other gamers here?

[sgreger1]

I have still yet to play Brotherhood. Was it any good?

Better than the first one. A bit less repetative, but still repetative to an extent. Better graphics. Same basic controls. Nothing really new or novel but a nice upgrade over the first one with a few new features.

[Veganpunk]

Assassins Creed Revelations is coming out in a few months. Should be interesting.

I have still yet to play Brotherhood. Was it any good?

[sgreger1]

All very true! If you don't want to upgrade or build your own, all you have to do is find something a little higher than the recommended requirements for the games you like... based on what you've said, you should be able to find something well under a $1000... My previous brand suggestion was only basically if you wanted to play newer or more rigorous stuff (don't forget Skyrim comes out soon!!!!) and have plenty of upgrade room...

Yah I wonder what it will take to play Skyrim with decent graphics! lol. Looks to be amazing. I will probably just get it on Xbox since I liked Oblivion on xbox. Will there be any real advantage to getting th PC version other than the fact that you can use the mouse?

Gonna be sweet:

[Thraxy]

Assassins Creed 2 is waaaaay better than one though.

Assassins Creed Revelations is coming out in a few months. Should be interesting.

[Thraxy]

Definitely. So far the biggest effect i've personally had with DRM was with Spore. I didn't do much research, just saw a trailer and went out and bought. I later found out that it's limited to five installations. Talk about some bullsh*t. If i remember correctly, after all the flak EA received they loosened it up a it, but i believe you still have to contact them if you want to install it that sixth time. So far i'm on my third and it wont let me sign in online so i get no creatures or worlds or vehicles that other players have created.

5 times? That would last like a year with me. I do frequent reinstalls cause I like my computer clean... plus I tend to break stuff a lot... lol

[Veganpunk]

Assassins Creed 2 is waaaaay better than one though.

[deadohsky]

I was thinking about getting Assassins Creed II, but the DRM servers put me off. I don't want to buy something that is crippled by design. Anyone else feel that way?

Definitely. So far the biggest effect i've personally had with DRM was with Spore. I didn't do much research, just saw a trailer and went out and bought. I later found out that it's limited to five installations. Talk about some bullsh*t. If i remember correctly, after all the flak EA received they loosened it up a it, but i believe you still have to contact them if you want to install it that sixth time. So far i'm on my third and it wont let me sign in online so i get no creatures or worlds or vehicles that other players have created.

[Thraxy]

I was thinking about getting Assassins Creed II, but the DRM servers put me off. I don't want to buy something that is crippled by design. Anyone else feel that way?

[threecommas]

All very true! If you don't want to upgrade or build your own, all you have to do is find something a little higher than the recommended requirements for the games you like... based on what you've said, you should be able to find something well under a $1000... My previous brand suggestion was only basically if you wanted to play newer or more rigorous stuff (don't forget Skyrim comes out soon!!!!) and have plenty of upgrade room...

[deadohsky]

Thanks guys! I remember a long time ago alienware PC's were all the buzz, are they still cool or are they just expensive bodykits and not much else?

I don't do anything hardcore, but like for example if I wanted to play fallout 3 at full screen without it having a slow framerate, how much money would I have to spend? I hate PC's and they usually only last for a year before they get super slow, even with all the maintenance and everything (anti-virus etc), so i'm hesitant to spend too much, but I think for $1000 I should be able to get something...

From what i recall, Alienware does make good gaming PCs, they are just way overpriced IMO. You can buy or build a very decent gaming PC for a lot less.

I bought my current PC, a lower end HP, for around 500-600 dollars a few years ago. It came with an AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 4200 2.2 GHZ processor, with built in graphics, and one GB of RAM. All i've done so far is add a cheap GPU (Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT 1GB, i got it for free but if i remember right they can be had for 90 dollars and under) and added 4GBs of RAM which cost 55 dollars. With those small upgrades i can play a lot of 'recent' games with the settings maxed out with no problems. Fallout 3 and New Vegas play great on it. Starcraft 2, Rainbow Six Vegas 1 and 2 all run great as well. Not sure what my framerate is, but i notice no skipping, lagging, or any sluggishness at all.

So far i've spent under 800 dollars including the original PC itself. If i built it on my own it could have been even cheaper.

[sirloot]

Honestly today you could have a decient gaming rig anywhere from 300-600 I'm looking at building a new system around the AMD Llanos chips as they are plenty powerful and have the gpu (graphics)built into the cpu. While it won't outshine a 200+ $ gfx card I think it will give most bang per buck (with a decient/quality amount of ram 4-8+ gigs). and the option to add addtional gfx if needed. the processor runs about 100-130$ the boards run from 70-130$ and the ram will run ya 30-50$ so a relative cheap build

[sgreger1]

Thanks guys! I remember a long time ago alienware PC's were all the buzz, are they still cool or are they just expensive bodykits and not much else?

I don't do anything hardcore, but like for example if I wanted to play fallout 3 at full screen without it having a slow framerate, how much money would I have to spend? I hate PC's and they usually only last for a year before they get super slow, even with all the maintenance and everything (anti-virus etc), so i'm hesitant to spend too much, but I think for $1000 I should be able to get something.

Mac is so gay, they charge you $2400 and don't even have a good graphics card. Well, it's relaly good for stuff like photo/video editing, but not good at all for gaming. I guess it's just set up for a different purpose. The screen resolution is siiiiiiiick though, and they look shiney of course.

[threecommas]

Most "gaming" pc's can run 1000 - 4000 to, well, whatever you want to spend. It's all about sacrifice and what you like to play. My bet for you would be to look into Velocity Micro as a best bang for your buck. They don't look pretty, but who cares. Well rated, fast... Hope that gets you started!

[Thraxy]

Computers are ridiculously cheap in the States. Just look on newegg.com, they have loads of PCs under $1000 that are perfectly fine for gaming. I almost had to chew my arm off to get a decent computer for my budget here in Denmark... lol

[sgreger1]

So I was looking to buy a desktop computer finally and was hoping to use it for gaming. Wife is into Mac so went to look at iMacs, and it turns out that to even be able to run games at full screen resolution on medium graphics settings I was going to have to pay about $2400. Since that is clearly not going to happen, was wondering how much a good gaming PC costs nowadays. Could someone spend $1k and get a rig that could at least play games on it? I don't need the best graphics or anything, but just something that will play without a low frame rate.

Any suggestions on what kind of computer/brand would be the best to get for gmaing? It's beena while since I bought a PC.