Half-Life 2 on the Mac? Give Valve one million dollars!

Right you are! I updated the post.

Yeh rich boys, Do it.

Actually, the latest integrated Intel chipsets really aren't that bad, as everything from the X3000 and up are (pixel) Shader Model 3.0 compliant, which is more than I can say for the AGP card I've got in my Windows box right now. Unfortunately, they haven't been implemented on the Mac platform as yet, which basically leaves the Mac mini and the Macbook out in the cold, as far as games go. The dedicated graphics chipsets on the Macbook Pro and iMac (courtesy of Nvidia and ATI) aren't half bad, unless you're one of those people who has to upgrade, upgrade, upgrade until you realize that any further upgrades you make will be marginal at best, with regard to performance increases. And if you're one of those people, you're probably better off rebuilding your beige box every twelve months, anyway.

But I digress.

Until Apple builds the GMA X3100 or X3500 series of Intel integrated chipsets into the Macbook and Mac mini motherboards, the entry-level Mac market will continue to be a joke for game publishers, as noted by the fact that the Mac releases of the current editions of Tiger Woods and Madden require a dedicated graphics chipset (and therefore an iMac, Macbook Pro, or Mac Pro). I can't say how much of this, though, is due to the fact that Tiger Woods and Madden are being implemented in OS X through Cider, as opposed to natively coding the games for OpenGL compatibility. This, of course, means that the games are feeding Direct3D code to an interpreter, which then translates the code into something OS X can understand, causing a fairly massive performance hit over coding the game for OpenGL compatibility in the first place, which I'm fairly certain is how Blizzard has been managing to get games to run on the Mac and be competitive with PC's with equivalent hardware.

I've said this before, of course, and it continues to be my opinion that developers' addiction to DirectX creates a never-ending cycle of late releases (if ever) to the Mac, thus diluting any potential that the Mac has as a gaming platform. While Cider is a step forward in decreasing the amount of time it takes to port a game to the Mac (from a year or more down to a few months), the necessary translation of code via Cider represents a draw on the CPU that would better be used for game functions, were the game initially coded for maximum compatibility, as noted by games from id Software and Blizzard.

In short, it's partially Apple's fault, which can partially be remedied sometime within the next several months with a significant chipset update. However, it's also the fault of the developers for worshipping at the dark altar that is DirectX. But at least it's got to make Xbox 360 ports easy to do, and we all know that's where the money is, at least for the *ahem* "hardcore gamer." ... Of course, we won't let the hardcore gamer look at hardware sales charts, because it will only make him sad. But perhaps that's a clue as to where gaming on the Mac might as well go. There's money to be had in casual gaming.

Seriously. Every time there's a Mac only app that PC users want, it's "Get a Mac then," but when something comes out for PCs only, it's whining and complaining. I can't wait until the maclots find a way to link this to "MiKKKro$oft"

Well, thats the joy of the Windows monopoly

Its a great comparison to the 3rd generation of consoles:

Windows is NES: Everyone has it, everyone builds for it, and often only for it, if you want to associate with civilized society, you get one
Mac is Master System: Some people have it, and swear its better than the other thing. You can get by with it, but you miss out on sooo much
Linux is Atari 7800: you buy this, you are not part of civilized society, you may as well go and stick your head in the sand, or live under a rock (even though i prefer Linux, once i finally get my own PC, i'll have it in a dual-boot kinda thing with Vista)

"I know, I know... Mac bashers get some sort of buzz off of insulting someone else's choice of computer. You go, girl. Don't let me kill your buzz. Enjoy."

Are you kidding? All those Macs VS PC ads are exactly that : insulting PC users because they somehow made the "wrong" choice.

I like this little handle here... it's so you can use it as a BOAT ANCHOR!

I'm confused. Why is it that Mac users always have their Windows computers explode and spout disasters, but I've been using Windows for years without issue? My last computer, a latpop, I had for over a year and a half and the only reason I needed to reformat was because I sold it. It ran as nicely, if not nicer, than when I first got it, and never gave me issues. You claim you wouldn't even use a PC for internet browsing, but I say why not? Firefox is safer and faster than Safari, and runs faster on PC than on Mac. Seriously, just explain to me why you, a supposed PC tech support guy, have constant issues and I do not.

Also, you stated: "It's much better playing games on a dedicated platform, as Windows XP is a pain in the ass, even on a Mac." I was just wondering.. is there some reason you said that? Is there some magical quality about your white plastic and inferior graphics cards that would make XP run magically better for you than on a real PC? If anything, it should run worse since there's kinks and bugs once in a while in boot camp. You confuse me.

Finally, you said: "I know, I know... Mac bashers get some sort of buzz off of insulting someone else's choice of computer." That's the most confusing of all. You say this after comments such as "I don't consider Windows worth the risk for anything- y'know- IMPORTANT." and "Windows XP is a pain in the ass" and "Using Windows is what drove me to Mac OS X." Your double standards and hypocrisy further drives me to confusion.

Noooooooooooooo, I commented in the wrong article.

I meant to comment on the "Why the PS3's lack of backwards compatibility is upsetting" article.

I lose the internetz. I'm teh loser );