Mac Gaming

Mafia 2 is a third-person action adventure set in the 1940s and 50s. On the surface, the game looks a lot like Grand Theft Auto, but Mafia 2 takes a much more linear, cinematic approach to the genre, using its large open world more as a backdrop than as an interactive playground.

I originally intended to pick up this game for the XBOX 360, but held off because of the mediocre reviews the game received at launch. I demoed it on both the 360 and my iMac and found that it ran pretty well on the latter. When it went on sale over the holidays on Steam, I decided to give it a go. Here are my settings:

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The Verdict

The game runs at about 22-25 fps at 1280 × 800. The details in the distance are a little fuzzy at that resolution, but that doesn’t affect gameplay.

Overall, the game is a pretty good third-person shooter in the vein of the GTA series. Mafia 2 is a much shorter game than the GTA games, though — it’s story-focused and doesn’t let you get sidetracked by side-quests and miscellaneous activities. I think it took me about 12-13 hours to finish.

Driving with the keyboard and mouse isn’t great, but being able to use the mouse for aiming when on foot makes up for that. Keep in mind, however, that you’ll be doing a lot of driving, although most of it is at a pretty leisurely pace.

In the end, I enjoyed the game and the story, but I’m glad I got it on sale rather than at full price. For those who like the genre, Mafia 2 is a fun way to spend a dozen or so hours.

Metacritic.com User Score

7.2/10

Borderlands is basically a mix between an FPS and an action RPG in the spirit of Diablo — kill stuff and get random-generated loot. While co-op is arguably the best way to play the game (the game supports up to four players), it can also be played solo and it runs pretty well on a Mac that’s three years old.

My Settings

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The Verdict

As I mentioned, Borderlands runs really well on my iMac, getting frame rates in the mid-30s at 1280×800.

The game has an interesting art style and fairly addictive but shallow gameplay — shoot, loot, and level. I bought it in April when it was on sale for $25 and I’m glad I didn’t pay more than that — not because Borderlands is a bad game, by any stretch; rather, it’s a mediocre single-player game. I didn’t try out the co-op, but a lot of players I know really like the multiplayer and say it’s the best way to enjoy the game. Overall, I spent a good amount of time with the game and probably got my money’s worth out of it, but I wasn’t compelled to finish it since there’s very little narrative and the open world is more of a large “everyone-vs-you” arena than an immersive landscape.

Metacritic.com User Score

7.7/10

I’m not an online gamer, but the EA Store had a great deal on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 a few weeks ago so I picked it up. Below are my settings for the single-player.

My Settings

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The Verdict

I really enjoyed the single-payer game, despite what most reviewers have said about it. I thought the writing, voice acting, length, and gameplay were all better than Bioshock 2, for example. I also, for the first time, went online and played multi-player, but I found the above settings not really hi-res enough for spotting enemies at a distance, so my settings are a bit different for multi-player. I played online for a couple hours overall. It was enjoyable, but I probably won’t get back into it.

There’s not a lot I can say about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat that I haven’t already said about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. These are open world FPSes that, in turns, terrify and delight. They are games you play with the lights off and your headphones on so that you can soak up every drop of the atmosphere — because, face it, there’s nothing quite like wandering through the pitch of night with a tiny flashlight, while you’re slowly bleeding to death, your ammo is running low, and you can’t sprint because you’re too overloaded with the loot of other fallen Stalkers.

The game engine hasn’t changed much since the original game, so I was able to run Call of Pripyat at about the same settings as Shadow of Chernobyl. Below are the exact settings I used.

My Settings

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The Verdict

I didn’t really keep track of the frame rate as I played through the game. Overall, though, the stutters I did encounter didn’t happen during firefights but rather as I was exploring the landscape, sprinting or walking around the large maps. As the vegetation popped in and the areas loaded, there could be some jerkiness, but my enjoyment of the game was never hindered by this.

Overall, Call of Pripyat isn’t as difficult or terrifying as Shadow of Chernobyl, but it’s just as fun. The story is a bit of a throwaway and the voice acting is as bad as ever (“Howdy ho, Stalker!”), but these things are all part of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. charm. If you’re a fan of open world FPSes in general or the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series in particular, this is a must-buy. In fact, if you already own one of the previous games through Steam, you can get Call of Pripyat for $20(!) (the regular price is $30). Since Clear Sky is only $10, I bought both games for $30.

What makes the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games great (well, the first and third games — I haven’t played Clear Sky yet) is the way in which they allow you to create your own stories within the world of the Zone. Every time you leave the safety of a base, anything might happen. In the distance, Stalkers and bandits could be battling over territory or fending off mutants. Mutants could be hunting each other. I’ve seen Snorks feeding off dead dogs or Chimeras devouring NPCs that I had killed days earlier. Every click of the Geiger counter, every growl in the darkness, every blip on your mini-map can indicate the start (or end) of another unscripted and unique Zone adventure.

In other words, you’re not the centre of the universe in these games and I’d love to see this kind of living world applied to other games in the genre. Imagine Far Cry 2, for example, with the A-Life AI system in place: Rivaling factions would explore the map and battle with each other, not just you; wildlife might attack you instead of being part of the scenery; the other foreign mercenaries might compete with you for diamonds or aid you on missions or generally do their own thing; you could be anonymous until you took part in a fight instead of being the enemy of every NPC in Africa. Just imagine…

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games scratch an itch that no other series has been able to and I hope they continue to improve and evolve. I hope, too, that other developers will catch on to their appeal and be inspired. Until then, I’ll stock up on vodka and anti-rads and make my way back into the Zone, mindful of the rustling behind me and that long, low growl that means another tale is about to begin.

