>>Can anyone recommend a website that would be helpful to a beginner like me? Maybe some info as to what the most popular games are of different genre...i.e., "Of flight warfare games, F-14 Tomcat is considered one of the best and is available for XBox only. "Strike Eagle" is also popular and is only available for the GameCube system".
This is the last remaining reasons big box stores exist IMO. Walk into one (the ToysRUs electronics section isn't bad) and browse -- you'll get a feel pretty quickly.
It's not so much "best games" that dictate console choice, more "preferred game genres". There is a lot of overlap ie you can get some games in every genre on every console, it's just a question of where you want to focus. Here are a few examples :
- if you have young kids there are relatively more suitable AND cool games on Gamecube
- if you are into sports games PS2 seems to have the best selection
- XBox tends to focus more on action games and generally has the best image quality & sound
- PS2 has the largest installed base and probably still hase the greatest number of games overall
Here's the "for dummies" rule -- if kids will be using this a lot get a gamecube or PS2. If it's primarily for you get a PS2 or XBox. If you're one of those nuts who has to have the best sound you can afford get the XBox
