Gaming help needed for Mac Mini

[LowStandards]

I been using Windows since the beginning and I never liked it. I stuck with it because of Steam and games. Recently though I decided to go back to consoles (PS5) and do most of my programming on a Mac. I have a Mac mini (M2, 8GB ram) I got last year for $499.00 It is small, quiet, and built-in graphics support. It is reliable and basically all I want. I would one day like to ditch my PC.

Sadly, the game support in Steam is still legendarily lackluster, even for very old titles. Worse, games like Star Wars Empire of War and other older titles on GOG doesn't support Mac, which surprised me.

So, what are my options?

Should I get a virtual PC emulator for Mac? Are there other sites that offer more Mac games? What about other porting options?

Thanks everyone.

 

[coffeemilktea]

Realistically, you'd probably be better off either using a cloud streaming service for games (like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or NVIDIA GeForce NOW), or just get another device specifically for gaming, like maybe a Steam Deck.

 

[LowStandards]

Realistically, you'd probably be better off either using a cloud streaming service for games (like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or NVIDIA GeForce NOW), or just get another device specifically for gaming, like maybe a Steam Deck.

Thank you for your help.

 

[tubular]

I've been a Mac guy since the 1980s, and about a decade ago I decided the battle was lost when it came to games. In 2016 I bought a midrange gaming PC with a GTX 1060 for about $800 and it lasted me eight years. (I don't do AAA FPS shooters, so I don't need something too incredible.)

Most of the gaming I've done over the last year has been on the Nintendo Switch.

 

[LowStandards]

I've been a Mac guy since the 1980s, and about a decade ago I decided the battle was lost when it came to games. In 2016 I bought a midrange gaming PC with a GTX 1060 for about $800 and it lasted me eight years. (I don't do AAA FPS shooters, so I don't need something too incredible.)

Most of the gaming I've done over the last year has been on the Nintendo Switch.

I use my Switch too.

 

[LowStandards]

You know it is funny. I decided to load up Mad Max and use 3440x1440 resolution on very high graphical settings and it worked better than I thought. Actually it ran well. Who would think a game like that could work.

The only thing that didn't work was my wired controller.

 

[Homy]

You have several options. Apple Game Porting Toolkit, Whisky, Heroic, VMware Fusion and PlayonMac are free. Mac Source Ports can be used on Apple Silicon if you have the game files. Then you have Crossover, Parallels, GeforceNow and other cloud gaming services.

Yesterday I finally installed VMware Fusion and tried Deus Ex Human Revolution. I’ve been wanting to finish the game since I’m on the last level but it doesn’t work in Crossover. I finally got it to work and it’s playable since VMW now supports DX11 HW acceleration. The game freezes from time to time because of shader compilation but works otherwise with about 80 fps at 1440p. At least I finally can finish it without paying for it. Next I will try OpenGL games like Wolfenstein New Order and Old Blood since Crossover doesn’t support newer games after OpenGL 2.1. Your RAm is low though for virtual machines but could work.

 

[dmccloud]

You know it is funny. I decided to load up Mad Max and use 3440x1440 resolution on very high graphical settings and it worked better than I thought. Actually it ran well. Who would think a game like that could work.

The only thing that didn't work was my wired controller.

For my Mac, I paired one of my PS5 controllers to the machine and use that when gaming. I stay away from wired controllers because the cords are usually too short to use them comfortably with my setup.