Dragon Age: Origins — Bioware’s return to fantasy. I’d been waiting for the release of DA:O ever since I first heard about it, and it’s one of the few games I’ve ever pre-purchased (Fallout 3 and Batman: Arkham Asylum being the only others). But what can I really say that others haven’t? You can read the reviews to find out how the game stacks up to others in and out of the genre. Needless to say, the game itself has lived up to my expectations and, in terms of its performance, it has exceeded them: Dragon Age: Origins runs extremely well on my Mid 2007 24” iMac.

My Settings

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The Verdict

At 1440×900 resolution, DA:O plays and looks better than both Neverwinter Nights 2 and Drakensang: The Dark Eye. The frame rate is smoother and the graphics are better than both of these earlier games — you can definitely tell Bioware had a long time to polish and optimize the PC version of the game while the console version was in development.

DA:O is also a far better RPG than both NWN2 and Drakensang. Providing you with six origin stories and a main quest that’s easily 40-50 hours long (plus side quests), DA:O is an amazing value for your gaming dollar. The story is engaging; the characters and companions are interesting (and often funny); and the combat is challenging. The origin stories are somewhat uneven in quality and duration (the most interesting one so far, in my opinion, being the Dwarf Noble origin), but I’m looking forward to seeing how the later game is affected by these different beginnings (I was a mage in my first play through).

Overall, I can’t recommend Dragon Age: Origins enough. If you like this style of RPG… well, you probably already bought the game. If you haven’t, the holiday season is approaching — go and treat yourself to one of the best games of the year.

Metacritic.com User Score

8.4/10

Update: I’ve posted my settings and impressions.

I am currently about four hours away from installing Dragon Age: Origins on my iMac — again. I pre-ordered the game from Impulse for 20% off (yay!) and downloaded it yesterday only to discover that transferring games from one computer to another doesn’t work that well in Impulse (unlike with Steam, Direct2Drive, GamersGate, or GOG.com). What I found out is that, in Impulse, you need to choose the Download and Archive option in order to download the game on one PC and install it on another. Otherwise the game installs by default and, if you try to archive the game afterwards, the archive is OS-dependent and won’t install on a computer with a different version of Windows. So, I basically wasted 14 hours and 8GB of my monthly bandwidth yesterday. Hopefully the second time’s the charm.

This is just a quick note to mention that the new Diablo-style action RPG Torchlight works well on VMWare Fusion 3 using Windows 7. I’m running it at 1024×768 with Netbook setting. There are times when the frame rate dips, but it’s mostly smooth. The game didn’t work well on the Windows 7 RC I was using; instead, this is a final copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. In VMWare Fusion, I have the Windows 7 virtual machine set to use two cores and 1024MB RAM.

I came late to the Gothic series of RPGs, having only played Gothic 2 in February of this year. I really enjoyed that game, however, so I bought Gothic 3 a month or two ago when it came on sale. While enjoyable, Gothic 3 was a bit of a departure from the second game (bigger world, less story) and left me wanting something more in line with Gothic 2. Enter Risen.

Risen, while not part of the Gothic canon (the developer lost the rights to Gothic), is, essentially, a Gothic game (a rose by any other name, etc.). Moreover, it’s a lot more like G2 than G3 in the size of its world and how it plays. In short, it’s a great game. It also runs pretty well on my iMac. Details below:

My Settings

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The Verdict

So, at 1024×768, I get about 17-20fps out of Risen. That doesn’t seem that great, but it’s generally pretty smooth and I was never frustrated by the frame rate. The game is also quite solid, only crashing once or twice in ~50 hours of play.

Risen is the game I hoped it would be — enjoyable combat (way better than that of its predecessors), interesting quests, story and characters, and enough loot to sink a battleship. I’m on my second play-through (the first was as a Bandit, the second as a Mage), and I’ve easily poured around 50 hours into the game. My favourite aspect of the game is that the early part plays quite a bit differently depending on your faction and some of your choices, so the start game feels new each time. So, if you like the Gothic series or action-oriented RPGs in general, you probably can’t go wrong with Risen.

Metacritic.com User Score

8.2/10

Well, my third hard drive in the last nine months is dead — well, dying anyway. I’m able to move files off of it, but it’s not running well (it keeps spinning down every few minutes and is running hot). Of course, it’s the drive I have all my games on, so… yet again, PC gaming is going to be put on hold. I’m trying to move the games as I write this, and hopefully that will be successful as I don’t want to spend hours and hours downloading and reinstalling games and mods. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I’ve been playing my 360 quite a bit (as you can tell in the sidebar Now Playing list). I heartily recommend Saints Row 2, Red Faction: Guerrilla, and Fight Night Round 4. At the very least, you should give all of these a rent.

I’ve never really been into strategy games; I don’t really have the patience and/or strategic mind for them. I find RTS games, specifically, the most difficult in the genre. It’s one thing to be able to think through an action completely when the opposing team is standing still and it’s your turn, but quite another when everything is happening in real time and you have to think and plan on the fly, anticipating and reacting in seconds to your adversary. Needless to say, I’m not good at RTSes. However, that didn’t stop me from picking up Men of War when it was 60% off on GamersGate. And while I find this World War II RTS quite difficult (even on the easiest setting) it’s also been a lot of fun to play. How does it run? See below.

