I would buy FEAR if I was in your position (and had a decent computer to run it). The first game I bought for my PC after I built it was FarCry. I was pretty disappointed, to say the least. It's just not really my type of FPS I guess. Playing on normal dificulty there was one part that was so hard I couldn't even beat it without using godmode, at which point I became disinterested because cheating is no fun (just in case you know the game, I remember having to climb a ladder up from the inside of a ship, to the deck, at which point a helicopter begins attacking you at the same time as like 4-5 guys, and you have zero cover except retreating back into the ship, which is ineffective...then if you survive that, you get to walk across the deck a few more feet before another army of like ten guys greets you
...maybe i was just missing something). It really wasn't that bad other than that, but certainly nothing as special as all the pro reviewers claim. I think you'll find that a lot more average people didn't rate it as hot as the pros, which tends to be a better indicator, for me anyway.
Doom III looks like a good buy, especially for what? $15-20? I'd also agree that COD2 is pretty good/fun. But like you said, you aren't looking for a WWII shooter, which is the exact same reason I'll be buying FEAR over COD2. Half-Life 2 is a decent single player FPS, too. I'm about 70% done with it, but I mainly bought it so that I could play CS:S.
