[QUOTE="DanielDust"][QUOTE="SKaREO"]You know it's a good game when it's been running for 18 years strong and they still do massive updates.CaptainAhab13

I'm pretty sure SKaREO was talking about one of the original Quakes, though by saying "massive updates," it makes it seem as if he's talking about just Qlive.

Anyway, concerning the updates, I only have two words in response: HELL YEAH! Too bad you have to pay for it though lol... I'm not a premium subscriber.

Edit: NVM. Just logged in and apparently some of those features are available for free. Cool stuff.

I'm not a hardcore COD fan, but I've played my share, including COD1, 2, 4, WAW, BO, MW1, 2, and now 3.

Firstly, I want to mention that I don't go easy on graphics. I'm both a videophile and an audiophile. I play 1080p maxed out during single player or I don't play at all. Multiplayer is a different story though.. Anyway..

I thought MW3 looked pretty good maxed out. The textures were very sharp, the shaders looked good and the geometry wasn't bad. The mission in France where you wear the mask was particularly impressive because it felt allot like Crysis. The lighting seems to have improved. The battles are allot larger in scale and the increase of NPCs made it feel more.. war-like. Overall, there was allot more of.. everything. It was allot messier and grittier, which I liked. Sure, it didn't tax my PC like Crysis would, but that doesn't mean it looked bad. As far as SFX.. Well I can't really recall if there's an improvement or not, but it sounds pretty good on my Xonar Essence STX sound card emulating 5.1 surround..

Some have complained that you can run through the whole game without shooting a single enemy because your teammates will do it. That's a GOOD sign IMO. It means your teammates aren't useless bots that just get in the way of things and follow you around. It also means that enemies don't prioritize YOU over your teammates like in previous COD games. At least this time your team has a clue. Still, if you play on a harder difficulty, your survival isn't gauranteed.

The car scenes were clearly the best I've ever played. Absolutely insane.

Having said those things, I still get bored quickly during the campaign. I usually play a 1-hour session and call it quits for a bit, then go back and repeat. I'm sad to see that I'm over 60% done with the campaign though. As much as I want to hate IW for crapping out COD games so much with so little improvement to actual gameplay mechanics, I'm enjoying this campaign a bit.

#1 game would be Quake 3.

I clocked in thousands of hours over the course of a couple years, switching from mod to mod; threewave, noghost, Insta, f4a, defrag, ra3.. It's an incredible game because its so clean and "pure" compared to others IMO. The weapons have their benefits and drawbacks depending on your range. It's not like COD where you just switch between 2 weapons at the most, or probably just stick to one.. I consider it as much of a stratagy game as it is an FPS because spammers usually don't win. Even good aim isn't enough to win and winners don't get an advantage (like killstreak awards). Not to mention, the tight-knit community was great. Sure, there were **** but at least your remembered their name haha. People actually had an identity.

#2 game is Final Fantasy 7

As far as campaigns go, FF7 was the best. It's the type of game that you get what you put into it. Personally, I didn't blaze through it, I just took it slow and focused on leveling up. By the time I started really progressing, I could wipe out just about any opponent in one slash haha. Very satisfying. It seems like there's ALWAYS something better to unlock. The enemies may seem easy at first, until you encounter what I call the "Super Bosses" that may take like a half hour to beat at least.. It's insane how much content was packed into that game, though it was like 5 disks from what I remember.

#3 game is Half Life 2

Do I really need to explain this one? Everyone is familiar with it. I liked it because it didn't have annoying cliches or corny dialogue like Rage. It was linear, which I like as opposed to a game where you run around in circles. It had good puzzles and such. The balance between zombie apocolypse and alien-invasion-aftermath-distopia-with-wierd-creatures-too just made it an interesting game and it had a cinematic quality about it.

Depending on how good the video card is, you may have to go back to.. pre-2005 games at least. Maybe even pre-2003. That's if you want a clean 60fps.

Quake 3, Jedi Knight 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games, Half Life 2.. COD2 and COD4.. Unreal Tournament games.. Halo.. GTA3/SA, Mafia..

Just about any game either based on the Quake 3 engine or the Source engine should run fine without looking too bad. I'd just look at Gamespot's top games of all time and limit it to some the older ones.

Don't get me wrong, you can probably try out Doom 3 or Quake 4, but I'd rather max out an older game than play a somewhat recent game on medium or low settings.

Also make sure that those components are connected to the power supply. You can't really go wrong most of the time if you look at the design of each connector. Also, be aware that sometimes you'll only use PART of a connector to connect the device to the power supply.. while the other part is hanging off the side.. The best analogy I can make is if you look at the electric plug in the wall. It has 3 holes, but most of your electronics only use 2. That's kinda how the power supply is.

FF7. Mainly because during that stage of my childhood, I don't really remember anything EXCEPT FF7. No joke, I was emmersed in it. To this day, I havn't played a game that matched that experience. If I play it again, I'll probably start crying tears of nostalgia just listening to the different theme songs.

You know the drill. Download Crysis demo (or if you have the game..), max it out and run the benchmark. Now you can either cheer in triumpth if you don't witness a slideshow, or you can sob in dissapointment, realizing that your PC isn't that great.

Aside from that, my favorite things to do are.. Run Quake 3 and see how many thousands of FPS I can get.. Try editing/encoding HD videos.. Overclock and run stress tests.. If you have over 4gb RAM, get a virtual RAM drive program and use the remaining memory as a RAM drive- it's fun installing an older game onto that drive and loading it up in a seconds.. Try out all my old games and see how they run, especially the steam ones... Definitely give GTA4 a try.. etc. Metro's a b*tch on the hardware too.

I answered 2, though my cursor was fluctuating between 1 and 2. I wouldn't buy the steam box (console I assume?) only for HL3, but if Valve gave news of a new generation of games developed under the platform, I'd definately consider it. I would still find it retarded if they created their own console when the PC IS basically a Steam Box. Piracy? Not a big issue with Steam. Even though I can easily access many steam games for free, I prefer to buy them because 1.) It's messy as hell trying to run a cracked steam game, and 2.) Valve/steam is worth the money. I love being able to easily install on any PC and have my library so neatly organized and accessible, not to mention the prices are insanely good. I'm always so tempted buy the bundles, even if I already own one of the games included.

Counterstrike. I came to CS from Quake 3 thinking I was the **** but I quit after less than an hour.. Didn't dig the no-respawn style and getting raped by snipers around every corner. It didn't seem like a balanced game IMO.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is good. Though I'm still getting the hang of it, it's quite addictive. It feels more large-scale as opposed to the COD series. You can fly copters and drive vehicals and tanks as well. Getting a kills isn't easy at all IMO, but when you do, it's very rewarding. A single match can easily last over 40 mins.

You may want to kick it up a knotch to BF3 since it likely uses the same system. The bottom line is that the Battlefield series will keep you VERY busy in the multiplayer department.

As far as single player, I recommend GRAW2 on the hardest difficulty. Moving your squad around and trying to find the right tactics is extremely satisfying, though the bots won't be very intelligent at times.. It's not like COD where you can run out in no-mans-land and live to tell the tale. You've gotta think this one out and it'll take a you a cool minute to finish the campaign.