# Great Games that don't need great hardware to run



## zijin_cheng (Oct 15, 2007)

Here is a list of great and popular games that don't need great hardware to run. Any games suggested should run on a 1.7ghz athlon 2000+, 768ram and a geforce 6600. Post a reply if you want any games added to this list.

7 Kingdoms Conquest
Advent Rising
Age of Empires 1 & 2
Age of Mythology + Titans expansion
Alien vs. Predator 1 & 2
Allegiance
America's Army
American McGee's Alice
American McGee's Scrapland
Area 51
Armed and Dangerous
Argametron
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2
Battlefield 1942
Battlefield 2 + all expansions
Battlefield 2142
Battlestation Midway
Beyond Divinity
Beyond Good & Evil
Black & White
Blood 1 & 2 + all expansions
Blood Omen 1 & 2
Breath Of Fire IV
Broken Sword (all)
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood
Caesar 1-3
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of The Earth
Call of Duty (all) + all expansions
Cavestory
Carmageddon(all)
Carnivores 1 & 2
Chaos Legion
Chessmaster (all)
Chromium
CIty of Heroes + all expansions
Cityscope
Clive Barker's Undying
Codename Panzers (all)
Cold War
Combat Mission (all)
Command & Conquer (all)
Commandos (all)
Colin McRae's Rally (all)
Counter-Strike & Counter-Strike: Source(w\dx 7 and dx8\8.1 hardware levels)
Crimson Skies
Crusader: No Remorse
Crusader: No Regrets
Dark Reign (all)
Darwinia
Dawn of War + all expansions
Day of Defeat + DoD: Source 
Day of the Tentacle
Delta Force: Black Hawk Down
Descent (all)
Desperados
Deus Ex 1 & 2
Devil May Cry 3
Diablo 1 & 2
Diner Dash
Doom 1 & 2
Doom 3 (only on low settings and with performance tweaks)
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Driver: Parallel Lines
Duke Nukem 3D + all expansions
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
Dune (all)
Dungeon Keeper (all)
Dungeon Lords
Dungeon Siege 1 & 2
Dynasty Warriors 4 Hyper
Empire Earth (all)
Emperor: Rise of the middle kingdom
Europa Universalis
Everquest (all)
Evil Genius
Fable: The Lost Chapters
Final Fantasy VII and VIII
Fahrenheit\Indigo Prophecy
Fallout 1 & 2
Fallout: Tactics
Far Cry
Fate
F.E.A.R. including all expansions (good performance only achieved by forcing DX8 shaders)
F.I.F.A. (all)
F.I.F.A. Street (all)
Flatout
Freedom Force 1 & 2
Freespace 1 & 2
Frogger
Full Spectrum Warrior
Full Throttle
Gabriel Knight (all)
Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords
Galactics Civilizations II: Dark Avatar
Geneforge (all)
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Globetrotter
Gothic 1 & 2
Grand Theft Auto (all)
Grandia II
Grim Fandango(my personal fave)
Ground Control 1 & 2
GTR (all)
Guild Wars
Gun Metal
Gunroar (get it free at www.sourceforge.net)
Gunz Online
Half Life + all expansions
Half Life 2 + all episodes
Halo 1 & 2
Hearts of Iron (all)
Hegemonia
Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2
Heroes of Might & Magic(all)
Hidden and Dangerous
Hitman (all)
Homeworld
Homeworld: Cataclysm
Icewind Dale 1 & 2
Ironman (2008)
Imperium Galactica (all)
Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis
Keepsake
Kohan (all)
Legacy of Kain: Defiance
Lego Star Wars (All)
Loom
Lock-On Air Combat
Lords of War
Madden NFL (all)
Mafia
Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure
Marine Sharpshooter 3
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Master of Magic
