THIS Christmas is expected to be a record-breaker for the video game industry.

The battle for console supremacy has pretty much been won but the fight for second place is still raging and this Yuletide will see a victor emerge.

But if you are still bashing buttons on a Dreamcast or, even more embarrassingly, a PS One, which console should you opt to buy?

Should you join the PS2 party, opt for the gaming horsepower of an Xbox or try something more left field like the Gamecube? Alternatively, why not take your games on the move with a Game Boy Advance or combine business with pleasure by trading in your mobile phone for a Nokia N-Gage? Sit back, dear reader, and let's consider the pros and cons.

SONY PS2. Price: £139 or less. PROS: Lots of games, software to suit all pockets, hard disk will make memory cards redundant. CONS: The most money for the worst graphics, lots of the games are rubbish, that hard drive will cost a packet.

CHANCES are your mate has already got a PS2. Millions of 'em have been sold in the last few years. making the cool looking box the world's most successful gaming platform by a huge margin. If you want a console that gives you the opportunity to plunder your friends' games collections, then a PS2 is probably the way to go.

The software choice is vast. It doesn't matter if your tastes run from football to dance mats, the chances are there's a game to suit. What's more, the sheer size of PS2's back catalogue makes many of the older games very good value for money. Gaming shops are positively groaning under the weight of second-hand PS2 titles available from just a few pounds.

There are some great classics around, too. Any Gran Turismo, Pro Evo soccer or Tekken title is likely to provide hours of gaming fun.

All the big licences (Harry Potter, Pop Idol, Tomb Raider, Lord of the Rings, FIFA, etc) appear on the PS2 first. Only Nintendo has a better portfolio of gaming characters.

Drawbacks? Well £139 is a lot to pay for hardware that's starting to show its age. In modern terms, a P300 processor with a small amount of memory is positively ancient and PS2 games invariably look worse than either the Xbox or the Gamecube versions.

Remember, too, that to bring a PS2 up to the spec of something like an Xbox will require the broadband kit and the soon-to-be-released hard drive - pushing up the price still further.

The PS2 may be the safe choice but it's an old platform that's ripe for replacement (whisper it, but industry sources reckon the PS3 will be shown early next year ready for a 2005 debut). It also plays DVDs but not as well as a dedicated player or even the Xbox.

MICROSOFT XBOX. Price: £129. PROS: By far the most powerful console, decent range of games, includes built-in hard drive and on-line options. CONS: The games library will never be as big as the PS2, the hard drive is only useful as a place to put game saves, the on-line component is still costly for UK gamers.

THE Xbox comes closest to matching a state-of-the-art PC for graphical glory, partly because it's based on PC technology. Inside the massive black box is a hoary old Pentium III processor and an nVidia graphics card.

Still, the Xbox doesn't have to run Windows XP so all its power can be directed where it's most needed. Games written for the console certainly look mighty fine.

There's a decent library of titles including some real classics. Halo is a great first person shooter, Project Gotham Racing more than matches Gran Turismo for accuracy and Dead of Alive III is a terrific beat 'em up.

Microsoft has demonstrated an uncanny knowledge of the games industry so far. In Europe and America, the company hasn't put a foot wrong (just don't mention Japan, where an Xbox is about as popular as a plate of week old Sushi). The pricing structure of older games matches the Sony model pound for pound. Xbox also makes a better fist of playing DVD movies and passes as a pretty good MP3 jukebox. Note also that Xbox seems to have a higher percentage of adult-orientated titles - possibly a nod towards Microsoft's hope that the machine will appeal to affluent twenty-somethings rather than pocket money-powered kids.

NINTENDO GAMECUBE. Price: £79 (yes seventy nine quid!). PROS: Just look at that price will ya, some classic games not available anywhere else. CONS: Running a distant third until the price cut, how much longer will Nintendo continue to support the Cube?

THE Gamecube offers terrific value for money. If it gets any cheaper, you may find the little purple box dropping out of a Corn Flakes packet.

But the aggressive price reflects the dire straits Gamecube have endured this year. Squeezed by the PS2 and the Xbox, sales were flat lining at £129 until Nintendo took the price plunge. Dixons and Argos had both cleared their shelves of Cubes and software. Doom mongers predicted the Cube would become Nintendo's Dreamcast, the console that brought Sega to its knees a few years ago. That's a shame - and also a little unfair - because the Cube has been home to some terrific games, including adult-themed software like Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil 0.

Graphics-wise, Cube titles are right up there with the Xbox. It knocks the PS2 into a distant third place. Unfortunately, the Nintendo machine cannot double up as a DVD player, nor does it have an on-line component (at the moment, this may change). Uncertainty over the future has meant some bargains in the software dump bins (Dixons slashed everything to twenty quid or less during the summer) but third party support seems to be dwindling.

NEXT WEEK: Game Boy Advance vs Nokia N-Gage.