I recently joined the PC gaming community, how should I expand my gaming library?

[SlaveNumber23]

1: Wait for Steam Holiday Sale
2: Buy many games for less than 75% their original price
3: Check other digital distributors trying to compete with Steam (Impulse, Gamersgate, Origin)
4: If they also have nice deals, buy moar games, otherwise, proceed directly to step 5
5: ???
6: Profit

Exactly this, also I strongly recommend getting Guild Wars 2 as it is amazing.


As to your specs, looks all good to me really, I've been able to run Battlefield 3 on max settings (1600 x 900 resolution) smoothly with 4GB of RAM, a GTX460 and an Intel core 2 quad Q9400 processor which is pretty similar to your setup.

 

[VladG]

Well, Deus Ex (the original game) is regarded by many (myself included) as the best PC game of all time. Try it!

Portal 1 and 2

Half Life 1 and 2 (including the episodes for HL2), you can get them quite cheap and they are brilliant games. There's a remake for HL1 called Black Mesa, but honestly I don't like it, they change too much of the level design and game pacing that I feel it really undermines the whole thing. Half Life 1 isn't THAT hard on the eyes, there's certainly nothing that makes it unplayable.

MDK2 is an old school game with some dated mechanics but it's quirky and can be great fun. Plus you can get it for dirt cheap on GoG

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic has been mentioned, so I'll just bump it

Total War, with Shogun 2 being the best game of the series in my opinion (feel free to try any game post Rome: Total War, they are all good, though in different ways)

Company of Heroes is great fun, though the expansions I got off Steam are so horribly buggy that I literally can't play them (might just be my bad luck)

You might like to try Civilisation V if you liked IV, it's really a great improvement on the formula.

Age of Empires 1 and 2, played in that order (with their respective expansions installed, they help a lot). Didn't much like 3 to be honest, but a while ago you could buy it for 99 cents. Hell, it's worth 1$.

You might want to try World of Warcraft... MMORPGs are pretty much unique to PCs, and WoW is the biggest for a reason. But only play it if you're willing to make a huge time commitment, otherwise I don't think it's worth it. There's a free unlimited trial that lets you go up to level 20 I think.

There's also EVE Online... While pretty much all big name MMORPGs out there are more or less WoW clones, EVE is different. EVE is almost entirely player run. 90% of everything that happens in EVE is determined by the players. It's also really Massive. Players are online on the same server at the same time ( so you can easily have 40-50 thousand players in the same game world at the same time. In comparison most MMOs have servers of a few thousand total, with much fewer online at any one time). It is also quite slow and grindy and... well, unexciting at times. It's worth trying out a free trial, but it will only be scratching the surface of the real game.

 

[BreakfastMan]

All of gog.com.

All of it.

Well, maybe not Ultima 8, Ultima 9, Earthworm Jim 3D, Masters of Orion 3, Empire Earth 3, Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods Edition, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Crusaders of Might and Magic, King's Quest 8, or the first Hitman game. But beyond that, go wild.

 

[lacktheknack]

All of gog.com.

All of it.

Well, maybe not Ultima 8, Ultima 9, Earthworm Jim 3D, Masters of Orion 3, Empire Earth 3, Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods Edition, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Crusaders of Might and Magic, King's Quest 8, or the first Hitman game. But beyond that, go wild.

Even they're worth a look at those prices. I don't regret my time with TR:AOL, even though it was abysmal, because it let me really appreciate the breath of fresh air that was TR:L.

 

[BreakfastMan]

All of gog.com.

All of it.

Well, maybe not Ultima 8, Ultima 9, Earthworm Jim 3D, Masters of Orion 3, Empire Earth 3, Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods Edition, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Crusaders of Might and Magic, King's Quest 8, or the first Hitman game. But beyond that, go wild.

Even they're worth a look at those prices. I don't regret my time with TR:AOL, even though it was abysmal, because it let me really appreciate the breath of fresh air that was TR:L.

