Alright, I have a relatively new MacBook (I dont have the coreduo 2 or whatever, the original model) but with very few games. I don't have any RTS games, so I tried a few out.

C&C Generals demo was extremely slow - probably because of the integrated video card, so that's a no-go.

I tried out the WarCraft 3 demo, and thought it would be pretty good.

I can't play Startcraft's demo, because of OSX, and you can't use the OSX installer on the demo.

I would say that Warcraft would probably be the way to go, but want to hear some opinions. I liked how the three races in StarCraft play differently and were well balanced. Is that the same as Warcraft 3?

I just remember that Warcraft 2 was...lacking in the differences between the two races. it basically came down to their magic spells, which was kind of lame.

So, are the different factions / races in Warcraft 3 actually different? (In the demo, you can only play as the Orcs)? if they are just variations / same units with different skins, I will probably prefer Starcraft.

thanks

http://www.battle.net/war3/

You can compare all the race unit types for yourself.

It was slow because it's not a Universal Binary. Trust me, I have the full game and it's far better.

Are you playing on a macbook, or did you try the demo before you bought it and noticed?

Basically, how much of a speed improvement might I expect? the cutscenes of the demo. ugh (i had to bust a dam and flood an area, and it took about a full full minute or two to do the animation, not to mention explosions were all super slow)

thanks for the heads up on that though. I wonder how much it costs now *runs off to check prices online*

Wow, isn't that a kick to the crotch! 20 bucks for the PC battle pack, and 54 for the Mac battle pack.

Well, I guess that's a negatory on that one. Unless you can somehow use the UB with the PC version. But I don't know how all this UB generally works (I know it's faster on my MacBook, but I don't know if I can use PC stuff with a UB app, if that makes sense)

I'm playing on a MacBook and I've tried the demo. As for War3 (if you don't already have Starcraft), I've been hearing rumors that Blizzard is going to make it into a UB. So I'd keep an eye out on that.

And as for using the PC version, not a chance in church unless you have a Windows partition.

Essentially, Universal Binary means that a Mac program is native to both the PowerPC and Intel OS X platforms… it does not mean a program written for Windows will work on an Mactel.

Yeah, I figured that it wouldn't be that easy. Well, 54 bucks is too steep, especially considering the battlechest is 40 and will have a UB soon (saw that in a thread posted by a Blizzard guy, or at least he said he was a Blizzard guy).

I dont have Starcraft. I played a fair amount in my PC days(in the days of spawning)but never played the single player. The different faction in WCIII look to have enough differences to warrant looking into that over SC though, in my opinion (unless there really isn't a difference in the groups)

I was just a little miffed when playing WC and WC2 that there was almost no difference in the two sides, which made things...less interesting.

Thanks for the help regarding C&C and UB business though.

Starcraft + Broodwar is pretty much the best RTS you'll ever find. Perfect balance between sides, excellent singleplayer story.

Warcraft III + TFT is pretty much the best RTS custom games you'll ever play online. Pretty much endless replay. I still log on battle.net and find a different game experience every time.

Get them both (er, all four).

It's worth it to dual boot XP and have lots of games for cheaper. Mac games tend to stay expensive long after PC price drops. Windows isn't cheap, but it's worth it in the end if you want a lot of games.

WTF are you looking at?!? ALL Blizzard games are dual-platform, meaning the same disk will install on Mac OS and Windows.



mrxak++ My thoughts exactly.

I have WC3: TFT and it's a very fun game. I almost never play regular games, almost always custom maps, occassionally 6v6 melee games which are quite cool.

Also, Age of Empires II is pretty fun, and a good number of people still play it on GameRanger.

All the games have been cross platform, but they are not always hybrid discs. That said, I'm surprised a WC3 battle chest would still be $50+ for mac, and you should certainly be able to get it much cheaper on ebay or such.

Indeed, having just checked it, it shouldn't be hard to get the mac version for under $30. example

SC + BW is what you want. Pretty dated now, but damn good.

I hate WC3 vanilla personally, since it seems to sacrifice fun (as defined by "crazy and awesome shit happening frequently") and logic for buzzwords ("micro", "creeping") and killing one peon at a time to gain the "resource advantage". Bo-ring. I love DoTA though, and did enjoy the SP campaigns quite a bit. It's a good value.

Also, I personally question the merits of the RTS genre, as defined by Warcraft and AoE (especially AoE). I don't find mining gold and micromanaging peasants that fun to begin with, nor do I appreciate the artificial balancing and lack of intuitive physics-based gameplay. By golly, if I try to shoot an arrow at a guy on the other side of a tree, it should hit the goddamn tree.

Therefore, I recommend Myth. There is an OS X demo of Myth 2 available. See what you think. It takes a little thought to figure out how best to play it, but the Myth games are some of my all-time favorites. It's by Bungie, if that makes it any more interesting. Some of the best times I've ever had with LAN gaming I had in Myth.

the 54 price is for C&C Generals pack that includes the expansion. Refer to my post that begins with "What a kick to the crotch" in this thread.

The battlechest is 40 bucks at most places, and is dual-platform.

I have a myth 2 hybrid disk, I should probably search around for the OSX launcher / whatever is necessary to play it on the macbook.

Incidentally, I just discovered that somebody made a chess game in TFT with custom models for the pieces and stuff. That's how crazy Warcraft III + TFT can be.