Master of Orion (all)
Max Payne 1 & 2
Mechwarrior 4 : Vengeance
Medal of Honor(all)
Medieval: Total War (all)
Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2
Midnight Club (all)
Midtown Madness (all)
Monkey island (all)
Motocross Madness (all)
Myst (all)
NBA Live (all)
Need for Speed (all)
Neverwinter Nights + all expansions
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
NHL (all)
No One Lives Forever 1 & 2
Nox
Oddworld (all)
O.R.B.
Pacific Fighters
Pharaoh
Prince of Persia (all)
Populous 1 & 2
Planetscape: Torment
Pro Evolution Soccer (all)
Project IGI
Psi-Ops (all)
Psychonauts
Quake 1-4
Rakion
Radiosurf
Recoil
Rainbow Six 1-3 + all expansions
Red Faction (all)
Resident Evil (all)
Ricochet
Rise of Nations + all expansions
Return to Castle Wolfenstein + Enemy Territory
Rogue Trooper
Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 & 2 + all expansions
Rome: Total War
Sam & Max (all)
Sacrifice
Savage (Get it free at www.s2games.com)
Sea Dogs
Second Sight
Septerra Core
Serious Sam (all)
Severance: Blade of Darkness
Shogun: Total War
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Sid Meier's Antietam!
Sid Meier's Civilization series
Sid Meier's Pirates
Silent Hill (all)
Simcity (all)
Simon the Sorcerer 1 & 2
SiN
Sins of a Solar Empire
Sniper Elite
Spider-Man (movie version and comic-based version)
Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro
Soldier of Fortune 1 & 2
Soul Reaver 1 & 2
Space Empires IV
Splinter Cell 1 & 2
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Starcraft + Brood Wars
Starsiege Tribes (all)
Startopia
Star Wars: Battlefronts
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Star Wars: Galaxies(all)
Star Wars Jedi Knight (all)
Star Wars: KotOR (all)
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Star Wars: Starfighter
Still Life
Stronghold
Stronghold: Crusader
Supreme Commander
S.W.A.T. (all)
Syberia 1 & 2
System Shock 1 & 2
Team Fortess Classic
Test Drive 6
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
The Chzo Mythos (All, available here (http://www.fullyramblomatic.com)) 
The Dig
The Elder Scrolls: Arena (free at http://www.elderscrolls.com, needs DosBOX)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (With Oldblivion, available here (www.oldblivion.com))
The Godfather
The Longest Journey
The Lord of The Rings (all)
The Movies + all expansions
The Orange Box (all games)
The Sims + all expansions
The Sims 2
The Yahtzee Trilogy (available here (http://www.fullyramblomatic.com))
Thief (all)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour
TOCA Race Driver (all)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon + all expansions
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 1-3
Tomb Raider (all)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (all)
Total Annihilation (all)
Tribes (all)
Tron 2.0
True Crime: Streets of L.A.
Tropico 1 & 2
Universe at War: Earth Assault
Uplink: Hacker Elite a.k.a. Uplink: Trust is a Weakness
Unreal 1 & 2
Unreal Tournament GOTY Edition
Unreal Tournament 2003 & 2004
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos + The Frozen Throne
Warhammer 40,000 (all)
Warlords (all)
Warsow
War Wind 1 & 2
World of Warcraft + The Burning Crusade
World in Conflict
Worms 1-3 + all expansions
XIII
X-Men Legends (all)
Zeus: Master of Olympus



