Featured Game: StarCraft

Need I say more?

Year: 1998

Genre: Real-Time Strategy

Recommend: YES














Ah, StarCraft. I have many fond memories of getting my butt kicked by my older friends and having a blast anyway. This is a must-have for any netbook, and the 2-D graphics won't overload the integrated graphics in most netbooks.

What you'll need

You need a netbook. And Windows. That's really it.

Reviews and Awards

Wikipedia lists no less than 7 awards for StarCraft, some of which are Game of the Year by 5 different sites. The game also made two Greatest Games of All Time lists, one from GameInformer and one from GameSpot. StarCraft also received largely positive reviews from numerous sources.

Tips

Want to play StarCraft in widescreen? Read the description of my video to find out how!

A Few Words

First, if you'd like to have your favorite game featured on the blog, either write a comment on one of my posts or send an email to kory.l.hansen-[AT]-gmail.com. I would be more than happy to take a look at your game.

Second, increasing game performance can be as easy as running an installer and rebooting. These installers contain graphics drivers, pieces of software used to communicate with the integrated graphics processor inside your netbook. Updating the existing drivers on your system can add new features, fix bugs, or increase performance. To update your drivers, visit the following websites:

*Intel GMA 950 - intel.ly/LVHfWQ
*Intel GMA 3150 - intel.ly/qyy1Os
*Intel GMA 36x0 - intel.ly/Llt7VX
*AMD Radeon HD on Windows XP - http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_xp-32.aspx#1
*AMD Radeon HD on Windows Vista/7 32-bit - http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-32.aspx
*AMD Radeon HD on Windows Vista/7 64-bit - http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx

Featured Game: Vindictus

You can play it if you have the right hardware

Year: 2010/2011, depending on region

Genre: Fantasy MMORPG

Recommend: Depends

Best MMO nomination at E3 2010? Best free-to-play MMO of 2010? Playable on a netbook? Yes, yes, and yes. Oh, and did I mention it's free? Vindictus is a great game for netbooks, if yours has the chops.

What you'll need

Reviews and Awards

Besides its nomination for best MMO at E3 2010, Vindictus has received other praise for its graphics and action. IGN awarded Vindictus as the "Best Free-to-Play MMO Game of 2010". "Ever wondered whether or not it would be satisfying to break a pillar in half and smash one of those halves into the face of a giant wolf-man?" MMO Hut gave Vindictus an Excellent rating for its "great skill and attack animations" and other positive features. Vindictus got dinged a little for its repetitive combat and limited choice of playable characters.

Tips

Having trouble playing? Open up the Task Manager and kill all processes you can do without, using End Process. In extreme situations, this might even include Windows Explorer. Killing Explorer isn't as dangerous as it sounds; you can always use Task Manager to restart it if needed.

Screenshot from MMO Hut

Featured Game: F1 2010

Don't even try

Year: 2010

Genre: Racing

Recommend: NO

I'd like to recommend this game, but the truth of the matter is I can't. There are a multitude of reasons for my verdict that I won't bother you with, but I will mention one: single-channel memory. Most netbooks use only one stick of memory, in a single channel. This can only supply so much bandwidth, and modern games rely on the high-bandwidth dedicated memory that discrete graphics cards have to offer. For this particular game, even dual-channel memory can't keep up with its demands. Until technology advances, F1 2010 will have to go unplayed on netbooks.

Screenshot from simhq.com

An Introduction to AMD's Second-Gen Fusion Processors: Brazos 2.0

In this lovely month of June, AMD rolled out the successor to Zacate, Brazos 2.0. Not much is new in this release, merely higher speeds. The E1-1200 is meant to replace the E-300, bumping up the CPU speed by 100 MHz and the GPU by 12 MHz. For some reason AMD downgraded the memory controller in the E1-1200 to DDR3-1066 instead of DDR3-1333, like the E-300 had. The E-450 has been upgraded by the E2-1800, with a 50 MHz increase in the CPU clock. The GPU has been pushed up to 523 MHz without boost and 680 MHz with boost. These are 3 and 13% gains, respectively. AMD chose to keep the DDR3-1333 memory controller here. Overall, Brazos 2.0 is not much of an improvement, but if cost is not a factor, there's no reason to buy an older Zacate machine.

