Guild Wars on a Mac?

I think my computer is dying, and after a brief foray into the world of PCs I want to return to mac.

Anyone had any luck playing Guild Wars on a Mac? What about other games? I know Macs can run windows, but I'm not sure if that's enough to make them compatible.

Thanks for any answers.

Look for a program called "Crossover". It's a 10 day free trial for a program that allows you to run PC software on your Mac. I've used it myself on my Macbook and it worked fine, but just wasn't as pretty as what I'm used to on my PC.

But it did work and stuff. After the 10 days you'd need to buy it, but it's long enough a trial for you to figure out if you like it or not / if it's what you need.

Get a Custom build PC for gaming (unless you have other purposes as well)


I dont know Macs very well at all but i wouldent expect macs to run games well

It runs very well on my MacBook Pro, thank you.
I just start up Windows instead of OS X when I feel like playing. Runs way better than it did on my ex's PC. Ugh, the lag and bad graphics *shudders*

Intel chip = runs Windows *natively*. Windows running natively = no emulation = Guild Wars runs fine, as does any other software you want to run on Windows, since you are running Windows as any other computer runs Windows.

It's native if it boots Windows - if it loads Windows on top of the MacOS, then it's emulation.

hi
i am a mac user in work and use a PC at home. My bro bought an Intel iMac and i tested installing Windows via bootcamp. Windows works better on macs :-P ....... true.

After doin so, u get a multi-boot-system and pressing the alt-key at start up lets u choose wich OS u want to run.
What is really nice on that, is the fact that both, MacOSX and Windows run natively on your machine.
I tested BF2, CoD4 and Guild Wars on that mac. Runs like butter in the sun.

Its not longer an emulation of Windows, it runs the same way it does on a PC.
I know u can install both, WinXP Pro or Win Vista. But better read about that on the apple hompage.

if you install Windows via bootcamp, you will be amazed how fine it works. bootcamp asks u if u want to get all the driver infomation of your system burned on a CD. After burning that CD, install Windows. If u r finished with it, insert the driver-CD and it installs all drivers, so u can use all hardware even when running Windows. Like iSight-cam and build in mics and stuff like that.
You are fully guided by bootcamp and it is very, very, very simple. Like u sure know it from Mac OS.

sry for the errors, i am in a hurry and english is not my primary language.

cya

I've moved this to tech because it seemed more like a question for that.

This is brilliant - thanks a bunch (and everyone else who answered).

What are those other games that you mentioned? I don't recognize the acronyms.

Battlefield 2 (Older) and Call of Duty 4 (Newer).

Yup, Bootcamp makes the Mac hardware boot Windows so, to all intents and purposes, it is a PC. So it's native

Since now there is no difference between a PC and a MAC but the OS. You could just simply run a linux like ubuntu and thats it. MAC is just... Hmm... Whatever...

Btw, crossover works just fine, some textures missing and stuff, my girlfriend uses it sometimes she complains about missing armor parts and stuffs but apart from that, its fine.

Whats the point about buying a mac if you are running windows on it anyways?
I heard Guild Wars runs fine on Crossover and Cider, like mentioned above, trials are free, so use them :P You could allso consider using VMware Fusion (virtualising windows in osx) for gaming purpose, it works better than crossover and cider becouse you have complete access to all windows features which the games run on, instead of just having the application programming interface rewritten.

The point is, that the MacOSX is a perfect OS.We can do all the things we want to do on our Mac.
But because MAC OS is not supported by game developers so much, we need a windows to play the games we like. What then is easyer then pressing the Alt-key at startup and choose the operating system u like? Start Windows -> play game. start Mac OSX -> do all the rest.

ahmm, there is a big difference in using an emulated Windows to a nativ running one. Exept for that, that u need an original Windows. Why should i buy a Windows and then use it emulated if i can have it running natively on my mac?
while installing emulater software and configuing it, takes longer then installing Windows with bootcamp, there is deffinitly no reason to do so.

why a mac?
funny vids :-P

I'll second that - what a Mac does, it does brilliantly.

What a Mac doesn't do is play most games - not because it can't, but because it isn't worth the publishers time and money to port PC games to MacOS.

Mac vs Pc is a null argument in my opinion. Takes me back to the days of Spectrum vs C64 and AtariST vs Amiga.

MAC Powerbooks (Intel based obviously) ironically run Vista the best... how funny.


MAC OSX is gorgeous, and worlds better than anything MSFT has ever come up with. Maybe Windows7 they will get a clue.

Yep.

A bit of a late answer here but if you're going to install window, please do make sure that:

A. Win XP need to have SP2 integrated, you can't install XP with SP1 and install Sp2 or 3 later. It won't work. Vista is fine, you can install sp1 after the installation is finish.
B. Both version of windows must be 32 bit, 64 bit won't work.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


Did you say perfect OS? You must not be a tech... *sigh*

Im currently running Guild Wars on my Macbook standard and it runs well, usualy but i experience alot of lag at times, need more than 1G of ram i guess... although it ran WoW seamlessly.(beat my addiction! yay) I also run Windows XP on my Mac and the Mac runs games better from what ive seen (warcraft, EQ2, Halo, Guild Wars)... Im in no way a expert with Mac or Windows but i do seem to figure out what i need to. dont normally run gigh graphic oriented games since i have only 1G ram but i do play alot of MMO and they run great... excpet guild wars for some reason so any tips would be great

So, if you primarily run games on your machine and only do a few things like Facebook, email, etc., you may as well get a PC since the PC will cost you about half what a Mac does for the same hardware and you'd end up running Windows most of the time anyway.

