Name: Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Raven Software
Media: 2 CD's
HD Installation: 1.11 gig
Dirt Cheap Price: $29.99, a little bit after it first came out...before I even owned a damn PC(played it on the PC at work, hehehehe).
SoF 2 was played on an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ machine, under Windows XP with a 128 meg ATI Radeon 9200(AGP) All in Wonder card and 1 gig of ram. It was running with all options turned to their highest settings and at a screen resolution of 800X600.
Patches?
Yes, two.		 Just for kicks, let me present the recommended system requirements:

SoF2 Gold Patch - Size: 48.7 or 16.3 megs depending on what version of the game you have(1.0 or 1.02)

Unofficial 1.03 to 1.04 Retail Patch - Size: 2.4 megs

The Official Gold patch can be downloaded at Raven Software's Official SoF2 page, which will direct you to 3D Gamers for the actual download. The Unofficial 1.04 patch can also be downloaded at 3D Gamers. Though I've never been able to get it to work, just from looking over the "readme" file, it seems to have a lot of nice fixes as well as some cool new options for the game...

 3D Accelerator Card(with 16mb of VRAM) with full OpenGL support, English version of Windows 98/ME/2000/XP Operating System, Pentium III 450MHz or Athlon processor or faster, 128 MB of RAM, 1.3 GB of uncompressed free hard drive space(plus 300 MB for the Windows swap file), 100X Direct X 8.1 compatible true 16 bit sound card and drivers, 8X speed or higher CD-ROM drive, 100% compatible Direct X 8.1 compatible mouse/keyboard and drivers, Direct X 8.1(included).

Multiplayer Requirements:
Internet(TCP/IP) and LAN(TCP/IP and IPX) play supported, Internet play requires a 33.6 Kbps or faster modem.
Like in the first game, you assume the role of John Mullins in an attempt to stop terrorist groups from carrying out their plans. This time, a deadly virus has been unleashed and now threatens the world unless Mullins can find out who is behind it, and stop them. With your partner agent Taylor and the help of "The Shop"(a covert anti-terrorism organization) you set out to various locations all over the world in search of clues and information that will lead you closer to stopping the madman behind the virus.
What's it all about?
It's a First Person Shooter with an emphasis on pseudo-realism. Missions range from straight out destruction to search and rescue. Along the way you'll run into NPC's(Non-Player Characters) that will help you along the way(most notably, the marines). To add a bit of spice to the familiar FPS gameplay you've become accustomed to, in addition to mowing enemies down on foot you'll also be given the chance to do so from mounted guns on trucks and even helicopters in some levels. Adding to that, there is also an increased amount of story-driven sections where you'll actually be able to walk around in your normal setting while being briefed on missions and such.
Graphics - Excellent! Everything has a realistic look to it, not to mention just loads of detail. Special effects like the foliage blowing in the wind in Columbia, the snow in Kamchatka, and others really help in the pseudo-realism the game excels at. The enemy models are well done, with convincing textures and motion capture. Adding to that, Raven has implemented the new GHOUL II technology that allows for 36 damage zones and 16 dismemberment zones...this means no matter where you shoot someone, you're going to get a very realistic(and gory) result.
Sound - Great. The music is made up of some really fitting pieces that get you in the mood of the level, and then keeps that up with a selection of nicely ambient pieces while you're sneaking around unnoticed. Of course, this quickly picks up to an antsy pace that'll keep you on your toes during tense moments, and immediately kicks into full-blown, adrenaline pumping anthems that accompany you during heavy firefights. As for the sound effects, they're really quite good. You've got a great assortment of gun effects, explosions and various environment sounds. The enemies' speech sounds really authentic, and there's none of that bullshit "English-everywhere" thing going on either. Here in SoF 2, if you're in Columbia, they're speaking Spanish, if you're in Hong Kong it's Japanese, so on and so forth. It really adds a nice touch.
Finally, the game is EAX-enabled. The placement of the sounds and the whole 3D thing its got going is pretty hip...but it almost sounds like it drops the bitrate of the actual samples, making everything come through really scratchy. I was using the most recent Creative drivers(which contain OpenAL) and, unfortunately, the EAX was just sad. I highly recommend you disable it for this one...
Control - Like all games that allow for mouse and keyboard control, it's excellent. You can fine tune the mouse's sensitivity to your liking, reconfigure the buttons, etc. I do miss the "quick grenade" button from the Xbox version though...
AI - Pretty cheap. No matter how quiet you are, no matter how much you sneak around...they always seem to see or hear you. Now, past that, the amount of enemies that actually show up once a fight begins depends on you. Use something amazingly loud, like the shotgun, and you're going to see a LOT of enemies. Try to be a bit quieter about it, and you'll get away with just the group in the immediate area. My only real issue with it is that it seems like throwing a grenade is their answer to everything. They see you - they throw a grenade, they hear you - they throw a grenade. This wouldn't be so bad if the grenades weren't pretty much a guaranteed kill upon explosion....and talk about some arms, these fuckers will pitch a grenade from two clicks down...and make it land *right* next to you. Why they decided on terrorism as a career, I don't know, with an arm like that these guys need to find an agent and get into the majors! Also, the game is just hard....real hard. I mean, if you're looking for a challenge, look no further...these enemies whoop ass....a lot of ass...and hard! We're talking Real Ultimate Power hard here, people!

