I did, and you are a shit house for being able to afford such toys.

I'll probably get myself a few proper games to try and stress the system a bit, Flight Sim X is already installed but not tested due to lack of a joystick which has now been remedied. I'm looking at Race Driver: GRiD but I'll take suggestions. Bear in mind that I mainly like "Age of Empires" type strategy games ...

Erm depends on what you are after, if you like sims (and from the two listed it appears so) then i would suggest LOMAC (modern air combat sim) and IL2 Sturmovik (ww2 flight sim based in the eastern front).

Other than that you will have to give me a bit more input as to what you are looking for in a game.

Hardware-wise it would be something that gives the GPU a work out, gameplay-wise I'm more into the strategy/sim type of stuff as you said (so maybe a recent C&C?), I've played CounterStrike: Source for the last few years and have found I'm absolutely shit at it so I'm leaving the FPS arena to those who don't have the hand-eye coordination of a drunk .

I'll probably give Sturmovik a go though, sounds like a bit of fun.

I can give you a game if you like. IL2 is bloody magic, make sure you get the newest version as it has all the expansions rolled into one and it is quite cheap.


Well recent and decent strat/sim games.

World In Conflict is a decent RTS set in a Red Dawn sort of scenario with the Russian's invading America in the 80's or something like that. Quite a demanding game by most accounts so it should look prime.

Tiberian Wars has been out for a while, but it is basically the new C&C (Kane lives and all that) it has an expansion out as well.

X3, i would really suggest this one. It is a space 4X game (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) and it is massive and beautiful i have spend literally days playing it.

I know FPSs are not your bag but i would really suggest you play through HL2 and the expansions for the story and characters alone.

I am sure you can torrent all of these, though i would personally buy X3 and the Half Lifes.

I would also say if you want a really decent couple of turn based 4x games i would look at Galactic Civilisations 2 and Space Empires IV, the latter is complex to the extreme but worth it.