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Mac games are rubbish

Ye I am a bit sad that we also get ports but at least its something, but I guess they are trying because they are getting EA involved with the battlefield series. Also I am sorta excited for Spore when it is realized in Sept. because I am very interested in what it is going to be about.


ChrisN
 
Maximus38 said:
I'd have trouble naming 10 games that are any good......Age of Empires 3, Call of Duty 2 and X3 stand out but these games are years behind the PC market.......and yes I could spend a lot of money buying the upgrades I would need to run Bootcamp, but then why buy a Mac in the first place?

Mac users are in denial - I keep hearing words like 'fun and cool stuff' being used in conjunction with Apple, but the elephant in the room is gaming, and I wish more people would come out and admit it!
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You're right, gaming is weak on Macs. Though you can game via BootCamp, the graphics cards in Macs are sub-par compared to even mid-range PC options. And bootcamp is an added expense of a Windows license and the annoyance of rebooting every time you want to game. And the bother of a fixed Windows partition for the games, taking space from OS X.

If a prospective buyer is a hard-core gamer, they shouldn't buy a Mac.

But gaming isn't that important to most people, and Macs will run recent games -- maybe even new ones. So if gaming isn't your life but of some interest, the Mac is still viable: BootCamp works, the hardware is sufficient for recent games, and is a workable -- if not perfect -- system.

To that end, I'm enjoying Half-Life 2 on my MacBook Pro. Last summer, I had a good time reliving some StarCraft glory with an old friend. After HL2 is done, I'll work through the rest of the Orange Box. When that's finished, I'll borrow some other recent games from a coworker. I'm not playing current games, but I'm playing games that are still new to me. So I got my Mac and I got my games! :)
 
Yes, my mac isnt good a gaming but I didnt buy it for that. I gave up on PC gaming a long time ago. Thats what made a Mac a nobrainer for me. The PS2 and the Xbox were enough for me to quit. Now owning a PS3 and a 360 and playing them on a 42" HD LCD I laugh at PC gaming and all the nonsense that goes along with it. Theres nothing like lounging out on my leather sofa playing a console game on a wide sreen tv or watching a blu ray or hd dvd. I dont miss the PC or gaming on one at all. I think the PC is the only elephant in this room.
 
Lucy I envy you! As I said if I could shell out for the PS3 , X box and widescreen TV, I wouldn' t be complaining, I'd just use my Mac for computing as in this respect it wipes the floor with PCs in just about every department.

So maybe I just need to be patient, my current financial situation isn't going to last forever!
 
Maximus38 said:
OK guys I appreciate some of your comments - and yes I am aware the 512 Mb is a big problem, I am going to upgrade to 2Gb as soon as possible. And thanks too for some of the lists of games - I will try some of them out.
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You're wanting the latest and greatest games yet you own a Mac Mini?

Buy something with a graphics card at least first.
 
Good design does count

Would it be fair to say that there are more Mac users who play casually than there are hard-core PC gamers who go out and buy dual / quad-core SLI systems to run Crysis at 1920x1200 at max detail?

I often see people playing the latest games on our PCs with high-end 8800 cards. But as I watch (and sometimes participate in FPS LAN games), I find they offer nothing significant over playing Prey on my girlfriend's iMac with an nVidia 7300 installed. Hardware can facilitate good graphics and provide an immersive experience, but few games do this well anyway.

High-end hardware does not make a great game - good design does. Nintendo have shown that good design outdoes high-end graphics as far as most people are concerned.
 
Couldn't Agree More

Maximus38 said:
I'd have trouble naming 10 games that are any good......Age of Empires 3, Call of Duty 2 and X3 stand out but these games are years behind the PC market.......and yes I could spend a lot of money buying the upgrades I would need to run Bootcamp, but then why buy a Mac in the first place?

Mac users are in denial - I keep hearing words like 'fun and cool stuff' being used in conjunction with Apple, but the elephant in the room is gaming, and I wish more people would come out and admit it!
Click to expand...

One of these days Apple will pull it's head out of its backside and realise that some people actually like to play games. On a computer of all things!
 
All my PC friends are jealous of Tunnel, and both GH3 and Sketchfighter are great fun.
 
Afraid I agree with the OP, at least we have a great solution what with Boot Camp n' all. Not going to blame Apple entirely but some better graphics options across the line would give things a certain boost.
 
Maximus38 said:
where is Bioshock, Oblivion, Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed, Gears of War, HL2.....?

These are all games I was looking forward to playing.....although there are rumours of Gears of War getting a port?
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Actually, the Mac port of Gears of War is more than a rumor, it was announced by Epic, and Epic always delivers. UT3 has also been announced by Epic.

As for HL2, well, you'll never see that as Valve doesn't want to support the Mac. They realized long ago that they would have to keep the Mac version in step with the PC version and that would cost them too much (they can't make enough money off it). So Valve can piss off. Just ask any Mac gamer about HL1 and Valve, which is a sore spot... Valve basically finished HL1 for Mac and then said they didn't want to support it, so they didn't release it. So you can't exactly blame all the gaming trouble on Apple, although there are a few gaming trouble you can.

Bioshock would be cool, but now that I have an X-box 360, I've been playin' less on the Mac.
 
Get a XBOX 360, it runs any of the games you mentioned with no problem. You don't need a widescreen TV to play, I've tried it on a 30" CRT and its still nice.
 
I would love an Xbox 360....but have been put off by reports of overheating, excessive noise and unreliability! Have they improved it?
 
Maximus38 said:
I would love an Xbox 360....but have been put off by reports of overheating, excessive noise and unreliability! Have they improved it?
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Most of those reports are exaggerated, and Microsoft has been working hard to improve the hardware.
 
