[Macworld]

Post your comments for Stick a fork in Expo's Games Pavilion here

[robco]

I'm surprised that companies like Aspyr are still hanging on, though they are diversifying their products and releasing more for PCs and consoles. And who can blame them?
Where is the consumer hardware? The only decent gaming laptops start at $2K. Even an entry-level dedicated GPU option would be welcome in the MacBook, but it isn't offered. And yet evil, evil Dell manages to offer one in a lighter package (the XPS m1330). Apple innovation indeed.
On the desktop front, there's the iMac, but if you don't want an AIO design (meaning you actually want to be able to upgrade components), forget it. Not to mention it's GPU is decent, but certainly not great. The Mac Pro is a workstation and not a consumer machine.
Apple just isn't interested in supporting games, despite the fact that they are important for many consumers (not just hardcore gaming geeks either, especially considering the up and coming GenX grew up with gaming). The drives aren't there and the hardware certainly isn't there. Sad, because potential switchers will ask, only to be told that to game, they need to reboot their shiny new Macs out of OS X and back into Windows. That is, if they ponied up enough cash to buy a Mac that can actually be a decent gaming machine.

[garyi]

long and short is apple has never been a game platform and as long as the lack luster chips keep going in, it will always remain thus.
I purchased UNreal3 for my iMac and I needn't have bothered its totally unusable. Unreal2004 I cannot get more than 80FPS, PC users laugh at us for the high cost low spec gaming capability.
Why should we expect game makers to take it seriously?

[blecch]

Agreed - it was definitely poor, although slightly better than last year. Eve Online had a nice large booth. But where were the rows of computers for game tournaments? Where was the stage with vendor presentations and demos? Where were Blizzard and FreeVerse? (answer: South Hall, behind the Apple booth.) Oh, and Blizzard might not have been there at all if they hadn't won a MacWorld booth from Apple last year at the WWDC (Apple Design Awards winners get a prize package which includes a "booth" [kiosk] at MacWorld - see developer.apple.com/ada for the 2007 winners.) That's also why DanLabGames (runner-up with Wacky Mini Golf) had a little kiosk behind Apple.

[blecch]

"PC users laugh at us for the high cost low spec gaming capability."
Actually, if you run Windows on your Mac, it plays lots of games just fine.... ;-/
And while you may not be able to play Crysis on your MacBook, the lousy GMA 3100 does actually work fine for older games, such as Final Fantasy XI. (Sadly, however, you have to run Windows, since there's no OS X version of the game.) In fact, core 2 duo + GMA 3100 beats my old PC with an FX 5200.
There are some good compatibility developments on the Mac gaming front - Cider, GameTap, etc. - as well as a couple of good first-party developers (Blizzard, Eve Online); but the game pavilion should either be in the South hall, or front and center in the secondary hall, and IDG should restore the tournament areas, scheduled tournaments with prizes, game developer presentations, etc.. Get GameTap, Cider and CrossOver into the game section also!
Lastly, Apple should push to get Steam (BioShock, Portal, etc.) on the Mac gaming bandwagon.

[garyi]

Um, you are not putting forward a fantastic argument there.

I have PC on my mac so I can play games, I have unreal3 as this is not yet available for mac. I can only have everything on lowest with a res of 800x480 to get above 50fps making it unplayable.

This is a game of this year, its hard to expect new games coming out to be less intensive, so we as mac consumers need to accept that as usual we are being left behind.

Or you summed it up quite well, the iMac is quite good at playing older games.

[blecch]

p.s. Ironically, as I view this page on macworld.com, I see a whole bunch of ads on the right side of the page touting the .... PlayStation 3! "Best Prices on PlayStation 3..." And text ads for the Wii and XBox 360... I guess that's the message that Macworld is sending: if you want to play games, get a game console!
That being said, the PS3 has some cool games on it, particularly small PSN games like Flow, Everyday Shooter, Super Stardust HD, LocoRoco, along with bigger games like Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, Folklore, Rock Band (oh yeah!) etc..
Here's hoping that Guitar Hero 3 is a good omen for timely cross-platform (and console) game releases for the Mac!

[TheBoyKen]

It sounds to me, from your article, as if the Games Pavilion pretty much reflected the reality of the current gaming market on the mac - that the old faithfuls (Aspyr / MacSoft) are ducking out (in terms of Aspyr's stand being a sales stand not a demo stand). EA happens to be stepping in, although it sounds as though Ciderising a game isn't quite as easy / successful as EA/Transgaming would have you believe, else they would have (a) ported more games and (b) done so on schedule. But it sounds like the core of the mac games market is in small casual games (hence Freeverse / Ambrosia etc., and good luck to both of them). Blizzard being the perennial exception to any mac gaming discussion of course by being the big game company who is happy to continue the battle...

[leicaman]

So,
Am I crazy thinking that an iMac will be able to play native versions of Unreal 3 and COD4? Should I just bite the bullet and spend $600 more for a Mac pro (than the high-end iMac) to get decent performance? I suppose a Mac Pro with a single quad processor is just fine since I don't do 3D or Video.
But dang it, 8 cores sounds so cool. [laugh]

[garyi]

You need to read the minimum specs for the game then double it in my experience. There is no iMac in the range that comes close on the graphics card.

So perhaps a pro, but even the pro I believe comes as standard with the minimum spec to play unreal (And indead any game base don this engine)

[blecch]

Well, extremetech.com shows Unreal Tournament 3 (max settings, 1920x1200, 4xAA, 8xAF) getting about 38 frames per second on a Core 2 Quad with a GeForce 8800GTX.

So yes, if you want to have a somewhat playable version of UT3 with maxed out settings, you'll need a Mac Pro and the GF8800GTX (or 8800GT, a bit slower/cheaper) if you can get it.

[robco]

The memory architecture of the Mac Pro is stable, but actually slower than that of the C2D. Unfortunately the Xeon is the only Intel desktop CPU Apple uses.
And call me crazy, but shouldn't users who buy a new computer be able to play current games and not restricted to older titles?
I do appreciate the efforts being made by EA, Aspyr, Blizzard, etc. But Apple isn't making consumer hardware, save the iMac, that can handle it. The sad truth is, the only thing to tell switchers who play games is to get an iMac, or be prepared to spend much more on a Mac Pro (a behemoth) or the MBP.
You could play GH3 at the Aspyr booth. I tried and well, I'm old. I couldn't do diddly squat.

[wardoggie]

I actually wasn't aware that there WAS a game pavilion! Apparently, I didn't miss much. I wish Apple cared more about gaming (and gamers), but they're doing pretty well without us. So I don't feel bad for getting a PS3 and pretty much abandoning my mac as anything other than a "casual game" platform.

[wardoggie]

leicaman,

If you can wait, I'd take the "wait and see" approach. Published minimum hardware specs usually don't equate to "playable" specs when it comes to shooters--especially if you're playing online against people who have the latest-greatest. Just my two cents, though.