Starcraft II for Mac
I'm really not interested in installing Bootcamp just to play a game. I loved Starcraft, and have it installed on my MBP. Although I haven't played for a long time, I'm thinking of playing the one player campaigns again.
Obviously, SCII is not going to run in high-res mode on my 2.26 mid-2009 MBP 13". My question is this: Will it perform acceptably in medium graphics mode? Will it perform acceptably in lo-res mode? How will it compare visually and in terms of gameplay to SC 1 on my machine? Is it even worth an attempt at playing it at all?
Obviously, SCII is not going to run in high-res mode on my 2.26 mid-2009 MBP 13". My question is this: Will it perform acceptably in medium graphics mode? Will it perform acceptably in lo-res mode? How will it compare visually and in terms of gameplay to SC 1 on my machine? Is it even worth an attempt at playing it at all?
Comments
Obviously, SCII is not going to run in high-res mode on my 2.26 mid-2009 MBP 13". My question is this: Will it perform acceptably in medium graphics mode? Will it perform acceptably in lo-res mode? How will it compare visually and in terms of gameplay to SC 1 on my machine? Is it even worth an attempt at playing it at all?
This guy says low quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtTGRakDz-I
The framerate is probably smoother than in the video as the capture software + windowed mode will drop the FPS a bit.
This guy says low quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtTGRakDz-I
The framerate is probably smoother than in the video as the capture software + windowed mode will drop the FPS a bit.
I'm not interested in multiplayer play. I gather MP is slower than solo play. How does the human vs. AI compare? Am I better off sticking with a replay of SC1? I'm willing to play in lo-res mode if it's not less impressive graphically than SC1.
I'm not interested in multiplayer play. I gather MP is slower than solo play. How does the human vs. AI compare? Am I better off sticking with a replay of SC1? I'm willing to play in lo-res mode if it's not less impressive graphically than SC1.
I'd give it a go, the 9400M is a decent GPU. I think you'll have a good experience with it and the graphics will certainly be better than SC1.
I'd give it a go, the 9400M is a decent GPU. I think you'll have a good experience with it and the graphics will certainly be better than SC1.
Thanks. I'll give it a try, and if it's not really that great, I'll still be able to play eventually when I upgrade to better hardware.
Thanks. I'll give it a try, and if it's not really that great, I'll still be able to play eventually when I upgrade to better hardware.
Let me know. I want to know if it is worth getting it for my iMac with 9400 NVidia graphics.
Let me know. I want to know if it is worth getting it for my iMac with 9400 NVidia graphics.
OK, I bit the bullet and shelled out about US$55 (no tax) for a copy of SCII.
I hate that I have to lie about my address, because HK is in the "Taiwan" region, and the local version is only in Traditional Chinese. I had to buy the Southeast Asia version to get the game in English, and I am forced to register my address as one of the countries in the region.
What the fuck? Why does Blizzard think region coding is so important? Didn't they learn from the DVD fiasco? Why can't we just play with who we want to play with, in whatever language we want to play in?
Anyway, it doesn't matter THAT much, as I am mainly interested in playing the campaign, and I'm unlikely to want to play online at all.
Now, I'm installing the game on my base model late 2009 2.26GHz 13" MBP with 9400M graphics and 4GB RAM. I'll tell you how I feel in a day or two.
One thing that happened, however, is that after applying the latest OS security update, I can no longer log in to Battle.Net at all. The game crashes on launch (login) if I have internet on. The workaround is to turn off Airport before starting the game. It means I cannot use any of the online features including multiplayer play. I have searched and have not found any solution to this. Any clues, people? I have Little Snitch installed (reported as a software clash that causes my symptoms), but I've turned it off completely and before doing that made sure it wasn't restricting the game in any way.
Try reinstalling the game. It still works fine for me, although on different hardware (iMac).
I finally got around to reinstalling. It was HARDLY an easy process.
First, it took over an hour to (re)install the app from the retail DVD.
Then, it just didn't work. Instead of automatically downloading and installing the patch after installation from the DVD (like it did after my first installation), the program simply quit, unpatched.
When I launched the launcher app, it told me I had to install the patch, yes or quit. After selecting "yes", the launcher quit, and the app remained unpatched. Tried several times, and I could no longer even start the game in any way.
Finally, I manually downloaded the patch from http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/starcraftII/patches/mac/ which took another 30 minutes to download. I manually launched the patch, and it patched my game (another 15 minutes).
Then I launched the game, and it quit.
Then I launched it again (after shouting a few times) and... it worked. The first time it loads the campaign in progress, it takes a very long time.
Now everything works fine. And I just bought my daughter an iMac, so I can play on her machine sometimes when I want slightly better performance and graphics. Installation on the iMac was seamless.