An Introduction to AMD's Fusion CPU's: Zacate

Along with Ontario, AMD released a more powerful line of mobile Fusion processors codenamed Zacate. These are designed for bigger netbooks and small laptops. There are 4 flavors of Zacate to choose from, 3 of which are dual-core. The only single-core, the E-240, is clocked at 1.5 GHz with a Radeon HD 6310 running at 500 MHz. Keep in mind that the Radeon HD 63x0 series is nothing more than a faster version of the HD 62x0 series. Moving on to the dual-cores, the E-300 runs at 1.3 GHz with its GPU at 488 MHz. The E-350 works at 1.6 GHz, and the GPU goes 4 MHz faster. Finally, the E-450's CPU is a tad faster at 1.65 GHz. Unlike the Ontario C-60, the E-450 does not get a CPU speed boost under load; however, the GPU does, clocking between 508 and 600 MHz. Zacate processors are the best of all mentioned so far for gaming, although the chassis housing them is almost guaranteed to be bigger than 10.1".

An Introduction to AMD's Fusion CPU's: Ontario

Not wanting Intel to monopolize the netbook market, AMD unveiled the Fusion processors in early January of 2011. The lower-end of them, the Ontario series, consists of one single-core C-30 (1.2 GHz) and two dual-core C-50 and C-60, both at 1 GHz. All of them have a TDP of 9 W. The C-60 is a special processor in that it can boost the speed of the CPU (by 33%) and GPU under load. All Ontario processors have a Radeon HD 62x0 GPU at 276 MHz standard clock, with the C-60 adding 45% on demand. This puts its capabilities at about half of the Radeon HD 6350, more or less. Ontario-powered netbooks tend to cost a bit more than Cedar Trail ones, and rightly so. The amount of games playable on Fusion is far greater than any Intel netbook, so if you're not extremely tight on cash, go for a Fusion netbook.

An Introduction to the 3rd Generation Intel Atom Processors

Cedar Trail-M netbooks feature the same sticker as Pineviews

Cedar Trail-M is Intel's current generation Atom processor, released sometime in December 2011. These are much more suitable for gaming than previous generations, as Intel beefed up the GPU considerably. Currently there are 2 flavors of Cedar Trail, the N2600 and the N2800. The N2600 runs at 1.6 GHz and its graphics processor, the GMA 3600, at 400 MHz. The N2800 is faster, with the CPU at a speed of 1.87 GHz and the GPU (GMA 3650) at 640 MHz. The GMA 3600 series provides many benefits over the 3150, such as increased performance, even better OpenGL support, access to 1 GB of system RAM, and full acceleration not only for MPEG-2, but also WMV and H.264 video. With a Cedar Trail netbook, you can run games at higher graphical detail, or games that you couldn't play on older Atoms.

An Introduction to the 2nd Generation Intel Atom Processors

Netbooks with a Pineview processor bear this sticker

The end of December 2009 brought the first of Intel's next wave of netbook processors. This time, they included a memory controller and the GPU built into the processor itself. The single-core CPU's (N4xx) were slightly faster than a Diamondville at the same clock speed, save for the N435. Intel also released dual-core Atoms (N5x0) that boosted CPU performance significantly. Unfortunately, the graphics processor, GMA 3150, in Pineviews were even weaker than the GMA 950's, with performance a bit better than a GeForce2 MX 400 (depending on the application). On the upside, the GMA 3150 can access 384 MB of system RAM, provides full MPEG-2 acceleration, and better OpenGL support. Users of Pineview netbooks are even more limited in gaming scope than those with a Diamondville, although both platforms can likely play the same games. Just keep graphical settings low on newer games and you'll be fine.

An Introduction to the 1st Generation Intel Atom Processors

If your netbook sports this sticker, it uses a Diamondville CPU

The first Intel Atom processors designed for netbooks were released in 2008 and 2009, under the codename "Diamondville". The first, the Atom N270, featured a single-core CPU clocked at 1.6 GHz and a worst-case power consumption of 2.5 W. It offered performance equal to or slightly greater than a Williamette Pentium 4 of the same clock speed. 8 months later, the N280 was released, which was slightly faster than the N270. The graphics processor was not included on the Atom, but instead included with the chipset. It was named the GMA 950, offering performance inferior to Nvidia's GeForce 3 series in most applications. It could access 256 MB of system memory and partially accelerate MPEG-2 video, the format used in DVD video. If you own a netbook with either of these processors, you will have to compromise with your choice of games, as your netbook will not be able to handle the demands of newer games. Look for titles released in the mid-2000's. They will most likely run smoothly enough on your netbook. Happy gaming!

Introducing the Gaming with Netbooks Blog

The Gaming with Netbooks blog has just been launched, intended to assist those with netbooks in finding games that are both fun and can run smoothly. I'm still learning the basics of blogging, so there won't be much info here for a while.