Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

crawl · Nov 29, 2004, 12:46 PM

Hi Everyone,

I'm a new mac owner and haven't played PC games in a while, but now that I've got the hardware to do so I'd like a few shooters with good online play. I've already bought Unreal 2004 (which plays great at 1600x1200, I'm very pleased!) but considering the following:

Call of Duty
Battlefield 1942
Medal of Honor
Halo

In regards to online play, which game would you recommend?

Thanks!

Luca Rescigno · Nov 29, 2004, 12:59 PM

For online play, Call Of Duty has an excellent community. Halo isn't good because the PC version and the Mac version are rarely synchronized, so you usually can't play against PC users.

I don't have much experience with BF1942 and MOH, but I know that COD is an excellent game. Go for it.

historylme · Nov 29, 2004, 01:14 PM

Originally posted by crawl:
Hi Everyone,

I'm a new mac owner and haven't played PC games in a while, but now that I've got the hardware to do so I'd like a few shooters with good online play. I've already bought Unreal 2004 (which plays great at 1600x1200, I'm very pleased!) but considering the following:

Call of Duty
Battlefield 1942
Medal of Honor
Halo

In regards to online play, which game would you recommend?

Thanks!

That is exactly my situation and the games I'm looking for.
Thanks for posting that, cause I was going to, save me the time.

Luca Rescigno · Nov 29, 2004, 02:03 PM

Oh, the other thing is that BF1942 is HEAVILY dependant on multiplayer for fun. Like UT2004, single player mode is basically the same as multiplayer. It has no story and you just fight against bots.

Call Of Duty and Medal Of Honor both have a strong single player campaign, and pretty standard multiplayer (deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag maybe?).

Halo also has a strong campaign and equally good single player, but like I said, it's not the best for multiplayer because they take many weeks to port updates to the Mac version.

Weezer · Nov 29, 2004, 02:25 PM

Originally posted by Luca Rescigno:
Halo isn't good because the PC version and the Mac version are rarely synchronized, so you usually can't play against PC users.

That's not really true. I would say they are synced 90% of the time, although macsoft is really taking their sweet time with the latest patch.

WOPR · Nov 29, 2004, 02:54 PM

Call of Duty every time! Much better game than MoH which feels really old now and looks terrible compared to CoD. CoD also has you playing in more of a squad rather than just being on your own, and it's very cinematic. Online is great fun too.

TheDeathman · Nov 29, 2004, 03:32 PM

Can I play CoD online against PC users?

WOPR · Nov 29, 2004, 04:15 PM

Originally posted by TheDeathman:
Can I play CoD online against PC users?

Oh yes! Upgrade it to 1.4 for best results. The United Offensive expansion pack has just beeen released too.

crawl · Nov 29, 2004, 04:16 PM

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I've played a few levels of Call of Duty's single player and it was awesome. Wasn't able to try the multiplayer so I wanted to be sure it was good.

I've played Halo on the xbox, and tried demos for Medal of Honor and BF1942. I didn't enjoy the single player demo of Battlefield, but I assume it's because the AI guys were dumb as rocks

Medal of Honor's demo is online, and it's pretty fun but nothing special. I would assume CoD has it beat online, since the campaign is so good. I've seen Medal as cheap as $29 which makes it worth considering.

Luca Rescigno · Nov 29, 2004, 04:20 PM

Yep, in fact it's also available for Linux users. There's even a CS-like game mode, where each player only gets one life and one team gets a bomb to plant. The only thing is now that the United Offensive expansion is available for PC users, the number of people playing the original Call of Duty will be a bit lower. Still, there should be plenty, and I do believe that United Offensive will be coming out for Mac.

crawl · Nov 29, 2004, 04:24 PM

Regarding the problems with updates being delayed for Mac, is that true with CoD as well? I've read that about Halo and Americas Army (which I downloaded and then found out the latest Mac patch isn't out yet). Do the others do a better job of releasing the patches at the same time?