This is an expanded and more detailed list of the thread in techspot. http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-56976-Great-games-that-dont-need-great-hardware-to-run.html


----------



## spicas (Aug 12, 2008)

on the lists, which would you recommend as to its excitement & graphics?


----------



## bruiser (Jul 30, 2005)

spicas said:


> on the lists, which would you recommend as to its excitement & graphics?


Half Life and Far Cry


----------



## zijin_cheng (Oct 15, 2007)

personally, i would recommend call of duty 4. its non stop action, never a moment of standing still......the only downside is the short campaign, but theres still multiplayer!


----------



## Indoril Nerevar (Jan 7, 2006)

I can tell you right now that there are plenty of games on that list which I would *never* want to try to run on an Athlon 2000+ with 768MB of RAM and a GeForce 6600.

zijin cheng, have you actually installed and played every single game on that list on the proposed system? If you're not the original writer of the list (I haven't followed the link), then has that person actually installed an played all these games on the proposed system? I think you'll find that while _most_ of them will play on the system, there are at least some that won't run at all. And of those that do run, many of them will not be pretty.

For example, you've got Supreme Commander listed. Take a look at my system specs (on the left under "My System"). SupCom runs on my system, but lags like mad when the unit count gets up to "decent army size". Multiplayer games are simply not possible unless you "rush", which not everybody wants to do. I find it extremely hard to believe that SupCom would be playable on the system you propose...

Other than Crysis, are there any games which _aren't_ on your list???


----------



## zijin_cheng (Oct 15, 2007)

Basically, i've installed and played all the newer games on the list, i mean, games like diner dash and lego star wars, duh, they would run on my system, but games with at least a 2.0ghz, 512ram i've played them all. 

bascially, these are the ones i've played on my system (look at my sig), toca, prostreet, stalker, orange box, should be proof enough that all the games run on my system (most on medium settings, some medium/low). one more thing, my video card never heats up. it only gets maybe 10-15 degrees above idle when i'm playing.

Games that i've borrowed and tried and failed would be assassin's creed (duh), sof3 payback, denied ops, frontlines and vegas. bascially, anything above a pentium 4 2.4ghz would not work. if 1gb needed, 768 is usually enough to work with, and my video card creams all!!!! Mwahaha!!!
Oh, 1 more thing, how do i edit the original post to add games? Can't seem to find the link


----------



## Laurie52 (Dec 25, 2007)

RUNE
Rune:Halls of Valhalla

Heretic 2
Heavy Metal FAKK2


----------



## Indoril Nerevar (Jan 7, 2006)

zijin chng said:


> bascially, these are the ones i've played on my system (look at my sig), toca, prostreet, stalker, orange box, should be proof enough that all the games run on my system


I'm sorry, but no, that's nowhere near enough proof. You can't test half a dozen games, and then claim that 260 other games will also run on your system.

Each game is completely different in how it runs and what aspects of the computer it taxes. For example, Crysis takes a lot out of the video card, due to its high graphics detail, but Supreme Commander is CPU-heavy, due to the way the AI and pathing work.

A much better way of working out if your system can run a particular game is to look at the minimum requirements for that game. If your system specs are as good as or higher than the minimum specs, then the game should at least _run_. *That doesn't mean that it will run nicely.* More important to look at are the recommended system specs. They will tell you what you should have to play the game at medium settings or higher.


----------



## zijin_cheng (Oct 15, 2007)

Ok, let my rephrase my answer. I have tested all the top end games of this list. All the top end games on this list (basically 2.0ghz 512ram 128vram or higher) work perfectly with no glitches or graphical slowdowns. the lower end games obviously work on my computer. 
I mean..., if worms 1 doesn't work on my computer, then i'm dead.
What i'm trying to say is that if my computer can handle the higher end games, they definitely can handle the lower end games as well.
Oh, and how do i edit my first post?


----------



## XCII (Aug 3, 2008)

I'm almost certain all those games there will not play perfectly.

I run a GeForce 7300 card, I have to adjust settings on HL2 games to be able to play with a nice smooth run.

But other than that, some games I do agree on, and can be exciting to play :wink: .


----------



## Indoril Nerevar (Jan 7, 2006)

zijin cheng said:


> I have tested all the top end games of this list.


Buy Supreme Commander and give it a try, and get back to me with the results.

Sorry, but you can't edit your post. There's a 30 minute timeframe after posting where you're allowed to edit, but after that the option is disabled.


----------



## zijin_cheng (Oct 15, 2007)

gwarrrr, i can't edit my post? nooo, anyways, i have the demo of supcom, it plays ok, probably because you can't create so many units at once. i've only created maybe a max of 20 of the 2 legged things, thats it


----------



## Indoril Nerevar (Jan 7, 2006)

What detail settings and resolution do you have the demo at?


