No, you don't need 5 grand to play Battlefield 4

http://youtu.be/7mHZmn_Ijs4

This is going to be a little different.

There's thousands of YouTube videos covering the battle action, bugs and bragging rights of Battlefield 4.

But what about the rest of us that can't afford a $5000 gaming rig?  What about those of us whose gaming budget pretty much ended in 2009?  Are we out of luck?  Are we stuck with "legacy" games because our rigs just can't handle the demands of a modern game?

I call BS...

The simple fact of the matter is, if the game supports your hardware setup, it's playable.  

Now, will you be at some disadvantage compared to a 12 year old who maxed out mommy's credit card?  To some extent yes but like all things you learn to maximize what you have. 

Battlefield 4 already has issues as everybody knows.  

So even your $5000 gaming rig can be humbled by bad netcode and a hobbled game engine.

Will it be as pretty?

No, I can pretty much guarantee that.

But ask yourself this..

Are you playing on a 30 inch monitor?  Are you trying to push resolutions that would make a Blu Ray player cringe?

No, if you've got bills and rent and kids then chances are you're not.

Battlefield 4 supports Direct X 10 and resolutions as low as 1024x768.  That means that even your old GTX 260 can handle it.

Speaking of which.  The gameplay video below the article shows what it's like to play Battlefield 4 on a 4 year old gaming rig with "modest" specifications.

Specifications are:

·         Asus P7P55D Motherboard

·         Intel Core I7 860 CPU (2.8GHZ 4 cores, Hyperthreaded) mild overclock to 3.0 GHz

·         8GB of Corsair Dominator 1600 Mhz DDR3 RAM with mild overclock to 1720 MHz

·         BFG Geforce GTX 260 216 Maxcore 55 video card with 896MB of RAM

·         Hitachi 500GB 7200 RPM hard disk (not an SSD)

·         HP 2511 25 inch HD monitor (1920 x 1080)

·         Intel Pro 1000 Gigabit adapter

·         Internet connection - 15 MBit Cable

Pretty humble specs by today's standards but I'm going to show you how even current games that still support Direct X 10 (and there's plenty of them) can be very enjoyable.

Will it be as good as that $5000 rig?  Of course not but if you can do without the eye candy you can be very effective.  Look at it this way.  With Battlefield 4 you are now playing against console players meaning their GPU and CPU horsepower can only rise to the level of equivalence not superiority.

...and they're the guys that usually take you out.

So sit back and enjoy this assault on the marketing hamster wheel that is, the upgrade mill.