Borderlands 2 Arrives on the Mac

[MacRumors]

Hit first-person-shooter/role-playing-game Borderlands 2 has arrived on the Mac just two months after going on sale on the PC and consoles, a very quick turnaround for a major title. Many major titles arrive on the Mac many months or even years after they land on the PC.

Developed by Gearbox Software and brought to the Mac by Aspyr Media, Borderlands 2 lives up to the mantra "bigger, better and more badass," featuring all-new characters; skills; imaginative, diverse new environments with unique missions and enemies; and more exciting and fun weapons, equipment and loot than ever before. All of these features come together in a story that takes players to the world of Pandora to take down the notorious Handsome Jack and his corrupt Hyperion Corporation as a solo campaign or with up to four cooperative players.

Borderlands 2 is available for $44.99 on Aspyr's GameAgent store. The store has a system requirements checker that can verify the user's Mac against the system requirements before purchase, but here is the abbreviated list of requirements:

Minimum System Requirements

Operating System: 10.7.5 (Lion), 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion)
CPU Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (Dual-Core)
CPU Speed: 2.2GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 13 GB
Video Card (ATI): Radeon HD 2600
Video Card (NVidia): Geforce 8800
Video Memory (VRam): 256 MB

Article Link: Borderlands 2 Arrives on the Mac

[Syndra]

Sweet.

[Sue De Nimes]

Even better prices can be had online buy buying the Windows version and adding the serial to a Steam account.

Here for example you can buy it for just £13.99

http://www.simplygames.com/info/1971...EY-Download-PC

[xchampx13]

Very nice to see.

[MacVidCards]

Originally Posted by Sue De Nimes

Even better prices can be had online buy buying the Windows version and adding the serial to a Steam account.

Here for example you can buy it for just £13.99

http://www.simplygames.com/info/1971...EY-Download-PC

But will that work on a Mac in OSX?

[mrgraff]

The "system requirements checker" is a neat feature to include, provided you have a Facebook or Twitter account and allow their app to run using the Java plug-in.

Thankfully, the specs are right there on the page, but the checker could've been a lot less convoluted for those who would prefer to use one. The "Crucial System Scanner" from crucial.com is a good model to follow.

[lordreye]

Originally Posted by MacVidCards

But will that work on a Mac in OSX?

Yes it will work on both Mac and Windows. Read about "SteamPlay"... buy it on one platform, play it on either. You purchase either the Mac or the Windows version and you can install them both on their respective platforms.

[Littleodie914]

Originally Posted by Sue De Nimes

Even better prices can be had online buy buying the Windows version and adding the serial to a Steam account.

Here for example you can buy it for just £13.99

http://www.simplygames.com/info/1971...EY-Download-PC

I can't seem to create an account there. Their Country options for "Billing Address" do not include the United States?

[roadbloc]

Pricey.

[bpcookson]

I don't trust minimum system requirements. I'll be hunting for a demo to verify whether it runs acceptably.

[Nermal]

Originally Posted by Sue De Nimes

Even better prices can be had online buy buying the Windows version and adding the serial to a Steam account.

Here for example you can buy it for just £13.99

http://www.simplygames.com/info/1971...EY-Download-PC

Thanks, that's a huge saving over the US$70 that Steam wants for it here!

Edit: Although it hasn't turned up within the promised 10 minutes...

Edit 2: It's arrived. I can't see how to actually redeem it through the Steam site so I won't be able to test it until I get home.

Edit 3: It works

[ps45]

Originally Posted by Sue De Nimes

Even better prices can be had online buy buying the Windows version and adding the serial to a Steam account.

Here for example you can buy it for just £13.99

http://www.simplygames.com/info/1971...EY-Download-PC

Helpful post, thanks. I think I will try that.

[Sue De Nimes]

Originally Posted by Littleodie914

I can't seem to create an account there. Their Country options for "Billing Address" do not include the United States?

That is because it is a UK site. You will need to find an equivalent in America. I can't suggest any as I don't live there.

It doesn't need to be a CD Key site. Any Windows copy of the game will have a serial in the box that activates on Steam.

----------

Originally Posted by Nermal

Thanks, that's a huge saving over the US$70 that Steam wants for it here!

Edit: Although it hasn't turned up within the promised 10 minutes...

Edit 2: It's arrived. I can't see how to actually redeem it through the Steam site so I won't be able to test it until I get home.

Open up Steam.

On your menu bar you will see a menu marked games. On that menu select "Activate a product on Steam"

[BGrifter]

Outstanding game, highly recommended if your Mac can run it smoothly. Been playing Borderlands 2 on the PS3 and having a blast with it. Game of the year by a pretty wide margin.

[mrfoof82]

Bought the game when it game out and activated it on Steam, playing under Windows (Boot Camp).

Came home today and was glad to find that it has the same Steam AppID, so I was just able to install it and I was good to go. Save games use Steam Cloud, so no dealing with that. Golden Keys (22!) were tied to my SHiFT Account, so I had those once I logged in to SHiFT.

Just had to adjust some settings, and I was good to go. There is a framerate hit compared to Windows (was running 1920x1080, 4x FSAA, 16XAF, everything on high), but that's about it.

[macchiato2009]

Originally Posted by Sue De Nimes

Even better prices can be had online buy buying the Windows version and adding the serial to a Steam account.

