Let the game wars begin. The Playstation 2 from Sony is all about choice, offering the largest library of games. Microsoft’s agreement with more than 150 developers to produce games for its X-box will keep Sony pressured to produce new titles. Some of the hot new games that Sony will release this year are SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs, Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Metal Gear Solid2: Sons of Liberty, Extermination, Drakan II, and Final Fantasy X. While the quality of games may ultimately decide who wins the gaming war, Sony is also focused on making enhancements to its box that was originally introduced in October 2000.

The console itself is equipped with a 300 MHz 128-bit Emotion Engine RISC processor and a floating-point co-processor operating at 6.2 giga-FLOPS. The 150 MHz Graphics Synthesizer processes 2.4 gigapixels per seconds and renders 75 million polygons per second at peak performance. The Graphics Synthesizer has a 64-bit pixel configuration to support it s transparency and color effects. It also supports anti-aliasing, fogging, alpha-blending, multi-pass textures, perspective correction, modulation/highlights, and mip mapping effects. The Playstation 2 comes with 32 MB Direct RDRAM, 4 MB Video RAM, 2 MB Sound RAM, and 2 MB of IOP memory.

The Playstation 2 is more than just a gaming device, it even has a built in DVD/CD player. Users can playback DVD movies or listen to CDs right out of the box. The Playstation 2 comes standard with two controller ports; however, extra controllers can be added using the USB ports. The two USB ports and an i.LINK (IEEE 1394) interface will accommodate additional peripherals.

Enhancements for 2001 include a separate adaptor that combines high speed Ethernet connection with V90 analog modem for online connectivity. At a later date, Sony plans to release a hard disk drive, giving consumers access to AOL services (i.e. email, chat, instant messaging) and web browsing through Netscape for Playstation 2.

Pricing and Availability

The Sony Playstation 2 is currently available for $299. The Network adaptor will be available in November 2001 for $39.95.

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