As seen as this forum offers 'discussion' aswell as technical help with games I thought I'd ask for a bit of advice. I'm after a new game (mac), something I can just pick up and play whenever I'm bored, not too time consuming, maybe a FPS.

I've had a browse around the Apple store gaming section and narrowed it down to these: Doom 3, Quake 4, Cold War and Commando's Battle Pack.

Does anyone have any experience with these games and possibly know which might suit my needs best?

Doom 3 is okay-ish, some of the end of level baddies are badly thought out, and is always very dark.

Quake 4 is also okay - with this one you'll need a strong stomach

Dont know about Cold War (just heard its poor) or Commando.

Call of Duty. Doom3 and Quake4 are very good, graphically, but get boring really quite quickly.

Any specific version of Call Of Duty? Just downloading the Quake demo to give it a try. Doom sounds similar to Halo (dark, with aliens), which always gives me a headache with those neon beams shooting around everywhere.

Go for CoD 2

Never found Halo dark, except the swamp level.

I've never played any FPS-type game, but there are good things being said about a new game from Aspyr called Prey. You might take a look at that.
http://insidemacgames.com/previews/view.php?ID=232

Halo gets very redundant at times, and you're often alone (the AI units die out). COD is more interesting, but shorter. The AI units are necessary to your success, but they won't be able to do much without you. Of course, the multiplayer is always new. There's demos of COD and Halo, and other games.

Another one to look for is First To Fight...

Downloaded a couple of demos Prey and Commandos. Prey looks a bit repetitive (shooting identical aliens over and over) and Commandos is showing its age.

Any thought on Lord Of The Rings, Neverwinter Nights or Tropico 2?

I realize this is becoming a drawn out affair but there aren't a lot of games knocking about, want to make sure I buy one I'm going to enjoy. :)

Neverwinter Nights is already about five years old, and it's hardly a FPS. If you're looking at that genre, at that age, I thought Dungeon Siege was also very good.

I'm not after a FPS in particular (hence the ?), that was just my initial thought. Not too fussed about the genre aslong as it fits the criteria.

if you've not played Halo extensively, i';d reccommend that. it's quite long, really involving and good fun too.

Doom3 is too dark and sometimes dull. But I've played Quake 4 with great pleasure after that. Unfortunately I didn't play others 2 games.

Quake 4 is good but if your not into that try unreal tournament 2004.

Battlefiedl 2142 all the way, though I'd highly recommend upgrading to 2 gig of ram before you play it.