My Settings

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The Verdict

I’ve been playing Men of War at 1440×900 resolution, and depending on the number of enemies and explosions on screen at once, the frame rate can vary between 15-40 fps. Generally speaking, though, the frame rate is solid, averaging in the high 20s/low 30s.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has labelled Men of War its favourite RTS of the year, which is excellent praise from those who know the genre. I have definitely enjoyed the game, but am humbled by how difficult I find it. For fans of RTS, I think it’s definitely worth buying.

Metacritic.com User Score

7.8/10

I think Assassin’s Creed was one of the most divisive games to come out in 2007/2008. For some, it was one of the best games of the year; for others, the game was shallow, rigid, and repetitive and didn’t live up to its potential. I picked up AC last week from Steam since it was 50% off ($10 USD) and I’m really glad I did. Having just beat the game, I can safely say I really enjoyed it and I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel.

Yes, the game is repetitive (though the PC version is somewhat less so than the console version), but I found it really fun. I enjoyed the exploration and the fights and the main assassinations. There were a few frustrating moments, sure, but I found the difficulty of the game to be just right — never too hard or too much of a cakewalk. And it’s gorgeous. I love the look of this game — it even got my wife to stop and take interest in what I was playing, which is a rare feat indeed.

But how does it play? On my iMac, really well.

My Settings

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The Verdict

As with most recent games, I played Assassin’s Creed at 1280×800 and it runs well and looks great at this resolution. Typically the frame rate stayed at a smooth 30fps, but it would occasionally dip below that level and the game would stutter a little bit. Most of the time this would happen after scaling a large “eagle tower” — a point from which you survey an area of the city you are in — but would work itself out and return to normal after a minute or two.

So, would I recommend the game? Of course, but if you’re not sure whether or not you’ll like it, wait until it’s on sale again. Ubisoft holds a lot of PC game sales, and it probably won’t be long until Assassin’s Creed is on again for $10 or less from one of the digital distribution outlets.

Metacritic.com User Score

7.8/10

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is one of the scariest, most atmospheric games I’ve ever played on the PC. I’m not a huge horror fan — not even a little horror fan — but that didn’t stop me from buying S.T.A.L.K.E.R. last July. In fact, two things overrode my instinct to not get the game: 1) Shawn Elliot repeatedly mentioning the game on the GFW Radio podcast and this article by Jim Rossignol on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

I put a lot of time into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. when I first bought it, traveling through the somewhat unpredictable Chernobyl wasteland, fighting bandits, mutants, and soldiers alike. What I really enjoy about the game, though, is how the world goes on with or without you. While you are the hero of the game and drive the plot, the environment has a life of its own and you can actually watch as it creates and plays out its own narratives. For example, you can be traversing the zone and see other S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s fighting bandits in the distance, and you have no idea what group will win.

Moreover, the game lets you create your own stories. For example: Very near where you begin the game is a camp full of rookie S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s. A little ways away is an army outpost. The army guys are hostile if you get too close, but usually don’t cause trouble. However, on a whim, I decided to take potshots at the army guys. Realizing I was outnumbered, outgunned, and out-skilled, I ran away — back to the camp — thinking the enemy wouldn’t follow. But they did follow and a huge firefight between the rookies and soldiers took place. I hid in roof of an old building as the army slaughtered the rookies and the camp’s one quest-giver. Knowing I was still there, they weren’t going to leave until I was dead. My only chance of escape was to blindly toss grenades outside, hoping to kill enough of the army guys to even the odds so I could shoot my way out. And I did make it out. The ground of the camp was littered with bodies, but I was still alive. I looted the corpses, sold what I didn’t want, and moved on — the life of a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Anyway, I’m playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. again, almost a year later, this time with the Oblivion Lost mod. Chernobyl is as frightening and deadly as ever. Below are settings I’m using to play the game.

My Settings

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The Verdict

At 1280×800, the frame rate can range from 15-40fps and averages at about 25. I don’t know if Oblivion Lost adjusts any of the graphical settings, but the game still looks great even though it’s two years old. It still plays well, too.

I often think of Fallout 3 when I’m playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and vice versa. The similarities are mostly superficial, but I can’t help but feel that if they got together and had a mutated, irradiated, three-eyed baby together, it would be perfect — equal parts FPS and RPG, a whole lot of atmosphere, and a living, breathing world that wouldn’t care if you lived or died. Fallout 3 on its own is almost there; with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.‘s gunplay, it would be amazing.

Metacritic.com User Score

8.2/10

I picked up the Dungeons & Dragons-based Neverwinter Nights 2 and its expansion Mask of the Betrayer last summer in a desperate bid to quell my hunger for an RPG. I didn’t finish NWN2, but I mostly enjoyed what I played of it, slowly learning the D&D ruleset. In March, I was totally engrossed by MotB when my internal hard drive died, wiping out Windows and my saved games. I haven’t gone back to MotB, but I recently reinstalled NWN2 and the newly released $10 adventure pack Mysteries of Westgate. As they all use the same engine, the main game and add-ons run about the same on my iMac.

