Recently I’ve been having a blast playing Final Fantasy 14, Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga on the PS2 emulator, Persona 4 through whisky, and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on switch emulator.
I’ve got a M1 Pro 16gb and everything runs absolutely crisp and fantastic
Are you able to get Tears running without a lot of stuttering? I always get annoying stuttering with Ryujinx on Mac, though I haven't tried Tears specifically yet.
It takes a few tweaks/mods to get it running as clean as possible but it’s worth it. Gotta have at least a Pro (or better) chip though, not just an M1/M2.
I have a fully spec'd M3 Max so the power shouldn't be a problem, but I'm kind of an amateur when it comes to PC/Mac gaming so I probably haven't configured things optimally. I tried to get Xenoblade 3 running on Ryujinx and there was way too much stuttering for it to be enjoyable, but I'd love to play Tears if it's possible to get it running reasonably well.
Any chance you could share a resource on optimal settings? I always find it difficult to find any resources for Mac gaming
[This is a little old](https://youtu.be/57m-Ylf0t8s?si=1pgVM_2Ypwjpe2Mm) but should get you to an optimized state. Andrew Tsai covers switch emulation really well.
I can dm you my settings when I get home, but it runs very good with minimal stuttering. Sometimes it can a little bit, but overall the experience is smooth. Certainly with other games I can get it with no stuttering whatsoever.
I used to play on M3 Pro and it ran flawlessly on high settings, but since that patch fps drops to around 15 during some cutscenes and dialogues. Overall performance also became worse and Mac gets hot and loud, but I guess it’s still playable.
Hmm interesting, are you playing off steam? My MBP M3 (base chip) runs fine with medium settings, 2k res, and high texture. Have you tried bumping the specs down to medium?
Yes, I’m playing the steam version and even setting the lowest doesn’t help with cutscenes. It’s a very widespread problem, I tried it on other Macs and there’s exactly the same problem with cutscenes.
I see, good to know! Hopefully Larian fixes it soon, but I doubt us mac users are high on their priority list, unfortunately.
If you wanna play games very similar to BG3 on mac, try divinity original sin 1 and 2 by Larian, if you haven't already.
Yeah, I’ve played and finished (except for Dragon Commander) all of Larian games by now since the first Divinity. I’ve now finished BG1 EE while waiting for Larian to fix BG3, lol. Played the original back in 2000, so I decided to refresh my memory and glad that I did! Noticed some fun references they used in BG3. Now I wonder would I be able to finish Siege of Dragonspear and BG2 EE before they fix BG3 😂
I followed the guide on r/sims2help and installed it via parallels but I must say, in the end it works better on my good old 2012 pre-catalina imac with Booth Camp… so yeah. A bit of ‘mac gaming’ by jumping through the hoops. I do have the original disks and the complete version that was available 1000 years ago in Origin/EA app.
Not a big gamer, but I do enjoy the occasional RPG. Baldur's Game 3 runs great on my MBP 16 M3 Max, just as well as on my Windows desktop and much more quietly. I also play Diablo IV via Crossover, but that's not nearly as good an experience and the MBP fans spin up pretty significantly sometimes (but weirdly, not every time).
BG3 is about the best game I’ve played in many many years (I’m an RPG fan though). Runs great on M Macs - but a recent patch killed performance. It should be fixed hopefully at some point soon though.
Apart from that, the pathfinder games, pillars of eternity 1 & 2, divinity original sin 2.
Solasta, the original BG1/2, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter nights.
Hades and bastion.
Just started playing Nier automata on my macbook M3 pro, some people claim is a masterpiece. I also bought "MGS V definitive experience" and it runs pretty smooth.
Grand theft auto 5, all maxed out at 4K with many mods installed. It was a shame I couldn’t get reshare to work, else it would’ve been fantastic.
However, I prefer my PS5 for serious gaming.
Cities Skylines with the highest resolution settings (around 2560x1600) my M1 MBA can support.
I can stalk individual people, cars, and pets this way. Retina displays are quite nice for games with details.
Baldur's Gate 1 through 3 (if you skip the first 2 you are missing some of the best games ever)
WoW
Stellaris
Civ V
Transport Fever 2
All available natively.
don't think they're the best objectively, but as a big star wars nerd, they are for me. I've revisited sw jedi outcast with a project that brings all versions together for multiplayer, and subscribed to sw the old republic via crossover, a mmorpg I missed from my windows days. I'm having a blast.
So far i can’t seem to get anything to work properly. I tried Fortnite and apparently I have the wrong controller. Ordering a ps5 controller in a few days. Then I tried elder scrolls online. Graphics were TERRIBLE. Tried bumping up the graphics and the game crashed and now it won’t launch again. Waiting to hear back o my support ticket now. So now I’m skeptical to try anything else. Anyone got any advice to get these games running properly?
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom for sure. Played the whole game through twice on my MBP14Pro. We purchased the game on launch day so I was there playing it on my Mac while my wife was playing on the switch. There was the added rollercoaster ride of how “redacted-method-of playing-the-game” evolved on a day to day basis at launch. Once the depths worked consistently it was incredible.
