Despite being well into the next generation of consoles, according to Nielsen the PS2 remained the most played console of 2008. Following the PS2 are:

• 2. Xbox 360
• 3. Wii
• 4. Xbox
• 5. PlayStation 3
• 6. GameCube

Nielsen: Trend Index: 2008 Year-End Summary
Slashdot article

Interesting. I guess we know what system to buy, second-hand.

When you can get a PS2 game at three bucks, it's more or less resession proof.

I don't see that as a shock myself, it's the new poor mans video game system and as you said daniel, when you get get a game for three bucks you can't go wrong.

Balking at the price of Wii fit, my girlfriend just got one (much to my delight) so as to enjoy the discounted fitness benefits of DDR (much to my delight!) Turns out that when you're playing a game that could just as well be played on a celphone, the last-gen-ness of the console isn't a big problem.

I got her Beyond Good and Evil... any other titles that might be recommended to lady casual gamers? I'm thinking something Katamari (was there also a Parappa game released for the PS2? Ooh, or the Space Channel 9 compilation!)

Also, she was intrigued by the bizarre "Chulip", whose box was in the store but which they couldn't find a disc for.

Yes, get her Katamari, the Sly games, perhaps Okami, Primal, ICO. May also want to look into adventure games (Shadow of Destiny, Myst III, Atkantis), and don't forget the PS2 will play all the PS1 games e.g. Broken Sword, Dracula, Egypt, Discworld..

as other's have stated, the PS2 certainly has the best value for it's money, with an huge catalogue of games, and as several games proved, it could create quite impressive visuals for hardware of it's age (just take a look at games like Black, Killzone, Shadow of the Colossus and the Prince of Persia games). I was a bit surprised to see that the Wii didn't come second though, and that the original Xbox had a higher rank than the PS3. Sure, the PS3 totally misjudged what people thought was important for a console of the new generation. And, sure, you could use it to guide missiles or go to the moon, but when both the console and the games cost a sizeable chunk of an average wage, who would afford to get it? And when they removed backwards compatibility they made it even less worth the cost. The PS3 might appeal to 'hardcore' gamers, but I doubt many - if any - casual gamers would think it's worth the cost if they only play a couple of times a month.

Very unlike the PS2, Wii and to some extent the Xbox 360 which are relatively cheap, with some cheap games and many games geared towards the casual gamer or people who usually don't play games at all.

Goes to show you just because something's new, doesn't automatically mean it's good or worth getting.