Good News for Mac Users
The gaming drought for the Mac appears to be over, with the announcement in July 2002 of the development of Halo for Mac and Windows computers,. and the delivery of a number of leading titles for the Mac, including Warcraft III, Spider-man and several other gaming heavyweights.
Driving Games for Mac
Mac gaming fans take note: one of the best driving sims for Playstation and PC is now out for the Mac. Check out the freely downloadable and playable Driver Demo (43MB, Mac OS 8.x only) at MacSoft.
Elsewhere, a reader tip at xlr8yourmac.com reveals how to hack the demo to play four alternate missions, while insidemacgames.com reveals a way to change vehicles to any of those available in the full version of the game: zoom around town in a New York taxi, or cruise the streets in a police car.
Flight Simulations for Mac
The best flight sim for the Mac is X-plane, from www.x-plane.com. The latest release includes technically accurate simulations of Bert Rutan's orbital flyer and a wide array of other craft, including VTOL craft, commercial airliners and the Space Shuttle. You can even fly on Mars. Prices start at US$39.95+$10 shipping, with the deluxe Mars + Earth Scenery CD selling for US$59.95+$10 S&H.
Other Mac OS X-compatible flight sims include:
OSX-compatible Space Sims:
A great flight sim for Classic Macs, more focused on fun than technical accuracy, was Flight Unlimited, from the now-defunct Looking Glass Software. Fortunately, the game lives on as a freely downloadable demo. Get the free demo (13MB) for Classic Macs at www.mac.org/games/flightunlimited.
Other flight sims for Mac include:
See www.macledge.com for a list of others.
Reality Check: Macs & Games
It's always useful to step back for a reality check now and then. This is especially in the Mac world, where pro-Mac websites are often as guilty of distorting the facts as the big media press they typically rail against. MacAddict, for example, on Nov. 10, 2001, published a diatribe condemning Business Week magazine for an article entitled "Macs Retain The Loyalty Of Graphics Types, But Gamers Should Think Twice." Perceiving it as little more than an Apple-bashing attack, MacAddict characterized it as following "the tried and true formula of anti-Apple press."
But is it really? Our feature on Mac Gaming Performance takes a hard-hitting look at the issue. Read more...
For Further Reading:
The System Requirements page at X-plane.com compares the leading graphics cards for Macs, noting that, these days, the memory bandwidth of a card is more important than the amount of RAM onboard.
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