Can macs play games ?

I am personally not much of a gamer. In fact I sold my last console many years ago, as I prefer to do other things with my time such as go out with friends on a Friday night etc.

However, I do own an Imac and sometimes find myself with a few hours to kill. One of my hobbies is probably obvious since your reading this, which is writing, but another is very light casual gaming. I was always under the impression that macs are not very good at all when it comes to games, in fact some people apparently even go for a windows computer for this reason alone. However, I am not one that follows a stereotype, and did want to find out how bad macs really are with handling game play for myself.

The search had begun

My search began after the App store had been open for business for quite some time. I was initially quite surprised to see some of the big game names in the store considering the stigma attached. I saw a few games that looked appealing to me, they also had some good reviews from users and they also were compatible with online multilayer mode, which was even more appealing to me. I decided to give them a try since the reviews looked good and so did the screen-shots. The two games I decided to download were named "real racing 2" and "modern combat domination".

My experience with the two games

The first games I decided to try was "real racing 2" [I will refer to this as RR2 for short in future references]. The first thing that I noticed was the pre roll Ads. They were unbelievably crisp and clear and appeared HD to me since I was playing them in the IMac. Then after setting up my profile and what have you, I took a look at all the different options/races/tracks/cars that were available to me. I was pleasantly surprised to find out just how many there were ! So far so good. Then I was about to start a race, I could see the graphics of the cars and race track and was very impressed, things looked real enough to me, perhaps thats why its called "RR2" ! The game play was just as good, it ran very smoothly on my base line Imac, and had no problems what so ever, even with something like 17 cars on the grid.

Overall I was very impressed with this game. I don't know if this is because I'm a light gamer like previously stated, or if its purely because the game does the Imac justice. I suppose this is just down to personal preference.

I stated earlier that I had downloaded two games, so now I will go through my experience with the second one, which is named "Modern combat domination". I will later refer to this as "MCD".

This particular game is a "first person shooter". It is set in the modern day thus the name. The game has reasonably good graphics, but I wouldn't say they are as good as the previous game "RR2". It, at this point, came apparent to me that game quality can vary form vendor to vendor, unlike what I had found with consoles and windows games. I also found that with this game there were not many levels at all. I also soon discovered that "MCD" was primarily made for multilayer as opposed to single player. This is because you cannot progress through the ranks on the single player option.

I began to start on the multilayer option and found that there were not many levels like previously stated, but there were different type of "scenarios". Whilst in game play my previous initial negative thoughts soon dissipated. The game was intense, enjoyable, and had reasonable graphics. The game gives the player the ability to get promoted through the ranks, in which the player will earn rewards for such as new weapons.

Overall, the game was pleasing enough for me, but I could see how a gaming fanatic would not find it satisfying enough.

X-Plane 10 simulation software

X - plane 10 is a newly released aircraft simulator for mac. It has stunning graphics and real world effects. However, this software is about as intense as it gets for mac, and I will say that sometimes frame rate can be jerky on my base line I3 4GB of RAM mac. I wanted to include this into my article to give you some perspective when comparing the Imac's capabilities when using intense software with baseline hardware.

Using window's games with my mac

As most of you will know already you can run windows on the mac through boot camp. I have done this and played "splinter cell conviction" via this method. The game was perfect, amazing game play, great graphics, no lag, and a long story to complete.

My conclusion

I would say that for anyone looking to but a new computer that wants to play great games then don't follow the stereotype of thinking that macs are incapable of doing so. I have found that macs can be good when playing mac games, but just as good as a native windows computer when playing windows games on a mac through boot camp. If your a serious gamer then boot camp is always an option for you.

Thank you for reading this article entitled "can macs play games", comments are welcome. Have a great day.