Featured Game: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

Plays on the same hardware as SoC

Year: 2008

Genre: First-Person Shooter, Survival Horror

Recommend: Depends

If you can run S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl on your netbook, you'll be happy to know that its prequel, Clear Sky, will run on exactly the same hardware. The minimum system requirements for the game are unchanged, although it takes more juice to run the game with more eye candy, like volumetric light and fire, DirectX 10 support, and fancy weather effects. If you enjoyed the first game, it wouldn't hurt to give Clear Sky a try, and flex some GPU muscle in the process.

What you'll need

Reviews and Awards

Clear Sky earned some mixed reviews; on average, the game is the worst-rated in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. The best rating came from GamesTM, with a 90/100 for "transform[ing] grim fantasy into a startlingly real-world experience." On the other hand, X-Play wasn't so kind, awarding Clear Sky a 60% for its boring environments, numerous bugs, and antiquated gameplay. GameSpot nominated the game for Best Atmosphere in 2008, but it was shot down by Dead Space.

Tips

OK, I'll admit it. There's no netbook out there that meets Clear Sky's recommended requirements.  I suggest starting off at medium settings at your netbook's native resolution, then tweaking settings from there.

Sunbeam effects; thanks, Wikipedia

AMD Makes Small Improvements to Brazos 2.0 Line

Before they unleash their Temash and Kabini platforms (more on that in a future post), AMD has released some small upgrades for their current-gen Brazos 2.0 platform. The new processors, the E1-1500 and E2-2000, are direct replacements to the existing E1-1200 and E2-1800, respectively.  Compared to the E1-1200, the E1-1500 gets a speed boost of 80 MHz (1.48 GHz vs 1.4), which is hardly noticeable. The GPU also gets a small push of 29 MHz (529 MHz vs 500). You might notice this difference, but it's not enough to get you playing any new games. On the high end, the E2-2000's CPU is 50 MHz faster than its predecessor (1.75 GHz vs 1.7 GHz); again, insignificant. The GPU gets clocked up to 700 MHz over the previous 680 MHz. Both new processors retain the RAM speeds of the procs they replace (DDR3/1066 for E1-1500, DDR3/1333 for E2-2000).

On the whole, these new platform bumps are nothing to be excited about. If all other factors are the same, however, there's no reason to buy a netbook/laptop with the older processors. If you need a computer soon (i.e. you can't wait for the next generation), now's a good time.

Featured Game: Left 4 Dead 2

Even more demanding than its predecessor

Year: 2009

Genre: First-person Shooter, Survival Horror

Recommend: Depends

Thought the first Left 4 Dead was tough on your netbook? I have some bad news for you, then; its sequel is even more demanding. The only thing L4D2 doesn't need more of is CPU processing power, which is good, considering that the CPU is one of the biggest bottlenecks for an AMD netbook. Still, if you can play this game, you'll be rewarded with a zombie-slaying experience that's every bit as good, if not better, than the original.

What you'll need



Reviews and Awards

L4D2 received reviews much like its predecessor, which is to say, very positive. The aggregator sites mentioned in my L4D1 feature gave the sequel nearly the same scores, around 89%. IGN, who positiviely reviewed the first game, "considered that the game improved on the first in every way, and that anyone who liked the concepts introduced by the first game should buy the second." (Wikipedia) GameSpot gave L4D2 a 9/10, a 0.5 point increase over the first Left 4 Dead. Eurogamer called it "overflowing with personality."

Tips

It's very important to be running the fastest RAM possible for intensive games like L4D2. I highly recommend nothing less than DDR3/800. To see what speed your RAM is, download and install CPU-Z at cpuid.com. Look for a field that says 'PC6400 (400 MHz)' or something similar. If your RAM is that fast or faster, you're all set. If not, you may want to consider a RAM upgrade.

Screenshot from ngohq.com

Featured Game: StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

Tweaking necessary

Year: 2010

Genre: Real-Time Strategy

Recommend: Ehh.....

There's just no way around it; StarCraft II is a heavy game for netbooks. Even with the most powerful netbook out there (A6-5200-powered), tweaking might still be required to get the game to run smoothly. Once you do, though, the reward is well worth the effort.

What you'll need

Before you even attempt to run StarCraft II, you have to meet certain requirements. For starters, 2 GB of RAM is absolutely necessary, unless you're running an ION 2 platform on Windows XP. You'll need a dual-core CPU from the following list: Atom N550, N570, N2600, or N2800; AMD C-60, C-70, E-300, E-350, E-450, E1-1200, E1-1500, E2-1800, or E2-2000. If you don't have to tweak anything, consider yourself fortunate.

Reviews and Awards

 StarCraft II has been highly praised from every direction: story, gameplay, multiplayer, graphics, and more. The game scored around 93% on the aggregator sites GameRankings and Metacritic, and received 10/10 or equivalent ratings from at least 4 sources. However, some have criticized the game for its lack of LAN multiplayer support.

Tips

"Well," you say, "I don't know how to tweak a game!" Fear not, it's not that difficult. See this site for assistance.

Screenshot from the StarCraft Wiki

Featured Game: Left 4 Dead

Not for cheapo netbooks

Year: 2008

Genre: First-Person Shooter + Survival Horror

Recommend: Depends

If you're wanting to play Left 4 Dead on a netbook, be prepared to spend a little money, 'cause anything with GMA in the name ain't gonna cut it. Those with ION or Radeon graphics, though, can gear up for some epic zombie-destroying fun.

What you'll need

Review and Awards

For the most part, Left 4 Dead raked in positive reviews from all around the board, with an average of 89% from aggregator sites. IGN praised the game, saying "It's almost pitch perfect in how it captures the tension and the action of a Hollywood zombie movie." Gamespot disapproved of Left 4 Dead's "limited map selection," and felt the game got repetitive at times. Left 4 Dead acquired no less than 5 "Best Multiplayer Game of 2008" awards, among others.

Tips

Avoid the witch.

No, really, don't do it!

 

Featured Game: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

Low-end netbooks won't cut it

Year: 2007

Genre: First-person Shooter + Survival Horror

Recommend: Depends





















 You know those old classics everyone loves that can run on anything? Well, this isn't one of those games. Fortunately, you can still play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on a netbook, but it can't be one of those sub-$300 ones.

What you'll need

Reviews and Awards

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. won GameSpot's Best Atmosphere award from Best and Worst of 2007. Reviews were generally positive; Eurogamer called it "one of the scariest games on the PC". However, it was criticized for its various bugs and mediocre story.

Tips

Since all netbook GPU's support D3D 9, you might as well enable some kind of dynamic lighting. Both Nvidia's and AMD's GPU's can handle it.

Screenshot from Wikipedia