PC games, your essential list

[Eel O'Brian]

looking for classics I might have missed that I can play on my weakass laptop

HP Pavilion dv6810us Entertainment Notebook PC, OS is Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1

AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-60 (2.0 GHz, 512KB+512KB L2 Cache)
3 gigs RAM
Nvidia GeForce Go 7150M (I set it to 128 mb dedicated video memory in the BIOS)

if you need a guideline, it runs Company of Heroes fine at 1024x768 with most settings on low (some turned off)


I already own:

Warcraft & Warcraft 2
Starcraft
Diablo
BF1942 & Expansions
Blade Runner
Medal of Honor (all)
Call of Duty and UO expansion
Company of Heroes (looks like poo but plays well)
Silent Storm
Red Orchestra
Soldiers: Heroes of WWII

[T234]

Q3A or OpenArena
Warsow
Warcraft 3

[duckman2000]

Deus Ex. It's ugly, but its atmosphere, adaptive skill system, openness and reward for exploration is still unmatched.

[crimsondynamics]

Civilization 2, 3 or 4.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Trinity
A Mind Forever Voyaging
Planescape: Torment

[trh]

Starcraft
Diablo 2
Company of Heroes
Quake 3
Grim Fandango
Titan Quest
Civ 4

Q3A or OpenArena
Warsow
Warcraft 3

(Although I mainly race)

[Herr Mafflard]

Counter-Strike

[crimsondynamics]

If you like driving games, you can't go wrong with Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed.

[Mondain]

get Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines with the unnoficial patches NOW

[Darunia]

I'm impressed you mentioned Blade Runner in the OP, such an awesome adventure. I was glued to that thing when it came out and I hadn't even seen the movie. I'm even inclined to say something sacriligious here but I won't :p

Anyway thread has seen no mentions of Monkey Island games, Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle so I'm doing that now

[crimsondynamics]

Well, come to think of it, what are your notebook's specs?

It'd help to see whether you can run some more graphically- or cpu-intensive games or not...

Oh, and Warcraft III - that is, if your lappy can handle it (no idea though).

[CajoleJuice]

*bookmarks thread*

And WC3 will work if CoH works.

[Darunia]

Also, I don't know how you guys feel about it but i LOVE painkiller

wooden stake weapon ftw

and this giant boss



butt rock soundtrack <3

[CajoleJuice]

Butt rock you say? I'm there.

Also, no one has said Orange Box?

[crimsondynamics]

How could I forget? Painkiller rocks in a serious way. I wish Doom 3 would have had the amount of monsters in the game that Painkiller had in one level!

If I'm not mistaken, Painkiller was also one of the first shooters to employ physics and destructible / interactive environments, although it added zilch to the overall gameplay. (A prime example of having the tech, but not knowing what the hell to do with it).

[ToxicAdam]

Arx Fatalis is a nice throwback FRPG.

SimGolf (Sid Meier game, it rocks)

[Solo]

Obviously you must get the greatest game ever made, Deus Ex.

[tiesto]

Cave Story, rRootage, Warning Forever, Knytt Stories, Ys I and II Eternal, Ys: The Oath in Felghana, Ys Origin, Unreal Tournament 99, Unreal Tournament 04, Orange Box, and all the old SCUMM graphic adventures

[Eel O'Brian]

ha, yeah, forgot all about adding my specs, will edit into the OP

HP Pavilion dv6810us Entertainment Notebook PC, OS is Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1

AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-60 (2.0 GHz, 512KB+512KB L2 Cache)
3 gigs RAM
Nvidia GeForce Go 7150M (I set it to 128 mb dedicated video memory in the BIOS)

if you need a guideline, it runs Company of Heroes fine at 1024x768 with most settings on low (some turned off)



I've really liked it so far, after rebates and discounts at Circuit City I ended up paying $630

thanks, guys, keep em coming, i'm making an "essentials" list

the only problems i see are being able to track down some of the older games I want to play, and vista compatibility

Darunia:  Yeah, I got Blade Runner as a Christmas gift the year it came out, don't think i moved from my desk for about three days afterwards

[crimsondynamics]

Not sure what a 7150 is comparable to in terms of performance, but I would try upping the memory to 256mb and see if that improves your framerates or gaming performance overall.

