Games for somebody coming back into PC gaming?

Hey all

I have recently rekindled my liking of PC gaming and was wandering if you all had any reccomendations for games to pick up. Basically, I have only bough Red Alert 3, Call of Duty 4, Universe at War and thats about it in terms of games released in the last 2 to 3 years.

I loved Transport Tycoon, Theme Hospital, Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 and 2 but will try other games. Basically I am looking for games that you can play for 30 minutes or 5 hours and really enjoy the time with it (and not be aware of the time invested into it). I like all game genres really so am open to anything that sounds like something I would enjoy.

My current specs are:

Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160 1.8 gigahertz, 2 gig DDR(2) memory, nVidia Geforce 8600GT 256mb, Windows XP. I am planning an upgrade to a 9800GT so something that would show the power of that would be appriciatd, I will be running the games in 1440 by 900 also.

Cheers

Get The Orange Box.

Personally I would back up the recommendation to Crysis, it is an amazing game with great visuals, AI, physics..well everything really. I managed to lose an entire week in it.

However, for other genres, I would suggest either Empire: Total War for a long epic strategy (it is a bit daunting at first though), or Dawn of War 2 (a mix between RTS and RPG)

Simulation games, Tom Clancy's HAWX is alright (better on the 360 though), or you might consider waiting for the Sims 3 if you want.... (I've never really liked the sims, but maybe thats just me).

and if you're looking for an immense world where you can lose yourself, definitely get Oblivion. It is a truly fantastic games (with the right game balancing mods of course), and there hundreds of hours of extra content on the many modding sites for Elder Scrolls out there.

Depends what type of game genre you like.

Happy hunting.

Sam