I want to get Half Life 2 as I thoroughly enjoyed the first outing. This would require me to purchase a new graphics card for the PC as I don't think my Nvidia GeForce2 MX/MX400 would do the game justice.

I've had a scout about and a half decent card would cost about

Is the X Box any good? Or should I invest in a graphics card?.

Yes & Yes.

HTH

The XBox is good, however, your PC will get a better resolution, so personally I'd be inclined to go for the graphics card route.

If you want me to make it easier for you though...to buy a top-dog graphics card, you'll need to spend about

The X-box is good , but a decent PC will wee all over it for game performance.

I just completed HL2 tonight and it's a stunning game. No amount of compliments will do it justice.

What spec is the rest of your PC , as you may need more than a graphics card

erm, thanks for that. :confused:

What spec is the rest of your PC , as you may need more than a graphics card

It's got a Pentium 4, 2.0 Ghz processor and 1G of RAM. It's got an 80G hard drive. DVD ROM and CD writer.

It's missing a DVD writer an a CD rewriter and hasn't got USB 2 ports.

It's about 4 years old now.

Get yourself an Xbox, add a mod chip and a large hard drive to put in it.

I'm not condoning it but it's rumoured that you could (using the above set up) borrow games from the usual places and save them to the Xbox HD for future evaluation.

I know of a bloke who does this (and makes a lot of beer money). He wedges anything from a 120gig HD to 250gig HD into the 'Box and chips em as well, then adds extra software so you can rip fillums and games onto the HDD.

He also does arcade cabinets with MAME software in them with over 5000 games form the 80's and 90's included. He lent me a CD with th games on and I've been tackling them for weeks. 1943 is my current favourite, along with Super off road, Hypersports, Outrun, and Afterburner.

It's got a Pentium 4' date=' 2.0 Ghz processor and 1G of RAM. It's got an 80G hard drive. DVD ROM and CD writer.

It's missing a DVD writer an a CD rewriter and hasn't got USB 2 ports.

It's about 4 years old now.[/quote']

That would do the job with a decent graphics card.

I have an xbox and a semi decent PC, yes the PC will be better at games if you bye a mega decent graphics card but in the xbox's defense it is so so easy to use and getting online it just 5 minutes away and again so so easy to do. Xbox has some decent games on it which are well worth checking out.

I've got both as well... the PC might run at higher resolutions but doesn't look as impressive as something like burn out 3 on the xbox, playing on a 32" widescreen with surround sound

@pittVRS: Has your friend got a website for his little enterprise? I'm back to wanting my xbox chipped (mainly so I can run xbox media center)

I have a semi-decent PC and an Xbox TBH since I have been on Xbox Live I have hardly played any games on my PC. I downloaded 2 demo levels of Half Life 2 and it did look really good, but couldn't tempt me away from my Xbox.

I am currently playing Halo 2 which is awesome online. If you are planning on playing online my recommendation would be Xbox if not then it would be a close call.

If anybody fancies adding me to their Friends list my gamertag is CARL0S using a Zero instead of an O

Get yourself an Xbox' date=' add a mod chip and a large hard drive to put in it.

I'm not condoning it but it's rumoured that you could (using the above set up) borrow games from the usual places and save them to the Xbox HD for future evaluation. [/quote']

(for PS2 users, the above is also possible, only you don't need to chip it or void your warranty, and yes it will play imports)

I've got both as well... the PC might run at higher resolutions but doesn't look as impressive as something like burn out 3 on the xbox' date=' playing on a 32" widescreen with surround sound

[/quote']

Agreed.

Some games are more suited to PCs and some to consoles.

Driving games look and play better on consoles , as do many fighting games.

First person shooters work better on a PC though , which is why I have both.

Arcade style scrolling shooters work best on an arcade machine which is why I have one of those as well

True - I couldn't stand Halo on the xbox. No mouse = bad for first person shooters!

(for PS2 users, the above is also possible, only you don't need to chip it or void your warranty, and yes it will play imports)

pray tell me (for information purposes only of course)

http://ps2hd.com/faq/

..read and digest

Gracias senor

Agreed.

Some games are more suited to PCs and some to consoles.

Driving games look and play better on consoles ' date=' as do many fighting games...

[/quote']

All depends on if you are interested in driving 'games' or driving 'simulators' as the PC still has much more power to do all the physics calculations to get a more accurate handling model of a car

True - I couldn't stand Halo on the xbox. No mouse = bad for first person shooters!

i first felt like that i do miss the smoothness that a mouse gives you with FPS but after a bit of prictise you stop noticing it....i woudl say XBOX over PC anyday for games.... simply becsue you buy a game for xbox you put it in and it works...full stop... thikn six months time another game is out and you will be looking for another GFX card!!! GGGGRRR or spend time trawling through the net for drivers..or driver fixes..game updates the list is endless...six months time you may not have enough ram or fast enough processor...so you change them then you need a a bigger power unit.. you do that..then they release a game that then is to big and fancy for that pc set up...and all this time ive been buy the same games on the xbox putting them in a playing them straight away.... selling my PC and buying and xbox is the best thing i ever did i now have a simple relativly low spec laptop for surfing the net and office applications... aslo.. PC games are rushed for realise to co inside with the consol realise...leading to very buggy games...the problem with PC 's are there are to many varisions of set up that the game programmers ahve to take into consideration with a consol its one set up so if it works on one XBOX PS2 GAMECUBE it works on all....

TBH the graphics on a any of the above consol can look good and i agree a PC will give you slightly better GFX but ask your self does that really add to your gaming experence.... to start with maybe ... but on the whole there nore to then how it looks...

Joel

It's got a Pentium 4' date=' 2.0 Ghz processor and 1G of RAM. It's got an 80G hard drive. DVD ROM and CD writer.

[/quote']

A good graphics card will certainly help that machine, but you'll still experience some slowdowns on it. I have an Athlon 2600+ CPU (equivalent to roughly a 2.5 GHz P4) and 1.25 Gb RAM and I also have a

As for the console v PC argument, the PC will have better graphics with the right graphics card (noticably better IMO), and if you like first person shooters, then they ARE better on the PC. I do, so I chose the PC (I had the same decision to make). However as said consoles are often better for simpler more arcade style games like beat em ups, driving games and the like. Also as said, consoles generally just work, PC's often need tweaking, however, for me that comes with the territory - if you want to use a PC for gaming and extract the best performance, then you obviously got to be prepared to tinker. Personally, I quite enjoy this aspect of it, but I can see why some dont...

I "tinker" with PC's for a living, I play games to relax!

Also, I only have a 21" 4:3 screen on the PC - 40" 16:9 is much nicer, with better surround setup etc.

Gave up on PC gaming a long time ago... (but granted, GTR might pull me back!)

A good graphics card will certainly help that machine, but you'll still experience some slowdowns on it. I have an Athlon 2600+ CPU (equivalent to roughly a 2.5 GHz P4) and 1.25 Gb RAM and I also have a

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