this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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I've been playing The Saboteur for a week now.

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[–] christian@hexbear.net 1 points 7 hours ago

Carrion is probably only like ten hours worth of gameplay, but it's absolutely spectacular and if it had been significantly longer I think it might have started to get stale rather than being truly memorable. You play as an amorphous monster and start the game by escaping from your containment tank at a research facility. The core mechanics are barely explained to the player, if at all, so each new game mechanic is introduced alongside a puzzle that more or less amounts to understanding how to apply it in-game. I'm aware there are console versions of this game too, but the fluid feel of how your creature moves is such a huge part of enjoying the game that I have a lot of trouble imagining a gamepad could get that down anywhere near as well as using the mouse+keyboard. I love the touch that you grow with higher hp and movement becomes much more cumbersome, but you can get back to the more fluid movement by shedding hp. Also the map design is great, it's highly nonlinear and very easy to get lost. The only actual complaint I have is I didn't like hearing all the terrified screams from the researchers, but it's hard for me to picture a way around that without breaking the immersion.

Eastward is pixel graphics but when I tried it with wine I had some minor framerate issues, it can handle integrated graphics but how well will depend on how good your pc is. I played it on switch originally. I think the gameplay is enjoyable and done well, but it's not the reason you play the game and is not a game for someone who skips past dialogue whenever possible. I am not that someone though, and Eastward is one of my absolute favorite games I've ever played. The pixel art is gorgeous, characters and npcs have personalities you get attached to, soundtrack is both great music and matches the atmosphere, it's something special. The writing and dialogue are just wonderful, and combined with the pixel art there's so much emotion packed into it. At times it is uplifting and heartwarming, at other times unsettling and creepy. The change in tone when stumbling upon the factory in Greenberg caught me completely off-guard, just amazing. Only complaint was I spent most of the game excited to find out how they would tie all the loose-ends together and that never happened, there was a lot more left up to interpretation than I was expecting, which made the ending a massive disappointment for me.

Fallow is another short game that I personally really liked even though I didn't really understand it. There's not even a lot of gameplay in it, it creates a beautifully creepy atmosphere and the game is more or less that you sit in that and absorb it. It was an experience of observing a different world and trying to comprehend how that world works. I can't even tell if it was intentional that I didn't get it or if I'm just bad at media interpretation, but there's emotion in it either way.

Monster Sanctuary is a monster-taming game with a wholly uninspired story and mediocre pixel art, and both those issues made me give up on it after just a couple hours initially, but when I eventually gave it a second chance the gameplay itself is really engaging and well-designed. It's something I've come back to a few times since then just because of that. There's a lot of depth to it and it's fun to experiment with.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 hours ago

kentucky route zero

[–] Shape4985@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 hours ago

Balatro or stardewvally

[–] SerLava@hexbear.net 16 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

You should look up exactly what integrated graphics you have. Sometimes this can be difficult, because they'll list it as something vague like "AMD graphics"

But if you can find it that would help. Integrated graphics have come a long way in the last 5 or so years. Could be a big difference.

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 9 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I came here to post this, if it's an Intel APU from like 10 years ago you can forget about running most 3D games, but if it's a relatively recent AMD APU it could be on par with a midrange graphics card from 10-15 years ago. The Steam Deck is essentially a laptop, after all.

Of course, you can still play Balatro clown

[–] SerLava@hexbear.net 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Yeah I got a little 400 dollar mini-PC to do some work a couple years ago, and it runs the original Oblivion on high settings at 60fps. I think I got a respectable 24-30fps on a 4k screen. The integrated graphics chip is called a AMD Radeon 680M.

That one launched in early 2022 and there are much better ones that came out since. I've seen videos of someone playing Cyberpunk 2077 on low settings and getting 30-50fps @1080p on the latest integrated graphics chips.

[–] frogbellyratbone_@hexbear.net 18 points 22 hours ago
[–] Cowbee@hexbear.net 15 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (2 children)

DOOM wads! Super easy to run GZDoom and some full-ass games made by people. Also, Caves of Qud! And I love Morrowind, Fallout, etc.

[–] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

There are a LOT of absolutely incredible level packs out there. I recommend checking out Doomworld's Cacowards Archive (running annually since 2004) for a sampling of the absolute cream of the crop.

[–] Cowbee@hexbear.net 1 points 18 hours ago

Great suggestion!

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 4 points 21 hours ago

Thatcher's Techbase get-in

[–] VibeCoder@hexbear.net 6 points 18 hours ago

Slay the Princess

[–] weak_analogy224@hexbear.net 5 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

The Saboteur is a super fun game, I feel like i don't hear enough people talk about it

My fav games that havent been mentioned yet and should work for you:

OpenRCT2 (Roller Coaster Tycoon)

Sid Meier's Civilization III (and IV really but especially III)

Quake & Quake 2

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (and expansions)

Football Manager (only if you're into football/sports ofc)

Without knowing your exact APU I'd wager you can probably emulate lot of great classic games maybe up until Gamecube/PS2. My specific recommendations would be playing Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Zelda: Majora's Mask with the decompiled and rebuilt native C versions, can't remember the name of the project at the moment but it should be easy to find on google. The original N64 versions are also well worth playing but after playing the recompiled windows versions with free camera and other quality of life hacks I'm not sure I could go back.

[–] gramxi@hexbear.net 6 points 19 hours ago

Monster Train was a good time on my celeron chromebook running linux

Morrowind on OpenMW ran decently

I was able to emulate most things less demanding than Gamecube as well

[–] alexandra_kollontai@hexbear.net 3 points 16 hours ago

CrossCode if the laptop is alright. Try the demo and see if you get any slowdown.

