Hi all,

Well I have my Media Center under my LCD and decided I wanted to upgrade to Vista Media Center from MCE 2005.  All good thus far, although have just had to replace my graphics card and soundcard (driver issues!).  So, with the new bits and pieces, my spec is now (well will be tomorrow when extra bits are delivered).

AMD Sempron 2800 on an ASUS m/b.  (not upgraded this, own it already)
Radeon x1650 Pro ATI PCI-e 256MB
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Music
1.5GB RAM (just cheapo DDR stuff)
Loads of HDD space (SATA)

Questions.

1. Right, given I have this stuff in the box, what are games going to be like?  Can I suffice with whats there?  Do I have enough to get started?  I am guessing I would need to go for a Core 2 Duo and some good RAM at some stage?

2. Would like to play 2 player co-op games along the lines of Gears of War on the 360.  Also, a really great two player racing game would be good too.  Can you recommend some good games similar to these which will be very good

3. I heard you can use 360 controllers on the PC, is this true?  Do I need anything extra to use them?  What is the receiver involved?

4.  Apologies for being a noob to the world of gaming!

1. Youll be able to play pretty much everything, just turn the settings right down, your CPU is very slow.

2. Co-op as in split screen? Not sure Ive seen any split screen PC games for a couple of years.

3. http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/gaming/productdetails.aspx?pid=090

4. Better to ask than not.

Quote from: White Giant1. Youll be able to play pretty much everything, just turn the settings right down, your CPU is very slow.

2. Co-op as in split screen? Not sure Ive seen any split screen PC games for a couple of years.

3. http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/gaming/productdetails.aspx?pid=090

4. Better to ask than not.

Thanks for your reply.  Am planning on upgrading mobo/CPU in a few months time.  Can anyone recommend be some games similar to Gears of War on the 360?  Surely there are still games where two of you can play at the same time?  Not talking online play, but is my terminology wrong for two players on screen at once?

Oh, one last thing - how do I find out minimum/recommended specs when buying a game online?  I normally get stuff from play.com but cannot seem to find specs?

the only thing that stands out to me is the sempron processor and the graphics card

nvidia gefore 7800 would do the trick

and maybe upgrading the CPU, but depends on the motherboard socket

I would upgrade the CPU to a 3800+ or highest available single CPU. Do that and you will be able to play almost any available game.

2 players on one PC went out ages ago. There may be some abandonware games still out there though. Normally its network play. May be some racing game options but I have no idea, dont play them.

I am shocked that is the case?!?  So if you have a mate come round, they get to just sit there watching you play some FPS for like an hour until you die and they get a go or you take it in turns?  Thats rubbish!  If thats the case, I am going to bin that idea and just buy a 360?  What about two player racing games? do you have to take it in turns?  Consoles for me win hands down if thats the case!  

Thanks for all the help though.

PC multiplayer gaming is ALL about network play... get your mates to bring their machines round... haha

Split screen is horrible... and where as PC gamers have had the option to play their multiplayer games online for years console gamers havent.