My Settings

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The Verdict

At 1440×900, frame rates only become an issue in NWN2 when a lot of spells are being cast and there are many different lighting effects taking place on the screen at the same time. Other than that, my average fps was above 30. I also tend to play with the camera set up quite high (Exploration Mode rather than Character Mode), which may account for the higher frame rates.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like NWN2. I had played Knights of the Old Republic and hadn’t really cared for the combat style compared to games like The Witcher, Oblivion, or the newer Fable 2. However, NWN2 won me over. The main game is ok, but Mask of the Betrayer is superb. I love the companions and what I played of the story. So far, Mysteries of Westgate is slow-paced, but fun — more like the original than the MotB expansion. For about $50 USD, there’s a ton of gameplay here (or for $63 you could get the complete pack with Storm of Zehir, as well).

Also, for those new to this style of game, an add-on I highly recommend is Tony K’s Companion and Monster AI. I was getting crushed in some of the MotB battles and this add-on really helped me out, making combat less frustrating.

Metacritic.com User Score

5.6/10

I’ve been making a few changes to the site over the last few days.

Firstly, I redid how categories are set up. The main four category groups — Genres, Release Years, Testing Environment, and Retailers — all have to do with games that have been tested and won’t be used for general blog articles.

Secondly, I removed the deals category and entries — a lot of other, far more popular sites cover game deals in a more thorough fashion and I just want to focus on the games I play and settings I use. The best deals site I’ve found (for digital distribution, anyway) is the Unnamed Wishlist it’s always up-to-date and covers all the major digital retailers.

Thirdly, I’ve added my iMac specs to each review/test.

Finally, I’ve uploaded my game library (via Delicious Library) so that you can see the PC games I have and request any tests that I haven’t done here.

If you took Call of Duty 1 or 2 and mixed it in a pot with Rainbox Six: Vegas, you’d have a pretty good idea of what Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is like — a linear FPS with tactical, squad-based elements. I picked it up a few weeks back on GamersGate for $7.50 USD and I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of it, though it took longer to download than for me to play through.

My Settings

The Verdict

At 1280×800, the game plays at about 25-30 fps on my iMac, which is pretty decent. The game itself is ok — good, but not great. I’ve had fun with it, but it’s probably not a game I’ll ever return to the way I have with Fallout 3 or even Far Cry 2. However, if you can get it for a good price (i.e., $15 or less) and you’re a fan of WWII shooters, you could do worse than picking up Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway.

Metacritic.com User Score

7.6/10

Pretty much unlike any game I’ve ever played (other than the first-person perspective), theHunter is a slow, meditative, and yet heart-pounding experience. It’s a hunting sim, yes, but so well done that you get lost in it — completely and utterly taken in by the atmosphere and the actual hunting (tracking, spotting, luring) itself. Did I mention it’s free? Well, it is. As long as you don’t mind hunting only Mule Deer, you don’t have to pay a cent — simply go to the website and sign up for the “Guest Pass,” which gets you a rifle, unlimited ammo, and all the Mule Deer you can bag.

Don’t judge the game before seeing it in action, though. Even though it’s free, it looks great. Running on the Emote engine, the game (to my eyes) looks as good as many FPS games currently on the market (see the gallery below). Moreover, the iMac can run it pretty well. Below are my settings.

My Settings

The Verdict

At 1440×900, the game runs very well. The frame rate fluctuates from about 17-25 fps, which is on the low end, but the game doesn’t rely on twitch reflexes. Rather, you stalk your prey and try to line up the perfect shot. This is a game of patience.

Certainly, theHunter is not for everyone, but I’m finding it quite enjoyable — and addictive. Give it a shot (har har); you might like what you see.

This site is becoming more of a list of my hardware troubles than a game site, it would seem. The latest casualty is the internal hard drive of my iMac which has gone MIA, leaving only the flashing question mark of doom in its place. Fortunately, I have two external back up drives, so I didn’t lose any Mac-related data. On the other hand, my Boot Camp partition (which wasn’t backed up) is gone. D’oh!

I’m planning on taking my iMac apart and replacing the hard drive myself, a proposition that’s making my knees a little weak. I found some good how-tos online, though, and a couple videos on Youtube which should guide me through. I hope. Until then, no Windows gaming for me and no website testing in IE. See you on the flip side.

Ah, anticipation. Sweet, sweet anticipation. I’m 32 years old and I still get excited about a new year’s crop of games. This year, there are seven games I’m particularly interested in so far. See below for videos and descriptions of these upcoming titles.

The Age of Decadence

What’s It About: “The Age of Decadence is an isometric, turn-based, single-player 3D role-playing game set in a low magic, post-apocalyptic fantasy world inspired by the fall of the Roman Empire. The game features a detailed skill-based character system, non-linear gameplay, multiple skill-based ways to handle quests, choices & consequences, and extensive dialogue trees.” —from The Age of Decadence website

When’s It Due: 2009

What’s It On: Windows (Maybe Linux and Mac, too)

More Info: http://www.irontowerstudio.com/

Alpha Protocol

What’s It About: Alpha Protocol is a 3rd-person spy RPG. You play as undercover CIA field agent Michael Thorton as he tries to uncover a conspiracy within the United States Government. While you can’t create your character from scratch, you can mould Thornton into the kind of spy you want him to be based on your actions and dialogue. I’m thinking Splinter Cell with stats. Sounds good to me.

