Alright-

i am not a computer whiz ... i like to play with em .. but i am easily frustrated with problems , etc ...

I always wanted to play Half-Life 2 (got it for xmas like 2 christmas's agooooo - and i never could get it to work !!! ugh)

Now i saw they have other games like it out ... so now i am thinking of buying a computer JUST SO ... i can play the damn thing !!!

any recommendations on computer ? i also need to use it for work some too ... but i am always confused by what you need ... like graphics card and what else to look for ???

ColAngus said:

As a guy who loves and plays Half-Life 2, and its episodic sequels, plus many other valve based games, depending on your budget, I recommend...

An Intel Core 2 Quad processor, whatever is for sale on this line right now would be fine

A Minimum 2 GB DDR3 RAM. However, Vista is a memory hog, so maybe make it 4. I have 2 GB and everything works fine.

Most IMPORTANT TWO THINGS:
A GOOD QUALITY POWER SUPPLY, supplying 500W or greater power. This is vital to your computer and your graphics card, both very important components.

For your graphics card, there is a sweet spot price-line, between outrageously expensive and too cheap. For between 300-400 dollars, your graphics card will be near top of the line, only slightly underperforming an 800 dollar graphics card, but vastly outperforming a 200 dollar graphics card.

I recomment an Nvidia 8800 series graphic card. I currently have a superclocked Nvidia e-GeForce 8800 GTS graphic card which is DX10 ready, and has 320 MB DDR3 RAM. I opted for this as opposed to a 640 MB version, as its superclocked capabilities tested it higher in performance comparisons.

You should be able to build this computer with the graphics card for around 1200 dollars. Mine, including taxes, some new high end computer speakers, a 22inch monitor, a wireless network card and the graphics card ended up costing me around 1800 dollars, but that was 8 months ago. Everything performs great at top end, even for the current graphics heavy released games.

The last couple of things to note, in order to extend your computer's life, make sure you have a good fan, room in the tower for air to pass through, and if possible, memory with heat spreaders. this will keep your computer running nice and cool.

Everything I have mentioned here can be found at your local Best Buy or Frys, so you don't have to worry about building something like this yourself. the only things you would have to do is install your own graphics card and maybe swap out the power supply if the computer's isn't big enough.

Happy gaming!

thanks u so much for the info ... thats EXACTLY what i wanted to know ... great well thought out answer !

this gets kinda funnier - but i actually was given this - 2 computers ago ....

i bought a laptop - and after it wouldnt work - someone said "oh you need a much better graphics capability" or somethin ....

then i had a computer "designed" locally - i said what i wanted it for (business and halflife2 lol) - and after tryin to get it to run - it never did .... (i shoulda taken half life 2 to them and had them install it and made sure it ran right - cus now it could always be some imperfection in the cd or something ...)

so now ... what about 3 yrs after half life 2 came out - i may just get it working (if i do what u say to do ! )

any other good games u recommend (knowing i like half life ) ... by the way ... i am not really experienced with the game stuff - i tried tom clancy rainbow 6 and i never really got into that ... neat graphics .... but ... i like the half life (1st one) - story , etc .... not too tough to figure out ... but at the same time u had to "think" some ...

thanks again !

ColAngus said:

I would recommend you buy "the orange box"

It's an amazing package for an amazing price. For 50 dollars you get two episodic sequels to Half-Life 2, each came out about a year apart, so the graphics and physics engines get bumped up each time. You also get an AMAZING, though short game, called portal, which is a remarkable, witty, ingenious, jaw-dropping experience with a special gun that allows you to create portals for you to travel across maps. Lastly, you get a game called Team Fortress 2, which I can't stop playing. It's a class-based multiplayer game with cool games like capture the flag built into it. This is the buy of the year, the orange box.

I would also recommend a game called BioShock. BioShock is an intense gaming experience - in fact - I might say it could be too much. The story in this game is so immersive, the music and environments so beautiful, that I exaggerate in no way when I say you feel extreme attachment and emotion when playing this game. It's heartbreaking, eerie, and very literate, with a storyline drawing comparisons to the philosophy of Ayn Rand and also showing some harshly dystopian images.

A word to the wise though - Bioshock is a PC killer. That is, you make darn sure the components in your computer can handle it, and that your computer is running cool, as many have had their processors overheat playing this game. If you can, it's very much worth it.

I will go off on a complete tangent and suggest an entirely different kind of PC game that I think you would also maybe enjoy. There are 2 "seasons" out now of a game called Sam & Max. These are very hilarious games, with lots of great puzzles and no significant threats. You can walk around the environments and try to solve the problems, while enjoying some great jokes and dialogue, and you do feel a sense of accomplishment when you figure things out. These are a lot of fun, and the episodic concept is very original. There are 6 games in each season, and the storylines in the games are all connected, so by the time you finish the final episode, everything has come together. They are just plain entertaining, and unlike the other games I mentioned, don't require a lot of PC power.

Some people would name other games that recently came out - Call of Duty 4, Crysis - beauties on the graphical front, to be sure, but I think Bioshock and the Orange Box have more to offer.