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Mac Game Store Launches Steam-Like Digital Download App
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How true that is.
Motheship?
God, I hope it's nothing like those horrible mothships Apple has!
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I'm perfectly capable of reading the numbers myself, thanks. The numbers don't mean much, though, IMO. I think a much better way of doing this is giving the person in doubt a demo of sort and saying, "how'd you like it? Does your machine have acceptable performance for our game?" Whereas I'm happy with 15-18 FPS (just so long as there's no screen tearing)... I know some people want 30 FPS, or even higher as the minimum performance they're content with... I feel like what's acceptable is very subjective, so while the "requirements" can serve as a nice guide, this feature doesn't sound like a very good idea to me.
Hopefully this will be good motivation for Valve to finally update the super-buggy-inconsistent-annoying Steam app for Mac...
The prices charged on the Mac App store and others are ridiculous compared to what you get things for on Steam, plus when you buy on Steam you get both a Windows and Mac license for the game, if it exists on both platforms. People want to compete with Steam but they don't offer Steam's prices. Games run far better booted into Windows anyway and if you have an SSD booting into Windows is only a few seconds away.
I downloaded the app and played with it a bit. I kinda like it. Much more responsive and friendly-feeling than Steam, and more game-centric than the Mac App Store. As others have said, the requirements comparer thing is a nice touch (and yes, it does appear that the app doesn't stop you from buying the game if it thinks your box doesn't meet the requirements).
Does anyone know if the downloaded games are DRM'd? That's not a deal-killer for me, but are you required to keep the Mac Game Store app open while playing a la Steam? Can you migrate bought games from Mac to Mac like with the App Store? I suppose some of this info was in the ToS I clicked past when first launching the app
Does anyone know if the downloaded games are DRM'd? That's not a deal-killer for me, but are you required to keep the Mac Game Store app open while playing a la Steam? Can you migrate bought games from Mac to Mac like with the App Store? I suppose some of this info was in the ToS I clicked past when first launching the app
While I see your point, some of those places are PC only - this gives mac users more choice. No one is forcing you to download it.
How hard is it to reboot into Win 7 bootcamp? Compared to spending between $500 to $1000 for a gaming PC. I've been using steam on bootcamp for the last
4 years without the slightest problem.
Good luck, they will fail.
Competition effects aside, we really don't need anything else but Steam. App Store already feels a bit redundant.
Competition effects aside, we really don't need anything else but Steam. App Store already feels a bit redundant.
Nice idea but I have no intentions of using it. If a game I want is available on Steam, I'll buy it there as the license is cross platform and far more useful. If it's not available no Steam then that usually means it is a Cider type game so I'll either buy it on the Mac App Store or play it on a PC instead.
I'm sure it works for some. But for me it meant having to save files, restart, wait to enter boot camp and then wait for windows to load then connect to Steam. And really it became not only a time constraint issue but also an issue of "so if I want to play a game I can't truly use OS X as a primary OS on a computer. I have to make a concession and compromise to choose to be a gamer who uses OS X." Basically why can't I do everything on OS X, now I have to use a work around to do what I want. Which made me realize sure OS X is nice to use, but Windows will allow you to do anything/everything whereas OS X has glaring limitations, gaming being a big one, along with file incompatibilities, program incompatibilities, etc.
To be fair I still use OS X for most of my daily work, browsing, etc for work. But now I have a dedicated Windows PC built for gaming and other desktop based tasks I want to do. I can jump right into a game in a few seconds, not have to interrupt my workflow to take a few minutes to relax with a game. And i know that every game I want will work on the desktop windows PC and all be there in one easily accessible OS.
I probably still use OS X more for daily use on the go but realized for my wants/needs I needed another computer that could handle other things with ease.
Yeah, I understand. It would be great if OS X was supported by all the game developers. OS X market share is not large enough for them to bother I guess. I used to build gaming PC's for gaming and then use OS X for most everything else. When boot camp came along I was willing to put up with rebooting to save dollars, but yes the optimal solution would be native OS X support.
errr.??
Probably because some people out there have sense and do not wish to hand a third of their income to Apple ... obviously a little bit more investment in servers would have been wise, though.!
Probably because some people out there have sense and do not wish to hand a third of their income to Apple ... obviously a little bit more investment in servers would have been wise, though.!
Hey how is Total War? Any good? I have Rome Total War and i'm not sure if I should purchase Total War. Also, would about Age of Empires or Civilization... Any good?
As has been mentioned before, MGS has already been around for a few years without failing. I don't see how the publication of this app will reverse that trend. Perhaps it doesn't replace their web site as the main source of sales, but there doesn't seem to be any indication that MGS is going anywhere.
I can't speak for the other games, but the Civilization series is one of my favorite game series of all time. I really like how it uses real-world historical and cultural aspects in the game, and how you can take so many paths to victory (military, scientific, cultural, etc). I bought Civ V via Steam as soon as it became available. Civ V took some flak when it was first launched for simplifying many mechanics from earlier games, but I thought it was still a good game in its own right, and its expansion packs added back some of those lost elements and upped the complexity a bit - as well as gave you more civs to play as, which is always fun (Polynesians and Koreans FTW). That being said, the game seems to be ridiculously unoptimized on a technical level, and on my MacBook, even with the lowest graphical settings possible, things really slow to a crawl in the later stages of the game - it ends up taking a long time to play the game not because I have to do so much, but because I have to wait for my computer to respond to my input. Pretty ridiculous. There's no reason why a game as visually lush as Psychonauts can run just fine on this box, but it's completely choked by Civ V.
That being said, every once in a while that game just ends up drawing me back in again, despite its technical flaws *I can't stop playing until I've crushed my enemies, seen them driven before me, and I've heard the lamentations of their women.
(If you have an iPad, you can also check out Civilization Revolution, which provides me with a good Civ fix when I don't have the time, patience, or attention span to play it on my computer. A demo is available.)
I've used it to download Black Ops.
Seems to be working fine now. Too bad you also need Steam for this game though.
So, now I've got the Mac App Store, Mac Game Store and Steam (also a store..) on my Mac.
Next up: Adobe Creative Store and Microsoft Office Market...
Seems to be working fine now. Too bad you also need Steam for this game though.
So, now I've got the Mac App Store, Mac Game Store and Steam (also a store..) on my Mac.
Next up: Adobe Creative Store and Microsoft Office Market...
I dont understand the concept of Game Center. I thought you would be able to play real time multiplayer games. For example something like Monopoly, Scrabble, Solitaire or something different. I mean where you play with a friend. I know you can do it with chess, but with time it is getting boring. Does such a game even exist. Can anyone recommend me a game where i can play with a friend. It shouldn't be a ego shooter or something complex, just a simple multiplayer game.
Edit: I use OSX. So i ask for a game for Game Center for Mac.
Edit: I use OSX. So i ask for a game for Game Center for Mac.