All Posts by DAS1337

Originally posted by Battlekruse

Those shareholders who wouldn't listen to our warnings lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Everyone knows that stock markets around the world have taken a hit for some months now but Funcom stock's performance is abysmally poor. Funcom tried to borrow tens of millions of dollars a few years back, a request that shrewd bankers wisely refused to entertain. Now we see the result. The final result have showed and the hyper have peaked. Now Funcom share start to sky drop as seen on the graph!!!.

Having played the game for a month out of beta, I am not surprised by this turn of events at all.

A) AWFUL login interface. You had to login through their web page, which was done...ooohhh, about FIVE YEARS AGO with little success. Why in gods name did they think it would work now?

B) Bad graphics engine/lag. There wasn't a top end machine out there that could run the game at medium settings with more than 20 FPS. I am used to low graphics in MMORPGs but this takes the cake. SWG is the only other game I know to do this and it has FAR more interactive modeling/animation and structure. There was no excuse to have such a poorly coded graphics engine, most times you wouldn't even load an NPC until you waited for 30 seconds in the same room, and even then they loaded as a grey polygon model for the next 2 minutes while it tried to load their color skin.

C) Promises made, not kept. A LOT of inovation and design went through with this game and quite a bit was promised in beta or told there was so much more to be shown upon release but they wanted to keep it secret. NONE of this secret stuff ever appeared, the bugs and promises made never appeared and they made not even 1 small jump in performance or enhancement from beta to release.

Overall, this has to be the most pathetic excuse for a GAME (not just a MMO) I've ever played in my life. Rubies of Eventide had a better chance at surviving than these people ever did. I'm honestly glad their game never made it big, hopefully they won't ever try again and others will learn from this mistake.

After reading thos post on the other forums it looks like bad management all round I did not see either of the 200 Co-worker doing a good job.Bad management usually leads to business failure and Age of Conan does not seem exempt from that rule.

I suspect the chain of causes looks like this: Bad management leads to incoherent execution of original design leading derivative (safe) design decisions to finish and ship the product. So I agree that Age of Conan failed to take off because it lacked differentiation from other games but I think the cause was bad management not a failure by any one designers to come up with original ideas.

Okay, you got me on the graph.  However, everything else that you said was utter garbage.  My rig runs the game at 1920x1200 resolution at max settings.. 30-50 FPS constantly.  They've been patching twice a week.  There have been several performance upgrades... yes, my guess is that you logged into the game and played very sparingly on a goat bus of a computer and decided to spread lies across the forums because you don't have a high end or even middle market computer to play AoC on. 

When people show me facts, I may change my stance on things.. but when people flat our lie and when they have no clue about anything that they are talking about.. that's what bugs me. 

News flash!!  People are leaving because of the lack of high end content.  Not because of performance issues or mechanics problems.  You would know this if you played the game.

I've been getting these black screens for about two weeks at random.  Yet, they decide to add dancing.. or a sound for leveling up.. WHICH DOESN'T EVEN WORK!

Seriously.. GG Funcom..  try fixing some performance issues, we can wait for you to figure out how you're going to handle Border Kingdoms.. but in the meantime.. I'd love to be able to play.. without my screen going black, running me into a raid mob and wiping my whole raid party.

Originally posted by SignusM

Originally posted by HiGHPLaiNS

Originally posted by santa257

pvp was only fun cause you can gank people . im gonna try warhammer and if that isnt fun im gonna go play WoW again

 

Heh.. Your ass should be in UO, Lineage 2, Shadowbane or Archlord mmo there buddy, if you like doing this type of shit.

Better yet, join me for a quick fix in CD4 / TF2. I will show you what ganking is all about.

That's no excuse to block people from using content. This is a TERRIBLE way of preventing ganking. And why even have a FREE FOR ALL server if they restrict it? This game gets worse every day.

Please tell me why you would ever need to go back to Tortage for any reason.  Quests?  No, obviously not.  To help guildies?  No, it takes one day to get to level 20.  So.. I'm kind of stumped here..  I bet you are too.

I haven't gone back there and I'm level 75.  The only few times that I've killed a low level player is through RP.  And then I left.  No camping, no slaughtering innocents for no reason.  Hell, if you want to gank people.. go to a level 50 zone and do it.  You can still go to places like Tesso and kill a bunch of level 30's.  Why do you insist on having to go back to White Sands Isle?  You need nothing there. 