Maybe for you, but I find that I can enjoy and appreciate good games just fine without having to play other crappy games in the series. XD

(Seriously though, Angel of Darkness was awful and should never be played by anyone)

 

[Simonoly]

I recommend:

STALKER
The Witcher 1 & 2
Torchlight 1 & 2
Fallout 3/New Vegas
Oblivion/Skyrim
The Binding of Isaac
Machinarium
Amnesia
Trine 1 & 2
Titan Quest
Dark Souls
Dragon Age: Origins
Guild Wars 2 (it's an mmo, but it has no monthly fee)
Tribes:Ascend (free to play through Steam now)

You'll probably want to upgrade a few things before you can enjoy a lot of the above games in all their glory. But it's worth sticking them on your Steam wish list for when the next Steam sale comes up.

Also download this during a Steam sale for maximum gaming joy: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/16236/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

If you prefer your PC games completely DRM-free then hop on over to GOG.com.

 

[lacktheknack]

All of gog.com.

All of it.

Well, maybe not Ultima 8, Ultima 9, Earthworm Jim 3D, Masters of Orion 3, Empire Earth 3, Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods Edition, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Crusaders of Might and Magic, King's Quest 8, or the first Hitman game. But beyond that, go wild.

Even they're worth a look at those prices. I don't regret my time with TR:AOL, even though it was abysmal, because it let me really appreciate the breath of fresh air that was TR:L.

Maybe for you, but I find that I can enjoy and appreciate good games just fine without having to play other crappy games in the series. XD

(Seriously though, Angel of Darkness was awful and should never be played by anyone)

There's something to be said for anything, as the Hour of Love showed. In AoD's case, it should be looked to as an absolute PARAGON of stair-climbing animations.

Seriously, triple A games all need to gawk at AoD's stair-climbing and hang their heads in utter shame.

(Can you tell I'm grasping at straws? Straws that are excellent at climbing stairs?)

 

[sunsetspawn]

GOTHIC 2

And to all of those people telling him to get console ports, seriously, he said he's joining the PC community, he didn't say he just pulled his head out of his ass.

I have played a little of that actually, I had forgotten about it so I will look at getting Gothic 2.

As for that last part, what exactly did you mean by that?

Sorry about that, I tend to talk (and write) like I'm in a Tarantino film.

It means that anyone recommending you check out Skyrim or Fallout 3 or Call of Duty or Human Revolution missed the entire point of the thread. You didn't say you were new to gaming, you said you just joined the PC gaming community. I don't think you need anyone to remind you that Borderlands 2 is coming out (whether or not you get it for PC is your choice), however, you may need someone to remind you of the many great PC exclusives that came out in the past ten years. I know I do, but unfortunately I don't really have that kind of free time.

sad panda

I'm planning on eventually getting to The Witcher, and most of Bioware's old catalog, as well as Obsidian's and Black Isle's. They're all very affordable and probably better than most modern games.

Also, don't forget about Obsidian's kickstarter, I doubt it will be on consoles...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity

 

[BreakfastMan]

All of gog.com.

All of it.

Well, maybe not Ultima 8, Ultima 9, Earthworm Jim 3D, Masters of Orion 3, Empire Earth 3, Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods Edition, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Crusaders of Might and Magic, King's Quest 8, or the first Hitman game. But beyond that, go wild.

Even they're worth a look at those prices. I don't regret my time with TR:AOL, even though it was abysmal, because it let me really appreciate the breath of fresh air that was TR:L.

Maybe for you, but I find that I can enjoy and appreciate good games just fine without having to play other crappy games in the series. XD

(Seriously though, Angel of Darkness was awful and should never be played by anyone)

There's something to be said for anything, as the Hour of Love showed. In AoD's case, it should be looked to as an absolute PARAGON of stair-climbing animations.

Seriously, triple A games all need to gawk at AoD's stair-climbing and hang their heads in utter shame.

(Can you tell I'm grasping at straws? Straws that are excellent at climbing stairs?)

I am sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of atrocious controls, horrible level design, and huge amount of bugs.

 

[Henriot]

I can vouch for Mount and Blade Warband; as usual, there are some AMAZING mods out there. If you DO pick it up, highly recommend getting the Diplomacy mod for it. After you've played the normal game, Prophecy of Pendor is a damn epic singleplayer mod. Speed being a factor in combat is just such an engrossing mechanic for me, probably why I've sunk hundreds of hours into the game.

