By all definitions, I'm a console gamer. I like sitting on the couch, and relaxing with a gamepad and a cold drink. I work on a keyboard and mouse all day, so why would I want to spend my free time hunching over the same?

Well, the short answer is, PC games are fun too.

I favour the console, even portables like the PSP and DS take up more of my free time than the PC does, but some games are just better on the PC.

Genres like Real Time Strategy, Turn-Based Strategy and Massively Multiplayer RPGs have made their appearances on consoles, sometimes even successfully, but they just feel better on a PC with the precise controls of a mouse and the many commands available on a full sized keyboard.

That's about as far as I'll delve into the heated Console versus PC games debate. What I really want to look at is, how do you play PC games, aka Windows PC games, if your main PC is a Mac?

Games for OSX

Mac aficionados are passionate and proud, but they've never had any reason to be proud of gaming on a Mac. Not since the original Myst anyway...

The selection of dedicated Mac games was never good, maxing out at perhaps less than 5% of windows titles. To make things worse, if any mainstream title made it to OSX at all, not all versions/expansion packs were released for it (ie. Neverwinter Nights). Plus you'd have to go to a specialty Mac store to buy them, and the prices were always higher for the Mac version of a game that was also available on PC.

No wonder Mac never took off as a viable gaming platform.

This window between the release of OSX and Apple switching to Intel was a transitional period for gaming. Not great compared to gaming on Windows, but support was as good as it ever had been.

The important thing to remember is, some excellent games were released for OSX. Here are some personal highlights:

RPGs:

• Baldur's Gate I & II
• Diablo & Diablo II
• Dungeon Siege
• Fallout & Fallout II
• Icewind Dale & Icewind Dale II
• Neverwinter Nights, plus expansions

Strategy:

• Age of Empires II & AOE III
• Civilization III & Civilization IV
• Starcraft
• Warcraft II & Warcraft III

Here are some Mainstream Hits that I didn't play, but millions of other did:

• Doom 3
• Myst, all of them
• RollerCoaster Tycoon
• Simcity 4
• The Sims, The Sims II and expansions
• Tons of casual games...

Some of these games can still be had for decent prices. If you only have a Mac and you like good games even if they're a few years old, you should snatch these up. You may have to look at Mac stores and online to find more obscure titles.

I've found that old OSX games run great on any modern Mac. Game compatibility across different hardware configurations may be better on OSX than Windows since there are no Direct X version issues to contend with.

Mac-specific and Casual Games. The Good and the Bad.

I'll admit, I don't have a lot of experience with Mac-specific game studios or games.

The only one I can think of is Pangea Software. It's not that I dislike their work. It just seems like games released specifically for the Mac do not hit the points I generally look for. These include:

• Involved storylines
• Immersive, Cinematic Environments
• Character Development
• Ingenious Strategy

Indie games are nearly as numerous on Mac as they are one PCs, but I've yet to find one that has blown me away. The typical assortment of me-too platformers and Roguelikes abound.

The Mac has far too many casual games. Not any more than the PC does but they are comparatively the majority of Mac games. It's as though one day, game publishers unanimously said, "Mac people don't want serious games. They're too busy designing web sites. Give them, some more PopCap and Diner Dash. That's what they really want!"

It would be interesting to see where the iPhone App Store takes indie gaming on Apple as a whole. The games that are up there are admittedly mainstream, but some quality could come of it.

Maybe the Mac and the iPhone could be used as the next generation Dreamcast and VMU combo? Oh wait, they're actually doing that?

Game Publishers Supporting Macs... Whah?!

It's a bit sad to see the days of dedicated Mac games waning in the wake of virtualization on the Intel chip.

Some Mac game companies like MacPlay seem to have fallen off the map (MacPlay.com looks like a dumping ground for casual games these days).

Others like Aspyr and MacSoft, have been converting PC games to Mac for a while, and are still trucking along.

Aspyr has released some current mega-hits like Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero III for the Mac, so they are well worth supporting if Mac is your only or preferred gaming platform option.

Some of the bigger game developer/publishers have supported Mac for a while. Blizzard (Diablo/Warcraft), Firaxis (Civilization), even Microsoft Games Studios (Age of... series).

One encouraging sign is that the biggest publisher of all, EA, seems to be backing OSX in a bigger way, albeit with Cider virtualization. No longer content with dumping the Sims on every platform, bigger titles like Need for Speed and Battlefield have hit OSX.

And the best news of all, Spore is set to launch on Mac and PC simultaneously this fall.

Maybe these are signs of game publishers waking up to a growing market. I wont hold my breath just yet, but it is nice to know that there are decent games you can play natively on OSX.

Next Time on LBG

I went a bit long with this one, so I'll leave the Bootcamp vs. Crossover Games vs. Parallels Desktop comparison for next time.