Support NeoGAF

[kitsuneyo]

I got a MacBook the other day and it's the first time in a few years I've had a laptop capable of playing recent games. It being a Mac though, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot to choose from.

I downloaded Steam and found all the Valve games and the recent CoD entries. There's also Revengeance, which is pretty cool to see, although I don't know if my Intel Iris graphics are up to it. And the Lego games are on sale this weekend and they work on Mac. Unfortunately I don't really want to play any of these games! (I've played all the Valve ones.)

So far I've played Sim City 4 (which I bought for PC, never played, but I can play on Mac! Yay cross-platform purchases!) and a little bit of Team Fortress 2. I'm pretty impressed that the Dual Shock 3 is supported by OS X.

Anyway, enough rambling...

- Which games should I definitely seek out on Mac, preferably cheap ones!
- I don't care about the genre, whether they're indie/AAA/puzzle etc, I just want some interesting recommendations
- They don't really have to be on Steam, if there's another good way to buy games on Mac I'd be interested to know about it

Thanks GAF!

 

[Silky]

Left 4 Dead 2.

 

[Mohasus]

Since you've played all valve games, go with Borderlands 2.

 

[diamount]

The games that can be run on toasters like Don't Starve, Binding of Isaac, etc.

 

[kitschbeam]

Civilization V.

 

[Broder Salsa]

Football manager, you won't find a game better than that

 

[shiftplusone]

Endless space

I think endless legend will be Mac soon

 

[kitsuneyo]

Football manager, you won't find a game better than that

Thanks but I really don't need that in my life

Left 4 Dead 2.

Yeah I could definitely go back to that. But I played it a fair bit on 360.

 

[Dion Blaster]

As a tip I believe you can sort all games by meta score and then filter it for only games available on Mac. Usually a good way to start looking!

My favorite is Braid

 

[kitsuneyo]

As a tip I believe you can sort all games by meta score and then filter it for only games available on Mac. Usually a good way to start looking!

My favorite is Braid

Thanks, that's a really good idea!

 

[Taco_Human]

Vice city for sure. Maybe San Andreas.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Civilization V
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Divinity: Original Sin

 

[AlexMogil]

Civilization V
XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Wisdom. Cross buying games like this feels like stealing. Pleasant little surprises that pop up when you install Steam on your Mac.

"Oh you have a Mac and you're installing Steam? Look what I'm going to give to you, handsome."

But: buy an external mouse. The MacBook mouse is godlike for work/browsing. Not so much for gaming.

 

[Zaphod]

Civ V
Kerbal Space Program
FTL
KOTOR
Metro: Last Light
Batman : Arkham City

There's a decent amount of Xbox arcade games like Bastion and Dust if you haven't already played them.

 

[xir]

Antichamber Lo-fi artistic endeavors and subtle smugness makes a perfect compliment to OS X

 

[kitsuneyo]

Lot of people saying Civ 5, so I'll check that out.

Same for FTL... heard the name a lot but don't really know a lot about it.

Thanks for all the recommendations

EDIT - The message I'm getting though is that there are zero great Mac exclusives, is that right?

 

[Erheller]

The games that can be run on toasters like Don't Starve, Binding of Isaac, etc.

Macbooks can run games surprisingly well. I can run Arma 3 at 60 fps after turning a couple settings to medium on my bootcamped 2012 Macbook Pro.

Bootcamping is an option if you want to play more games, OP. Other than that, though, I believe all of Valve's more recent games are on Mac, although they're probably not well-optimized (that'll probably be the case for every game that's available on both OS's).

 

[kitsuneyo]

Macbooks can run games surprisingly well. I can run Arma 3 at 60 fps after turning a couple settings to medium on my bootcamped 2012 Macbook Pro.

Bootcamping is an option if you want to play more games, OP. Other than that, though, I believe all of Valve's more recent games are on Mac, although they're probably not well-optimized (that'll probably be the case for every game that's available on both OS's).

It's mainly a work computer and it already does everything I need for that, so I don't really want to bootcamp it. Just looking for an occasional distraction.

 

[Darth.Ali]

I suggest Tropico 5. (It runs nicely on my iMac 5k.)
Needless to say all of Blizzards current games are on Mac as well.
Also sim city is available.

So get Steam, battle.net and origin and you're ready to dive in.

Tropico 5 is on Steam discount right now.

 

[Wollveren]

Witcher 2, The Walking Dead and TF2. Pretty much the only games I own on steam (Mac user ofc).

Those are my fav games on steam and which run well. Rest are battle.net games.

edit: Just read you also want any game (not only steam), in that case Hearthstone, Diablo... in fact any blizzard game, and you can play them casually. DON'T FORGET MINECRAFT!!

 

[Kazerei]

There's quite a lot of Mac games on Steam, so it would help if you're more specific. You mention you haven't had a laptop capable of playing recent games, well there's lots of recent multiplats like Borderlands PSQ, Batman Arkham City, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, MGS Revengeance, The Witcher 2, Deus Ex Human Revolution DC, etc. Wait for them to go on sale though.

