Any good RPGs for Mac? No WOW please [Archive]

Huntn

Jul 15, 2009, 02:13 PM

not really im scared if i do bootcamp im going to mess the mac after because then the mac can be effected with viruses and i know i have a lot on my external...

Boot camp creates a partition to keep your Windows stuff completely separated from your Mac stuff. If anything gets infected on your Windows side, you can just wipe that partition and start over. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I am not aware of any viruses, malware, etc, jumping a partition. If you can get over your Windows phobia :), I recommend Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (http://www.elderscrolls.com/art/si_screenshots_01.htm), the finest solo RPG I have ever played and I played it for all most 2 years.

kaltsasa

Jul 15, 2009, 04:07 PM

Spiderweb Software (http://spiderwebsoftware.com/)

If you can get past the graphics, which I actually prefer to most modern 3D RPG graphics, you'll find insanely deep RPGs. The original Avernum Trilogy alone will give you hundreds of hours of play for a paltry 45 bucks. And there are big long demos too. Avernum 6 is actually looking pretty good too with some fancy particle effects and resolution independent gaming.

Basilisk Games (http://basiliskgames.com/index.html) makes some good stuff too. Again what you would call "retro" but there's something about sprites that feels so fufuling and organic to me, I find I enjoy sprite based RPGs much more. (Don't get me wrong I love my 3D too, I didn't sleep until I beat bioshock).

sako94

Jul 15, 2009, 04:24 PM

i think i might have to use bootcamp :P

savvos

Jul 15, 2009, 07:43 PM

I second the Spiderweb Games suggestion. THe graphics are old school, but the stories are good. I especially enjoyed Avernum 5.

jknight8907

Jul 15, 2009, 07:49 PM

EVE Online.

Nadasive

Jul 15, 2009, 09:25 PM

what about diablo 2 ??
a pretty good game

imassents

Jul 16, 2009, 02:52 AM

not really im scared if i do bootcamp im going to mess the mac after because then the mac can be effected with viruses and i know i have a lot on my external...If your external drive is formatted as FAT32 (ie accessible to PCs as well) it could be quite possible that a virus could find it's way on there. Any Mac specific drives (partitions) cannot be accessed in Windows, hence are safe from corruption.

If you are worried about it, get yourself an anti-virus program. I use Avast! in my Windows, and another popular one is AVG. You can find them here
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition?cmpid=fr_bn_free_670

Both are free to use and update themselves. If you stop virii getting to Windows, your Mac side will have nothing to worry about =)

davwin

Jul 16, 2009, 06:31 AM

In addition to the MMO's already mentioned, City of Heroes is Mac compatible and is a pretty good (if a little older now) Superhero themed MMO.

I would have to agree with others though, try the BootCamp partition so that you aren't limited to Mac compatible titles or running them through Crossover. There are tons of MMO's out there, most Mac's are more than capable of running them at decent framerates and setting up BootCamp is Very easy.

txa1265

Jul 16, 2009, 08:01 AM

In addition to Spiderweb's games (full disclosure: I've been beta testing his Mac & PC games for years), I would also highly recommend 'Eschalon Book 1' as another classic RPG.

You can grab the Mac version of Bioware's 'Jade Empire' from a number of digital download' places - I got it off Direct2Drive. That is modern and fun.

sako94

Jul 16, 2009, 02:43 PM

mslide

Jul 16, 2009, 03:01 PM

I second the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion suggestion. One of my favorite solo RPGs. Elder Scrolls 3 is also a great game, although, some don't like that it is so open ended and is more hard core than Oblivion. The graphics aren't as good as Oblivion but it doesn't have old school graphics like the previously mentioned (great) games.

You also have nothing to fear with bootcamping windows. If you don't have a copy of Windows to install, you can always install the Windows 7 RC that is freely available.

Ov3rlord Falc0r

Jul 16, 2009, 03:20 PM

yeah those games sound all good but there so old school looking at the capabilities today i want to play a good game with awesome graphics :D

thinking about runes of magic or guild wars both look good

one question though how can i get a windows XP or vista disc without going out and shelling 200-300 dollars for one...

can i use the ones that my old PCs came with?
example: i have a Reinstallation CD for XP Home edition?

