This is a very good year to be someone who plays video games. Confusing, yes, with new set-top consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony competing for attention. But, frankly, it will be very difficult to make a bad choice -- provided buyers understand what they really want from their game machine.

Over the next three days, console makers will show off their wares at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center as they try to make the case that their particular box is best.

In a way, all can lay legitimate claim to the title. The technological differences between Microsoft's Xbox, Nintendo's Gamecube and Sony's PlayStation 2 are relatively insignificant to the average consumer. All boast incredible graphics, lightning-fast play and the ability to host bigger, more complex games.

But after playing Xbox, Gamecube and PlayStation 2, it's quickly apparent that these are three distinctly different machines backed by three distinctly different companies aiming for an amorphous market.

Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony aren't making it easy. As anyone who plays games knows, hardware takes a back seat to software. The fastest, most powerful console on the planet won't be much more than a doorstop if it hosts a shoddy library of games. Or, if every console on the market has an identical lineup, there's no compelling reason to buy one machine over another.

Many popular games -- such as Electronic Arts' "Madden" football franchise -- will appear on all three consoles. So will games from Sega, the onetime hardware titan that dumped its money-losing Dreamcast console earlier this year to focus on developing games for other platforms. Other independent game companies know it's tough to make money by selling titles for just one console, meaning there is intense pressure to publish games across platforms.

What that means for consumers is that most popular games ultimately will end up on whichever console they buy. So console makers are betting on a relatively small crop of exclusive titles to make their machine the must-have box.

Talking to the teams behind the various machines, they almost seem to be reading from the same script.

"It's not about hardware specs," Nintendo Executive Vice President Peter Main said. "It's not about horsepower."

"It's about the games for us," said Robbie Bach, Microsoft senior vice president for games.

"Everything is about content," said Sony Computer Entertainment America President Kaz Hirai.

Although they downplay the hardware, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony know that the way their boxes are configured appeals to different segments of the market. Xbox aims at the hard-core gamer with a box that's based on the PC. Gamecube appeals to families with a simple, colorful cube that looks virtually indestructible. And PlayStation 2 fits right in among the audio and video components found in any living room.

Here's how the machines -- in alphabetical order -- stack up.

Microsoft Xbox

No matter how one feels about Microsoft, it's tough not to be impressed with what the company promises in its first video game console. The Xbox is -- not surprisingly -- the most PC-like of the three consoles, with a built-in hard drive and high-speed Internet port.

Due out this fall, Xbox aims at the hard-core gamer, whether it intends to or not. The crew behind Xbox has said time and again that it wants to create a mass market for video games. But, based on some of the titles shown to The Times last week, Xbox is not a mass-market machine right out of the gate.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. Although Microsoft is one of the most recognizable brand names in the world, it's not a name widely associated with fun and excitement -- despite some fine PC games such as the "Age of Empires" and "Flight Simulator" series. If Microsoft is to crack the fickle game market, it must first prove to hard-core gamers that it can deliver the goods.

Games such as "Halo" help make the case. An action-adventure game, "Halo" is a signature title for Xbox. It combines first-person action with squad-based combat to create a seamless blend of firepower and tactics. Visually delicious missions sprawl for what seems like forever. As the Xbox graphics processor pumps out super-fast movement, the main processor handles some pretty wicked artificial intelligence.

The same goes for "Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee," the tale of some very sweet creatures fighting their way back from the brink of extinction. "Oddysee" was one of the games Microsoft showed off earlier this year to build excitement for Xbox -- and it continues to grow. A single level can take hours to play.