Incline Low end gaming recommendations for those cursed with integrated graphics cards like me :(

Hey guys, recommend something. I have recently replayed Bloodlines, Alpha Protocol, Half-Life 2 and Stalker. I have no idea what to play next. The integrated graphics card is certainly limiting. Any recommendations are welcome.

 

Stars in Shadow is a Master of Orion-like 4X with pretty basic 2D graphics, so your computer should be able to run it.

Also, I imagine the first two Thief games should run without problem, and they have a massive collection of fan missions to play. And they're some of the greatest computer games ever.

 

I am looking for something more modern, like 2004 onward.

 

Up until what year do you think your desktop can run?

 

With some exceptions probably around 2010. I can run games like Civ 5, Starcraft 2, Mass Effect 2, Call of Pripyat and the like without any issues. I can't run Dishonored, though.

 

Far Cry and Fear, together with its first expansion pack, are good and fit in the time-frame. I've also been curious about Boiling Point: Road to Hell, but I haven't played it yet.

 

I have played Far Cry and Fear, unfortunately.

 

Dead Space 2
DMC3
Prince of Persia Sands of Time trilogy
Resident Evil 4/5/6 Rev 1/2
Alice The Madness Returns
AC1 & Ezio trilogy
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
Dragon Age Origins
I am Alive
Max Payne 1/2
Mirror's Edge
Onimusha Warlords
No One Lives Forever 1/2
Shadowrun Dragonfall
Silent Hill 2/3
Tomb Raider Legend/Anniversary/Underworld
Transisitor
Ultimate Spiderman
Lost Planet Extreme Conditions
Splinter Cell/Pandora/Chaos
NFS Most Wanted/Carbon
Quake 4
Risen 1/2
Deus Ex Human Revolution
KOTOR 1/2
Zone of the Enders The 2nd Runner.
Spellforce 1/2

Here. These are some of the 2000's games I could think of. See what runs & play I guess.

 

Dwarf Fortress
Catalysm: Dark Days Ahead
NEO Scavenger
Rimworld

 

You can't run it even on the lowest settings?

 

Yes, I get unplayable fps (15-20).

 

MGS V runs surprisingly well on potatoes. You might have to do some trickery like disabling shadows (look in youtube) but it will run better than other somewhat "recent" games.

 

League of Legends
Minecraft
Counter Strike GO
DOTA 2
PUBG

 

If you are able to play Stalker, your PC is able run...

- Every fucking PC game 'till 2007 at least
- PSX emulation
- N64 emulation
- Dreamcast emulation
- GB/GBC emulation
- GBA emulation
- SNES emulation
- NES emulation
- Genesis emulation
- ZX Spectrum emulation
- Amiga emulation
- C64 emulation
- Amstrad emulation
- 3DO emulation
- Jaguar emulation
- some of less demanding games for PS2, Wii, Gamecube and Saturn

... and yet you feel being limited?

 

Oblivion should run fine if you're down for something really old school.

 

I used to have a intel gma x4500 , super shitty integrated card ! far worse than intel HD 4000, i couldn't barely play games from 2003.

I got a new video card 4 years ago, however, it didn't change anything for me, i still play old games from 1990-2006.

but most importantly, what type of games you want ? RPGs ? shooters ? strategy ?

 

The Shadowrun Series

Hard West

The plethora of emulation games available

Underrail

Old X-Com Series

Blackguards

Deus Ex

Morrowind

Gothic 1 & 2

 

Everquest

 

Underrail and ATOM RPG

 

Damn.
Those are some really limiting parameters.
This kinda means you can't even run a lot of games from 2006 onwards. I am not even sure about emulating PS2/GameCube games.
I am going to assume that you can at least run Shadow of Chernobyl confortably on good settings. I'll set the range between 2003-2011 (and some games beyond that might run on old hardware) and try to limit 1/2 games per franchise. Let's see...

2003

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Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Jedi Academy
Viewtiful Joe
F-Zero GX
Rainbow Six 3
Soul Calibur 2 - recomend the GameCube version as Dolphin is better optimized than PCX2
Max Payne 2

2004

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Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Metroid Prime 2 - although I recomend you try the original Prime from 2002; there's a mod out there for mouse controls I am sure
...
You could also try out Thief: Deadly Shadows, overall it's not a bad game, use Sneaky Upgrade though...

