Cutting edge gaming is a harsh reality, especially for Macs. If you want to play state-of-the-art games, you need a state-of-the-art machine. There is absolutely no point in testing a game like Q3A on the machine you describe above. Absolutely none.
Keep in mind that I am talking about cutting edge gaming here. There are other games designed with the casual gamer in mind (see for example http://www.ambrosiasw.com).
It's of note, and breaking with the normal way of things, to point out that one of the biggest PC games right now, Giants: Citizen Kabudo has been ported to OS X by OmniGroup and in doing, they made the game multiprocessor aware and actually wrote custom OpenGL modules corresponding with portions of DirectX 8 to allow full GeForce 3 features to be seen on the Mac. On a dual 533 G4, their port runs faster than on ANY PC out there (their test). Impressive. Yes...this is not the normal course, but hopefully we'll see more of this.Originally posted by guest
Cutting edge gaming is a harsh reality, especially for Macs. If you want to play state-of-the-art games, you need a state-of-the-art machine. There is absolutely no point in testing a game like Q3A on the machine you describe above. Absolutely none.
Keeping up is somewhat easier with a PC, since you can build a machine yourself with readily available cheap hardware. Frankly I think it is a good thing that game software houses keep pushing the edge...it means we all get cooler games and cheaper hardware faster, even though it is hard for us Mac users. With Macs you need to wait until the next Mac is released by Apple, and of course it is difficult to spend $3K US on the latest Mac every six months.
Fortunately you don't have to do this every six months to maintain a reasonable gaming machine; 1 year usually suffices.
As a Mac gamer, I learned my lesson two and a half years ago when I dumped a ton of money on a top-of-the-line B&W G3/400. Two years (and two vid cards) later, it is *way* below the bar for any serious game. I can't even get an nVidia board for it (no AGP), which might have gone a long way to rehabilitate it. So from now on, I'm buying only midrange Macs (such as the 867 tower on its way...woohoo!). That way I can better afford more frequent upgrades.
BTW, anyone know if you can get Mac nVidia boards separately? I've looked around, and so far I've only found them as BTO options for new Macs. Would be a shame if no one else could upgrade with these excellent cards.
Yeah, I heard about this. I didn't know about the geforce3 OpenGL modules, this is great news. I will definitely be purchasing this game, not because I particularly like the game, but just to support this awesome company! I hope they do more ports in the future.
Indeed it is. It seems that a gaming Mac does last a bit longer than a gaming PC, but I think this is mainly due to "porting delay" of the latest games. About a year ago (a year and a half after I got the Mac) Deus Ex came out. It was delayed past the PC release, of course, so by the time it was on the Mac it wasn't completely bleeding edge on the PC anymore. But my Mac was old enough by that even with a voodoo5 board this game was only marginally playable (frame rates around 15 or so at 800x600). That's when I realized I needed a new machine, but of course I didn't have the money.
This time I am going to try for a 1.5 year upgrade cycle.That may be, but this thread happens to be about a Mac game, so you should probably take your holier than thou attitude elsewhere (although where it would be welcome I find it hard to imagine).
I actually quite enjoy Ambrosia games, thank you, but I realize that there is a difference between Apeiron and Warbirds III. One requires the latest hardware, and the other doesn't. The phrase "casual gamer" has long referred to someone who doesn't need/want to play the games with the biggest graphics engines etc, and threfore does not need/want the latest hardware for that purpose alone. It is not and is not intended to be a derogatory term. Deal with it.
You are correct. I'm not sure how I missed this before, but the Apple Store sells them for $500:
as an a occassional Blake baiter, I have to agree with blake on this one. The video games industry makes more money that Hollywood and employs more people.
And, yeah, I do play on a mac, and I do suffer the consequences..... Howvere, for real world benchmarking, games are actually a far better indicator than many other apps - including photoshop. They are also one of teh very few applications that really push a home users computer. You think you really need a dual 800 or a p4 1.8 to run word? its because theres money in FPS gaming that probably sets it apart from 'casual' gaming. That and the team based element and gaming community that these games generate. There is an awful lot of strategy in FPS based games - id say as much i not more than many 'real' strategy games, especially when one plays as team. As for 'creativity' etc, i could point you to many an artist that is employed in the gaming industry, and many that build mods, levels etc for fun. If you want cutting edge games, forget the ps2 - mac gaming still outranks that!
That's cool, I didn't know you could do this. Still, call me crazy but I would actually spend the extra $200 and buy the Mac version, just to demonstrate support for the Mac, and let HW/SW houses know that there is a market for Mac products. The downside to that is that I'm also encouraging the notion that Mac users will pay extra for HW/SW; OTOH I don't think that can be helped, what with the relative structures of the Mac and PC markets.
You can go to CompUSA and salivate at the rows upon rows of box covers, but in the end many of the good ones get ported to the Mac, and I'm fine with that situation. Of course I would like to see more ports, done faster. For example, remember the original X-COM UFO? What an incredibly well-executed game--great strategy and action, and *exceptional* atmosphere supported by eerie graphics and dark music.
