A "Come on, Intel!" Moment

It seems like the more I research the N2600 and its accompanying GPU, the GMA 3600, the less powerful they become. See, the GMA 3600 has a core clock of 400 MHz, which is great compared to previous generations. Problem is, that only applies to the shader and texture mapping units of the GPU. The PowerVR SGX545 core that the GMA 3600 is based on doesn't come with any Render Output units, or ROP's. Intel adds 4 of them, just as the GMA 950 had, and twice as many as the GMA 3150. Here's the rub: they can clock the ROP's at whatever speed they care to use, and they chose 200 MHz. Slowing down the ROP's reduces performance, naturally, enough to keep the GMA netbook series from playing Half-Life 2 (without tweaking). Is it enough to make performance worse than previous generations? Absolutely not. The new GMA 36x0 is better or equal in every way. The margin of improvement is just smaller. In the majority of applications, the GMA 3600 can't compete with the GeForce FX 5600, released over 9 years ago. It's more of a super Radeon Xpress 1150, and even then the Radeon integrated graphics can beat the GMA 3600 in memory bandwidth with a dual-channel DDR2-800 configuration.

Featured Game: Midtown Madness

Drive around like a maniac with no repercussions

Year: 1999

Genre: Racing

Recommend: YES

Got the need for speed? Well, you could play one of the Need for Speed games, or you could give Midtown Madness a try. There's nothing quite like hurtling down a Chicago freeway in a Panoz GTR-1 at 200+ MPH, trying to evade the cops. Or you could rumble down the avenue in a Freightliner Century, crushing every Geo Metro in sight. However you play, Midtown Madness gives you a super-fun experience, and the graphics aren't bad, considering the game's age.

What you'll need

You don't need to have the slightest worry about this game. If you can run Windows XP, you can run Midtown Madness. EDIT: You might have to reduce the graphics a bit for Cedar Trail netbooks; I get 13-32 fps on maxed out settings at 640x480.

Reviews and Awards

 Midtown Madness's most positive reviews (90% equivalent) came from Allgame and PC Zone, while the worst, 7/10 and 7.7/10 (still respectable) were given by Total Video Games and GameSpot, respectively. Midtown Madness was praised for its realistic vehicle models (for player-driven cars) and accuracy in portraying Chicago. On the other hand, the game was criticized for its poor performance on lower-end hardware (no big deal for netbooks) and AI intelligence, among others.

Tips

No, you can't commit vehicular homicide in Midtown Madness. If you could, the 'E' rating would be revoked in a heartbeat.

Featured Game: Metro 2033

Uh, no.

Year: 2010

Genre: First-Person Shooter, Survival Horror

Recommend: NO

I'll be quick about this; the graphical demands of Metro 2033 simply butcher anything a netbook can give. Maybe if you overclock the Radeon HD 7340 to 1.23 GHz and the system RAM to 2 GHz you can get it to work, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

Screenshot from Giant Bomb

Featured Game: Lego Star Wars: The Video Game

Great game for the kids

Year: 2005

Genre: Action Adventure

Recommend: YES

It's glaringly obvious: Lego Star Wars is not a franchise meant for the avid gamer. Heck, there's no 'game over' message to be found anywhere in the game. But for the 11-year-old with sci-fi tendencies, this game's a blast, not to mention it plays wonderfully on any Windows netbook.

What you'll need

 All you really need is 512 MB of RAM (half that on ION 2, but who has that kind of netbook with that much RAM?) and around half of a gigabyte of hard drive space.

Reviews and Awards

OK, so LSW didn't win any prestigious awards, but it was the 13th best selling game of 2005, behind Guild Wars and The Sims 2, to name a few. Lego Star Wars was named Game of the Year by Kidzworld.com (who?) and received a 77/100 score on Metacritic. IGN rated the game at 8/10 (great), saying "it has personality, puzzles, cooperative modes, replay value, low violence, a lack of frustrating difficulty, and most importantly, it has Darth Vader... Darth Vader makes everything better -- it's a fact."

 Tips

Should you find yourself playing this game in multiplayer mode, don't be a jerk and stay behind to collect every single stud in the map. You'll probably get booted off and have to rejoin anyway.

Sure, big blasters look impressive; too bad they aren't any more effective than regular blasters

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!

 

Can DDR4 Save the Netbook?