Jagged Alliance: I must admit, my first game in the series was the new Back In Action "reboot", but I love that game. The second on is also pretty amazing, clunky if you're not used to old games. Heavy tactical strategy, using squads of mercs to depose a tyrant queen.

Frozen Synapse: another squad based tactial one, but this is pretty damn brutal at times.

If you like simulation type games, I had a great time with Tropico 3: Absolute Power. You're the head honcho of a Carribean island nation during the Cold War, your population have needs and wants, get split into political factions who all have specific needs and wants (that often conflict with other factions), you need to keep the money rolling in from exports and managing any rebellions. Humourous in its presentation too, which is nice. Can't vouch for Tropico 4, but I hear it's the same as 3 with slightly better graphics.

X-COM, original. Awesomeness. And cheap.

Binding of Isaac. Cheap, runs on anything, and one of those "easy to learn, hard to master" type games.

Defense Grid: The Awakening. One of my favourite tower defence games. Great writing/overarching story, aliens are coming and you need to stop them. Demo on Steam.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

1: Wait for Steam Holiday Sale
2: Buy many games for less than 75% their original price
3: Check other digital distributors trying to compete with Steam (Impulse, Gamersgate, Origin)
4: If they also have nice deals, buy moar games, otherwise, proceed directly to step 5
5: ???
6: Profit

Exactly this, also I strongly recommend getting Guild Wars 2 as it is amazing.


As to your specs, looks all good to me really, I've been able to run Battlefield 3 on max settings (1600 x 900 resolution) smoothly with 4GB of RAM, a GTX460 and an Intel core 2 quad Q9400 processor which is pretty similar to your setup.

That's good, I want to get Guild Wars 2, it's the only MMO that I have come across that has piqued my interest. WoW, which I have played a trial of recently and EVE online aren't for me. But GW2 seems to be something I will really enjoy.

Well, Deus Ex (the original game) is regarded by many (myself included) as the best PC game of all time. Try it!

Portal 1 and 2

Half Life 1 and 2 (including the episodes for HL2), you can get them quite cheap and they are brilliant games. There's a remake for HL1 called Black Mesa, but honestly I don't like it, they change too much of the level design and game pacing that I feel it really undermines the whole thing. Half Life 1 isn't THAT hard on the eyes, there's certainly nothing that makes it unplayable.

MDK2 is an old school game with some dated mechanics but it's quirky and can be great fun. Plus you can get it for dirt cheap on GoG

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic has been mentioned, so I'll just bump it

Total War, with Shogun 2 being the best game of the series in my opinion (feel free to try any game post Rome: Total War, they are all good, though in different ways)

Company of Heroes is great fun, though the expansions I got off Steam are so horribly buggy that I literally can't play them (might just be my bad luck)

You might like to try Civilisation V if you liked IV, it's really a great improvement on the formula.

Age of Empires 1 and 2, played in that order (with their respective expansions installed, they help a lot). Didn't much like 3 to be honest, but a while ago you could buy it for 99 cents. Hell, it's worth 1$.

You might want to try World of Warcraft... MMORPGs are pretty much unique to PCs, and WoW is the biggest for a reason. But only play it if you're willing to make a huge time commitment, otherwise I don't think it's worth it. There's a free unlimited trial that lets you go up to level 20 I think.

There's also EVE Online...

EVE Online is a game my brother plays (he flats with me), so I see it often and it just isn't me. I played a WoW trial, not for me either.

As for the other games, AoE 1,2 and 3 I have played on the old family computer years ago, before I moved out.

Civilization 5 is better you say, that's a sold right there! The other games you mentioned have been by others, I have been writing a list so no need to bump them

I wouldn't start the thread if I wasn't going to take the advice of people taking the time to help, so thanks all of you! Keep em coming if you like.

GOTHIC 2

And to all of those people telling him to get console ports, seriously, he said he's joining the PC community, he didn't say he just pulled his head out of his ass.

I have played a little of that actually, I had forgotten about it so I will look at getting Gothic 2.

As for that last part, what exactly did you mean by that?

Sorry about that, I tend to talk (and write) like I'm in a Tarantino film.

