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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

Are Macs a howling wasteland, devoid of decent games?

Happy Dave Has Left

09:02 / 06.02.07

So, I've got me a shiny new Macbook, which I love. It's a really nice
bit of kit, it's fast, stable and has a ton of nice open-source software
I can download.

What I'm lacking, though, is games. I enjoy an FPS now and then,
particularly ones more rooted in reality (your Call of Duty rather than
your Unreal Tournament) though I do likea bit of SF based action now and
again. However, I have an xbox for shooters, and I'm pretty happy
working my way through the back catalogue of decent titles (HL2, Full
Spectrum Warrior etc) now that the 360 is out and prices are plummeting.

I love military strategy, particularly real time, such as the Command
and Conquer series. I've had a look around and there seems to be a few
such things around.

Basically, I need gaming recommendations/experiences on an Intel Mac -
what's good, what's good and free, what's best avoided and so on.

For reference, I'm not going to install XP virtually or anything like
that, I'm looking for OS X games.

Any thoughts?

10:37 / 06.02.07

Well, the Warcraft discs are designed to install on both PCs and macs...

[Evil cackle]

admiral sausage

14:48 / 06.02.07

Isn't all Blizzard stuff dual format ?
I've been playing Warcraft, age of empires and Homeworld 2

Have a look on here !
http://www.insidemacgames.com/

My mirror door G4's getting a bit old now, if i could i'd be playing Civilization 4

18:22 / 06.02.07

The latest Football manager runs on both PC and Mac from the same cd, which is nice, if you like football management.

I think C&C Generals got a Mac release, didn't it?

Aside from this, you may find some joy with online downloadable games - for instance, Virtual Villagers has a Mac version, and kept me entertained for a week or so.

Will research and return.

Kiltartan Cross

10:07 / 07.02.07

Civilisation IV is available on Mac, might be worth a shot.

Crux Is This City's Protector.

15:19 / 07.02.07

> Civilisation IV is available on Mac, might be worth a shot.

If your Macbook is anything like my Macbook, I wouldn't buy it. It really needs the full-on graphics card or it just runs like crud.

18:26 / 07.02.07

To be honest, right now I'm considering Simcity 4000 as a Mac-gaming fix.

Also, am I being cheap, or do Mac games cost more and never depreciate in value? PC games I'm used to turning up and then, a month later, being 2 for £20, then 2 for £15, and finally 3 for £10, but Mac games always seem to hover at around £30-40.

For instance, Neverwinter nights will set you back £10-15 for the game and the two expansions on PC, but will, at last appraisal, cost you £34.99 for the game, and £17.99 and £19.99 for the expansion packs. I'm not impressed...

23:32 / 07.02.07

> Civilisation IV is available on Mac, might be worth a shot.

If your Macbook is anything like my Macbook, I wouldn't buy it. It really needs the full-on graphics card or it just runs like crud.

You might want to try III instead. The required specs for the PC version of that are very low - it runs fine on my setup, which is now something like seven years out of date - and it's one of the greatest games ever made, as far as I'm concerned. Just had a quick look and it's Mac-friendly.

Crux Is This City's Protector.

13:21 / 08.02.07

> You might want to try III instead. The required specs for the PC version of that are very low - it runs fine on my setup, which is now something like seven years out of date - and it's one of the greatest games ever made, as far as I'm concerned. Just had a quick look and it's Mac-friendly.

Bollocks! Civ3 never had anything interesting to recommend it, at all. Not after having played Alpha Centauri; it was prettier, but so much poorer in gameplay. No, for great Mac games, they did release a carbon binary of Alpha Centauri. That's the one to pick up. Still great, though I haven't tried it on my intel machine.

16:54 / 08.02.07

Although it did have some things to recommend it, Civ3 wasn't one of the greatest games ever made - it was good, but in the write-ups for Civ4, they made a big, big deal of the computer "cheating"; of course, the computer knew a whole lot the player didn't and couldn't occlude that knowledge, but, still.

Thanks for pointing out that Blizzard go dual-format; there goes my productivity...

Kiltartan Cross

21:09 / 08.02.07

Bollocks! Civ3 never had anything interesting to recommend it, at all. Not after having played Alpha Centauri; it was prettier, but so much poorer in gameplay. No, for great Mac games, they did release a carbon binary of Alpha Centauri. That's the one to pick up. Still great, though I haven't tried it on my intel machine.

Agreed that Alpha C. trumps Civ III any day of the week, for atmosphere, diplomacy, variation and sheer integrated style. Come to think of it, I may just buy it myself... should run on a G3 laptop alright, no?

22:23 / 08.02.07

Hmm. I can't agree. What CivIII had - and what Alpha Centurai lacked - was the ability to win by cultural means. I know it was supposedly present in AC and the earlier Civs, but it was never a realistic option - you still tended to be faced with an arms race for an endgame.

Civ just appeals to me more on an aesthetic level. And I'm not a fan of the weed/sentient planet thing in AC.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

13:59 / 09.02.07

I preferred Alpha, but for the simple reason that I'm a bit of a stupe and Alpha C. hit my absolute upper limit for "fiddleability" in game strategies.

CivIII went a hair too far into the realm of "okay, I've got a guy with a wooden shield standing on a hill stacked with an archer and a horseman but the benefit of the archer's vision is negated by the fact that there's a swamp within three squares and the opponent is in a river tile which means he gets +3 to his attack ranking when facing a unit that doesn't have the "jungle attack" ability and my stack is within two squares of a city which will give it a morale bonus but that's negated by the presence of three armour units within a six-square radius."

I think CivIII is actually a better serious game, especially for the neat cultural elements, but trying to figure out all the mechanics of units and terrain and stacking gave me a nosebleed.

There are 'ports of Half-Life for the mac. I'm just playing HL (Source) right now, and I'm amazed at how freakin' great it is. Highly recommended if you haven't played it yet.

19:08 / 11.02.07

*cough* Second Life

If you have a powerful enough machine.

23:25 / 20.02.07

I really get into retro emulators like MAME32, Project 64(Nintendo 64) and Frodo(Commodore 64 emulator). I have a Windows box, but here is a link for a N64 emulator for a Mac and look for the Roms yourself as I think there may be legalities over posting emulators and Roms on the same page? I am sure the Roms(games) are platform independent. I just downloaded Tetris, making gold boxes right now! Have Fun!

13:50 / 22.02.07

Ambrosia Software has been making some decent games for the Mac for many years now. Most of their titles are amped up, re-envisioned versions of old popular arcade games. Some of them are quite good and fun to play..

SketchFighter 4000 alpha is an interesting game... bits of Asteroids and cavern searching all done in doodle form.

I also recommend taking a look at:
Aperion X
Escape Velocity - played the original so I can speak for the newer ones
Barrack (needs Classic)
Maelstrom (needs Classic)
Chiral (needs Classic)