You decided to buy a Playstation 2 system, but you aren't sure what else you need to buy to fully experience the system. What games do you buy? Do you need extra controllers? How many memory cards? Any other accessories? Follow these simple directions below and you can answer all those questions and start enjoying your system in no time.

Games - After choosing the system, the biggest decision is what games will you buy to go along with it. The Playstation 2 is pretty worthless without games, so you need to tackle this question right away. The first way to choose games is pick something related to one of your hobbies 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 controllers are more reliable and comfortable while third party controllers are less expensive in general. I only recommend buying Sony brand controller for the most part. The one exception to this is Logitech brand controllers. They make a very high quality wireless controller that will not break on you right away.

Memory Cards - In order to save your games on the Playstation 2 you will need at least one memory card. The Sony brand 8MB memory cards can be used to save quite a bit of data. Unless you are an avid sports fan, you will probably 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 can be useful at times but are not quite as important as the network adaptor.

This list should have helped you choose the games, controllers, and accessories you want to buy with your Playstation 2. Now get out there and enjoy your new gaming purchase.