It means that anyone recommending you check out Skyrim or Fallout 3 or Call of Duty or Human Revolution missed the entire point of the thread. You didn't say you were new to gaming, you said you just joined the PC gaming community. I don't think you need anyone to remind you that Borderlands 2 is coming out (whether or not you get it for PC is your choice), however, you may need someone to remind you of the many great PC exclusives that came out in the past ten years. I know I do, but unfortunately I don't really have that kind of free time.

sad panda

I'm planning on eventually getting to The Witcher, and most of Bioware's old catalog, as well as Obsidian's and Black Isle's. They're all very affordable and probably better than most modern games.

Also, don't forget about Obsidian's kickstarter, I doubt it will be on consoles...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity

Thanks for clarifying that (not just for me, but perhaps a few others too. I wasn't sure if you were trying to insult someone or not xD), and you are right. I have a lot of the games people have mentioned if they are on console, I am looking for stuff that is mostly PC exclusive.

I recommend:

STALKER
The Witcher 1 & 2
Torchlight 1 & 2
Fallout 3/New Vegas
Oblivion/Skyrim
The Binding of Isaac
Machinarium
Amnesia
Trine 1 & 2
Titan Quest
Dark Souls
Dragon Age: Origins
Guild Wars 2 (it's an mmo, but it has no monthly fee)
Tribes:Ascend (free to play through Steam now)

You'll probably want to upgrade a few things before you can enjoy a lot of the above games in all their glory. But it's worth sticking them on your Steam wish list for when the next Steam sale comes up.

Stalker, that's the game set in Russia right, kinda Fallout-esque? Will grab Tribes: Ascend and Stalker at some point as well.

Got both the Witcher games, Trine 1 and 2, Dark Souls, Oblivion and Skyrim, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Dragon Age: Origins and Titan Quest as well. Most of them on Xbox and PS3, I'm talking more PC exclusives such as Tribes and the other great ones you mentioned

Frozen Synapse: another squad based tactial one, but this is pretty damn brutal at times.

If you like simulation type games, I had a great time with Tropico 3: Absolute Power. You're the head honcho of a Carribean island nation during the Cold War, your population have needs and wants, get split into political factions who all have specific needs and wants (that often conflict with other factions), you need to keep the money rolling in from exports and managing any rebellions. Humourous in its presentation too, which is nice. Can't vouch for Tropico 4, but I hear it's the same as 3 with slightly better graphics.

X-COM, original. Awesomeness. And cheap.

Binding of Isaac. Cheap, runs on anything, and one of those "easy to learn, hard to master" type games.

Defense Grid: The Awakening. One of my favourite tower defence games. Great writing/overarching story, aliens are coming and you need to stop them. Demo on Steam.

Grabbing the demos of the games that have them now. Played the hell out of X-Com on the PS1 back in the day, looking forward to the new one coming next month.

Tropico sounds a bit different from a lot of other games recommended here as well, will look into that one too.

 

[lacktheknack]

All of gog.com.

All of it.

Well, maybe not Ultima 8, Ultima 9, Earthworm Jim 3D, Masters of Orion 3, Empire Earth 3, Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods Edition, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Crusaders of Might and Magic, King's Quest 8, or the first Hitman game. But beyond that, go wild.

Even they're worth a look at those prices. I don't regret my time with TR:AOL, even though it was abysmal, because it let me really appreciate the breath of fresh air that was TR:L.

Maybe for you, but I find that I can enjoy and appreciate good games just fine without having to play other crappy games in the series. XD

(Seriously though, Angel of Darkness was awful and should never be played by anyone)

There's something to be said for anything, as the Hour of Love showed. In AoD's case, it should be looked to as an absolute PARAGON of stair-climbing animations.

Seriously, triple A games all need to gawk at AoD's stair-climbing and hang their heads in utter shame.

(Can you tell I'm grasping at straws? Straws that are excellent at climbing stairs?)

I am sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of atrocious controls, horrible level design, and huge amount of bugs.

So what if I occasionally (sometimes (often)) riverdance off a cliff to my death? So what if I finished every level through blind luck and walkthroughs? So what if I never finished because the game glitched out?

(How did we get into this argument again?)

 

[BreakfastMan]

All of gog.com.

All of it.

Well, maybe not Ultima 8, Ultima 9, Earthworm Jim 3D, Masters of Orion 3, Empire Earth 3, Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods Edition, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Crusaders of Might and Magic, King's Quest 8, or the first Hitman game. But beyond that, go wild.