It can't hurt to try, and it should be simple enough with a BIOS setting change. Then test your fps with Fraps.

If you can net a measurable gain, you can perhaps tackle more demanding games. CPU-wise, you should be fine, and I don't think your GPU is a slouch since you are just running at 1024x768 (is that native resolution?).

[Eel O'Brian]

Not sure what a 7150 is comparable to in terms of performance, but I would try upping the memory to 256mb and see if that improves your framerates or gaming performance overall.

It can't hurt to try, and it should be simple enough with a BIOS setting change. Then test your fps with Fraps.

If you can net a measurable gain, you can perhaps tackle more demanding games. CPU-wise, you should be fine, and I don't think your GPU is a slouch since you are just running at 1024x768 (is that native resolution?).

it doesn't give me the option in the BIOS for setting dedicated video memory above 128, is there some sort of BIOS program I can use to tweak it further (supposedly this thing has up to 1071MB Total Available Graphics Memory, but who knows what that really means)

no, native res is 1280x800

thanks for the advice

[T234]

Starcraft
Diablo 2
Company of Heroes
Quake 3
Grim Fandango
Titan Quest
Civ 4

Q3A or OpenArena
Warsow
Warcraft 3

(Although I mainly race)

You ain't one of those racers that are bitching about .4, are you?

[Kestastrophe]

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War

[trippingmartian]

SWAT 4 + Expansion - best tactical shooter of all time. Realism mod makes this even better.

Also: +1 for Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (although I had no problems playing with the offical patch release on Steam)

[Phoenix Dark]

that chex game id stole the doom engine from

[Raban]

Half-Life 1, Opposing Force and Blue Shift
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
MDK2
Grim Fandango, but it's wonky with XP.

[Joe Molotov]

+1 for Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

+ 2

Also some random games that come to mind: (I mostly play adventure games)

* Scratches - Best horror adventure game ever.
* Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father - Best 2D adventure game ever.
* The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Adventure - Best FMV adventure game ever.
* Gabriel Knight: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned - Best 3D adventure game ever.
* Bad Mojo - Best cockroach-based adventure game ever.
* Realms of the Haunting - Best cheesy FMV Epic Lovecraftian Horror FPS/Adventure game ever.
* Anachronox - A good RPG, if you can wade through the bugs.

Which reminds me, I need to rebuy Realms of the Haunting off ebay or something. I loaned to a friend and I never got it back. Man, that game was so awesome.

[demi]

Get somenice point and click games

* Shivers
* Scratches

[crimsondynamics]

SWAT 4 + Expansion - best tactical shooter of all time. Realism mod makes this even better.

SWAT 4 is an amazing game if you're into tactical shooters. The level of replayability is incredibly high, since the number of enemies (can vary by as much as 100%; in one playthrough there can be, say, 8 enemies, while the next playthrough will challenge you with 16 hostiles), the location of the enemies, the number of civilians / hostages and their locations change with each playthrough.

That, plus your choice of entry points (primary or secondary), and the type of equipment you opt to tackle each mission with, make this the sleeper tactical shooter to date. Rainbox Six has nothing on SWAT 4 IMO. On the highest difficulty, one well-placed shot and you're gone. No medikits, no adrenaline injections. Just gone. Better be prepared to play as a team. Awesome awesome. Did I say it is awesome?

Oh, also, since your hardware can run it, you'd be missing out on a fantastic third-person stealth shooter: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.

Both SWAT 4 and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory are great singleplayer experiences, but SWAT 4 multiplayer cooperative and Chaos Theory two-player cooperative modes are simply incredible fun.

[demi]

Uh... sure, dude. Mind explaining why? Don't catch feelings cause you got owned in your ME thread.

