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manapple

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 28, 2011
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Hi, I haven't played any games for the past 6-7 years (stopped cause it was so addictive), but I am getting the new MBP 13 inch and want to try out some of the latest games out there. Can you please tell me which are the best games out there today (In terms of graphics, and gameplay both in the past 2-3 years). Personally, now a days, I dont like shooting games that involve no intellect.

Some of my fav's in the past have been: Age of Mythology, Caesar 3, Sanitorium, All the Need For Speed's, Thief (1,2,and 3), Max Payne, Myst 3, Unreal Tournament, and I liked Assasins Creed (though I dint play much of it).

Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
manapple said:
Hi, I haven't played any games for the past 6-7 years (stopped cause it was so addictive), but I am getting the new MBP 13 inch and want to try out some of the latest games out there. Can you please tell me which are the best games out there today (In terms of graphics, and gameplay both in the past 2-3 years). Personally, now a days, I dont like shooting games that involve no intellect.

Some of my fav's in the past have been: Age of Mythology, Caesar 3, Sanitorium, All the Need For Speed's, Thief (1,2,and 3), Max Payne, Myst 3, Unreal Tournament, and I liked Assasins Creed (though I dint play much of it).

Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Great, welcome to the world of mac gaming.

Firstly, with your kind of laptop, you won't be able to play the latest games. But I can give you some older classic games.

Rome: Total War (runs like a beauty on my MacBook Pro) "Rome Total War is an epic-scale strategy game that invites you to experience
the grandeur, glory and brutality that was ancient Rome." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome:_Total_War


Civilization V ( haven't played it myself, but really good reviews all round) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_(video_game)

Check out http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_mac/games - but if you buy something, check if your laptop can run it, as you may get bad lag from some games.
 
WillGH said:
Firstly, with your kind of laptop, you won't be able to play the latest games. But I can give you some older classic games.
Click to expand...

Really? Latest games not working on my i5? Anyway, I dont mind playing with lower settings, and if the game is really good, I could try it on my desktop :) So what games were you talking about? thanks for the reply.
 
If I'm correct, you only have a Intel HD Graphics 3000, I'm 1000% sure that the 13inch what so ever was not designed to play games such as assassins creed, etc. But then again, no mac is really designed to play games :p
 
Based on your selections, others recommended . . .

manapple said:
Some of my fav's in the past have been: Age of Mythology, Caesar 3, Sanitorium, All the Need For Speed's, Thief (1,2,and 3), Max Payne, Myst 3, Unreal Tournament, and I liked Assasins Creed (though I dint play much of it).

Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Big thumbs up to Rome: Total War (available on the Mac App Store).

Also check out Steam. Download the client and look through the Mac games for ones that catch your eye.

Colonization (real name Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization) is great if you liked Caesar III (Caesar IV is out for the PC if you want to boot camp).

Left 4 Dead 2 is now on the Mac, it's good if you liked Unreal or Max Payne.

And of course Half-Life. Get this game.
 
Good news. All those games you used to like will run on your 13" MBP now.

As for new games? Not so much at least not without dialing down to low details.
 
Don't Buy Rome: Total War

PatrickCocoa said:
Big thumbs up to Rome: Total War (available on the Mac App Store).

Also check out Steam. Download the client and look through the Mac games for ones that catch your eye.

Colonization (real name Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization) is great if you liked Caesar III (Caesar IV is out for the PC if you want to boot camp).

Left 4 Dead 2 is now on the Mac, it's good if you liked Unreal or Max Payne.

And of course Half-Life. Get this game.
Click to expand...

I strongly urge you not to get Rome: Total War. I bought it from the App Store a few weeks ago and everything was fine until last night when, while playing, my computer automatically shut down.

I was running off the battery, so assumed that was the issue, but when I restarted the machine, my battery is stuck at 96% charging and the System Profiler says I don't have a battery installed at all. If I unplug the laptop from the charger, my computer dies.

As long as I keep it plugged in, everything is fine, until I try to play Rome: Total War. The most I can get into the game is 5 minutes before it shuts my computer down.

I've searched in the ratings and online and it appears I'm not the only one experiencing this problem.
 
nickbarron said:
I strongly urge you not to get Rome: Total War. I bought it from the App Store a few weeks ago and everything was fine until last night when, while playing, my computer automatically shut down.

I was running off the battery, so assumed that was the issue, but when I restarted the machine, my battery is stuck at 96% charging and the System Profiler says I don't have a battery installed at all. If I unplug the laptop from the charger, my computer dies.

