Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Hardware, Software
City of Heroes coming to Mac under Transgaming's Cider
Yet another MMO on the Mac -- EVE Online and World of Warcraft are already there, of course, and now NCSoft has announced that City of Heroes is coming to the Mac. Unfortunately, they're using Transgaming's Cider software to port the game, and as we've said before, the software isn't only unreliable, but But there is one thing we really like about this release, and that's that NCSoft is actually releasing the game on the Mac as a "special edition": players who buy the Mac expansion (which apparently will be a digital-only release) will pick up a free ingame teleporter item, as well as a special "Valkyrie" costume set usable on their superhero character. So if you do go for Transgaming's software, at least you can pick up some free ingame stuff for it. We're not so much for the
There's no set release date yet (they say it'll launch with the game's upcoming "Issue 13" update), but they're taking applications right now for an open beta, so if you're interested, sign on up.
[via Massively]
Update: NCSoft has contacted us to say that the Mac Special Edition of City of Heroes will not contain the SecuROM DRM. It was our understanding that all Transgaming releases would use the technology, but NCSoft says that theirs won't, so there you go.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike Stanton said 4:52PM on 10-30-2008
Cider, unreliable? Sure, the official ports. However, I've been using an unofficial port of 2DBOY's World of Goo that works perfectly.
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Tas said 5:01PM on 10-30-2008
"Not to mention that even the MacBook can basically run any game through BootCamp now, making a separate Mac version unnecessary in many cases."
This mentality will kill Mac gaming. I don't know about you, but I find it rather troublesome to have to reboot to play a game. Not to mention, having to purchase Windows, and then maintain a Windows operating system is not really worth it, in my opinion. I'm glad they make these Cider ports, because it's better than nothing. I've played EA's Spore through all the way, and it was a very seamless experience. Blizzard is awesome for making real Mac games, but let's be honest -- a Mac game isn't going to sell as many copies as a Windows game, so developers aren't going to be spending as much money on it. Cider allows them to use much less resources and still present something to the Mac platform.
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Lon Varscsak said 5:15PM on 10-30-2008
I agree with Tas...I like that WoW runs on my Mac...it's so much more convenient that having to reboot into BootCamp. I do like that I have the option to do it when a Mac version isn't available (like Warhammer Online).
pawel_z_wrocka said 7:08AM on 11-03-2008
I strongly agree with Tas.
I have several Windows games, but I effectively don't play them - I only play those available natively.
I even erased my BootCamp partition for the lack of space for my native Mac stuff. Rebooting is too much of a hassle.
When I do need to use a Windows app for my work, I use Parallels.
So... more Mac games is a way to go. Even if they are ports.
Shunnabunich said 5:27PM on 10-30-2008
Correction: this mentality is what killed Mac gaming. We now have Windows getting a Windows version of a game, and OS X getting...the Windows version of that game. Even if you're the torrenting type, you can search your favourite site for Mac games, and the results will almost exclusively be unofficially Ciderized Windows games. The remainder are a half decade old or more. In Blizzard's case, one developer makes an exception, not a rule. Personally, it really irks me that we're reduced to saying that if ever we want to do something fun with our Macs, getting slapped in the face with Windows games is "better than nothing".
Whoops, I forgot Bejeweled 2 and the like. Never mind, CASUAL gaming is gasping along under life support on the Mac, not technically dead.
Elliot said 5:26AM on 10-31-2008
Quite honestly, I like that I have to reboot to play games. Keeps me from playing too much...
Greg said 5:51PM on 10-30-2008
Cider? No thanks
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shumanfu said 8:46PM on 10-30-2008
no games for you!
I'm playing world of goo no..
It's pretty damn fun..
Come back to reality.. if you want native games developers need money..
and the honest reality of it is the most people cant justify developing 2 versions of their software to earn an extra dollar or 2
That's where cider comes in..
cut paste earn more $$s... developer happy.. make more games..
Greg said 9:13PM on 10-30-2008
Happy developer? Apparently, you've never worked for EA (who does most of these lousy ports).
I have a G4 which runs games better than my Intel MacBook. Why should I be unable to play on that just because the developer is too lazy to do a little extra coding. Let me put it this way, they'd have more customers (like me), and therefore, make more money.
Kai Cherry said 10:44PM on 10-30-2008
Greg.
You are full of it :)
Let's see some benchmarks. Oh, hey Let's start with World in Conflict...I'm willing to bet that *my* Macbook runs it faster that your crummy than your G4 :)
In fact...let's try...I dunno...ANYTHING for that matter.
It seems strange that the Linux folks don't seem to be whining about this...and their marketshare is even smaller.
Macs don't have natie games because Apple didn't give a damn. Blaming *wine* or EA is again, a strawman...and quite frankly, when gaming lagged behind, the great unwashed Mac masses all drank the Kool-Aid and chanted in unison "bah. That's what Playstation is for."
