In return, I introduced him to Battle for Wesnoth. Not really a fair exchange as Wesnoth is a lot less physical and quite a bit more complex than the Xbox games, but we managed to team up to beat the computer at least.
So this got me thinking, what are the best 10 games I've ever played on a Mac? Of course, the choice is limited, it being Mac. Windows machines are basically game boxes anyway so they have a lot more to choose from. But I've played a few. Here's my selection.
- Football Manager (ex-Championship Manager) (currently SI Games)
This is the one game that can keep me quiet for truly hours, as is probably true for most computer game playing football fans. It can be beautifully complex. There is no linear objective other than making a team as good as possible. The buying and selling of players and the beating of better, richer teams are the two factors that really make it fun for me. Naturally, I almost always choose Tottenham. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose (in other words I get fired by mid-season in the first year!), but it's always fun. Other times I choose a really minor team and see how high I can take them. Without a budget to spend (or a really good young player to sell off at an inflated price) this is a really tough option though. It's the only game I've seen that even ranks you on an 'addiction level'. This game breaks marriages. - Diablo II and Lord of Destruction (Blizzard)
Blizzard has to be the best game developer for the Mac -- and it also issues its games in both Mac and Windows format, a very sensible thing to do. It is one of the few developers that allows full online game play for both platforms too -- what more do you need? Diablo is another game that can be played again and again and again. I only recently took a character beyond the 'Normal' level and into the 'Nightmare' level. I don't think Blizzard really explains this properly. The Nightmare level takes you through exactly the same game story as normal, but everything is that much more difficult. Sounds boring, right? But it's not! You get much, much better items and get to build an even more powerful character. Even now I haven't gone beyond Nightmare into 'Hell' level, but it must get even better. The development of your character is the true fun of the game, of course. Once you've been through the story once, it's fairly easy to do it again. The graphics are simple, but all that's necessary. It works. It's lots of fun. It kills hours too. - Heroes of Might and Magic III (now defunct, from 3DO, also now defunct)
Although it went unnoticed by most of the world, Heroes 3 represents the biggest loss to the Mac world ever. It would possibly be my favorite game if it wasn't for the fact that it was destroyed by the developers in version 4. The original distributor (developer?) 3DO is also no more although I don't know if the two events are related. Heroes 3 was a simple interface, basic 2-D graphics (although with excellent artwork nonetheless) and irritating music. But the game play is superb. Five difficulty levels, dozens of scenarios, most of which can be used multiplayer, and strategy level that's engaging without being horrendously difficult. It was the most balanced and repeatedly playable turn-based strategy game ever. All my family loved it. Then, in the move to OS 9, for some reason this was all thrown out in favour of fancy graphics and more complex strategy. The beauty of H3 was in its simplicity. In H4, you basically just ran around a gaudy, semi-3-D graphics map in search of clues, often never finding them. It was slow. It was boring. It was complete and utter crap. We miss Heroes 3 even today. Freeverse has announced it will develop Heroes 5 for the Mac, but even this includes sparkly 3-D graphics. We don't want them. We want the old, boardgame-like feel of good old Heroes 3. - Civilization III (Firaxis
Still one of the very best strategy games. Only recently updated -- a bit of a rip off with version 4 already out for Windows. Again, graphics are taking over from game play. More multiplayer is needed. - Apeiron(Ambrosia
Great fun little shooting game from Ambrosia. Played it for years. Great to get really, really big scores. - Warcraft III(Blizzard)
I used to play version 2. The graphics in version 3 are nice, but they're a bit over powering. Keyboard control is difficult, but the campaigns are engaging and fun. I've never played this online, but playing against the computer I lose every bloody time so I'm probably not ready! - Hearts of Iron (Virtual Programming
I only just discovered this one. I'd tried something from the same game engine before and it was unstable and annoying. HOI is not well supported and crashed on me a lot at first. When it works it works well and the strategy is great -- the whole of WWII on a global scale, and you can play any one of the main countries. - Ghost Recon(Ubisoft
I've played Call of Duty and others, but this is better because you work in a team. In the end, I get killed several times before completing a mission. In real life you'd have a much better perspective of what's around you than you can have on a computer, but it's fun to try. Very gory tho'. - Return to Castle Wolfenstein id Software
Simple FPS with lots of monsters to kill. Good stuff. I suspect this may soon lose its position to Doom, but that's still too scary for me to play except when it's light!
I'll update this list as I think of more/other games that I've not played for a while.
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