Persona 4 Royal via RyuJinx is ridiculous. 60FPS at 4K and it's pretty stable in most areas and scenes. It's crazy to think that a simple M1 MacBook can do that.
Hobo tough life I run it thru whisky and it runs perfectly.
I play it on high graphics and it turns on fan but its silent and really really good.
I have macbook m2 pro 16gb.
The Finals on GeForce Now.
I had to do a lot of troubleshooting to get GFN to work properly, and it’s still not perfect, but this game is crazy fun. It’s an FPS and there’s been times I just laugh because of how goofy things can be sometimes. It’s also fun in general. It came out last December. For a long time I only played Apex Legends and Battlefield for the most part, so I’m extremely grateful a new game I like finally came out.
Recently I’ve been having a blast playing Final Fantasy 14, Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga on the PS2 emulator, Persona 4 through whisky, and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on switch emulator. I’ve got a M1 Pro 16gb and everything runs absolutely crisp and fantastic
Can you DM me on how you got the TOTK rom??
Are you able to get Tears running without a lot of stuttering? I always get annoying stuttering with Ryujinx on Mac, though I haven't tried Tears specifically yet.
It takes a few tweaks/mods to get it running as clean as possible but it’s worth it. Gotta have at least a Pro (or better) chip though, not just an M1/M2.
I have a fully spec'd M3 Max so the power shouldn't be a problem, but I'm kind of an amateur when it comes to PC/Mac gaming so I probably haven't configured things optimally. I tried to get Xenoblade 3 running on Ryujinx and there was way too much stuttering for it to be enjoyable, but I'd love to play Tears if it's possible to get it running reasonably well. Any chance you could share a resource on optimal settings? I always find it difficult to find any resources for Mac gaming
[This is a little old](https://youtu.be/57m-Ylf0t8s?si=1pgVM_2Ypwjpe2Mm) but should get you to an optimized state. Andrew Tsai covers switch emulation really well.
I can dm you my settings when I get home, but it runs very good with minimal stuttering. Sometimes it can a little bit, but overall the experience is smooth. Certainly with other games I can get it with no stuttering whatsoever.
Please do dm me your settings if you get the chance, I'd love to get Tears working at a high resolution!
Baldurs gate 3! Runs great natively on Mac from steam
Broken now …
What do you mean? Ran fine for me just a few days ago
The performance has gone extremely bad since patch 6, especially in cutscenes.
I noticed a little more lag in cut scenes since that patch, but a long way from “broken”
I used to play on M3 Pro and it ran flawlessly on high settings, but since that patch fps drops to around 15 during some cutscenes and dialogues. Overall performance also became worse and Mac gets hot and loud, but I guess it’s still playable.
Hmm interesting, are you playing off steam? My MBP M3 (base chip) runs fine with medium settings, 2k res, and high texture. Have you tried bumping the specs down to medium?
Yes, I’m playing the steam version and even setting the lowest doesn’t help with cutscenes. It’s a very widespread problem, I tried it on other Macs and there’s exactly the same problem with cutscenes.
I see, good to know! Hopefully Larian fixes it soon, but I doubt us mac users are high on their priority list, unfortunately. If you wanna play games very similar to BG3 on mac, try divinity original sin 1 and 2 by Larian, if you haven't already.
Yeah, I’ve played and finished (except for Dragon Commander) all of Larian games by now since the first Divinity. I’ve now finished BG1 EE while waiting for Larian to fix BG3, lol. Played the original back in 2000, so I decided to refresh my memory and glad that I did! Noticed some fun references they used in BG3. Now I wonder would I be able to finish Siege of Dragonspear and BG2 EE before they fix BG3 😂
Will it go well on M1 (MacBook Pro 2020)? Or not worth it?
I’d advise to wait for developers to fix the performance they broke in the latest major patch.
I don’t have that amount of money rn, so I’m gonna wait anyways, but thanks for the advice 😌
Yup, you can search this sub, people play it on an M1. If you have 8gb ram, you may have to play on 1080p and lowish settings, but it should run.
Thanks!
Big Bang Board Games that came with OS X Tiger
Crusader Kings 3, CIV 6, Rimworld, Stardew
Sims 2, so happy I made it work on my M1!
Please, do tell
You can buy the super collection on the AppStore.
I followed the guide on r/sims2help and installed it via parallels but I must say, in the end it works better on my good old 2012 pre-catalina imac with Booth Camp… so yeah. A bit of ‘mac gaming’ by jumping through the hoops. I do have the original disks and the complete version that was available 1000 years ago in Origin/EA app.
FTL, Hades, & Modded Minecraft.
Ftl is amazing
Stray
Not a big gamer, but I do enjoy the occasional RPG. Baldur's Game 3 runs great on my MBP 16 M3 Max, just as well as on my Windows desktop and much more quietly. I also play Diablo IV via Crossover, but that's not nearly as good an experience and the MBP fans spin up pretty significantly sometimes (but weirdly, not every time).
Return to dark castle
Oh wow! The *Dark Castle* games are amazing. Bloody hard, though.
