I know one of the challenges I faced when switching from PC to a Mac was learning how to game. It felt overwhelming that gaming was exclusively in the realm of PC’s. Ric from MacgamerHQ.com is here to remind us that isn’t so! Ric and I sat down to nerd out about gaming on a mac away from the PC or from the traditional console games.
Parallels, Vista and gaming on a Mac December 16, 2007 by retsoced I picked up a copy of Parallels a couple of weeks ago at the Apple Store up in Buffalo at Walden Galleria, so that I could play my PC games when I go left for Christmas. Hey guys in this video we'll be looking at Parallels 13, which in case you don't know is a Virtual Machine Manager, allowing you to run Windows on a Mac, Linux on a Mac, a Mac on a Mac.
Gaming on a Mac
- Thanks for taking the time to talk to me Ric! Why Mac gaming? What got you into gaming on a Mac?
I was part of the Nintendo generation. I learned to play games on consoles and only played on consoles for years, until I finally went to college. I didn’t have my consoles with me – but I did have a brand-new MacBook (one of those cool black ones), I decided to give Mac gaming a shot. To be honest, I was so disappointed. I could only find stuff like Spore and StarCraft 2 and they both ran like crap! That was close to 10 years ago and things stayed like that for a while.
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It all changed when I got my first MacBook Pro a few years later. Armed with a powerful Mac, I decided to give Mac gaming another chance. It was then that I realized a ton of games were available for Mac. Certainly not as many as Windows, but there were more than enough great games to keep me busy for hours.
- Why gaming on a Mac, when there are so many options out there?
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I know what you’re thinking. Life would be so much easier if I just got a Windows machine. The thing is, I don’t want a Windows-PC. I love OS X (I mean, MacOS). The hardware is beautiful and sturdy and the UI elegant and stable. I could never go back. So I have and use a Mac because I prefer it to Windows. Windows plays games better, that’s undeniable, but the Mac does everything else better. I’ll choose the Mac platform any day of the week, even if it means I can’t play all the latest and greatest. I haven’t virtualized operating systems in a long time – I like to play natively on my Mac. Virtualization is an option for those who just can’t wait for their favorite games to come out for Mac!
- If you could pick any game that’s PC / console only to run on a Mac, what would it be?
This changes all the time. It was Grand Theft Auto 5 for a while, but right now I would kill to play Overwatch on Mac (and Rocket League, but it’s supposedly coming “soon”)! (editor’s note: Have you tried Overwatch on Parallels Desktop yet Ric? We’re throwing down here in the office right now!)
- What your favorite style of game?
My two favorite genres are completely different from each other: Strategy and First-person shooters. The Mac is a great platform for Strategy fans by the way. It has Civilization, Total War, Company of Heroes, and StarCraft. First-person shooters, on the other hand, are much more limited on Mac. There are some good ones, like BioShock Infinite or Borderlands 2, but the biggest names are still missing…
- What game have you spent the most amount of time playing over the years?
Very hard to say…. All-time, it would be FIFA, but that’s because I love playing those with friends, even today. When I’m gaming solo, I guess Call of Duty games took more hours from my life than I would like to admit. Specially the first Black Ops.
- Are there any games coming up this year that you’re really looking forward to?
As I said before, I love strategy games. I’m particularly excited to get my hands on Civilization 6. Civ games are awesome and there’s a chance the Mac version will be released at the time as the Windows version. I also love FIFA, which could explain why I’m very excited to play Rocket League. Granted, Rocket League is out and I know of fans who are playing it with Parallels Desktop for Mac, but the Mac version is still pending…
- Do you have any predictions on the future of gaming – cross platform, virtual reality, etc? What would you like to see moving forward?
Mac gaming’s future will sadly depend on Apple’s decisions. I say sadly because they have never paid too much attention to Mac gaming and this lack of support is hurting developers more and more. Apple did promise to champion Metal, their new proprietary graphics engine. If they do, and Metal turns out to be a good tool for developers, than Mac gaming could grow exponentially. Virtual Reality is certainly part of the future, and I sure hope that Apple will support it (especially with Metal and more dedicated graphics cards).
- What is your favorite memory with gaming?
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It has to be one of the late night Fifa sessions with my old roomates. Those were the good old days when you could still play video games with people sitting next to you. 🙂
- Thanks again for your time Ric! Any parting thoughts?
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Not much, except this: You may not be a hardcore gamer (most Mac users aren’t), but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on gaming because you own a Mac. The Mac is not the ultimate gaming platform, but it still has lots to offer, more than enough for most Mac users. And don’t take my word for it, check this list with the Top 100 Mac games available today. I guarantee that some of those will surprise you, and I hope to catch you gaming on a Mac!