Oooo...Guild Wars is a personal favorite of mine. :) I've played that off and on (mostly on) for almost 3 years now. However that is a windows game but it seems like you are going the bootcamp route which is a great idea. Thats what I do.

I do love Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion as well. That is a fantastic solo game and is SO deep in terms of story and gameplay.

sako94

Jul 16, 2009, 03:27 PM

Ttownbeast

Jul 16, 2009, 03:32 PM

I don't know if Second Life applies as an RPG but I find it addictive

txa1265

Jul 16, 2009, 05:19 PM

Oh - so you favor MMO's rather than 'real' RPG's and graphics over gameplay.

I got nuthin' for you ... but if those are your tastes, Oblivion is definitely a good choice. Pretty, devoid of consequences or meaningful choices, and the closest to a 'single player MMO' you'll find.

Ov3rlord Falc0r

Jul 16, 2009, 10:49 PM

yeah i want to bootcamp but guys! i still didnt figure out how im going to boot camp like if i use windows 7 is it all free? because i read something about it saying it will be gone in march '10?
any other way to get a windows installation cd? can i just download other ones?

and i never got an answer with my windows reinstallation cd work ?

Well what I would do right now is just use Windows 7. Its free for another 9 months or so. When the time comes next year you can worry about finding a windows CD at that time. That's what I'm doing anyways.

King James

Jul 16, 2009, 11:11 PM

Eve is a good one that finally came out with a Mac client

Tsubame

Jul 17, 2009, 08:49 PM

If you were thinking about Guild Wars, I should note that it works perfectly under Crossover Games, if you get that you don't need to run Boot Camp.

Few games work under it, but it's always worth checking before you go check Boot Camp, cause not having to reboot is a wonderful thing.

akm3

Jul 17, 2009, 11:59 PM

Here is an offbeat suggestion.

There are companies like gog.com (good old games) that sell legit, very inexpensive classic PC/Windows games. Many of these, being older, run perfectly well under under WINE or Crossover games, or such.

Fallout 2, one of the best RPG's of all time, runs great under Crossover Games - as an example, and it costs like $5.

I would highly recommend looking at the WINE compatibility list and places like gog.com to see if anything lines up for a great classic gaming experience on your mac, cheap, and legally.

Winni

Jul 18, 2009, 07:22 AM

hey guys wondering if there is any good MMORPGs that work on mac or are broswer based? i already know of Runescape and World of Warcraft and wondering if there is any other good ones

Eschalon: Book I is a beautiful indie role playing game.

http://www.basiliskgames.com/

Oops: Okay, forget what I said. Eschalon is a single player game, not one of those online games. It's still a great game, though. ;-)

Huntn

Jul 18, 2009, 09:23 AM

i think i might have to use bootcamp :P

This is a good rule for your Windows installation. Only play games on it. Only surf for necessary downloads using Safari (Windows version) or Firefox. Get a good utility suite that covers virus, malware, and system maintenance. I like System Suite 9 (http://www.avanquest.com/USA/software/systemsuite-9-professional-114908?meta=pc-utilities&cat=anti-virus-anti-spyware&sub=antivirus-anti-virus&lp=1&tr1=AQ_US_PP_GO_VC&gclid=CLbY-6S635sCFdVL5QodxwfA_A). Run it a couple of times a month. I really like System Suite's Registry Cleaner. Yes Windows cost money!:p

Regarding Oblivion, there is no "if you can get past the graphics" issues! And the community has a ton of outstanding addons that allow you to tweak game play towards your preference. Don't like the main quest? Get rid of it!! Want a companion, there is an addon for that. See the MacRumor's Oblivion Tips and Cheats Guide (http://guides.macrumors.com/Elder_Scrolls_4:_Oblivion_Tips_and_Cheats).

