The "dead" thread was getting too depressing so it's time for a reborn. Mac gaming is dead, Long live Mac gaming! Those who still want to "mourn" and offer their condolences to their once beloved gaming platform can visit the memorial. Everyone else is welcome to post game related news about Mac and released or upcoming titles. WWDC is just around corner and the games just keep coming.

(You can remove my old posts in other threads about the subject if you want. I'm going to list them here.)

- Aspyr is updating their previous games for Apple Silicon. Two games with native ARM support now are RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and SimCity 4 Deluxe.

- Gas Station Sim is now released for Mac with native support for Apple Silicon. Also Juno: New Origins is released and Disney Dreamlight Valley is out on Mac App Store only for M1. It has an empty Steam depot.

- Baldur’s Gate 3 releases on August 31, 2023 for Mac with native support for Apple Silicon. Baldur’s Gate 3 will also support cross-save progression between PC, Mac and PS5, allowing you to transfer your saves between platforms and continue your adventure wherever you purchase the game.

- The Forgotten City, the Skyrim mod turned to a standalone game, is out on Mac App Store.

- Patch 2.4 is out now for Total War: WARHAMMER III on macOS! With this update, the immense Immortal Empires campaign is out of Beta and available to all owners of WARHAMMER III.

- Black Desert Mobile now works on Macs with Apple Silicon. "Free" to play but be aware it's not for everyone with its expensive in-game purchases. Read the Steam reviews.

- Uncrashed: FPV Drone Simulator got a "major update" and now works on all AS Macs and some Intel Macs.

- Valve seems to be working on Counter-Stirke 2 for Mac.

- Firmament by Cyan was released on Mac and PC on Steam May 18.

- EA has updated The Sims 4 for Apple Silicon and Cliff Empire is now released for Apple Silicon on MAS.

- MotorCubs RC, another Kickstarter project with apparently native Apple Silicon support, using Metal 3 and requiring Ventura. They recommend M1 Pro 14c.

- Easy Red 2 and DLC Stalingrad is now available for Mac with very positive reviews

- Snowrunner is coming to Mac this year. "SnowRunner, the blockbuster open-world off-roading game from Saber Interactive, is revving up to reach new heights with the game’s debut on the Mac App Store, Mac via Steam, and the Epic Games Store later this year. It features MetalFX Upscaling for accelerated performance and high-quality visuals, along with full crossplay with consoles and PC plus controller support. Players can jump into the driver’s seat of some of the world’s powerful vehicles and prepare to conquer extreme environments with the most advanced terrain simulation experience. SnowRunner is coming to the Apple silicon Mac lineup, and will be available for $29.99 on the Mac App Store, Mac via Steam, and the Epic Games Store. All previously released DLC, as well as the Premium Edition and Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3 Passes, will be available for purchase separately."

- Fort Solis is coming to Mac soon. It seems to be more than just another shooter. It will focus more on the storytelling and narrative and is described as "Moon meets Dead Space". They also want to increase the immersion by having one continuous shot with no breaks or edits throughout the entire game, like in God of War. The game will also be fully open for the player to explore and the focus will be on exploration and solving problems rather than shooting and killing monsters. They want the player to feel like an engineer, not a super soldier. The game looks to be everything the pessimists say new Mac games and Mac gaming won't/can't be. It looks AAA, it will be native for AS, it's a UE5 game, it will have day-and-date release on Mac, it's from a new dev (Fallen Leaf) releasing their first Mac game along with other platforms and it doesn't appear to be financed by Apple (otherwise they would have announced it themselves). So much for Mac gaming is dead and devs not wanting to release quality AAA games for Mac unless they're paid by Apple.