Here for example you can buy it for just £13.99

http://www.simplygames.com/info/1971...EY-Download-PC

thanks for the tip

if someone has successfully done it, please let us know

[LagunaSol]

The SimplyGames (UK) workaround not only sounds sketchy, but also unfair to Aspyr, who ported the game to Mac. I think we should support Mac gaming by supporting Mac developers.

If you're interested in a more "legitimate" deal, try the MacUpdate sale for $44.99.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/46067/borderlands-2

[adder7712]

Originally Posted by roadbloc

Pricey.

It's still $60 on Steam.

[NMF]

It's been like $20 all over the place at different times over the past few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled for deep discounted digital sales. Borderlands 2 is a Steamworks game which means every PC copy needs Steam.

Speaking of which, MacRumors really dropped the ball on this news article. The fact that Borderlands 2 is Steamworks-enabled less than two months after release is HUGE. Screw Asper and their BS online store. If you're not playing this game on Steam, you are doing it wrong.

Originally Posted by LagunaSol

The SimplyGames (UK) workaround not only sounds sketchy, but also unfair to Aspyr, who ported the game to Mac. I think we should support Mac gaming by supporting Mac developers.

If you're interested in a more "legitimate" deal, try the MacUpdate sale for $44.99.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/46067/borderlands-2

Oh TO HELL with Aspyr and their racket. They've ported so many games to Mac that aren't Steamworks-enabled. Maybe that's not a big deal to you, but I already own those games on PC and should be able to play them on my Mac as well. Thank god Gearbox must have some sort of deal to force them to release on Steam.

Every time I see that port of Batman: Arkham Asylum for $50 or whatever I rage.

[PeterQVenkman]

Originally Posted by NMF

It's been like $20 all over the place at different times over the past few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled for deep discounted digital sales. Borderlands 2 is a Steamworks game which means every PC copy needs Steam.

Speaking of which, MacRumors really dropped the ball on this news article. The fact that Borderlands 2 is Steamworks-enabled less than two months after release is HUGE. Screw Asper and their BS online store. If you're not playing this game on Steam, you are doing it wrong.




Oh TO HELL with Aspyr and their racket. They've ported so many games to Mac that aren't Steamworks-enabled. Maybe that's not a big deal to you, but I already own those games on PC and should be able to play them on my Mac as well. Thank god Gearbox must have some sort of deal to force them to release on Steam.

Every time I see that port of Batman: Arkham Asylum for $50 or whatever I rage.

You should write for gizmodo.

[CrispyChan]

Originally Posted by mrfoof82

Bought the game when it game out and activated it on Steam, playing under Windows (Boot Camp).

.....

Just had to adjust some settings, and I was good to go. There is a framerate hit compared to Windows (was running 1920x1080, 4x FSAA, 16XAF, everything on high), but that's about it.

What were your new settings for the Mac port?

It plays beautifully under bootcamp on almost all high settings on my iMac (mid-2011, i7 3.4, AMD 6970M 2GB) but when I tried the Mac port....it's TERRIBLE. No matter what resolution its stuttering and extremely slow/laggy.

Can anybody help me with improving performance??

[LagunaSol]

Originally Posted by NMF

Oh TO HELL with Aspyr and their racket. They've ported so many games to Mac that aren't Steamworks-enabled.

Or maybe we could show them we want Steam-powered games by, oh, I dunno, buying their Steam-powered games?

[roadbloc]

Originally Posted by adder7712

It's still $60 on Steam.

Strange. It's about $2 cheaper here in the UK for both the Mac + PC version on Steam than it is for the Mac only one in the US.

[badsandwich]

Originally Posted by NMF

It's been like $20 all over the place at different times over the past few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled for deep discounted digital sales. Borderlands 2 is a Steamworks game which means every PC copy needs Steam.

Speaking of which, MacRumors really dropped the ball on this news article. The fact that Borderlands 2 is Steamworks-enabled less than two months after release is HUGE. Screw Asper and their BS online store. If you're not playing this game on Steam, you are doing it wrong.




Oh TO HELL with Aspyr and their racket. They've ported so many games to Mac that aren't Steamworks-enabled. Maybe that's not a big deal to you, but I already own those games on PC and should be able to play them on my Mac as well. Thank god Gearbox must have some sort of deal to force them to release on Steam.

Every time I see that port of Batman: Arkham Asylum for $50 or whatever I rage.

You're thinking of Feral Interactive, who don't do Steam. Aspyr have only released a few games to date that weren't steamplay- black ops (EDIT: and Rage and Company of Heroes.)- and it wasn't very good.

[star-affinity]

Originally Posted by CrispyChan

What were your new settings for the Mac port?

It plays beautifully under bootcamp on almost all high settings on my iMac (mid-2011, i7 3.4, AMD 6970M 2GB) but when I tried the Mac port....it's TERRIBLE. No matter what resolution its stuttering and extremely slow/laggy.

Can anybody help me with improving performance??

I had similar problems with the first Borderlands in OS X. Had to turn off a lot of effects even on very high end hardware. Even then performance was only decent.

I'd say it's time for Apple to put some investments (money) in game performance on OS X. Give Nvidia and AMD the resources they need to make the drivers in OS X perform closer to Windows. I can understand that it might be too much to ask it be on par, since Microsoft focused a lot on DirectX with the Xbox, and drivers are being developed at a much faster pace for Windows. But still, I think the performance difference between OS X compared to Windows for the same game on the same hardware is too big.