...and there goes his arm...
Replay value - Extremely high, due to the awesome Random Mission Generator and online modes. The RMG basically takes pieces of maps, puts them together in a very random way, and lets you play your particular mission in them. Once you're done, just choose it again and it'll create another completely new, made up map. Online play gives you a choice of six game mode types(Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Infiltration, Team Deathmatch, Elimination and Demolition) and about twenty-six maps, *plus* the RMG that will allow you to randomize the online experience as well. Offline you have your choice of four levels of difficulty for the regular, story mode as well as the Random Mission Generator that has four mission types(Infiltration, Assassination, Demolition and Escape) and a virtually unlimited amount of new maps.
Getting it to run - Easy. Pop the CD in, run the installer, patch the game, done. One extremely cool thing about the SoF2 installer is that while the game installs it plays a mock news broadcast that gives you some real insight into the game's storyline as well as some background on the government's involvement in The Shop. Sadly, you can only view this when installing the game(there's no way to just watch it once it's been installed like, say, Diablo II's movies). On a final note, the game requires the CD to be in the drive to play, so pop that sucker in before you try to start it up...
Tips for better gaming experiences:
The first, and best tip I can give you is in the form of a link: Halon50's SoF2 Quick 'n' Dirty Single-Player FAQ. This is an excellent, straight to the point FAQ that will get you through *any* problems you may have with the single player game. Also, be *sure* to turn off the fucking "hit inaccuracy" thing in the game's options(when you start a Custom game). Damn does that thing suck...

Still Supported?
Yes. You can still receive support for the game at Activision's Support Section, or Raven Software's Support Forum.  

My rating: 94(out of 100) - A solid, no bullshit FPS with a lot to offer offline and online. Excellent graphics, some solid control and a heavy helping of gore make this a game you'll want to come back to for quite some time.

iMac's crabby opinion: I didn't much like this one...bad graphics, overly hard AI. Give me Soldier of Fortune Platinum over this pile any day!
God bless the USAS 12 and the unbelievably bloody wake of death it leaves behind.
Making you proud, Mr. Woo.
Heads just seem to disappear when you've got an M4...
Time for some Kidney-wall Soup!
Fun Stuff on the CD:
Not a whole lot...just the standard stuff like web links to the developer's/publisher's site and support forums, the GameSpy Arcade installer, older versions of Direct X and OpenAL, the game's manual, and finally, a demo for Return to Castle Wolfenstein(multiplayer only).

Comparatively speaking:
Being a huge fan of the SoF series, I was really looking forward to the Xbox release of SoF2 as I didn't have a PC of my own at that point. Before writing up the SoF2 Xbox review, I posted some initial thoughts on usenet about the differences I was seeing in the two versions. Please note that the post is in raw form, just as posted on usenet(expect spelling errors, grammar issues, etc.)., and that I've now spent a lot more time with the Xbox and PC versions, so some thoughts and opinions have changed since then.