This is just an immature kid complaining because he can't get his rocks off by destroying everyone in the zone.  They don't have the skills to kill people anywhere near their level, so the only way for them to be happy is to take it out on defenseless players.  It really is sad. 

If you want to see that content again.. make a new character.

Originally posted by Cymdai

...improve performance for people who are NOT playing on brand new rigs.

Seriously, I can appreciate having performance issues on high settings, or low settings, but when you can't legitimately even see what happens in 18 v 18 PvP, on the lowest possible settings, with everything scaled back, that's a little ridiculous.

Now my comp isn't top of the line, but there's no damned reason that I shouldn't be able to even see some performance.

T7400 Processor

3GB PC5700 Ram

GeForce 7950 GTX

 

... and on average, between 6-22 FPS on the lowest possible settings, and 1280 x 1024 resolution.

Come on now, Funcom, that's just silly.

Having 3GB of fairly old RAM makes your computer a dinosaur, no matter what else you put in it.

Hell, DDR4 is just around the corner man..  RAM is a HUGE part of large raids.  If you don't have at least 4GB of DDR2 800.. you are never going to be able to play during sieges.  It's impossible, and no amount of tweaking on Funcom's end will change that.  That is a user issue. 

However, I have 8GB of DDR2 high latency gaming RAM and I still experience freezing up, while not even in big fights.  I'm sure we'll see some improvements.  Give it time, they can't fix everything at once.

Originally posted by Czzarre

Well, as we all grind up in AoC and work our way through the mid to upper levels, one of the biggest annoyances players talk to me about is travel time. This is certainly not unique to AoC, it is often complained about in most MMOs, even in ones where travel is almost too easy (WoW).

However, players are an ingenious lot, and it didnt take long for us to find a way around without using our walking shoes. As such  death porting has become a common practice. NOw, I am not some MMO purist who feels that "Death should only have negative consequences and should be sought after for primary gain" (although one could make that argument). I am wondering what alternatives we could develope to the death port. 

One Idea I have is have a seperate, smaller version of the bind point recall spell  but on a seperate timer (say 10 min) you can port to the rez points within your current zone. Least then we wont have our gravestones littering the zones (Conan likes his territory kept spottless)

Any Other ideas?

I'm on the fence on this one.  I think res porting is really dumb.  Also, a lot of the high level instances are deep into a nations territory.  Which makes going from one to the other, even while res porting.. very tedious.  However, on the other hand, I couldn't stand being able to fly anywhere I wanted in WoW.  I think a little travel time is a bit more realistic, plus, you never know what could happen on that trip.. With horses, it makes that trip much quicker. 

So.. you could make res porting harder, maybe limiting your res points to the nearest camp, or just to the nearest res point.  You can always use your path of asura on the main city in the zone.  I don't think having more bind points will work very well.  Maybe an extra one for your guild city.  As there are also a lot of higher level instances attached to the playfields.  Plus, those instances are scaled to your level, and so is the gear that drops there.. so.  Once the guild cities actually have NPC's and bonuses attached, you'll rarely have to go back to Tarantia.. which should help things out a little, and reduce the lag in those huge city hubs.

There's really no good answer to this problem.  If you make traveling too long, people will get upset about paying money to travel to another place hours on end.. and if you make it too easy, you'll lose a sense of being in a large world.  In WoW, I could be anywhere in 10 minutes.

So, my opinion is two bind stones.  One for your guild city and the other for whatever you set it to.  Go get yourself a mount and deal with the 10 minutes that it takes you to travel.. or.. if Funcom doesn't change anything... keep res porting. 

Originally posted by Maziar

your GPU is weak. upgrade to atleast a 8800GT or 9800GTX unless you like playing 15-20fps.

dont get the new gtx280 or 4780 cause your cpu is too weak for them.

with your current settings i would say med settings, no shadow, 20fps.

I'm going to be upgrading to the GT280 (It's based off the chip, not the card name)  and I have a dual core OC'd to 3.2ghz.  While it may overshadow my CPU and maybe I won't get everything I could out of it... but I'm certainly not going out and buying a core2 extreme for 900 bucks.  I have reasons to believe that it will perform far better than my 9800 gtx.  Which.. by the way, is very playable at 1920x1200, max settings, no bloom. 4xAA

Originally posted by Askatan

Originally posted by blake93

Cpu: Intel 2.4 GHZ Dual Core

Ram: 2gb

Video Card: Geforce 8600 GT

Will this be able to run it at all?

at low setting, yes. but don'T buy a new machine just for the 10 days fun included in the game....