Xbox 360 reliability

Maximus38 said:
I would love an Xbox 360....but have been put off by reports of overheating, excessive noise and unreliability! Have they improved it?
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I've had my XBox 360 for nearly a year now - no heating or reliability problems (though I don't get time to tax it for long periods of time). Noise is the big problem though - it's louder than my PC.
 
The thing that really gets me is, not only are there few Mac games, but the ones that exist don't run as well as the PC versions.

I have been playing the Mac version of Civilization 4 a lot recently, my new favorite game. It doesn't run well, with choppy animations and a lot of graphics lag as well as the 'cities/improvements turn black' bug and occasional crashes; I found this odd since my Mac is an almost brand-new Aluminum iMac 2.4ghz.

A few days ago, I decided the new expansion (Beyond the Sword) was unlikely to come out for Mac in the foreseeable future, and bought the PC version of everything to play in Boot Camp. The difference in performance is absurd. With the same computer and the same graphics settings, the PC version runs perfectly smooth and has no noticeable glitches.

So by buying the Mac version of games, we're paying more money for far fewer games that don't run as well. That's a heck of a tradeoff just to avoid rebooting every time we feel like playing a game, and supporting the world's best OS. I'm seriously considering gaming in Boot Camp only from now on.
 
Think of it this way.

With Bootcamp, anything PC dishes out, we can play, PLUS the fact that we can just hop back on to Mac (come on, a 1 minute reboot isn't gonna kill you) and do everything a PC can do and more.

Computers were made for computing.
Game consoles were made for gaming.

Personally, I think that's how it should be (but I'd never say no to a little Halo Demo or COD2 on the mac :))
 
I did not get my Mac to play games on, though the fact that they can (to some degree) is a bonus.

When I wish to play games I switch on my Wii and have loads of fun on that. No worrying about updates, can my hardware handle the latest games, etc..

I have recently moved over from Wintel platform and am loving it, especially the customer service. Replacement of a Macbook Pro screen - next day service from local Apple Store. Amazing.
 
Maximus38 said:
I'd have trouble naming 10 games that are any good......Age of Empires 3, Call of Duty 2 and X3 stand out but these games are years behind the PC market.......and yes I could spend a lot of money buying the upgrades I would need to run Bootcamp, but then why buy a Mac in the first place?

Mac users are in denial - I keep hearing words like 'fun and cool stuff' being used in conjunction with Apple, but the elephant in the room is gaming, and I wish more people would come out and admit it!
Click to expand...
Nah, your just imposing your idea of what constitutes a "good" game on everyone else. ;)

If you dropped the biased attitude you would understand that there are lots of good games for the Mac. They just aren't games that you like.

Personally, a game that has anything to do with War, shooting, or blowing stuff up is automatically *not* a "good" game IMO. I find them boring and stupid. That makes me a minority, but it doesn't invalidate my opinion. My idea of a good game is one that has lots of puzzles or problems involved in it

Also, if you have kids, then all of a sudden you'll see that there are tons of good games for the Mac, whereas if you are a teenager or twenty-something that likes FPS/War games then there are not so many to chose from.

It just depends on your point of view.
 
use BootCamp, Parallels Desktop, VMWare Fusioh might help ... or just play games from Blizzard product, all of their games are playable very nice on Mac ... or, can buy XBox 360, PS3, or Nintendo Wii to play a real game ... just think, maybe Mac not good for games, but well, for me Mac have more benefit than Windows Family.
 
Console gaming beats the crap out of PC games anyway. Thats why you see tons of original titles for consoles and thats where most of the money is spent.

PC gaming mostly consists of RTS and FPS because those games are best played with a mouse and keyboard (although wii is changing that, try Metroid 3)

Not to mention what everyone else said PC games no matter what your running, always have lag, always need updates, and always are the same style of game, not as much variety on the PC.

I work with people who do nothing but game on pc and they spend at least $1000 a month on computer parts (that is seriously not exaggerated).
 
Mackilroy said:
Most of those reports are exaggerated, and Microsoft has been working hard to improve the hardware.
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Actually, no they aren't exaggerated. The only thing Microsoft did was to create a 3 year warrantee for the RROD. I don't use mine all the time, but I've already experienced a freeze or two. Hopefully they fixed the Elite system.

I have to agree with Columbo X, too, the Xbox 360's fans make alot of noise.
 
<rant>
Okay I need to say this: what the heck is up with the people who say you can 'just run in Boot Camp'. Especially when game developers say that, it's soooo lame! Aaargh! It makes me angry. You don't ask people to install Linux to play game either, and Linux doesn't even cost money. And then Cider, it's horrible, paying double for half the experience. I really don't see how they dare to ask more for a broken Mac version than for a proper Windows version. Bah.
</rant>

Hail Blizzard!
 
Kosh66 said:
Actually, no they aren't exaggerated. The only thing Microsoft did was to create a 3 year warrantee for the RROD. I don't use mine all the time, but I've already experienced a freeze or two. Hopefully they fixed the Elite system.

I have to agree with Columbo X, too, the Xbox 360's fans make alot of noise.
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Actually, yes, they are. If you don't take care of your hardware, give it a reasonable room to breathe, it's going to overheat. And how many people bought those coolers which were bad for the system? A lot. I've had two Xbox 360s, and not a single problem with each.
 
To be honest, the only games I find usable on a PC or Mac are simulation (Sim City, The Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon etc, everything else has too low a frame rate (on a PC OR Mac) to be usable, console gaming is much better.
 
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