I'm biased, but Nintendo do the best consoles. There's plenty of bargain Ninty stuff to be had at the moment as well.

If he wants run of the mill typical console games, the Xbox is the best bet though. PS2 is showing its age now, where ironically, the Xbox is just hitting it's stride.

if you buy a ps2 now its likely to be one of the mini PS2s as i think they've stopped making the old ones. the major draw back with this is no multi tap, thats right no 4 player pro evo.

tell him to wait for the revolution, woz is spot on, ninty forever!

Failing that get a gamecube, some quality games (i do not care that ps2 has resi 4, it is NOT as good, naff controls > direct port onto ps2 controller = no no) out and they are all fairly cheap and some are life absorbing until you finish them.

I'd go with Woz, but thats a seperate issue.

I also agree with Woz, gamecube prob the best "bargain bucket" item, but seriously, I know it's a handheld, but consider the DS - it's turning out to be a cracker.