The movie-like picture quality and realistic sound and action of "Driving Emotion TYPE-S" demonstrate why so many people are excited about Sony Corp's new toy, the PlayStation2.

The richly detailed digital graphics leave little to the imagination. Even shadows cast as the car whizzes by seem real.

The driving game, developed by Square Co Ltd, is one of the high-resolution games designed especially for the new console's 128-bit processor and joins about 3,000 existing titles that can also be used on the PlayStation2. Sony Computer Entertainment, a Sony unit, aims to sell one million units of the souped-up successor to the current PlayStation in the first two days after the launch on March 4.

Key details of Playstation2 machine
The PlayStation2, richly equipped with a 128-bit CPU, Internet capability, and a DVD player, will be sold at 39,800 yen ($357). Users can listen to music CDs and watch DVD videos.

The new console comes in a sleek black box about the size of a small video player - 301mm (12 inches) in length, 178mm (seven inches) in width, 78mm (three inches) in height, and 2.1 kg (4.6 lb) in weight, which can be laid flat or vertically.

Accessories includes a "Dual Shock 2" analogue black controller, which vibrates to give a sense of action at key moments during games and a high capacity 8MB memory card for saving games which can transfer data up to 250 Times faster than the current card. The machine includes various interfaces such as optical digital output, to ensure the console is compatible with a variety of other systems and consumer products such as video recorders, cable television, digital cameras, printers, keyboards, and a mouse.

From next year, Sony says users will be able to connect the console to broadband digital networks and download content, including games from its software libraries. Once they can connect to broadband channels such as digital cable, PlayStation2 users will be able to download data-intensive computer entertainment content to hard-disc drives to be provided by SCE later.