Gaming on the Mac

With the Mac platform becoming ever more popular, there will be plenty of gamers looking to play their favourite games ontheir Mac. What most people don't realise is that the gaming market on the Mac platform is terrible. Just plain terrible.



This not from the lack of capabilities of the hardware itself, because the MacBook Pro etc. have more than enough hardware built in to accommodate some of the best games on the market.

So what I have done is compiled a list of the game services available to get you gaming on your Mac sooner.

Steam



The popular PC gaming is also available for the Mac and has been for a while. The client runs on your desktop allowing you to download and run games. The steam service will filter out games that you have already bought on the service to display the games that can be downloaded for Mac. All chat and voice services work just the same. Game selection is not on the level as the PC (as you would come to expect), but popular Valve favourites like Counter Strike, Team Fortress and more are ready to play on the Mac.

App Store

The Apple App Store has a extensive collection of Mac games and more than just your casual Angry Birds variants. Call of Duty Modern Warefare is old now but still a popular favourite and available from the App Store.

EA Games

EA has got a (small) selection of it's games available for Mac. Most popular is The Sims line of games, however Command & Conquer, Dragonage 2, FIFA and more are also available. Link here.

Blizzard

Blizzard has made its most popular games available for Mac which shows that Mac is more than capable of being a gaming powerhouse. Diablo 3, World of Warcraft and StarCraft II are just some of the games that are available for Mac.

MacGameStore.com

This site has a extensive collection of Games for Mac that can be purchased on disc. More than I thought was available. Be warned though, if you have the Retina MacBook Pro, make sure you have a DVD drive available. Link here.

So just because you bought a Mac doesn't mean that you have left PC gaming behind. More games are being ported to the Mac platform everyday and with the continued popularity of Mac we should see more games become natively available for Mac.

Next in line… XBOX 8

Rumors have been floating around for some time now about the name of the next XBOX.XBOX 720 has been the popular vote, however the recent domain purchases by Microsoft shows we were all wrong.

XBOX 8 is likely to be the name of the next XBOX judging by the recent domains XBOX8.us and XBOX8.org.
Some sites are suspecting that it could end up titled XBOX infinity.

I would be believe that XBOX 8 makes sense and means it would fit into the rest of the Microsoft
family with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.

Also it has been known for a while now that Microsoft would be dropping and phasing out the ZUNE media brand
and as a result, ZUNE would become the XBOX media family. For example ZUNE music will become XBOX Music.
XBOX services will start appearing in the Windows system more and more for gaming and media services allowing
users to share music and video subscriptions across multiple Windows devices.

We're likely not to see the next generation until 2013 and likely to be released during E3 2012.

Red Dead Redemption: Coots Chapel Tombstones

Red Dead Redemption is a great open map western game that really aspires to put in back in the time of the classic ol' west.

When playing it I noticed that some of the tombstones weren't quite what you expect. Some stones were quite comical and worth taking time to check the small things in this game.

Here some of the best ones located at Coots Chapel near Armadillo:

In Memory of Francis Moon
Brother of Herbert Moon
Died May 23, 1897
Always took joke too far

Nelly Dillard of Armadillo
Wife of Warren Dillard
1879-1908
Born an Angel, Dead a Witch

Owen MacFarlane
Died June 23, 1896
Of Chronic Diarrhoea
Aged 14 years, 3m & 6 days
Always in our thoughts

Theodore Kilbane
Of St. louis
July 12th 1891
He came in search of fortune
And is still looking

...
1872 - 1907
Brother of Lewis Pickering
Came looking for gold
But found lead

Gus MacFarlane
Died in a Bar Fight
On August 4th 1905
Aged 22
Rest in Peace

Rosie Tenerton
1856 - 1878
Gone
But not forgotten

Calvin Draper
November 7th 1886
Loving Father
Terrible Lawman

In loving memory of
Hank MacFarlane
Died of Tuberculosis
December 8th 1893
Aged 12 Years

Here lies buried
Lydia Grubb
1878 - 1909
Dearly loved wife of
Eldin Grubb
Buy this tombstone at
Grubb Undertakers, Armadillo

Gideon Knox
Died Janurary 8th 1876
Six wives proved one too many

Dwight Bundy
1851 - 1887
Brave Solider
Cowardly Lover

Hamilton Murphy
of Armardillo
Loving brother of Jeb Murphy
1867 - 1908

Here lies
Josephine Byrd
Died April 1st 1878
Gone but not forgotten

Cowboy
No Name
Died on September 16th 1897

Jackson Greenwood
Of Armadillo
Gone Fishing
June 23rd 1891

Cole MacFarlane
Died of a Gunshot to the head
July 26th 1899

Here Lies
Ethan MacFarlane
1884 - 1903
Never try to Milk a bull