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Sweet! The first Bioshock was an awesome game. As was Bioshock 2, but the original caught me off guard with it's seriously creepy atmosphere and morality play. For anyone who's never played, would you kindly pick up this game and reward Feral's dedication to Mac gaming.

I thought about purchasing the Bioshock collection that released last year for my PS4 Pro. I have never played any of them. So it's a essentially a first person shooter with RPG elements?
 
Thanks! I thought it was a collection of all the three games, since they were released together in HD versions similar to this.
Bioshock Infinite never got an HD version, as it already was running on the latest consoles. Only Bioshock 1 and 2 got remastered.
 
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I thought about purchasing the Bioshock collection that released last year for my PS4 Pro. I have never played any of them. So it's a essentially a first person shooter with RPG elements?
Technically it is a mix of FPS, RPG, and Survival Horror... but it's sooooooooooo much more than the totality of it's elements.
Super, super, biased opinion ahead. Just warnin' ya. I absolutely adored Bioshock, and loved the series as a whole. Viewed as a relationship, it would be thusly: Bioshock is the one you take home to meet the parents. You're raising a family and growing old with this one. Bioshock 2 is the special one that got away. Almost as great as the one you took home, but nothing beats the one you took home. Infinite is the cool hook up that you enjoy but you know it's not too serious. Nothing but fun. In other words, get the collection.:)

Bioshock - impressions from 2007 me. Tons of hyperbole coming.
This game threw me for a loop. Visually, there was nothing like it. Aurally, again nothing like it. Thematically, it stood alone. From the moment I swam to the lighthouse after the plane crash I was entirely unnerved. The combination of darkness and melancholy was palpable. One key thing contributing to that feeling was the excellent soundtrack and terrific ambient effects. Best of all is the way the game slowly builds your sense of dread. Outstanding. The "firsts" in this game is what you remember most. The first time you face a Big Daddy (spare underwear recommended). The first time you have to choose to harvest or save a Little Sister. The first time you actually do harvest a Little Sister.:eek: The sound effects to that particular scene... yeah, nightmare fuel. The first time you start to realize the truth about why you do what you do. All around a great time to be had. One of the most critically acclaimed games in history. For good reason.

Bioshock - impressions from 2017 me.
Still a great game. I played it for the 5th time back in March (backwards compatible on XB1 from 360). Still a boatload of fun. Not as fun as I remembered (or as fun as I wanted it to be) because I knew what was coming. Playing it with no knowledge of what to expect is the best way to play it. Also, I've played so many games that followed that blueprint that it had less of a visceral effect emotionally. Sort of like catching the Matrix on TBS on a Saturday. Debut Matrix in 1999 in the theater was a bullet time mind warp. Matrix on TV in 2017 is cool, but been there done that.

tl;dr It's a'ight.:)
 
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I wish I could get excited about MacOS gaming. There is nothing wrong with Mac gaming, as long as you do it under Windows. But having played the same game on a Mac both under Windows and then on MacOS and seeing how much worse it runs has kept me in the Windows world for gaming

It's like putting galoshes over your track shoes. Maybe titles using metal will fix this, but better to boot into Windows if you want to game and even better to have a dedicated machine that can take a real video card.
 
The first 2/3 of Bioshock is one of the greatest games ever made. Especially when played for the first time, when you don't know what to expect. The last 1/3 of the game is fine, even "good," but doesn't reach the masterful heights of the first 2/3. The final two levels are particularly lame.

Still very much worth playing, but the contrast between the end-game and early to mid-game is palpable.
 
I wish I could get excited about MacOS gaming. There is nothing wrong with Mac gaming, as long as you do it under Windows. But having played the same game on a Mac both under Windows and then on MacOS and seeing how much worse it runs has kept me in the Windows world for gaming

It's like putting galoshes over your track shoes. Maybe titles using metal will fix this, but better to boot into Windows if you want to game and even better to have a dedicated machine that can take a real video card.
Up until now, Mac gaming hasn't been anything to write home about. However, Apple are hinting that it might change with things like Metal and support for external GPUs. I sure hope that I'll be able to get rid of my clunky desktop PC in the future in favour of an eGPU and just having my MacBook Pro as a gaming device.
 
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Yeah, that would be great, I'd really like to see them go all out on the Apple TV hardware, even in "loss leader" style. Unfortunately, we'll probably just get an A9 based 4K Apple TV this year, and then nothing at all next year.

This is highly likely, and I too am amazed at how Apple is not stepping in this insanely lucrative market with all its might. A powerful Apple TV would be a loss leader up to the point that there are enough of them around to entice game companies to offer their best titles, it would be all upside from there. What we have now instead is a half baked experiment, more expensive than an Amazon TV if you are into movies and not quite powerful enough for serious gaming. That's really an awful place to be.
 
Yeah, that would be great, I'd really like to see them go all out on the Apple TV hardware, even in "loss leader" style. Unfortunately, we'll probably just get an A9 based 4K Apple TV this year, and then nothing at all next year.

You're probably right. I just wish there was more of an effort to increase the Apple TV sales significantly. I feel there is a huge market there that they're not taking advantage of. I still use my ATV3 and I don't feel a reason to upgrade to the ATV4. I have a fire stick and have played around with the Fire TV and it's much better than the ATV4 but it's also lacking. :(
 
Up until now, Mac gaming hasn't been anything to write home about. However, Apple are hinting that it might change with things like Metal and support for external GPUs. I sure hope that I'll be able to get rid of my clunky desktop PC in the future in favour of an eGPU and just having my MacBook Pro as a gaming device.