Don't give the OP false information.  I've tested the game with a 2.66 dual core, 2gb of RAM and a 8600GT, I got 40FPS on medium settings.  1280x1024 resolution with bloom turned ON.  Maybe you should know what you're talking about because you start making misinformed guesses.

Originally posted by Draccan

 

You have a great command of language, unfortunately not so of the facts!

WoW had much more content at launch.

 

edit:

You see the issue is that there is so much in your post that is plain wrong. Wow as I said was a very varied game with even better crafting and even better gameplay. The world is big and seemless and there is so much to explore in the beginning weeks of playing. Plus levelling was slower.

Your argument "socialism is death" doesn't explain anything. No argumentation about it. No clarification how you can derive this point.

Also your look at pvp'ers as angstfilled teenagers is crap. PvP is about competition and challenges. Killing X number of mobs is not a challenge. It is boring. When you meet players who dont (usually ;-)) suffer from bad AI, then they meet you in a different way.

Also you mention AoC but excuse all the shortcomings of the game and the company behind it, without taking into account how much they FAILED at making the game new and refreshing.

In DaoC one could REALLY fight over keeps and it would have been easy to implement incentives for real pvp. AoC was released with zero pvp incentive, filled with bugs becuase they didnt allow testers access to it before release, the game is stale with zones of player cities in instances no one ever need or want to visit... there is no showing off your city to other players and there is no random fights happening there, no integration with the game world.

Also Funcom completely fails with communication; deletes petitions ad libitum and generally do not address players' concerns.

So when you come here and post this incoherent nonsense, I can only say... yes the drug shows. But get the facts straight! Please!

Happy day :-)

Draccan

 

 

If you're one of those people that believes WoW is or ever was a good game.. I really feel sorry for you.  The only thing that you could ever do in WoW was and is to grind for the next best piece of gear.  That's it.  At least AoC isn't a complete grindfest.  And I'm saying that before they even add the PvP content.  What was crafting about?, grinding to the next piece of gear to wear.  What was PvP about?, yes, grinding to the next piece of gear.  A game that didn't even have weather until over a year after release, something every other game has implemented at launch day, why?  because it didn't add to the grind that is WoW.  To be successful, you have to make it your job.  Why do people kill each other in WoW?  I bet you can't name a reason, you can't form a hatred for a player... you only kill other players because they are on the opposite faction.. and because they are attackable.  There's a huge difference in AoC.  Alliance or Horde come into your main city and kill your faction hero.  What happens?  Nothing.  Does anyone retaliate?  Rarely.  Why?  They will say it's because they could rather be grinding reputation.. which does what? Ding Ding Ding!!  GRIND FOR GEAR.

Saying that people are afraid of no balance is pretty accurate.  How many casuals do we have who have effectively destroyed the gaming industry for PvP'ers?  Everything has to be handed to everyone on a silver platter.  A person who plays 10 hours a week should be able to have the same things that someone who played 50 hours a week has worked for.  That's BS.  That was the OP's point there.  Apparently you didn't understand, she's high.. what's your excuse?  Just because you don't think something is new and/or refreshing, doesn't mean you're right, nor does it mean that no else else believes that as well.  So often, I see people like you with huge ego's.. believe your opinion is fact.  Sorry to rain on your parade.. have you ever heard that the world doesn't revolve around you?

I don't think Funcom has handled things very well with their communication efforts.. or lack thereof.  however, they have added many patches already.  Fixed many issues.  And because of their actions, I have reason to believe that everything will be fixed and implemented in time.  All I can really say here is that if you don't like AoC, then go back to any of those games that you're touting to have been great.  They are still accepting subscriptions.  I wish AoC was seamless.. I wish there wasn't a need for cloned instancing.  I wish PvP sieges weren't capped.  But that is just the way of things right now.  You can see the natural evolution of gaming technology here.  They are taking baby steps...  maybe 5-10 years from now, we'll all be running around in a huge seamless world, with no loading times, graphics like Crysis, chopping and hacking each other into little bits all in the name of glory.  but, that time isn't now. 

Bitching isn't going to help.

No MMO has ever been released completely finished.  Many were released in even worse condition than AoC.  Stop bitching and play the game.  If you don't like it, don't play it.  If you honestly expected a perfect game, then you are an idiot.  If you get offended by my post, then you are an idiot.  Get over it.

