Looks fun but unfortunately, I don't have a computer capable of playing modern games right now.

I am in the same boat. My VAIO laptop with 4 GB ram (and of course, no video card) can barely play Age of Empires 3, and I haven't been able to find out what computer performance rating (given in Vista Games menu, mine is 3.8) is required for COC3.

Why do game designers ignore the laptop market?

Sins of a Solar Empire looks great on my laptop.

Dwarf Fortress runs great on my laptop.

I end up playing a lot of old games that I either missed or want to play again. In the last six months I've played Dark Forces II, Half Life I, System Shock II, Rise of Nations and lots of Nethack. Civ IV will run OK on my laptop too.

I have Command and Conquer: The First Decade but only half the games in it run on Vista, and I haven't had the gumption to poke around online and find the patches. Generals runs ok though, but man, what a weird looking perspective that game has. I guess I could get Starcraft but there was something about the feel of that game that I didn't like.

How would you rate those games, octothorpe, for someone who likes pretty much anything except the fast-paced hardcore first person shooters. I am more a strategy and tactics type person. I just don't have the eye-hand coordination and the quick responses those others require.

Also, can anyone recommend an old game that used a lot of spellcasting even if it is FPS? I never kept up with games because my old laptop that I had since 2001 barely ran Windows.

Everything runs on my laptop :)

But here I am still hooked on CivIV, after 4 years of playing... it is the best thing ever.

Ardil,

- Dark Forces is a Star Wars FPS and definitely one of the best of the '90s
- Half Life is well, Half Life. It is an FPS but probably the best one.
- System Shock II is First Person but more of a RPG, and very hard. If you try to play it like Quake you'll run out of ammo very quickly. You spend a lot of time creeping around and trying to keep from dying.
- Rise of Nations is sort of a real-time Civ designed by Brian Reynolds who had designed Civ II and Alpha Centauri. It's OK but doesn't have the staying power that CIV does.

I would have bought Red Alert 3, if it didn't have the oppressive DRM. I have bought C&C games since the first one (and Dune II before that) but am now voting with my dollars. I'm not the only one, I know at least three other long time C&C fans who also are boycotting the game.

But here I am still hooked on CivIV, after 4 years of playing... it is the best thing ever.

I humbly disagree, the finest game ever made was Wing Commander: Privateer.