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Game Recommendation?

F

Fed

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 7, 2012
409
0
Liverpool.
Before I go into my tastes and hopefully receive some recommendations, I better explain why I'm asking. Before joining University I sold off pretty much all of my games to focus on my studies and I'm now in my first year of proper work. Since then I've not really kept up with the industry and because I was into mostly console gaming before, I have no idea what to look for.

Obviously they have to be compatible with Mac and run well. I'm more into Strategy games (Red Alert style) and the occasional shooter (COD). From what I understand about the Strategy offering, we have Civilisation and Age of Empires? I've not even heard of the latter. Do either have similar themes to Command and Conquer and run well with Mac? Can you think of anything else? With regards to shooter, I know COD is available for Mac but how well does it run?

I'll play mostly likely when I'm not with the girlfriend or bored and purchase the ones that look good when the new MBP arrives. Of course feel free to tell me x game will be updated in y months so you may as well wait for now. Sorry for the rather vague / subjective question, but hopefully I've given enough detail for someone to recommend something I haven't found :)
 
Download / install steam and browse through their library. If you decide that you want to play a pc only game, consider installing bootcamp on your Mac. It works well although the drawbacks are that you allocate some hard disk space for windows programs, you need a copy of windows installed, and you have to re-boot your computer into windows every time you want to play the windows game. There are a good selection of mac native games on steam if you decide you don't want to use bootcamp.
 
Civilization is turn-based, so it isn't the same as Command and Conquer.

Counterstrike Source, any of the Half Life games, Portal, or Left 4 Dead are some fun FPS

(Just realized these are all Valve games...)
 
If you like strategy, DOTA 2 is currently in a public beta for Windows and is being released for OS X when it gets a proper release, probably in a few months, which is a hell of a lot of fun. DOTA started as a mod for the popular strategy game Warcraft 3, and now the creator was given some new tech and a team to make a sequel. It's an online co-op game, where with a few team members you defend a base, each of you using a hero to do so. I haven't had a serious go at DOTA 2 as it requires sharper eyesight than I have, but get on youtube and have a look.

As far as shooters go, I like Valve's games (DOTA 2 is by Valve, but it's not their usual fare), and they (just about) all have Mac versions. Half Life 2, Portal, Portal 2... these are all great games, and are all pretty cheap. I'm a bit of a Portal 2 evangelist, it's a game with a great story, hilarious characters, one that has you solving puzzles and navigating obstacles rather than just killing enemies. Once you've finished the admittedly short single player you can download a huge number of quality user-created puzzle maps, or go online with a friend or random for the co-op maps. Valve's Team Fortress 2 is free to play too, which is a multiplayer cartoon-style crazy shooter. These are all accessed via Steam. Steam's Mac client can be a little buggy though.
 
For Strategy games:
Civilisation is considered a turn based strategy whereas Command and Conquer is considered a real time strategy.

Age of Empires 1-3 I believe is out
A realtime strategy game.

Starcraft 1-2
Very nice real time strategy

Master of Orion 2.
Old old game. But still keeps it's charm to this very day. The Mac version needs OS 9 or classic emulator like sheepshaver but the PC version runs perfectly under dosbox. I find the PC in dosbox version to be better. This is a turn based strategy though. But worth it for the $5 you can probably get it for now days.

Marathon Trilogy on OS X
A nice retro 90's FPS. And here's the link you need to get started on running it on OS X.
http://source.bungie.org/

If you are into ARPGs. Action Role Playing Games, ie point and click and kill there are the following.
Diablo 1-3. Diablo 1 and 2 need some emulation to run on OS X Lion. But Diablo 3 works fine.
Torchlight 1-2. It's alright I guess. And Torchlight 2 should be out soon.
Bastion. A nice short indie ARPG.
Kivi's Underworld. Strange little ARPG. Not really that much to this one, but if you can get it for really cheap it has a few hours of entertainment in it.
 
Gaming on mac may have to simplify your console standard a bit since mac never been big at gaming but we do have plenty of indy games. I recommend you to visit mac app store first and see what's we currently have may give you some idea. You can also check the shelf version in your local Apple Store.

According to your gaming taste. Mac gaming should do it for you as the game you mentioned is a computer game and already running on mac natively.

My office has been playing cod2 since......forever..

Bootcamp can be a good choice for those who switched to mac and still love their console/pc titles but I find it annoying to restart to windows to play some games and restart to mac again later when you doing your work.
 
Starcraft II - Real time strategy, one of the best, and due for it's next expansion (Heart of the Swarm).
Steer clear of Starcraft I, however.
[RANT/]
You can go into any Walmart or software store, today, and pick up the Starcraft Battlechest (Starcraft plus it's one and only official expansion, Broodwars) for about $20. It says it will run on PC and Mac right on the box. Bring it home, then enjoy hours of fun with the "Starcraft can not run due to the PowerPC environment no longer being supported" message that pops up. The end. Yes, I'm bitter. I've played this game since 1998 on various Windows PC's, then got my Mac in 2010. Starcraft installed and ran like a champ. Until I 'upgraded' my OS to Lion and found that about 1/3 of my programs no longer worked because Apple decided to deprecate PowerPC support in their OS (the 'Rosetta' environment), rendering any Mac program released before the switch to intel useless. Like Halo - Combat evolved (ran like a champ, now like a chump).
[/RANT]

You can get Deus Ex (the new one) or Bioshock (1 or 2) right off the Mac Appstore.

