Mac Gaming Blog

Mafia 2

2011-01-11T02:41:14-07:00

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.

Borderlands

2010-09-17T17:55:14-07:00

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.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Single-player)

2010-04-23T15:03:13-07:00

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.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

2010-02-20T17:05:43-07:00

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.

Dragon Age: Origins

2009-12-06T16:02:29-07:00

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.

Dragon Age: Origins is on its way

2009-11-05T02:03:30-07:00

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.

Torchlight on VMWare Fusion 3 Using Windows 7

2009-10-29T15:54:43-07:00

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.

Risen

2009-10-28T18:04:28-07:00

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.

And another one bites the dust…

2009-08-20T23:26:16-07:00

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.

Men of War

2009-07-02T13:07:50-07:00

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.

Assassin’s Creed

2009-06-12T10:47:55-07:00

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.

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

2009-06-06T00:57:48-07:00

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.

Neverwinter Nights 2

2009-05-27T01:47:27-07:00

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.

Updates: Nixed the Deals, Added CPU Specs and Game Library

2009-05-26T11:28:40-07:00

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.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway

2009-05-20T18:53:50-07:00

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.

theHunter

2009-05-01T16:55:13-07:00

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.

Flashing Question Mark of Doom

2009-03-23T14:25:42-07:00

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.

7 Games I’m Looking Forward to This Year

2009-03-17T11:55:39-07:00

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.

Drakensang: The Dark Eye

2009-03-10T18:20:14-07:00

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.

King’s Bounty: The Legend

2009-03-01T23:56:09-07:00

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.