They play games fine. But go high-end to equal a desktop's performance (in other words $2,000+). Good gaming laptop brands are: Dell, Sagar, Alienware.

The guys in this forum here , almost all gamers, can give you the detailed low-down on laptop performance.

Down side is: most are not upgradeable, so 2-3 years later you buy a whole new machine, instead of swapping out/upgrading components, as in a desktop.

My 2.5 year old Alienware lappie handles every game I've tried it with, with one exception: it stuttered a bit with F.E.A.R. (needed a different graphics driver).