Games 3 Hardware 0

In case you hadn't noticed, Max Payne 2 has arrived. After playing a demo of the first game, I became a fan and bought the full version: Brilliant. I've been looking forward to the sequel for quite some time, and whilst I'm not a fan of paying full whack for a game (and hence usually wait for it to drop down in price a few months down the line) I made an exception and bought MP2 from MVC. First impressions are great, and my graphics card is coping fine (more on that later...)

I also picked up a copy of Myst III Exile which I've wasted most of tonight on. A mesmorising game that has already absorbed me into it despite being pretty confused about what the hell is actually going on.

Finally, I also treated myself to Dynasty Warriors 3 from Game for my PS2: an over-the-top, huge scale combat game with an all important co-operative mode for some potential post-pub entertainment.

So, 3 more games to add to my collection, all of which I've been thinking of getting for a while. What I've also been thinking of getting is an upgrade for my gradually ageing nVidia GeForce4 MX 420 3D graphics card. I don't need it, but it would be nice to be able to run all my games at maximum detail level without any compromise on performance. Also, I'm seriously considering purchasing Battlefield 1942
when it becomes available in Deluxe Edition from Play, which would certainly benefit from a graphics card upgrade. Plus, if I want to play Half Life 2 when it eventually gets released, the upgrade is a must.

Paul made the most of his time at work and found a GeForce FX5600 128MB for me at dabs which certainly won't break the bank. However, I do wonder if I should take the ATI route, especially when dodgy things are going on in the 3D graphics world. Oh, and the latest 52.16 XP drivers I just downloaded have a bug in them.

4 days to pay day...