Allow me to start by saying, that I am a well seasoned gamer.
To being, most gamers along the way aquire quite a bit of technical
knowledge about gaming systems and PC's, in order to facilitate a
better gameplay experience.
Allow me to say, that a game-console box and a PC are two seperate
entities. Your game-box does not connect to your PC, unless you have a
TV card that allows things intended for a television to be displayed
on your computer.
Many games, however, are released for more than one 'platform'. A
platform is the system that you use to play a game, be it an XBOX,
Playstation, or PC. In all my days, I have never seen a single retail
box that could play on more than one platform. In essense, in order to
play a game on your PC and on your XBOX, you would have to buy two
seperate versions of the game, something akin to purchasing both a DVD
and VHS version of a movie so that you could view the movie on both
your DVD player and VHS player.
If you are looking for a variety of titles (which you seem to be), PC
is probably the way to go. In many cases, a manufacturer will release
a PC version of a game in addition to their console version. Many
times, there are no differences between the two.
The thing to consider in purchasing a PC over a console system is
cost. While a High-End gaming machine may cost anywhere from 1000
(self built) to 2,500 (retail) dollars, the XBOX and PS2 both retail
now for 100 (used) or 150-200 (new) dollars. The cost for the games is
generally the same, with brand new games retailing for about 50
dollars. A PC game 'addition' or 'expansion' (an addition to a game
that you already have) retails for about thirty dollars.
In short, while a PC may be much more expensive, in the end it is
preffered by many gamers for both its performance and huge variety of
games.
To more directly answer your question, the performance of 'set-top'
boxes such as the XBOX and PS2 are huge points of conjecture. In
reality, one must research the titles that one wishes to play before
choosing a system. If you are interested in performance and graphics
alone, the PS2 is quickly becoming a dated system. The nintendo
gamecube, while having probably the best performance available
graphics wise, I would not recommend for an 'adult' gamer, as nintendo
tends to focus its titles and products on a younger audience.
In the end, the XBOX comes in a very, very close second to the
gamecube, and blows the PS2 away in terms of visual performace. Every
dual-console game version that I have seen on both, has been better on
the XBOX. Microsoft (the maker of the XBOX) also has a very large
variety of sports titles available, which you had stated you were
interested in.
However, the future bodes great things on the horizion for both sony
and microsoft, as the playstation 3 and the XBOX 2 may be coming this
christmass. However, sony has a good history of
backwards-compatability (the playstation one titles will play on the
playstation 2).
My recommendation would be a PC, if you can afford one. If you do not
have (or are not willing to pay for) an up-to-date PC to play games
on, you will probably not enjoy the experience as much as a console.
However, for performance, range of titles, and interface, PC gets my
vote hands down.
I hope my answer has proved helpfull. |
