xBox 360 or PlayStation 3

[dnelsonfl]

First up, I'm biased, so take this for what it's worth. The 80GB PS3 has upwards of 80% compatibility for PS2 games. If you can still locate a 60GB PS3, then you're guaranteed near 100% compatibility. When I read about the new PS3's being made loosing compatibility, I located a 60GB at a Best Buy about 40 miles away. Bought it online and drove down to pick it up. It can do 1080p, but you need to buy yourself a HDMI cable first. BJ Wholesale Club had a bunch of 6ft cables for $20. They sold out pretty quick, next best was Radio Shack for $60 for a 6ft cable. Only thing is, not too many games have been released that go up to true 1080p. Usually see 720p.

Don't forget the PS3 doubles as a blu-ray player.

Or get a Wii. I actually end up spending more time on the Wii than the PS3

[dnelsonfl]

trekiej wrote:
How does one know that the PS3 can play PS2 games?
Edit:( Serial number, model number,etc)

Most of the game news sites had information on this when Sony announced the changes to the PS3 product line. The original 60GB model can play nearly 100% PS2 and PS1 games because it includes some of the PS2 hardware inside. Sony removed the hardware in the 80GB and 40GB models. The 80GB model is able to play upwards of 80% (maybe closer to 90%) of PS2 games through software emulation. The 40GB has no backwards compatibility. I am not sure why the 80GB can and the 40GB can't if supposedly they are the same revised hardware. Anyway, Sony has a compatiblity support page:

Compatiblity status

[dnelsonfl]

swift240 wrote:
Microsoft needs upgrades/updates to keep working in a full order.

Both my Wii and my PS3 have downloaded a couple patches/upgrades over the internet by now. A few were to address compatibility issues, a couple bug fixes, and in the PS3's case, some new features that Sony apparently didn't have time to perfect before launch. It's not such a bad thing: When Sony finally releases the new PS3 controllers with the rumble back in them early next year, several game publishers intend to release updates/patches to add rumble to their games.

PS2 had at least one major recall dealing with its power supply.

Nobody's perfect, and like I said, updates/patches aren't always such a bad thing. I think sometimes it does have a downside: a manufacturer or publisher may think they can get away with rushing a product out the door and figure they'll correct any problems with updates. You're right about Microsoft seemingly doing that ALOT, at least on the PC side of things. A clean Vista install from one of the first Vista DVD batches resulted in over 142MB of updates/patches to be downloaded on one of my PCs!