PS2 hands down, for me.
To me, Sony had the better hardware ( Except, of course, for Nintendo. You could take a sledgehammer to the GC, and it would still work. I swear it must be built of the same material as the black box in a plane
)
I've never had a problem with my PS2's ( I had the original, launch fat one. It never gave me a problem. Got rid of it recently and upgrade to the slim model, because I needed the space ( Smaller room, smaller entertainment center. Didn't have enough space on it for the fat system. )
The Xbox had good hardware as well, but the one(s)
I had, all managed to get the "Disc Read Error" problem ;_;. ( I finally gave up after my third one, lol. I think the store was giving me the same system over and over each time
..they DID go into the back each time to pick it out..hmmm..nah..I think it was just bad luck, lol. )
The Xbox wins in the online department, hands down. however, for people like me ( Who have no real job to speak of, and have to get new games by trading in old ones. ), Live was un affordable. I much preferred the online for the PS2, due to it being free.
The PS2 wins hands down for sheer game variety. Not only from Sony's first party companies, but from 3rd party as well. The Xbox was truthfully home to FPS's, Racers, and Sports titles, with a handful of RPGs, and maybe a few party titles. Most everything on the system was available either on the other 2 consoles, or on PC as well ( and Cheaper. ), as was mentioned above, the PS2 offered a ton of titles that just weren't available
anywhere else.