The Playstation 2 was the first of the "next-gen" consoles to have come out. It features a custom-built 300 MHz processor named the "Emotion Engine". In terms of speed (MHz) it cannot compare to it's competitors, however there is much more to determining the power of a processor (although there is more dependence on graphical and audio calculations being calculated in the main processor than in other consoles). In real world terms, the PS2 is powerful, but not as powerful as the competition, although not to the degree that some may think by simply comparing screenshots of certain games. The PS2 is known to be quite difficult to develop for, much as the N64 had a reputation for. This means that most games never reach their full potential. Given enough time (and a talented developer), beautiful games like Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Final Fantasy X can be produced. However, it seems that there could be a large wait between hit titles with this strategy. At the moment the PS2 has more support then any other console, so many games are coming out dispite the systems flaws, however it is possible that in the future developers will ease towards the more familiar DirectX programming setup of the Xbox or the simple OpenGL style of the GameCube. At the moment, however, the PS2 has many promising games out, and more coming in the next few months to compete with other systems.