A developmental stick of DDR4 SDRAM from Samsung

Sick of integrated graphics? You're not alone. The next big thing in RAM, though, may finally bring integrated graphics up to a level gamers will actually consider. It's DDR4 SDRAM, or "double data rate type 4 synchronized dynamic random access memory". According to Micron Technology, a major player in the industry, DDR4 will hit sometime next year. More exciting than that are the improvements it's promising to bring over the current standard, DDR3. Plan on DDR4 running on 1.2V of power, compared to 1.5V that DDR3 currently uses. This lower voltage results in reduced power consumption, and that's always a plus for netbooks. Even better is DDR4's bandwidth, which is set to reach double the speed of DDR3. DDR4 is expected to launch at 2133 MT/s (megatransfers per second), resulting in a bandwidth of just over 17 GB/s, all in a single stick. That's a huge leap for netbook performance, as integrated graphics use the system's memory for its own use. Take a current-gen Atom netbook, for instance. You can get a maximum of 8.5 GB/s out of one today. Using DDR4, a bandwidth of over 17 GB/s can be achieved, which is required to play games like Call of Duty: World at War and Mass Effect. Or consider a larger netbook, like one with an AMD E1-1200 processor. In a single-channel configuration, over 10.6 GB/s of bandwidth is supplied. Double that with DDR4 and a dual-channel config and you have enough bandwidth for Civilization V. But for the million dollar question: can it save the netbook? Well, maybe, but not single-handedly. Newer and better CPU's and GPU's are necessary for the netbook to gain popularity. Regardless, however you look at it, DDR4 is an exciting technology that could finally grant netbooks the performance and lower power consumption they need.

Featured Game: Portal

No Intel graphics for newbies

Year: 2007

Genre: Puzzle + Platform

Recommend: Depends

If you're a daring soul who loves to tweak and mod your netbook to get any game to work, you can probably get Portal up and running. If you're not, Intel's graphics won't cut it. Fortunately, Nvidia and AMD have made netbooks excellent Portal machines.

What you'll need

Reviews and Awards

Portal received excellent ratings all around the board, plus a big ol' list of awards, some of which are for GLaDOS's epic villianness (is that a word?). GameSpy stated "What Portal lacks in length, it more than makes up for in exhilaration." Metacritic ratings average 90/100, with GameRankings' rates very slightly different at 89.15%.

Tips

Go here for advice on Portal for Intel's graphics processors. Do it. It's in the description.

Featured Game: Rift

Rejoice, for AMD's quad-core APU's are here!

Year: 2011

Genre: Fantasy MMORPG
Recommend: Depends



















It wasn't too long ago when netbooks couldn't handle Rift. Now, thanks to AMD's new quad-core Temash and Kabini APU's (Accelerated Processing Units), Rift is now playable. Quad-core netbooks are rare at the moment, and one I have seen has only 2 GB of RAM soldered to the mainboard, with no option to add more. If you do happen to come across a better netbook, then, well, you can play Rift on it!

What you'll need

Screenshot from the MMO2Go blog

Featured Game: Motocross Madness 2

Oh, come on! I should've landed that!

Year: 2000

Genre: Vehicle Simulation + Racing

Recommend: YES

I'm sure you'll be saying that over and over again as you play Motocross Madness 2. I've been playing this game for years, and it never gets old. Meet the Wall of Death and you'll see what I mean. MCM2 is sure to provide you with hours of wipeouts and action.

What you'll need

Any netbook should do nicely for MCM2. (EDIT: Except for Cedar Trail netbooks...see video below, or better yet, it's description on YouTube. Technically, it's playable, but it looks very ugly.) The game provides some nice settings sliders for your customization pleasure. 

Reviews and Awards

For the time, this was the coolest motorcycle game in existence. IGN, in its 8.6/10 review, said "The eye-candy is constantly impressive, the physics are crazy enough to be fun but real enough to look right, and the multiplayer game is a blast, especially if you've got devious friends." GameSpot gave an even better rating of 8.8/10, saying "it's definitely one of the most enjoyable...motorcycle simulations you can buy." PC Gamer awarded MCM2 the 2000 Editor's Award for being "the PC's pre-eminent bike sim."

Tips

If you want to become a pro at this game quickly, load up a Stunts session with 10 opponents on Hard. You'll be able to land those stunts in no time in an effort to beat the bots.