Online Multiplayer Mac App Store Games

The Mac App Store arrived just in time to save Mac gaming, but it's unfairly restricted Mac game publishers and Mac gamers alike.

1. Best Online Multiplayer Apps
2. Multiplayer Game Apps Free
3. Online Multiplayer Mac App Store Games Computer

As I've written before, the Mac has long had a troubled history with game development. But the introduction of the Mac App Store in 2010 came just in time to save the business. It's the best thing that's happened to Mac gaming. It's also the worst. Let me explain.

In 2009, things were getting dire for Mac game publishers. Apple retail stores were one of the very few places that Mac owners could find games, and shelf space was rapidly shrinking in favor of higher-volume products like iPhone cases and accessories.

Best Online Multiplayer Apps

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Some publishers were experimenting with online distribution, but with a few exceptions they weren't there yet. What's more, getting consumers to buy software from a web site they're unfamiliar with can be difficult, especially as online customers gain awareness about issues like identity theft — there's simply a trust issue.

Just in time to save the business, but at what cost?

So Mac game sales were going nowhere fast.

In March of 2010, Steam opened its doors to OS X for the first time and before too long major commercial games and indie games alike were being released through it — including many original games that hadn't been seen on the Mac elsewhere.

Later that year Apple opened the Mac App Store, a Mac version of their enormously popular and successful App Store for iOS products. The Mac App Store provided all OS X app developers with another way to digitally distribute their software, one that had an instant customer base of hundreds of millions of customers, thanks to its use of the Apple ID.

The Mac App Store has been a fixture of the Macintosh ever since — it's one of the default icons on the Dock of every Mac screen, tied into credentials that in the vast majority of cases, they've already created for their iPod touch, iPhone or iPad.

Multiplayer Game Apps Free

The problem is that the Mac App Store lives in its own little bubble. And when it comes to games — in particular, games that have a multiplayer component — that's not good.

Apple places restrictions on the apps sold through Mac App Store, and one of them is that you have to use Game Center.

Now, Game Center provides a framework for matching multiplayer games, and also gives players the opportunity to compare skills and unlock achievements. Similar systems exist elsewhere. But Apple requires developers to use Game Center to the exclusion of any other game matching system. So a game sold via the Mac App Store can't communicate for multiplayer games with a game that's sold on Steam, for example.

A mac gaming ghetto

This relegates Mac App Store customers to only playing with other Mac App Store customers, even if the game's original code was designed to support other systems. And with fewer Mac gamers than PC gamers out there, that means fewer opponents and less availability for online games.

In some cases, the Mac App Store version of a game will have its multiplayer component torn right out all together. Case in point: Feral Interactive's recently-released Mac port of Tomb Raider.

This also prevents some really big game launches from ever coming to the Mac App Store. EA and Maxis's Mac version of SimCity, for example, heavily depends on its connection with EA-hosted servers in order to work. An offline mode is coming, but the game still relies on that server connection for multiplayer capabilities, which is verboten to Apple.

Better alternatives elsewhere

Games sold outside the Mac App Store, even those not purchased directly Steam, can still use Steam's multiplayer gaming framework, making it possible to play with Mac, PC and sometimes even Linux players who have the same games as you.

Valve's focused on making Mac games part of their Steam Play program, which means that you makes your game synchronize its save files in the cloud. It also means that when you buy a game, you most frequently get the PC version too — so you can not only play your game from anywhere, but you can do so on any machine.

There's another advantage to buying games through Steam, too — there are frequent, well-advertised sales. And thanks to Steam Play, it's usually both the Mac and the PC version that goes on sale at the same time — so you can take advantage of deep discounts, like The Bureau: XCOM Declassified's Mac Steam launch last weekend.

In short, buying games from the Mac App Store means only playing online with other Mac users. It relegates you to a ghetto of other Mac gamers unfortunate enough to have purchased the game through the Mac App Store as well. And it often means you pay more for the same game than you would have paid elsewhere. Last, it keeps some games from ever appearing in front of the millions of prospective customers that have the Mac App Store installed on their computers.

The Mac App Store arrived at a time that Mac game publishers desperately needed a lifeline. It provides a safe and trusted way for Mac users, especially new ones, to get third-party software for their computers. But it also enforces a status quo that unfairly penalizes developers and customers alike, and it creates an ugly dependency. It's an example of where Apple's 'walled garden' approach fails.

I understand that Apple wants to protect its customers, but by setting up Mac App Store restrictions the way they have, they've hamstrung customers and developers alike. It's not fair or equitable, and I think it should change.

What do you think? Have you bought games through the Mac App Store? Did you know you'd be restricted for online gaming, or is it unimportant to you? Let me know what you think in the comments.

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The weekend's here and if you're worried about being bored, here are some great FPS games you can play on your Mac.

This time around I'm focusing on some of my favorite first person shooters (FPSs) that are currently available for the Mac platform, ranging in price from free to not free. Locked and loaded? Good. Here we go..

Borderlands 2

• $39.99 - Download now

Every once in a while a sequel comes along that completely eclipses the original game. Such is the case with Borderlands 2, which took everything that was good about the original Borderlands and made it better.

