CoD Black Ops for Mac announced!

[macgames]

What I find interesting is that the 650M in the brand new rMBP just hits the minimum requirements. Seems to be pretty hungry on the Mac.

It's released, but has anyone gotten it yet, and how does it perform?


Is it available on the Mac App Store?

Plays well even below recommended specs. Not available on Mac App Store for a few days, but using code: BLACKOPS you can get 10% off it on MacGames.co.uk. Thats cheaper than steam and the App store when it finally launches it!

At the last minute Aspyr changed their system requirements and have oficially pulled support for the NVIDIA GeForce® 650M (in the new Retina MBP), although they were hoping to have that fixed in time for the launch, so it should work in the near future. I'm about to try it on mine, so I'll report back!

 

[monokitty]

Plays well even below recommended specs.

What hardware are you running it with?

 

[macgames]

What hardware are you running it with?

2011 MBP13", 2.3GHz i5, 4GB RAM

Also has the supposedly unsupported Intel HD 3000 Graphics card, but can't say I've had any trouble, seems to be pretty smooth gameplay. Clearly not turned up to full graphics settings though!

 

[Doggonit]

Downloading now. We'll see what happens.

What the heck is this about Nvidia card not being supported?! So will it or won't it work with Nvidia cards?!

 

[btollenaar]

rMBP?

Anyone with a rMBP test it yet? Hesitant to download...
rMBP 16/2.6/256

 

[Doggonit]

Okay, the game really sucks. The 650m can barely drive it at 1600x900 with high details, which is pathetic, because BF3 is much more demanding really and I have no issues running that under Bootcamp. The game feels like it was poorly ported and requires undue system resources that simply aren't available. They better patch this soon or something, else I am really going to demand a refund.

 

[Tucom]

Okay, the game really sucks. The 650m can barely drive it at 1600x900 with high details, which is pathetic, because BF3 is much more demanding really and I have no issues running that under Bootcamp. The game feels like it was poorly ported and requires undue system resources that simply aren't available. They better patch this soon or something, else I am really going to demand a refund.

The Windows version also runs like dog poo vs. how well Modern Warfare 1, 2 and 3 run in comparison, if that's any comfort. It's just a poorly optimized game to start out with, and porting only makes things worse.


Good porting, like Portal 2 on the Mac runs at excess of 100+ FPS on a Mac Pro 1,1 with 4870 all details cranked to MAX (I mean everything nearly maxed out, if not fully maxed out, and 100FPS plus in most areas)

 

[monokitty]

I have it running at 1280-by-1024 pixel resolution with graphics set to High (except AA; 2x or Off) on the Mac mini and it runs as smooth as butter and looks great visually. Very happy.

*2.7 GHz i7, 8GB RAM, AMD Radeon 6630M w/256 MB GDDR5 VRAM running OS X 10.8.2.

 

[DrNeroCF]

First off, thanks for the respect DrNeroCF. It really means a lot to us at Aspyr, especially on a product like Black Ops that we've worked so hard on. You've made a point that is near and dear to our heart as gamers, so I thought I would chime in.

Our #1 goal at Aspyr is to provide the absolute best user experience possible for the Mac audience on the coolest games we can get our hands on. Undeniably, part of that experience is releasing the game as close as possible to the original release.

In some cases, we can make it happen. We were able to launch same day as the PC for Civilization V: Gods and Kings, and we were only 2 months behind when we launched the original Civilization V. In other cases, no matter how hard we try, we are delayed further than we want to be. Sometimes its for technical reasons, and other times it may be for business reasons, but I can promise you (and I bet this goes for our talented friends at Feral too) it's always our goal to ship ASAP after the original release.

Well, even more respect for answering! Aspyr absolutely deserves major congrats for Civilization V, no question there, especially for SteamPlay support. I primarily game in Bootcamp, but if a game supports SteamPlay, I'm far more likely to buy it. I'd love to see that as standard, but I'm sure it makes some things way more complicated.

That being said, I do hope Black Ops does well on Mac, and the best of luck to Aspyr.

 

[tgara]

It's released, but has anyone gotten it yet, and how does it perform?


Is it available on the Mac App Store?

I just got it last night from the Mac App Store. It turns out it actually WAS available through the MAS on the first day of the release.

Download was 12.9 GB. I purchased the game yesterday evening ($49.99) and let it download overnight (ETA for complete download varied from 2 to 9 hours through the download process). This morning, the game was on my machine and ready to play!

I tried it this morning, just to check it out. It looks really cool, and can't wait to play it this weekend.

I have a question on settings. I'd like to set the game settings to whatever the best would be for the best experience because I think my machine can handle it. My machine is as follows:

Mid 2010 iMac 27 inch
12 GB RAM
i5 Quad Core 2.8 GHz
Graphics card is the Radeon 5750.

In terms of settings, I understand a few things like screen size, number of corpses, bullets, etc. However, I don't play a lot of games so I am not sure what to do with things like Anti-Aliasing. Should that be set high or low for optimal gameplay? Any advice from the gamers would be appreciated!

Many thanks in advance.