2005

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Resident Evil 4 (PC port) - although unsure if you're able to use it I recomend using the HD mod not only because of the graphics improvements (RE4 port looks worse than the console's version lol) but also fixes bugs, at least give it a look
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
SWAT 4
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

2006

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Hitman: Blood Money
Bully
Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition - although you would tell you to get the HD Collection (it also comes with DMC 1+2 and kb+m controls) I am unsure about your performance so maybe it might be best to try it out in the emulator (just don't get the garbage 3SE port)
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
God Hand - play it
Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection - the difference between the PS2 version and the PSP (which by the way the PS2 version has no Dark Ressurection title) is that the PS2 has less Playable Character than DR; this one you'll try out which version runs the best because I don't know the state of PSP emulators compared to PCSX2.
Splinter Cell: Double Agent

2007
I would say Crysis but given you can't run Dishonored...
Also you've already played STALKER.
I wish I could recomend you Ninja Gaiden Sigma, but it's a PS3 title so you don't have the horse power to run the RPCS3 emulator.
And there's really nothing else worthwhile this year...
EDIT: completely forgot about Portal 1

2008

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The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
Mirror's Edge
Burnout Paradise
Dead Space - maybe

2009
I would've recomended you Bayonetta, Vanquish and Demon's Souls, but... yeah don't even bother.
Unless you wanna try out Assassin's Creed 2. It's faily decent but nothing particularly good (I mean it's an Ass Creed game), but since I played it as a kid I am somewhat fond of it, although the game's historical authenticity is remarkable, so if you want a virtual tour of Renaissance Italy this is a good place.

2010

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Super Meat Boy
Mount & Blade: Warband - since you can Stalker, I hope you can this one as well
StarSector

2011

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Dark Souls - you'll just have to try out, but from all the 2011 AA titles this one is the is quite low on demands (it even just occupies 4Gb); if you can run this one you migth be able to run Dark Souls 2
Terraria
Portal 2 - in the steam version you can play user made test chambers

Some more recent games with low requirements:

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REmake (PC port) - you just might be able to run this one, but it "weigths" 20Gb, so if that bothers you can try the GameCube version.
Disgaea PC
Worms WMD
Salt and Sanctuary
Shovel Knight
Sonic Mania
Volgarr the Viking
Enter the Gungeon
Hollow Knight - if you're lucky enough to run Dark Souls, I think you can run this one
Cuphead - same as above
Sunless Seas
Sunless Skies
Mark of the Ninja
Fez
Machinarium
Spelunky
Age of Decadence
Factorio - if you can run the REmake you can this one
Stardew Valley
Opus Magnum
Grimoire
DUSK - maybe
Amid Evil - perhaps
Ion Fury - perchance
Rain World
Noita - I don't know, the requirements description are not exactly clear and the game migth be "pixel art" but it's loaded with physics simulations; you'll have to try out to know for sure

Nah he can't.
Keep in mind MGS5 minimum settings already require more of a machine than Dishonored does.
Even with that game's fantastic optimization, he'll get in the best case 25-31 fps.

 

Heroes 2,,4,5. age of wonders 2, Underail, Battle Brothers, Atom, Darkest Dungeon, Thronebreaker, sunless skies, Fallout 1, 2, tactics, Resurrection, Nevada, Sonora, Arcanum, Classic IE titles, Painkiller, Serious Sam, UT 2004, Blood, Soldiers of Fortune, Kotor 1, 2, Gothic 1, 2, monkey island, full throtle, JA 2, Desperados, Robin Hood, Stronghold, Diablo 1, 2, Starcraft, Dungeon Keeper, Blasphemous, Mother Russia bleeds, Postal 1,2, Civilisation 3,4, Clive Barker Undying, Morrowind, Kings Bounty. So yeah there are a lot of really good games you can play on your ancient machine.

 

Darkest Dungeon will run on almost anything. It's a bit of an acquired taste, mind you. Has its fair share of (not entirely undeserved) hate on the Codex. I like it, though.

 

You have played Thief and Thief 2 already, right? If not, you should probably consider playing them, regardless of their date of creation.

 

I dunno if you can run Max Payne 3 but damn, that game was fucking awesome. And you don't need to have played the first or second games, either. Highly recommended.

 

- Knights Of The Chalice

- Paper Sorcerer

- Elminage: Gothic

- Wizardry 8

- Deus Ex

- Wonder Boy And The Dragon's Trap

- Jagged Alliance 2

- Ys 8

- Stranger Of Sword City

Pretty sure all of those will run on almost anything. I think the heaviest one there is probably Deus Ex, but it should run on low-end Intel gpu. Was gonna type up some more recs but got tired.

EDIT: Bonus tip remember to use RTSS to set a 30fps limit on 3d games that you (need to) play at 30fps, a stable 30fps limit is much more preferably to a variable low FPS. And use half-refresh vsync option in your GPU control panel if your display is 60hz, combined with the 30fps cap from RTSS it should give you butter-smooth 30fps without any stutter when you move the camera.

EDIT 2: don't know if intel control panel has "half refresh vsync" option, but RTSS comes with a similar alternative called Scanline sync, just click on where it says scanline sync in the RTSS app and it will cycle through its different modes, the one you'd want is "Scanline Sync x/2" for half your fresh, then in the field enter the number "1". That way you will have also automatically capped the game to half of whatever your fresh is, which remember I'm simply assuming it's 60hz here.