When’s It Due: Oct 2009

What’s It On: Windows, Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3

More Info: http://www.sega.com/alphaprotocol/

ArmA 2

What’s It About: ArmA 2 is a FPS developed by the same company that made Operation Flashpoint. You play as part of an elite five-man team tasked with bringing peace to the fictional ex-Soviet state of Chernarus (based on a real and meticulously recreated 225km² chunk of land). The game features a player-driven, branching campaign in which your choices shape the future country and its political landscape. The ArmA developers claim “ArmA 2 boasts the most realistic combat environment in the world. It models real world ballistics & round deflection, materials penetration, features a realtime day/night cycle and dynamic wind, weather and environmental effects. The simulation of a combat environment is so effective, the engine forms the basis for training simulators used by real armies the world over.”

When’s It Due: 2009

What’s It On: Windows and Next Gen Console (TBD)

More Info: http://www.arma2.com/

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

What’s It About: Both a remake and expansion to the critically-acclaimed Xbox and PC FPS title The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Dark Athena will feature both the original campaign and an all-new campaign. The game picks up moments after Riddick’s escape: “In flight away from the prison, Riddick and Johns’ vessel is drawn into the clutches of a mercenary ship called the Dark Athena. Johns is taken captive while Riddick manages to awake from cryo-sleep and evade capture. With mercenaries in pursuit of the bounty on Riddick’s head, Riddick must do what he does best — kill those who get in his way and escape.” —from IMDB.com

When’s It Due: Spring 2009

What’s It On: Windows, Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3

More Info: http://atari.com/riddick/

Dragon Age: Origins

What’s It About: Dragon Age: Origins is BioWare’s spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate – in other words, “a dark heroic fantasy game that combines original storytelling techniques with classic roleplaying.” The game will feature tactical party-based combat that can be played from either third-person over-the-shoulder view or from a more traditional isometric top-down view. One of the major features of the game is the Origin Stories. Players will be able to choose and play through one of six unique Origin Stories, each of which will affect the way your character sees the world and how the world sees your character. Your choices change the world and affect the people around you. Certain situations, storylines, and conversation options will change drastically depending on your origin and your motivations.

When’s It Due: Second Half of 2009

What’s It On: Windows, Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3

More Info: http://dragonage.bioware.com/

FUEL

What’s It About: Up until reading an article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun a month ago, I didn’t know anything about FUEL, an on-/off-road multi-vehicle racing game that will feature 5000 square miles of diverse landscape and extreme weather events. I’m not a huge racing fan, but FUEL‘s open world carries a lot of promise and potential replay value. Plus, let’s face it, the graphics look amazing. [Ed. note: I’m beginning to think I won’t be able to play many of these new games on my iMac…]

When’s It Due: May 2009

What’s It On: Windows, Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3

More Info: http://www.codemasters.com/games/?gameid=2845&format=PC-DVD

Majesty II: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim

What’s It About: The original Majesty came out in 2000 and was praised for its unique take on real-time strategy: Instead of controlling and micromanaging your troops, they controlled themselves and did whatever they wanted. You, then, were in charge of creating and upgrading buildings (guilds, guard towers, wizard towers) and placing bounties and monetary rewards to try and entice your troops to explore the world and attack your kingdom’s enemies. Much of the charm of the game comes from simply watching heroes go about their business as they upgrade their own spells and weapons and form groups, traversing the landscape and taking on creatures. Following the same formula, Majesty 2 will bring 3D and its own missions to the world.

When’s It Due: Q2 2009

What’s It On: Windows

More Info: http://www.majesty2.com/

I know, I know — another RPG. What can I say? I like RPGs, and I came to the party kind of late. One of my friends had Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic a couple years ago and, while I didn’t really like that specific game, it got me hooked on role-playing games in general. So, in November 2007, I bought The Witcher and that game sealed my fate: I loved it and that began my quest to find other similar games. Since then: Oblivion, Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Neverwinter Nights 2 & Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, Fallout 3, and Gothic II. I also tried Baldur’s Gate 2 and Fallout 2, but couldn’t get past the dated graphics (if I had Windows on my EeePC 701, I’d give them a try again). Anyway, let me tell you about Drakensang.

Drakensang: The Dark Eye is a German fantasy RPG with a play-style similar to Neverwinter Nights 2 — party-based (the player and up to three companions) with “dice roll” combat. That should tell you if you’ll like it or not. If you do like that type of game, but still aren’t sure, consider the price. Even though the English version of the game just came out in February, it’s been released as a budget title and can be had for only $30 USD. I’ve already spent over 30 hours on the game and I’m maybe halfway through — that’s pretty good entertainment value (which is another reason why I like RPGs in general).

My Settings

Click to Zoom

The Verdict

I’m playing Drakensang at 1440×900, which is the same resolution I use for NWN 2, though I get better frame rates in the latter. In Drakensang, the frame rate fluctuates between 15-30 fps, averaging out in the mid 20s. This doesn’t adversely affect the game since you can pause the combat, which relies more on your strategy than your reflexes.

Overall, I’m finding the game quite enjoyable and think it’s well worth the money. If you like this style of RPG, take the demo for a test drive or pick up the full version — it’s only $30.

Metacritic.com User Score

8.7/10

It’s difficult to try and describe King’s Bounty: The Legend. As a game, it’s an interesting mix of light role-playing and turn-based strategy. The battles are almost like chess insofar as characters are placed on opposite ends of a field and you take turns making moves and trying to wipe out your opponent’s army. But that makes KB sound much more serious than it is. No, the glue holding everything together is the wonderfully ridiculous, fanciful, and insane fantasy world in which the game takes place. Do the bidding of frog royalty; resurrect dead pirates; marry a zombie — it’s all in here, plus a tonne more.

