In terms of online play (and offline, if you don\'t mind the stupid AI too much) BF2 is hard to beat. One of the, if not the, most popular army sims for good reason. It\'s a bit old now but still great fun to play and looks sweet if you have hardware with grunt and can turn all the graphics options up high. Now has both the original mode with vehicles and one for infantry-only play if you prefer that.
There are some golden oldies reboxed out for cheap at the moment from Sold Out Software that would keep you occupied for, I don\'t know, a few years at least! Civilisation Complete, Heroes IV, Stronghold 2, Pirates!, Grand Theft Auto III, a couple of the Lemmings games in the same box and last but not least Sim City 4: Rush Hour. They\'re being sold here @ 3 for 15, which is just an amazing bargain given how much gameplay they\'ll give.
And I know you asked us not to but commiserations anyway.
Einion