Time and again, we notice a trend: while there are few AAA releases, and many of them disappoint, niche indie games unexpectedly rise to prominence. There have been such examples before, from Undertale and Stardew Valley to Hades and Disco Elysium. In the last weeks of 2024, a similar phenomenon emerged with MiSide — an anime horror game, where a charming girl named Mita turns the protagonist's life into a nightmare.

Lately, it seems like PC gaming is pointless without a high-end build. Demanding new releases "stutter" on devices where they should run smoothly. Last year even saw a list of the worst-optimized games compiled.

But games that you can fully enjoy on a weak PC or laptop are still being released. We've put together a list of the best releases that will run at least on minimum settings, even if your graphics card hasn’t been upgraded in a decade. All of these games were released in 2024 and received high ratings on Steam.