"Windows gaming on Mac" website?

December 26, 2006 8:37 AM

Is there a website that reviews Windows games for Mac users?

I just got a MacBook Pro for Christmas. I'm interested in trying out some newer PC games, but I don't know how they'll run on here. Since the hardware is so standardized, I figured there might be a website that reviews game performance on Macs, but all I've found so far are individual blog posts to the effect of "omg halflife on an apple." Is there some site that will tell me, for example, if a certain game has decent results on Parallels, or if a certain game won't work under the minimum requirements on a Mac?

posted by danb to computers & internet (9 comments total)

I don't know of such a site, but I do know that most modern PC games will not run under Parallels, as it does not support 3D graphics at this time.

However, you can run Bootcamp, Apple's boot launcher (available for free) via Apple. At that point, you're running a full PC system that will run your games with no trouble.
posted by ewagoner at 8:48 AM on December 26, 2006

I don't know of such a site, either, and I strongly suspect that there's a good niche opportunity there....
posted by kimota at 8:52 AM on December 26, 2006

ewagoner: Thanks for the info -- Parallels is out. I guess now I'm just curious about how games run under Boot Camp with the specific graphics card/processor/RAM combinations that Macs have.
posted by danb at 9:20 AM on December 26, 2006

I would like to point out that running Windows on a Mac is not running Windows "under Boot Camp." You don't need a single piece of Apple software on your machine to run Windows on a Mac. (Maybe Windows drivers.) Boot Camp Assistant is a piece of OS X software that (1) repartitions your drive (2) makes you a driver disk.

The big thing that allowed you to run Windows on a Mac when you couldn't on the very first intel Macs was the firmware update, which allows legacy (BIOS-expecting) OSs to boot under Intel's EFI. The EFI is Intel software, not Apple software.

The Macbok Pro has decent graphics for a laptop (ATI Mobility Radeon X1600), and the Core 2 Duo is pretty much top of the line for a processor. So the answer is probably that nearly ANY game will run just fine.

The recent betas of Parallels let you run your Windows partition install in a VM under OS X. (Previously to run a VM you had to do it off of a disk image.) Of course 3D still doesn't work.

A lot of big super-hit games have been ported to OS X, so you might not need to reboot at all. (I poke around in Windows now and again but I never reboot if I can avoid it.)
posted by yesno at 9:40 AM on December 26, 2006

I have a Mac Pro and games run terrifically on it (using bootcamp). Well - apart from the guilt I feel using a top-end Mac workstation to play PC games.

Friends of mine with a first-gen Macbook Pros and iMacs report getting good performance with Half Life 2 in bootcamp.

While Parallels is out for current cutting edge games there are older strategy games that play remarkedly well on it. Also Parallels are keen to get modern games working under virtualisation. I expect them to release a beta shortly.
posted by schwa at 9:44 AM on December 26, 2006

Inside Mac Games and it's online forum featuring Windows Gaming and Windows on a Mac.
posted by plokent at 10:07 AM on December 26, 2006

1st Gen MB Pro - I've been running games terrifically.
Half-Life 2, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and especially FarCry all look fabulous.

I use Parallels for everything else Windows-side that I need (runs great) and Crossover for other stuff.
posted by zerokey at 10:10 AM on December 26, 2006

This is what plokent tried to post:

Inside Mac Games and its online forum featuring Windows Gaming and Windows on a Mac.

posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:08 PM on December 26, 2006

plokent, that's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

And thanks yesno and others for the explanations and anecdotes.
posted by danb at 12:29 PM on December 26, 2006