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Surviving the Console Wars, Pt. III

© Chris Brown

First of all I would like to express my sympathies to all of those involved in the tragedy of September 11th, and all those currently serving our nation's interests in the war against terrorism. Our prayers go out to you all, and our thanks to the multitudes of heroes whose ongoing efforts give us all reason to hope. God bless you all.

Even though in the light of the recent events in the world things like what I write about here seem so much less important, I think it is necessary for us to move on with our lives and try to achieve a sense of normalcy. As such I am going to continue with my comparison of the next-generation's videogame consoles, and which one may best serve your needs.

Last time we delved into the world of Microsoft's X-Box, the newcomer on the block. This week I would like to discuss Sony's Playstation 2, or PS2 for short.

Sony's system has been out on the market now for almost a year and, despite a slower than expected start in the software department, has begun to reach full stride.

The biggest advantage of the PS2 currently is the already massive software library, and some upcoming games that appear to be stunning (read: Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty). The downfalls are the fact that the processing power is not par with the X-Box or Gamecube, and it still costs $299, which is still $100 more than Nintendo plans to release their system at.

So let's break down the more technical aspects of the PS2. What do all those numbers mean?

Clocking in at 300Mhz, the PS2 is slower than X-Box or Gamecube, and as such can not push as many effects on screen. Don't be fooled, however, the system is supported by a lot of built-in effects processors and can still push some impressive graphics your way.

Utilizing a DVD drive which reads at 12X speed, the system seems to have surprisingly long load times on a lot of its games. The developers blame this on the difficulty of programming for the system effectively. Whatever the case, I'm sure it is a problem that will be addressed in future games as the programmers learn how to more effectively use the system's resources. The main advantage of the DVD drive is two-fold: 1) Huge storage capacity (up to 6.4GB). 2) The ability to play DVD movies with the purchase of a special memory card and remote from Sony. Despite these advantages, most current games don't require nearly that much space, and the system is not the world's best DVD player.

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