considering the price and power difference, it seems the 360 version fares very well really.

This whole thing is pne of the reasons why the xbox is missing the mark as a console to me, I bought a console to play console type games, not weak versions of PC games with botched controls, if i wanted to play PC games, id do it on my PC.

for the rig well if you built it from the ground up.... and you want it to last a couple years yeah it's around 2000$ but you can make it last around 4 or 5 years at almost full capacity for most games.....

me I built mine in 2002 for 2500$ just the tower.... I don't remember the rpice of each component.....

but I bought a cheap medium tower with a power unit (which I changed when I moved to USA)
a 120 Go HDD 7200rpm maxtor
an ATI 9800 pro
a pentium 4 3Ghz FSB 800
an asusteck P4C800 pro delux (for the 4 RAM slot mostly but I have all the controller built in ethernet, SCSI, RAID etc.... )
4X256 mo of ram DDR (can't remember what frequence but 733 or something seems right)
a 5.1 terratec DMX6FIRE (as good as an audigy with more professional hardware for sound recording)
a fan for the processor and one for the tower
DVD drive samsung
CD RW drive sasmsung
a logitech webcam
a MS office keyboard
and a logitech optical wire mouse...
and a floppy disk (i actually used it for the first time a month ago after having totally crashed my system :P)

sorry it's not really accurate but i haven't been geeking for years lol.... but that rig cost me around 2500$ I bought everything myself through deferent wholesalers through a retail store didn't pay taxes and built it myself

but that was almost 6 years ago back then it was a monster :)

 I'm with Ben on this. I upgraded my computer recently... I didn't need speakers, a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse or a case... anyone with a PC should probably already have these things. A new video card (Radeon X1600), new Asus motherboard and processor (comparable to a pentium running at 4ghz+), 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM (added to a gig I already had), a heat sync and power supply ran me somewhere around $400-$500, and now I'm pretty well set for a few years. The new hard-drive and dvd burner I bought for reasons other than Bioshock (and didn't necessarily need them), so I'm not counting those.

Man , I just remember the release of Oblivion ...

 well yeah but me I choosed it that way :)

I upgraded my living room with a "new" 2 pieces couch for 40$ bucks from a friend.... I bought a XB360 premium with 4 games 2 wireless controler a starter kit 1 year XBL for about 600$ a LN-S4095D samsung 40" lcd flat panel 1080p for about 2000$ with 3 years full warranty.... and a 5.1 logitech sound system  Z 5500(they actually send me 2) for 250$ refurbished.... 

so the PC it will be next year maybe and even then I don't think so... I really don't play that much anymore on PC... I like the confort of my living room with a pad a beer and friends around me lol :P I might get a Wii instead 

^ lol, didn't you tell me about this living room couch-preference in another thread? You couch-bum you.

Me, I got a Wii for couch-bumming, and a PC for the rough work of sitting in a chair to play games.

I'll agree that the boost probably isn't worth it for gaming unless you have lots of extra cash around. My reasons for going to 24" were not gaming related in the slightest. My main issue with going to that is my previous setup was 2x17" running at 1280x1024. Now that I am only running a single monitor, 1680x1050 would lose too much of the previous realestate I was used to (although I must admit I'm still outright missing having two monitors...)

My other primary reason was I was after a monitor with component inputs as well (since I use it as my tv too). The only smaller LCD with component inputs I've seen is a 21" by Samsung. 

That all said, I run a lot of newer games in 1280x800 anyhow, because I've only got a 7900GS...

Just for the record I just got back from Target in my area and the game installs fine, so you don't have to wait for the deadline if you haven't purchased from steam yet. And yes I have already activated the game using the code on the back of the manual so it is for sure.

Oh, and btw the game looks great on 1680x1050 on my setup with full everything set to max and awesome framerates. You can check my specs out for reference in the pc spec thread.

PlagueOfLocust said: ^ lol, didn't you tell me about this living room couch-preference in another thread? You couch-bum you. Me, I got a Wii for couch-bumming, and a PC for the rough work of sitting in a chair to play games.

yeap I did lol.... well... it's more the living room enviroment... because you can see me play sitting on the floor when the couch is crowded with friend.... or sitting on the coffee table or just standing up in front of the TV when I'm under pressure in a game...

it's just i'm done with associal enviroment of my PC and my desk.... I played MMORPG like ultima online on private shards and RTS like warcraft, total annihilation, starcraft, command conquer, civilisation all that stuff way too much... it was time to socialize again lol