- Another UE 5 game is coming June 15, actually the first UE 5 game on Mac. Layers of Fear, native for Apple Silicon will be released on MAS. "The game takes full advantage of the Metal framework". Appears to be Apple Silicon only and contains two games and all DLCs and a new chapter. "The collection includes full remakes of the original Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2, including DLC for both titles and an original chapter made just for this release. These remakes aren’t simple upscales, as each title was recreated in Unreal Engine 5 and include all manner of modern graphical touches, though it’s still unknown if the Mac version will handle advanced techniques like ray-tracing. Developer Bloober Team has stated that it made full use of Apple’s proprietary Metal 3 upscaling tech." “Apple silicon has transformed gaming on Mac — delivering incredible graphics performance, new capabilities, along with extraordinary battery life,” said Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno."

- Dragonheir: Silent Gods, a new open-world high-fantasy strategy RPG is coming to Mac. "It was also announced that on Apple silicon Mac lineup, Dragonheir: Silent Gods is native and takes full advantage of Metal resulting in smooth and responsive gameplay with high frame rates and stunning visuals. Leveraging technology, such as Metal FX Upscaling, Variable Refresh Rate, and Spatial Audio, players will experience enhanced graphics and a more immersive audio experience."

- Total War: Pharaoh is coming to Mac after the PC release in Oct.

- ELEX II comes to MAS next month. Very interesting press release! Sounds promising when some developers use Metal and its features to its fullest instead of complaining that no one uses Metal. So there you go, it only took about 8 months to port a DX12 open world game to Mac with all the bells and whistles and they worked together with Apple engineers, meaning if you approach Apple like this or like 4A and Larian Apple is happy to help you. So much for Apple not caring about gaming and making it difficult for devs. "Piranha Bytes always strives to deliver more complex and enhanced games, and bringing ELEX II to Mac was no exception. ELEX II takes advantage of the Metal shading language to tap into Apple silicon performance. With Metal's Indirect Command Buffer (ICB) approach on Mac, the game also fully embraces GPU driven pipelines. In a little over eight months, a team specializing in GPU and Metal ported the DX12 version of ELEX II to Mac. ELEX II worked closely with Metal engineers to take full advantage of the many powerful features and tools to deliver a truly wonderful game."

- No Man's Sky is released on Mac.

- More and more games are announced before WWDC on Monday. Stray is coming to Mac.

- Codeweavers announced DX12 support in Crossover 23, making it possible to play DX12 Windows games on Mac.

- Isonzo Mac Steam depot has been updated with 18 GB. They also updated their roadmap stating Mac support is coming this summer.

Announced a few minutes ago at Playstation Showcase 2023: https://www.marathonthegame.com/

Not directly related to the old Marathon games though, it's a purely PvP game.

Bloober Team announced a while back that 'The Medium' will come to the Mac App Store in Summer 2023.

They just also announced that their 'Layers of Fear' Reimagination, which is a remake of Layers of Fear 1 and 2 will come to the Mac App Store on June 15.

This will be one of the first Mac games using Unreal Engine 5.

Fantastic news! It seems to be more than just another shooter. It will focus more on the storytelling and narrative and is described as "Moon meets Dead Space". They also want to increase the immersion by having one continuous shot with no breaks or edits throughout the entire game, like in God of War. The game will also be fully open for the player to explore and the focus will be on exploration and solving problems rather than shooting and killing monsters. They want the player to feel like an engineer, not a super soldier.

The game looks to be everything the pessimists say new Mac games and Mac gaming won't/can't be. It looks AAA, it will be native for AS, it's a UE5 game, it will have day-and-date release on Mac, it's from a new dev (Fallen Leaf) releasing their first Mac game along with other platforms and it doesn't appear to be financed by Apple (otherwise they would have announced it themselves). So much for Mac gaming is dead and devs not wanting to release quality AAA games for Mac unless they're paid by Apple.

Here is the discussion thread on Steam if you want to write to the devs.

"As a story-focused game, Fort Solis is inspired by the biggest studios working in interactive fiction. “We look a lot at the brilliant narrative games that came before us, [they] are certainly an inspiration,” Tinsdale says, name checking developer Quantic Dream and Supermassive Games. “We wanted to look at narrative techniques that were used in those games really successfully, but also add elements of gameplay."