[Smooth Groove]

Eel, since you're a big fan of WW2 games, I'd recommend the IL-2 Sturmovik games. 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014ZP424

[Mondain]

is there a whole lot of planning to do in SWAT 4

and does it support widescreen resolutions

[Smooth Groove]

Check out http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page for widescreen gaming needs.

There are lots of hacks for games that don't have native WS support. 

[trippingmartian]

I usually get around aspect ratio by changing strings in the CFG or INI files. I think that's how it worked in SWAT 4's case.

[trh]

You ain't one of those racers that are bitching about .4, are you?

try .04 and you'd be closer

[crimsondynamics]

Unfortunately to the best of my knowledge SWAT 4 doesn't support widescreen - only 1600x1200 stretched (that's for my 1920x1200 display). It will stretch the aspect ratio to fill the screen though, and it doesn't look half bad.

There isn't that much planning to do apart from choosing your weapons. It's more about taking your time and knowing when to take calculated risks.

[Raban]

I usually get around aspect ratio by changing strings in the CFG or INI files. I think that's how it worked in SWAT 4's case.

Have you read this? I wanna read some more Batman and I saw the HC edition at my Borders. Is it good? The art is neat.

[Rman]

Starcraft
Doom
Quake Arena
Cannon Fodder

I haven't played PC extensively games in a long time, but these are among my favorites.

[T234]

You ain't one of those racers that are bitching about .4, are you?

try .04 and you'd be closer

The latest release is .42

[Don Flamenco]

Everyone has said everything, so I'll just add Noitu Love 2.

[trippingmartian]

I usually get around aspect ratio by changing strings in the CFG or INI files. I think that's how it worked in SWAT 4's case.

(Image removed from quote.)

Have you read this? I wanna read some more Batman and I saw the HC edition at my Borders. Is it good? The art is neat.

I think it's worth it for the art alone, but I'm a bit of a Cooke fanboy at the moment. The stories are much more noir than superhero, so if that sounds like your cup of tea, definitely check it out.

[Mr. Gundam]

  TIE fighter 

[Raban]

I usually get around aspect ratio by changing strings in the CFG or INI files. I think that's how it worked in SWAT 4's case.

(Image removed from quote.)

Have you read this? I wanna read some more Batman and I saw the HC edition at my Borders. Is it good? The art is neat.

I think it's worth it for the art alone, but I'm a bit of a Cooke fanboy at the moment. The stories are much more noir than superhero, so if that sounds like your cup of tea, definitely check it out.

From the cover, I already dig the art. And noir is sexy if it's in Batman. I'm getting it.

[Joe Molotov]

Get somenice point and click games

* Shivers
* Scratches

SHIT GAMES

Shit taste confirmed.

No really, those are like the worst adv. titles one could recommend.

I don't remember much about Shivers, but Scratches was an awesome game.

[Smooth Groove]

Descent Freespace 2 pwns all Star Wars space sims.  Too bad few gamers seem to remember it.   

[drew]

TIE fighter 

OH HELL YEAH

x-wing was AAA as well.  Also:  Descent

[demi]

Speaking of Star Wars

THE JEDI KNIGHT TRILOGY

Dark Forces II Jedi Knight
Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast
Jedi Knight III Jedi Academy

Love them

[trh]

You ain't one of those racers that are bitching about .4, are you?

try .04 and you'd be closer

The latest release is .42

I thought we were talking about milliseconds

But no, I don't really care about 0.4, it's flawed but whatever. I only started playing after 0.4 was released so I'm used to it.

[Raban]

JK3 was a fucking marvel of Star Wars videogames, completely overlooked by homos with no knowledge. I'd rather have JK4 built in the Source engine, tbh. They need to keep character creation in, but make the game alot less linear, and let you actually kill important characters, instead of survive being crushed by a ton of boulders.

[Smooth Groove]

JK3 was mostly ignored because of its outdated graphics.  Even JK2 didn't look all that good in its time.  Recycling JK2's engine simply wasn't a good idea.