[Macworld.com]

The release of new gaming consoles has Peter Cohen musing about the Mac's role in the gaming world. And he concludes that the Mac remains a great form of entertainment that won't be retired just because there are some shiny new boxes on the shelf at Best Buy this holiday season. [more]

[jedi228]

The console vs. desktop argument will no doubt continue for years. However, I see no conflict. There is some overlap, but generally speaking games on the console and games on the desktop are quite different and each have their strengths. Console games can have powerful dedicated graphics processors, large screens, and a couch setting for friends and family to gather round. Desktop computers allow a seated environment adapated for more involved gaming with keyboard input. As a generalization, shooters and fighters work better on a console; strategy games and complex RPGs belong on a desktop.
I say long live both consoles and desktop games. I just wish I could connect Mac and PS3 so I could use it as an external BluRay.

[raidedguy]

Your taking this all wrong. I rarely use macs, (I'm a PC guy and as such represent a side that is ignored here) but I still have a computer and a console system, and when it comes to gaming I use both. It's not so much the type of game, but how it's meant to be played. Console games and PC games require different skill sets and while strategy games are limmited to PCs because they require to many inputs, others are not. World of Warcraft for example, would make a great console game as well as a great computer game, if it werent for the hotkeys... Guild Wars, a rival to WoW, would work equally well on both platforms since it isnt as hotkey intesive. For the record; X-box live is not expensive, its cheaper than your WoW membership.
While consoles help the Mac side, its still CHEAPER to have one system that can do it all, I know I plan to get an adapter to allow me to use wireless X-Box controllers with my PC because I like the controller, but I also like a keyboard and mouse, because I'm better with them. However, this also adds to the fun of a console because it's more challenging.
Still, Macs are not meant for gaming the way PC's are, as funny as the Mac commercials are, there not always true (as is the case with most commercials). PC's vastly more upgradable and customizable, but aside from that, they also have more games. This is because almost every game is on the PC, even those released first for consoles, because it such a large market that game developers can't ignore it. But the console is only meant for gaming, although with the addition of headsets (see Ventrillo) comming standard, the social element of online console gaming is becoming equal to, and in some aspects surpasing that of the convention computer gaming (not everybody has a Mic, and you cant type while holding down WASD). But its still too early in this PC/Mac/Console showdown to tell, especially now with the shakeup of the ATI/AMD Merger and Macs switching over to x86.

Still, I'd like to propose a compromise; Linux

[AMKassirMD]

I've supported Aspyr and several other Mac gaming companies by buying their games, for many years. I still think the Mac is a great gaming platform. I don't say that because it's superior to PCs or consoles (although my G5 Quad/Nvidia 7800GT holds it's own), but simply because I have personally had so much fun on my Mac for the past decade. I can't tell you how many hours I've enjoyed myself using GameRanger. And my kids love Lego Star Wars.
The relative dearth of Mac titles can be construed to be a double edged sword. Sometimes only the best games are ported to the Mac (when developers choose a game they choose a popular one). That means more Mac games are really good quality versus a similar sampling of games for consoles or PCs.
On the other hand, some Mac games are so great, I want to play the sequel, but, alas, the sequel is never ported to the Mac. This is where gaming on the Mac suffers. I hope with the Mac's increasing marketshare this will change.
So despite my undying admiration for the Mac, and for developers like Aspyr, this Xmas I'm planning on buying a console for the first time. I'll still buy games for the Mac preferentially, but when the title I have my eye on doesn't come out for the Mac, I'll have a backup system.

[TheBoyKen]

Hey I resent that comment that Lego Star Wars is a kids' game /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
My own game plan is, once my Mac Pro arrives, to continue buying the mac versions of anything I like that is ported to the mac and that isn't multiplayer, but to buy the Windows version of multiplayer games (simply so that I can be assured of an up to date, plays-with-current-Windows-version-of-game, copy) and play it via Boot Camp - bearing in mind it's a home mac it doesn't matter to me if I have to reboot in order to do FPS gaming. Once too often I've bought an Aspyr game (eg. CoD / CoD:UO / BF1942) and found that once there is a PC update to the game, mac users are temporarily locked out of playing on the majority of servers until Aspyr release a fix. Whilst the onus isn't entirely in Aspyr's court (they have to wait for the finished PC update code to be released to them, in order to port it, I guess, and the PC guys aren't going to hold off releasing the update while Aspyr do a mac port), it's nonetheless frustrating for the mac user wanting to play - the majority of the online community is running the Windows version, after all.
The exception to this would be WoW, for the same reasons Peter cites (they're a great mac developer, and unlike Aspyr, are in charge of the original code so can release mac / win updates simultaneously), except I don't let myself play that for fear of never again turning up at work etc.
Ken
p.s. I shall of course be buying the mac version of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy if Aspyr port it...

[trip1ex]

Recent convert since May. Love my Imac. But gaming on the computer? Bootcamp is a must. Save for Blizzard's, mac games are a year late and $30 too much.
Oh and check out Gametap. Perfect for Intel macs. Of course i nabbed it for $60/yr a month back, but from casual games to fairly recent pcgaming blockbusters this service rocks.

[Lisamacnewton]

And then there's the iPod.
As my life's become busier it's harder to "squeeze in a game" here and there (on long commutes), so the iPod works. Yeah, there's limited games (for now), but the 3 that I have are fun (Zuma, Bejeweled, Mahjong). Don't get me wrong, I'd MUCH rather play any of them on my DESKTOP. I know it isn't exactly "on" topic, but the pod IS a computer......If you use a handheld game console, the iPod is just as good. That thumb wheel rules!