I just got an ad from Nvidia with a Titan in an eGPU case and was wondering if I might be able to run games in 5K on my riMac using that since it is such a spectacular display. I haven't got to the price part which might be where the concept breaks down first.
 
I just got an ad from Nvidia with a Titan in an eGPU case and was wondering if I might be able to run games in 5K on my riMac using that since it is such a spectacular display. I haven't got to the price part which might be where the concept breaks down first.
Your riMac is perfectly capable of running 5K games already. Both XCom:EW and Civ V happily ran in full resolution for me. As does WoW with Metal.
 
Your riMac is perfectly capable of running 5K games already. Both XCom:EW and Civ V happily ran in full resolution for me. As does WoW with Metal.

Runs 5K is probably technically correct, but when I say play a game in 5K I mean 5K, with settings on ultra with a minimum of 60 FPS.

My GTX 1080 can barely accomplish that at 4K with the twin Frozer Fans at 100%. I really need the GTX 1080 TI to max out all modern games at 60 FPS at 4K. But the difference in price if I sold my 1080 for the TI doesn't warrant doing that. I will have to wait till the GTX 1180 before the difference is worth it.

So yes, I can play at 5K at say low to medium settings on my retina machine, but after hearing the fan howl trying to keep it cool, I realized it was not a good idea.
 
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I just got an ad from Nvidia with a Titan in an eGPU case and was wondering if I might be able to run games in 5K on my riMac using that since it is such a spectacular display. I haven't got to the price part which might be where the concept breaks down first.

http://barefeats.com/imac17egpu.html

So yes, I can play at 5K at say low to medium settings on my retina machine, but after hearing the fan howl trying to keep it cool, I realized it was not a good idea.

Not surprising the fans are working hard in that situation – shouldn't harm the computer, though. I've been using Apple laptops for gaming and they sure get hot and fans runs like crazy. But same goes for the fans of my Playstation 4 Pro and the Nvidia GTX 970 I have when they get some heavy work to do.
 
Runs 5K is probably technically correct, but when I say play a game in 5K I mean 5K, with settings on ultra with a minimum of 60 FPS.

My GTX 1080 can barely accomplish that at 4K with the twin Frozer Fans at 100%. I really need the GTX 1080 TI to max out all modern games at 60 FPS at 4K. But the difference in price if I sold my 1080 for the TI doesn't warrant doing that. I will have to wait till the GTX 1180 before the difference is worth it.

So yes, I can play at 5K at say low to medium settings on my retina machine, but after hearing the fan howl trying to keep it cool, I realized it was not a good idea.

Happy thing about retina-resolution displays is that you can drop in the in-game resolution a fair bit from native and it will still look rather good. Turn those settings down to High or Medium-High (oh, the horror...), keep SS/MSAA capped at 2x (or just go with FXAA/SMAA instead), target a resolution between 1440p and 4K (maybe 1800p? Not sure what the display supports), and see how you get on. You might need to drop to a 30fps target to keep things stable...myself, I don't think that's much of a penalty. 60 fps is really nice to have, but I've never considered it essential.

I gave up on the computer gaming tweak-and-upgrade cycle about a year and a half ago. Too expensive for a hobby that only turns out four, or maybe six games a year that I'm interested in, and the little technical niggles (like stuttering in GTA 5 and Far Cry 4) just became too much of a nuisance. Bought an Xbox One on sale about a year back and I've been a happy camper since. Will probably pick up the One X when it comes out, hold onto that for a few years. I love the idea of playing games on my Mac (even if just through Bootcamp), and I love tweaking something to get it juuuuust right, but it's often been an experience that punishes as often as it rewards.
 
No question that the game is about the story, but it just didn't grab me. I'm probably 1/2 done, i.e. in the Farmers Market and I just put the game down.

Same here, except I didn't get far after the start before my attention started to wander. Maybe it's time to dig it out again and see if it lives up to the hype.
 
Happy thing about retina-resolution displays is that you can drop in the in-game resolution a fair bit from native and it will still look rather good. Turn those settings down to High or Medium-High (oh, the horror...), keep SS/MSAA capped at 2x (or just go with FXAA/SMAA instead), target a resolution between 1440p and 4K (maybe 1800p? Not sure what the display supports), and see how you get on. You might need to drop to a 30fps target to keep things stable...myself, I don't think that's much of a penalty. 60 fps is really nice to have, but I've never considered it essential.

I gave up on the computer gaming tweak-and-upgrade cycle about a year and a half ago. Too expensive for a hobby that only turns out four, or maybe six games a year that I'm interested in, and the little technical niggles (like stuttering in GTA 5 and Far Cry 4) just became too much of a nuisance. Bought an Xbox One on sale about a year back and I've been a happy camper since. Will probably pick up the One X when it comes out, hold onto that for a few years. I love the idea of playing games on my Mac (even if just through Bootcamp), and I love tweaking something to get it juuuuust right, but it's often been an experience that punishes as often as it rewards.
If you run 5K native, you can drop anti-aliasing completely.
 
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