I have a cheapo Onkyo (well, it was $450 when i bought it) that i bought to hold me over until Denon showed their new wares. I think you can get one for around $200-300 now. Honestly, I always had Denon receivers, and I'm impressed how reliable and good sounding these Onkyo's are. I have it in full 7.1 with Polk speakers and a stand alone self powered sub until i went all out upgrading to theatre room standards and leave this for the living room, but it really sounds good surprisingly for the money. I would never buy a HTiB for $400-600 when you can spend "around" that and end up with this.
A lot of games really take advantage of this type of rig, and it really IMHO adds to the immersion. R:FoM, Motorstorm, Ratchet, and now Uncharted... You want to talk about Epic sounds? Let alone add in you blu-ray movies will love it too in 5.1, 6.1, 7.1PCM sound, it's a worthy investment. Black Hawk Down sounds incredible.
But don't be fooled, these games sound Hollywood standard. Actually, some movies would strive to sound as good as Uncharted.