So next week my friend will deliver me a custum built PC, it will be really top-notch machine. I am a console gamer for the most part, my current PC is like 4 years old so I decided to get a new one and spend a lot of money on it, so it lasts some time. Now I realised I don't really know what is going on in PC gaming, so I ask you what game should I buy, to see what my PC can do? It's built for games. Is Crysis considered to be best looking game? If so, which one - I read something about Warhead, but dont really know how those two compare in graphics.
 
It will run Win7.

So, any suggestions will be appriciated.

Crysis looks fucking amazing, and you should get it just to see what your comp is capable of. 
 
It is however, a mediocre game, and much like Avatar, doesn't have much going for it besides pretty graphics, though they are damn pretty.  Watch out running it in DX10 though, because for some reason, the developers decided not to do a lot of bug testing for the fucking flagship dx10 title.  It ran great up until the last couple levels where it became almost unplayable and I had to switch to DX9. 
 
Oo, and Unreal Tournament 3 looks really amazing as well.  And is a better game.  Get that.

You should hit up that Steam sale while there's still time. :P
 
Crysis series. Metro 2033. Stalker series. Dead Space. Call of Juarez series. Bioshock series. Cryostasis. Lost Planet. The Hunter (I think this one is still free and yeah, it's a hunting sim, but it looks damn sexy.)
 
Also, just whatever, really. It'll all look better than it ever did on a console, if for nothing more than it running at a higher resolution and likely a higher frame rate as well.
 
Anyways, I hope everything looks super-awesome for you on your new PC. :)

Crysis might have polygons and whatnot but I doubt it's got shit on Machinarium.

Far Cry 2 looks good too.

While Stalker has never really been about the graphics, it can indeed be a good looking game. Not to mention it's about a thousand times more fun and immersive than Crysis.
 
Yeah I'm a Crysis hater. Sue me. Graphics don't make gameplay. (and before anybody gets all presumptuous like PC gamers often do [too late for that?], I have played both it and Warhead. ZZZZZzzzzzzz)

Welcome to the brotherhood! The PC4LIFE tattoo stations are on the left, and the recycling bin for your consoles can be found on the right.
 
Seriously though, your very lucky right now as Steam is having a major sale going on. I would recommend buying the THQ complete pack. It;s around $400 worth of games on sale for $45. It has the entire Company of Heroes, Dawn of War/Dawn of War 2 Red Faction series in it. Red Faction Guerrilla is a pretty good looking game when maxed out, and the destructibility in that game will defiantly put your system to the test when you get to the bigger parts of the game, and the COH/DOW games are hands down some of the best PC RTS games in years.
 
As for Crisis, ya it's generally considered the highest of the high end for benchmarking a PC games performance, but I don't think it looks the best. It looks the most realistic, but artistically it's a very bland game with tons of foliage. And not very fun imho too. But ya, if you're just looking for a game to benchmark with and not to have fun with, then Crisis is a good game to test your PC with. If your PC can run that game on max to high settings then you got a good PC and shouldn't need to worry about not being able to play a game.
 
Just keep watching that Steam sale over the next week or two and you will have a shit ton of great PC games to play by the end of it. Without knowing your hardware configuration it's hard to give much help though. Sorry.

Damn, if your looking for a good looking game on pc, that will smoke the consoles version (no elitism intended, it's just the truth), I have too many recommendation of multiplatform games. I have a screenshot thread in the pc forum, you can look at which games looks good to you there.

 
The best looking game on pc is crysis (very high), crysis warhead, splinter cell conviction (runs horribly), metro 2033, gears of war, mass effect 2, resident evil 5, dragon age origins, mirrors edge, just to name a few.  
 
For all those talking shit about crysis, it has good gameplay, haters are going to hate. It's over 90% on gamerankings, it doesn't get there by the graphics only, it has gameplay. Crysis gets alot of haters because it's graphics are twice of anything on consoles, ppl automatically assume that's the only thing that is has going for it. That's not true, it's a open world game where the gameplay is through your nano suit abilities. You have to be creative, it's no call of duty.

