Dreamfall chapters book two is available through Steam (3 GB update).
The game performance on Windows (through Bootcamp, on a mac mini with Nvidia 320M) doesn’t seem better than on OSX. Unity 4 engine may then not be faster through Direct3D than when using OpenGL.
Bioshock Infinite’s Burial at Sea provides about 4 hours of exploring famous Rapture world, before events from first game, using Unreal Engine 3 to achieve even greater immersion.
The story and details are more convincing than Bioshock’s Infinite ones (while fitting perfectly with events where it did close), and this DLC’s first episode ending opens way for even greater opportunities in gameplay and story/unveiling. Finally Rapture world is the best, and UE3 is better suited for underwater rendering.
Note : the DLC isn’t localized, then you have to turn on subtitles if required.
Codeweavers Crossover 13 is available. It is said to provide 40-60 percent fps increase in games, by processing GPU related commands separately from CPU commands.
Bioshock Infinite’s Burial at Sea – Episode one DLC will be available this November, 12 on mac and PC. It will allow exploring Rapture submarine world before first chapters’s events. That is all we thought about when played the original game. This DLC may provide even better recreation of this world thank to the use of Unreal Engine 3 (Bioshock 1 used Unreal Engine 2 with cutomized water rendering).
Cyan started a new project, Obduction, through kickstarter. They reached mid $1.1M goal in a week, while there is still 3 weeks remaining. The game design keeps Myst principles, while providing a larger world to explore, and using the latest Unreal 4 engine, that now allows same quality as pre-rendered graphics (Myst V however also used a full 3D modeling technique, and ended as looking less convincing as previous Myst IV – that used an hybrid approach). The game is due late 2015.
Bioshock Infinite is available at discounted price (EUR 25.99) at macgames.fr. While not officially supported on Nvidia 320M chipset, it seems working well. Moreover using new Mavericks free OSX update, performance may be even better (then we may not need the new $2999 mac pro and keep the old mid-2010 mac mini – very silent and power efficient with an Intel SSD).
Aspyr reported Bioshock Infinite’s performance problems on Mavericks when using Nvidia graphics cards with high settings.
UPDATE : the game indeed runs fine on a mac mini mid 2010 (8GB ram, 320M, Intel SSD) with default low settings (sets textures to very low) at 1280×800 resolution, and still looks good (providing you don’t look close to some textures – it however keeps nice lightning effects). Using custom mid settings (medium textures level) we get more detailed textures while keeping a playable game, however the framerate stutters (pauses) regularly, which may be due to the Mavericks/Nvidia bug.
Frictional Games’s Amnesia A Machine for Pigs is available at preorder through macgamestore and Steam ($15,99). It is due this September, 10.
A new version of crossover is available, that fixes the Steam update problem (a temporary fix had been available here). You may backup stemApps folder before updating (as it may require creating a new bottle if Crossover application replacement does not work).
Codeweaver presents Crossover 12. It includes a new mac graphics driver/engine that will provide better performance on OSX. It is also available for registered users of the recent Crossover 11.3.1 free offer.
Following Batman Arkham City, Feral provides F1 2012 ($49.99 at macgamestore). It also isn’t stated as compatible with Nvidia 320M.
As it did some yeas ago, Codeweavers is providing Crossover for free for a day. It is the full 11.3.1 version, with 12 months support and updates.
Cjed Audio 