Expect updates to this blog to slow right down due to chronic gaming habit. Yes, it is that time of year again when all the prettiest video games hit the scene in a retail fight to the death. How can I resist installing them on my MacBook Pro’s Windows 7 gaming partition? My November dollars are spent:
- Borderlands – Medium/High at 1440*900 runs pretty good (I would estimate ~30 fps with dips below 24). Even with its action focus the game is slow-paced and the low frame rate does not hinder enjoyment. This is mindless fun.
- Dragon Age – this masterpiece runs nicely at Medium 1440*900. In my opinion it still looks incredible, and again the slower pace of the game means that an approximate frame rate of 20-25 does not detract from my enjoyment. I don’t have the words to describe how awesome this game is. Buy it.
- Left 4 Dead 2 – preloaded last night. It’s predecessor was no problem for the 9600m GT in my MacBook Pro. Lots of fun – the zombie apocalypse in 1 hour increments.
- Mass Effect – I bought both versions but preferred the PC edition. It runs fine at 1440*900 medium particle and ultra textures. My only gripe was EA’s activation DRM – particularly since EA has stopped replying to my emails for activation increases on my original copy. So I bought it again on steam for $10 (I had half a mind to just download the crack – but the game has delivered so much value I don’t mind paying a bit more for it). I have to play it through a couple more times to have good save games ready for the sequel coming this January. I have a about a dozen save games backed up in various places but I can’t remember any of the decisions I made in those saves.
I really should do proper FRAPS tests, but I have been at this long enough to be able to ball park things quite accurately.
Games I won’t be playing:
- Modern Warfare 2 – The Moscow Airport massacre is disturbing and could have been handled better – its as offensive as the Columbine Massacre video game from a few years back. Also, it’s not a good enough game to look past how Infinity Ward and Activision have treated the PC fans who built the franchise up. I’ll pass.
- Torchlight – I’ll wait for the Mac version. It looks yummy.
- Assassin’s Creed 2 – no PC version at launch so Ubisoft is forcing me to wait. Mass Effect 2 launches in the same window and will dominate my 2010 gaming time so there won’t be time to play AC2.
For a crappy gaming platform, I sure do play a lot of games on my Mac. But I could not do it without Windows 7!
