Game off, game on

Call of Duty 4 is an FPS favourite on Mac. Photo / Supplied

Since Microsoft lent me (rather pointedly, perhaps) an Xbox 360 to try out, OK, OK, I get it: console gaming has come a long way, and it may not walk all over PC gaming, but it certainly leaves the Mac in the dust.

Apart from regular bouts of nasty shooting, I have been mucking around with Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization, which is a frighteningly resource-hungry game considering it's not having to render triangulations and matrices in virtual 3D like a good RPG, generate textures and cope with incoming agents and the like. But hey, at least it came out for Mac as well as PC.

In fact, I was pretty miffed when I first got it, as it would not run at all. Music played but all I saw was black, and I had to force-quit out. Considering my MacBook is only a few months old, an i7 clocked at 2.66GHz with a 500GB 7200rpm hard drive, 8GB RAM, 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M plus the high-resolution display option (1680x1050), I was nonplussed, to say the least.

But then I had a plus 4 moment - Apple's DVD player was doing the same thing. Switching the 64-bit system back to 32-bit mode fixed it. At the risk of giving the hyenas something to bray about, indeed that fixed both problems, letting me take on the Persians with my little colony when I was good and ready.

I've often wondered why Apple hasn't worked a bit harder (if at all, in recent times) to improve gaming. Once, Apple was at least near the cutting edge. When Bungie released Marathon, Mac gaming never had it so good. The space-based shooter had intriguing gameplay, lovely graphics and was genuinely scary in places. Then Microsoft bought Bungie and that was the end of Mac versions from that publisher, predictably.

Sometimes I suspect Apple doesn't promote Mac gaming because then they'd have to put the latest video cards into Macs, which would either cut Apple's margins closer than their extremely generous (to themselves) allowances, or push retail prices up.

Like, you know, Apples are cheap already ...

Sometimes I suspect Apple just dropped the ball, got outgunned, and then lost too much ground to regain. But like I always say, don't count your chickens until you've reached the other side of the river (or something equally folksy), while I'm mixing metaphors.

So imagine my surprise at the Mac App Store. Because it appeared, sold one million titles on its first day, has all sorts of free offerings and good deals, and the online Apple Mac application store even has loads of games available.

Now, I know games are always popular projects for developers. I presume they like to code them because they're young, enthusiastic and that's what they like to do. It's just not that rewarding a passtime you're a Mac developer.

So I expected the MAS games to be the noodlings of a few bored developers. Not so.

Games is one of 21 categories in the MAS, and in the New & Noteworthy section of Games alone there are 40 games, including Bioshock (NZ$49.99). In the 28-game What's Hot section there are games like Guns of Icarus and Samantha Swift and the Fountains of Fate Collectors Edition. Now, these are not world-breaking games by any means, but they are at least a little sophisticated.

There are some classic Mac games there too. Some of you may remember your new iMacs arriving, years ago, with games like like Bugdom and Nanosaur 2 already installed. These immediately joined the parent and grandparent arsenals of child distractions.

Of course, there are many iOS-reminiscent games too, tagged with iOS-like prices: Hordes of Orcs 2 is $2.59, Circuit Defenders is $4.19 and No Gravity is $5.29.

But most interesting of all is Apple's Top Grossing section. At the top is the aforementioned Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization (sic & sic) for just $38.99.

Following that is my personal favourite, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at the bargain price of $64.99 (I have seen this previously at NZ$90 and up), and third is Borderlands Game of the Year, at 64.99, then the very cheap Angry Birds ($6.49, which shows you how many copies that's moving), then BioShock ($49.99).

So, while many Mac games on MAS are simple iOS-style affairs, puzzlers or, basically, 'identify and solve' games which involve beautiful pictures and clicking on items, solving conundrums and identifying things, there are also some sophisticated offerings that let you go toe to toe directly (at least in the case of Call of Duty) with those playing on PCs.

Believe me, none of this is scoffing. I know too well how much better console and PC gaming is. But it's a healthy start (or restart) for Mac fans, and could lead elsewhere. I am not about to get a PC for games or run Windows on my Mac so I can play games. I want Mac games for my Mac, thank you very much.

And if you do buy Call of Duty 4 and want to play against other Mac-based CoD fans, let me know (email mac.nz@mac.com). The MadMacs clan plays every Monday night, 8:30-10:30pm, against fellow Mac users only on a privately booked server.

It saves getting right royally fragged by those on 'superior' (for gaming) PCs! And besides, they often have cheats and hacks - we play pure, partly because there simply are no Mac hacks.

Partly coz we're just cooler.

Or misdirected.

- Mark Webster mac-nz.com