By. 9:00 am, August 20, 2012. PC games: they can be the bane of a Mac gamer’s existence. The Mac may be a better computer than a windows box, but even so, most games don’t support OS X. Even on Steam, the leader in cross-platform computer game support, most games run only on Windows. The reasons for this are manifold, including mid-level integrated graphics chips and less customizable hardware, but it shouldn’t be this disparate.
Advertisement There are a few options for running those PC games on Macs, of course. There’s Boot Camp, which allows you to run a full copy of Windows right on your Intel-based Mac, but it requires a reboot to switch between OS X and Windows environments, which can be tedious. There are emulators you can buy, like Parallels and VMWare Fusion, but these never quite pan out, in my experience, as they always seem to be fraught with issues when connecting peripherals, mice, etc. They also cost a bit, and require a full copy of Windows, which will run you some money, too. I just want a way to play a game that is created for the Windows operating system on my Mac, without a reboot, without buying a new program or new copy of an operating system I really don’t want to use. Luckily, there’s a way to do just that. What Is Wine?
Seriously, that’s the self-referencing recursive acronym for Wine. So clever, those open source folks. Wine actually runs as more of a translator between the instructions in the PC program and the Mac operating system. It basically fools Windows into thinking they are running in a Windows environment, without actually emulating that environment (and taking the same performance hit) like Parallels does.
Wine has the benefit of a large, open-source community for support as well, which means it will continue to get better and improve compatibility for a lot of games along the way. Speaking of compatibility, not all PC games are going to work with Wine. To find out if the game you want to try to install on your Mac via Wine will work, head over to the, where they have an entire database full of the games and applications that will work with Wine. They even have levels of how well these work with Wine, including Platinum, Gold, and Silver levels of compatibility. I chose Guild Wars: it’s a game that has gone free to play lately, is Windows-only for now, and it is listed in the Platinum compatibility list on the Wine HQ site. All the examples from here on out will be from my own experience installing Wine to play Guild Wars on my Mac Mini 2011.
Once you and pick a game, you’ll be ready to make sure you have what you need to run Wine. What You’ll Need First up, you’re gonna need an Intel Mac.
If you’re still running a Power-PC Mac, a) it’s time to upgrade and b) this isn’t going to work. To find out what kind of Mac you have, click on the Apple menu in the upper left corner of your screen, choose About This Mac, and it will tell you. Honestly, though, if you don’t know what kind of Mac you’re running, you might have a bit of trouble with the following instructions, which assume you have access to your admin account and password, can install XCode, and have the latest Java Development package (it comes as default with Mac OS X 10.7 and up).
You’ll also need the X11 app, which used to be a standard install app starting in OS X 10.5, but which has recently been removed from OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. If you’re running 10.8, head over to the to download an open source version of X11 for Mountain Lion. Install it as you would any other package file. You’ll also need to be comfortable using the command line via the Terminal app, an internet connection, and a couple of hours to work through all the steps involved. It’s not rocket science, but there is a certain level of patience that will be needed.
Next Page: Getting Your Game Running!
Macs have never had the best reputation for gaming. Whether because Apple preferred to market them as creative computing powerhouses or because their alumnium shells could cook eggs after a heavy graphics session, the lowly Mac spent much of its youth in the gaming outhouse, suffering with years-behind releases and sub-par ports. Mercifully for Mac owners, things have changed. Sure, the mega-releases still hit mainstream platforms some way before Apple's (if ever), but there is a growing and substantial crop of computing capers that you can beam to your Mac through the App Store and Steam - which can more than hold a candle to PC alternatives. Few are unique to Mac, but a number are redesigned, remastered and retuned for the MacOS interface, with slicker moves and better integration - so there's absolutely no excuse not to spend your weekend putting all of our recommendations to the test.
We review and benchmark some of the best Mac games! The most popular game ever released, Fortnite is an original battle royale shooter that handles great.
Here are 25 of the best games you can grab right now for your Mac. Additional words by Chris Rowlands.
Yes, the original is the one that everybody raves about, and even a decade after release, it's still absolutely brilliant and well worth circling back on. But the sequel is even larger, even nuttier, and arguably just as compelling of an experience even if it wasn't quite as impactful overall. Portal 2 keeps the first-person puzzle-solving approach of Valve's iconic original, but there's more than just teleportation at play here: you'll also fuss with lasers, light bridges, and slippery goo to make your way through these challenging lab stages. And in addition to the hilarious solo campaign, there's also a separate co-op campaign that demands a buddy. Find one for it. You can play Fortnite: Battle Royale from pretty much anywhere: from your console, smartphone, tablet and yes, even your Mac. And sure, the Mac crowd probably provides the smallest percentage of that tally, but that doesn't matter.
Everyone's connected together. They're also all shooting at each other, as Fortnite's massively popular approach drops 100 players into a battle to the death within an ever-tightening area. Luckily, it's all fun and games: Fortnite's colourful aesthetic and compelling quick-building mechanics give Epic's smash a unique feel and flow – one that's being enjoyed by millions upon millions of people daily. Is the world's most popular MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game, while Valve's is the most hardcore of the bunch – but Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm is the friendliest of that top trio, plus it stars loads of familiar characters from classic game.
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Like those other MOBAs, Heroes of the Storm is a five-on-five battle for map domination, as you team up to bash down the enemy's turrets before taking down their base. Unless they do it to you first.
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It's loaded with StarCraft, Diablo, Warcraft, and Overwatch characters and is a lot more streamlined than the others, making it the perfect first genre entry. And besides, all these MOBAs are free-to-play, so there's no harm in giving them all a shot. After creating FTL: Faster Than Light, one of the most brilliant strategic time sinks of the last several years, Subset Games is back with Into the Breach – and it's equally worth obsessing over. Into the Breach is a turn-based tactics game that's akin to a Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre, albeit with futuristic mech suits instead of wizards and warriors. And there are twists: the aliens you're battling telegraph their moves in advance, which means your success is all about planning and executing the perfect response. If you blow it, then your mech pilots must travel back in time and start over again.
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How's that for motivation?