It is a well-known fact that netbooks suffer from having horrible performance when it comes to gaming, and even with developments such as NVIDIA’s ION graphics chip, gaming performance is still only passable at best. Is there any way to improve netbook gaming performance without giving up on the ultraportable platform altogether to settle for a more powerful full-sized laptop or desktop? Apparently, there is, as far as Steam games are concerned, and it involves getting down and a bit dirty with the program to enter a few commands.

To be able to optimize any netbook for Steam games like Half Life 2, Portal, and Counter-Strike: Source, you need only follow the steps enumerated in the Blogee forum thread that we’ve linked to below. You can do this right now as long as you have Steam installed, as well as a couple of games, of course. But know that this is not 100% guaranteed to allow users to play without causing a great deal of frustration. Still, anyone is free to perform the “mods” necessary for this trick and the worst that could possibly happen is that you’ll have to reinstall your Steam client. Check out the full instructions below.

Forum thread Via Blogeee

How to improve gaming performance of netbooks with Source games on Steam is a post from: Eee PC

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The Diablo clone game, Torchlight which runs very well on netbooks, has been reduced. Originally at 15 Euros, you can now pick the game up for 7.99 Euros. The game, available on Steam, is currently in the “specials”. Some describe the fact that it is on Steam, as being the only disappointment with the game, as you’re required to log in, but for many this won’t be an issue. You can view the game in action below.

via

Torchlight reduced to 7.99 Euros is a post from: Eee PC

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Gizmag have done a little research on which games run perfectly well on a netbook – games that don’t need the resources to play them that netbooks generally don’t have.

The netbook they used to test the games out is the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 which should mean any Atom based netbook using the Intel GMA 950 graphics module will run the games with no problems also, allowing gamers like myself to enjoy some light gaming relief on our netbooks.

Obviously, you won’t be playing games like Crysis, which is hugely resource intensive, on your netbook but, there are some great titles that Gizmag have noted as working on their S10 including Beneath a Steel Sky which is a free classic adventure game, popular MMORPG Eve online and a handful of Steam titles. Of course their list isn’t exhaustive, there are many other games that a netbook can handle and if any of our readers know of any other working games and would like to add to the list we’d love to hear from you.

Gaming is Great on a Netbook is a post from: Eee PC

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