PC gamers are in a constant state of upgrading, and for good reason. With companies spending millions trying to crank out better looking games, players need to drop the cash on new graphics cards and other devices to keep their rigs up to date, lest they fall victim to a smoldering machine. With that said, make sure you enhance your computer before playing the following games.

Crysis

Crysis has garnered more attention then one of Lindsay Lohan's late night drinking binges. We've all seen the amazing screen shots and in-game video clips of U.S. Special Forces agent Jake Dunn and his form-fitting super-suit as he jumps massive gaps in a single bound and goes Rambo on nasty aliens. It's enough to make gamers weep, some for the joy that awaits them; others... because they realize their wee little PC has about as much chance of running it properly then Britney Spears has of making a comeback. All the ice used by the aliens to turn that island into a frozen wasteland won't help cool off the insides of your rig. If your components are more then a year old, chances are Crytek's new game will cause a crisis of untold proportions.

Unreal Tournament 3

Epic's next installment of the Unreal franchise comes with an all-new graphics engine that will burn your eyes out of their sockets. In this iteration, players will finally get a fully fleshed out single player campaign, new mods, maps, modes of transportation (just like Marty McFly in "Back to the Future" aboard a new hover board) and a host of graphical goodies. It'll reclaim its rightful spot atop the heap of wannabe online shooters, and its dusty boot will rest on the slag of inferior PCs that got melted along the way. Unreal indeed.

Gears of War

As with the Halo franchise, PC gamers must wait for the console version of the biggest selling 360 game in history to get ported over to the undisputed king of shooter platforms. Unlike the craptastic three-year-old version of Halo 2, computer folks were "blessed with" the PC version of Gears of War that will release just under a year after its console counterpart. What's more, it will be bigger (a new five-chapter single player act, a new multiplayer mode and three new multiplayer maps), badder (players get to fight a hellacious boss that wasn't in the original) and look better (sharper resolutions, enhanced detail, DX10 antialiasing graphics, etc.). The boys at Epic know how to make great shooters, and judging by the millions of X360 units sold, a better version can only mean bigger sales, and puddles of goo that used to resemble PCs.

Continue...