For the uninitiated, Borderlands 2 drops you on the surface of a hostile alien world called Pandora. You're essentially a treasure hunter on a mission. You can choose from one of four different character classes, each with unique abilities, and in a nod to role playing games, you can develop special abilities by assigning skill points that you gain through experience. Borderlands 2 also features a weapons randomizing system that produces an almost unlimited number of variations on handguns, rifles, grenades and other weapons.

A hilarious script and great voice acting provides you with constant laughs through the 30+ hours of single-player fun your first time through (and you will replay this game to get experience with each character class). Add to that fantastic cooperative multiplayer gameplay and downloadable content to extend the game, and you've got a potent mix that will keep you coming back again and again.

Aspyr makes the game available through the Mac App Store and Steam (which we've linked above). Our recommendation is to go for the Steam version so you can get cross-platform multiplayer - Mac App Store downloaders are relegated to Mac-to-Mac play only through Game Center.

BioShock 2

• $24.99 - Download now

Few recent FPS's have had the impact of the BioShock series. The game struck gold for its detailed storyline involving Rapture, a Randian utopia far beneath the surface of the ocean, run amuck. A survival horror game, BioShock 2 puts you in the role of a Big Daddy - a genetically altered human encased in a heavily armored diving suit. Rapture is filled with psychotic and dangerous people who have been altered by a substance that can record their genes, granting them superhuman powers (and, unfortunately, driving them mad).

The game sports multiplayer action too, but unlike Borderlands 2 isn't available from Steam, so the Mac App Store is a safe bet. BioShock 2 is the sequel to the first BioShock, and if you haven't picked that one up, it's definitely worth your time as well, especially at $19.99 price. Both should wet your whistle until BioShock Infinite shows up for the Mac this summer.

Online Multiplayer Mac App Store Games Computer

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

• $29.99 - Download now

Short of having its superlative sequel on the Mac, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the next best thing. Sure, it's been around for a while, but this game stands up to the test of time: it's a phenomenal FPS that puts you in the role of U.S. Marines and British SAS commandos as you travel to the U.K, the Middle East, Azerbaijan, Russia and Ukraine on the hunt for international terrorists who plan to detonate a nuclear warhead.

COD4: MW takes a break from past COD games by bringing the action to the modern era, instead of focusing on World War II, which means you have plenty of modern weapons to choose from. It also sports great multiplayer capabilities with plenty of challenges, unlockable perks at matchmaking to make sure you're paired with players of similar abilities.

Team Fortress 2

• Free to play - Download now

A team-based multiplayer first person shooter available through Steam, Team Fortress 2 is almost six years old and still going strong. The game pits two opposing teams against each other in a variety of different modes: Capture the Flag, Control Point, Territorial Control, King of the Hill and more. The play maps vary from the ridiculous to the sublime, and you can choose from nine different player classes, some with offensive capabilities (like the Scout), some better on defense (like the Heavy), and some best for support (such as the Medic).

The game's fun to play not only for its varied gameplay modes and different character classes to master, but also for its cartoon-style art. And it used to be you had to pay for TF2, but Valve made it free to play in 2011. (The company makes money through in-app purchases players make to buy unique equipment and character outfits.)

Counter Strike: Source

• $19.99 - Download now

The original Counter Strike took the world by storm when it was introduced as a mod for Valve Software's legendary game Half-Life. Valve reworked CS as its own independent game using the Source engine (hence the name). It's a team-based first person shooter that emphasizes accomplishing objectives - kill your opponents, rescue hostages and so on. What makes it a bit different than the rest is that when you're shot, you stay dead until the end of the round - no instant respawning.

Twelve years since its first release, Counter Strike still has a huge following and remains ridiculously popular. Last year Valve released Counter Strike: Global Offensive (seen above), so if you've gotten tired of the original, you can immerse yourself in a new game that features updated content from the original, along with new maps, characters and weapons.

Special Mention: Pathways Into Darkness

• Free - Download now

Before Halo, before Myth, before Marathon, way back in 1993, Bungie Software made a name for itself with Mac gamers with one of the most innovative first person shooters we'd ever seen (and really, we hadn't seen a lot of them, but we knew this one was cool). That game was called Pathways Into Darkness.

Man Up Time has resurrected this 20-year-old masterpiece for modern Mac and they've made it absolutely free. Not 'freemium' - there are no in-app purchases you need to make to keep playing. Free. The game traps you in a mysterious pyramid in the Yucatan that threatens the very survival of the Earth. You must descend into its innermost recesses, battling fearsome monsters to save the world.

Fun free computer games for mac. You must carry out team-based plays and strategies to even get a shot at winning. Try out DoTA 2 as it’s entirely free. However, it’s easier said than done.

PID is a game of its era. Its graphics are quaint and primitive, its interface is awkward by modern standards, but it stands out as a period piece worthy of remembering and enjoying. It's a bit of Mac legend. And it's free, so you have nothing to lose but some download bandwidth.

Your go-to first-person shooters?

Those are my favorite FPS games on the Mac right now, but if there are any other can't-miss shooters on your short list, let me know in the comments below. You can never have too much of an awesome thing!

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