[aestival]

Console work good with TV, Mac not good. Console have controller, Mac have mouse and keyboard. Keyboard letter hurt brain. No wire for console or Mac, no wire for network. But me no care about network for game -- me play alone. Me like controller, TV and couch for game, not mouse and keyboard. Mac game bad. Playstation game good.
Seriously -- I work on a Mac, I don't want to play on one too, because I certainly don't want to have to think much while playing video games (duh). I'm sure I could wire the laptop in easily enough via HDMI, but why bother? Also, last time I checked, the Mac still doesn't play Blu-ray disks, so I'm afraid the PS3 wins for general media utility, at least for now.

[steveo1247]

Well with all due respect to Mac people I must say that gaming belongs to the P.C. world. We have had a Performa,a G3,two Imacs and a G4 we use now. Two years ago we had a P.C. built for my son and its is a game playing machine. We now have two Windows lap tops also and I must say that after having Macs for 15 years I think P.C.'s take a bad wrap and its totally unfounded. Its easy for Macs to be perfect in 3% of the computer world and I find it much more amazing that P.C.'s can be near perfect in the other 97 % of the computer world. I am not a Mac basher or a P.C. basher because I found all the propaganda from both camps really just a bunch of hype. The bottom line for me is justifying the price of a Mac when you can get so much more in a P.C. Mac people used to say it was becasue of the more expensive parts Mac uses...now they use Intel processors. The other is that you can ask anyone a question about P.C. issues that come up and get an answer.Ever called Apple for help? They charge you for it! Ever seen the time bomb! If Apple has any advantage its OS X and it being built on Unix and is so stable. I wish more Mac users would broaden thier horizins and look into where most gamers live....the P.C.world. Yes and all this from a 15 year Mac user.

[ashmadux]

to put it simply-
MAC GAMING IS DEAD AS A DOORNAIL.
Thank apple for that. While you couldnt pry a mac from my cold dead hands Ill be damned if i ever play another game on my mac. my 360, ps2, ps3, and psp do me just fine.
I used to wait in anticipation until the next big release came out- which for me was UT2004. Then wait- my mods wouldnt load probably- strike one. then apple changes from agp to pci-xress. ATI doesnt bother to help out graphics cards starved agp macs anymore. framerate "issues". blech. having to turn down the resolution and effects to enjoy 30fps on my favorite game stole the life out of my gaming mac. Apple, as usual, doesnt care. Buy a new mac they say. I say- no.
that was the day my gaming mac died.
My still speedy dualie 2.5g5 is rocking apples pro apps left and right, but my only upgrade path is an X800 card- for about 400 bucks(ouch!!!)- for a 3 generation old card. Great! Hey ATI, I know its not worth it, but can i get an AGP version of that 1900 series? No? fine. grumble.
Mac gaming sites are pathetic. there ARE NO GAMES. IMG struggles for content. they will soon be gone. I am mac 4life but the writing is on the wall. True mac gamers cried for better, faster, hardware- and now we have it- and there are no games to speak of - sheesh.
sigh.
screw world of warcraft, Im rocking out to phantasy star universe on my 360.
MAC GAMING IS DEAD! R.I.P.
-angry mac gamer

[jhmaughan]

I just use whatever hardware Bungie games are released on /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif So currently it's a Mac Pro for work and Xbox 360 (via emulation) for play.

[bigh]

Ohhh... tell us more about that emulation... are you an XB developer?
I feel bad for the loyal Mac game developers like Aspyr. Although I'd like to think I'd buy their wares for the Mac, I find myself impatiently buying the PC versions. I don't see that changing with Mac Intel machines... quite the contrary. I'd rather separate my gaming from my production software as much as possible anyway, so I see this (i.e., Boot Camp) as a benefit.
For me, the final death blow came when Microsoft bought Bungie. Until then, we could count on at least some exclusiveness to the Mac gaming scene... some reason to keep a Mac ready for gaming, even if a PC was at hand. But after that shocking incident, there was no longer a valid reason to hang on... the war was lost.
And I agree with Peter that some games are simply way better on a desktop, although my son disagrees emphatically. Personally, I find that I put up with games on the consoles, but I really get immersed in games only on a desktop.

[solipsism]

Wikipedia has a decent writeup about MS buying Bungie.

Quote:

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"[Bungie Studios] announced their next product, with a world-beating physics and AI system, to be known as Halo. Significantly, Halo's public unveiling occurred at the Macworld Expo 1999 keynote address by Apple's then-interim-CEO Steve Jobs (after a closed-door screening at E3 in 1999). On June 19, 2000, however, Microsoft announced that they had acquired Bungie Software and that Bungie would become a part of the Microsoft Game Division (subsequently renamed Microsoft Game Studios) under the name Bungie Studios. As a result, the original versions were soon delayed and the game was re-purposed for Microsoft's Xbox, on which it became the console's killer game. Bungie's sale to Apple's long-time rival Microsoft was seen as a sort of ultimate betrayal by the Mac community at the time. Mac and Windows versions of Halo were delayed to two years later when it was no longer the renowned product it would have been in late 2000.
The Xbox version of Halo, which received the "Game of the Year" and "Console Game of the Year" awards for 2002 from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, is known as a system seller and as of 2004 is still a videogame bestseller. Halo has been one of the most critically acclaimed games over the last three years, and its sequel Halo 2 has been called one of the "most anticipated game of all time" by IGN's Xbox website. On release, Halo 2 proved to be a huge hit, making more than $125 million on release day."

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[Bhawk62000]

Hey, Just bought an 20" iMac. My son and I love the strategy game on the desktop. Any suggestions on Mac compatible strategy games? Also, has Age of Empires III been released yet for Mac?