#38119 - 03/09/10 02:18 PM
Steam for Mac
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+Solistus
Gutter Trash
Registered: 06/19/00
Posts: 3930
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So, for those few of you who still, you know, game on macs (based on the lack of discussion about this here, I'm guessing that's approximately nobody?), this should be great news. Valve is not only porting Steam and all its APIs to Mac, which should encourage developers to support at least digital download versions of more games native on OSX since there's now a solid, established online vendor in the market... If nothing else, it'll make existing Mac games easier to find online, AND Valve has "promoted" OSX to a "first tier gaming platform" - this apparently means they are gonna port Counter-Strike, the Half-Life series, Portal, etc. to native, OSX, OpenGL-based code... And that all future game releases, updates and online services will be released simultaneously for Mac and support full online interoperability between OSX and Windows clients.
I'd just like to say it's about fucking time that Counter-Strike, one of the most popular games of all time and probably one of the only truly popular online competitive FPSes that Macs aren't at too crippling a disadvantage running with the lackluster GPU offerings from Apple.
Random sidenote: even my dad, who doesn't game much anymore besides Wii games and the occasional Settlers of Catan or Civ4 session, is excited about Portal coming to Mac. Then again, he still works for Apple, so perhaps he's not entirely unbiased on things that are generally good news for the company and the platform 
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#38124 - 03/10/10 08:29 AM
Re: Steam for Mac
[Re: Trekkie]
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+Solistus
Gutter Trash
Registered: 06/19/00
Posts: 3930
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Yeah, forgot about the Steam Play thing - if you buy a title on either platform you get the other platform for free, and you can even exchange saved game data between the two versions across different machines. BTW, there are actual Steam APIs, not just the Source Engine - they are making Steam Cloud, for example, available to Mac developers as well.
It's true; while the Boot Camp era at least brought us an option to play DirectX-based Windows titles, it also did seem to lead to a waning of developer support for true native ports. I'm very, very glad that Valve decided to do full native ports rather than using Cider or emulation. If Apple would start putting actual effort into making OpenGL a real alternative to Direct3D in more developers' eyes, and/or improving the GPUs in their hardware offerings.
Direct2Drive is among the best options now for Mac, but it's got nothing on Steam. While the Steam Client is far from perfect, it's quite handy. Plus, the Christmas sales are *insane* - pretty recent $50-60 titles for 50+% off, omgwtfbbq.
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I've parted ways with the clan and won't be checking this forum much. AIM me.
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#38129 - 03/11/10 03:18 PM
Re: Steam for Mac
[Re: harley]
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Jaco
Rehab
Registered: 06/19/00
Posts: 10677
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The introduction of Steam is what made me stop playing CS in the first place...
Steaming garbage, if you ask me.
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#38130 - 03/12/10 12:19 AM
Re: Steam for Mac
[Re: Jaco]
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Shark
Habitual
Registered: 01/23/02
Posts: 499
Loc: Victoria B.C
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Steam was horrible when first introduced, it definitely pissed me off when trying to play cs 1.6. Steam is much improved over that early crap version.
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