My Settings

Frame rates don’t really matter a whole lot in King’s Bounty, so I was able to turn up the settings fairly high. Below are my settings.

The Verdict

It’s nice to play a game at 1920×1200, which doesn’t happen often on the iMac. Frame rates stay in the mid 20s, but as I said, this doesn’t hinder the game in any way. I really like the cartoony, bright art-style of the game, and it complements the madness of the narrative. King’s Bounty can provide hours of game play: It’s casual enough that you can just pick it up and play for a short time, but strategic enough that you could lose yourself in the insanity and forget the time altogether.

Metacritic.com User Score

9.2/10

Rock, Paper, Shotgun is probably the best PC gaming blog around, and if you’re not subscribed to their RSS feed, you probably should be. Their articles are well-written and intelligent and their coverage of PC gaming is wide-ranging. However, they are filthy, dirty enablers and — thanks to their bad puns and charming British accents — they have gotten me to buy games I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Here’s the list:

King’s Bounty

What made me do it:

• King’s Bounty: My Zombie Wife & The Belt O’Doom by Alec Meer
• King’s Bounty No Longer A King’s Bounty (Briefly) by Kieron Gillen

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

What made me do it:

• Why I Still Play Stalker by Jim Rossignol

SWAT 4

What made me do it:

• Irrational Exuberance: Replaying SWAT 4 by Jim Rossignol

World of Goo

What made me do it:

• World of Goo(d) by Kieron Gillen
• World Exclusive: World Of Goo Review by John Walker

I regret nothing.

PS: These ones were so, so close (but no cigar): The Chronicles of Riddick (thanks to Retro: The Chronicles Of Riddick by Jim Rossignol) and Overlord (because of I’ve Been Playing: Overlord by Alec Meer).

I’m always surprised, listening to gaming podcasts, how little love is shown to GameTap. For a monthly ($10 USD) or yearly ($60) fee, GameTap lets you play all of the games in its library, ranging from 80s & 90s arcade and console hits to PC games released within the last year. GameTap currently offers over a thousand games from almost every genre, from publishers such as Sega, Ubisoft, THQ, Eidos, Dreamcatcher — and the list goes on. While there are some regional restrictions (some games can’t be played if you’re outside of the US) and you don’t own the games, GameTap is a really great way to try games you might otherwise have passed over. For example: Titan Quest.

Titan Quest is an Action RPG similar (I’ve read) to the Diablo games but set in ancient Greece — a Greece brimming with mythical beasts of every imaginable kind, all hostile and ready to introduce themselves to the end of your spear or the blade of your sword. There’s not a lot of strategy to the game (from what I’ve played), but if you like loot — and lots of it — this game has it in spades. Below are the settings I’m using to run Titan Quest on my iMac.

My Settings

The Verdict

FRAPS was displaying 30-45fps most of the time, though you notice lower frame rates than that when entering/exiting caves or when there are a lot of light effects on the screen. Overall, though the game runs well, and if you’re new to the genre, Titan Quest is definitely worth checking out.

Metacritic.com User Score

8.5/10

Sometimes you don’t want to boot into Windows just to play a game. Maybe you just need a break from work or only have a few minutes to play, and would rather not restart your computer, load up Windows, and open up your game. Well, here comes VMWare Fusion and GOG.com to the rescue.

VMWare Fusion lets you run Windows on your Mac without having to dual boot using Boot Camp; GOG.com sells downloadable, Windows XP- and Vista-optimized, DRM-free versions of Good Old Games for less than $10 USD per game. Since many of the games in GOG.com’s catalogue are a few years old, they don’t require top-of-the-line machines to run. More importantly, because of their age, many of them will run via virtualization. One such game is Gothic II (Gold Edition).

Gothic II is an excellent role-playing game. Period. If you missed it when it first came out and you are a fan of the genre, it’s definitely worth checking out. I haven’t played the original Gothic (which is also on GOG.com) and I’ve only demoed Gothic 3, so I can’t compare Gothic II to those, but it certainly stands on its own as being well worth the money.

I’m often put off by the outdated graphics of GOG titles, but the graphics in Gothic II actually hold up pretty well for a game that originally came out in 2002. Plus, the gameplay and story more than make up for any of the graphical shortcomings. In fact, Gothic II does a lot of things better than many newer RPGs and, if you can get past the initial difficulty of the game, you’ll probably find Gothic II very rewarding.

Here are the settings I use, running the game in VMWare Fusion 2.0.1 with 2GB of RAM dedicated to Windows XP:

Overall, Gothic II runs quite smoothly under VMWare Fusion with these settings, with an occasional frame rate dip when there are certain lighting effects on screen. While the game rarely if ever crashes while playing via Boot Camp (at 1920×1200 with all settings maxed out), I found it does crash more often while virtualized. As well, certain buttons can “stick” while playing in Fusion (WASD direction buttons, mostly), but you can “unstick” them by pressing ESC. Finally, playing the game in Fusion caused the dual CPUs on my iMac to each constantly run at about 90-95%, making my iMac run a little on the warm side.

In the end, though, Gothic II runs really well on a virtual machine and I highly recommend it if you’re a fan of RPGs and have $10 to spare.

Metacritic.com User Score

7.1/10

Update: I think it is possible to resume a download using GamersGate’s software. Unfortunately their button wording is incredibly misleading. As you can see on the image above, you have a Stop and a Pause button. Pressing the Stop button not only stops your download, it erases all files that have already been downloaded. Pause, on the other hand, lets you resume a paused download. What I’m not sure about is whether or not you can pause a download, quit the downloader, and then resume the download from where you left off.