----------



## zijin_cheng (Oct 15, 2007)

most likely 1024 768, i hate 800 600 unless i absolutely have to... settings were probably medium low..... it isn't that fun, compared to company of heroes, takes way to long to attack the enemy, espiecially on the 5 by 5 mile map, took my 2 legged things 6 minutes to go halfway across the map.


----------



## maniot (Aug 19, 2008)

Thanks for giving such an useful gaming list. I didn't feel that there is exception in the gaming list.Carry on your good work.
-----------------------------------------------

********
[REMOVED SPAM. NEXT TIME YOU'LL BE BANNED]


----------



## RockmasteR (Aug 10, 2007)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl in on the list!!!!!!!!!!

that game is a real PC a** kicker, I played it on my PC with Celeron D 2.6 GHZ and 1 Gig Ram, Geforce 7100 GS, low settings....


----------



## RockmasteR (Aug 10, 2007)

U can add Cold Fear, it's a great game that doesn't need a great PC to run


----------



## Cellus (Aug 31, 2006)

The demo of SupCom comes with the piddly 2-player 5km x 5km MP map. Any battles beyond simple skirmishes on bigger maps with more players will _destroy_ your PC. The Happy Hardware God will literally dance on its smoldering ashes.

The thing with SupCom is it scales significantly. Once you start playing on bigger maps, have bigger armies, and bigger battles, the system resources required increases by sheer orders of magnitude. I remember playing SupCom on a Athlon 1.6Ghz, 1GB RAM, and a Radeon 9800 Pro on 1024x768 on low settings, and it would decimate framerate with larger battles.

As a point of comparison I've played massive battles in SupCom FA on high settings and my framerate can and will drop below 30 or more (see my rig specs under the My System tab below my avatar). Granted SupCom FA is slightly prettier than the original SupCom, but not by much.

I've played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on my old rig at 1024x768 and framerate would easily hit 15 or lower around 50% of the time. Don't get me wrong, back then I considered an FPS 15-30 to actually be bareable, but it certainly hurts the true potential of the game significantly.


----------



## ebackhus (Apr 21, 2005)

RockmasteR said:


> S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl in on the list!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> that game is a real PC a** kicker, I played it on my PC with Celeron D 2.6 GHZ and 1 Gig Ram, Geforce 7100 GS, low settings....


With those specs I'd expect poor performance. On my rig, shown under My System), I was getting great performance at 1680x1050 with high settings.


----------



## IanS (Aug 25, 2006)

Does this mean that games like Myst, which I've had on the shelf for years and not looked at, will still run okay on Vista?

Or are there newer versions of this out?

The spec required on the box I have says Win98 as the most recent.
I'd love to go back to some of those old Myst games. Never did get to the bottom of Exile...


----------



## dm01 (Oct 10, 2006)

Prince of Persia: (All except 2008) should be on the list. 2008 requires SM3 (which I found out I _don't_ have when I tried to install BioShock).

You don't have Simon the Sorcerer: 3D or Simon the Sorcerer 4: Chaos Happens.

If you want to play old games, use ScummVM [www.scummvm.org] or DOSBox [http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1]


----------



## zijin_cheng (Oct 15, 2007)

the 6600 has sm3, thats why it can play games like bioshock and cod4


----------



## Aus_Karlos (Mar 10, 2007)

If you bump the resolution above 1024x768 you will find that those games will crawl on the system you have specified.
The 6600 is the minimum recommend card to run these games any way. But you wont be able to play smoothly over anything but low and still maintain a frame rate above 30.


----------



## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

more than a quarter of those games won't work this thread is a bust

you have a really low end card

I saw GTA (all) HAHAHAH! omg you expect to be able to run GTA 4 on your comp?

this site usually does a good job showing what they think the true minimum specs are
http://www.yougamers.com/


----------