 

[monokitty]

I just got it last night from the Mac App Store. It turns out it actually WAS available through the MAS on the first day of the release.

Download was 12.9 GB. I purchased the game yesterday evening ($49.99) and let it download overnight (ETA for complete download varied from 2 to 9 hours through the download process). This morning, the game was on my machine and ready to play!

I tried it this morning, just to check it out. It looks really cool, and can't wait to play it this weekend.

I have a question on settings. I'd like to set the game settings to whatever the best would be for the best experience because I think my machine can handle it. My machine is as follows:

Mid 2010 iMac 27 inch
12 GB RAM
i5 Quad Core 2.8 GHz
Graphics card is the Radeon 5750.

In terms of settings, I understand a few things like screen size, number of corpses, bullets, etc. However, I don't play a lot of games so I am not sure what to do with things like Anti-Aliasing. Should that be set high or low for optimal gameplay? Any advice from the gamers would be appreciated!

Many thanks in advance.

Your iMac should be powerful enough to run Black Ops at a high resolution with most or all graphic options set to High. Typically, anti-aliasing, which removes the jagged looking edges around objects, is the most demanding graphic option you can enable in terms of resources required to use anti-aliasing. By leaving it off, machines on the lower end of the hardware spectrum can achieve considerably better frame rates. However, since your 5750 has 1GB of VRAM, as far as I know, feel free to crank up most or all graphic options - you can always turn one or two options down afterwards if you find the game becomes less responsive than you would have liked.

I have a Mid 2011 Mac mini with the discrete AMD Radeon 6630M w/ 256 MB of VRAM and I run the game on High graphic settings with AA turned off - game performs like a champ.

 

[tgara]

Your iMac should be powerful enough to run Black Ops at a high resolution with most or all graphic options set to High. Typically, anti-aliasing, which removes the jagged looking edges around objects, is the most demanding graphic option you can enable in terms of resources required to use anti-aliasing. By leaving it off, machines on the lower end of the hardware spectrum can achieve considerably better frame rates. However, since your 5750 has 1GB of VRAM, as far as I know, feel free to crank up most or all graphic options - you can always turn one or two options down afterwards if you find the game becomes less responsive than you would have liked.

I have a Mid 2011 Mac mini with the discrete AMD Radeon 6630M w/ 256 MB of VRAM and I run the game on High graphic settings with AA turned off - game performs like a champ.

Thank you for the advice, Monokitty. I'm setting AA to MAX!!!

I have CoD2 and Cod4 for the Mac, and on both of those I was able to crank up all the settings. I will do the same with Black Ops and see how it plays.

 

[El Awesome]

Is the Multiplayer Mac-only or will I be able to play against PC users?
I know that in CoD4, only after patch 1.7 you could play against PC users.

 

[monokitty]

Is the Multiplayer Mac-only or will I be able to play against PC users?
I know that in CoD4, only after patch 1.7 you could play against PC users.

Mac-only for the time being.

 

[marzer]

So if you buy Black Ops for Mac through Steam, does it also give you access to the Windows version?

 

[macgames]

So if you buy Black Ops for Mac through Steam, does it also give you access to the Windows version?

No. They are separate purchases. At least for now anyway.

 

[avemestr]

The same Aspyr who also made the native ports of CoD, CoD 2, CoD4 and RAGE. Yes, terrible news indeed.

And the Aspyr who does ALL of the Civilization games and also did Company of Heroes.

Yes, they are truly the bane of Mac gaming

I'm "happy" to report, that the game have serious issues with NVIDIA graphics.

Of course, serious issues was to be expected. It was after all ported by Aspyr.

But we'll get a patch. Soon. It'll improve performance somewhat. People will still complain, Aspyr will promise another patch soon. People will keep complaining, the Aspyr-apologetics will repeat the mantra "there'll be a patch out soon". People wanting to check in on the forthcoming patch will visit Aspyr's website, and notice that the Support area is temporarily closed, due to a new re-design of the website. 6 months later, even the die-hards realize that the promised patch will never materialize.

But hey! Two years later Aspyr will release another AAA title, once again making them the saints of OS X gaming. And then the whole process outlined above starts again, just with a new title.

(Oh, and not Steamplay, and no multiplayer with PC users - God forbid, then Aspyr would have to keep up with patches to the PC version. Just after launch, there's already people complaining about lack of other players)

You stay classy, Aspyr.

 

[paduck]

Anyone try running COD Black Ops with a GEForce 9500 GT?

What experiences have people had with the "unsupported" video cards?

 

[Djevlen]

I'm "happy" to report, that the game have serious issues with NVIDIA graphics.

Of course, serious issues was to be expected. It was after all ported by Aspyr.

But we'll get a patch. Soon. It'll improve performance somewhat. People will still complain, Aspyr will promise another patch soon. People will keep complaining, the Aspyr-apologetics will repeat the mantra "there'll be a patch out soon". People wanting to check in on the forthcoming patch will visit Aspyr's website, and notice that the Support area is temporarily closed, due to a new re-design of the website. 6 months later, even the die-hards realize that the promised patch will never materialize.