"When we initially discussed the project, we wanted to create something in the vein of Duncan Jones' Moon. And by that, I mean the psychological aspect, the aspect where characters, motivations, or their perception of reality itself is challenged,” he says. “So, we combined that with the isolated, industrial style of Dead Space."

"Crafting something that really tapped into that sense of isolation had Fallen Leaf initially look at making a first-person game (Tinsdale notes how effective the view point was in Resident Evil 7.) But the final decision to go for a third-person perspective for Fort Solis was driven by the team’s wish for the game to be played in one continuous shot, similar to films like 1917 and Birdman."

"We've seen it in God of War, I think more games have done it in the past,” Tinsdale says. “We wanted to keep one cut, no edits throughout the entire game, so the immersion levels would be super immersive throughout the whole experience. For that reason we felt third-person is a far better catalyst for that."

"Fallen Leaf believed it was important for players to explore the station properly, and so rather than playing out in movie-style scenes that dictate where you character moves to like so many other narrative games do, you’ll be able to freely explore Fort Solis as you wish."

"Fort Solis is fully open, the whole location, from the minute you arrive,” Tinsdale explains. Of course, some locations will require a bit of work to get into once you’ve found them. “You will have to solve certain environment puzzles, or gain access to certain buildings through certain actions or, or progressive states in different locations."

https://nordic.ign.com/fort-solis/60607/feature/fort-solis-explained-gameplay-story-characters-and-world

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1931730/Fort_Solis/

https://youtu.be/WHB8NYBWTfQ

Latest Steam update has this warning:

Quote:On September 1 2023, Steam will officially stop supporting macOS versions 10.11 ("El Capitan") and 10.12 ("Sierra"). After that date, the Steam Client will no longer run on those versions of macOS. In order to continue running Steam and any games or other products purchased through Steam, users will need to update to a more recent version of macOS.

Hello,

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Drive in a whole city and arrest the bad drivers who have committed an offense.

Complete tons of unique missions to become the best policeman in the city and get the highest ranked badge!

Screens :





URL : https://apps.apple.com/app/id6446493029

If you can rate 5 star it will help me a lot !

Besides, all ideas or suggestions are welcome ^^

Have a nice day,

Michael

I see the Steam version got a (2014?) update that requires macOS 10.9 or newer. Before I buy... Anyone tried it lately?

Does it run on Ventura? And on Apple Silicon (via Rosetta)? Can you host a server for others to join?

TIA!

(I was also watching Descent: Underground—now titled Ships That Fight Underground. But Mac support seems to no longer be listed.)

Well this was an unpleasant surprise. While checking my latest purchase Türkiye-Syria Earthquake Relief Bundle I discovered that my Mass Effect LE key had expired. The expiration date was March 1st, 2023. I tried to redeem the key with no luck.

The key was part of the Humble Choice Bundle purchased March 25, 2022. Before that on March 10 I got an email about unredeemed EA keys expiring March 18, 2022 which made me redeem Dead Space and Dragon Age in time but they also wrote this didn’t apply to Humble bundles or Choice. My Mass Effect key was included in Humble Choice and purchased AFTER March 18. I got no other email about any expiration date after that either or else I would have redeemed the game in time like the other ones.

I have contacted their support but wonder if this has happened to anybody here and if you got help. When I buy their bundles I always check if there are any expiration dates on the keys and redeem them immediately to not forget later. Mass Effect had no such expiration date then but all of a sudden it got one without a warning. Mass Effect was the reason I bought the Humble Choice and I don’t want to pay three times more just to get that one game again.

Vlobs is a relaxing casual puzzle game where you build groups of colorful blobs (vlobs) that connect to each other in specific ways. Figure out the mechanics and see how far you can go before you fill up the board. Get far enough and you'll encounter new mechanics, mysterious powers and maybe even unlock a second game mode.

You can find out more at https://lostminds.com/vlobs/and download the macOS play test build for free.



For those of you who've been around for a while the game is actually a sort of reincarnation of the old game Blobs I made many years ago. So if you remember playing that many years ago I hope you'll like this new game as well.