Marginson

Aug 11, 2009, 02:28 AM

I play this game called zOMG, its not an MMO, more RPG, but the quest are good, its on the Gaia website and you can play as a guest, good game, yu kill theese things called the animated... its fun! :D
:apple:

nightfly13

Aug 11, 2009, 08:29 AM

EVE Online.

I second this. Fantastic game, but a brutal learning curve. The upside of the learning curve is it weeds out a good percentage of idiots, which is refreshing. Mac Client is finally stable, graphics are gorgeous.

Huntn

Aug 11, 2009, 09:47 AM

one question though how can i get a windows XP or vista disc without going out and shelling 200-300 dollars for one...

can i use the ones that my old PCs came with?
example: i have a Reinstallation CD for XP Home edition?

WinXP sells new for about $75. If it's a restore CD for a PC, my guess is that it would not work on your Mac, but you could give it a shot. Aren't those customized to work only with the computer they came with? (not sure)

kauthor

Aug 16, 2009, 05:04 PM

PM me that website that sells WinXP new for about $75. My father need it.

akm3

Aug 16, 2009, 09:03 PM

Oooo...Guild Wars is a personal favorite of mine. :) I've played that off and on (mostly on) for almost 3 years now. However that is a windows game but it seems like you are going the bootcamp route which is a great idea. Thats what I do.

I do love Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion as well. That is a fantastic solo game and is SO deep in terms of story and gameplay.

I'm pretty sure guildwars is one of the well supported WINE games, but I am saying that without having done it myself or fact checking

Huntn

Aug 17, 2009, 02:04 PM

PM me that website that sells WinXP new for about $75. My father need it.

You'd better be ready to pounce. BTW I don't vouch for this site, it just game up when I googled it.

http://www.cdsfu.com/index.php?categoryID=87

iPapa

Aug 17, 2009, 08:55 PM

I can't believe nobody has mentioned Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) in this thread yet... it is a personal favourite of mine, possibly the MMORPG I like the most among the enormous amount of games in this genre available today.

You can play LOTRO via Bootcamp if you want to pay for a Windows licence, or you can get LOTRO to work via Crossover Games (no Windows needed). This very same procedure can be used for MMORPGs such as Star Wars Galaxies, Guild Wars and EverQuest 1 and 2 too. And probably many more that I've yet not tried.

Another great suggestion is Warhammer Online. Right now there's a beta version of a brand new Mac client for this MMORPG (the beta is available only for the North American servers at the moment, and will be out in Europe later this month). Meaning you do not need Bootcamp (Windows) nor Crossover Games. It runs native. Later on this year the beta client will be a "proper" one. But the beta client already works great and is stable. This achievement is due thanks to Cider (the same technology used to bring EVE Online and City of Heroes to OS X).

And if you're really willing to pay Microsoft for an OS licence, you could do the Bootcamp route and try Age of Conan. Like (insert something here) it is beautiful on the outside and empty on the inside. No really, AoC actually is a great game now, it has finally become what was promised when it was released last year. Worth the try.

EmperorDarius

Aug 18, 2009, 04:15 PM

I think this is the best way to keep your Windows system always clean:

Install Returnil Free version

Returnil is a very cool program. Basically what it does is that, once you activate it, whenever you restart your computer it (Windows) will get back to the point when you have activated it. What I mean, for instance, you install the games you want to play, ok? Now you activate Returnil. Whatever you do to your computer, remove the game, infect it, delete system files etc., when you restart you'll get back to the point when you activated Returnil.

It's a 99.9% effective method. And no, Windows malware cannot do anything to damage OS X.

lamadude

Aug 19, 2009, 07:38 AM

Guildwars doesn't work perfectly under crossover for me, maybe I need to spend some time tweaking it, but since I have a windows 7 partition anyway I can't really be bothered.

What I like about guild wars is that you can pretty much play it alone when you want to (with computer controlled henchmen and "heros") and yet when you feel like it you just join up with others. Because of its instanced approach they can tell a story and change environments according to where you are in the story, and you still get the MMO advantages of having a community to help you out, never needing to save, and playing on any computer by logging in after installing a very small game launcher file.