Even they're worth a look at those prices. I don't regret my time with TR:AOL, even though it was abysmal, because it let me really appreciate the breath of fresh air that was TR:L.

Maybe for you, but I find that I can enjoy and appreciate good games just fine without having to play other crappy games in the series. XD

(Seriously though, Angel of Darkness was awful and should never be played by anyone)

There's something to be said for anything, as the Hour of Love showed. In AoD's case, it should be looked to as an absolute PARAGON of stair-climbing animations.

Seriously, triple A games all need to gawk at AoD's stair-climbing and hang their heads in utter shame.

(Can you tell I'm grasping at straws? Straws that are excellent at climbing stairs?)

I am sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of atrocious controls, horrible level design, and huge amount of bugs.

So what if I occasionally (sometimes (often)) riverdance off a cliff to my death? So what if I finished every level through blind luck and walkthroughs? So what if I never finished because the game glitched out?

(How did we get into this argument again?)

So what if the game is absolutely awful and should be played by no one?

(I have no idea. What the hell are we even arguing about?)

 

[lacktheknack]

All of gog.com.

All of it.

Well, maybe not Ultima 8, Ultima 9, Earthworm Jim 3D, Masters of Orion 3, Empire Earth 3, Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods Edition, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Crusaders of Might and Magic, King's Quest 8, or the first Hitman game. But beyond that, go wild.

Even they're worth a look at those prices. I don't regret my time with TR:AOL, even though it was abysmal, because it let me really appreciate the breath of fresh air that was TR:L.

Maybe for you, but I find that I can enjoy and appreciate good games just fine without having to play other crappy games in the series. XD

(Seriously though, Angel of Darkness was awful and should never be played by anyone)

There's something to be said for anything, as the Hour of Love showed. In AoD's case, it should be looked to as an absolute PARAGON of stair-climbing animations.

Seriously, triple A games all need to gawk at AoD's stair-climbing and hang their heads in utter shame.

(Can you tell I'm grasping at straws? Straws that are excellent at climbing stairs?)

I am sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of atrocious controls, horrible level design, and huge amount of bugs.

So what if I occasionally (sometimes (often)) riverdance off a cliff to my death? So what if I finished every level through blind luck and walkthroughs? So what if I never finished because the game glitched out?

(How did we get into this argument again?)

So what if the game is absolutely awful and should be played by no one?

(I have no idea. What the hell are we even arguing about?)

I like turtles!

(I have no bloody idea!)

 

[Henriot]

Being on the PC means the biggest thing one comes back to is mods, but the mods for the original X-COM help in so many ways. Minor tweaking, some bug fixes, but things like soldiers attributes being put into single letter code form FOR YOU was such a help.
e.g. A soldier with high accuracy had an "m" after their name (marksman), a "M" when they got particularly accurate, a "c" for coward, "r" for high reactions and so forth.

As soon as I can find a way to juggle the $70 for X-COM Enemy Unknown into my "money for fun things" pile, preordering... If not, might have to hold out for a sale. So excited for that game!

 

[BreakfastMan]

All of gog.com.

All of it.

Well, maybe not Ultima 8, Ultima 9, Earthworm Jim 3D, Masters of Orion 3, Empire Earth 3, Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods Edition, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Crusaders of Might and Magic, King's Quest 8, or the first Hitman game. But beyond that, go wild.

Even they're worth a look at those prices. I don't regret my time with TR:AOL, even though it was abysmal, because it let me really appreciate the breath of fresh air that was TR:L.

Maybe for you, but I find that I can enjoy and appreciate good games just fine without having to play other crappy games in the series. XD

(Seriously though, Angel of Darkness was awful and should never be played by anyone)

There's something to be said for anything, as the Hour of Love showed. In AoD's case, it should be looked to as an absolute PARAGON of stair-climbing animations.

Seriously, triple A games all need to gawk at AoD's stair-climbing and hang their heads in utter shame.

(Can you tell I'm grasping at straws? Straws that are excellent at climbing stairs?)

I am sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of atrocious controls, horrible level design, and huge amount of bugs.

So what if I occasionally (sometimes (often)) riverdance off a cliff to my death? So what if I finished every level through blind luck and walkthroughs? So what if I never finished because the game glitched out?