For Command & Conquer - Red Alert 3, go to gametree.com ($19.99)

For Starcraft (II!!) or Diablo III, go to blizzard.com (battle.net?). Not Warcraft III though. See my rant above. Same same.

I've found that I actually enjoy the indie games more, now. The big games feel better on the XBox 360 than my computer. Keep a lookout for the next "Humble Bundle", and look at what steam has to offer.

Have fun!
 
It's not a strategy/FPS game, but if you're looking for something with a fantastic story you might want to try The Walking Dead by Telltale. It's an episodic adventure game, but one of the better ones I've played in a while.
 
Unfortunately I don't have very much to offer other than a thank you for all of the suggestions. I'll look into them in due course and hopefully buy a few when the rMBP arrives! :D

I definitely don't want to install BootCamp but I appreciate the suggestions. I have a hard enough time battling Windows at work, I don't fancy doing it at home as well! ;)

Diablo III and StarCraft seems to be a favourite, I'll give them a look as well. Thanks again!
 
Aoe 3

Does anyone know where I could buy AoE 3 from macsoft? I cant seem to find it anywhere
 
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Fed said:
With regards to shooter, I know COD is available for Mac but how well does it run?
Click to expand...

The original Call of Duty and its sequel run like champs. CoD4 will also run well on most Macs at high settings. Black Ops was just released and while I notice some lag, the campaign runs at max resolution on my Macbook Pro with 50 FPS. MP, even at lower settings, is more sluggish.
 
Fed said:
Unfortunately I don't have very much to offer other than a thank you for all of the suggestions. I'll look into them in due course and hopefully buy a few when the rMBP arrives! :D

I definitely don't want to install BootCamp but I appreciate the suggestions. I have a hard enough time battling Windows at work, I don't fancy doing it at home as well! ;)

Diablo III and StarCraft seems to be a favourite, I'll give them a look as well. Thanks again!
Click to expand...

I would personally recommend you staying away from Diablo III. It's not nearly as good as it's predecessors, and frankly, It's not a good game at all IMO. I have been enjoying Torchlight II immensely though, and it will be released on Mac soon.

Other than that though, obvious game choices to me are: Starcraft II, Half-life 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Portal 2, Civilization V.
 
Very good recommendations here!

My 2 cents:

FPS: Grab the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops. It launched on mac a few days ago. It is not as revolutionary as Modern Warfare but it is the most complete COD package for mac available right now.

As for a command and conquer "replacement": Starcraft 2 no doubt!

Cheers!
 
MacGameStore.com is a good place to go.. :)

I would recommend Bioshock if you look for a shooter. Amazingly well done.

Otherwise, a vote for Civilization 4 (Not 5!) with the Beyond the Sword expansion. It is pretty cheap on Steam once in a while.
 
@Thread Starter: I think you would be good with Diablo 3, StarCraft 2, Total War Series (Rome, Empire), Call of Duty 4 + Black Ops, Bioshock 1 + 2, The Darkness 2 and Prey.

If you want very good ports, check out the sites of Asypr and Feral Interactive. These 2 make very good and native ports, which are running mostly like the Windows versions.
 
the8thark said:
For Strategy games:
Civilisation is considered a turn based strategy whereas Command and Conquer is considered a real time strategy.

Age of Empires 1-3 I believe is out
A realtime strategy game.

Starcraft 1-2
Very nice real time strategy
Click to expand...

Agreed, but keep in mind both AoE 2 & the original Starcraft no longer run in Lion. Ditto some of the earlier Civilization games & some (though not all) of the C&C titles too.

I'd have added Rise of Nations to the list, but as with the above that too needs Rosetta.
 
gregorsamsa said:
Agreed, but keep in mind both AoE 2 & the original Starcraft no longer run in Lion. Ditto some of the earlier Civilization games & some (though not all) of the C&C titles too.

I'd have added Rise of Nations to the list, but as with the above that too needs Rosetta.
Click to expand...

Well if you're willing to go through a few emulation hoops or use bootcamp you can get almost any game to run on your intel Mac. I have SC2 and Diablo 2 running through a crossover bottle quite nicely. But I will say it takes a bit to set those up. Defo not simple like native Intel games on OS X.
 
the8thark said:
Well if you're willing to go through a few emulation hoops or use bootcamp you can get almost any game to run on your intel Mac. I have SC2 and Diablo 2 running through a crossover bottle quite nicely. But I will say it takes a bit to set those up. Defo not simple like native Intel games on OS X.
Click to expand...

True, as much as I'd prefer to run games in OS X, both those are viable options, esp Bootcamp. Besides which, most PC-native games often have better FPS. Sometimes an added consideration when playing on non-upgradable computers.
 
Some ideas...

Age of Empires
Master of Orion II
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds (AoE port + Clone Campaigns)
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Jedi Academy
Star Trek: Elite Force I and II
Starcraft
Warcraft
Diablo
Aliens vs Predator: Gold Edition
AvP 2 (Mac port doesn't typically run well, though)
Red Faction (original)
Ghost Recon: Desert Siege (from 2001, but it's so much fun with friends)

Download the latest version of Boxer (a dosbox front-end) and get the Journeyman Project

And the best for last:

Escape Velocity: Nova (be sure to download the total conversion plugins for the original EV and EV: Override as well)
 
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