Cool Games That Wont Need Great Hardware To RUN!

[Terano]

 

 

Tell me if any games are missing and I shall update the list as frequently as possible. Any games suggested should work on a Pentium IV 1.7GHz CPU and a GeForce 6200 card. Thanks for all the contributions and I hope this helps everyone with a very old PC who wants some good games to play.

 

•Advent Rising

 

•Age of Empires 1 & 2

 

•Age of Mythology + Titans expansion

 

•Alien Arena (free, available here)

 

•Alien vs. Predator 1 & 2

 

•Allegiance

 

•Altitude

 

•America's Army

 

•American McGee's Alice

 

•American McGee's Scrapland

 

•Amnesia: The Dark Descent

 

•Area 51 (available for free here)

 

•Argametron

 

•Audiosurf

 

•Avernum

 

•Baldur's Gate 1 & 2

 

•Battle Realms

 

•Battlefield 1942

 

•Battlefield 2

 

•Battlefield Heroes (get it for free here)

 

•Battlestation Midway

 

•Beyond Divinity

 

•Beyond Good & Evil

 

•Black & White

 

•Blade & Sword

 

•Blood 1 & 2 + all expansions

 

•Blood Omen 1 & 2

 

•Braid

 

•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 upto MW2)

 

•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

 

•Cold Fear

 

•Combat Mission (all)

 

•Command & Conquer (all)

 

•Commander Keen (all)

 

•Commandos (all)

 

•Colin McRae's Rally (all)

 

•Counter-Strike & Counter-Strike: Source(w\dx 7 and dx8\8.1 hardware levels)

 

•Crashday

 

•Crimson Skies

 

•Crusader: No Remorse

 

•Crusader: No Regrets

 

•Dark Messiah of Might & Magic

 

•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

 

•Diablo 1 & 2

 

•Diner Dash

 

•Disciples II Gold

 

•Doom 1 & 2

 

•Doom 3 (only on low settings and with performance tweaks)

 

•Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

 

•Driver (all)

 

•Duke Nukem 3D + all expansions

 

•Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project

 

•Dune (all)

 

•Dungeon Keeper (all)

 

•Dungeon Siege 1 & 2

 

•Empire Earth (all)

 

•Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom

 

•Europa Universalis

 

•Everquest (all)

 

•Evil Genius

 

•Exile

 

•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)

 

•Fiesta Online

 

•F.I.F.A. (all)

 

•F.I.F.A. Street (all)

 

•Flatout

 

•Fractal

 

•Freedom Force 1 & 2

 

•Freespace 1 & 2

 

•Frets on Fire (available free here)

 

•Frogger

 

•Full Spectrum Warrior

 

•Full Throttle

 

•Gabriel Knight (all)

 

•Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords

 

•Galactics Civilizations II: Dark Avatar

 

•Geneforge (all)

 

•Geometry Wars

 

•Giants: Citizen Kabuto

 

•Globetrotter

 

•Gothic 1 & 2

 

•Grand Theft Auto (all upto GTA: San Andreas)

 

•Grandia II

 

•Grim Fandango(my personal fave)

 

•Ground Control 1 & 2

 

•GTR (all)

 

•Guild Wars

 

•Gunbound

 

•Gun Metal

 

•Gunroar (get it free at SourceForge)

 

•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 & Dangerous (all)

 

•Hitman (all)

 

•Homeworld

 

•Homeworld: Cataclysm

 

•Icewind Dale 1 & 2

 

•IL-2 Sturmovik + all expansions

 

•Imperialism I & II

 

•Imperium Galactica (all)

 

•Impossible Creatures

 

•Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis

 

•Keepsake

 

•Kohan (all)

 

•Legacy of Kain: Defiance

 

•Limbo

 

•Little Fighter (all)

 

•Loom

 

•Lock-On Air Combat

 

•Lords of War

 

•Mabinogi

 

•Machinarium

 

•Madden NFL (all)

 

•Mafia

 

•Manhunt

 

•Maple Story

 

•Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure

 

•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)

 

•Messiah

 

•Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2

 

•Midnight Club (all)

 

•Midtown Madness (all)

 

•Minecraft (Get it here)

 

•Monkey island (all, including all the Tales of Monkey Island episodes)

 

•Motocross Madness (all)

 

•Mount & Blade

 

•MTX: Mototrax

 

•Myst (all)

 

•NBA Live (all)

 

•Need for Speed (upto NFS: Carbon)

 

•Neverwinter Nights + all expansions

 

•Nexus: The Jupiter Incident

 

•NHL (all)

 

•No One Lives Forever 1 & 2

 

•Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi

 

•Nox

 

•Oddworld (all)

 

•Onimusha: Demon's Siege

 

•Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis + expansions

 

•O.R.B.

