With four ways to game in the living room or office, buyers have more options than ever before. Here's our quick guide to what separates one system from another.
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The Personal Computer
Games like Crysis show off the PC's strengths
Price: $1000-$10,000
Who needs it: The Hard-Core Competitor
The Basics
The PC is still a vital and viable gaming platform, especially with the release of Windows Vista, which supports DirectX 10 to achieve ever more realistic visual detail. You can buy a regular old Dell, a dedicated gaming machine, or custom-build an ultimate rig; all will be able to game, but some machines will be more capable than others. Make sure you have an Nvidia or ATI graphics chip inside, and most modern games will be able to run.
Media and Extended Entertainment Capabilities
Like any other PC, a gaming rig can be the center of your media universe. With proper networking and speakers, you can stream music and video to any part of your house. Compact cases can allow a good media PC to replace your DVD player and stereo in the living room, and Blu-Ray or HD-DVD playback require only the proper drive. The sky's the limit here... or maybe your budget is.
The Exclusive Games
Crysis:
Possibly the most visually advanced video game to date, this is a three-sided vision of escalating conflict between the U.S., North Korea, and an alien force that flash-freezes swaths of Earth into a frosted landscape.
Unreal Tournament 3:
Before this chapter hits consoles next year it stands as a PC exclusive, with massive new maps, great visual detail, and vehicles that raise action standards to unmatched levels.
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance:
Technologically impossible on even the next-gen console powerhouses, this epic-scale strategy game sports a brilliantly designed interface and tactically focused warfare.
