"...Like butter over too much bread."

         I have been spread a little thin. I am currently playing: Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, Half-Life 2 (For the umpteenth time), Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Ultimate Edition, Sacred: Gold, and reacquainting myself with why I don't necessarily adore Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. I am also hopelessly glued to Plants VS. Zombies. Reasoning and detailed elaboration will follow.
        First, let me wow you all with my very-budget gaming machine. My point being someone may game the latest without murdering their bank account. Now, I have heard it said that the human eye can only register 30 Frames Per Second (FPS) on a computer screen (give or take). With that in mind consider this: the lowest and most meager of graphical cards (the gamers catalyst) will easily cost the affordable $50 to $60 dollars and manage most of your games (even Crysis at gorgeous and playable levels) and pull off that frame rate. Power gamers (the ones who buy pricey graphical cards), of course, aren't satisfied with two things: having fat wallets, and 30 frame rates per second. Most of the cards they will spend their $120 and up on will provide far beyond the desired frame rates at ridiculous visual values. Let me state then that I am a power gamer. A very very poor power gamer who is cleverly disguised as a 'budget gamer.'
        
         The specs: 2.9 Ghz AMD Athlon 2 X2 True Dual Core processor.
                          3.5 Gigabytes of 533 DDR2 RAM.
                          One 250 Gigabyte Seagate 7200 Hard Disk Drive (HDD).
                          585W (Watt) Power supply by ORION.
                          $40 Cooler Master Case (And Orange!)
                          Used PATA DVD RW drive (Why get more in this wonderful digital age?)
                          And my glorious $60 EVGA Nvidia Geforce GT 220 Video Card with 1 Gigabyte of          GDDR3 Memory. Mmmmm.

         Age of Wonders is a beautiful fantasy turn based strategy game. The overland map is filled with teeming wild life and plants, mysterious ruins, and mythical creatures. The game itself is reminiscent of Heroes of Might and Magic, Master of Magic, and Disciples: Dark Prophecy, all wrapped into one with a dash of the classic board game Risk thrown in. You play an immensely powerful wizard king (or queen) with a variety of elemental schools to choose from (focus or mix and match).  You seek to unite the land either under your flag or through establishing allies. I have to admit that the diplomacy has seen little use from me as I am still getting down the basics, but the game play is soothing and still retains that 'just-one-more-turn' draw. There are always spells to be researched, darkness to explore, and cities to manage and grow. This is the latest edition in the franchise and features a remarkable random map generator so every scenario can be a new and drawn out experience. It is quite detailed too! The creatures and races are abundant. 10+ races with unique traits and powers, 6 elements of magic plus the mysterious Cosmo (mix and match) class, and plenty of quests and options. This game should run fine on nearly any modern computer (netbooks included) and the moral quality is wonderful, just avoid some of the more skimpy wizard portraits or enter your own picture if it bothers you (those scanty sorceress types never last long anyhow).
        Ohhhhh Half Life 2. Ours has been an off and on relationship. I still hail it as the king and conqueror of the first-person shooter world. The game is a battle between the resistant forces of, well, you (Gordon Freeman, a physicist with a crowbar), and the communistic and extremely conservative tyrannous Combine. They take away homes, the ability to have children,  and ultimately want to turn everyone into zombies or worse (ZOMBINE!). The game is presented cinematically yet without a single cut-scene (except for the moments when you are on the ground looking up, helpless). You feel as if the world revolves around you and your actions as a super MIT Alumni. You start out humble and by the end truly feel like you have become capable and ingenious in every way. A powerful experience in the gaming world. The game is a shooter and is gorgeous. This means that it can be quite gruesome. Minor swearing dots the game, nothing used in the extreme vulgar, and blood and violence are always apparent.
         Half Life 2 does an excellent job at making you, the silent hero, take on your own persona and still feel heroic, noble, and the right sort of fellow to save the world. The characters also need to be mentioned. They make all the dark and scary horrors contrast with their brightness and innocence. Among others Alex Vance, the game's female protagonist and personal companion for the player throughout much of it, is a delight. You will be taken with the first smile.The game will run on a wide variety of machines, from the old to the new, but with my current budget setup it will run on all settings set to max with full anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. Translation: crisp, clear, beautiful. Enjoy!

          Further updates will be made soon!