Kasumi-Astra

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macs run 3d accelerated applications about 75% as fast as PC's with the same hardware do.

/suck
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Macs run about 0% of the viruses and security holes that Windows does and requires about 5% of the maintenance needed. Meanwhile, WoW still runs fantastic under OS X. We don't need this discussion anymore :-)

/cheese

No Violet Berlin?

Shame!

Joystiq, this is getting silly. The new iMac is a wonderful machine that would make anyone a brilliant personal computer. The graphics are competant enough to run every game on the PC games market right now and is arguably much better than any iMac in the past. I own the preceding 20" model, I'm extremely happy with it and I would not have spent a penny on a PC equivilent. I can play Half Life 2 on generous settings, play WoW all night while switching between applications and loading screens in an instant, and I've got a cutting edge machine for software development.
It's a step in the right direction, but you're not satisfied. You should be the guys abolishing the stereotypes that Macs aren't for games, and that you need a £2000 machine to be a PC gamer.

You've never had it so good, admit it for once.

"Allman Brothers Band; "Jessica"

OMFG I HATE THIS SONG."

But it's the Top Gear theme tune :-(

I never buy Edge for the news. The news section is tiny because they know that most of their readership will either get their news from the internet or from industry publication MCV.
Edge covers current events and issues through editorials, which are decidedly the best I have seen in any gaming magazine. A shout has to go out to rival mag GamesTM for their articles and especially their retro section, although I find Edge's style and structure more accessible.

Edge does lack in their game reviews however. I've read some reviews in the magazine that will pick out every flaw in the game as if they ruined the game and then sumarise the game at the end as "yeah, but you'll like it anyway. 9/10!". It's here that Edge tends to get a bit up-it's-own-arse.

Mr Biffo's weekly collumn is, as always, inspiring, although I sorely miss the monthly contribution from Nagoshi-san (of Amusement Vision fame).

Speaking of Mr Biffo and reviews, it's a shame that Digitiser and Teletext couldn't resolve their differences. Digitiser had some of the best reviews in the industry, and I'd read it every day (or in the dark days every Monday-Wednesday-Friday) just for it's sarcastic but honest opinion. Fat Sow may have been childish and silly, but the articles "she" wrote were often very scathing and had little tollerence for the stupidity to be seen in gaming.

Moc-moc-a-moc!

No, the London store is the flagship Oxford Street Virgin Megastore.

The long-standing store in Reading (currently being refurbished) has been a Virgin Megastore for well over a decade. The brand-new Meadowhall store (sporting new lighter image, wide aisles and increased staff presence) is also a Virgin Megastore. The old Meadowhall store (now the Apple Store) was just "Virgin".

There's a lot of very friendly staff in the new Meadowhall store gaming section, if you come from Sheffield be sure to say hello ;-)

Last time I checked, the iPod's OS was only available on... yep, the iPod. Of course Apple have a monopoly on the iTMS, and it's a shame that such a promising law has now been watered down. And surprise, surprise, it's the music industry that benefits again and the consumers that lose out.

What a shame :-(

"...you are also forgetting that PCs are much cheaper for production studios to obtain versus the ridiculous prices that Apple keeps charging for thier systems (and they are using components that are INDENTICAL to Windows PCs now.)"

You idiot. A developer doesn't need to refit their offices completely with Macs to make Mac games. They're needed at some stages of the development process, but not all. Do you really think games like Gran Turismo were coded exclusively on PS2s, for example?

As you've already been told, the real problem facing Macintosh gaming is a lack of support and a decent SDK from Apple. DirectX would be nice, but Microsoft will keep it exclusive to Windows, because it's a major selling point of the OS.

I suggest you actually use a Macintosh day in, day out before you start talking about lock-ups again. Macs aren't infallible but they require much less attention and care than PCs with Windows do. The Macintosh is in the minority when it comes to marketshare, but you haven't taken into account the superior security and stability of OS X over Windows. Don't you think the claim of "one of the most stable, secure OSs ever" wouldn't prove an attractive target?

You clearly have very little experience with anything else other than Windows. If you can't start stating facts, then expect to be corrected.

There's plenty that Apple can do to improve gaming on the Macintosh. Or rather, one very important thing: a comprehensive gaming software development kit. At the moment, developers are being left to fend for themselves compared to Microsoft, who are practically whoring Windows out to game developers. OS X will never be a viable gaming platform unless Apple actively encourages developers to work with Macs.

Having said that, it is a shame that Apple isn't doing more. There are some potentially god-like specifications on the horizon with the MacPro arriving soon. OS X makes a very pleasant environment to game in, with faster loading times, quicker application switching, comparitively minimal maintenance and centralised software and driver updates from Apple.
After the OpenGL performance patch that has just been released for the Intel systems, WoW is slicker than ever. And as long as the framerate is unnoticable, I'm going to enjoy the more practical, convenient side of running WoW under OS X.

Indeed, Stuart Campbell and Violet Berlin deserve to be mentioned on their own merits, regardless of their affiliation with Digitiser.