Games with playability before visuals

Still took a powerful CPU of the time to run it though. My PC could barely run it at all at the time.

Trying to remember what I had at the time , I think I had a AMD K6-3 400mhz@450mhz and Geforce 256 DDR 32mb, I think it was 2001 I upgraded to 1ghz T-bird and Geforce 4 ti4600. Back when every card vendor had there own drivers. I also remember driver updates making a massive difference of Deus Ex.
 
That looks interesting, although £22 seems a bit steep. Added to Steam wishlist :)
£22 is a bargain for the truest sandbox game I've ever seen. Freedom is an understatement!

You'll get your head kicked in constantly early game though, and you never get to that RPG god status you do in more conventional RPGs!
 
Personally, I thought Deus Ex looked very good for the time. Amazing gameplay. I still do a full playthrough of it every year or so.
 
Original Doom really wasnt terrible graphics in its day, they did a lot for running just off a basic cpu.

I'm going to say a similar title of that era, in fact I think its 16 color EGA graphics not even VGA so people are really going to reject it outright without playing for that reason but I dont say it lightly. I havent played a better version of that type since and thats bonkers but the game has a great feel to it imo, square vector wheels and all. It will work on a modern PC - StuntCarRacer
30 years old this year


Loved stuntcar racer was such a great game.. lost sooo much time playing this
 
I'd agree with a good number of suggestions in this thread but avoiding repetition I'd say;

Live for Speed - If you're in to your sim racing then it is still up there for me as one of the best. Graphically it's old though you can get fan made high res textures which improves things without too much of a hit to FPS. Handling / physics models are a little subjective but I think LFS still has one of the best.

Modded Minecraft - I know Minecraft was suggested above but I'd add to it and say specifically Minecraft with mods. I don't mind vanilla MC but the mechanics are lacking which are where mods come in. Specifically I'd lean towards the 'kitchen sink' mod packs like the FTB ones as they are (mostly) cohesive packs but there's loads out there. They add machine complexity, automation, magic, more mobs/bosses, rpg elements, story driven worlds etc. The one I'm looking forward to is TangoTek's villager mod if/when it gets released as it will involve building a working village, adding villagers who will to do their specific tasks - farm, chop wood, mining, blacksmithing etc. so it's more strategy-esque.
 
Yeah. Such a great game. Shame they messed up Mankind Divided.

Let’s hope Cyberpunk 2077 can beat it.

Didn't like MD that much, need to revisit at some point. Then again, I even found Human Revolution too dumbed down compared to the original Deus Ex.

I remember when it came out, everyone raving about Half Life, I found it very "meh" compared to DE.
 
Didn't like MD that much, need to revisit at some point. Then again, I even found Human Revolution too dumbed down compared to the original Deus Ex.

I remember when it came out, everyone raving about Half Life, I found it very "meh" compared to DE.

DE:HR was good, but not in the same class as the original. I revisit and replay DE every few years, not had the urge to replay DE:HR. I still enjoyed both DE:HR and MD, but they just don’t compare in terms of story.

Half Life I only played once or twice, enjoyed HL2 and the episodes more. They also are not as good as DE I agree, but I still enjoyed playing them.
 
I give another vote for Kenshi, they did a great job imbuing a sense of scale in the world. The visuals are average at best but you still get those wow moments when exploring, I remember going to the desert, seeing sand dunes as far as the eye could see and having to stop for a minute to process what I was about to get myself into.

Mount & Blade is another for me, basic visuals even when it was released but the game is so fun that I still go back to play it every few months.
 
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