But hey! Two years later Aspyr will release another AAA title, once again making them the saints of OS X gaming. And then the whole process outlined above starts again, just with a new title.

(Oh, and not Steamplay, and no multiplayer with PC users - God forbid, then Aspyr would have to keep up with patches to the PC version. Just after launch, there's already people complaining about lack of other players)

You stay classy, Aspyr.

What an useless post, I've bought multiple games/ports/whatever from Aspyr and they have all worked perfect. CoD:BO is no different.

I have everything on max @ native resolution on my mid 2011 27-inch iMac and the game is übersmooth.

Its not Aspyrs fault that there is no mac-to-pc MP, I feel certain that if they could implement it, they would.

As for steamplay, Aspyr needs to earn money as any company and if people who have previously bought CoD: BO on windows could just redownload it on their macs, Aspyr wouldn't make any money. Money that in my opinion they deserve for porting CoD: BO.

I don't understand how people can be so ungrateful towards Aspyr, when all they do is making it possible for us mac-users to avoid using BC when we want to play computer games.

No one says you need to buy ports from Aspyr/Feral, and you definitely don't need to come here with unconstructive critism.

 

[Gomez315]

anyone try this yet with hd4000?

 

[jvpython]

anyone try this yet with hd4000?

People said they could play it fine on medium settings on the HD 3000 so I'm sure it'll be fine on the HD 4000. Probably won't be able to max it out though.

 

[koolmagicguy]

I'm "happy" to report, that the game have serious issues with NVIDIA graphics.

Of course, serious issues was to be expected. It was after all ported by Aspyr.

But we'll get a patch. Soon. It'll improve performance somewhat. People will still complain, Aspyr will promise another patch soon. People will keep complaining, the Aspyr-apologetics will repeat the mantra "there'll be a patch out soon". People wanting to check in on the forthcoming patch will visit Aspyr's website, and notice that the Support area is temporarily closed, due to a new re-design of the website. 6 months later, even the die-hards realize that the promised patch will never materialize.

But hey! Two years later Aspyr will release another AAA title, once again making them the saints of OS X gaming. And then the whole process outlined above starts again, just with a new title.

(Oh, and not Steamplay, and no multiplayer with PC users - God forbid, then Aspyr would have to keep up with patches to the PC version. Just after launch, there's already people complaining about lack of other players)

You stay classy, Aspyr.

Hehe go buy a PC and all the class that goes with that. Take your negativity elsewhere.

 

[Sambo110]

Well this is a terrible port. Not only is it the first Stem game I've seen that isn't Steam Play, but multiplayer isn't cross platform (Mac and PC). Who thought this was a good idea?!

 

[Dirtyharry50]

Well this is a terrible port. Not only is it the first Stem game I've seen that isn't Steam Play, but multiplayer isn't cross platform (Mac and PC). Who thought this was a good idea?!

If enough people buy and play this, the MP being Mac only might be a plus, at least early on. My reasoning here is that everyone starting out in MP will be just starting out for the most part. You won't be entering a viper's nest of veteran players who know the maps like the back of their hands and will eat you alive until you get your bearings. So learning the MP as others are too might be kinda fun. It's possible a Mac community while smaller might be a nicer community than found on the PC side of the world.

I bought it on sale a while back on Steam hoping the port would be Steamplay but that was my mistake. It was never promised. I do understand Aspyr as well as Feral need to make a living and for quality entertainment it is only fair to pay for it. Steamplay is great when possible economically but I wouldn't mind seeing the entire Aspyr and Feral catalogs of games come to Steam as Mac only versions. More exposure and more sales can only be a good thing for Mac gaming.

 

[avemestr]

No one says you need to buy ports from Aspyr/Feral, and you definitely don't need to come here with unconstructive critism.

Funny thing is, Feral Interactive does everything right. When I buy a game from Feral, I know it works well. When I need support from Feral, I get a more than friendly reply every time.

Aspyr reaches out to the community by sending "Aspyr-Blair", who at this time have a whopping 3 posts on MR. He's not here to interact with the community, he's here to do damage control. Compare this to edddeduck from Feral, with 959 posts, who responds and do actual support on these forums, whereas Aspyr people seldom post anything but: "Hi, I'm from Aspyr. Please stand by for a patch."

Hehe go buy a PC and all the class that goes with that. Take your negativity elsewhere.

Keep drinking the Kool-Aid. This discussion started with me saying it was sad to see the game ported by Aspyr. You and GreatWumpus jumped to the defense of Aspyr proclaiming them to be company releasing wonderful ports. 2 days later, my fear was confirmed, CoD:BO was just another botched port on the part of Aspyr.

So I was right. That kind of gives me the upper-hand in any discussion.

And regarding my so-called "negativity": I could be totally indifferent to Aspyr, and just ignore their games. But the problem is, every time Aspyr releases another crappy port they hurt ALL Mac gamers and all Mac gaming companies. Every time Aspyr releases a port, they reinforces the impression that "gaming on OS X i crap". Feral, Virtual Programming and a lot of indie studios make an effort to prove them wrong, but since Aspyr repeatedly releases crappy ports of AAA titles, their poor ports make bigger headlines than the great ports done by others.