Ordered a new PC. What to play first?

After a pretty long hiatus, I'm making a concerted attempt at getting back into PC gaming. I just ordered a new system, and it should be here in about a week. My old system (Athlon XP 2200+, 512 RAM, GeForce 5900FX) had gotten to the point that I couldn't really play most of the newer games, so I haven't bothered with anything that might have even a little bit of eye candy for almost a year. I picked up the following games, but am looking for a few others that would be good.

- Quake 4
- Oblivion (the main impetus behind the upgrade)
- Age of Empires III
- I may also pick up Heroes of Might & Magic V

What else should I take a look at? Any real gems that I may have missed over the past year or so?

P.S. New system specs (not mind-blowing, but definately better than before)
- Athlon 64 3500+
- 1 GB RAM
- Geforce 7600GT
- 160 GB HD

P.P.S. The only PC games I've played in the last 2 years were: Civ IV, Gal Civ II, HL2 (barely ran), Fate, Albatross 18, Guild Wars (my final attempt at getting into MMORPG's. Realized I just don't like them.), and Dungeon Siege II.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Counter Strike Source is pretty good. I'm not sure if you're into the Counter Strike Series, but it's a good game. If you don't mind going back to the old games, Fallout/Fallout2 is a good game that deserves your attention. You've already listed Quake4 and Oblivion and Age of Empires III, so I think that's the extent of my recommendations. Doom 3 if you like a scare (it's not that scary but still)

Oh, I almost forgot. F.E.A.R is an awesome game that will scare the shit out of you, or at least it did me.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I like how after I won a new video card at a LAN party, I was still playing Hearts of Iron 2 a month later.

It'll come to you.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

You should probably play F.E.A.R. That game didn't run for shit on my current system, which is about 4 years old or so. I mean it ran, but it wasn't really playable no matter how much I lowered the settings.

Half Life 2: Episode 1 is decent, but it's really not as much of a test of power as much as F.E.A.R. is. (Episode 1 actually runs well on my system, even though I can't tap into anti-aliasing or HDR.)

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Even though I'm a huge fan of Heroes of Might and Magic, the fifth installment is rather disappointing in my opinion. Out of the games you mentionned, I'd recommend trying out Oblivion first as it's pretty PC intensive.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'm seconding F.E.A.R, definetely. Also you'll probably want to check out Doom 3 even if it isn't the most amazing game, it's a good way to check out the eye candy on your video card.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I actually bought HOMM V, hoping it would run on my current system. It was serviceable if I cranked down all the details, but still ran like molasses. I enjoyed it, but probably not enough to re-pay full price for it (sold it once I realized it wouldn't run). I'll probably wait for a price drop and/or an expansion that adds a random map generator, as is the rumor.

Doesn't Quake 4 use the same engine as Doom 3? I tried Doom 3 on X-box, and was completely underwhelmed. The graphics were fine, but the game was just boring as hell. I've heard Q4 has a bit more focus on action, so I'll give it a shot.

Oh, and Oblivion will definately be the first one that gets fired up when the new system arrives. To be honest, the main reason I did the upgrade in the first place was simply to play Oblivion.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Gratch

I actually bought HOMM V, hoping it would run on my current system. It was serviceable if I cranked down all the details, but still ran like molasses. I enjoyed it, but probably not enough to re-pay full price for it (sold it once I realized it wouldn't run). I'll probably wait for a price drop and/or an expansion that adds a random map generator, as is the rumor.

Doesn't Quake 4 use the same engine as Doom 3? I tried Doom 3 on X-box, and was completely underwhelmed. The graphics were fine, but the game was just boring as hell. I've heard Q4 has a bit more focus on action, so I'll give it a shot.

Oh, and Oblivion will definately be the first one that gets fired up when the new system arrives. To be honest, the main reason I did the upgrade in the first place was simply to play Oblivion.

