Well I think I should point out that the COD2 specs it lists as a minimum are for running the game in DirectX 7 mode, which while it loses all the normal and specular mapping becomes very playable on those specs and the enjoyment can still be had. But of course it doesn't look as good as when you have all those fancy eyecandy features turned on ;)
I think it's safe to say that PC games are going to be making much more use of normal mapping,pixel shaders,HDR and all those other fancy graphic's buzzwords now that consoles like the Xbox360 and soon PS3 will be using them in games.
I think it's safe to say that PC games are going to be making much more use of normal mapping,pixel shaders,HDR and all those other fancy graphic's buzzwords now that consoles like the Xbox360 and soon PS3 will be using them in games.