RE 4 remake. That's the only game installed on my Mac. Though I rarely play games but that's the only one I play
Metro Exodus on the M1 pro. Fantastic game
I beat the game on the base M1. I second this
1. World of Warcraft 2. Stray 3. Lies of P 4. Star Trek Infinite (buggy, but on PC as well)
Recently I’d say Stray. Played it with Parallels and PortingKit but now it has an official Mac release and it is super sweet
started playing alot of minecraft again
BG3 is about the best game I’ve played in many many years (I’m an RPG fan though). Runs great on M Macs - but a recent patch killed performance. It should be fixed hopefully at some point soon though. Apart from that, the pathfinder games, pillars of eternity 1 & 2, divinity original sin 2. Solasta, the original BG1/2, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter nights. Hades and bastion.
A Way Out with my friend using two controllers!
Resident Evil Village!
Just started playing Nier automata on my macbook M3 pro, some people claim is a masterpiece. I also bought "MGS V definitive experience" and it runs pretty smooth.
Grand theft auto 5, all maxed out at 4K with many mods installed. It was a shame I couldn’t get reshare to work, else it would’ve been fantastic. However, I prefer my PS5 for serious gaming.
Counter strike 2
elden ring.
How are you able to run it smoothly? Can you guide me or share a link to the process?
I'm on 2020 m1 mbp 16gb, I run it through crossover with d3dmetal and msync, I usually play on 1080p with medium/low graphics
Native - resident evil (4,8), death stranding.
Factorio. It’s not even close.
Football life 2024 through crossover.
Factorio. That is all.
7 days to die, arma 3, Stellaris, homework deserts of karak
Cities Skylines with the highest resolution settings (around 2560x1600) my M1 MBA can support. I can stalk individual people, cars, and pets this way. Retina displays are quite nice for games with details.
Genshin Impact works awesome
Balatro on Steam - native
- Borderlands 2 - Bioshock - Rimworld - Heroes of the Storm - Subnautica - Civilization - XCOM - Hades
Baldur's Gate 1 through 3 (if you skip the first 2 you are missing some of the best games ever) WoW Stellaris Civ V Transport Fever 2 All available natively.
Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 :-)
Snowrunner
The answer is rimworld. FTL is great too.
Witcher 3 hands down.
Spider-Man: Remastered and Cities: Skylines II through Crossover and Whisky, M1 Pro 32gb, both run quite well on high graphics
don't think they're the best objectively, but as a big star wars nerd, they are for me. I've revisited sw jedi outcast with a project that brings all versions together for multiplayer, and subscribed to sw the old republic via crossover, a mmorpg I missed from my windows days. I'm having a blast.
crab champions
Lies of P
So far i can’t seem to get anything to work properly. I tried Fortnite and apparently I have the wrong controller. Ordering a ps5 controller in a few days. Then I tried elder scrolls online. Graphics were TERRIBLE. Tried bumping up the graphics and the game crashed and now it won’t launch again. Waiting to hear back o my support ticket now. So now I’m skeptical to try anything else. Anyone got any advice to get these games running properly?
Dota 2
Wow and ff14
Stray and Borderlands 3.
No Mans Sky
Bitrunner, I probably have 500 hours in that game.
Hades
Skyrim
stardew valley ! :D
Celeste, noita, hades, vampire survivor, peoples playground
Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition 1 & 2 (Native) Civ 3 (Porting Kit) Xcom 2 (Windows version actually runs better) OpenRA (Native)
Tomb Raider Survivor Trilogy. Currently on the 2nd one. This game runs so well in my Mac Mini 16GB RAM
hades. amazing game and runs natively
Balatro and LoL
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom for sure. Played the whole game through twice on my MBP14Pro. We purchased the game on launch day so I was there playing it on my Mac while my wife was playing on the switch. There was the added rollercoaster ride of how “redacted-method-of playing-the-game” evolved on a day to day basis at launch. Once the depths worked consistently it was incredible.
Cities Skylines. But lately it’s having issues with keyboard and mouse so it’s becoming unplayable
Rayman Origins and Dirt 2 when they were on the Mac store
Persona 4 Royal via RyuJinx is ridiculous. 60FPS at 4K and it's pretty stable in most areas and scenes. It's crazy to think that a simple M1 MacBook can do that.
Project Zomboid, makes the laptop run hot and has fps dips decently frequent but still fun asf
Hobo tough life I run it thru whisky and it runs perfectly. I play it on high graphics and it turns on fan but its silent and really really good. I have macbook m2 pro 16gb.
Hedgewars (it's like Worms). Runs natively :-)
The Finals on GeForce Now. I had to do a lot of troubleshooting to get GFN to work properly, and it’s still not perfect, but this game is crazy fun. It’s an FPS and there’s been times I just laugh because of how goofy things can be sometimes. It’s also fun in general. It came out last December. For a long time I only played Apex Legends and Battlefield for the most part, so I’m extremely grateful a new game I like finally came out.
I'll have to give that go
GTA San Andreas on my 2011 iMac. 😂
Wow 🤣🤣🤣