7mo ago

What are the best games you can play on a laptop?

I'm looking for titles that will run well on my only computer. Which is a 5-year-old 13" convertible laptop attached to a docking station with a 24" 1920x1080 screen. It's got Intel internal graphics.

For reference, Skyrim runs well on it at 1920x1080 and high settings.

What would you recommend? Mostly interested in open world RPGs.

Specs:
Intel Core i5-10210 (4 cores, 8 threads, 4.2GHz)
8GB LPDDR3 (2133 MHz) RAM
Intel UHD Graphics w/ HDCP support. DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5
shared memory

55 comments

I built a $3,000 performance desktop a few years back, and the main games games I ended up playing on it were things like FTL, Shovel Knight, SNES emulators, and other games that could be run on an overclock ham sandwich.
- Really curious what a $3000 performance bulld looks like
  
  A few years back, a really nice graphics card was like $650, so $3,000 got you a lot of performance.

CDDA: it's basically an immersive sim with zombies and mutants in an ascii new england. Sprites optional;
Stardew valley: haha ancient fruit wine go brrr;
Morrowind: whiff. whiff. cliff racer screech. the sounds of a wood elf screaming from the heavens and splattering on the pavement;
An SNES emulator: there's like an entire library to play here;
- Seconding to emulation, for open world RPG you may find a lot of them on older consoles like pre-Gen 7 consoles (PS3/X360). To OP, assuming emlation is compliant with law on your country, older games are great too if you don't mind delving pre-2010s games.

I just stumbled upon something called "Doki Doki Literature Club".
Yes or No?
- Yes! Don't read anything about it. Go in blind.
  
  Just finished it.
  9/10, realistic depiction of my dating experience.

My laptop is WAY WORSE than yours and I could play Fallout: New Vegas with ease.
Edit: I didn't read the RPG part 😅

Shattered Pixel Dungeon - https://shatteredpixel.com/shatteredpd/
It's free and open source.

cracktorio

Almost everything I play is just 2D indie games, practically any 2D game should run just fine on that.
There are so many great 2D games I could rattle off that I almost don't know where to start. But since you mentioned RPGs, I am legally obligated to shill CrossCode at any opportunity.
- I really should go back and finish it... I played CrossCode up until after the ice dungeon but never got around to going further. It's an S tier game for sure.
- Thanks for the recommendation! Feel free to rattle off your top 3 2D games, too.
- Aw YESS! CrossCode rooooooccckksss!! flails excitedly to emphasize this fact! \ö/!!
  Double Cross is neat too :3 https://graffiti-games.itch.io/double-cross Not as <3 as CrossCode, though. Not much is :3

Stardew valley :)
I wish there were a site I could report my specs to and get a list of playable games.
I have an 8th gen Intel i7, 32 gigs of memory and beyond SNES style games I have no idea what options there are for me
- There was a site called Can I Run It? i used way back when i was younger that was what you're describing
  
  This it?
  https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

Skullgirls is the best game you can play on any machine, and it will run on that laptop. But if you're mostly interested in RPGs, check out the Pillars of Eternity games, especially the second one. Wasteland 2 will likely run on that thing just fine.
- I just started Pillars.
  Great suggestion, thanks! Also bought Wasteland 2 (with the current sale, I think I bought 10 great old games for $20) and will try that next.
  
  Awesome! That first one can be a lot of combat, but it is good combat, and Pillars 2 is, in my opinion, just a better game in every way that the first game feels lacking.
- based Skullgirls enjoyer
- Pillars was awesome. I need to grab deadfire

https://www.gog.com/en/game/might_and_magic_6_limited_edition

Should have a good time with hollow Knight

Inscription! FTL faster than light! Dicey dungeons!

5 years is a reasonable age but you'll need to post your full specs.
- Thanks, edited it into the post.

Mine is not dissimilar and it runs BG3 on low settings.
- What specs do you have? A laptop with an i5 10th gen CPU would definitely not be able to run BG3. My older laptop with a GTX 1060 would barely run it over 40fps lowest settings.
  
  It's a surface book 3. I'm out of office at the moment so the comparison is from memory alone, sorry if I was significantly off.
  Further wrinkle: I run it from an external SSD.

Goat Simulator (the OG one)?
It has a DLC that parodies RPGs

Not an RPG but is open world: Hyper Light Drifter
I've run it on a potato laptop before, so it should run fine.

I bet you could get BG3 running on it at low-mid settings.
Also the Witcher series should work fine.

adom ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)

Plainscape torment. Thanks me later.
- Already played it. So I thank you now.

wouldn't it be ddr4? I think since 6th Gen Intel.
- There's no way they have a 10th Gen processor with ddr3. Must be a mistake or typo somewhere.

Not really an RPG, more of a action adventure, but Far Cry 3 will probably run well enough. I played it on a much worse laptop when I was in highschool.

Hades
Hades 2

Well, play Skyrim then!
- 1 playthrough for every re-release, just as Todd intended

It's not an RPG, but I always recommend PowerWash Simulator. It's one of those games where you don't have to pay too much attention to the game and can watch stuff on your phone.
Aside from that, maybe World of Warcraft private server like ChromieCraft.
There's also Starbound, Terraria, Fallout 3 & New Vegas, the Portal and Borderlands games, Half-Life 2 just received an update.

Such laptops are at the low end. But, if you have a really good Internet connection, you could expand your options a lot with GeForce Now. Basically a paid service to use cloud servers to render your game; surrendering an often-unnoticeable delay in response time. They have a free tier worth trying.

Tunic
Sea of Stars

You can get a lot of games running well for that. Almost every 2D game will run great, and a bunch of 3D titles too.
I picked up Parking Garage Rally Circuit in the sales yesterday because I've followed the dev on tiktok and it's quite fun. A dreamcast-style time trial game!

I would recommend DosBox paired with Catacomb Abyss

Kingdom Come Délivrance on a Lenovo Legion with 4700 graphic card. Also Horizon Zero Down

55 comments