Picks for light gaming on low-power PC?

I picked up a ThinkPad X200 recently, with specs of a C2D P8600 CPU and Intel GMA X4500 GPU. I know Intel graphics are known for their lack of gaming performance, but for grins I decided to install a few older titles(Painkiller, Oblivion, HL2, and Doom 3) and to my surprise they seemed to run alright on lower settings.

Does anyone have any suggestions for fun to play, non-casual(meaning I'm not going to be happy with, say, Peggle) titles that will run on a relatively weak GPU like this? My tastes mainly run with FPS and strategy titles, but wouldn't mind branching out into other genres as long as they're not subscription-based(not a WoW fan because I don't like adding a monthly bill just to play a game). I'm not looking to try to run Crysis on this, but it would be nice to find some new games I can crank up when I have some downtime throughout the day. Older titles are especially welcomed; I don't need to be running the latest and greatest.

 

UT99, BF Hero's, and SNES EMU's are top 3 picks for IGP fun.

 

Original Aliens vs. Predator
Quake Live
No One Lives Forever 1 & 2
Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield.
Civilization 4
Age of Empires 2 & 3
Warcraft 3
Empire Earth 3

Take a look at gog.com for tons of titles that will work with IGP. They cost $6 or $10 each.

 

Excellent... thanks for the suggestions. Just checking GOG right now, and wow. There's a lot of titles I remember as a kid that I have missed... and looks like they're compatible for modern OS's too? Loks like I have a lot of catching up to do. Thanks!

 

I second Warcraft 3. Also give Homeworld a try.

 

If Oblivion runs decently and you enjoy it, try its predecessor, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Even an integrated GPU should have no trouble with it, as its graphics are several years behind Oblivion's.

 

Funny you should mention Morrowind... I've been trying to find my copy for the past few days. I played it a while ago but never finished it. Lots of mods for it too, I remember.

 

Look up "oldblivion" it mods Oblivion to play on Intel GMA chips.

 

OH yeah homeworld, also check out Haegemonia and Jupiter Incident. And if you like space shooters check out Independence War 1 and/or 2.

Freelancer also runs marvelously on older hardware.

Sins of a Solar Empire will suck hours out of your life too and should run fine on that setup.

 

BattleZone 2 + FE and FS Mods. Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 2, C&C Renegade, Halo, GTA series. Above all, I also recommend Snes, Nes, GBA, GB and GBC emulation. I actually have more fun with emulation than I do with almost all recent game titles. The time, love and sheer effort put into the older games is so obvious when compared to the quick ports of today. Nowadays it seems more about money and lacks soul compared to the games I played from way back. Emulation FTW!

 

Oh yeah, Battlezone. I wish they'd do a remake of that updated with modern graphics and all. Great game.

 

fallout 1 and 2, civilization is good too (there's a freeciv version), commandos, and call of duty 1 and 2.

 

I totally agree. The closest we have is the DX9 graphic update included in the patch 1.3 Public Beta 5.1 but it would be cool if everything was updated officially. I assume you have already tried that patch because I notice your post in the thread.

 

Starcraft 2. No Kidding. I played it on a 4500 Laptop.

 

Good call on No One Lives Forever 1&2. I really, really enjoyed these games when they were out. Awesome games.

There's another game that should run great. It's called XIII For me it had a very interesting story and was a fun shooter with a unique comic book twist to the graphics. It's a FPS.

 

Yeah, there's tons of stuff. It's kinda sad because those are all classics that are still fun to play today. I don't see as many quality titles like these any more.

 

Curse of Monkey Island

 

Strategy

Master of Orion 1 and 2 (gog.com for $6)
Master of Magic (gog.com for $6)
X-Com (Steam for $3.75 or D2D for $5)
Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and/or 3 (gog.com for $10/each)
Panzer General 2 (gog.com for $10)

Civilization series has already been mentioned...

FPS

Star Wars: Republic Commando (Steam or D2D for $10)
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Steam for $20...price-y)
Prey (D2D for $15)
Jericho (Steam for $1.70 or D2D for $10)