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You own a playstation 2 but aren't quite sure what other items to buy with it. What games should you buy? Do you need extra controllers? Are memory cards required? Are any other accessories required? Follow these directions below and you can answer all your questions and start enjoying your console to the fullest.

Games After choosing the system, the biggest decision is what games will you buy to go along with it. The playstation 2 console is just an expensive DVD player if you don't buy games, so you need to address this question right away. The first way to choose games is pick something related to a hobby of yours outside of gaming. Do you play football, skateboarding, like cars, or fishing, like a particular movie? There are games for all of these hobbies, movie tie in games, and many more. The second option for choosing your games is start with a list of the most popular games released on the playstation 2. They are:

Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Final Fantasy X, Madden 2006, Splinter cell, Gran Turismo 3, and SOCOM Navy Seals

These games aren't made for everyone, so be sure you check the ratings and descriptions before buying one. The playstation 2 has one of the broadest game lists of any system so you are bound to find a game that exactly fits your particular likes.

controllers The playstation 2 console originally came with one controller out of the box but two controller slots. Buying a second controller can be a great investment, especially if your friends play games too or multiple people in the house play. The small investment will greatly increase your enjoyment of the system because you can play with friends at the same time. If you buy a multi-tap adaptor you can use four controllers at the same time. Unless you buy the multi-tap adaptor there is no need to buy more than one controller.

This is a great time to mention the difference between sony brand controllers and third party controllers. sony contollers are more reliable, while third party controllers are less expensive but can break easier. I only recommend buying sony brand controller for the most part. The one exception to this is Logitech brand controllers. Logitech makes a high quality wireless controller that is very reliable.

Memory Cards - You will need at least one memory card to save your games on the playstation 2. The sony brand 8 MB memory card can save quite a bit of game data. Unless you play lots of sports games, you will only need one memory card. If you really love your sports games, be sure to pick up a couple extras because they need lots of space to store all the data needed to play an entire season.

Accessories - The playstation 2 has lots of other accessories you could buy including network adaptors, steering wheels, and even a hard drive. The most useful of these is the network adaptor which plugs into the back of the system and allows you to connect to the internet for online games. Many of the most recent games on the PS2 support online play so you will need this network adaptor. (Quick side note: if you buy a Slim PStwo system you do not need to buy this adaptor because it is already built into the system). The other accessories for the PS2 have their uses too but are not quite as beneficial as the network adaptor.

These directions should have helped you choose the games, controllers, memory cards, and accessories you want with your playstation 2. Now get out there and enjoy your new gaming purchase.

JJ Hendricks is the owner of JJGames.com, an online retailer of used Playstation 2 games, accessories, and systems. To find out more about the Playstation 2 or to start creating your own bundle, visit => http://www.jjgames.com/system/ps2

Finally, theyre all here. The xbox 360 has had the next generation gaming market to itself for a year. Now its two competitors, the Playstation 3 and nintendo Wii, are here. No more speculating about speed. No more guessing about memory. Now we can take a look and see exactly how they stack up compared to each other.

Let the console wars begin again.

Price

The ps3 has two configurations much like the Xbox 360. The ps3 comes in a $499 version that comes with a 20 GB hard drive and a $599 version that comes with a 60 GB hard drive; Wi-Fi; and memory stick, SD, and Compact Flash slots.

The xbox 360 has two configurations. It comes in a $299 core version and a $399 version that comes with a 20GB hard drive.

The nintendo Wii is the cheapest of the bunch with just one configuration that costs $250.

Processing power

The Playstation 3 comes with its Cell processor. Its a PowerPC based core that runs at 3.2 GHz that also have seven DSPs that run at 3.2 GHz. This configuration can do about 2 Teraflops.

The xbox 360 has a Custom IBM PowerPC processor. This processor also runs at 3.2 GHz. However, xbox went with a true 3 core processor compared to the one general processor of the Cell and seven additional DSPs. This configuration can do about 1 Teraflop.

The nintendo Wii includes its Broadway processor, a PowerPC based processor running at 729 MHz.

Disc Media

Part of the reason the ps3 is so much more expensive than the Xbox 360 is because the Sony decided to include a Blu-ray drive on the system. The drive can play both Blu-ray movies and regular DVDs. The xbox 360 comes with a DVD player and an HD-DVD add-on is planned. The nintendo Wii uses a DVD drive; however, the system will not work for playback of movies, just nintendo games.