 

•Pacific Fighters

 

•Panzer General II

 

•Penumbra Trilogy (Overture, Black Plague & Requiem)

 

•People's General

 

•Pharaoh

 

•Planescape: Torment

 

•Planetside

 

•Populous 1 & 2

 

•Portal

 

•Postal

 

•Prince of Persia (all upto The Two Thrones)

 

•Pro Evolution Soccer (all)

 

•Project IGI

 

•Psi-Ops (all)

 

•Psychonauts

 

•Quake 1-3

 

•Rakion

 

•Radiosurf

 

•Recoil

 

•Rainbow Six 1-3 + all expansions

 

•Red Faction 1 & 2

 

•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

 

•Rune + Halls of Valhalla expansion

 

•Sam & Max (all)

 

•Sacred

 

•Sacrifice

 

•Savage (Get it free here)

 

•Scarface: The World is Yours

 

•Sea Dogs

 

•Second Sight

 

•Septerra Core

 

•Serious Sam (all)

 

•Severance: Blade of Darkness

 

•Shank 1 & 2

 

•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

 

•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

 

•Soldat (free; get it here)

 

•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: Empire at War + Forces of Corruption expansion

 

•Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds + Clone Campaigns expansion

 

•Star Wars: Galaxies(all)

 

•Star Wars Jedi Knight (all)

 

•Star Wars: KotOR (all)

 

•Star Wars: Rebel Assault 1 & 2

 

•Star Wars: Republic Commando

 

•Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

 

•Star Wars: Starfighter

 

•Still Life

 

•Sumotori

 

•Super Meat Boy

 

•Stronghold

 

•Stronghold: Crusader

 

•S.W.A.T. (all)

 

•Syberia 1 & 2

 

•System Shock 1 & 2

 

•Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror

 

•Team Fortess Classic

 

•Terraria

 

•Test Drive 6

 

•The Binding of Isaac

 

•The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

 

•The Chzo Mythos (All, available here)

 

•The Dig

 

•The Elder Scrolls: Arena (Available for free here; needs DosBOX)

 

•The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (Available for free here; needs DosBOX)

 

•The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

 

•The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (With Oldblivion, available here)

 

•The Godfather

 

•The Longest Journey

 

•The Lord of The Rings (all)

 

•The Movies + all expansions

 

•The Orange Box (all games)

 

•The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (graphically polished version of the original, WITH sound!)

 

•The Sims + all expansions

 

•The Sims 2

 

•The Yahtzee Trilogy (available here)

 

•Thief (all)

 

•Throne of Darkness

 

•Tiger Woods PGA Tour

 

•Titan Quest

 

•TOCA Race Driver (all)

 

•Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon + all expansions

 

•Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 1-3

 

•Tomb Raider (all, upto TR: Anniversary)

 

•Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (all)

 

•Torchlight

 

•Total Annihilation (all)

 

•TrackMania (all except United Forever)

 

•Tremulous (available for free here)

 

•Tribes (all)

 

•Tron 2.0

 

•True Crime: Streets of L.A.

 

•Tropico 1 & 2

 

•Ultima (all, including Underworld series)

 

•Uplink: Hacker Elite a.k.a. Uplink: Trust is a Weakness

 

•Unreal 1 & 2

 

•Unreal Tournament GOTY Edition

 

•Unreal Tournament 2003 & 2004

 

•Warcraft I, II & III + expansions

 

•Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War + expansions

 

•Warlords (all)

 

•Warsow

 

•War Wind 1 & 2

 

•Wing Commander (all)

 

•Wizardry 8

 

•World of Goo

 

•World of Warcraft + The Burning Crusade

 

•World in Conflict

 

•Worms 1-3 + all expansions

 

•Worms: Mayhem

 

•XIII

 

•X-Com (all)

 

•X-Men Legends (all)

 

•Zeus: Master of Olympus

 

•All Popcap and Miniclip games.

 

Many of the games mentioned above are available in free ad-supported form. Look here and here for them.

 

 

For those of you with netbooks, look here and herefor frequently-updated lists of games that have been tested with different netbooks..

 

 

[nightwalker83]

What bout Mafia 2? Also, if any of those games are console ports they may be buggy.

 

Edit:

 

You forgot a couple of expansions, Baldur's Gate 2 has Throne of Bhaal. Not sure if Baldur's Gate had any or not. The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind has Bloodmoon and Tribunal.

