I've got an Intel HD Graphics 2000 graphics card and while the store page does say a 3000 (or equivalent) is required for the game, most pages on Intel's site fuse the graphics cards together. i. e. "Intel HD Graphics 3000 / 2000" is how it's usually listed. I pass the requirements for cpu and ram and there's nothing on the store page about OpenGL or anything like that. So my question is, can my 2000 run it?

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Hello DDDespair,

I believe that there will be problems running the Fran Bow game with Intel HD graphics 2000.

Some of the problems can be overcome by running the game at 854 x 480 (the lowest resolution possible), and by turning the Shaders setting off within the game's Options Menu.

There is a also a file within the game folder (called "options.ini") which tweaks the settings for video display that can improve the video performance, but with such a low end video card, this may not improve the performance enough for you to really enjoy the game.

There is also the possibility of some of the game scenes only showing up as black and/or white screens because there is not enough video memory available as the game is running to display the game screens because the video memory that is available becomes full. The "options.ini" file MAY improve these scenes, but it is not guaranteed.

The developers have tested the game on an Intel HD Graphics 3000 or equivalent system, but not on an Intel HD Graphics 2000 system. Despite what you said in your post about the cards being treated the same, there are differences that can affect the performance of the game. I found this website which shows these differences: www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=2173&gid2=582&compare=intel-hd-graphics-2000-desktop-vs-intel-hd -graphic s-3000-desktop. I believe these differences WILL affect the performance of the game.

I cannot guarantee that the performance of the game on your laptop will meet your expectations with Intel HD 2000 video graphics. I also think that GOG will not honor a refund for you should the game not run well enough for you on that system since it doesn't meet the minimum specs stated for the game. (I DO NOT work for GOG and can't really speak for them, but that is my guess.)

All that being said, since the game IS on sale now and at a considerable discount, you'll need to decide if taking the chance of it running/not running well is worth it to you. The game may run somewhat on your system.

For example, I have a laptop that has very, very old NVidia Graphics "card" that uses part of the system RAM only (no discrete video memory), and allows me to specify either 32 megs, 64 megs, or 128 megs of that RAM as video memory. It has 3 GB of system RAM, and runs Win 7, but 32-bit, not 64-bit. Fran Bow DOES run with this configuration; however, I have these problems:

I must devote 128 megs of memory to video for the game to run

Takes about 2 minutes for the game to start up.

With Shaders on, the game lags and slows down the longer I play.

With Shaders off, the performance improves, but is still slower than on a better laptop. Also, the dialog bubbles displayed in the game that advance the story (and the game IS very dialog heavy) display more slowly than on a computer with a better graphics system and more video memory. If this happens on your laptop, it WILL be noticeable and you will wish the dialogs appeared faster.

You said your laptop does meet the CPU and RAM requirements. You didn't say what OS you're running. If it's Windows 7 or above, you're ok. If it's Windows XP or Vista, the game WILL NOT RUN, so please be aware of this as well.

Also, if you're running 64-bit Windows 7 on your laptop with 4 GB of RAM, your experience may still be different than mine since I believe 64-bit Windows uses more RAM than 32-bit Windows. In any case, your Intel HD Graphics 2000 is not the same as my very, very old NVidia card that uses up to 128 Megs of shared RAM.

There IS a demo available on the developer's website here: www.franbow.com/demo.php. You can try playing that first on your laptop. But please be aware that just because the demo plays on your laptop does NOT guarantee that the full game will run as well. This is because the full game uses more RAM and video memory than the demo does.

The developer also has a FAQ about tweaking the "options.ini" file mentioned earlier here: www.franbowgame.wordpress.com/gamer-support/faq/#nographics (scroll down a bit to see the info about the "options.ini" file).

Finally, if all else fails, you can write to the developers if you need additional help configuring the "options.ini" file. I can tell you that you WILL receive a response from them, if you write there (since I'm the person who responds to those emails). But the bottom line is this:

The Fran Bow game may not run to your satisfaction on your Intel HD Graphics 2000 laptop. The only way to know is to try it since the developers did NOT test using that configuration. And please know that you may not qualify for a refund from GOG if the game doesn't run to your satisfaction.

I'm sorry that I cannot give you a more definitive answer since testing of the game has not been done on this configuration.

I hope this helps you, DDDespair.