GamersGate, the video game digital distribution service, no longer requires gamers to use the GamersGate client to download and register their games. From now on, you’ll be able to log into your account and “download the games direct [sic] following the instructions.”

However, what they don’t say is that you still need to download a Windows executable file for each game that, once installed, then downloads the game for you. Now, you can’t even resume downloads, so if your download gets interrupted at 99%, tough luck! You have to grab the entire game from the beginning. Doesn’t seem like an improvement.

Personally, I prefer Direct2Drive, which allows me to download the game from any computer I want (Windows PC or Mac) and doesn’t install any additional programs. I’ve purchased 12 games from D2D and have never had any trouble with the service or, more importantly, the games themselves.

Long story short: The external hard drive I use to run my games off of died tonight. It was a Western Digital MyBook 500 GB USB hard drive that I picked up not quite two years ago. So, all my Windows games are gone. I’m ordering a new external drive from CanadaRAM.com, but it won’t arrive until after Christmas or the New Year, I’m sure. But, heaven forbid a gameless holiday. I picked up an Xbox 360 as my company Christmas bonus (what!? I worked hard!) and GTA IV. Rumor has it Fable 2 might be making an appearance, too.

So, there won’t be many updates here for a while. I hope everyone has a great and safe holiday and I’ll see you in 2009.

(Oh, if you’re curious, the new drive is a Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB with a MacAlly SATA/USB Enclosure G-S350SUA.)

Ubisoft had totally sold me on the idea of Far Cry 2 (Oct 2008) before the game ever came out, mostly because of their promo videos (especially, “Deceiving Your Enemy“). Semi-descructable environments (including buildings and vegetation), a huge, open world, night-and-day cycles, decent enemy AI, and fire that could spread unpredictably — all seemed like the ingredients for a dream flambé FPS.

But would I be able to run it?

I had my doubts, until I read a story stating that the game ran pretty well on modest/mid-level PCs. So, I downloaded and installed the game to see. While Far Cry 2 itself isn’t everything I’d hoped for (it’s fun, no doubt about it, just repetitive), it has performed well on my “modest,” one-year-old iMac. Below are the settings I’ve used.

My Settings

Far Cry 2 comes with its own benchmarking tool, so I ran a couple tests with that to see how the iMac performed. I used the “Ranch Small” demo, and the average results were:

Average Framerate: 32.95
Max. Framerate: 48.81
Min. Framerate: 25.92

Not too shabby, I guess. (Note: You can see comparison results from before and after I updated my video card drivers in my previous post, Update the Boot Camp Video Drivers.)

But what does that translate to in-game? Well, my in-game performance seemed to be just below the average framerate — so, ranging from 25-30 fps. But, that was mostly just driving around, not fighting dozens of enemies and lighting everything on fire. Anecdotally, however, the game has run very well, and while shadows don’t look great (I’ve got them turned down for better performance), the game is wonderfully detailed with some pretty amazing textures.

The Verdict

I don’t think you’ll be disappointed in the performance of the game; rather, as I mentioned above, it’s the gameplay itself that has a few shortcomings. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve really enjoyed Far Cry 2 — sneaking through the jungle, sniping baddies, sprinting away from incoming mortar shells, driving my Jeep over cliffs without consequence — but there are some definite flaws. The big ones, which have been covered elsewhere, are:

1. how quickly enemies respawn at guard checkpoints,
2. how everybody in the game wants to kill you on site (no matter who you’re working for),
3. how much you have to travel for missions (which makes 1 and 2 more annoying), and
4. how repetitive the missions are.

Having said all that, you can approach missions in any number of ways, which keeps the game entertaining.

So, if you like big, open-world first-person shooters and want to play them on your iMac, go and get Far Cry 2 — it will run well. If you’re on the fence about the gameplay, wait until the price goes down ($30 or less would be the perfect price) to begin your mercenary African safari.

Metacritic.com User Score

5.6/10

Since GTA IV is currently a no go, I’ve been looking around to see what other PC games might be worth picking up for the holiday. One I never gave much thought to, because of how it crushed GPUs when it came out last year, is Crysis. I came across a pretty interesting forum post over at MacRumors showing benchmark results and in-game images of Crysis on a late ’07 model aluminum 20” iMac with the following specs:

ATI Mobility Radeon 2600 XT (or the HD 2600 Pro, as Apple calls it)
ATI Catalyst 8.9 Drivers (September ’08)
4gigs ram
64-bit Vista Home Premium Edition
Crysis 1.21

That’s pretty close to my own system, so I was interested to see that the game is definitely playable on a similar machine. The poster’s conclusion is that:

it was surprising to discover that the most overboard graphics game out there is certainly playable even on a low range year old iMac. The optimal setting I’ve found for it is at 1280×800 with everything set to high. Keeps its FPS at around 30, and when there’s a lot of action, it maintains a comfortable 20.

Sounds good to me.

One of the things that really seemed to improve the gaming experience on the iMac for me was updating the default ATI video drivers that came with Boot Camp. I didn’t measure how much of an improvement there was the first time I updated, but it was definitely significant. Here’s the tutorial I followed on YouTube, to upgrade the drivers so that the card was listed as a Radeon HD 2600 PRO. The tutorial is for Vista, but the steps are pretty similar for XP.

