My first video game experience was Atari Pong on a 19” B&W TV so yes, I do enjoy the improved graphics of today’s games LOL.
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Baldur's Gate 3 Now Available on Mac
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Intel and AMD aren't different types of processors, the are just different implementations of x86/AMD64.
Wording does suggest that the macOS version supports neither Intel CPUs nor AMD GPUs, which of those was the breaking point or if there even was a breaking point is not known.
Isn't the games on Apple's M1/M2 running under game mode? From what I understood, that uses a modified version of Wine (Linux)? So not native for Apple processors
Many games run in emulation layers. That's why it's big news BGIII....a AAA new release....is NATIVE
there's a HUGE difference between:
if i have choice to buy an app on mac store, or on the developer's webiste, i prefer mac store as i dont have to waste time on registering, adding card, billing info etc etc
and
i buy an app ONLY IF its on app store
If u choose 2nd option, probably u dont even need that app, because otherwise ull certainly spend that 5minutes more.... i imagine you're far from being a PRO.... "i stopped being a game developer because unity isnt on mac app store 😢"
So buying from Steam, after downloading the 150GB file, one has to be online whilst playing at all times? And downladed location has to be the internal through Steam and can theoretically be on any drive with GOG? DRM won't concern me as it would just be me playing it.
Steam has an "offline mode", although I never used it so I cannot comment much about it.
In Steam you can change the default library location or create multiple libraries to have different games in different locations. Again, I never used that feature so I cannot comment much about it.
Steam has an offline mode, you do not constantly need to be online to play, and not all games on steam have enforced DRM, it’s developer choice I believe
I have my steam games on a secondary SSD on my gaming machine so I dont need to redownload if I reinstall the OS or swap the OS drive, works well
Ok thanks for that. I am assuming it initially wants to phone home first to verify and after that, playing offline is permissible. That's the DRM bit going on I suppose.
So online just for the duration of the verification of purchase, and then playable whilst offline afterwards?
What are you talking about? Apple provided tools, labs, support services to anyone who wanted to move from 32-bit to 64 bit. They gave two full macOS cycles of notice.
You say this based on what information? Do you have evidence that Apple did not work with Valve? What do you think Apple needed to do?
I do not understand what you mean.
Help them how? What do you want Apple to do? These companies had years and despite strong support for developers who wanted to make the transition, many just did not care. There were many applications that had been abandoned years before but still collected monthly/annual fees until they could do no longer do so. Games often did not bother to update and nothing Apple could have done other than growing the market making it more interesting for them moving forward.
One does not "buy a Mac for gaming," one decides one would like to play a game on a Mac one owns. Folks like me who are not gamers but own strong Macs and want to just play a game like BG3.
And IMO just the existence of a title like BG3 running on M2 says realms [intentional pun] about where Apple may be going.
Read what I said: "I certainly agree it would be helpful if RAM upgrading cost less."
Y'all whining about 16 GB RAM really just want more for less = cheaper product, duh. If you want to uselessly whine about Apple's prices be up front about it. But do not try to prohibit other folks from availability to least-cost 8 GB RAM choices.
E.g. if I was buying 100 MBAs for a school district just a few dollars less cost per computer might be a very big deal. And managing K-12 apps running one app at a time with Mac OS would easily run under 8 GB RAM.
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Sorry you chose to underbuy on RAM with your M1. For years I have been strongly recommending folks to buy more RAM. We agree that only special low-end use cases should choose 8 GB RAM.
However just like I chose 96 GB RAM IMO those special low-end use cases should have 8 GB RAM as a choice. At some point of course Apple will move to higher base RAM as RAM needs always increase, but Apple's motives and costing there are no doubt complex.
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And I said, it's nothing for adding one more chip compared to Mac's premium price. This is like people complaining about iPhone's RAM while you justifying low RAM amount. It's better to have more so why less? Keeping 8GB in 2023 is like keeping 1GB of RAM for iPhone.
Glad to see this made it to the Mac, but the system requirement seems steep compared the PC counterpart. My 9 year old haswell gaming PC can still play this game just fine. Mind you I do have a Nivida 3060Ti.
I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 since early access and through launch, playing cooperative, mostly on Steam Deck, and last night I gave it a proper go on my base model 13" M1 MacBook Air - it absolutely blitzes the steam deck, while simultaneously lasting longer on battery (unsure how long it will run, but played a few hours coop with a friend and didn't need to charge).
I am so impressed that it runs this well on fanless hardware! (Medium Graphics, 900P) I did try running it at 4K on my LG monitor, but that only managed about 11-14 FPS at a pinch. Looks great on the MacBook screen too.
I kept the Steam Deck around specifically to play BG3 (I am primarily a console gamer) but it looks like the MBA has this covered now - Is there anything this wonderful computer cannot do?!
Only downside was having to delete basically EVERYTHING because it only had a paltry 256gb SSD.
I am so impressed that it runs this well on fanless hardware! (Medium Graphics, 900P) I did try running it at 4K on my LG monitor, but that only managed about 11-14 FPS at a pinch. Looks great on the MacBook screen too.
I kept the Steam Deck around specifically to play BG3 (I am primarily a console gamer) but it looks like the MBA has this covered now - Is there anything this wonderful computer cannot do?!
Only downside was having to delete basically EVERYTHING because it only had a paltry 256gb SSD.
You can install your steam library on an external SSD, and it doesn't even have a massive impact on performance - I used to do this on my Mac, until my external SSD died.
I mean, yeah - this is the current state of things. But we had a LONG period of time where a vast number of college students were buying a Macbook Air or sometimes a Macbook Pro as their primary or only computer. And they wanted to game on it as well as do their homework assignments on it and surf the net. Apple turned a blind eye to them, serving up a whole slew of machines with only Intel Integrated graphics that were hardly suitable for anything more intensive than Minecraft.
So at this point, all I can say is that people USED to buy Macs with an expectation they could use them for at least a semi-decent selection of games. (And at one time, companies like Aspyr and MacPlay did put out some quality stuff like the Bioshock games, Batman Arkham Asylum, Command & Conquer Generals, the Civilization series, Halo, and even the rather quirky "Stubbs the Zombie".) But Apple kept disappointing owners with the lousy frame-rates and performance on anything but a Mac Pro tower. So they've pretty much lost that whole potential audience.
I have a measly 100Mbit line and it still downloaded in about an hour. 124GB isn't really that much these days.
There are nine pages of responses here, so I guess the chances of anyone seeing this are slim. But if you’re playing on an M1/M2 MacBook Pro, be sure to tick the easy to miss HDR option in the launcher settings.