If you want something cheap now, there's old classics like Star Wars KOTOR and System Shock 2, or tons of indie games like Papers Please, VVVVVV, Shovel Knight, Hotline Miami, Fez, Trine 2, I could go on and on.

There's really a wealth of Mac games, it's not like a deserted wasteland in here or anything. Other games I'll mention are Civilization V, XCOM Enemy Unknown, Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood, GTA Vice City and San Andreas, and Rayman Origins. Have fun!

 

[AzureSkies]

Can also vouch for how great Blizzard's mac ports are, though I recently had to cap my WoW fps to 35 on my Macbook Pro to stop my fans from going crazy, of course this is with the Intel Iris Pro integrated graphics. Outside of that, the game runs great though.

 

[ScepticMatt]

Dota 2 if you like team multiplayer games.

 

[Fancy Clown]

All Valve games, Crusader Kings 2 an Civ 5 if you like strategy games, Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, Amnesia, Hotline Miami if you haven't played it yet, Bioshock if you're into that (I'm not a huge fan)

 

[Rockondevil]

Left 4 Dead, Portal, Rust, Garry's Mod, Civilization V, Tropico 5, Metro and obviously there are other big titles like Borderlands, Arkham etc.

 

[super-famicom]

FTL
CIV V

 

[kitsuneyo]

There's quite a lot of Mac games on Steam, so it would help if you're more specific. You mention you haven't had a laptop capable of playing recent games, well there's lots of recent multiplats like Borderlands PSQ, Batman Arkham City, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, MGS Revengeance, The Witcher 2, Deus Ex Human Revolution DC, etc. Wait for them to go on sale though.

If you want something cheap now, there's old classics like Star Wars KOTOR and System Shock 2, or tons of indie games like Papers Please, VVVVVV, Shovel Knight, Hotline Miami, Fez, Trine 2, I could go on and on.

There's really a wealth of Mac games, it's not like a deserted wasteland in here or anything. Other games I'll mention are Civilization V, XCOM Enemy Unknown, Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood, GTA Vice City and San Andreas, and Rayman Origins. Have fun!

Fez is on there? I might pick that up, I never finished it on 360.

 

[empyrean]

i can second Football Manager . bioshock infinite is also cross buy iirc, borderlands.

 

[Htown]

EDIT - The message I'm getting though is that there are zero great Mac exclusives, is that right?

Correct.

 

[Jachaos]

Stronghold HD and Stronghold Crusader HD are amazing RTS games and I got them on sale for very cheap (2$ I think) a little while ago. That's mostly what I play. There's also FTL, Super Hexagon and more.

 

[kitsuneyo]

Stronghold HD and Stronghold Crusader HD are amazing RTS games and I got them on sale for very cheap (2$ I think) a little while ago. That's mostly what I play. There's also FTL, Super Hexagon and more.

Super Hexagon looks cool and it's cheap! Bought, thanks

 

[Jachaos]

Super Hexagon looks cool and it's cheap! Bought, thanks

I find it very cool yeah! Tough, but cool and incredibly addictive because of how fast it is to restart, kind of like Hotline Miami in that regard!

Well if you have a time machine, you could intervene and cause Halo to remain a Mac exclusive RTS game instead of an Xbox exclusive FPS.

That would make 1.

I thought about mentioning that lol

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

EDIT - The message I'm getting though is that there are zero great Mac exclusives, is that right?

Well if you have a time machine, you could intervene and cause Halo to remain a Mac exclusive RTS game instead of an Xbox exclusive FPS.

That would make 1.

 

[molnizzle]

Well if you have a time machine, you could intervene and cause Halo to remain a Mac exclusive RTS game instead of an Xbox exclusive FPS.

That would make 1.

Imagine a world... where Destiny never existed.

 

[Pepboy]

Recently got Transistor and enjoying it.

Mostly playing tycoon or simulation games like Crusader Kings 2, Prison Architect, Rimworld, Democracy 3 etc. Especially Crusader Kings 2. They generally run well on Macs.

Played a bit of Dota 2 and it handled okay though I'm sure it would look better on beefier systems.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Wargame: AirLand Battle or Wargame: Red Dragon. Eugen are quietly, ever so quietly, the best thing to happen to the RTS genre.

 

[Vire]

I dunno about Steam, but Hearthstone is always a nice little diversion.

 

[pinkurocket]

The Portal games!
And get a mouse, don't play with a controller. Well, there are games that benefit from a controller. But games like Portal, TF2 etc need a good ol' keyboard and mouse.

 

[hoverX]

All Blizzard games are solid.

 

[MrBadger]

Shovel Knight, Castle Crashers, Fez, Braid, VVVVVV, Guacamelee, Super Meat Boy and the Bit Trip games are great.