Help me best waste my money.

[Kitsune]

Through various factors, I am currently in possession of hundred dollar gift cards from EB Games and Best Buy.  I'm trying to determine what the best course of action is with these plastic containers of virtual money.  At the moment, these are the contenders I have in mind:

- Buy a Nintendo DS.

Pros: EB has a 'buy three, get one free' deal on used games through tomorrow.  The DS has a good number of interesting games available right now; Advance Wars, Animal Crossing, Ace Cartwright, Trauma Center, and the freakish Japanese imports.
Cons: The DS library is still pretty small, and the console hasn't taken off, so its future might not be very secure.

- Buy a PSP.

Pros: Ditto on the used game deal.  Has hacked-in emulation ability for portable SNES goodness, has some wireless internet ability, and a very impressive display.
Cons: None of the PSP games have stood out to me as being must-haves, aside from Lumines.  Considerably more expensive than the DS.

- Buy an Xbox 360.

Pros: Teh shiney.
Cons: A 'bleah' library so far, most of the good games on the horizon for it are also coming out on the PC anyways.  Super-expensive.

- Upgrade computer, putting Best Buy credit for a new video card and saving EB credit for games.

Pros: A geforce 7800 GT would give a nice kick in the ass to my games, and should easily handle any games that come out in 2006.
Cons: Also pricey, requiring a motherboard upgrade to PCIe, and the 7800 GT only seems to be about a 50% improvement over my 6800 GT as far as framerates go.

- Save the money, wait for PS3 and Revolution.

Pros: May well be a better investment than the Xbox 360.
Cons: I'm a consumer whore and am impatient with spending money burning a hole in my pocket.

Now, in the case of consoles, be sure to mention any especially impressive games that run on them.  The consoles themselves are pretty worthless without good games.

Or, if there are any ideas about good ways to toss money that weren't listed above, feel free to toss 'em out.

[schild]

If I had the money RIGHT now and guessing how much you have by the post:

Buy a DS. Buy a certain 5-6 games.

Put 50 onto something stupid at EB/Gamestop and switch it over to the PS3 when it comes for preorder.

It'll be a while before the 360 hits any sort of stride.
The DS is a Better Purchase Now than the PSP, but by the end of the year I don't think that will be the case. Until the summer it will be whatwith the support Capcom is about to throw at it (oh and Square's stuff coming out for it).
The Revolution won't cost enough that you'll have to worry about that.
The PS3 will be delayed but a preorder will be necessary this fall/winter season.

[Sky]

only seems to be about a 50% improvement

Was that a typo? Anyway, you seem to have a better gpu than I have, and mine is fine for everything I'm playing (purposely not FEAR). But there is Oblivion to think about, if you dig Bethsoft.

I don't know any good games for those consoles, aside from maybe GTA for the PSP because I'm a total GTA whore.

Can you use the cards for a preorder on the PS3? It's about to be a funky time for my console bias, as all consoles will now have better hd/widescreen support than most pc games...I might have a Playstation for the first time, ever...

[Yegolev]

It'll be a while before the 360 hits any sort of stride.
The DS is a Better Purchase Now than the PSP, but by the end of the year I don't think that will be the case. Until the summer it will be whatwith the support Capcom is about to throw at it (oh and Square's stuff coming out for it).
The Revolution won't cost enough that you'll have to worry about that.
The PS3 will be delayed but a preorder will be necessary this fall/winter season.

Noschildamus has spoken.  Personally, I'd blow it all on games but I have the primary consoles already and I just don't get into portables. 

[Paelos]

Hookers and blow weren't on your list, so you've disappointed half the board already.

That being said, I'm big on computer over console. If I had money I'd buy Civ 4.

[Shockeye]

That being said, I'm big on computer over console. If I had money I'd buy Civ 4.

I hope he doesn't have a HDTV as a monitor...

[Samwise]

If you have a lot of spare moments that could be spent on portable gaming (e.g. bus or train rides as part of your commute), or if you have friends with DSes, I'd definitely recommend a DS.  It's got enough decent games to keep you busy for a while, and it's cheap.

I don't think upgrading from a 6800 to a 7800 is worthwhile at this point - big jumps are always more cost-effective than lots of little ones.

So aside from the DS, I'd recommend blowing it on PC games.  There are a lot of games out now that are worth playing, and probably a bunch more that you missed the initial release of that you could pick up now for bargain prices.

[WayAbvPar]

That being said, I'm big on computer over console. If I had money I'd buy Civ 4.

I hope he doesn't have a HDTV as a monitor...

You really need a beating.

[Sky]

A 1080p monitor would run Civ4 just fine!