Can my laptop run "Gone Home"?

January 2, 2014 9:41 AM

I don't think I have the required video card but wanted to be sure.

The "Gone Home" website lists the following requriements:

-WindowsXP SP2 or higher
-1.80GHz Processor
-2GB Memory
-Video card with 512MB or greater VRAM (Note: Intel HD Graphics 4000 not supported on Windows 8)
-2GB HDD space

My laptop doesn't appear to have the required video card. Can anyone confirm?

Thanks!

posted by bdk3clash to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Tons of games can run below their listed minimum specs quite well, and Gone Home is a very small game without high intensive graphics. My laptop with integrated chip set played Gone Home quite well. But I wouldn't drop money just based on my hunch, so why not test it yourself?

Many people pirate a game to test it out and then purchase if it will indeed run on their computer.

PS. Gone Home is a fun experience, but not really worth the price of admission - the whole thing lasts about 3 hours if you REALLY take your time, literally 20 seconds if you start searching the first floor like a seasoned adventure game enthusiast would.
posted by johnpoe50 at 9:54 AM on January 2, 2014

If you crank the graphics way down, you might still get away with it - and Gone Home is the kidn of game where some graphical slowdown won't ruin your time, vs an action-paced game where it would definitely ruin everything.

PS. Gone Home is a fun experience, but not really worth the price of admission - the whole thing lasts about 3 hours if you REALLY take your time, literally 20 seconds if you start searching the first floor like a seasoned adventure game enthusiast would.

"Worth the price of admission" is pretty subjective. I paid full price right after release and I think I got an amazing experience that I was perfectly happy to have paid for. I've paid more and spent less time at museums that I didn't like as much as that experience.
posted by Tomorrowful at 10:06 AM on January 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

According to these specs your laptop's integrated graphics have 128MB of VRAM, so it is indeed well below the listed requirements.
posted by mbrubeck at 10:10 AM on January 2, 2014

Some additional notes: Gone Home was built with the Unity Engine, so you might try out whether other recent Unity games work on your system. Kerbal Space Program has a free demo, for example.

However, in the Gone Home thread on the blue, zusty (one of the game's developers) mentions that Gone Home's use of high-resolution textures prevents it from running on lower-end hardware, even hardware that works with other Unity Engine games. So the lack of video memory in your laptop might be a show-stopper, sorry. (SPOILER NOTE: The comment I linked to is spoiler-free, but there are spoilers if you read more of that thread. Oh, and I thought Gone Home was worth the price I paid.)
posted by mbrubeck at 10:21 AM on January 2, 2014

Best answer: You can also check Can You RUN It which will analyze your system and tell you whether your computer will run a game (according to published specs). It's worked pretty well for me.

Some people might find that they can run a game below the listed requirements but being able to run it and it actually being a playable, enjoyably experience are not the same, eh.
posted by sm1tten at 10:27 AM on January 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

Well, your video card may not have 512 MB of vram, but it also uses shared memory according to the newegg link. This means that system memory will be used instead of (or in addition to) vram. Since their only requirement seems to be 512MB available, it might just work. Not promising anything though - there seem to be plenty of technical problems with this game judging from the steam forums. You could email and ask the developer about your video card.
posted by stacktracer at 10:34 AM on January 2, 2014

I tried running Gone Home on my six-month-old laptop, with a graphics card that wasn't up to it, and the graphics were so affected that I couldn't explore the first location enough to progress at all beyond that point. (It's not much of a spoiler to say that there's something in a cupboard and, well, I couldn't actually see the cupboard. It looked like shadow.)
posted by Hogshead at 1:42 PM on January 2, 2014

Just chiming in that Gone Home made me cry (in a good way!), is one of the most affecting, well-writen, well-designed, and refreshingly un-childish games I've ever played and was worth far more to me than the price of admission.
posted by Drexen at 7:06 AM on January 3, 2014