What is even more funny is that even stuff like Flatout 2 (which is gorgeous and fun...on the right Mac hardware) is running with some sort of directx9 layer + OpenGL so really...going forward...that's how it is gonna be. It is what it is.
Now...back to World in Conflict, before I work on Red Alert 3 some more :P
-K
Kai Cherry said 10:44PM on 10-30-2008
...or they could have more customers like me that bought the hardware to do the job.
For YEARS, devs, native and otherwise...BEGGGGGEEEDDDD apple to do more than throw up a token website to aide them.
Needing a $2000 computer to remotely get performance is insane for the game market...let alone the fact that before Apple's Big Consumer Push, Like I said, they just didn't give a damn.
I just recently bought a *decent* Mac for gaming and I'm *telling you*...it ain't Cider/Wine that is the problem :)
Ya need the right tool for the job.
-K
Greg said 10:51PM on 10-30-2008
Actually, it's an overclocked G4, 1.5 ghz, and an upgraded dedicated graphics card. It does graphics applications like Unreal Tournament 2004 much better than my MacBook
Randy said 5:57PM on 10-30-2008
My sentiments are the same as the previous posters above. As a recent Windows Convert (and Linux User), I'm disheartened at the State of Mac Gaming. Crossover and Bootcamp don't really offer a solution to this problem, and even further perpetuate it.
We need more Native Mac Games.
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Kai Cherry said 7:06PM on 10-30-2008
Annnnnd...
I am gonna jump in here and say that I am sick to death of the WINE/Cider/CrossOver/Transgaming bashing.
Seriously.
There is ZERO REASON for ANY COMPANY to write "Mac Native" versions of games when the only time you even see the mac when you are playing is at the finder.
OK, granted, I'm not trying to run the latest/greatest games on ancient hardware, but truth be told the *hardware has been the problem all along*...not the software.
Like many, I took advantage of the Get Crossover Games free offer, and I have to tell you...now that I have a Mac with a decent gpu, I could NOT be happier.
This whole stupid "strawman" about WINE is getting sooooooooooooo old; SDL and/or XWindows are essentially treated like they should be via DirectX9...hence, with *decent gpus* games run like they do on windows.
*NOTHING* works well on janky-ass GMA950s or old ass Radeons :)
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Ed said 8:27PM on 10-30-2008
But they don't. I run TF2 on my MacBook Pro under Crossover Games and on Bootcamp under XP. The game runs much better under 'real' XP. Crossover is good enough most of the time, but the graphics quality is lower (and can't be increased) and the mouse smoothing really takes some getting used to, and the scroll wheel doesn't work...
Real native Mac versions would be nice, but with the games industry saying 'PC gaming is dying' repeatedly, it'd be a massive change for them to suddenly start supporting a platform with 1/10th of the market share of the PC...
Kai Cherry said 10:44PM on 10-30-2008
What Macbook Pro...he wondered aloud :)
-K
James Egan said 7:38PM on 10-30-2008
Having to reboot into XP everytime you want to play a game can be a real pain, when you otherwise spend your time in OS X. I'm glad to have MMO clients I can run in OS X -- so for me that's generally EVE Online (via Cider) and WoW (on occasion). Although my preference for a long gaming session is to do it in XP through Boot Camp, having other options is fantastic.
I was very down on the initial release of the EVE Online client for Mac, but it's really made leaps and strides since then, and I use it pretty much every day. Quite likely City of Heroes for Mac may have issues in the beginning as well, but if it turns out as well as EVE has, that's one more MMO client for Mac I'll be adding.
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Chris said 7:52PM on 10-30-2008
Isn't this like 4 years to late? I don't know anyone who plays this anymore. If this is going to be the way things are for mac gaming than I'm rather disappointed.
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Sam said 12:48PM on 11-03-2008
I have to say, I'm excited to see this. I've been playing CoH for years, but have switched to WoW, primarily because I *don't* have to reboot to play-I also strongly agree with Tas, just because we can run Boot Camp to use Windows apps doesn't mean it's an ideal solution, far from it.
However, I'm a little skeptical of how stable this port will be. My experience with Cider has been truly awful-frequent lock-ups and crashes, to the point where one crash took out my entire OS. I can only hope the engine has improved...
Matt said 12:58AM on 11-05-2008
Sorry, Sam, but Cider doesn't work that way. There's really no way for the "engine" to have taken out your OS. It runs inside of a sandbox where the only files it modifies are in the application folder or in the game's Preferences folder. If you really did lose your system, my guess is the Mac drivers had some terrible memory stomping going on.
Earlier drivers certainly had serious issues that would take down a machine, but I don't know of any that would prevent it from booting back up again. Sounds like a bad piece of hardware.