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PC GAF, what are some great games I can play on this laptop?

J

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
Hi there, PC fans.

Some of you may recall how I recently made a thread asking stuff about what my super-old (1GB RAM, Integrated Graphics, etc) laptop could do with Morrowind. Well, whether you were there for that topic or not, long story short is that several of you; pretty much convinced me to upgrade to at least a modestly better platform.

The other day I spotted an Asus in a pawn shop for $50. These are the specs; not great by any stretch, but a far cry from what I had before:

Intel Core 2 Duo T9400
GeForce 9600m GS
4GB RAM

So now that I own something that was at least remotely passable six years ago, as opposed to the old laptop which was basically never passable for more than checking emails in 2007, I come to you as a total PC gaming newb and I ask for your wisdom: recommend me some games that you think will play well on here.

Some background on my taste: I love RPGs above all else. I'd also love to get back into a space flight sim; I owned most of the old X-Wing series back when I was a kid. I'll probably just go back to those for now, though, but if you have any newer suggestions let me know. (I obviously harbor no delusions of grandieur that I can play Star Citizen, lol.) I don't typically enjoy games that aren't heavy on story or atmosphere, and I don't really have any interest in MOBAs or card games.

Lastly, do y'all suppose the Mass Effects would run on here? I'm itching to replay the series but I sold my 360 a while back.

Thanks, PC GAF.
 
P

Persona7

Banned
If you have people who can play multiplayer with you locally, TowerFall Ascension is a good choice. It is a archery combat game up to 4 players.

http://www.towerfall-game.com/


I would suggest checking out GOG.com as they carry older games as well as newer indie games that would run on older hardware.
 
E

Erheller

Member
If you like JRPG's, Trails in the Sky has some of the best writing and world-building you'll ever see.

Freespace and Freespace 2 are also on Steam and GOG, those games are great.
 
S

SparkTR

Member
Pretty much everything on gog.com. The Witcher 1, Mass Effect should work fine. Kotor 1/2. Amnesia and the Penumbra games probably. Baldur's Gate and other classic RPGs.
 
J

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
Thanks so far, everyone! I'll reply more in-depth in a bit; getting some Battlefront in on my PS4 at the moment.

Fugu said:
What level of experience do you have with PC classics?
Click to expand...

Pretty low. I owned a super-old PC when I was 10-13 and jammed to X-Wing/TIE Fighter, Descent 2/3, Civilization 2/3, Quake, and... I think that may be it. Oh, Star Trek: Birth of the Federation, too.
 
J

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
Persona7 said:
If you have people who can play multiplayer with you locally, TowerFall Ascension is a good choice. It is a archery combat game up to 4 players.

http://www.towerfall-game.com/


I would suggest checking out GOG.com as they carry older games as well as newer indie games that would run on older hardware.
Click to expand...

I'll check it out, thanks. :)

Erheller said:
If you like JRPG's, Trails in the Sky has some of the best writing and world-building you'll ever see.

Freespace and Freespace 2 are also on Steam and GOG, those games are great.
Click to expand...

I love JRPGs. I didn't get very far into Trails on my PSTV, however. It felt a bit overly slow in the beginning. I have it on very good authority that it's well worth playing, though, so I'll get back to it.

Benzychenz said:
Undertale
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm hearing a lot of good things about that game.

SparkTR said:
Pretty much everything on gog.com. The Witcher 1, Mass Effect should work fine. Kotor 1/2. Amnesia and the Penumbra games probably. Baldur's Gate and other classic RPGs.
Click to expand...

I suppose The Witcher 2 and ME2/ME3 won't work so well on here, though? That'd be a shame, but not surprising. I'll refrain from replaying ME1 if I can't replay the sequels too.

halopower67 said:
This will give u the idea of how some games will run (towards the middle of the page): http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9600M-GS.9450.0.html

Looks like Fallout 3, Oblivion, Mass Effect will be fine on low settings and 720p resolution.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
 
S

SparkTR

Member
JeffZero said:
I suppose The Witcher 2 and ME2/ME3 won't work so well on here, though? That'd be a shame, but not surprising. I'll refrain from replaying ME1 if I can't replay the sequels too.
Click to expand...