As long as I keep it plugged in, everything is fine, until I try to play Rome: Total War. The most I can get into the game is 5 minutes before it shuts my computer down.

I've searched in the ratings and online and it appears I'm not the only one experiencing this problem.
Click to expand...

http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/DD-RTWGEMAC/rome-total-war-gold-edition-mac

I got it from here, much better. No issues with it. Rome Total War is a FANTASTIC game. :)
 
nickbarron said:
I strongly urge you not to get Rome: Total War. I bought it from the App Store a few weeks ago and everything was fine until last night when, while playing, my computer automatically shut down.

I was running off the battery, so assumed that was the issue, but when I restarted the machine, my battery is stuck at 96% charging and the System Profiler says I don't have a battery installed at all. If I unplug the laptop from the charger, my computer dies.

As long as I keep it plugged in, everything is fine, until I try to play Rome: Total War. The most I can get into the game is 5 minutes before it shuts my computer down.

I've searched in the ratings and online and it appears I'm not the only one experiencing this problem.
Click to expand...

they have repaired that problem with the latest update. is it working for you now?
 
manapple said:
Really? Latest games not working on my i5? Anyway, I dont mind playing with lower settings, and if the game is really good, I could try it on my desktop :) So what games were you talking about? thanks for the reply.
Click to expand...

Most of the latest games should run on you computer, just on lower settings. Some games are just GPU hogs, others are not. In this case, (based on your taste in games) good gameplay probably matters more to you than aesthetics.

Id recommend:
Rise of Nations Gold (a little older, but I still play it all the time)
Starcraft 2 (my addiction)
Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium wars
Halflife / Portal (anything in this series)
Quake 4 (once again, a little older, but you could probably run it on higher settings)

I find that running games through windows often improves gameplay performance, but not always.
 
nickbarron said:
while playing, my computer automatically shut down.
Click to expand...

First thing do do if you have a problem is contact Feral support if it is a problem with Rome we can help :)

nickbarron said:
I was running off the battery, so assumed that was the issue, but when I restarted the machine, my battery is stuck at 96% charging and the System Profiler says I don't have a battery installed at all. If I unplug the laptop from the charger, my computer dies.
Click to expand...

This points to you having a battery failure. I would contact Apple or take your machine into an Apple Store. They should be able to help with this problem.

nickbarron said:
As long as I keep it plugged in, everything is fine, until I try to play Rome: Total War. The most I can get into the game is 5 minutes before it shuts my computer down.
Click to expand...

This is due to your lack of a battery, let me explain. The power supply for a laptop will power the laptop and also charge the battery, however under high load when the laptop is using the CPU and graphic cards at a maximum level the power required to power your laptop can very briefly can go over what the power supply alone can provide.

This only happens for a fraction of a second and as laptops have a battery this small amount of over demand is handled by the laptop using a small bit of the laptop battery briefly. This is why laptops charge slower when playing games compared to in sleep mode as they can only charge the battery when they have spare power available.

In your case your battery is broken so instead of using a small bit of extra power from the battery it got nothing and this forced the laptop to power down immediately. The reason you see this in Rome is that Rome is designed to be a 3D game with complex AI this means the CPU and graphics card can be running close to maximum power which without a battery runs the risk of an emergency shutdown if the power demand gets to high. You will not see this in the Finder or Safari as neither Safari or the Finder have CPU and GFX card demands like 3D games.

nickbarron said:
I've searched in the ratings and online and it appears I'm not the only one experiencing this problem.
Click to expand...

We have not heard anyone having similar issues with computers shutting down, also the way OS X is designed it is pretty much impossible for any application to take down the OS on it's own.

I would seriously take you laptop to Apple for service as the hardware fault is better fixed sooner than later. If you need any more Rome advice please contact our support email.

Edwin
 
Dragon Age 2 Just beat it, great game. Buggy, works as a Cider port in OSX so you'd get better frames if you Boot Camped.

Mass Effect 2 Need to Boot Camp but so worth it

Star Craft 2 Self explanatory

Diablo 3 When it comes out

Civilization IV or V Classic time eating fun

Knights of the Old Republic off the App Store; a must if you're a Star Wars fan. Not sure if it's still $9.99.

Hoard Off Steam, it's $7.49 for pre-order right now. Played it for PS3 and will get for Mac. Very addicting gameplay.

^All of those should keep you entertained. They all require strategy/tactics/thinking so you should be more than happy :p
 
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