'Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel' Launches Simultaneously on Mac, PC, and Consoles

[MacRumors]

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, launching today for Mac, PC, and consoles, is the third game in the popular Borderlands series. Set at a time in between the first and second Borderland titles, The Pre-Sequel, like its predecessors, is a first person shooter that incorporates RPG elements.

In Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, players can play as one of four characters, each with unique abilities: Nisha the Lawbringer, Athena the Gladiator, Wilhelm the Enforcer, and Claptrap the Fragtrap. The storyline will see gamers fighting alongside Handsome Jack in an attempt to save Pandora's moon.

Discover the story behind Borderlands 2 villain, Handsome Jack, and his rise to power. Taking place between the original Borderlands and Borderlands 2, the Pre-Sequel gives you a whole lotta new gameplay featuring the genre blending fusion of shooter and RPG mechanics that players have come to love.

Float through the air with each low gravity jump while taking enemies down from above using new ice and laser weapons. Catch-a-ride and explore the lunar landscape with new vehicles allowing for more levels of destructive mayhem.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is launching simultaneously on the Mac, PC, and consoles (PS3 and Xbox 360), which is a bit unusual as major games typically launch on PC and consoles before a Mac version becomes available.

The Mac version of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, published by Aspyr, can be downloaded from Aspyr's GameAgent.com, the Mac App Store [Direct Link], and Steam for $59.99. The game is available in North America today, with access coming to Australia and Europe on October 17.

Article Link: 'Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel' Launches Simultaneously on Mac, PC, and Consoles

 

[farewelwilliams]

didn't finish borderlands 2. lost interest.

 

[DondurmacI]

it is on linux aswell.

 

[elmateo487]

Any company that supports same day releases of OS X and PC titles is a company I can stand behind.

 

[Nunyabinez]

Loves me some Borderlands, but I'm afraid I'll have to wait until it goes on sale on Steam. I can't pay top dollar for games anymore, Steam and Humble Bundle have ruined me.

 

[Aluminum213]

Lol @ Mac version, should be fun to see how bad it runs

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Never played any other games in this series but the mechanics sound like they could be fun.

Let me know when it's on sale.

 

[anubis72]

Lol @ Mac version, should be fun to see how bad it runs

Why do you say that? Never been any issues for me. If you try to run a modern game on an old machine, you're gonna have a bad time...windows, Mac, Linux...don't make a piss of difference. So what if I can't make out the bumps on Nisha's areolas?

 

[hkenneth]

Lol @ Mac version, should be fun to see how bad it runs

My GTX460 handles Borderlands 2 pretty well... it even supports Xbox controller without any additional driver.

 

[pgiguere1]

Why do you say that? Never been any issues for me. If you try to run a modern game on an old machine, you're gonna have a bad time...windows, Mac, Linux...don't make a piss of difference. So what if I can't make out the bumps on Nisha's areolas?

It can make a difference when the game hasn't been developed natively for Mac (meaning developers had to make an OpenGL version of their engine). A lot of developers go the easy route and release a "Cider-wrapped" version of their game which is really just the Windows version running through an emulation layer. In that case (and it's really common), then the OS choice does make a difference, since said emulation layer affects performance significantly. The same Mac running the Windows version of a game trough Boot Camp have better performance vs the OS X version.

See here for a complete explanation of the difference between a native and non-native Mac game: http://blog.gameagent.com/mac-gaming-101-understanding-native-vs-non-native-games-part-two/

That doesn't mean OS X isn't suitable for gaming, it's good enough for a lot of people, but still, if you want the best gaming performance for your hardware, you're usually served better by using the Windows version of a game on a Boot Camp partition rather than using the OS X version.

 

[Icaras]

Lol @ Mac version, should be fun to see how bad it runs

I run BL2 at 2560 x 1440 at max settings (except for 8x antistrobic filtering instead of 16) and I consistently get close to 60fps on my 2012 iMac.

 

[Eric5h5]

A lot of developers go the easy route and release a "Cider-wrapped" version of their game which is really just the Windows version running through an emulation layer.

Not actually very many Mac games were released like that. The vast majority are "real" ports, though that doesn't necessarily mean they will run better; occasionally the port is just shoddy. Anyway Borderlands 2 runs flawlessly, so I expect Borderlands 1.5 does as well (ported by the same company).

