Deus Ex is undoubtedly the BEST game I have ever played. I have never ever played such an enthralling game and can barely fault it in any way, to this day (although obviously it is completely out-dated with regards to graphics). It is immersive and thoroughly story-driven, and fairly non-linear - there are at least 3 different ways in which to complete every main objective and there are always plenty of secondary goals to keep you occupied and exploring the very interactive world. This game is guaranteed to thoroughly engulf you all the way through. You must try this game.

Half Life (the entire series) should not be a series that you miss out on. As someone has already said, the storyline is fairly subtle but the game will keep your brain in gear and if you look out for clues towards the storyline (I still wanna know who the G-Man really is, dammit!) you will want to continue playing until you complete every single game in the series. Despite Half Life 1's shocking graphics compared to today's standards, it is still phenomenally playable and brilliant fun. Gotta love the crowbar.

Star Wars KotOR 1 & 2 are fantastic games story-wise, although imo the gameplay is a little lacking as it is fairly stop-start.

Bioshock is also a great game with a good story, but not the best. It's creepy as hell, fairly disturbing and a lot of fun to play in the dark.

F.E.A.R. is one of the creepiest games I've played and if you can stomach the eeriness you will be come utterly engrossed in it from start to finish.

Portal is a great little game too and very entertaining. Anyone for cake?

For everyone whose game crashes after every 3 (or thereabouts) saves, here is the fix:

http://alfred.co.in/how-to/witcher-vista-crash-fix-how-to/

 Yes it says it's for "The Witcher", but this fix also applies to Crysis Warhead on Windows 32-bit OS's. I'm not sure if it will work if you are having the crashing problem on XP or 64-bit OS's but I believe the crashes are on VIsta 32-bit only. This fix worked for me when I was using Vista 32-bit. Also, it says at the end of that article "I recommend that you set the value back to 2048MB after you are done playing the game." but I did not bother with that and everything was fine - my guess is that it is only a step to make absolutely sure that your computer does not crash when not playing the game.

~Nick

Windows Vista Ultimate x64

Coolermaster Stacker 831

Hi-Power 700W PSU [Cheapo :D]

E8200 @ 4.0GHz [500x8.0] @ 1.41V [With Arctic Cooling Freezer 7]

Asus P5Q-E P45

4GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 @ 1000MHz 5-5-5-15

XFX GTX 260 XXX @ 705/1501/1216

500GB WD Caviar SE & 500GB Seagate Barracuda

Sony DVD-RW

All that cost about £700 [plenty of ebaying done there, brand new stuff of course :D].

Using a Dell 19" Flatpanel [1280x1024] at the moment, soon to upgrade to 22" hopefully.

3D Mark Vantage scores: GPU gets about 7100 [dunno why that's so low; my old 8800GT SLI got around 14000 if I remember correctly] and CPU gets about 35000. No overall Vantage score though cus I *aquired* my copy.

Runs Crysis on Very High at 1280x1024 with 4xAA at about 30FPS I think. With no AA it's about 50+ FPS as far as I remember.

Sorry for the double post, but this is for the Resolution dudes up there ^

The resolution that makes games look good depends entirely on the size of your monitor and therefore its native resolution.

I have a 19" Dell E196FP and its native resolution is 1280x1024. Not sure quite how specific "native resolution" is, so just to clarify, it is my monitor's maximum resolution. Therefore, when i play Crysis at 1280x1024 maxed out it looks beautiful (although that is my opinion - others may differ).

1280x1024 is not necessarily a high resolution. However, it is also not necessarily a low one.

On my 19" monitor, it is high. However, on a 24" monitor with a 1900x1200 native resolution, 1280x1024 (or the widescreen equivalent) would be low and very edgey. I find that on my monitor if i lower the res to 1152x864 there is a slight improvement in framerates and not much difference in the edges that show. However, at 1024x768 objects in games have very jagged edges and the don't look half as good as when at 1280x1024. Having said that, i play all my games (bar Crysis) with at least 4x AA so the edgeyness is not noticeable.

And can we please stop the mindless abuse please, people. Just because someone said something that is incorrect or that you don't agree with, there is no need hurl abuse at them or be rude. Simply either correct them or share your view.

Also, I believe that most rpg(eg nwn2, mass effect) players are willing to tolerate a number of performance and gameplay issues as long as the storyline is involving.johnnybonanza

I agree, as I suppose that's what RPG games are fundamentally about - the storyline. An RPG with a poor storyline simply isn't a game, it's a slow and boring finger-prodding exercise. The graphics come second.

In the FPS genre the graphics seem to be noticed far more as people look at physics and effects as they blow up things (and people). Also, the FPS genre is designed to be a simulation of the character's "life", first hand, so you would want the world around him/her to look real in order to provide a more accurate simulation and feel more as though you are the character in a real life situation.

Sorry I went a little off-topic there :P

Battlefield 3

GTA IV

Half Life 2: Episode 3

Deus Ex 3

FIFA 09 (If it has next-gen graphics and the xbox360-standard gameplay)

Call of Duty 5: World At War

Crysis: Warhead

Far Cry 2

Where I'm going to get the money for all of those, I have no idea. :P

Just a little rant at EA (Electronic Arse): If FIFA 09 is the same as all the other shi**y FIFA PC games, then i will CERTAINLY not be buying it.

I might just download pirate copies of it and email it to them to piss them off.

IF, however, it has next-gen (now current-gen, but next-gen in EA's terms) and the gameply is as good as it is on the xbox 360 instead of the utter crap unrealism that us PC gamers get, then i shall CERTAINLY be buying it.

Also, it's good to see lots of people awaiting Deus Ex 3! Deus Ex is my favourite game of all time, even better than Half Life/Half Life 2 in my opinion. It seems, however, that the Half Life series has over-shadowed the Deus Ex series, so it's good to see people who are in to Deus Ex! :D