Yeah, Doom 3 wasn't that exciting because it focused a bit much on delivering the scare factor which grew dull after a few levels. Quake 4 is much more action intensive, some nice variety in stages too. Hovercraft battles, Tank battles, and the regular onfoot battles, it's a blast.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

F.E.A.R. is high in the ranks of awsome.
I also didn't like guild wars nor any mmorpg but city of villians is great. They have a free trial at fileplanet so maybe you might want to catch that.
I havn't played many pc games myself so thats all I can really recommend.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Shenlon

F.E.A.R. is high in the ranks of awsome.
I also didn't like guild wars nor any mmorpg but city of villians is great. They have a free trial at fileplanet so maybe you might want to catch that.
I havn't played many pc games myself so thats all I can really recommend.

I tried the FEAR demo on a friend's system, and didn't care for it much. Maybe it was just the demo levels, but it felt like a pretty 'been-there-done-that' shooter that looked pretty. Might try the full version though. I also did the free trial of CoH. No matter what the setting, I just don't like MMORPG's. At various times, I've tried EQ, Dark Age of Camelot, FF XI, City of Heroes, and Guild Wars. I guess I'm just not a social enough person to really enjoy them, as other players tend to annoy me no matter what I play.

A couple others that piqued my interest today:

- Titan Quest (I'm a sucker for anything hack-n-slash)
- Star Wars: Empire at War

Will probably wait for a price drop, though. I think the 3 I've got will do for quite a while.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

So, has anyone been able to get FEAR to run great. Wondering if I should buy it now or wait for a combo release that includes the upcoming expansion pack. Oh well, I want the DVD, so I might order it soon...

Only reason I have held off as long as I have is my computer is 4 years old and only has 512MB of RAM. Oh well, my new PC arrives soon, so, I might buy it and Quake 4 this weekend for my birthday.

BTW, How is Star Wars: Empire at War?

How ya doing, buddy?

May as well get Call of Duty 2 if you like hectic firefights.

Also, come september, be sure to pick up Company of Heroes. Fucking great game.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I forgot about CoD2! Guess that's another to look into buying...

How ya doing, buddy?

If you haven't checked out Battlefield 2 you need to get your game on. The expansion "special forces" rocks too. you can buy the the game with the expansion pretty cheap. I play this game a lot, and if you like first person shooters you need to get it.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by sabbey

How is Star Wars: Empire at War?

It's like Battle For Middlearth, but not as good. The space battles are quite good, and realistic. But it's the land battles that let it down. You can build units, but buildings have to be built in specific places, which kinda takes away the strategy element. And the whole land battle thing reminds me of Ground Control, which was awful.
Also, I've found that the AI of the enemy is good, and takes some beating.
If you enjoy a challenging RTS, and like Star Wars then give this a try.

FELIPE NO

Oh well, might play the demo. Still have a copy somewhere around here IIRC.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Domino

It's like Battle For Middlearth, but not as good. The space battles are quite good, and realistic. But it's the land battles that let it down. You can build units, but buildings have to be built in specific places, which kinda takes away the strategy element. And the whole land battle thing reminds me of Ground Control, which was awful.
Also, I've found that the AI of the enemy is good, and takes some beating.
If you enjoy a challenging RTS, and like Star Wars then give this a try.

Like BFME? It's nothing at all like BFME. The ground combat sort of sucks, but it has awesome space combat. Plus the full game has a lot more strategy on the universe map. It's like a game of Risk with planets, only it's actually realtime.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

You should go ahead and add F.E.A.R. to your list if you haven't already.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

You can could add Half-life 2 to the list, or even Unreal Tournament 2004. Both are good games that will put your system to the limit.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Spyer

You can could add Half-life 2 to the list, or even Unreal Tournament 2004. Both are good games that will put your system to the limit.

Are you fucking kidding me? a 7600GT with a gig of ram on a 64-bit system and those games are pushing it to the limit!!? Both of these games have been out since 04, and given his system specs, his comp will be able to play these games without breaking a sweat. I was running UT04 on an Athlon XP 2000+, a gig of ram, and a GeForce 6200, and I ran that completely maxed out no problem. Half-Life 2 on medium to high settings with a GeForce 2 MX 32MB (same system, different card). If you're thinking those are gonna run his system to the "limit," think more along the lines of Prey.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

i'm in the same situation i ordered about $600 worth of new parts
pentium D 930 3.0 ghz (65nm)
his radeon x1800gto 256mb iceq
2 gb ddr533
asrock esata2 socket 775 mobo

i could run the cpu at 3.6 on stock cooling and unlock the vid card to 16 pixel pipelines but it's brand new so i think i'll experiment in a couple years maybe. i've had much enjoyment playing f.e.a.r, ghost recon: aw, splinter cell: chaos theory, psychonauts on ridiculously high settings, same with hl2 (1600x1200, i never dreamt it possible). i might reinstall oblivion just to see it not on 760x576 (or whatever heinous res i used to run), but meh... i'll probably get cod2 again and ut2k4.

enjoy your beast

I was speaking idiomatically.

