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apinchofhope

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 15, 2007
18
0
do games like medieval 2: total war run on mac os? or is everyone just running bootcamp? I'm really curious to know!
 
If it is a Windows game then it needs bootcamp. Only games specifically written for Mac OS X will run on the Mac OS.
 
If you want full performance, you'll need to install windows through bootcamp ;)

Even if I have some games like Battlefield 2142 and Half Life 2, Counter Strike: Source etc installed on my Mac OS X partion, I will always keep my bootcamp for when I want to play other and more heavy games.

Like Crysis, Call of Duty 4 and Gears of War.
 
If you want full performance, you'll need to install windows through bootcamp ;)

Full performance for me means no bootcamp but utilize my windows box.

I keep a windows xp box for playing full performance high settings windows games when I need to. It's got dust on it as I haven't had the urge to play any game like that in a while. I do remote into it for .net development though.

But your statement is true when clarified like you did. Crossover Games I haven't tried yet, but Crossover gave some good performance but not full or outstanding, just 'good' and for those wanting more it's just not going to cut it.

Full performance would be native windows (for windows games) or companies getting on the ball and getting them a "PROPER" port not this Cider cr@p.

Cider is like Crossover in a more portable mode. Game still runs in a windows bottle (crossover term) and is still technically emulated. A true port runs all code natively and not through a translator.
 
Would Diablo II Expansion have originally been made to work with Mac OSX or will I need a new copy of that too?
 
kkat69, it is unclear from you post, but you are aware that Bootcamp is native Windows right? When you run bootcamp your computer is a 100%, no compromise Windows box.

However, you might have also meant that you can get faster hardware for less by having a secondary Windows only machine for gaming. In that case you would be correct.
 
Would Diablo II Expansion have originally been made to work with Mac OSX or will I need a new copy of that too?

Not sure if all Diablo 2 expansions disk have mac installers but mine does. Just remember to get the patch from Blizzards site to update it.

kkat69, it is unclear from you post, but you are aware that Bootcamp is native Windows right? When you run bootcamp your computer is a 100%, no compromise Windows box.

However, you might have also meant that you can get faster hardware for less by having a secondary Windows only machine for gaming. In that case you would be correct.

Yah I knew bootcamp is native but to save space and to get better performance due to better hardware (watercooled, SLI vid, 4g ram, etc, etc it's my old gaming box) I run hardcore games on my Windows box.
 
... But since we're talking about Mac's here, then Bootcamp is still the way to go for 100% performance of the hardware.

Sure I could pump out a Hexa-Core Proccessor with Quad SLI and water cooling as big as an aquarium, but why the hell would I be posting in a mac forum about gaming then? ;)

You'll acctually be amazed just how well MacBook Pro pulls games off on windows, if you havent seen it already.

I've installed tons of games on the mac over all on the windows partion, and only game that it had problems running was of course Crysis. By "problems" I dont really mean any serious problem, I just want able to play the game on max settnings, like I am with more or less every other game... but not like I ever expected it to run better. I think its acctually better performance that I expected the MBP to full off even.

I run it at 1024x700 with most settning on high, and just a few on normal. Runs at very smooth framerate then. I turned the resolution up at times to 1200x800, but the game slowed down a little. Rather have it more smooth when I play.

So like I concluded in the earlier post: Get use bootcamp if you want to get most out of your mac, gaming wise.
 
boy, i feel sorry for the thread starter, having to sift through all that info...
 
boy, i feel sorry for the thread starter, having to sift through all that info...

Bottom line are these 2 points.

Do you need windows to run windows games?

1. Not really, Crossover can run some (actually quite a lot) windows games, often at the cost of performance but that IS debatable. Some say it's fine, others typically hardcore gamers will not tolerate the performance hit.

Crossover has a compatibility section on the website and a trial download to see if it's worth getting. It's a slightly cheaper alternative to purchasing a windows license.

Those that won't run or won't run well in Crossover or not at all leads us into the next answer.​

2. To get better performance all around AND greater selection of games to run, yes, bootcamp is the way to go.

To answer the question of "what do I do" I actually use a combination of Crossover and a separate windows box. I have the ability to use a separate box since I have one. If I didn't have the extra box I would most definitely use a combination of crossover and bootcamp to play windows games.
 
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