Good luck in Iraq, stay safe!
Strategy Games
Civilization 4 (It's not a huge resource hog, but if your concerned, simply get Civ 3 instead. Both are world class games with a LOT of replay ability).
Total War: Rome It got a couple of years not so it shouldn't be to rough on most machines. I'd stay clear of the later total War: Medieval 2 due to high requirements. Like Civ, it's the type of game you can spend a lot of time playing. If you grab a handful of mods a lot of time becomes a HUGE amount of time.
Hearts of Iron 2 or Europa Universalis 3: Hardcore strategy, tons of numbers and small icons so it depends on if you like that style of game. If you do it has a lot of depth. You could burn several years on one of these if you really get into them.
Warcraft 3 + Expansion and Starcraft + Expansion: Not as long lasting as the game above but a lot of fun. Good polished gameplay with an interesting story. Easier to 'pick up and play' than the titles above. In addition, if you do have an internet connection, both are still very popular multiplayer games.
Heroes of Might and Magic 4 (+expansions) or 5: Some people are not fond of the 5th game in the series so I mention 4 as an alternative. Fun and simple strategy game that's easy to pick up while still offer a lot of gameplay. Several campaigns and a number of scenarios should keep you playing for quite a while.
Shooters
Most shooters are pretty short unless you have a decent internet connection. With that in mind:
Single player: Far Cry 1: Decent length for a shooter and the relative open-endedness of the world allow for some replay value. It's an older game that looks good for it's age and as such should run pretty well on most machines.
The Orange Box - Half Life 2 + episode 1 and 2. Especially with the extra episodes there's a lot of hours of FPS goodness here. Also the engine is old enough that you should be able to run it on a low to mid range machine. If you get 'The Orange Box, you'll get the full series in addition to the brilliant Team Fortress 2 online shooter and the short but awesome portal 'mini-game'.
Role Playing Games
Baldurs Gate II + expansions - Old enough that it should run on an electrocuted cardboard box and still one of the all time greatest RPG's out there. There's a lot of hours worth of RPG in BG2 and its a safe bet requirements wise. If you like RPG's i'd say this one fits your criteria perfectly.
Diablo 2 + expansion - A Great time sink with or without internet and old enough that your safe performance wise. I believe there's a 'diablo battlechest' pack on the shelves these days that'll get you the game + expanions for $20 or so.
Titans Quest + Expansion: Probably the best diablo clone out there. It's newer than D2 and thus dosent look as old. Both games are great so its a matter of preference.
Multi-player
If you do have regular internet access the following are worth considering
MMO's
WoW - the 200 pond gorilla of the genre. for $15 a month there's enough gameplay and content to keep you at it until you're back home.
Ever Quest 2 a Solid MMO, not as popular as WoW but arguably a little more complex and if nothing else it's an alternative.
Shooter
Counter Strike: Because 10 million teenagers cant be wrong! (Ok I know thats not entirely fair). It's FPS's shooters boiled down to the basics. Your team against Their team. Lot of fun and the simple but proven formula still offers some of the the best multiplayer FPS action out there.
Team Fortress 2 - A great multiplayer team based shooter. It focuses a lot more on teamwork and coordinating with your co-players as opposed to focusing on your reflexes and accuracy.
That's what I'd recommend off-hand. If you have any questions let me/ us know. Also if you have a preferred genre, let us know, that makes it a lot easier to suggest something that'll fit your taste.
Again, best of luck over there and come home safe.
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