I haven't seen this many crybabies since I played WoW.

Okay, I'm sorry you two.  But let me finish your debate.

WoW is a game catered to the hardcore.  That is fact.  What has WoW done so far?  What do you do in the game?  Why do you do it?  Here are the facts.  The people who want to be successful do it for the gear.  They don't do it for fun.  I was one of those guys.  I sat in instances, sometimes upwards to 12 hours straight.  Yes, there were 39 other people with me.  Do you think they were doing it for fun?  It's a PvE game, where you go to one dungeon, clear it, and move on to the next dungeon.  Why do you clear that dungeon?  Why, only to go on to the next dungeon to get more cool loot.  Why do you clear the next dungeon?  Why, only to go on to the dungeon after that to get even better gear.  So on and so forth.  I did AV for a couple weeks, finished my reputation and got my gear.  I absolutely despise battlegrounds.  It's boring and mindless.  I didn't do it for fun, I did it for the gear and quickly moved on.  Do you think we all grind reputation for fun?  No, we do it for the items.  I certainly didn't sit there for a month to get exalted.. just for the joy of playing WoW.  WoW is nothing more than a grindfest, and most people are too stupid to realize that they are wasting their life away in a game that doesn't even provide anything new, EVER.  There aren't guild wars, there aren't rivalries, there isn't a sense of belonging.  I've seen the opposing faction come and kill our main city hero numerous times.  Did anyone care?  No, they were too interested in grinding for their next epic piece of armor.  It was a waste of time to actually act like you had honor.  Why?  Because it didn't effect you.  Whether you were humiliated or not, did not effect you in a possesional standpoint for gear.  There is no meaning in WoW. 

If you haven't noticed.. I really don't like that game.. and I played it for several years.

Originally posted by impulsebooks

 

Originally posted by WillF

May I ask what resolution you are running at?

And 50fps outdoors or in city?

50fps and sometimes a bit higher outside of cities. Drops to 38-45 fps in cities. I have found turning off bloom can double fps in some places, but I don't bother any more. My fps is planty.

 

My monitor isn't the best and I am hoping to get better soon. Currently its native res is only 1360x768

Hardly qualifies you to give performance information doesn't it? 

Anyways, I have nearly the same system as the OP.  Except I have 8gb of RAM, a Raptor X driver, Dual Core at 3.2ghz (AoC on'y uses two efficiently), Vista 64 and a OC'd 9800 GTX.  I get roughly the same amount of FPS at 1920X1200 resolution.  Max settings with bloom turned off.  If anyone tells you that they have a lesser computer and they get more out of it, they are lying.  Or they are playing at a resolution that this fella plays on ^^.  Keep in mind, High settings is NOT max settings.

Originally posted by in4sit

 

Originally posted by impulsebooks

 

Originally posted by in4sit

guys its not how hard or how easy combat is that I think is lame,.. its how the toons move when they are in combat...  its not really my kind of combat,.. but I am trying to like it,.. 

I can't spend every day and 5 hours a day on this game like you guys can..  I don't live and die over computer games..  It's just my review and what I think of the game,..  just a gamer who plays when he can..  but from what you are saying,...  if I don't live by AOC for days.. and that I am not lvl 30+ that my idea's not matter??..  I hate to say this but most gamers make up thier minds in the first 5 hours if they like a game or not.....    I am not saying I do not like AOC,.. I am just saying,..  I might grow in to liking the combat,.. but at this point in time,...  thats what I feel is some what bring the game down,.. the combat movement is kinda lame and I don't really feel that paying 50.00 for the game was worth it.. but again... I am just a guy who plays when he can,... and have something to do outside home and my computer.. so, sorry to you 24 hour gamers,.. but AOC needs some work.

Chill. I only played it on the weekends and on my day off. 1-20 is very simple to play, as I said, and is in the game to teach you a lot of moves. At level 6, you have the 1 2 3 and maybe one combo on button 4 (if you are melee). Levels 1-20 are really not representitive of later gameplay, but that's ok. Your review helps new people I am sure.

 

For my part, I cancelled my subs after reaching 30 on a few different classes. AOC will do fine, but its not my cup of tea.

Why then, you ask, do I hang out here reading posts for AOC? I'll tell you. I am bored and I read A LOT of forums, skimming not just the boards of this game but WAR and others too. I like reading. I like reading about MMOs, and I like chatting about them. I hope to one day read something about AOC that will make me re-evaluate my opinion and try the game again.

