Game suggestions for a rubbish PC

punky_munky · 15 May 2006 at 22:19

First off I haven't played a PC game for a good few years so be kind (I'm a Mac convert). I've still got my old PC which is an Athlon 1600xp with 256mb RAM (I'll probably up it to 512mb if the price is right). My friend is giving me his old graphics card, it's a Geforce4 TI something or other. I know this spec isn't anywhere near good enough for the latest games but if you could perhaps suggest good 'uns that I might have missed out on (that will run on this spec, I don't mind having it on lowish settings) I would be grateful.

PS, apologies if this thread has been done to death, I don't frequent the dark side of the games forums often.

Darkwave · 15 May 2006 at 22:23

I used to play Medal Of Honour: Allied Assault on a system much worse than that, but same graphics card. Lots of fun.

DaveyD · 15 May 2006 at 22:24

Half-Life !

Darkwave · 15 May 2006 at 22:28

DaveyD said:
Half-Life !

Good idea!

Poolybit · 15 May 2006 at 22:37

Depends if you've got broadband pumping into your house, if you have there is a few good older multiplayer games out there - CS should run on low to alright settings, if not then Rouge Spears a good single player FPS for older machines. Depends on what game style you like to be honest?

Flibster · 15 May 2006 at 22:49

Unreal Tournament
Deux-Ex
Sin
Quake 3
Half Life
Bladerunner
Sonic collection
Alien Vs predator
Alien Vs predator 2
MDK
MDK2
Syndicate Wars
No-one Lives Forever
No-one Lives Forever 2
Pirates!

Errr.....

Poolybit · 15 May 2006 at 22:51

Unreal Tournament and Deus Ex...Good shouts.

RichL · 15 May 2006 at 22:52

Max Payne 2 will run fine on that system.

Yewen · 15 May 2006 at 22:59

Any of the RTS games bar Age of Empires 3, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War is a really good laugh and will run easily on that rig with a GF4.

Rome Total War may also be one to try, try the demo first mind.

punky_munky · 15 May 2006 at 23:07

Flibster said:
Unreal Tournament
Deux-Ex
Sin
Quake 3
Half Life
Bladerunner
Sonic collection
Alien Vs predator
Alien Vs predator 2
MDK
MDK2
Syndicate Wars
No-one Lives Forever
No-one Lives Forever 2
Pirates!

Errr.....

Aren't those all ancient? I seem to remember playing most of those years ago either on PlayStation or PC... This spec can't be that bad can it?

Flibster · 15 May 2006 at 23:51

punky_munky said:
Aren't those all ancient? I seem to remember playing most of those years ago either on PlayStation or PC... This spec can't be that bad can it?

Admittadly some of them are very old indeed *Syndicate Wars* But they're all great.

Run them in a higher res - they're still some of the best games ever.

It's not that bad spec wise - but those are still some of the games I go back to again and again.

Forgot Z:Steel Soldiers and Z:2 in the list though. :eek:

Simon/~Flibster

HangTime · 15 May 2006 at 23:55

punky_munky said:
Aren't those all ancient? I seem to remember playing most of those years ago either on PlayStation or PC... This spec can't be that bad can it?

Quite a few of them are very good games though.

My recommendations:

GTA3
Deus Ex
Unreal
Halflife
NOLF2
Need for Speed: Porsche 2000/Hot Pursuit 2
Command and Conquer: The First Decade
Freespace 2
Max Payne 1 & 2
Star Wars Jedi Knight III: Jedi Academy
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Fahrenheit
Medal of Honour: Allied Assault

To be honest the main thing which is letting that system down is the RAM, a couple of those titles might stutter a little with only 256meg. Add a 512 stick to bring yourself up to 768meg and you should have a nicely balanced rig.

punky_munky · 15 May 2006 at 23:56

Ooh, good call on KoTR. I've fancied that for a while. If I stuck more in RAM in would it be up to Half Life 2 or is that pushing it?

Poolybit · 15 May 2006 at 23:59

You'd be lucky if it ran Half Life 2 with a FPS near to anything playable in my opinion...

HangTime · 16 May 2006 at 00:04

With 768meg RAM HL2 would be playable IMO as long as you are realistic with the settings, i.e. 800x600 medium or thereabouts.

It scales reasonably well on low-end hardware and as long as your gf4 isn't an MX (i.e. ti4200 or better) it should be fine

Yewen · 16 May 2006 at 00:05

Poolybit said:
You'd be lucky if it ran Half Life 2 with a FPS near to anything playable in my opinion...

Duron 800mhz, 512mb ram, GF2mx.

That ran HL2.

Poolybit · 16 May 2006 at 00:06

I stand corrected

FrenchTart · 16 May 2006 at 00:54

Ditto - I have a few spare PCs I lend to people for LANs and they tend to have gf4ti4200s, 512MB of ram and XP2100s in and they run HL2 (and even FEAR!) well enough. Obviously you can't have the highest settings but the game is surprisngly non-ugly and non-chuggy on them.

VeNT · 16 May 2006 at 01:10

homeworld 1/2
Dawn Of War

eve

dirtydog · 16 May 2006 at 08:02

Yeah the Geforce4 Ti isn't a problem for HL2 (I've run it on one of those, and you can run at 1024x768 with full detail at a good framerate, amazingly enough - albeit with a P4 2.6C and 1GB of PC3200) but the CPU might be a bit slow, as might the RAM if it isn't DDR (some early AXP systems weren't). More RAM than 256 is definitely required anyway.