Hmm
"Gaming on the Mac" continues on I see..
"Gaming on the Mac" continues on I see..
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Assassin's Creed Shadows Launches for Mac
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Mediocre game from Ubislop with their usual attention to optimization (read: none).
Did they? What’s the patch doing? Anyway the controversy is well deserved. If they made a story set a few centuries ago in some south saharian country with one of the lead characters being white there would have been outrage. It’s unclear why it would be any different with Japan.
This is why "gaming on the Mac" is tantamount to a scam, extracting money from casuals and normies who don't realize what they're missing, sucked into Apple's on-again, off-again "we're all about games!" marketing smoke-and-mirrors. What an utter waste of money buying the Mac version of this or any of the recent half-hearted ports.
AC is a great series... played on the right device. Best tool for the job, always.
The initial feedback is that performance is very lacklustre even on Max/Ultra chips: https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/s/7N4Lm4MU9m
Keep this in mind before buying it to play on a Pro chip.
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I'll pay day-one pricing for a game, no problem, just not for a half-assed Mac port. The only thing this title has going for it is at least it's a concurrent release and not 4 years later. Little victories?
And yeah, no way Mac App Store. Never, not for any app.
Apparently there have been major graphical issues with the PC version as well, so might not be a Mac thing.
I'd imagine there's no technical reason. But to sell a native iPad game requires going through the iOS app store and giving Apple a very large slice of the sales. Ubisoft, no doubt, prefers selling their games through Steam and their own store.
That said, GeForce NOW works great on iPads and Assassins Creed Shadows is already available there.
If anyone wants to check it out gameplay before purchasing, Asmongold has been streaming it the last few days on YouTube and Twitch.
Yeah. I'd love to try out the native Mac version but I'm not going to buy a copy that only runs on Mac. Many games on Steam you can buy once and run them on Windows, Mac, GeForce NOW, Steam Deck...
I'm ok with using it for free apps, and stuff released by Apple.
Runs terribly from the looks of it
On an M3 Max MBP, 1440p with MetalFX quality (around 960p internal) looks to be under 30fps (high preset with medium RT) in the benchmark. Even dropped to 1080p with MetalFX quality (around 720p internal) it's only just getting over 30 fps in the benchmark and in gameplay (with regular drops under 30 fps with traversal). It seems that dropping to 1080p with MetalFX balanced (around 640p internal), medium preset and dropping RT to the hideout only will get you to the high 40 fps region (and the game looks noticably worse in terms of the GI quality)
On an M4 Mac Mini, even dropping to 1080p/MetalFX performance/low cannot hold 30 fps
On an M1 Max MBP, even dropping to 720p/MetalFX performance (!)/low settings just about holds 30 fps
On an M3 iMac, 720p/MetalFX performance/low settings drops below 30 fps with traversal
On an M1 MBA...you can guess what happens...
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This will probably be an unpopular move, but I did the following:
- bought it for Mac on day 1
- won't buy it for other platforms, at least not anytime soon and not without a huge discount
For one reason and one reason only: this is the first new AAA game coming to macOS on the same day as PS5 and Windows, and I wanted to vote with my wallet. (I get almost all of my games on Steam at like 50-80% discounts by being a patient gamer, so paying full price is an exception rather than the norm.)
I realize this particular game and its in-app purchases isn't great, but my hope this will slightly increase chances of Mac support on day 1 happening again in the future, with better games, Steam availability, and so on.
- bought it for Mac on day 1
- won't buy it for other platforms, at least not anytime soon and not without a huge discount
For one reason and one reason only: this is the first new AAA game coming to macOS on the same day as PS5 and Windows, and I wanted to vote with my wallet. (I get almost all of my games on Steam at like 50-80% discounts by being a patient gamer, so paying full price is an exception rather than the norm.)
I realize this particular game and its in-app purchases isn't great, but my hope this will slightly increase chances of Mac support on day 1 happening again in the future, with better games, Steam availability, and so on.