Anyway, your review is a valid as any other. Don't worry about what others say, its what you think that shuld govern your decision. 

 

EDIT: spelling

 

 

Ya, some of the kids hate it when you kinda bash on thier new game...  but thats the thing.. I am not really bashing it,..  just giving my point of view from a new player, who first goes in to the game is all...  you would think I kicked someones dog...   lol

So, your problem isn't with the combat at all then?  It's with the animations..  I don't know what you're looking at.. but a lot of the combat is motion captured in a studio.. so it's all fairly realistic.  My suggestion to you is get past level 6 or wherever you are and experience some of the higher combos and fatalities.  Personally.. I find nothing lame about an active combat system, where you have to execute combos to deal your damage.  Nor do I find it lame that you can't sit back and auto attack, while spamming one hotkey.  I think it makes combat interesting.  But that's just my opinion.

Originally posted by Slythe

 

Originally posted by Blackswordsm

Yea, like what the hell does weak sauce EQ2 have over AoC?  Don't they still have you taking forever to just cool your health/mana back up after a fight?

Well let's see-

 

-High level instances, raiding for better gear

There are several high level instances in AoC.  You haven't seen them because you have only reached Old Tarantia.  Your point is completely invalid.

 

-The stats all do what they are supposed to do. In AoC Strength and Dexterity do nothing right now. Same with some of the skills -run speed, endurance, perception, etc.

Actually, Dexterity and Strength both do something in AoC.  Run speed makes you run faster.  I know because I've witnessed it.  Endurance lets you fight longer.  Perception allows you to find hidden players if it is higher then their hide skill.  Your point is again, invalid.

 

-Much, much bigger zones

AoC has rather large zones.  And all of them are jam packed with detail.  Not only that, since when did EQ2 have the visuals that AoC has?  Oh yes, it doesn't.

 

-More places to level, more quests to help you along with leveling

I sure would hope a game like EQ2 has more areas to level in.  I mean, AoC has only been out for two weeks.  Are you expecting four expansions worth of content on day 1?  Oh, by the way.  There is a downloadable expansion coming out within the next few months.  Chew on that.

 

-Mounted combat actually WORKS in EQ2. The horses in AoC, while very realistic looking and cool, are buggy as hell right now.

That's interesting.  Saying they are buggy, yet you haven't reached level 40 to ride them.  So, you're just talking out of your ass right now.  At level 60, you start to get real moves for your mounts.  What are you talking about?

 

-I can't remember a single, solitary quest in EQ2 that was bugged. Seriously. In AoC, have you tried the quest "Enter the Pyramid" yet? Or "The Wounded Child?"

Again, the game is two weeks old!  There are literally less than a handful of bugged quests in AoC.   I sure would hope a game that's been out as long as EQ2 would be able to fix most of it's bugs.

 

I could go on for days but I wont, ive posted more today here than I have in the last 2 years. Because I am pretty disgusted with this game and since none of my friends play it, I have to rant to someone.

No, You couldn't go on for days.  That's the point.  Most of what you have said is absolute garbage.You have the right to dislike the game.  But don't go around telling lies about a game that you haven't even taken the time to experience.  Half of the stuff you mentioned, you heard from other people.  The other half are obvious when you're dealing with a game right after launch.  This game has had an exceptional launch, you can't even deny that. 

Go play your two months of EQ2.  Whey do you think they are offering it?  It's because all of their players are leaving!  Ask yourself why that is.  Anyways, go have fun.  When you finish two weeks of game time and come running back to finish when you started here, don't expect a warm welcome. 

I may sound like a parent by saying this..

But, you seriously need to think before speaking.  You'll get farther in life, and look smarter in the long run.

Here is what you can do in the current game state.  I'll give you information based on my experiences thus far and will try not to add my opinion.. as that will not really help you make a decision.

I'll start off by saying that I was in the open beta and the PvP beta weekend.  I also took part in the early access program.  I have to say that despite many bugs, the game launched rather smoothly compared to other MMO's in the past. 

Here is what you can and cannot do, in a nutshell.  You can level up to 80 in several weeks, to several months.  If you are more of a casual gamer, it may take you half of a year.  Currently, I'm level 62.  I'm a Priest of Mitra.  I play on the Cimmeria RP-PvP server and I'm an officer in a guild called Death and Dishonor.  There is a lot of quest content up to the mid 40's.  After you reach those levels, the quests will start to tail off.  This forces you to run instances and/or grind for the experience needed to obtain new quests and go to new areas.  I have no doubt that more will be added, but in it's current state, there is much less content after reaching the half way mark.