Backwards Compatibility

The Playstation 3 is just like the PS2 was. Youll be able to play both PS2 and PSone games on the ps3. nintendo is taking things a bit further. Their system will be compatible with the Gamecube games and also the Gamecube controllers since the two systems use very different controllers. Not only that, but the Wii will also have the ability to download games from the original nintendo (NES), Super nintendo (SNES), and the nintendo 64.

Sweet Features

If you want high definition gaming, then the ps3 is the way to go. It comes with a Blu-ray drive built in and can output in 1080p. Although the ps3 controller may look familiar, its had some updates. The controller is now motion sensing so in some games youll be able to move your character or fly a plane just by moving the controller.

The xbox 360 was built to work with Windows XP media center. If you have a computer that already has media center on it, youll be able to view pictures, videos, and even recorded TV by using your xbox. You wont need to put your PC in your living room to take advantage of having a Media Center PC.

The Nintendo Wii decided to completely change the way gaming controllers are built. In the past, one controller was always held with both hands. The Wiis controller looks more like a TV remote control than a game controller. It has a built in motion sensor so, for example, to swing a sword, you simply move you hand just like you were really swinging a sword.

Hopefully this review has helped you compare the three next generation gaming systems. Each has its pluses and minuses, and feature that are unique to it. Ultimately, your decision will likely come down to which system has the games that most appeal to you. And that is a decision that only you can make when deciding on a system to buy.

Gary Ruplinger is the editor of http://www.ps3asap.com, a resource for getting the in demand PS3 system. He also is a writer for http://www.gamesystemreviews.com where you can learn about all of the next generation systems.

Theres a specific training, within Buddhist yoga, which asks us to look upon the things of our world as being very similar to the reflections of objects as seen in a mirror: arising as the result of specific causes and conditions, yet possessing ~ in and of themselves ~ no inherent existence. So the next time youre looking at yourself in a mirror, you can notice that the reflection of your face, there in the mirror, is there only because of the confluence of: the existence of the mirror, your having placed your body in front of it, and the capacity of your eyes to see clearly what is in the mirror to name just the most obvious of the causes & conditions. And then you can think: all of the objects Im going to experience, as I walk through my day, are no more (or less) real than this reflection of my face that Im seeing now in the mirror. And notice the result, as you do go through your day, of thinking this way

If youve already got a sitting meditation practice, a variation on the above practice that you might like to try is this: sit facing AWAY from a large mirror (a full-length mirror is best, otherwise youll probably have to sit on a chair for this to work); then set up a second, smaller mirror in front of you, into which you can look, to see the room in front of you as reflected in the mirror thats behind you. (And if you can even figure out these instructions, youre probably already enlightened!) Then drop into an open, relaxed, shamata (calm abiding) sort of space, with your eyes open, gazing gently at the room-in-the-mirror-in-the-mirror. And then ~ a shift here to a more vipassana (clear seeing) practice ~ understand: the world around you, as experienced by your conditioned perception, is always much like what youre seeing in the mirror.

And you now might wonder: what would it mean, what would be required, and what would it be like to go ~ along with our heroine Alice ~ through the looking-glass, into yoga-land? If you actually are Alice, you will of course end up in Wonderland, and we all know what thats like. If youre a Buddhist, one possible destination would be whats known as a Pure Land. (But this is a yoga blog, so lets just stick with yoga-land.) At any rate, these might be interesting questions to research And in the meantime, check out the hall of mirrors scene near the end of Bruce Lees film Enter The Dragon (a film which ~ despite its brilliant fight scenes ~ is a bit hard to swallow in certain places, if youve got even a budding feminist sensibility but this is an aside!)

And Ill end, for today, with the following poem, taken from Frithjof Schuons collection, Songs For A spiritual Traveler Enjoy!

The Mirror

Is not the world a mirror in which God
Sees his beauty in a thousand images?
A spectacle that vanishes, repeats itself
Lights up from naught, then fades away.

The fruits of existence teach us two things:
God-resemblance and God-remoteness;
Remoteness brings to nothing the fabric of existence
Resemblance is timeless like the stars.

Elizabeth Reninger holds a Masters degree in Chinese medicine, is a published poet, and has been exploring yoga - in its Taoist, Buddhist & Hindu varieties ~ for more than twenty years. Her teachers include Richard Freeman and Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. To read more of her yoga-related essays, please visit her website: http://www.writingup.com/blog/elizabeth_reninger