Edited August 24, 2013 by nightwalker83

[RedDagger]

I'd like to say that I have a GeForce 6200 GPU and a pentium 4 3.00Ghz CPU and I would not be able to run a lot of those games properly. Sure, looking at them they would work but I'd get like ~5 FPS on lowest settings, but I've tried CoD, many Valve/Source games, Minecraft, many racing and strategy games - even 2D games are a 50/50 chance of working properly.

 

This also includes framerate drops (no really, from 5 to pausing for a second), laggy mouse input and missing inputs. Even flash games have to be lowered to low quality to be smooth. All in all, if you want to be able to play a reasonable amount of games on your PC get an upgrade instead of looking for games you can run. Not to say there aren't games on the list which don't work, but most games I've tried simply are unplayable.

 

That said, other games I have had success with:

 

FTL: Faster Than Light

 

Toribash

 

Scrolls

[TheKryptonite]

Brutal Doom is a nice mod. It adds a new experience to Doom.

[disco]

That just looks like a big ass list of old games.

 

How about some recent games that run on tired hardware?

 

Gunpoint,

Don't Starve,

Machinarium.

[Vercetti42]

There is no way you'll get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to run on a low-end PC. You'd probably get about 10-15 FPS with COD 4 itself. Also, many of the games you suggested would barely run. How can Hitman: Absolution run on a low-end PC?

 

And while Minecraft does not need a high end PC to run, you'll still get bad performance. I tried it on my old PC. Pentium Dual Core 2ghz, 1GB RAM, Windows XP 32-Bit, 8400gs 512 MB. I reckon I played around 15 FPS.

 

 

[Mitsuha]

^

Tried playing Minecraft on my Laptop that has Pentium 4 and 2GB of RAM. Lagged pretty hard. Especially on the GTAFMC server.

 

Could Left 4 Dead (and 2) run on a pretty low end PC? If so then I'll add that to the list.

[Guest]

MC3 and MCLA aren't on PC, why are they in your list?

[Vercetti42]

MC3 and MCLA aren't on PC, why are they in your list?

MGS isn't on PC either. The list is highly inaccurate. I remember when my brother was looking for games to run on our old PC, we went on a site called 'List of PC games without graphic card requirement' and nearly all games listed ran well. I can't find the site now.

 

@RXK: L4D will probably run on low settings but expect some lag. As for L4D2 you might be able to run it on low with about 10-15 FPS.

 

I've made a list of good games which can run on a low-end PC:

 

Mafia.

Max Payne 1 and 2.

Call of Duty 2.

Age of Empires 2.

Pretty much any strategy game.

Rollcage (It's a fun racing game, actually)

Prison Architect.

Simulation games like Euro Truck Simulator 2.

Silent Hill 2.

Slender.

 

That's all I can think of for now, I'll post if anymore come to my mind.

[Kalvin]

 

MC3 and MCLA aren't on PC, why are they in your list?

MGS isn't on PC either. The list is highly inaccurate. I remember when my brother was looking for games to run on our old PC, we went on a site called 'List of PC games without graphic card requirement' and nearly all games listed ran well. I can't find the site now.

 

@RXK: L4D will probably run on low settings but expect some lag. As for L4D2 you might be able to run it on low with about 10-15 FPS.

 

I've made a list of good games which can run on a low-end PC:

 

Mafia.

Max Payne 1 and 2.

Call of Duty 2.

Age of Empires 2.

Pretty much any strategy game.

Rollcage (It's a fun racing game, actually)

Prison Architect.

Simulation games like Euro Truck Simulator 2.

Silent Hill 2.

Slender.

 

That's all I can think of for now, I'll post if anymore come to my mind.

Metal Gear Solid 1 + 2 are on PC, what are you talking about?

 

Metal Gear Solid 1

Metal Gear Solid 2

Edited August 24, 2013 by ManDog

[Fireman]

Millenium Racer:

 

 

[na89340qv0n34b09q340]

A few freeware games you might want to add (lots of freeware games are pretty easy to run, you might comb wikipedia's list some time):

 

• Decker (A cyberpunk roguelike about hacking, similar to nethack.)

• Lin City (A free version of Sim City, it's got kiddy graphics and a few (non-gameplay, mostly interface) bugs, but it's otherwise a solid game.)

• Freeciv (A free civilization 2 clone, it has well-populated multiplayer lobbies, and a comprehensive wiki.)

• Skifree (An old windows 95 game, it's free now and has been ported to newer windows versions, fun to pass a short amount of time.)

• Angband (An ascii roguelike, it's more fantasy-based than decker.)

• Pingus (A lemmings clone with penguins instead of lemmings, it's cute as well as fun.)

