100 games that work on laptops, netbooks, older computers

(All rights reserved - Firaxis Games / Infogrames)

It's not just the popularity of small, inexpensive laptop computers that has grown rapidly in the last few years -- the multitude of technological advances means that these netbooks can now be used for much more than rudimentary typing, emailing, and browsing. Videogaming site GamingBolt has published a list of 100 great games that can run on a netbook, laptop, or a decade-old desktop.

It's not just the popularity of small, inexpensive laptop computers that has grown rapidly in the last few years - the multitude of technological advances means that these netbooks can now be used for much more than rudimentary typing, emailing, and browsing. Videogaming site GamingBolt has published a list of 100 great games that can run on a netbook, laptop, or a decade-old desktop.

Many laptops and netbooks would struggle to run the very latest graphic intensive games, but there is a rich vein of gaming goodness to be mined, with many titles available at low prices from stores, online retailers, and digital distribution sites.

GamingBolt tested each of the 100 games on a new U100-series MSI Wind netbook, a two-year-old Dell laptop, and a nine-year-old HP desktop computer to see how they would fare.

Some of the titles that came through with flying colors include the seminal Battlefield 1942 World War II game, System Shock 2 which was a highly praised predecessor to the current BioShock series, the cult classic Deus Ex, and the first games in the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty franchises.

Many significant role-playing and strategy games are fully playable on laptops or older machines. Though new titles such as 2009's Dragons Age: Origins will certainly struggle to get off the ground, some of BioWare's equally important output runs smoothly, such as Baldur's Gate II, Planetscape: Torment, and Neverwinter Nights. Diablo II, the predecessor to one of 2009's most anticipated games Diablo III, was also perfectly playable.

Age of Empires 2, Europa Universalis and Civilization III were among the strategy games well rated, while players fond of flight, driving, or action games can look to titles such as IL2 Sturmovik, Colin McRae 3, Trackmania, Beyond Good and Evil, and The Simpsons Hit and Run.

http://gamingbolt.com/2010/01/05/100-games-to-play-on-your-netbook-or-home-computer/