Masters of Doom is the first thing that comes to mind. Shooters have been around since the earliest days of gaming and Replay is the best general history of video games I've read thus far (most video game history books aren't that great in my experience).Originally Posted by Bergeron
The Ultimate History of Video Games is a so-so read, but it's one of the few that traces the advent of arcades from boardwalk games, and mechanical shooting games were a thing back in the day.
"Sapiens dicit: 'Ignoscere divinum est, sed noli pretium plenum pro pizza sero allata solvere.'" - Michelangelo
I figured I'd post this here half as a bitch fest and half as a potentially helpful PSA.
While I was bored waiting for something else to happen (forget what), I pulled up some letsplay Youtube channels I used to watch to see what's new in semi-realistic FPS land. After watching some Hell Let Loose and Insurgency: Sandstorm gameplay, I have a sudden bug to play an online FPS again. I used to play a lot of COD4, because I'm a casual Mac gamer pleb and that game stayed alive forever because Macs could run it.
Problem: Mac no longer supports 32 bit applications in OS updates since Catalina. No COD4 for me. What's more, even if I were to dual boot my current Mac, that won't be a thing when it's replaced with one running an M1 or M2 chip in the (hopefully) near future, so why bother.
Solution: Insurgency (2014) is something I've always wanted to play and it's $15 on Steam and available for Mac.
Problem: It's apparently 32 bit.
Solution: Virtual environments. PlayonMac is free, and based on a trial run with Day of Defeat, it works pretty well. Buy Insurgency, plan on maybe upgrading to Parallels later, and this opens up options for tons of other games that are Windows-only, like Sandstorm.
Problem: BattlEye and other anti-cheat software explicitly do not like and do not support virtual environments, period. No Insurgency for me. Also, none of the other games I'd want to play.
Solution: Try playing CS:GO instead, because it's free and works.
Problem: I have discovered I really, really hate Counter Strike. It's complicated and strategy heavy in all the areas I don't care about, like the in-game gear purchase economy that I have no patience for. Also, lack of ADS for most guns is super annoying.
Some frantic Googling later, I find out that in fact, Insurgency (and apparently many other games that Steam says are 32 bit) has actually been updated to run as 64 bit so it continues to work with current Mac OS versions. Steam just hasn't been updating games' store pages to remove the 32 bit compatibility warning, because reasons.
End result: Insurgency works on my computer and I'm thrilled. Once I'm done practicing with bots to learn the basics of maps, gear, and game modes, I can go get absolutely destroyed by people who are actually good at this game. For anyone else who's running Mac but enjoys casual gaming, hopefully this helps with navigating the post-Catalina and post-M1 chip landscape. The information was absolutely not easy to find, so I wanted to put it up somewhere.
Other than trying to shoehorn Macs into being gaming computers, I enjoy playing older awesome games on Switch. It has the entire Borderlands series aside from BL3 as well as the Witcher 3, and those are pretty much my favorite games. I also have Skyrim waiting for me to pick back up.
I think (...think) that games based on Unity will run on Apple silicon, but I do not have a machine to try. That might be a list worth thumbing through.
"Sapiens dicit: 'Ignoscere divinum est, sed noli pretium plenum pro pizza sero allata solvere.'" - Michelangelo
@Elwin
I found some of the sim games to be un-fun these days because as a casual gamer with a gaming laptop, I'm basically uncompetitive. A lot of those guys these days will run different resolutions with widescreen monitors that allows them to see players from farther distances than I can possibly pick up on a single 17" screen, where a player can't even register as a pixel at the long ranges you can get into. Shit wasn't like that back when I was playing BF2:Project Reality 10 years ago. Last time I tried playing Squad, it was like being sheep for a slaughter. When I was telling a squadmate that I literally could not see the enemy player he was spotting, he asked about my monitor situation and explained the issue. I honestly haven't tried playing since.
Speaking of Skyrim, what is going on with Elder Scrolls 6? They made that teaser/announcement back in 2018, 2019 or so, yeah?
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
No idea about the current ES status. I'm just partway through Skyrim only because the Switch happens to have ported versions of a lot of games from that generation, so I'm catching up on things I missed out on between my only brief Xbox ownership being a 360 in college and my dual booted Mac being kaput since before law school.
I'm hoping I can at least be competitive enough to have fun in Insurgency. It's got a heavy emphasis on CQB with pretty small maps, even compared to Insurgency: Sandstorm, and especially compared to something like Squad or PR. The gameplay is basically taking a similar level of realism to those games and combining it with the scale and fast-paced aggressive gameplay of Counter Strike. In fact I think the original Insurgency Source mod was basically made because the designers wanted a more realistic CS.
I might have to check out Insurgency, then....
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
@Elwin
You might take a look at Steam Deck https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck as dedicated "gaming rig" to compliment your Mac. It uses a version Linux and is still first gen product but looks very interesting. Can be used with Keyboard and monitor if that's preferred.
Though I primarily use Macs, Chromebook, & iPad Mini & I've started dabbling with Linux last year, I game on Windows for stuff that doesn't run on Mac.
I used to use Bootcamp on my old 2011 iMac to run Windows games, after that died I eventually went with used HP business machine (if you go this route I'd buy through Amazon but only from company with good reviews) https://www.amazon.com/HP-EliteDesk-.../dp/B07N1TF66N that work with low profile GPU 1650 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CYDH8MD...08D7BW4P3?th=1
Because of Covid GPU prices are still little crazy, and this isn't a slick or real high powered gaming setup but it's inexpensive and and easy to do, just plug GPU in and your good to go.
Before I got the HP & 1650 GPU I tried external GPU (Radeon RX 5700) with 2018 Mac Mini and subjectively the HP seems comparable or slightly better.
I agree the Steam Deck would be a good option, especially once the optional dock is released if building a pc is out of the question. Can basically be set up as a standard desktop computer with mouse keyboard monitor or hooked up to a tv like a console and used with a controller or obviously just as a handheld. You can install and run basically anything on it, including Windows.
I have the 512GB model on order, supposedly for Q3 delivery to pair with my current PC while I wait for the nvidia 4000 series cards and AMD AM5 stuff to finish my next PC build. I’ll probably get a couple of the docks once available. It won’t replace a true gaming rig but I wanted the convenience to take PC games for downtime at my fire station or while traveling.
Reviews are very positive and it’s definitely the best product in its category especially for the money. I own all of Valves hardware; Index, Controller, Steam Link(hardware and app on AppleTV), definitely excited for the Deck.
I have been playing Pillers of Eternity the past weeks—pretty good RPG in my option.
If you liked the old Baldurs Gate games you'll probably like this one.
My wife has gotten me playing Conan Exiles, a crazy amount of crafting that can be done in the game.
It most certainly appeals to the Nintendo Switch lover that I absolutely am...
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