When I tried to follow these same steps earlier this week, with a new driver from ATI, it didn’t work. So, instead, I used Mobility Modder to convert and install the driver, which went off without a hitch. My card is once again listed as a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT, but I’ve gotten a bit of a frame rate boost (~4-5 fps) according to the Far Cry 2 benchmark tool. You can see the before and after test results in the gallery. Especially note the difference in the minimum frame rate for each loop — quite an improvement.

So, I’m on the fence about this one. I’ve loved all the GTA games and have spent an embarrassing amount of time traversing their digital landscapes. When GTA IV came out for the consoles earlier this year, I took in the reviews, listened to the podcasts, and generally decided there and then that I’d be picking this up as soon as it came out for PC. But here’s the thing: The system requirements are HUGE — and not just the recommended specs. Here are the minimum requirements listed on Steam:

OS: Windows Vista – Service Pack 1 / Windows XP – Service Pack 3
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz, AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4GHz
Memory: 1.5GB Vista / 1GB XP
Graphics: 256MB Nvidia 7900 / 256MB ATI X1900
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c Compliant Card
Hard Drive: 16GB of Hard Disc Space
Sound Card: 5.1 Channel Audio Card

Ouch! Sure, my iMac meets and exceeds (at least marginally) most of those specs, but the graphics card is the big question. I don’t know how the ATI Radeon 2600 compares to the cards listed. When I tested my system at YouGamers, they said the iMac doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements:

The reason was that the video card didn’t cut it. Here’s the same test, but with Fallout 3:

Fairly low- to mid-range results, but definitely over the minimum. And, for Far Cry 2:

Again, middle of the road. And (I’ll grudgingly admit) the results for these last two games are pretty spot-on. So, what’s a gamer to do?

Two years ago, I bought GTA: San Andreas and played it on a laptop whose video card barely met the minimum requirements. The game played fine, with some settings turned down. Will GTA IV be the same? I wonder if it’s worth $50 to find out.

Update: After a little more research, I think everyone is probably a bit better off waiting to buy the game. According to two posts at Rock, Paper, Shotgun (GTAgate: How Was It for You? and Grand Theft Autorun), a lot of people are having problems just installing the game, let alone playing it. So, pass for now.

Fallout 3 (Oct 2008) is the game I most anticipated this year. I loved Oblivion and the idea of a post-apocalyptic RPG from the same developers seemed like an incredible idea.

The phrase “Oblivion with guns” has been tossed around a lot to describe Fallout 3, both positively and derisively. Well, it is and it isn’t. There are definitely similarities between the two Bethesda games (for better and for worse), but I’ve enjoyed this game immensely and it runs quite well on my iMac, with a solid 30-50 fps @ 1280×800 in most areas.

My Settings

Below are the settings I use on my iMac.

I started at the preset Medium detail and tweaked individual settings from there. The game looks great to me, but you can judge for yourself by checking out the in-game screens and in-game settings in the gallery at the end of the post.

The Verdict

As I said above, I get pretty solid framerates at 1280×800 resolution — usually between 30-50 fps. The only time this changes is very near the end of the game. I won’t spoil anything, but there is an outdoor segment that can turn the game into an unplayable slideshow for me. When I first tried to play through it, I had to exit the game and turn the settings way down in order to achieve a playable framerate. Other than that, though, Fallout 3 has been a great game and I’ve certainly gotten my money’s worth out of it, especially considering the 80+ hours I’ve spent roaming the Capital Wasteland.

Metacritic.com User Score

7.8/10

What’s with the Name?

Well, to be honest, this site could just as easily have been called “iMac Gamer” or “Boot Camp Gaming,” but I wanted to call it something a bit more flexible — something that would let the site focus and, if needed, grow. So, Mac Gaming. But, just so you’re not misled, don’t think of this site as being about games for the Mac. Rather, it’s about games you can play on a Mac, be it in Windows or (less often) in OS X.

Well, even that’s not completely accurate. Think of it this way: This site is the answer to a question — “Can I play that on my iMac?”

Some Background

I’m a web developer and I use an iMac for work. It’s also my home computer. I love playing games, and have for a long time (my first “gaming rig” was a Tandy TRS-80), but I don’t own any consoles and I don’t have room for a dedicated gaming PC. Instead I’ve got a partition set up on my iMac with Boot Camp and Windows XP. Here are my specs:

• 24” Screen (1920×1200)
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 4 GB RAM
• 256MB ATI Radeon HD2600

No, these aren’t the makings of hardcore gaming machine, but the iMac has handled everything I’ve thrown at it, from Rome: Total War and Half-Life 2 to Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3. The problem is knowing what I can throw at it so I don’t thrown away $50-60.

The Impetus

When a new game comes out or is announced, I do like everyone else: I check the system requirements to get an idea of whether or not my machine will be able to play it. The problem is that system requirements are abstract — they don’t give you a real world sense of how well or poorly a game will play on your machine. Sure, there are sites where you can compare your machine to the minimum and recommended requirements, but they’re not always accurate (nor do they work unless you’re in Windows). So, in the end, I’ll go scouring the web to see if anyone has tried the game on a computer like mine. Sometimes I’ll find answers like “Runs great,” with no comment on settings. More often, though, I won’t find anything but speculation, which is why I’m starting this site — to document the settings I use on my iMac for the games I play. Hopefully other iMac gamers and those with similar specs will find these details useful.