• Neverball (You tilt the level to move a ball to a goal, kinda like Super Monkey Ball. The controls are kinda tough to get used to (if you use the mouse), but once you do it's really fun.)

 

(All of these games are completely free and work on Windows XP, Vista, and 7. All of them have linux versions too except decker, skifree, and maybe angband)

Edited August 25, 2013 by zoo3891

[Vercetti42]

MC3 and MCLA aren't on PC, why are they in your list?

MGS isn't on PC either. The list is highly inaccurate. I remember when my brother was looking for games to run on our old PC, we went on a site called 'List of PC games without graphic card requirement' and nearly all games listed ran well. I can't find the site now.

 

@RXK: L4D will probably run on low settings but expect some lag. As for L4D2 you might be able to run it on low with about 10-15 FPS.

 

I've made a list of good games which can run on a low-end PC:

 

Mafia.

Max Payne 1 and 2.

Call of Duty 2.

Age of Empires 2.

Pretty much any strategy game.

Rollcage (It's a fun racing game, actually)

Prison Architect.

Simulation games like Euro Truck Simulator 2.

Silent Hill 2.

Slender.

 

That's all I can think of for now, I'll post if anymore come to my mind.

Metal Gear Solid 1 + 2 are on PC, what are you talking about?

 

Metal Gear Solid 1

Metal Gear Solid 2

Never knew that. Thanks.

 

Anyways, I'd also like to add that S.W.A.T. 4 is a very underrated game. It's a great tactical FPS. It should run on all low-end PC's at the lowest settings at least.

 

 

[cholesterol]

EDIT: I can't believe I forgot Sanitarium!

 

Don't forget Darkseed I & II.

 

Also, GOG.com is a gold mine for classic games! It's sort of like Steam, but with no DRM and you don't have to install it. Also, if you're worried about the older games not running on your PC, the game you buy comes with the emulator already configured and hassle free.

Edited August 25, 2013 by elburrosleftnut

[na89340qv0n34b09q340]

 

Don't forget Darkseed I & II.

Those were a huge pain to get working, especially Darkseed II. There is an executable out there that combines both games with dosbox (And a Windows 3.1 emulator in dosbox, yo dawg...) and has them set up to run on click if anyone else has trouble, but I can't share where I found it.

 

More games (and a couple emulators):

• Defcon (It's an independent game from a few years ago, basically a real-time strategy about nuclear war. You play as one of five continents and wage war on the other continents. Defcon level raises are timed, you have no control over them. This game isn't free.)

• Just about any * Tycoon game. (Business simulators. Basically you take control of some sort of business and have to tinker with it to maximize profits. Most of the well-remembered ones cost money and come on a disk, you can buy them at Walmart and Gamestop if you're in The US, but you can find a few free ones out there.)

• Powder Toy (A physics and sandbox based on powders. Probably one of the most comprehensive ones. It's comparable to games like Quicksand and Dan-Ball's Dust. Also lets you download other people's simulations. This one is free. If you prefer browser games dust is the most similar one.)

• Gargoyle (This one's a z-code interpreter. Lets you play text adventure games, stuff like zork.)

• ScummVM (An emulator that emulates game engines. About forty games are supported, but a few of them are free, and many of them are abandonware. Emulated games include the King's Quest series, Beneath a Steel Sky, and the old Humongous Entertainment games.)

Edited August 25, 2013 by zoo3891

[Twang.]

MC3 and MCLA aren't on PC, why are they in your list?

MGS isn't on PC either.

Just because it has a sh*tty-ass port doesn't mean it's not playable. Same with Final Fantasy 7. Two of the greatest games of all time, but terrible PC ports.

[Eagles]

Burnout Paradise is one of the best racing games from this generation and it runs pretty well on my 5 years old PC.

[DlZZEE]

Awwww back when i had my old pentium 4 i was pissed that i couldnt play new games but now i realise that these new games got no spirit at all. 2000-2005 were the best gaming years imo. When i played vice city for the first time the feeling was priceless, so many great games i missed out, wish i had a time to play them all.

[Chris Fromage]

Awwww back when i had my old pentium 4 i was pissed that i couldnt play new games but now i realise that these new games got no spirit at all. 2000-2005 were the best gaming years imo. When i played vice city for the first time the feeling was priceless, so many great games i missed out, wish i had a time to play them all.

Totally agree man. I had a old PC for a long time that could play new games that came out back then. Now I got a gaming PC and I still prefer to play those old games I used to play on my 'weak' PC like Age of Empires 1 and 2, Need for speed 2, anno 1602, Call Of Duty 2,...

 

What happened to those games?!

[tsouryavong13]

 

Burnout Paradise is one of the best racing games from this generation

agreed