Oh yeah! As HitmanAgent47 mentioned Dragon Age on PC is clearly the superior version. If you haven't had a chance to play it yet on consoles, put it HIGH on your PC games wishlist. Also since I'm on the topic of WRPGs, The Witcher is currently on sale for the lowest price ever. It's probably the most content you'll find for less than $7 for a good while.
 
However regarding Mass Effect 2, you should play that on whatever platform you played ME1 for the sake of importing your save. I played ME1 on 360 and had to download somebody else's PC save that closely resembled the choices I made in my 360 playthrough, and doing so is the worst way to "continue" Shepherd's story.
 
You should also subscribe to one of the RSS feeds (or twitter accounts) on the Steamgamesales.com website for the sake of keeping up with sales without having to let Valve promote it to you on Steam launch. You'll often find sales that aren't part of the launch splash screen.

Erm, Steam sale, anyone?

A leftfield pick would be Age Of Conan - certainly the best-looking MMO I've ever played, and graphically the equal of many of the games mentioned on this thread. The first 20 levels are absolutely outstanding as well.

Just Cause 2 looks pretty good as well. 
 
And I agree with HitmanAgent47. It's all opinion based, but you can't say a game has shitty gameplay just because it has good graphics. 
 
But lets not derail every thread concerning PC's and graphics into a flamefest concerning Crysis. It's happening way too often.

"For all those talking shit about crysis, it has good gameplay, haters are going to hate. It's over 90% on gamerankings, it doesn't get there by the graphics only, it has gameplay. Crysis gets alot of haters because it's graphics are twice of anything on consoles, ppl automatically assume that's the only thing that is has going for it. That's not true, it's a open world game where the gameplay is through your nano suit abilities. You have to be creative, it's no call of duty. "

Metro 2033 looks incredible on the high settings, very high is likely to bring almost any system not build this year to its knees. 
 
Also check out DiRT 2 and Mass Effect 2

Dirt 2  
Grid
Crysis (with mods)
Mirror's Edge 
Stalker games (with Complete mods) 
Anno series (1701, 1404) 
Mass Effect 2 (though, suits looks sketchy) 
Source Engine games (applied with 3x3 SSAA or above, they look Pixar quality).  
Empire/Napolean Total War  
Metro 2033 
Fallout 3 (with high res mods)

Metro 2033

i think metro 2033 is better

Metro if you want to see what your rig can do  !  
Bad company 2 also has amazing graphics on pc

Thanks, everyone! 
 
The new PC should arrive today. 
 
Looks like I am going to get Steam account and start from there :) But before I do that I need to go to the bank and set a new credit card for myself so I can buy stuff - you see, I got married last month and there has been a lot of changing ID's and stuff... and here, in Czech Republic, the type of credit card which you can use to buy stuff on internet is not common yet, so I need to special order it.
 
For now I bought Crysis, but iI will get back to this topic as soon as my Steam  works. Thanks again.

There are many graphical configs/mods for Crysis to enhance the look of the game. I would suggest googling some once you've played it a bit if you find you're in to the gameplay so you can make the game look even better.

" Metro 2033 looks incredible on the high settings, very high is likely to bring almost any system not build this year to its knees.  Also check out DiRT 2 and Mass Effect 2 "

Metro is a good looking game but the engine itself is very poor (MSAA performance, if you want to argue about it).  Crysis has good effects and plant detail, far cry 2 as well, mirrors edge has very good clear images and structural (object) detail, f.e.a.r. (2 might be better) has good black detail and texture work and so forth, as for something with ALL around detail I would say just make a vid of all of them and play it on look.

If you only care about graphics:
 
http://store.steampowered.com/app/18110/ -- Shattered Horizon (warning: Requires DirectX 10 compatible video card and operating system).  This is a game that was made by Futuremark which is a company that makes very popular 3D rendering benchmark software that tries to push a video card to it's limits with nice graphics.  One of the best looking games I've played with it's graphic maxed out.  Does a very good job with shadows and lighting.
 
http://store.steampowered.com/app/12840/ -- Dirt 2 is also a nice looking game if you can run it with DirectX 11 graphics. 

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/987/ -- Although it's been mentioned a lot already, I also recommend Crysis.