Low spec gems

[Steel_Stallion]

Alright, so I'm going off on a boring family vacation soon. Don't get me wrong, I'll be spending time and yata yata yata.

Anyway, I'll bring my laptop along to waste a few hours. Aside from the fact that I have over 8 GB of music in here, I'll be occasionally playing on it.

Thing is, my laptop isn't really "gaming" proficient. So I'm looking for some good old games.

Now uh, "Old games" is a subjective term.

For example, I can run Half Life 2 at maximum settings at a decent 40 FPS. I can barely run Doom 3 at medium settings without hitching up a clumsy 10-20 FPS (Which sucks for an FPS.)


KOTOR 1 works fine, KOTOR II doesn't. I really don't get my hardware, nor am I much of a computer gecko head. So I'll just post them here:

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T8300 @ 2.40 GHZ
2.00 GB RAM
Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
Windows Vista Business


I'm pretty sure its my "Express Chipset" what ever the fuck that is that's bogging me down, terrible graphics thing. Right, anyway, suggest some games that would run decently with these specs. I've noticed something weird, its always smoke and particle effects that make me lag. I was playing Prince of Persia once, I got to these mist caves and my FPS hit 5.

I've tried a lot of things, so uh... lets see what you got.

(Do not suggest an upgrade, or a desktop. I can't carry a desktop computer with me.)

Preffrebly something that will keep me occupied (Long singleplayer shitz)

Currently, I've got San Andreas and Morrowind.

 

[Ziggen]

Morrowind is teh shit.

 

[Gilles]

Unfortunately I never owned a gaming computer until now, so I haven't played many older games.

First thing that comes to mind is AvP 2 since the new one might be coming out in a while. I enjoyed the game single player, especially marine.

Dues Ex is amazing from what I hear.

The original dawn of war might work on your computer. Not sure how good that integrated graphics processor is though.

 

[LordDz]

Total War series. (Rome)

 

[Cyper95]

ye as said total war series, kotor is really awesome
what i would suggest:
KoToR
Wc3
Diablo 2 if you would like that
Fable (this sometimes have trouble on Vista reason why i cant play ;( )(your laptop should be able to run it)
Unreal Tournament(oldest version i guess you should go for)
Age Of Mythology
AvP 2 as gilles said really enjoyed completing it
Maybe condition zero if your laptop can run it(has some nice single player after my opinion)
Dark Messiah Might And Magic(single player mode ofc)
dunno if it can run Portal but if it can definitely worth it.
maybe the first sims if you like that kind of games
maybe CoD(if you dont know what it stands for it is Call Of Duty(get CoD 1 or 2))
cant really think of more

 

[doom_sheep]

nethack

 

[Steel_Stallion]

My laptop doesn't suck THAT bad, I does run Half life 2 after all. (Then again Source engine is optimized as fuck)

Anyway, I tried Dawn of war and it runs fine although I'm not that fond of it. I've played Fable over and over long ago, I don't think I'll give it a shot. Unreal Tournament 2004 ran fine, I got some mods for it. Although it'll be pretty bland without Multiplayer

I'll go for Rome Total War and AVP 2.

 

[Cyper95]

good idea to go for those but i think rome total war get pretty plain after a few hours but otherwise great

 

[Dr Super Good]

PS1, SNES, GBA, sega mega drive, N64. All those systems should run pretty will via emulator on that PC.

I advise also updating your drivers.

 

[PrinceofIce]

Starcraft should work well on it.

 

[TheDivineBoss]

Simcity, F.E.A.R, Killing Floor and L4D might do the trick too.

If you got R:TW, you should try M2:TW too heh.

 

[Steel_Stallion]

Simcity, F.E.A.R, Killing Floor and L4D might do the trick too.

If you got R:TW, you should try M2:TW too heh.

F.E.A.R Combat (Free multiplayer component) barely runs on lowest settings, it works but it isnt that enjoyable. I'm guessing the full game will run similarly.

Killing Floor is tasteless without multiplayer, and I wont have much internet access.

Left4Dead will definitely not work.

SimCity... um.. Well, which is the most recent/Best ?

 

[LordDz]

Heroes 3 ^^

 

[TheDivineBoss]

F.E.A.R Combat (Free multiplayer component) barely runs on lowest settings, it works but it isnt that enjoyable. I'm guessing the full game will run similarly.

Killing Floor is tasteless without multiplayer, and I wont have much internet access.

Left4Dead will definitely not work.

SimCity... um.. Well, which is the most recent/Best ?

Simcity 4 is the most recent one(, and the hardest if ur doin it wrong).

Simcity 3000 is older but also great. But I'd still go for 4. Plus the music is fun.

 

[Gilles]

Worms Armageddon.

 

[Steel_Stallion]

Worms Armageddon.

Tried that, I can't get it to run properly with Vista.

 

[Gilles]

Dang, such a good game.

 

[wereguy2]

I recommend Arcanum, which is an old sprite-based RPG.
Also, you should take a look at some really old games such as Another World and adventure titles such as Flight of the Amazon Queen. These are FAR more creative than anything nowadays...
Oh, and NWN1 with the PRC pack, that rules, it adds like a hundred new classes!

 

[Gilles]

These are FAR more creative than anything nowadays...

I'll say.

The player assumes the role of Joe King, pilot for hire and owner of the Amazon Queen airplane of the title, who crash-lands in the Amazon jungle and subsequently has to save not only his passenger, the famous movie star Faye Russel, but also an entire tribe of Amazon women and even the world from a mad scientist and his lederhosen company, who have concocted a vile scheme to turn Amazons into Dinosaur warriors using his DinoRay invention.

Such creativity. Sure beats the lack of creativity in games like Portal, Bioshock, or Mass Effect. No creativity in those, that's for sure.

 

[Ziggen]

I think game developers nowadays has a hard time coming up with great storylines since many of the good ideas have already been used in the past.

 

[wereguy2]

Such creativity. Sure beats the lack of creativity in games like Portal, Bioshock, or Mass Effect. No creativity in those, that's for sure.

Lol, that game is meant to play on lots of stereotypes, with interesting results.
Heh, I love the voice acting

 

[Gilles]

Lol, that game is meant to play on lots of stereotypes, with interesting results.
Heh, I love the voice acting

I don't think they meant it to be funny. The game came out when these sorts of stories were all the rage. They were quite serious.

 

[wereguy2]

Nah, the game has quite a bit of humor in it, random talking gorilla ftw! ^^
But yes, the voices probably are serious

 

[Megafyr]

How about Halo?

 

[wereguy2]

The campaign isnt that great...
The Halo CE campaign, while it IS better, still doesn't really make it better than single player RPGs etc...