It's a mobility x1600 laptop (256MB I think) core duo (2x 1.6ghz) and 2GB of ddr2 ram. Hard disk space free is about 40gb and it's running a copy of XP fully patched. I'm on hols for a week with my in-laws in Wales, I expect I'll not be doing much. So I'll be taking my lappy. 'cos I'm going to be in the middle of nowhere, online gaming is a no-go. SO my current fave games list is also dead (TF2, alien swarm and other online steam games). Most new games will struggle to get good frame rates. I was thinking about doing Mass effect (1) again. And HAWX might work. (mass effect2 lists a x1600 in min spec, so I doubt I could luck into getting both me1 and me2) I might even have a go at some OLD games I've not played scince I went vista (now win 7 on sigrig).... Crimson Skies, Star lancer, Freelancer. But as I've got a 1920x1200 100FPS dx10 habit I might not get in the mood. (last time I tried a retro game I was put off by the ugly grapics) Any good games (besides steam games) that would be good on this lappy? Without looking like a Nintendo 64 reject? thanks for any ideas.
Buy Morrowind and sink your holiday into its wonderous atmospheric retro charm. Especially apt given that you'll be in Wales - the game's aesthetic and tone (swords, strange elven voices, rain, marshlands) suits Wales rather well. That's assuming you like RPGs. If not, get Unreal Tournament (I say 'get' rather than 'buy' because frankly the time when the developers would benefit from your purchase ended about 15 years ago). That'll run on anything and has truly excellent gameplay and some of the best maps in any FPS. edit: if you really can't stand not having lovely graphics, get Bioshock. It's an absorbing story, a lot of FPS action and it looks amazing and runs on anything. And it's offline.
The Half Life 2 games should run just fine on that system. Admittedly, you need to have Steam, but if you set it to offline mode before you go, and tell it to start as such, there shouldn't be any problems. Also in the land of FPS games, Quake 4 is pretty fun. Return To Castle Wolfenstein is also one of my old school favourites. I used to play that and Enemy Territory on a 2.1ghz Sempron with a Geforce 6200 and 1GB of RAM, so you should be fine. There's Deus Ex, of course. There's always Deus Ex. Edit: If you are lucky, you might even get L4D running at sub-native and the pretties off.
If I were you I wouldn't play any FPS on a laptop. The screens are terrible for this kind of game. StarCraft II could run easily on this machine Psychonauts would be good to entertain you for a while
THanks for the ideas. The steam games work OK: Portal-HL2-L4D-L4D2 I've set steam to offline, so should be good. I've also got "gratuitous space battles" (GSB) for £5 for a bit of logic workout. Mass effect 1 and Hawx work at an exceptable level, so have been installed and tested. I've completed Deus_Ex more times that I care to imagine (15~20 at a guess), I'll leave the replay until Human revoution is due out. I really liked Fallout 3 and it's another game I've completed about 10 times (inc expansions) But I've never done the other big Bethesda Games, Morrowind or Elder scrolls. Always on my list, may well be worth a look. I'll also look into starcaft & psychonauts, though psychonauts looks a bit platformy. Saying that I thought Trine looked OK. Might have a go at few platformers then. Hell I didn't think I'd EVER play stategy, but I really lie GSB. The screen is fine for dx 8~9 games and glare is not a problem, the biggest problems are RSI as it puts your hands at a funny angle and cooking your b()ll()cks. The trakpad needs to be turned off, and headphones are a must. BUT: If it were a case of use the laptop or no games for a weeks while stuck in a cottage in Wales. Laptop wins. By a large margin.