(How did we get into this argument again?)

So what if the game is absolutely awful and should be played by no one?

(I have no idea. What the hell are we even arguing about?)

I like turtles!

(I have no bloody idea!)

Turtles suck! And their soup tastes icky! D:<

(We should probably get back on topic, whatever that was)

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Being on the PC means the biggest thing one comes back to is mods, but the mods for the original X-COM help in so many ways. Minor tweaking, some bug fixes, but things like soldiers attributes being put into single letter code form FOR YOU was such a help.
e.g. A soldier with high accuracy had an "m" after their name (marksman), a "M" when they got particularly accurate, a "c" for coward, "r" for high reactions and so forth.

As soon as I can find a way to juggle the $70 for X-COM Enemy Unknown into my "money for fun things" pile, preordering... If not, might have to hold out for a sale. So excited for that game!

I figured as much, but I am less likely to pay for a game I already own since I already own it, mods or no. Since I am not made of money, judging by what you said about the new X-Com you will understand, I don't want to re-buy games I have already owned and played through.

As for new X-Com, I already have money saved aside for that puppy.

Also, just finished that demo of Amnesia, talk about atmospheric! I think I will be getting that one.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Sid Meier's Alpha Centuri, Sid Meier's Pirates and TF2 are all games I love. Check them out.

 

[Kyr Knightbane]

With those specs, you'll be able to play any game for years to come.
Just keep an eye on the steam sales and hope you'll be able to save enough money for food.

Wow, really? That kinda surprises me. Although, now that you mention it, my brother who has been helping me with all things computer did say it would be a decent gaming PC.

Absolutely.
Mine has lasted for over 5 years, and it wasn't even powerful to begin with. 2.6GHz Dual Core, 4 GB RAM and a GeForce 8800GT, making it a mid-range budget machine even when it was brand new, and it still plays most games on high settings without problems.

I see a lot of people always going on about how you have to upgrade them constantly, and that's why they prefer consoles. But I'm starting to realize this isn't true for the most part.

Agreed with both of you, I had an HP media center pc (god help me) and it had 1 gig of ram and windows xp, and I had recieved Risen as a birthday gift, popped it in the drive and saw that I couldn't run it. The onboard gpu wasn't capable, so a mate of mine threw an 8800gts at me (the higher end one) and said see if it runs now, and I was blown away with how it ran. About 6 months ago I upgraded to a quad core pc with 8 gigs of ram and I can set sliders to ultra on pretty much everything and I have no problems, most games stay right at 60-100 fps. Best part is, my upgrade only cost me 400 bucks. It's not a beast of a pc, but it suits my needs perfectly

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Sid Meier's Alpha Centuri, Sid Meier's Pirates and TF2 are all games I love. Check them out.

Only one I haven't got in some form is Alpha Centuri, though I have heard of it, know where I can get it?

Btw, your avatar cracks me up xD

With those specs, you'll be able to play any game for years to come.
Just keep an eye on the steam sales and hope you'll be able to save enough money for food.

Wow, really? That kinda surprises me. Although, now that you mention it, my brother who has been helping me with all things computer did say it would be a decent gaming PC.

Absolutely.
Mine has lasted for over 5 years, and it wasn't even powerful to begin with. 2.6GHz Dual Core, 4 GB RAM and a GeForce 8800GT, making it a mid-range budget machine even when it was brand new, and it still plays most games on high settings without problems.

I see a lot of people always going on about how you have to upgrade them constantly, and that's why they prefer consoles. But I'm starting to realize this isn't true for the most part.

Agreed with both of you, I had an HP media center pc (god help me) and it had 1 gig of ram and windows xp, and I had recieved Risen as a birthday gift, popped it in the drive and saw that I couldn't run it. The onboard gpu wasn't capable, so a mate of mine threw an 8800gts at me (the higher end one) and said see if it runs now, and I was blown away with how it ran. About 6 months ago I upgraded to a quad core pc with 8 gigs of ram and I can set sliders to ultra on pretty much everything and I have no problems, most games stay right at 60-100 fps. Best part is, my upgrade only cost me 400 bucks. It's not a beast of a pc, but it suits my needs perfectly

More or less sums up how I feel on my PC for now.