--Eric

 

[Eweie]

Why do you people feed the troll? (facepalms)

anyway for the dude explaining about non native osx games. cider/wine is not an "emulation later" infact wine is a recursive acronym for "Wine is not an emulator" lets just say it gives the software access to the hardware that osx doesn't know about. there's is barely any performance hit on port like that especially with cider if done right. not to mention it actually offers a wider range of hardware the game can be ran on than a native build.
home brew ports tend to be buggy or slow for some games but look at something currently in the app store, Metal Gear Rising: Revengence. it's a cider port and it runs flawlessly in both my radeon hd 4850 and 5840 machines in max settings.

 

[iLilana]

i may not get to play much

but I support companies that release mac os version along side the others. Purchased.

 

[christarp]

Any company that supports same day releases of OS X and PC titles is a company I can stand behind.

This is the one thing I am really happy with blizzard about. They've supported macs for a long time in every game they have, going all the way back to diablo 1. Now, currently I'm not too happy with the direction many of their games have taken, but I still think they're one of the top developers in regards to keeping their "ports" simultaneous and polished.

 

[AlecZ]

It can make a difference when the game hasn't been developed natively for Mac (meaning developers had to make an OpenGL version of their engine). A lot of developers go the easy route and release a "Cider-wrapped" version of their game which is really just the Windows version running through an emulation layer.

I don't think Cider (a fork of Wine) inherently makes the game slower, but the Cider-wrapped games tend to be slower due to "poor optimization". I think they also have to run in 32-bit mode, or at least that's how it is with Wine (though there is 64-bit Wine for Linux). It's not running a virtual machine or anything like that. Spore and Diablo III for Mac used Cider, and they both worked fine, but some games didn't work as well. Not that I care much for games anymore...

 

[irnchriz]

I don't think Cider (a fork of Wine) inherently makes the game slower, but the Cider-wrapped games tend to be slower due to "poor optimization". I think they also have to run in 32-bit mode, or at least that's how it is with Wine (though there is 64-bit Wine for Linux). It's not running a virtual machine or anything like that. Spore and Diablo III for Mac used Cider, and they both worked fine, but some games didn't work as well. Not that I care much for games anymore...

Diablo III is native, not a cider port.

 

[sshambles]

Great games (Borderlands 1&2) on PS3.

Be excited to play this on single-player mode on a Mac.

 

[antonis]

I don't think Cider (a fork of Wine) inherently makes the game slower, but the Cider-wrapped games tend to be slower due to "poor optimization". I think they also have to run in 32-bit mode, or at least that's how it is with Wine (though there is 64-bit Wine for Linux). It's not running a virtual machine or anything like that. Spore and Diablo III for Mac used Cider, and they both worked fine, but some games didn't work as well. Not that I care much for games anymore...

No, some of these things you wrote are not correct. Cider is actually a type of virtualization/emulation. The included game is the Windows version, with the DLLs and all. It is not executable on OS X. In order to translate that for the Mac (or Linux) it has to add an additional layer more or less like a virtual machine or more likely an emulator.

In every case, you definitely need more horsepower to run a game wrapped in Cider/Wineskin etc, in comparison of what you would need for running it natively.

Now, Diablo is a native mac application, like all other blizzard titles.

 

[marcelvelky]

well, i played both B1 and B2 on my mini (2012) without any issues, so i look forward to give it a try.i finished both.

 

[0098386]

Any company that supports same day releases of OS X and PC titles is a company I can stand behind.

Any company that is notorious for flooding their game with DLC, and has a fool as a CEO doesn't get mine. Not happy with their incomplete-game practices, giving preorder goodies to one country and not another but is happy charging them later for said-goodies.

 

[cclloyd]

Im not mad that the mac version is a piece of *****. I'm mad that it only supports low PhysX when my card can easily support high, and doesn't sync the saves between my platforms.

 

[StintheBeast]

Wouldn't even want to try and play this on my mac lol. You need a PC if you want to game. Already put 12 hours into this bad boy on my rig.

 

[SurfaceAndIPad]

Can't think of a worse consumer decision than buying a Mac for the purpose of gaming.

 

[Renzatic]

...anyway for the dude explaining about non native osx games. cider/wine is not an "emulation later" infact wine is a recursive acronym for "Wine is not an emulator" lets just say it gives the software access to the hardware that osx doesn't know about. there's is barely any performance hit on port like that especially with cider if done right.

The best way to explain Wine is to say that it gives Windows software a little reverse engineered compatibility layer inside of OSX/Linux to play in. In a best case scenario, you can expect nearly identical performance. But since the thing is a constantly evolving work in progress, and MS is always shifting and changing their APIs around, getting that best case scenario is a rare thing, especially for newer games.

Wine isn't bad, but far more often than not, a native port will run better.