) these games often boast long, complex gameplay and incredible movie quality cut-scenes.

With a 24x CD-Rom (and 4x DVD player) the normal load time problems of CD-based systems are vastly minimized. With 48 channel sound, currently the best on the market, the PS2 has the best chance for killer soundtracks. Now it's up to the game designers to make use of it ...

While the PS2 offers 75 million polygons/sec, the processor can't quite keep up with this, so the actual rate is somewhat less. Still, this is a pretty good clip compared to other console systems, so expect great graphics and fast gameplay if you are lucky enough to get your hands on one.

We rented a PS2 when it first came out, and ironically enough we spent most of the first day playing Final Fantasy IX, a Playstation 1 game. The PS2 games we played were greatly enjoyable, with stellar sound and graphics. We enjoyed not only the new gaming features, but also the fact that our existing library of games still worked wonderfully. It was only a few days later that we bought a PS2 of our own, and we have played it constantly since then. We also own an XBox and GameCube, but the PS2 is the one on most of the time.

Specifications:
CPU: 128-bit
Clock Speed: 294MHz
Sound: CD quality, 48-channel stereo
Connector: standard 3-plug video/audio connector
1280x1024 resolution

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