The game I have by far the most anticipation for at the moment HAS to be Elderscrolls: Oblivion. I'm a complete sucker for massive interactive environments. I don't think there is anything more compelling in a game than freedom to roam around and do your own thing. Oblivion seems to be an answer to all my dreams - a game BIGGER than San Andreas, with graphics BETTER than Half life 2, in a total free, loose-yourself medievil setting! I can't wait!
Accordingly, the system requirments should in theory be exponential. The game is set to use pretty much all of the shading and lighting effects available on the top of the range cards, it's going to use massive viewscapes that will probably neccesitate a Gig of RAM and a 256mb graphics card for smooth play, and it's going to feature a superbly dynamic 'radiant AI' engine to push your processor, too.
Many people have been comparing the minimum system requirements to Doom 3 and Half Life 2. I think that's a too simplistic way of looking at it. Both of those games, Half Life 2 in particular, were very cunningly designed like hollywood film sets. The levels covered much smaller areas than they seemed to - Distant buildings and trees were often actually only 2D cut-outs, and doors and passages were often just illusions. Oblivion is going to feature areas where everything on the horizon can be trekked to, played with, and walked around.
I think the Shader 3.0 patch of Far Cry is probably the most similar engine out at the moment. It features large areas of forestation covered in masses of particle details, as well as similar HDR/lighting/shading effects to Oblivion. The decent AI and physics engines should also be pretty close. The minimum spec for running Far Cry in 1280x1028 with everything ON/UP is: An AthlonXP 3200+ (or equivolent), a GeForce 6800gt 256mb, and 512mb RAM. Look at the images below, Oblivion and Far cry look pretty similar don't they?
However it's apparent that how pretty you can allow your games to run willl depend on how much effort the developers place on making it system friendly - take F.E.A.R and Half Life 2, for instance. One was inherently artistic in it's design, placing an emphasis on the software doing all the work, the other however expected YOU to be able support a dozen different effects at once. Lets hope the Elderscrolls team are curtious to the capabilities ofthe average PC gamer... Especially when a £250 Xbox360 is expected to run it as well as an over £800 PC.
