Mac: a Gamer’s Dream?

I’ve been a Mac user for the last three years. I guess I was lucky enough to join the Apple cult right at its third revolution. The first I believe was when Apple created the personal computer revolution, the second was when Apple created amazing seamlessly artistic designs underpinned by an amazing operating system: Mac OS X.

The third I consider to be the period that started almost three years ago, when Apple computers started outselling all other PCs on the market.

Let’s look past the huge selling power of iPods and iPhones, which seem to steal the limelight away from the Macs themselves. When most PC manufacturers are selling products at an annual increasing rate of 3-5 percent, Apple has consistently been outselling the competition at about 10 percent a year.

So what? What does this mean? Choice.

Four years ago the choices in games for a Mac were slim and none. So much so that I would have never even thought of a Mac as a gaming platform. I was very content with my Sony PS2 and using my brother’s top of the line Dell for PC games.

Today, a MacBook Pro is as much a gaming machine as an Alienware notebook. That’s something huge considering that Alienware is the gamer’s game machine. Apple’s shift from G4 and G5 processors to Intel processors mean that a huge power gap was closed between Macs and high end PCs. Don’t get me wrong, as I type I’m typing on my trusty G4 iBook. But in the real world, and when high powered applications, and in specific games are concerned, my poor G4 doesn’t stand a chance.

Today an iMac with its robust 2.8Ghz of Core 2 Extreme power and 1TB of hard drive space is as much a gaming machine as an Alienware PC, and frankly speaking, it looks much much better.

In three years I have seen Macs go from professional/design oriented (or perceived) computers to a truly life oriented platform, inviting in every aspect, from workplace spreadsheets to amature web design, to the newest title in the DOOM franchise. A platform that was once so professionally oriented is still that on many levels, and so much more on so many others.

A peek at any of the usual suspects in PC gaming, be it Alienware, Dell, or Toshiba, and then today’s Macs proves my point. A Mac has become a gaming monster in its own right.

Searching for PC games on Amazon.com today will show that there are about 60-70% the amount of games for Macs that there are for PCs. This means that for every 100 games for PCs, there are 60 for Macs. This is a huge change from just over three years ago when the number would have been closer to 20.

And its not just the more robust hardware that makes contemporary Macs a viable gaming machine. It’s the fact that top notch gaming producers acknowledge Macs today as a platform worth developing for.

With such mainstream titles as Need for Speed, Harry Potter, and Star Wars available for the Mac today, the momentum has been set.

Even Dashboard in OS X can be a mini gaming engine with small, amazingly rendered, and very fun games available at a cool sweep of the track pad.

Back in the day, I questioned if the move to Intel processors was even a good idea. I hated the loss of identity that it might create for us Mac users. I’m glad to say that my fears were ill founded. It has brought nothing but raw power and an more openness to the Mac platform, enough to which gamers would flock to it, game developers would seek it out, and us Mac users would accept it, but not to the point where us Mac users would forget who we are in the Personal Computer world.

Today I can spend more time gaming on my Mac than I do on my old rusty PS2. So much so that I didn’t even bother picking up a PS3 or Nintendo Wii. The new Intel Macs are a gamer’s dream if that gamer is interested in more than just gaming, they combine raw power – on par with most gaming machines, amazing technology – that enables gamers to see a Mac as a viable gaming platform, breath taking design – which is second to none, and above all, a newly found choice. Something Macs may have lacked once, but do not any longer.

by Nassir