Guild Wars et al. on MacBook

[pjbannard]

I've just bought a new MacBook (2.4 GHz C2D, 2 GB RAM, and the unfortunate Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics card), and before I run out to buy a copy of XP and some games, I wanted to check to make sure they'll work given the weak graphics card. For what it's worth, I'm a casual gamer and don't mind playing at low graphics settings as long as the game is playable.

The main game I'd like to play is Guild Wars; I've seen some stuff to make me hopeful it will run ok, but nothing 100% definitive about the MacBook with the X3100. Anyone running it?
Other interests are Rome: Total War (I'm a Latin teacher, so I've got to give it a try) and Elder Scrolls: Morrowind and/or Oblivion. I'd also love suggestions if there are other classic PC games of the past few years, particularly RPGs, that will run on the MacBook (and preferably are dirt cheap at this point).

Thanks!

 

[ZolakJHS]

Not sure about all those games, but I don't think Oblivion will run well. I ran that game on my old computer (2.4 single core, Radeon 9800 Pro GFX) and it limped, badly. I think those were the minimum requirements. I don't think the graphics card (or lack thereof) will hold up for Oblivion. I will defer to others opinions on the other games.

 

[ingouk]

guildwars should run fine. got it running on my work laptop which uses a 945GM chip.

 

[BlackMamba]

I have the same macbook but I upgraded to 4gb of memory and I have problems playing guild wars. The fps is really low and it keeps on lagging even on low settings. I dont know how people make guild wars run smoothly.

 

[pjbannard]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll hold off on Oblivion, then, and just get Morrowind (pretty much what I was planning on anyway, since it's only $11 on Amazon); I assume that will run fine, as it's around 6 years old now. Opinions seem split on Guild Wars - does anyone know if it's possible to get a free trial of it? Or if there are any games with demos available that have similar graphics requirements?

And anyone know about Rome: Total War? Of course, it's only $11.50 on Amazon, so maybe I'll get it and just convince the tech guys to install it on a school computer if it doesn't work on the MacBook.

By the way, are there any recommendations for partition size? Is 32 GB plenty for XP and 3-5 games?

Thanks again!

 

[TSE]

If you are really interested in history and such, and want a change in types of games, the best game for you would be Age of Empires II: Gold Edition. It doesn't have the greatest graphics since it's old, but it has been stated by thousands of people to be the best real time strategy game of all time, and even has campaigns that relate to real history. They also have an in-game look of all the different civilizations after Rome fell, all true. This will run great on your MacBook even with the highest settings via XP. You can probably find it for around 10 - 20 dollars on Amazon. Or if you want to spend a bit more money on it, you can buy it for Mac, but again, it costs more money for the mac version.

 

[pjbannard]

Thanks for the AOE2 recommendation; I remember playing the original Age of Empires and enjoying it, so I'll put that on the list. Anyway, I've found a trial copy of Guild Wars, so I'll give an update on how it works when it arrives.

 

[jalagl]

I've read that Oblivion runs well with the Oldblivion mod. Haven't tried it personally, though.

 

[ZiggyPastorius]

Just to support the general concensus...I just recently got around to putting Windows on my Macbook for (mainly) the sole purpose of playing Guild Wars. It runs surprisingly well, but faces a bit of lag when in towns with high population densities (like Acelon city). Outside in the world, though, you should have no problems, as long as your internet connection is decent. Anybody know how I could check frame rates and all that? By the way, my settings are on the second-to-highest.

 

[ZolakJHS]

Rome: Total War

I played this game as well, and the problem you might run into is that if I remember quickly this was a 3D rewrite of the Total War series, so unlike the older games which used 2D sprites, this was all done with 3D rendering, so you will have hundreds, if not thousands of 3D men running around your screen at one time. Again, it ran OK on a Radeon 9800 Pro, but I'm not sure integrated graphics will cut it.

You could play Medieval: Total War instead, that is the last one that was 2D (note this is the first one, not the sequel that was released a year or two ago).