Spazmo
Erudite
GreenNight is quite right. System requirements can often be misleading: games will usually run like shit on a min spec machine and even reccommended specs can be iffy.
What I would do is something like a little app LucasArts used to (maybe still does) include with games. It was a simple system analysis app that would check what your computer had and compare it to what the game needs. As LucasArts had it, it'd just tell you "OK" or "Below Minimum", but I'd have it so it'd tell you "Unacceptable", "Will Run Poorly", "Will Run Acceptably", "Will Run Well" or "Will Run Perfectly" based on what it concludes. It would also offer suggestions based on the result as to what fancy graphical doodad options the user might wish to turn off to improve performance and even an option to change the settings automatically. I'd say that'd work a lot better than the fiddly "Let's see what happens if I put it to 4x antialiasing" stuff we do now--though you'd still be able to do it, of course.
What I would do is something like a little app LucasArts used to (maybe still does) include with games. It was a simple system analysis app that would check what your computer had and compare it to what the game needs. As LucasArts had it, it'd just tell you "OK" or "Below Minimum", but I'd have it so it'd tell you "Unacceptable", "Will Run Poorly", "Will Run Acceptably", "Will Run Well" or "Will Run Perfectly" based on what it concludes. It would also offer suggestions based on the result as to what fancy graphical doodad options the user might wish to turn off to improve performance and even an option to change the settings automatically. I'd say that'd work a lot better than the fiddly "Let's see what happens if I put it to 4x antialiasing" stuff we do now--though you'd still be able to do it, of course.