[–] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 11 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

I wonder how much Noita you could get away with.

Otherwise, the roguelite genre has a lot of games to choose from. Spelunky, Gungeon, Hades, Balatro, FTL, One Step From Eden, etc. If you have a particularly old computer then more old school roguelikes like Caves of Qud, Crawl, Cogmind (very hard to get into).

[–] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 10 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Noita uses the GPU way less than I would have guessed given it's so heavy on the particle simulation, but it's hard enough on the CPU that that might be an issue

[–] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 9 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Trying to run this on integrated graphics and a laptop CPU i-cant

[–] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

god it's so good though that it's worth a try lmao

[–] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 7 points 22 hours ago (3 children)
[–] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 7 points 22 hours ago

least unpleasant fungus cave trip

[–] Esoteir@hexbear.net 5 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

how does one even reach this level of noita jerma-fear

[–] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

It all started when I watched his stream, actually. But the sweatlord inside me took over and I started learning a lot from FuryForged and DunkOrSlam. Ended up going through a lot of wand building guides to learn how to abuse the crap out of Greek letter spells to make a wand that casts as many copies of Chaos Larpa modifiers attached to omega sawblade. Hilarity ensues.

[–] Esoteir@hexbear.net 3 points 21 hours ago

xi-clap amazing, that explains the apocalyptic flood of sawblades lmao

[–] Robert_Kennedy_Jr@hexbear.net 5 points 22 hours ago

SIGH boots up Noita

[–] comrade_pibb@hexbear.net 10 points 23 hours ago

Great suggestions, but FTL is Goated

[–] fanbois@hexbear.net 4 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Path of Achra

Fields of Mistria (if you've played enough Stardew Valley)

Undertaledeltarune

Dwarf Fortress

Balatro (probably all you need for a while)

Factorio (on a more modern chip at least)

Slay the Spire

Terraria

FF 1-6 (emulated or the remakes)

[–] MoonElf@hexbear.net 7 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

Dwarf Fortress, CataclysmDDA, FTL, Convoy are all in my top games list and all run on a potato

[–] blobjim@hexbear.net 2 points 16 hours ago

Minecraft but it's not a story-driven game.

[–] daniyeg@hexbear.net 5 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

visual novels work very well on even toasters because they are basically slide shows.

old adventure games are also a blast and work very well, look into lucas arts and sierra online catalogues. a great starter could be sam and max or grim fandango.

you could also try N64 emulation. there's a lot of good games on it and not demanding at all.

if you need something more sandboxy, rollercoaster tycoon and transport tycoon deluxe (or opentdd for the modern open source version, has multiplayer too with mod support) are great. apart from that, old civilization games and simcity are also great.

old real time strategies are also great. command and conquer series, stronghold series, age of empires 2, age of mythology, warcraft etc etc.

(help me folks im running out of genres)

basically either look into blasts from the past, or the indie scene. i recommend the former since although there's a lot of great stuff in the indie scene, it all kinda gets samey due to the same tools being used and the limited resources available pushes people into certain genres. you can't certainly beat the olden but golden ones on variety.

[–] LaGG_3@hexbear.net 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

you could also try N64 emulation. there's a lot of good games on it and not demanding at all.

Yeah, like mother fuckin Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber.

(help me folks im running out of genres)

Late 90s/ early 00s CRPGs - Baldur's Gate 1&2, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magic Obscura, Fallout 1&2

[–] daniyeg@hexbear.net 2 points 8 hours ago

oh yeah that was the golden era of crpgs as well.

Yeah, like mother fuckin Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber.

i love these random ass classics people have. this one sounds like a real gem.

[–] m532@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 18 hours ago

I have a 13 year old laptop cpu with intel hd graphics 4000

Most games on dolphin run well, but when I play need for speed it overheats quickly and then everything starts lagging

Modded Minecraft with sodium and low render distance works kinda at like 40 fps (also, if you optimize the java args, limit the fps or the cpu overheats)

Mindustry (turn weather off)

BTD6 with lower resolution (but then it looks bad)

[–] Llituro@hexbear.net 7 points 22 hours ago

Stardew valley will run on a toaster

[–] Omegamint@hexbear.net 6 points 22 hours ago

What chip do you have?

[–] bilb@lemmy.ml 7 points 23 hours ago
[–] Hestia@hexbear.net 3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)
[–] VibeCoder@hexbear.net 2 points 18 hours ago

Played this on an old MacBook for the longest time and it was fine

[–] Abracadaniel@hexbear.net 3 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

Animal Well

Stardew Valley

[–] christian@hexbear.net 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Animal Well seems right up my alley but running on wine my cpu inexplicably struggles way more than games with similar graphics. The performance issues are preventing me from getting deep into it.

[–] Robert_Kennedy_Jr@hexbear.net 4 points 23 hours ago

Is this on a relatively new laptop? Would say most games with pixel art would be fine, there's thousands of games if you're dipping into emulators for older consoles and a lot of indie games will run on a potato.

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I'm on a laptop's dedicated gpu but what I do is search my gpu name on youtube and watch gameplay demos from integrated cards.

Here's an example.

[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 23 hours ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] barrbaric@hexbear.net 2 points 20 hours ago

Citizen Sleeper is really good and has basically no graphics.

Disco Elysium good.

Vampire Survivors, probably?

depends on how low you're willing to play, you can play TF2 on low settings I guess

[–] corgiwithalaptop@hexbear.net 1 points 20 hours ago

Dead Cells!