OS X + Steam. Can you play any games from steam?

I saw that Steam now works on OS X as long as you have an intel processor. Can you now run and use any game on OS X?

I was told that HL1 and HL2 games would run.

 

Steam website still says steam requires windows to run...

 

i doubt it...
you can try to use "crossover games" to run the game "natively" on OS X

 

If you use Bootcamp or VMware (or any "virtualization" software to run Windows on Mac)

 

VMware for games sucks, Cross over is alright, they say the supports hundreds of games, but only about 5 actually work good.

 

If you want to play games just do it on Windows. Even if a game exists to run on OS X (without a program like crossover) they are almost ALWAYS sloppy ports and don't run as well as the PC counterpart.

 

My g/f likes her mac. She has a G5 right now so she can't run bootcamp. In the future she can though. There are videos on youtube of people running steam natively in OS X now. Maybe it is a trick?

 

You have to use bootcamp to play games effectively. VMware doesn't cut it. The videos you saw would have been using vmware, but most games won't run well through steam + vmware on OS X.

 

Run Wine. Most source engine games run fine on it.

 

"Support" does not actually mean run well, it just means that it will run....even if its 5 FPS or takes 10 minutes to load a map.

 

They are using a third party program like Wine or Crossover to emulate. You cannot run steam natively on OS X.

 

most source engine games do not run well enough in wine to use wine to merit using wine, in my opinion.

the performance you gain by running windows natively (instead of using crossover, or a virtual machine solution) is astronomical. it ends up being worth it for me to deal with the extra hassle. boot camp takes some of the stress away from it, and vmware fusion works with your boot camp partition, so its not all bad.

 

Why not just use Boot Camp?

 

I can run Team Fortress 2 and Counterstrike in Crossover Games great in osx. Left 4 dead doesn't seem to load past the main menu though. If you can live with some small graphical glitches, they run pretty awesome in Crossover Games.

 

Yeah but those are about the only games that run good. I doubt they will ever get left 4 dead running good.

So far crossover only has 2 games that are gold. that is WoW, that already runs on the Mac. They should waist less time getting games that already run on the Mac to run on the Mac in wine. And Team Fortress Classic.

 

Gabe Newell (leader of Valve and creator of Steam) does not believe in developing for a platform that is not friendly for developers. Microsoft actively provides development tools that make it easy to develop games (DirectX SDK, high level programming, etc.). Gabe tried talking with Apple to create better games for Macs, but Apple was not really serious in actively courting them.

Why should Valve waste money on a platform that only makes up 10% of marketshare, yet get less help and support?

Gabe Newell also hates the PS3 and the Cell processor because they make programming tedious, time consuming, and expensive. The game is not any better with this wasted time on development either.

If Apple wants games on the OSX, they have to try just as hard or harder than Microsoft at supporting game developers.

 

Just wanted to say, that the comment about the PS3 is ironic because a lot of very big game publishers (EA, Ubisoft, etc) have already said that they are making their biggest profits on the PS3 over the other competition. I am sure Valve will see the light soon enough. lol

 

But how many consoles have Sony sold?


From Arstechnica.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/02/year-over-year-ps3-sales-drop-bad-news-for-sony.ars

Yes, the PS3 is really making money for Sony. Developers really want to develop for a 3rd place platform.

 

Wow maybe the Sony does need to drop the price on the PS3. Wii just kills the other two, but most people that own a Wii probably own at least one of the other two.

Lol probably going get yelled at for this, but I bet the reason why game developers are making more money on the PS3 is because there's not as many games on it. XD

 

As being an owner for both PS3 and 360, I have some of the same game for both systems. I tend to like the PS3 versions better. I also love that fact that with PS3, online service is free where to my 360 I have to pay $50 a year for Live membership.