You can buy a slim PS2, fully backwards-compatible, for $75.00 (CDN) right now, which is a little more than the price of a new game. In fact, EBs up here in Canuckistan have been offering (off and on over the past 3 or 4 months) a deal where you can trade in 4 games for a slim PS2. So what you do is you hit a pawn shop, buy 4 $10.00 games, and then bring them to EB. $40.00 later (plus tax) you've just traded your way into a brand new console.
There are so many games to recommend, it's very difficult to know where to start, and since your PC gaming has been somewhat limited, I guess I can only really recommend the games I've found to be absolute must-haves, regardless of genre.
Resident Evil 4.
God of War.
Gran Turismo series (any of them, really... but 4 is probably the nicest)
Katamari Damacy / We <3 Katamari (either one, or both)
Guitar Hero
Tiger Woods 2K6
Soul Calibur 2 or 3 (3 is particularly good)
Devil May Cry (1 or 3... ignore 2... only purchase 3 if you want a REALLY hard game)
Mark of Kri
Shadow of the Collussus
And if you end up loving the PS2, as I'm sure you will, the PS3 will be coming out in November (worldwide simultaneous release). It promises full backwards compatibility with all PS1 and PS2 games, so the list of PS2 games above-noted will be ready to put into the next console, along with any new PS3 titles that float your boat, and any PS1 games you may have found!
You'll probably have to buy a separate memory card for the PS2 when you get the console, as I don't believe they package one in the box... it's a bit of a money-maker for them, since you cannot save a game without a memory card. The good news is; almost 5 years later, and over a hundred games... I haven't quite filled two memory cards... so their capacity is really good. Obviously I've gone in and cleaned-house on some of my older saves from time-to-time... but even still, a memory card will keep saves for an average of about 20 games per card. It all depends on the file save size which can vary from game-to-game.
As for other consoles:
Gamecube is a decent system with a number of really fun titles, but there's no backwards compatibility, and there aren't enough good games to warrant buying one (especially with the system nearing the end of it's life).
X-Box never impressed me. There are about 6 games I've played that I've wanted to play again, and about 6 others I've tried that I *might* try again if I could find them cheap. Out of the 60 or so games I've played for the system, a half-dozen really good games, and another half-dozen so-so games... well it doesn't inspire me to recommend the system to you.
X-Box 360... well... it's too early to tell, but I'm worried that it will go the way of the Dreamcast. Limited backwards compatibility, great graphics (compared to current-gen consoles, but how it will stack up to the new PS3 and Nintendo Revolution remains to be seen)... but it is becoming clear that the euro and japanese launches were failures... so much so in Japan that the system may simply be pulled in a year, according to some industry reports I've read... and the American launch is matching the original X-Box numbers... which isn't bad when you think about how well the X-Box did, but /is/ bad when you consider Microsoft spent roughly 300% more on marketing this time around, and merely met the same launch specs as last time. Not encouraging.
I could be proven wrong on the 360, and I certainly hope I am proven wrong, but right now it's way too uncertain as far as I'm concerned. You don't want to be like one of those poor dreamcast saps who bought the system right away, bought all the peripherals and a ton of the launch titles, only to have the company - barely a year later - say; "Sorry... we're not supporting the platform anymore". Now you can buy a dreamcast at pawn shops for around $20.00.