Here are the major things that aren't implemented yet.

PvP Battle Keeps

PvP Rankings

Guild City Building Buffs

Guild City NPC's

Guild Colors and Emblems (Tabards, Shields, Cloaks)

The client is a little unstable.  You may or may not experience client crashes and freezing.  Their servers are also a little unstable.  I get disconnected from the server at least a couple times a day.  Though I haven't had any problems logging right back in.  So, you can't take part in the epic siege battles yet.  You don't get any real credit for kills.  The kill/death system is bugged, I think you have to tag the player in order to get credit for it, and if you're a healer like me.. even though I'm in a group, I rarely actually get credit for a kill.  though, battle is pretty fun in itself. 

Professions are sketchy right now.  There are a lot of bugs with the quests involved.  I will say that at level 20 you get to gather resources, and at level 40 you get to pick a profession.  There is a pretty good variety as well, you should find one to suit your tastes.  Resource play fields are located in your Guild City areas.  As the cities flourish, the picts in the area will become stronger.  Eventually fortifying themselves and sending out raiding parties to attack your cities.  I've seen them steadily grow in power over the course of these first couple weeks.  Very cool.

Core mechanics are there.  Good animations.  Fluid.  Good colors.  Variety of atmospheric effects.  Fog, Rain, steam.. I haven't seen snow yet though.  Excellent sound.  Awesome soundtrack.  The visuals are just amazing.  Especially in Old Tarantia and Thunder River.  Quests are good, expect the same.. but there is more back-story to them.  A few bugged quests here and there, nothing major.  It's very playable, in my opinion. 

You just have to look past the minor issues and things that aren't yet implemented.  Funcom has been pretty quick to fix problems, there have been quite a few patches already.  I expect a lot of these issues to be resolved in the coming weeks. 

Originally posted by redbug

 

Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor QX6850 3GHz 1333MHz 8MB

COOLERMASTER ADVANCED INTEL PROCESSOR COOLER (RECOMMENDED)

OCZ Ultra 5+ Silver Thermal Compound

Asus P5N-E SLI Quad-Core/ nForce650i SLI/ A&GbE&1394/ ATX Motherboard

SUPER TALENT 8GB DDR2 800MHZ PC-6400 (4 X 2GB)

4 COOLMAX MEMORY HEAT SPREADORS

Western Digital WD1500AHFD 150GB SATA 10k rpm 16MB Hard Drive W/Crystal-Clear Lens

SPIRE Dual Fan Cooler for Hard Disk (RECOMMENDED)

SAMSUNG/LITEON 20X DVD-RW DUAL LAYER W/LIGHTSCRIBE (PROMO ITEM)

nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB DDR3 HDCP Video Card

Diamond XS71 XtremeSound 7.1 Channel 24 bit Sound Card

10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet Network Card (onboard)

BCC VOYAGER MID-TOWER ATX

3 OKIA 80MM CASE COOLER

SPIRE PREMIUM CASE COOLING SYSTEM

ROSEWILL SLI 850 WATT ATX

Logitech Internet 350 Wired PS2 Keyboard

Logitech Black 3 Buttons Wired Optical Mouse

"FREE SHIPPING" Acer AL1702Wb 17 inch Wide Screen 500:1 8ms LCD Monitor (Black)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64BIT (DVD & LICENSE INCLUDED)

WHATCHA THINK?

 

As far as your performance.  I have nearly the same system.  Asus Striker Extreme, 8 gigs of DDR2, Core 2 Duo 2.66 OC'd at 3.2ghz (It's certainly no extreme), 150g Raptor X HDD, X-fi XtremeGamer, 900W ABS PSU, and a OC'd 9800 GTX running at 800/2200/1200.  I get max settings.. depending on where you are.. 40-50ish frames outside, 40-60ish in instances, 20-30ish in cities and very video intensive areas. I would imagine that you would get the same.  I am running mine on Vista 64 however, so if you're running XP, you may experience slightly better framerates.

Oh, I run those settings on a 1920x1200 resolution, I have a 24 inch monitor.  Since you said you have a 22", I'm betting you will run the game on 1600x1200 or something similar.  So you'll probably get a solid 6-8 FPS increase from my performance.