ME 2/3 should be fine if you can run the original. TW2 isn't going to run on your laptop though.
 
J

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
SparkTR said:
ME 2/3 should be fine if you can run the original. TW2 isn't going to run on your laptop though.
Click to expand...

Heh, it's always something holding me back from being able to play that series start to finish. I guess I'll need to get a used 360 or something.

PC->360->PS4. What a strange trilogy ride that's gonna be.
 
M

Mephala

Member
Story and lore heavy RPG?
Shadowrun Dragonfall. Currently on sale on steam too. What sets it apart from other RPGs for me is that it has a unique setting. The writing is stellar and all the little bits of information it feeds to you makes you curious to learn more. Characters are excellent.

Shadowrun Hong Kong is also very good.

Divinity Original Sin is excellent but less for the story and humour (I wasn't a fan) and more for its combat and interactions with the world.

Pillars of Eternity is also great. Well written and more traditional with its approach. A good throwback to old DnD type games and worth looking at in general, more so if you're interested in trying a modern game but may wish to get into classics like BG2.

Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines. According to a meme, someone read this recommendation and is reinstalling the game right now because it is that good.

Plenty of good stuff on gog.com as well.

For the Japanese flavour RPGs.
Valkyria Chronicles
Recettear
Trails In The Sky
Ys series (less lore/story more action gameplay but it is glorious)
 
S

SkeptiMism

Member
If you haven't played the Baldur's Gate games, you need to play those. At least the second one. The first one is more of an adventure with some RPG elements (and it works well as such, but most people don't find it nearly as fun as the second one), but the second one is a huge RPG that's one of the best games ever made.
The enhanced editions are pretty good now.

And Planescape: Torment. You're in for a real treat if you haven't played it. It's sold on GOG.
 
J

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
I'll try most of these over the next year. I really appreciate all the suggestions. Probably won't dabble in WoW (just really not much for MMOs) but otherwise, I've added all recommendations to the queue. Kinda bummed I can't play TW2, but don't get me wrong -- I figured it'd have been a miracle.

Baldur's Gate has eluded me for too long; I'm a big-time BioWare mark, but KOTOR is the earliest I've gone. (And I'll replay KOTOR, too, because I played it for the first time with an Xbox disc on a 360 in 2013, and man, that can be a frustrating endeavor.)

Edit: I'm a little surprised Pillars of Eternity can run on here. Are y'all sure? I know it's isometric (I think) but it's just so recent.
 
Green Wiggly

Green Wiggly

Member
Klei's games (Mark of the Ninja, Don't Starve, Invisible Inc.) should run pretty well. Used to play those first two on my POS Steam 7.
 
J

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
Hmm, so I'm not so sure I'll be able to run Pillars of Eternity after all. These are the minimum specs:


CPU: Intel Core i3-2100T @ 2.50 GHz / AMD Phenom II X3 B73
CPU Speed: Info
RAM: 4 GB
OS: Windows Vista 64-bit or newer
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 4850 or NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Sound Card: Yes
Free Disk Space: 14 GB

Now, I'm not so sure (at all) about a lot of PC hardware lingo, and I did try to download the "Can I Run It?" installer thingy but I'm at a coffee shop right now and the WiFi here didn't play along, but that CPU and video card both sound a bit higher-end than what I've got. Am I mistaken?

Apologies for bringing this up; I realize there are threads dedicated to this kind of thing. I just figured while I've got this thread going I might as well ask.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Pillars of Eternity is a Unity game and suffers from being more technically demanding than it looks. I would not get it on that laptop.

Even on really good hardware the bigger towns weren't running that well for me.

Same for Divinity Original Sin (not Unity, but no way will it run on that laptop).
 
J

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
Corpekata said:
Pillars of Eternity is a Unity game and suffers from being more technically demanding than it looks. I would not get it if you're unsure.

Even on really good hardware the bigger towns weren't running that well for me.
Click to expand...

Damn. A shame. Oh well -- thanks for the reply!
 
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