Updated Thread: Steam for Mac is Live, and Portal is Free for Mac and PC! - Page 2 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

FanIn80 · 04-30-2010, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

No, it's because you said yourself (without sarcasm) that Apple users generally don't care about gaming.

Then you make a thread about gaming on Macs.

I didn't say we don't care about gaming. Almost every Mac user I know of on this board plays games.

I said we don't care about gaming on our Macs (insinuated by my mentioning we play games on consoles). You think there might be chance that we become more interested in gaming on our Macs, if more games are developed for the Mac?

Do we have permission to continue discussing the topic now?

SebC · 04-30-2010, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FanIn80

I didn't say we don't care about gaming. Almost every Mac user I know of on this board plays games.

I said we don't care about gaming on our Macs (insinuated by my mentioning we play games on consoles). You think there might be chance that we become more interested in gaming on our Macs, if more games are developed for the Mac?

Do we have permission to continue discussing the topic now?

We are discussing the topic!

Pretty sure when Hack&Lube said gaming that he meant computer gaming. You're smart enough to figure that out, which tells me that you're now discussing what should have been a meaningless omitted and implied word.

FanIn80 · 04-30-2010, 08:17 PM

Oh well I'm not even sure what we're talking about now.

For whatever it's worth, I didn't mean anything antagonistic by my earlier comment. I was just being sarcastic about the "PC fans saying there are no Mac games" thing.

The Ditch · 05-01-2010, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I'd rather the PS3 and Xbox just die because I hate gaming on a console.

I'm the complete opposite, I pretty much only play video games on my PS3. I have no problems with any controller, and ever since I got the street fighter tournament edition stick fighting games have been amazing.

Hack&Lube · 05-01-2010, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Ditch

I'm the complete opposite, I pretty much only play video games on my PS3. I have no problems with any controller, and ever since I got the street fighter tournament edition stick fighting games have been amazing.

I have problems with gamepads with analog sticks. Joysticks are fine. I have a high quality Japanese arcade quality stick for my PC. Perfect for playing vintage arcade game roms and also Street Fighter IV for PC.

RyZ · 05-02-2010, 12:31 PM

Good for Mac users, but is it going to launch with more than 6 games on the service? Outside of Blizzard and Valve, how many "real" games have been released on the Mac in the past 18 months or so? At least a few friends of mine will be happy.

MickMcGeough · 05-03-2010, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RyZ

Good for Mac users, but is it going to launch with more than 6 games on the service? Outside of Blizzard and Valve, how many "real" games have been released on the Mac in the past 18 months or so? At least a few friends of mine will be happy.

http://dragonage.bioware.com/game/order-mac/

Mac gaming sucks because Apple releases awful gaming configurations in all their machines outside of the Mac Pro. It's either a low-power GPU in the MBP or a decent GPU on a massive iMac screen that you can't run much on at native resolution.

Wish they'd offer optional upgrades. I'd gladly sacrifice an hour or two of battery life in a MBP for a more powerful GPU. I'm sure it's not that simple...

llama64 · 05-04-2010, 12:23 PM

Wouldn't be surprised to see Apple launch a "gamer" oriented product line - but it hasn't been their target market since I can remember. The only gamers they aim for are the ones who play Farmville.

But, in the past few years the OS X platform has made massive gains in the personal computing market - which might make the gamer segment more appealing to Apple.

They also suffer from not having a competing platform to DirectX. When a developer can make a game for both the XBox360 and PC with very little porting costs, it makes developing for other platforms less attractive.

Hack&Lube · 05-04-2010, 05:30 PM

Maybe Mac users won't be able to enjoy the newest games but what about all the old games that Steam has? My favorite part of steam is old and legacy games actually. Can they run on a Mac through some emulation software? Companies could certainly provide ports.

FanIn80 · 05-04-2010, 05:51 PM

Bolded the parts that answer some of the questions in this thread...

Quote:

Valve to Deliver Steam & Source on the Mac
Leading Gaming Service Expands to Mac Platform

March 8, 2010 - Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve's gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac.

Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

"As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."

"We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows."

Portal 2 will be Valve's first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. "Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac."

Support for the Mac in Source and Steamworks is available to third parties immediately. Interested developers should contact Jason Holtman at jasonh@valvesoftware.com.

http://www.valvesoftware.com/news/?id=3568

FanIn80 · 05-10-2010, 12:02 AM

Russic · 05-12-2010, 01:59 PM

Holy. Sh*t.

Steam is live for Mac and Portal is free.

Go now!

FanIn80 · 05-12-2010, 02:04 PM

Update: Steam for Mac is now live!

They are releasing a new batch of games every Wednesday. Check out the storefront here: http://store.steampowered.com/browse/mac

PS: As a promotion, they're giving away Portal for free on both Mac and PC until May 24th!

Edit: Also, online gameplay is now universal between Mac and PC users for games with this logo:

FanIn80 · 05-12-2010, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russic

Holy. Sh*t.

Steam is live for Mac and Portal is free.

Go now!

Damn, you beat me!

Russic · 05-12-2010, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Damn, you beat me!

Looks like it pays to have twitter constantly open and a very monotonous job. Well ... I guess it doesn't necessarily pay. I'm rich in CP points I suppose.

sclitheroe · 05-12-2010, 03:07 PM

NOW my 128gb SSD feels small ... although I must confess X-Plane is chewing up 25 gigs of it all by its lonesome

Yeah_Baby · 05-12-2010, 07:52 PM

The servers are getting hammered.

What is everyone's username? I need friends!

Flaming Choy · 05-12-2010, 08:21 PM

Awesome, steam for Mac + Portal!! Thanks for the heads up, guys.

Russic · 05-12-2010, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

The servers are getting hammered.

What is everyone's username? I need friends!

RedMile12

How the hell was 'russic' taken?

kyuusei · 05-12-2010, 10:41 PM

I was so excited for this, and I've wanted to play Portal forever.

But it's Intel-only. I have a PPC.

DAMN IT.