I think it comes down to cost and convenience. Do you own a gamepad for your PC? If not, you'll have to drop an additional $20 to get something worth using. Of course, you can get the PC version pretty cheap @ GoGamer (it's now ~$15) so the end cost will be about the same.

I'd also suggest hitting a Gamestop/EB Games/etc. My local shop had a used Xbox copy for $24.99 making the decision an easy one.

Chum

As Rimmer and Chum said, you will want to play this game with a console style controller, so make your decision based upon that criteria.

I'm currently playing through the game on the Xbox, and the only complaint I have is that two of the three psycic powers you can have equipped at any one time are mapped to the black and white buttons, which (as we all know) are useless. If only the game ran in backwards compatibility mode on the 360 I'd be set, but as it is I'm doing a lot of looking down at my controller.

In any case, the PS2 controller should be fine in this regard. If you really want to do the PC version, and you think you will want to buy a 360 sometime in the future, I would suggest dropping some cash on a wired 360 controller. It is without a doubt the best designed and most comfortable controller I've ever used, it should work fine with your PC, and you'll be glad to have the extra controller when you get the 360.

I'd avoid the PS2 version. I've played it on the PS2 and the PC, and it looks much better on the PC. The PS2 port, unlike the 360 and PC versions, wasn't done in-house by Double Fine -- they contracted it out to Budcat, and Budcat didn't do a particularly good job, in my opinion. If you go with the PS2 version, you'll be missing out on a number of visual effects that add a lot to the game. You'll also get mushier textures, annoyingly long load, times, and more bugs. Still a great game, but it suffers on the PS2.

If you don't have an Xbox and you can stand to play Psychonauts away from your couch, I'd highly recommend playing it on the PC with a good gamepad. The 360 USB gamepad is awesome, if you're willing to spring for it.

PC + 360 gamepad is the way to go if you don't have an Xbox. The Xbox was the target platform and it shows, but a good PC with a great gamepad does the job just as well.

I would go with the PS2. Platformers and consoles go together like cookies and milk.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2225,CONTENTID=8674
That is the one I use. Just stay away from the Logitech Dual Action as it's analog stick's are horrible.

Logitech is always a good way to go for non-1st party accessories. I have the wireless Logitech PS2 and Xbox controllers, and they are very high quality. I actually only use them now, and not the stock controllers that came with my systems.

I picked up an x360 controller this weekend for Psychonauts and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Thanks for the tip. I am a PC only gamer, I have never owned a console, so I'm not much used to game pads, but the x360 controller works better than anything I've used before. The controls seem to make sense, and I've never liked playing platform games w/ a mouse and keyboard.

My only problem is figuring out where to map the 3 psi powers to. They still default to the keyboard. Any suggestions?

Major props to Tim Schaefer for this one. It really takes me back to the days of Lucas Arts adventure games, some of my seminal gaming experiences. I'm having shloads of fun, which is the point of gaming. It makes me wonder about the games that I've played that really weren't fun. Why can all games be this fun? I picked up Ralph Koster's A Theory of Fun this week, so maybe he can give me some insight.

Anyway, Psychonauts is a great game, and it plays well on a PC w/ a good controller.

I would suggest going with the same style mapping as the Xbox version. Put the float/target button on one trigger and the the psi powers on the remaining shoulder buttons. Then map everthing else to the face buttons; A for jump, Y for interact, B for cancel, and X for attack. I'm not sure how the item/power selection works on the PC, but on the Xbox they use the D pad to bring up the menu and the left stick to choose an item.

Thanks, I'll go w/ the xbox defaults. That makes a lot of sense.

I think it's my favorite controller ever.

The one thing the PS2 controller had on the Xbox was the extra shoulder buttons instead of the tiny black/white buttons. So for the 360, MS tossed the black/white buttons and made them shoulder buttons, while still keeping the first two shoulder buttons in those nice triggers. 360 controller FTW.

Oh, that is really annoying. Have you only tried the button mapping in the game? I'm a Mac user so I can't try it out for myself, but I wonder if Microsoft's driver package has button mapping utility that can be used outside the game that would allow the analog triggers to be mapped to digital button functions...

Gotta be a contendor for funniest level in a video game ever.

Best boss fight ever.

"oovverrllyy intricaaate.... COMBINATION!!!"

"haaardd tooo avoooiiddd...... AREA ATTACK!!"

How about someone spoils something for me and tells me what the hell happened to the button I need to continue on with the game.

I had it in my hand, I ran to the place I needed to go, and now it's gone.

I just spent an hour running around talking to every damned character on the map and got NOTHING.

Also: I have enough of those cards and the psi-cores to up-rank four times, but no matter how many times I talk to the old extra-ugly guy there's no way for me to "combine them" as the game keeps telling me to do.

I'm irritated already.

I'm also really tired of the camp.