Gery..thanks for your reply. NWS actually called me right after I emailed them and a fellow named Chris talked to me at length. The game is very graphic intensive and they have their own reason for not advertising requirements and expect people to make inquiries when they are thinking of buying...which is fine if you are tuned into the necessity of doing that.
They will take the game back if I want but they also persuaded me to upgrade my RAM to at least a GIG as this is going to be a recurring problem as game requirements are going to be increasingly demanding AND VISTA is not a good answer for gamers even if you want, and can afford to buy a new machine. I don't think they were selling me a bill of goods and I can see the sense of considering adding RAM as my 2.45 Gig processor and my video board is quite capable of handling any game I am likely to buy. And it isn't all that expensive as long as I can find the ram for my board. Like I said, they will take the game back. They also said that it really is a great game but its graphics are so detailed that it is a problem for people like you and I with older machines that we are still happy with.
I have so many games to play and this game is getting such high marks AND I am so resisting a new VISTA machine until this one goes south on me that I am going to upgrade my ram asap and keep the game. Were I back two weeks and knew enough to ask about the requirements and found out, I probably would not have bought it either. But now that I have it I feel I might as well keep it as I would just buy itin the future when I either upgraded my old one or bought a new machine.
Also you should know that they told me that so many people have gotten so angry over VISTA that now you can get a "downgrade" to XP when going to buy a new computer from places that were ONLY offering platforms with VISTA. I don't know that that is as true as he stated but given what I have heard about VISTA re: gamers I don't doubt that it could be the case.
I may have gone off half-cocked on this but I was SO disappointed after a two week wait and then surprised that I couldn't run it that I just posted so others wouldn't fall into what I encountered. I certainly meant nothing negative about NWS as I have bought from them before and I should have expected that they would have offered me a return and a refund. The fact that I was called almost immediately shows their concern for customer problems and I really appreciated his call.
Merry Christmas to you and stay warm.
Brigadier General
Tom Ciampa
Commanding Officer
1st Cav Division
XIV Corps, AoC
Games: TS/BG: AN, BR, CH, GB, SH - HPS: AT, CTH, GB, OZK, SH, VK