EA Games

[mw84]

Only just read this! Apparently announced at this years WWDC that EA are bringing some of their biggest titles to Mac! Sorry about the flurry of exclamation marks but these games include one of my favourites, Battlefield. The list includes Need For Speed Carbon, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the afore mentioned Battlefield 2142!! and Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars.

They're using some technical wizardry called 'Cider' which somehow allows you to run Windows based games in OSX with little change to the programming.

All the games mentioned are slated for release this month(?), according to the article I've read about this in.

If anyone knows more about this including different release dates, other titles announced and wether or not online gameplay with windows users will be an option, please let me know!

[Qion]

Online gameplay with Windows machines will most certainly be available. We've been able to interoperate with Halo -among various other games- for years!

I'm very excited about the Need for Speed series coming over to the Mac side. Before they went the "Underground" route, the games were very good. I loved "Porsche Unleashed" when it came out, and still play it every once in a while on my archaic PlayStation 1.

Also, I'm not exactly complaining about Harry Potter coming over; looks like it's going to be very interesting to play.

[wraith]

Cider is the Mac version of the Cedega/Transgaming tool that's been running on Linux for years. Basically, it's a DirectX emulator (I'm drastically simplifying here) that allows linux machines to run Windows games. Since Mac OS X is based on FreeBSD (a Unix distro) Transgaming's next logical step was to make a similar product for Mac. I'm interested in seeing how it'll play out.

[icemanjc]

i'm more excited about Battlefield.
anyone hear in the WWDC, the guy from EA, how his daughters all have macbooks..... Jealousy.

[mw84]

Anyone heard anything more on this subject? It's nearly the end of the month and as far as I know all of the titles are yet to be released.

[ablack6596]

Well I know BF2142 is working unofficially through Cider right now.

[ex2bot]

Finally some pretty good Mac gaming news. I haven't been buying Mac games. The main problem is the prices don't drop like they do on other platforms. $60 per game can add up. I have also had frustrating glitches with a few games (No One Lives Forever II and True Crime: LA).

Also, I don't have to worry about upgrading my graphics card with my Xbox 360. Though I do have to worry about the red ring of death. I'm on my third 360. Way to go Microsoft!

Doug

[ablack6596]

PC games are normally $50. Only PS3, 360, or special collectors editions are $60.

However it's still true that games are often more expensive for OS X. They often come out later, when the Windows version can be found in bargain bins, or stores just don't offer discounts on them.

You can preorder Enemy Territories: Quake Wars for $39.99 right now. That's $10 off MSRP, we will probably never see a discount on the OS X version. I was able to preorder the UT2k4 Special Edition after EBGames sold it for $20 less, gave a $20 gift certificate with it, and $10 rebate for owning UT2k3.

However, I like that these companies are supporting OS X. And will try to buy the OS X version of ET: Quake Wars and UT3 in order to support Mac gaming.