Luca Rescigno · Nov 29, 2004, 04:29 PM

You usually have to wait a week or three, but it shouldn't take THAT long. Call Of Duty is currently on version 1.4, which came out I think two or three weeks after 1.4 for Windows.

teknik · Nov 29, 2004, 06:22 PM

Originally posted by Luca Rescigno:
You usually have to wait a week or three, but it shouldn't take THAT long. Call Of Duty is currently on version 1.4, which came out I think two or three weeks after 1.4 for Windows.

speak of the devil

Luca Rescigno · Nov 29, 2004, 06:39 PM

Oh yeah, United Offensive is, IMHO, not as good as the original. I got it for my gaming PC since I liked the original so much, but I'm a bit disappointed. If you're dead-set on getting more campaign missions and a slightly wider weapon selection, it might be worth it. Otherwise I think it's worth it to just buy the original only and not the rest.

deboerjo · Nov 29, 2004, 06:44 PM

I'm a big fan of Halo, UT2004, the original Unreal Tournament, and CoD. Most of the other WWII or Vietnam FPS games out there aren't nearly as fun as CoD. Quake2 and Quake3 Team Arena (Team Arena, not the original Q3 Arena) are also fun, as is the original single-player Unreal. And one of my favorite FPS games remains Marathon 2, which has been ressurected for OSX and Windows via Aleph One.

-Jon

Leonard · Nov 30, 2004, 10:43 AM

I'm a fan of Halo and UT2004. I find UT2004 to finally be closer to UT than UT2003 was. I like the team game types in UT2004 like Onslaught and CTF.

crawl · Nov 30, 2004, 10:00 PM

Well, I came across an auction on Ebay tonight and bought both Battlefront 1942 and Return to Caste Wolfenstein for $40 including shipping. Seemed like a good deal since the cheapest price I've seen online for 1942 is about $45 plus shipping. I don't know any about Wolfenstein (I played the original years ago) but it seemed to get pretty good reviews.

Hopefully I'll get some cash for the holidays, because Halo and CoD are on my radar to buy very soon.

Leonard · Dec 1, 2004, 10:31 AM

If your playing online, you'll want to make sure you update RTCW to the latest version and update punkbuster for it manually. See my email here on punkbuster for RTCW http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...tcw+punkbuster

Wulfi · Dec 1, 2004, 01:59 PM

Quake III Arena! it's old, it's great. i'm not a UT nay sayer but the physics in Q3A (especially in the mods OSP and CPMA) smoke any shooter out there today. just my 2�. frag on!

KeyLimePi · Dec 1, 2004, 04:03 PM

I'm not much of a gamer, but I really loved the 'Jedi' games. The plot is tedious and graphics are okay, but the gameplay is a blast. Sure it has guns, but there is nothing better than flinging a light saber through a crowd of aliens, or using the force to pull the weapon out of someone's hands.

Note: Jedi Knights of the Old Realm is not an FPS, as I learned the hardway (on a related note, I've got a brand-new, still in the box copy if anyone wants it).

deboerjo · Dec 1, 2004, 08:34 PM

Originally posted by Wulfi:
Quake III Arena! it's old, it's great. i'm not a UT nay sayer but the physics in Q3A (especially in the mods OSP and CPMA) smoke any shooter out there today. just my 2�. frag on!

The Quake3 engine's physics are definitly first-rate, and the graphics and modeling engine was also excellent in it's day (still holds it's own, really). Unfortuantly the original Q3A game matched these spectacular physics and graphics with mediocre gameplay, mainly for lack of team play. They fixed it with Team Arena, which added team deatchmatch, capture the flag, etc. Just pick up Quake3 Gold (includes both) and you're all set. UT is still more fun in my book simply because of the Assault gametype, but I realize that Assault has very few fans and I'm kinda a freak for enjoying so much. So glad they brought it back in UT2004.

-Jon

Leonard · Dec 2, 2004, 09:51 AM

Originally posted by deboerjo:
UT is still more fun in my book simply because of the Assault gametype, but I realize that Assault has very few fans and I'm kinda a freak for enjoying so much. So glad they brought it back in UT2004.

-Jon

Hmmmm... it's been awhile since I've played Assault. I'll have to give that a try in UT2004. That's the game type where one team defends various points or objects in a building and the other team has to demolish those objects. Right?

deboerjo · Dec 2, 2004, 11:40 AM

Originally posted by Leonard:
Hmmmm... it's been awhile since I've played Assault. I'll have to give that a try in UT2004. That's the game type where one team defends various points or objects in a building and the other team has to demolish those objects. Right?

Yes. Essentially it's "defend the base" vs "capture the base", with some switch to throw or something to destroy in order to capture. With one exception, Rook, where the "attackers" are actually trying to escape from a fortress. They're usually set up so that there's a final goal, with intermediate goals, you could call 'em milestones, along the way. Whoever captures the base in the least amount of time wins. I think it's not terribly popular because the first couple times you play a map, you're usually pretty confused. UT2004 helps that a lot, with a little tutorial movie at the beginning.