Basically, the only advantage that a Mac has over a PC is OSX - the hardware is basically the same now. Keep in mind that those Vista versus Mac commercials you see, are really Vista vs OSX.

Of, course, OSX may be the only advantage they need.

Too bad they don't make OSX for PCs - but Apple is making too much money atm to need to do that

<--- Plays GW on Mac via Bootcamp (Vista). Runs well. Get XP instead, though. If you get Vista, you'll need to also get a beefier graphics card (that goes with all gaming on Vista compared to XP).
I think 64 bit versions of Windows work now, although I wouldn't recommend it. Side note: OS X conveniently runs 32 and 64 bit apps side by side on the single version of the OS, which I like.

This might not be following the whole conversation but, If you've got a lot of money to spend on a nice looking computer that runs OS X and Windows then a Mac might be the best choice. Only issue I have with macs is that they're so freaking tiny. How are you supposed to do anything with that? It seems like if you opened it and were breathing too hard you'd break something. Other then that, fine computer. Also, why hasn't anyone mentioned Wine? It's free and I'm almost positive it works in OS X since OS X and Linux are both Unix based.
Edit: Not a Mac hater, I just don't have the sort of money to spend on a computer that I'd have to send in to get fixed. Excellent computers however.

I think it's because the performance of GW under Wine will indeed make you whine.

Yeah bootcamp now support 64bit XP or Vista, my last post was from when? June? Wine is not bad actually if you can be arse to set it up. I rather spend, oh i dunno 5 second of my life to boot into window from OS.

And nvidia card is better as well, performance wise.

Ever seen Mac pro? It's basically a pc.

Yes, you are.

Still, $1,200-$2,000 + the cost of fixing it. In my opinion, if your intent is just to have a good computer that your not going to mess with, then a mac is perfect (With intel processors of course) They pretty much match the price of a PC with the same specifications. The thing about PCs is that I can get a really cheap PC and pick and choose what specifications I want to spend more money on (Crappier looking case, more ram, better GFX card, smalled hard drive, etc.)

Well, no, they pretty much cost 50-100% more than an equivalent PC. Check these out:

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...gon=&langid=EN

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro... 108129&catid=

These are the result of just a quick search - note that the Dell has more RAM, bigger hard drive, better video, and the monitor would add $200

Or add the monitor to this one to total $1299:

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro... 107750&catid=

Please note though, that I'm not necessarily knocking Apple - A BMW cost more than a Toyota too - but if you want the style and OS of a Mac, do be aware that you will have to pay a premium for it.

P.s - same goes for laptops.

Well, thats right, I was reading a comparison. http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10442_7-6511774-9.html
Apples are generally more expensive then PCs.
However, the ability to boot windows and OS X and the software.
I see it more like two BMW's same style except one has leather seats, a DVD player, GPS, etc.

And if you shop around you can get good deals on just about anything.
Edit: Which means I sort of contradicted myself, but generally Macs have some pretty insane software pre-installed plus you're not going to be as susceptible to viruses and other similar things.

I've had both a mac as well as a PC, and though mac's are rather exemplary when it coems to them running appropriately thats about as far as it goes, when they are running correctly they are great, they are superior in the hardware aspect, it's their OS that's the downfall, no other OS is as easy to shut down as a macs, hell, it even shuts down on it's own hen you don't want it to. Ever seen a mac fail at failing? where it says that it cannot complete operation "shutdown" even though you didn't ask it to shutdown anyhow?

A great computer when it's running right, yes, bootcamp, runs vista better than a PC, we know all of this, but too frequently take a nose dive duje to hardware or software problems, and yes I know, PC's do this just as frequently, but the difference is this: when my First ever dell failed due to hardware problems that had nothing to do with me, hardware that they themselves installed, they sent a FREE box with FREE sipping postage to get my PC fixed for FREE.

Whereas my last ever Mac, one of those ugly teal-blue monstrosities, when it died a mere two months after purchase due to a hardware failure mac sent me a box with COSTY postage, which they didn't cover, sixty dollars, and once it arrived to the company and the did a diagnostic on it their basic response was even though it was a malfunction of hardware they installed, i can sit on it and rotate or fork out 200 bucks for them to fix it.

hmm, free repairs? or expensive computer and the company doesn't give a fat flying fugg about you?

like i said, macs ARE superior when they are running right. it's when they're not, which happens more often than not, that gives them a bad name, and it doesn't help that their crappy customer support team gets in the middle of it and complicates and pisses off the customer even more.

macs could be easily justified if they stuck to the basic standard of "you get what you pay for"

but the problem with that being that they have terrible customer service.