> Releases day-one Mac port
> Port is poorly optimized and is barely playable on the latest Macs
> Game sells poorly due to this fact
Ubisoft: Ah, guess there's no market for day-one Mac ports after all. Oh well, we tried!
I don't know if I want to try the game at all.
YouTube AlexiBexi did some tests.
Even Baldur's Gate ran in 4K at a maximum of 50 FPS, Frostpunk 2 limped along at 40 FPS.
With a MacBook Pro M3 Max and 128GB RAM.
For that money, I can even get a gaming computer with RTX5090 + a Mac mini.
It would be nice if the Mac could finally be a serious gaming platform. However, with the upgrade prices, I doubt it.
The Mac Pro could be it. If Apple was willing to allow upgrades. Well, let me dream a little.
YouTube AlexiBexi did some tests.
Even Baldur's Gate ran in 4K at a maximum of 50 FPS, Frostpunk 2 limped along at 40 FPS.
With a MacBook Pro M3 Max and 128GB RAM.
For that money, I can even get a gaming computer with RTX5090 + a Mac mini.
It would be nice if the Mac could finally be a serious gaming platform. However, with the upgrade prices, I doubt it.
The Mac Pro could be it. If Apple was willing to allow upgrades. Well, let me dream a little.
Ubisoft in launching unfinished games that needs significant patching shock news - Said no-one.
Never buy an Ubisoft game for at least 3 months after launch.
It will run better, and be half the price by then (except on Mac probably)
Never buy an Ubisoft game for at least 3 months after launch.
It will run better, and be half the price by then (except on Mac probably)
Figured I'd pipe in with my two cents.
I bought this game for my M4 Pro Mac mini (default spec) and so far I haven't had any issues with it. I've not used any tools to observe the frame rate or anything, but just to the naked eye it runs smoothly enough and I've not had any crashes.
It's fun. Haven't played many former Assassins games, but I'm happy with my purchase so far.
I bought this game for my M4 Pro Mac mini (default spec) and so far I haven't had any issues with it. I've not used any tools to observe the frame rate or anything, but just to the naked eye it runs smoothly enough and I've not had any crashes.
It's fun. Haven't played many former Assassins games, but I'm happy with my purchase so far.
If that's how Apple is going to promote gaming on their platform, they can keep it.
All of the mentioned titles are only available on the Mac app store. I.e. you either get the Windows version (discounted by now) or the Mac OS version. It's a no brainer choice, I own more apple devices than windows boxes but I still won't get my games from Apple-breaks-compatibility-on-a-whim with no guarantee that I'll be able to replay them (or even play them the first time, I have a copious backlog) in 2-3 years.
Resident Evil 3 is free with in app purchases. I won't even bother checking if it's just one IAP to get the full game or they also sell smurf berries in there.
And look at this brilliant display of technical prowess:
"This application is approximately 31 Gb. Important note: the installation process requires that you have at least twice the size in free storage space available."
Seriously?
Only Baldur's Gate 3 did it right so far. That's the one AAA release that I fully played on Macs.
All of the mentioned titles are only available on the Mac app store. I.e. you either get the Windows version (discounted by now) or the Mac OS version. It's a no brainer choice, I own more apple devices than windows boxes but I still won't get my games from Apple-breaks-compatibility-on-a-whim with no guarantee that I'll be able to replay them (or even play them the first time, I have a copious backlog) in 2-3 years.
Resident Evil 3 is free with in app purchases. I won't even bother checking if it's just one IAP to get the full game or they also sell smurf berries in there.
And look at this brilliant display of technical prowess:
"This application is approximately 31 Gb. Important note: the installation process requires that you have at least twice the size in free storage space available."
Seriously?
Only Baldur's Gate 3 did it right so far. That's the one AAA release that I fully played on Macs.
I think I’ll just stick to my windows machine for these kinds of games lol. My m2 air would just melt by the looks of it.
Yuck! Please don't support this streamer.