Or the fishing game I found. So boring it was hilarious. It's amazing what weird stuff people will bother to make with it. I frigging hate TD though...

Dark Deeds is the most awesome custom game in TFT. Period.

I had 452 points...but then my codes wouldn't work.

You'd have to play it to understand.

And since this is about Blizzard Games anyway, does anyone think that there are WAY too friggin' many DOTA fans out there? There's so many games of it being hosted on TFT's Battle Net that it almost doesn't seem worth playing (because it seems like it's the only thing ever hosted these days...).

Alright, I'm done.

I rather prefered Battleships over DOTA.

Also, I remember playing a really fun Final Fantasy game. I don't remember what it was called, but it was party based with a save system.

Which? Battleship Command, or the actual 13attleships? The former is cooler, in my opinion.

Although, Star Wars Battleships is pretty cool, too.

And then there's Galactic Civilizations...whoever made that game is a gaming god, I swear...

I haven't played WC3 for about 6 months, is Battleship Command relatively new? I never remember playing it.

Battleship Command is similar to Battleships, except that it's more Space-Agey-type game play, and you can go anywhere.

Tank Wars is also a good game to play.

And, if you've got a lot of time on your hands, Poke The Angry Ogre is a great time-waster.

I spend a lot of time slaughtering ugly things in Diablo II. Very fun game.

The 1.5.1 auto-installer includes an OS X installer. Then you have to manually patch up to 1.6, alas. Though I do recommend it since it allows you to play in a window (actually that might just be new in Windows, which has been conspicuously lacking that feature forever), adds UB app that you can use in multiplayer to decrease the load on your CPU (I recommend using the PPC one for single player since the UB doesn't play cutscenes) and numerous other improvements. The Rosetta version does run absolutely fine, and by "absolutely" I mean absolutely. I did not notice a single detail in its performance and behavior that was different from playing on a PPC.

Also, check this out. Unfortunately you still need a TFL disk if you want the cutscenes, and the campaign is a lot harder than Myth 2 (at least on normal), but there's something really special about it and I recommend it (don't forget to check "TFL gameplay" on the new game screen). There is, of course, an OS X/OpenGL patch for TFL, but it retains the UI limitations of that game - namely, having to tell units what formation to take every single time you give them an order. For the full experience, the Myth 2 GUI can be modded to look like TFL, but I haven't figured out how to install the interface pack yet.

There are indeed way too many DotA games. It's most annoying when they yell at you for joining and not being in Malaysia.

Dota is fun...but I prefer Footman Frenzy and Enfos TS.

Or, for that matter, solo and Arranged Team ladder.

There are a lot of interesting custom maps, but DotA earned its popularity by being one of the best. There aren't many that I can stand to play all the time - in fact DotA is the only one. So many of them were created by people who apparently have amazing world editor skills, but couldn't design a good map to save their lives, or just have ridiculously broken balance or something.

But yeah, just joining a pub game sucks. They bitch and moan if somebody didn't notice this week's update is out, and then if you deviate slightly from the known "best way to play" they bitch some more and ruin any fun you might be having.

Best to play with friends.

I'm not great at DotA...and too many people are wayyy too good.

Pretty much, I get yelled at in public games for tending to die stupidly a lot early, but usually they shut up when i have a level 16+ Necrolyte with a Stygian Desolator, several speed bonuses and three points in Scythe, and can be double-teamed without having issues...unless they have a blasted Zeus....i seriously cannot deal with him....

So:

Annoying teammates: ignore

Annoying opponents: Take names

Yeah, the best DotA games are clan battles-both within and competitive.

Oh, and a good quick custom is Worm War.

Me either. And that's why I avoid it like the plague.


I'll try to remember this.


Indeed. Even if I don't win, Worm War is one of those games that you don't need to win and still have a lot of fun. It's really interesting when people gang up on the guy who's in the lead.

Some other fun maps:

Poke the Angry Ogre, with the Benny Hill theme (I swear, I can't keep myself from cracking up when I play this game)

Candy Wars, which is the only DOTA-ish game I'll play (I'm pretty good as a Paladin, in all honesty)

D-Day, which is possibly the most awesome thing ever created.

Pass The Bomb!, which is like Hot Potato

Dark Deeds (specifically, 6), which is another one of those awesome games; Weevilman (its creator) must have spent an ETERNITY working on that map, it's so well-designed.

Commando Wars, which, admittedly, you need to be on the ball and know what to do to win (you kill other commandos and send them to "statue areas" to upgrade them into better fighters).

Galactic Civilizations, which revolves around you colonizing planets and building fleets to win (you can also build a Death-Star type battle station called a Battle Star, which can destroy planets with ease).

Ghost City, which has you travelling through a city to survive its horrors (I have yet to beat it, and in fact, I've never witnessed anyone being successful, either).

There's more I'd like to put, but these are some of the ones I personally recommend.

I agree 100%.

Warlord:

What server do you play on?

US-West.

I doubt you'll see me anytime soon, though: the foul pit of education that is school dominates my life these days...

I'm on that one too; my name's Journalisty if you're ever on. Unfortunately, with my clan duties, my friends list is full.

I might log on to US-West to play with all of the people I know there, in which case I would be jrsh92.

If you guys want, meet me tomorrow at 7:30-ish Pacific time in channel "clan aop."

Hopefully i'll remember to be there.

I'm such a great chieftan, aren't I?