New PC = More Fun

I picked up my new PC this past Tuesday, and spent a few days tinkering with it, making sure everything worked. While the hardware was sound, I found I didn't like how a lot of the software was installed, so I spent Friday night learning to format a Windows XP Home Edition machine, which worked successfully.

I've set up different accounts for myself and my father who also uses the system, which is a great way to keep our stuff seperate. I've also been trying a bunch of demos to really see how my graphics card does, and so far things have been beautiful.

I re-installed and checked out Half-Life 2 for my father, which looks very nice now with its high res models, however the two titles I've tried that have really blown me away graphically are the demos for Doom 3 and Quake 4. What a beauty the Doom 3 engine is. In fact, even though I have it on Xbox, the Doom 3 demo was the first new thing I downloaded and tried once I finished formatting my system, and I still can't believe how gorgeous the visuals are.

As breath-taking as Doom 3 is, Quake 4 is even better. The character models have been refined a lot in the year plus between the titles, and people look less "rubbery" than they did in Doom 3. The game is also full of fast-paced action. It's a lot like Starship Troopers meets Call of Duty and Star Trek's Borg; some cool sci-fi military action.

Anyway, I liked the Quake 4 demo so much I went and bought the full version of the title, which I'll be playing soon. This also marks the first PC game I've purchased for myself since Call of Duty: United Offensive in September 2004.

I also checked out the Halo: Combat Evolved Demo, and the F.E.A.R. demo, however I have yet to install the latter.

With my new system, while surfing the web and blogging are what they used to be, gaming is once again possible for me. This does mean, however, that I'll be holding off on an Xbox 360, as there simply aren't any exclusive titles I'm interested in that aren't on the PC.