I'm now in college (assuming I don't get thrown out) and I Have had to abandon my lovely, top of the line 2013 PC and start using a lap top, oh first world problems. It's been interesting finding what does or doesn't work. Unreal Tournament 3 barely works and The Witcher doesn't work at all. Mass effect was fine till the enemies turned up. But Resident Evil: Revelations and Castlevainia Lords of Shadow run perfectly.
But in general I find I get the best responses from early 2000's 3D games (IE Max Payne) and sprite based games (Despite being modern and super detailed. Dust: an Elysian Tail runs amazingly)

So as I might be stuck using this thing for a few years I thought I's ask for suggestion. On what I could play.
Here are some of the things I am looking for. They are necessary for me to want to play them. Just things that make them a little more inciting. If want to recommend something that doesn't fit into any of these go right ahead :)

Quick fun games: Stuff that I can just pic up and play for 5-20 minutes and feel better for having played them. I've been replying a fair bit Monster Truck Madness (BTW. This needs to be on GOG along with all the other “Madness” racing games. Vote for them people!) and I've been enjoying Grey Cubes a lot. And even barely working Unreal Tournament 3 is m-m-m-monster fun!
I'm not averse to playing something with a strong story (my favourite game of all time are the Bioshock games) But I don't think I want anything that require massive attention to progress of or that will leave me consumed and depressed. So I guess I Plainscape Torment will sit on my virtual shelf and remain unplayed and Myst will stay uncompleted.

Free games: I can still afford to buy games. But I aught to watch my budge so if I don't have to pay for something that is a plus)

Light hearted games: I don't mind darker stuff (again Bioshock) but right now I just want to feel happy after gaming. So if there is a video game adaptation of Requiem For a Dream out there. I don't want to play it right now.

Relaxing Games: I've wondered about games as a relaxation tool and I know there is some really artsy stuff out there like Mountain or Among the Ripples. I'm up for trying this weird stuff but if you know of a more mainstream games to chillout to. Tell me about it (Except Minecraft. I don't find that relaxing at all XP)

Single player games: The only thing here that is mandatory is that there be some single player component. I am part of a very strict religious group that forbids me to use multi-player ;)

Don't recommend me an FPS unless it's really obscure. Otherwise if I haven't played it I'll have atleast decided if I want to play it. And I don't have one of those fancy new phones so It's PC or nothing. But I am considering buying an old PS2, Gamecube or Dreamcast as you can buy them second hand quite cheaply so if you really want to recommend some 6th generation console games that aren't on PC…..

And Finally, I willing to hear about anything. I don't normally play grand strategy or fighting games but if you think there is a game in that genre or any other genre that fits the bill or just some advice for life on a laptop/life in college then please tell me about it ^-^

Thanks to all who read this and thanks to anyone who comments =)


Edit:


My specs for thos who want them

Windows 8

Manufacturer TOSHIBAR
Model Personal Computer
Processor Intel Core i5-5200U CPU @ 2.20 GHz 2.20 GHz
Installed memory (RAM) 4:00 GB
System type 64-bit Operating System x64-based processor

Knowing just what processor and which integrated graphics you have would help us estimate if a game would run well for you.

The Adventures of Shuggy should run on just about anything, and fits the light-hearted element. Can be played with the keyboard only (if you're in tight confines) or with a controller. Great as a 5-10 minute game.

Others that fit the loose guidelines you gave:

Ittle Dew, Escape Goat, Escape Goat 2 are somewhat similar to The Adventures of Shuggy.

Triple Town is a Match-3 variant.

Defender's Quest: tower defense/RPG hybrid.

Toonstruck and The Ballads of Reemus: goofy P&C adventures.

Thanks dude/dudette. I'll look into The Adventures of Shuggy. And I might add my specs to the page if I get anymore replies :)

Are you into RPG's?
Because, if you are, you can have a very engrossing time with pretty much all the classic cRPG's here - Planescape Torment, Gold Box SSI games like Eye of the Beholder, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale etc.

Broken Age is pretty fun, and it'll hopefully come back on sale again for under $8 within the next week.
Secret of Monkey Island is another great point-and-click with great humour.
Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus is a fun adventure puzzler. The subject matter may be a little grim as you are rescuing your fellow Mudokens from slavery, but the gameplay is fantastic. You can possess the enemy guards. ;)
World of Goo. A physics based builder whereby you have to use your Goos to get to the exit. Quite often on sale.
OlliOlli is a challenging skateboarding game as you try and make as many tricks as you can during your run.

A free online game I've just discovered is agar.io . You don't have to register, you can just play as a guest. You're a ball that gets bigger as you eat things, but you correspondingly also get slower as you increase in size. You need to stay away from other balls that are bigger than you as they can eat you, but you can eat smaller balls. It is multiplayer, but you never need to communicate with them, so you can always think of them as AI opponents. And there is strategy involved as you have to outwit and trap the smaller balls so you can eat them.

Pinball games?

I think it would also depend on your sense of humour - whereas I was quite gleefully chortling away as I botched my umpteenth surgery in Surgeon Simulator, my sister was quite disturbed by it all.
So, what tickles your funny bone? Do you have a dark sense of humour?

Play Giants: Citizen Kabuto. That's certainly good for a laugh.

Sacrifice. I don't have to tell you why, do I ?

Maybe try Tyrian 2000? It is free and will save after every level, which fits two of your criteria right there. Also, while there is a (local; none of this new fangled Internet thingy) co-op mode, it is not necessary to experience the whole game.

Also, if free isn't your thing, you might be able to find an old shareware version on the Internet somewhere, which includes a surprisingly large portion of the original game, but why would you get less when you can more easily (and for the same zero pirce) get more?

