Apparently Mac gaming has begun to rise out of the dark scary hole from which it once called its home. But in an announcement this week the direct competitor to windows has struck back.
In an announcement Value software has stated that they will be finally releasing the STEAM service to the Mac operating system OS X. The announcement is more confirmation that computer gaming will still have life. The original plan was to release games on three major platforms at a time including PC, Xbox 360 and now the MAC. The first scheduled new game to be released for the service available for the MAC is Portal 2 the sequel to the award winning puzzle action game released in 2007.
The bonus to gamers is that the full back catalog of games will be available to Mac users. This also means that you will be able to enjoy such horrible titles as Restaurant Empire II and Grey’s Anatomy: The Videogame that puts a big smudge on the service catalog quality. But you will be able to get such greats as Half Life 2 and Call of Duty 4. One thing about the PC service is that you can buy games separately or save tons of money by buying games in a pack so do some homework before you confirm your purchase. And you even think of buying the Nancy Drew games well you are asking to be hit by a turd monkey.
Also on the list of features is the ability to play other users on different platforms. This is a feature that many gamers have been asking for and is often dealt with some careful planning; we will see how this feature pans out.
No word on any bonuses for using Steam on your MAC as of this moment. STEAM is a free service which allows gamers to purchase games or play games bought in stores through its service a complete list of games on the Steam service can be found at steam.com. As a user of Steam for many years I would like to see a free game or two for the MAC user such as the original Half Life. This is maybe asking too much but I think it really could get the community going by allowing them to try the service out with a real game instead of demos.
The great thing about STEAM is that you never have to worry about finding your discs to games that you might not have played in years. There are some things that need to be addressed such as not being able to access your downloaded games unless you’re connected to the internet and the bundling of games that if you’re not careful could cost you a lot of money if you’re “collecting” games on the service.
Begun these gaming wars have.
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I’m really curious to see how the mac version of these steam games compare to their PC counterpart. I wish they’d grant you free licenses to the mac version of PC games you already own A) I want to see how they compare without double paying, and B) because my mac is a whole lot faster than my PC.
Hopefully this whole thing gives PC gaming a kick in the pants though. I’m tired of people heralding every year as the year PC gaming died.