I just had to LOL on so many levels.

DJGOON

Fine, be bitter, i was was trying to help, thread over.

I dunno what you guys are doing but my comp runs everything.

DFI motherboard i paid extra for, maybe thats it?

I also don't run anything in the background, like antivirus crap etc... In fact the only significant thing i run at startup is Daemon Tools but thats a given.

Seriously though, i haven't lied, my specs run everything maxed with any game iv'e ever tried until i put the resolution to high and then it'll only start to slow down with games like Bioshock. Oh well, i dunno....Maybe you guys bought faulty parts :)

I say this because i see a lot of people rant on about how you need the latest everything blah blah

My computer which is a little over a year is,

CPU: AMD 3500+

GRAPHICS: 512MB 7600GS

MEMORY: 2GB

HDD: Seagate

Iv'e played all the latest games on max settings and found i had zero lag and ONLY when i pump up to the highest resolutions like 1600+ on everything maxed does my system start to slow down. Why does anyone want highest resolutions anyway? The game either looks exactly the same or the objects become so small it sucks.

This rig has played all the latest meanest games like Crysis, COD4, Bioshock etc etc no problems with every feature enabled.

So what i'm saying to people who maybe don't have much cash but want a nice computer.

Buy an AMD 3500, best cpu ever made :) , really fast chip. Buy a cheap Graphics card, the latest isn't required, not by a long shot. Buy the best, fastest and latest memory available and at a minimum get 2GB, i did and i think it's more then worth it and the best feature in my computer. Buy a Seagate hard drive, much better then other drives iv'e had in the past. Run defrag a lot and reinstall windows every 9 months or so to keep everything running like lightning. Note: You can reinstall windows without deleting your hard drive.

Overall, apart from memory and the hard drive, EVERYTHING else should be dirt cheap. Absolutely NO reason at all to buy the latest gear unless you are rich and are just buying it because you can. :)

Does any game come even close to knocking off Battlefield 2 in the online tactical shooter department?

Would be nice if someone, one day could better it though. :)

Age Of Empires, Age Of Kings, realistic and true to Medievil warfare. RTS though. =)

You didn't mention the Battlefield franchise which is a very uniqueand fun multiplayer experience.

I do agree with you though. Not much innovation going on.The public though, got what they wanted and that is nice graphics and as a result, gameplay has been sacrificed.Anyway, ithink we'll all just have to wait for Valve to lead the way. These guys know how to create a masterpiece. :)

Vampire the Masquerade - bloodlines

Plays like Half-life 2 because it uses the same engine. Has quite an epic story to it as well but very easy to get into.

I personally loved it. Its a good mix of FPS / RPG.