Get CoD4, I promise you won't be disappointed! The story line is great, one of most interesting shooters I've played in a while. The multiplayer is just as good aswell. Great game all around.solid_mario

First off, you don't actually have a dual core cpu. That's just how Pentium 4s are shown when you look up system information. Secondly, that GPU you have is almost completely worthless for gaming, you will definetly want to upgrade that to at least an 8600gt or another budget-performance card. That ram probably isn't DDR2 either so it will need to be replaced. In short, I think you'll need a completely new build. However, you may be able to reuse the case, hard drive, psu, cd/dvd drives, mouse, keyboard, and monitor. To find info on more parts go to Start>Run and type "dxdiag", that way you can find out which mobo you have and what, if any sound card you have. The mobo may very well be propietary so it will give you another reason to replace it. Google and install Sisoft Sandra for more info on your existing rig if you need it.

Give us a budget and maybe we can help you out, but it will likely have to be atleast $500 or more for those games.

As for the actual building, there are many resources for that. GS Tech itself has info on how to install ram and gpus with videos. However, you can find better info here: http://www.buildyourowncomputer.net/learntobuild.html

Regardless, use the manual that comes with the mobo anyways for best results. Another tip: DO NOT rush it.

Once you have the thing built I reccomend you go through the Tweakguides Tweaking Companion here:

http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html

http://aelius28.googlepages.com/

His reccomendations are spot on

-For Oblivion, override any setting with the control panel and set it tonone in game.

Crysis doesn't need aa, but its foliage is a bit jaggy. Use the edgeaa=1 or 2 in your system.cfg. As for the Crysis tweaking refer to this:

http://www.tweakguides.com/Crysis_13.html

Essentially, with XP, to accomplish very high settings you need to got to:

\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis\
Then you right click open space and create a new text document. Rename it to system.cfg and copy and paste this into it.

r_UsePOM=1

r_sunshafts=1

e_water_ocean_fft=1

q_Renderer=3

r_colorgrading=1

Test s have shown the game running %20 faster without any discernable impact on XP. Make sure you set the gfx settings to high first. As you could imagine, this will hurt frames, but will look noticeably better. Others I use besides edgeaa=2 are (in same file)

i_mouse_accel=0 (turns off mouse acceleration)
r_MotionBlur=0 (turns off motion blur, i find it distracting and this helps performance)
r_TexturesStreaming=0 (preloads textures, reducing pop up and stuttering for me, but ram usage will go up)

[QUOTE="Phabiuo3"]

I can attest to this review. I got my copy yesterday, and from the demo, the score does not surprise me. After playing Crysis, it is hard to go back to other shooters (hell other games). It just looks, feels, and plays so much better than anything else out there. 2007 is arguably the best year worth of shooters we've ever seen (I know 2004/1998 were also very good), and Crysis stands head and shoulders above all of them. This game most certainly meets the hype. A few other notes:

-You cannot pick up bodies because of silly German censorship

-PCGamer also came with an exclusive mp map called Arctica for Crysis

The voice acting seems very good so I'm not sure which way I'd go on the HL argument. The EP2 ending will be very hard to beat I'm sure. I could go on and on about this game, the variations in difficulty, destructible vegetation, super strength, etc. but you owe it to yourself to play. I'll be picking up the collectors edition the morning it comes out.

lithuania_pride

Yes. See my update above. On the topic of this, I think the game is heavily optimized. I know alot of whiners are ready to flame me, but this game runs quite smooth with all settings on high. They also did a good job keeping the framerate stable. The fps rarely fluctuates. Very high is a different story, which is probably best left to the next generation of gpus, but I'm sure some crazy rigs will be able to pull playable frames at those insane settings. The game doesn't really require AA and pushes the envelope so far. Some people base optimization solely on performance with complete disregard to the complexity of the engine. This game pulls out almost all the stops, and I'm so happy they pulled it off. If you diagnose the problems you have and optimize your system properly, you should have a great time. I know I am, and I'm on my fifth way through this demo. I cannot reccomend the Tweakguides Tweaking Companion enough.