I'm strictly a laptop gamer too.

Let's see, for the quick and lightweight ....

Escape Goat 1 & 2 (Frustratingly addictive!)
HuniePop (Surprisingly fun!)
The Blackwell Bundle

I'll also reiterate Getcomposted's recommendation of the classic RPG's.

Sacrfice? I dunno. Earthworm Jim took away faith in the human race and the possibility of a just and loving God. The bits I've played of Earthworm Jim 2 and MDK were considerably better but I'm still not sure if I should trust my cash with Shiny. I think they enjoy the smell of my suffering (and possibly put "crazy" over fun in their priorities list) Ah Tyrian 2000 obviously I couldn't name every game I do have on my laptop because that would takes ages but I know Tyrian well. It almost seems wrong somehow that one of the best games on the site should be free =)

On the plus side it means I can tell my fellow Game of Thrones fans that I liked Tyrian before it was cool!

Thanks for the awesome list man. I do own Icewind Dale but when I tried play it it seemed both hard and obscure. I was like "Man I keep loosing half my party every time I meet an enemy and I don't know if I should reload I save or if should do something else. Isn't resurrection a thing in DnD games?"
I do also own Plainscape but I's heard it has more text than Lord of the Rings and is also really depressing and disturbing? When the Wind Blows is a great movie for instance but I wouldn't recommend it to someone looking for fun. If I wrong though do tell me.

But I do have a very dark sense of humour. Things like Faulty Towers, Blackadder, Kind Hearst and Coronets, Blood Simple, American Psycho, Braindead and Theatre of Blood do wonders for me >:D I guess I could look into Surgeon Simulator a go. Thanks.

It would certainly help our recommendations if you would.

As someone with a laptop that probably qualified as solidly middle-of-the-line when it was bought almost two years ago (though one with a dedicated GPU, rather than integrated graphics), I can personally vouch for Treasure Adventure Game (fairly light-hearted, I'd say -- though it's been a while since I played it, and I got stuck early on; plus it's free -- and already in your library, to boot!), Hotline Miami (kinda trippy and somewhat disturbing, and of course absurdly violent, but it doesn't take itself too seriously, and the gameplay is addictive; definitely falls into the "quick fun game" category), Din's Curse (which I just essentially wrote a review of in the game forum here in reply to someone who asked about it; it should be playable on all but he very weakest of laptops, though you may need to tweak some graphics/performance settings), Terraria (ticks most of your boxes [and has more to do than Minecraft, or so I keep hearing; I haven't played Minecraft], but, as with Din's Curse, some settings may need to be turned down/off for a lower-end laptop), NetHack (duh), and possibly others I might think of later. Oh! And Spelunky! The free original version, at least (that's all I've ever played, and all I need). Definitely a quick pick-up-and-play game.

On the obscure FPS front, I can recommend Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl, a free zDoom-based game with a cel-shaded look and a focus on melee combat (it's inspired by those old side-scrolling beat-'em-ups from the '80s and early '90s -- but it's first person).

If you do like RPGs, you can also play Morrowind on a fairly modest laptop.

What is the OS on the laptop and what are the specs? You might find that you could: a) replace your hard drive with a fairly inexpensive Solid State Drive; and b) upgrade to a newer OS (maybe even a free Windows 10).

I had an older Core 2 Duo with integrated Intel graphics --I installed a Kingston 128GB SSD and upgraded the Windows 7 to Windows 7 for wifey. Installed a few games (some more casual games since she likes sims), but also Morrowind, as she likes that series as well and it runs rather well.

If you can upgrade the memory a bit, I would recommend that as well if you can do so without too much expense. You'd be surprised at how much life you can still breathe into a circa 2013 laptop with a little price shopping. Since you mention "Game of Thrones", the Tell-Tale games might work out pretty well on that machine too.

It is a 2013 laptop, heck, the Xoom I bought back in 2013 was probably less powerful than most laptops being cranked out at the time (although it did have the nVidia chip).

Our company was giving away older laptops to the employees (some core 2 duos) which actually play some of the older games without too much difficulty. I'm sure Unreal or Quake would work with a nice SSD and some RAM (updated drives and OS too).

If people aren't necessarily FPS fans, many adventure games and casual games which aren't too heavy in detail work rather well.

His desktop PC is from 2013; he hasn't yet given any details about his laptop. Hence my playing it safe "recomemnd"-ing mostly lower-spec games so far. Besides, have you played Urban Brawl? Even using a Doom-inspired engine, it looks pretty decent, thanks to the retro/"comic book" look. Considering he's a half-hipster, I figured it might appeal. =)

Well, definitely good to play it safe. A 2013 computer could have just been a 2010 computer sold in 2013. :) I don't think I have played Urban Brawl... However, since you mentioned "comic book", it reminded me of a game I use to play on Sega 16 many moons ago, Comix Zone.

As others have already asked: what is the make and model of your laptop (the GPU, CPU, amount of RAM etc.). It is quite different to suggest games for a low-end $200 laptop with a low-end Intel GPU, than a top of the line $2000 ASUS ROG gaming laptop with NVidia Geforce GTX 980M GPU. And anything between those. Also which Windows version do you have?

On my lower end HP laptop with Intel HD GPU I play games from 2008 and older. E.g. Prince of Persia (2008) runs pretty ok in it on 1280x720 resolution, but anything more demanding than that I rather play on my proper gaming laptop:

On my ASUS gaming laptop (which is already over 3 years old, so not quite top of the line anymore, but adequate for the games I've tried), I can play The Witcher 1-3, Dark Souls, Darksiders 1-2, Batman Arkham City, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 etc.