PC Gaming

[Question80372]

can you play pc games on a mac?

[Tanarus]

Generally, no. Most games are meant to run in Windows only, and Mac compatibility is given little thought. Some games are made with Mac functionality in mind, thought, such as The Sims 3. You'll need to check the box of any game you want to play to ensure Mac compatibility before you open the game.

If your Mac has a copy of Windows installed through Bootcamp, you should be able to run most PC games that way. You'll still need to check your Mac's hardware requirements to make sure your Mac can provide what the PC game needs. You can use Can You Run It? to help determine if your Mac running Windows meets the game's requirements.

Hope that helps!

[SnakeDiver]

Further to Tanarus' post:

You can also emulate some games using a program called "CrossOver" from CodeWeavers.  It is a consumer level port of the Linux application called "Wine".  Basically what it does is it intercepts some of those low-level calls that your games or applications make, and translates them into something that OSX can understand.

Not all applications work.  In fact, many games don't work under Wine.  But there are quite a few games that do.  For instance, most Source engine based games (TF2, L4D, L4D2, Counter Strike, etc) will run on OSX using CrossOver.

Also, with Valve's Steam platform coming to Mac, you'll be sure to see even more games.  In the future Valve will be releasing Mac and PC games side-by-side, starting with Portal 2.

Cheers,

[Korolev]

You can play all of Blizzard's games on a Mac: Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft, Diablo 2, Starcraft, and eventually Starcraft 2.

Soon you will also be able to play Steam games like Half-life 2, Portal, and Left 4 Dead 2 on your Mac. That's coming very soon!

[SnakeDiver]

A lot of Indie developers release games to multiple platforms (console, Mac, PC, *NIX).  Also, BioWare has released Dragon Age to Mac as well.

While EA said they'd do simultanious mac/windows releases, they haven't done so, and have slowed quiet a bit in the releases.

Though, Steam is very promising for Mac gaming.  Look to see many more games for Mac into the future.  Steam for Mac could be released as early as Monday (or so the rumors say).