I really think bootcamp is the way to go, especially since windows 7 is free, it's silly to limit yourself to the couple of (very average) mac RPG's when you could be playing PC games.

Offline rpg's I like on pc include Oblivion and Morrowind and I am looking forward to Divinity 2: Ego Draconis (should be released in the coming weeks)

vrillusions

Aug 19, 2009, 08:45 AM

Boot camp creates a partition to keep your Windows stuff completely separated from your Mac stuff. If anything gets infected on your Windows side, you can just wipe that partition and start over. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I am not aware of any viruses, malware, etc, jumping a partition. If you can get over your Windows phobia :), I recommend Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (http://www.elderscrolls.com/art/si_screenshots_01.htm), the finest solo RPG I have ever played and I played it for all most 2 years.

Oblivion has been on my list of "stuff to get" for a while now. And you can bypass the windows requirement by getting the ps3 or xbox360 versions :) granted you don't get as much customizations and mods in the console version.

vrillusions

Aug 19, 2009, 08:52 AM

I really think bootcamp is the way to go, especially since windows 7 is free, it's silly to limit yourself to the couple of (very average) mac RPG's when you could be playing PC games.

One thing to keep in mind with the free RTM version of windows 7 is the time limits. After March 1st, 2010 it auto shuts down after 2 hours. After June 1st, 2010 it won't boot (source (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9136803/Microsoft_shutting_off_Windows_7_RC_downloads_Thursday_?taxonomyId=1)). Not sure if you can trick that by just setting your clock back to 2009. But if you like it you can get yourself a copy. Or do what I'll probably do, buy a new computer for like $300 install linux on it and use the $200 windows 7 on my main computer :)

Huntn

Aug 19, 2009, 09:10 AM

Oblivion has been on my list of "stuff to get" for a while now. And you can bypass the windows requirement by getting the ps3 or xbox360 versions :) granted you don't get as much customizations and mods in the console version.

Most of the comments that follow are based on the PC version of the game. However, "Leveling Properly" applies to all versions.

Mods have a big impact on game play. Refer to the MacRumors Elder Scrolls 4 Guide (http://guides.macrumors.com/Elder_Scrolls_4:_Oblivion_Tips_and_Cheats) (I posted). Section 15 lists mods I liked such as "No Psychic Guards" and "Saddlebags". For some reason, Oblivion characters you get to play are UGLY. "Rens Beauty Pack" will fix that. There is even a mod that gets rid of the main quest!

Under Console Cheats (section 10)- referring to pulling up the in-game console in the PC version, you can set friendly NPCs so they won't attack you if you accidently hit them. This usually happens in a close quarter fight. I don't know if the in-game console can be pulled up in the Xbox/PS version.

If you are planning on playing Oblivion, check out MacRumors Oblivion Guide section 13- Leveling the Right Way. One of the significant aspects of this game is that the mobs to some extent level with you. The "plus" is that you can enter any dungeon you want and get a good fight. You'll never out-level an area. The "minus" is there is no real difficulty range of mobs to fight. In other words, you are a level 5 and a level 20 mob is gonna kick your butt. That won't happen. However if you don't level properly, you may reach a point where the mobs become exceedingly hard to beat. This happens when players level based on primarily non-combat skills.

And if you are really lazy the Console Cheats allow you to give yourself money, lockpicks, and other goodies.

MindBrain

Aug 22, 2009, 10:22 PM

Neverwinter Nights: Diamond edition is about all you need for hardcore RPG action. http://nwn.bioware.com/about/diamondedition.html

Tons of content and mulitplayer servers too. $20

Huntn

Aug 23, 2009, 06:49 PM

Neverwinter Nights: Diamond edition is about all you need for hardcore RPG action. http://nwn.bioware.com/about/diamondedition.html

Tons of content and mulitplayer servers too. $20

A fine game. Just keep in mind it's o-l-d. Check out the graphics before leaping and note it says PC on the box in the link. Did not look to see if there is a Mac version of this release. The Apple Store or Amazon might still have the Mac version of the original NWNs. I played the Mac version of NWNs on my MBP just fine.