Ugh. Well, the beast has died.

My motherboard crapped out after only 3 weeks. I called GigaByte to see what they could do, and was told that 'not POST-ing is a known issue with this board'. Are you fucking kidding me? I'd say that not booting is a pretty major problem. How do you still sell the board if not booting is considered a 'known issue'? On top of that, they wanted me to send the board back and they would try to repair it, which takes 4-6 weeks. If they couldn't repair it, they would send the broken board back to me to send back to the reseller. Fat fuckin' chance of that. I just called the resellers I bought the system from and they're going to swap it instead. I'm going to upgrade to an Asus board, as I've never had a problem with them. Only bummer is that I have to send the whole thing back to them, so I'll be gaming computer-less for at least 2 weeks.

Lesson learned: Don't ever (a) skimp on the motherboard to get better parts elsewhere (I skimped in order to get a better video card, and (b) don't ever buy a GigaByte motherboard.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Gratch

Ugh. Well, the beast has died.

My motherboard crapped out after only 3 weeks. I called GigaByte to see what they could do, and was told that 'not POST-ing is a known issue with this board'. Are you fucking kidding me? I'd say that not booting is a pretty major problem. How do you still sell the board if not booting is considered a 'known issue'? On top of that, they wanted me to send the board back and they would try to repair it, which takes 4-6 weeks. If they couldn't repair it, they would send the broken board back to me to send back to the reseller. Fat fuckin' chance of that. I just called the resellers I bought the system from and they're going to swap it instead. I'm going to upgrade to an Asus board, as I've never had a problem with them. Only bummer is that I have to send the whole thing back to them, so I'll be gaming computer-less for at least 2 weeks.

Lesson learned: Don't ever (a) skimp on the motherboard to get better parts elsewhere (I skimped in order to get a better video card, and (b) don't ever buy a GigaByte motherboard.

That sucks, well in the meantime if you have a 1GHz PC, I suggest picking up Homeworld, it's an awesome game that still looks great. The only downside is it takes awhile to learn to play properly.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by BIGWORM

Are you fucking kidding me? a 7600GT with a gig of ram on a 64-bit system and those games are pushing it to the limit!!? Both of these games have been out since 04, and given his system specs, his comp will be able to play these games without breaking a sweat. I was running UT04 on an Athlon XP 2000+, a gig of ram, and a GeForce 6200, and I ran that completely maxed out no problem. Half-Life 2 on medium to high settings with a GeForce 2 MX 32MB (same system, different card). If you're thinking those are gonna run his system to the "limit," think more along the lines of Prey.

Haha, well, I was just looking at what I have (2.8 ghz intel, 1 gig of ram, geforce 6600 GT OC) and yet both those games don't run at the fastest settings. =\

It's probably just my video card though. Yah, just go with just about any new game, like Prey or Age of Empires III or maybe even Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Sorry for the interuption into your stimulating conversation about motherboards to fall back to the original intention for this thread.

First to hop on the bandwagon and say GET HALF-LIFE 2 AND COUNTER-STRIKE: SOURCE. I also know somebody already said this but if you are a avid FPS fan, get Battlefield 2. It sucks with just casual play, but if you stick to it and get the upgraded weapons its amazing. Also its a blast to be able to properly fly helicopters or other aircraft and completely decimate the battlefield.

For something completely different, I would recommend Warhammer 4000: Dawn of War and it's expansion. I found this game to be quite entertaining, and it's absolutely hilarious when the big robots for the Eldar start kicking infantry around the place.

I envy you people. Im still running a piece of shit that can't run UT2K4 without a shitload of lag.

Jam it back in, in the dark.