[Rex Nebular]

Just out of curiositiy, even though adventure games are traditionally non-hw demanding. which is the newest game that demand a high-end pc?

[Erwin_Br]

Sam and Max season 3 needs a decent video card if you want to enjoy it on the highest quality settings.

[Abnaxus]

Also the Penumbra games on high settings were hard to play without a good rig

[Pandaara]

All of the above, plus Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. The game requires some pedigree to run.

Also, some really old games on new PCs are quite troublesome to run, or does that not count?

[terhardp]

From the view of the modern computers, I think that none of the adventure titles is particulary hardware demanding, though all of the recent games has certainly gone up a notch or two in that respect.

BTW, the two adventure titles which I remember from the past when I had an older computer, as the more hardware intensive then usual, were "Fahrenheit" and "Dreamfall".

[inm8#2]

Zork

[nonax]

The latest Sherlock Holmes: vs Jack The Ripper is full 3D with a beautiful recreation of London in 1888, including lots of peasants and carriages.

[Trumgottist]

Originally Posted by Erwin_Br

Sam and Max season 3 needs a decent video card if you want to enjoy it on the highest quality settings.

Decent, yes, but hardly high end. I had no problems running it on my MacBook. (It has a GeForce 9400M card. The GeForce 9 series debuted two years ago.)

It does look very pretty. (I liked their clothes in the Egypt episode.)

To the original poster: Why do you ask?

Are you considering buying a new computer, and don't play more demanding games than adventure games? Then you'll probably manage well for quite a while regardless of what you buy, as long as you avoid integrated graphics.

Or are you looking for something to to show off your powerful computer with? Then it becomes more a question of which games look impressive than which games have high system requirements. That's not always the same thing.

[diego]

Originally Posted by terhardp

BTW, the two adventure titles which I remember from the past when I had an older computer, as the more hardware intensive then usual, were "Fahrenheit" and "Dreamfall".

as they both emphasize good graphics and story, and i like to call them interactive movies rather then adventure games, which is not bad by default

Thinking of some unrealistic high requirements, both Monkey Island update games demand faster processors which is an irony since Telltale 3D games work well on those older ones.

[Pandaara]

Originally Posted by diego

as they both emphasize good graphics and story, and i like to call them interactive movies rather then adventure games, which is not bad by default

Thinking of some unrealistic high requirements, both Monkey Island update games demand faster processors which is an irony since Telltale 3D games work well on those older ones.

Speaking of the special edition Monkey Island games, I am shocked by how much memory they take up. To have both games installed takes up 4 GBs! I could have the entire Lucarts collection of adventure games on my PC for that space and still have room left for two additional games!

[Erwin_Br]

Originally Posted by Trumgottist

Decent, yes, but hardly high end. I had no problems running it on my MacBook. (It has a GeForce 9400M card. The GeForce 9 series debuted two years ago.)

It does look very pretty. (I liked their clothes in the Egypt episode.)

Yeah, I never played an adventure game with the same requirements as, say, Mass Effect 2 or something. (Which my 3 year old 8800GT runs flawlessly on highest settings! - I guess age doesn't say everything either.)

[Little Writer]

I think the answer is obvious: a game which has that 360° revolving camera will require the most of your system. It's only natural: the entire game world has to stay dynamic and has to adjust itself to all your decisions, while most games have fixed camera angles on fixed settings and all that requires motion is the playable character and perhaps the NPC's (and if you're lucky to have developers with attention for detail also elements of a dynamic environment, like rippling water or flags moving in the wind). So yes, Dreamfall and Fahrenheit are examples of that, and apparently that Sherlock Holmes game as well (I have no experience with it myself).

[DustyShinigami]

Broken Sword: The Angel of Death gets my vote. For an adventure game, I think it's ridiculously demanding. The graphics aren't even that impressive.

It ran terrible on my last computer, and although it does run better now on my current computer, it still lags from time-to-time. I think I get 30-35 FPS minimum.

I think Dreamfall is better graphically and that runs near perfect on my system.

[Little Writer]

I'm having this issue with "Dreamfall" where program boxes from the task bar somtimes flash at the bottom of the screen, usually the anti-virus. It's the only game where this happens.

[NoirYork]

Originally Posted by Gazzoid

Broken Sword: The Angel of Death gets my vote. For an adventure game, I think it's ridiculously demanding. The graphics aren't even that impressive.

It ran terrible on my last computer, and although it does run better now on my current computer, it still lags from time-to-time. I think I get 30-35 FPS minimum.

I think Dreamfall is better graphically and that runs near perfect on my system.

I have to agree about Broken Sword.

Here are the system requirements:

Pentium 4 1.4 GHz
256 MB RAM
2.6 GB available hard drive space,
2X DVD-ROM Drive,
128 MB Shader model 1.1 compatible video card
Windows XP

Apart from adventure games and Football Manager (that game is like heroin!) I don't really play games on my PC. So in 2006 when BS4 was released here in the UK it seemed like a lot and my on board graphics didn't have shader model compatibility so I had to buy a card.

The game itself was a disappointment and in terms of graphics looked pretty average for what it was demanding. Needless to say, it wasn't worth the upgrade!

[Dara100]

Lost: Via Domus will not play unless your video card can handle shaders 2. You just get a message to that effect and it shuts down!

I had to upgrade my rig just to play it (it was due for an overhaul anyway) and it wasn't even worth it. Never got the knack of taking those stupid pictures. Now I can play Crysis and Halo if I want to, but I don't want to

[terhardp]

Originally Posted by Dara100

Lost: Via Domus will not play unless your video card can handle shaders 2. You just get a message to that effect and it shuts down!

Oh yes, I've totally forgot about this one (with a good reason, I might add). Maybe the most overrated AG I've ever played. I've played that game only because I'm big fan of the series (or at least I was until the 4th season onwards).

[jamiehavok]

Originally Posted by NoirYork

I have to agree about Broken Sword.

Here are the system requirements:

Pentium 4 1.4 GHz
256 MB RAM
2.6 GB available hard drive space,
2X DVD-ROM Drive,
128 MB Shader model 1.1 compatible video card
Windows XP
!

i dont think you can call broken sword 4 demanding it played fine on my old now 7 year old off the shelf pc with a p4 and crummy radeon 9200se gfx card!

[crabapple]

Originally Posted by Dara100

Lost: Via Domus will not play unless your video card can handle shaders 2. You just get a message to that effect and it shuts down!

Darkness Within 2 requires a video card that can handle Shader 3. So I'd say Darkness Within 2 is the most demanding.

Dreamfall and Uru ran smoothly on my computer, but BS4 had locations which were jerky. I'm not sure if that's due to BS4 being demanding so much as having bad coding in those locations though.

[flamedrake]

Pixel Shader 3.0 was introduced in 2004. Every single video card on the market today (except the damn Intel GMA 950, currently the worst 3D solution you can buy) supports it. It's not a terribly steep requirement.