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I wonder where is avilable to get is Apple Mac games as I noticed there doesn't seem to be much on www.apple.co.nz on games for Imacs, can anybody suggest where a good start for this be?

Please don't post the same question 3 times and please try and post them in an appropriate section...like the games section of the forum. Moving this post now.

Phil

PS...www.totallymac.com is great site if you're not happy with what is on offer at Apple

Well since no one is answering, I thought I'd put my 2 cents in, although some people may disagree there is only one reason (for me anyway) to use boot camp and windows on my 2.4Ghz Macbook Pro = games. I'm quite a (well I like to think I am anyway ) 'hardcore' gamer and have been playing first person shooters since wolfenstein and doom. Windows just has an infinitely bigger (and better) selection of games available (imo).

I've also found that (generally) games run a lot better in windows (partly due to a lot of apple hardware being slightly underclocked (in both of my macbook pro's I've owned anyway) in OS X for (what I assume anyway) heat/noise issues. Also even if a game is ported over to Mac OS X, the performance is usually close to, but rarely equal to the platform it was designed to run on (usually windows).

When getting my macbook pro I really tried to use only OS X games, but when seeing games like Half Life 2, counterstrike source, day of defeat source, supreme commander, oblivion, battlefield 2 etc, and most recently Call of Duty 4 (which 'roxrs my soxrs' by the way), and then comparing the prices of games on windows to the prices on Mac OS X (for those that had Mac OS X ports) I just couldn't justify not using boot camp.

Just last week I was playing Call of Duty 4 online in a particular good game for me (free-for-all, shipment map, and having 76 kills to 19 deaths) people started trash talking Macs and then I was able to say "well... I'm playing on a Mac", the whole room went quiet, then a few others said "me too". It was quite funny and ended up being a good experience as a few of them started asking questions.

Don't get me wrong, Mac OS X is hands down a superior operating system, but when it comes to 'hardcore' games, there's just a much better selection on the dark side.

The beauty is, with an intel Mac I can use Windows for gaming (and gaming only) and Mac OS X for everything else. In a sense, having my cake and eating it too.

Feel free to disagree, let me know your experiences with gaming and the fairer platform, and even throw digital mud at me.


Jay.

More selection doesn't make it a better platform.

One thing the Mac tends to have is a higher quality selection even though many of the ports don't work with the Windows versions which is dumb.

Don't get me wrong, there are some great games for the PC but the fact that most of the time it's so difficult to actually get those games running because you don't have the right video card, or something on your machine is conflicting with resources the games need it hardly seems worth it to go PC at all. Many of the guys at work gave up on Crysis because it just wouldn't play the game (sorry for the pun).

Ultimately I think the consoles and Macs have the better deal. You know that if your machine meets the specs the game will run properly on a Mac and console games are more or less guaranteed to run on the platform the game is designed for and you've never played an FPS game until you've played it on a Wii.

That being said though I don't really use my Mac for games except Open Source stuff like LinCity NG, VegaStrike, WarZone 2100, FreeCiv, Battle For Wesnoth etc. These guys know how to write games properly especially when you look at games like WarZone and Vegastrike who have some really nice graphics that don't affect the gameplay.

Frankly I think instead of porting games someone should make the killer game on the Mac using all the technology in Mac OS X pushing the Mac to the limit but still able to run on even the lowliest Mac. It's not like the technology isn't there.

But in the spirit of the original post Totally Mac or Magnum Mac would be the only other options I could think of. Harvey Norman might hold some but I doubt it unless it's dual games like Blizzard titles that run on Mac and PC using the same discs.

Direct from the publishers is another option as well and might be a little cheaper too.

Hi lowededwookie,

You bring up some excellent points, however we really must disagree on the higher quality selection. The fact is there is a higher quality selection of games on Windows as compared to Mac OS X. For example, Call of Duty 4 is one of the most polished (read high quality) and beautiful games I've ever played. There simply is no substitute on Mac OS X. Granted using/ tweaking windows is a pain in the backside (just did a clean install of XP 2 days ago since it got messed) every time I play CoD4, or Oblivion, or Team fortress 2 it's totally worth it (has anyone else had tears of joy brought to their eyes from playing CoD4 online? - or am I just 'too' into games?).

You also mentioned that people have had trouble running CRYSIS on windows, well perhaps they could try running the Mac OS X version... oh wait . I had no problem running CRYSIS (demo) on my MBP via boot camp, granted I really didn't find it all that great.

You also bring up an excellent point about consoles, and many of the AAA titles coming out on PC are available for a console (although the game you mentioned, CRYSIS is not available for ps3/xbox 360) - except I don't see why I should spend another $600 on a console and an average of $100 on the games when I have already purchased a laptop that can play those same games excellently and the games cost much less (I bought Call of Duty 4 via steam for NZ$65 the day of release in the states, compared to NZ$110 for the PS3 or xbox 360 version - that's a huge difference!). Plus I love that I can game almost anywhere with my MBP (which I couldn't do with a console, except having to lug a tv around).

If these games were available on Mac OS X I would not hesitate to even pay a little extra for native games, but the fact is that they are not.

I whole-heartedly agree with the notion that killer games should be made for Mac OS X instead of porting them from windows - I'd be all over them like ... like something that is all over them. But again, the sad fact is, they are not.

Is using/playing games on windows (on a mac of course) really such a bad thing?


Jay.

Contemplating about "Is using/playing games on windows (on a mac of course) really such a bad thing?" I guess it really isn't that much of a good thing since it won't be helping the situation with developers making games for the mac (since they may take the view that people can just boot into windows).

Perhaps I can just be a 'closet' boot-camp gamer?

P.S. Is it considered bad-form to reply/argue against your own points?

Have a look at www.pcgames.co.nz. Also use your search engine and you will find heaps available especially through sites like www.download.com

As for quality, MS Flight Simulator is perhaps the biggest selling, longest running "game". It's not available as a Mac version. However, a far better Flight Sim is X-plane by Laminar Research www.x-plane.com. It is the only flight sim that has FAA approval for Transport Pilot training. Check the specs out. It costs about the same as MS Flight Sim and comes on 10 DVD's. Runs superbly on most Macs - G4, G5 and Intel. A 1 Gb trial is available for download. If you have the capacity it is worth having a look at if only for the superb graphics.

lowededwookie wrote:
One thing the Mac tends to have is a higher quality selection even though many of the ports don't work with the Windows versions which is dumb.

How can that be so when the games that are available on Mac have a Windows version, and there are many games available on Windows that aren't on Mac.

Which ever way you look at it, Windows has the better selection.

Ahh...but in the Mac world, when we say "better" we mean quality over quantity...otherwise we'd all be using PCs

Phil

A small selection of (sometimes inferior) items available elsewhere as part of a larger selection isn't better in my opinion. Not at all.