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CrossOver Games for Mac and Linux updated, fixes Rift, improves WoW and Star Trek Online
Beyond other bug and stability fixes, CrossOver 10.1 finally lets you install World of Warcraft with the Blizzard Downloader, and support for Star Trek Online's launcher has been improved a bit (but the game itself still doesn't perform fantastically).
CrossOver, if you've never heard of it before, is an emulation suite developed by CodeWeavers that lets you run many Windows programs on Mac and Linux computers. The list of supported programs is extensive, including Microsoft Office, and a ton of Windows games, such as Civilization, Fallout, EVE, Left 4 Dead, and so on.
There's a free trial available, but to get a full license of CrossOver Pro will cost you around $70 -- or $40, if you just want the CrossOver Games package. It's worth the money, though, if you don't want to play around with virtual machines and dual-booting.
Comments
12
Subscribe to commentsCarneyMar 24th 2011 10:22AM
Why would you bother playing the Windows version of WoW on a Mac? Not only is WoW Mac-compatible, but the disk itself is multi-platform, so there's not even a separate Windows-only version you might end up stuck with.
Sebastian AnthonyMar 24th 2011 12:03PM
@Carney That's a very good point. Perhaps... they're Windows diehards?
Alex MMar 24th 2011 12:06PM
@Carney - Maybe the WoW fix was primarily for Linux users?
andrewdotcomMar 24th 2011 3:22PM
I don't know if the writer of this article aware but half the things they mentioned have been available natively on the Mac for quite a while now including (Civilization, Fallout, EVE, Left 4 Dead)... I feel like i just read something from an old outdated magazine...
Sebastian AnthonyMar 24th 2011 12:07PM
@Alex M Good point!
(Phew, nice save.)
5hRreDDyMar 24th 2011 5:37PM
It's probably worth noting that:
WINE = "WINE Is Not an Emulator"
...in response to your opening statement.
Sebastian AnthonyMar 24th 2011 6:46PM
@5hRreDDy You know it originally stood for WINdows Emulator though, right? :P
3tearMar 24th 2011 6:42PM
There's currently a mac app package available at http://themacbundles.com/ with crossover games included.
Sebastian AnthonyMar 24th 2011 6:50PM
@3tear Cool -- that's a good bundle! And can't argue at the price.
Thanks for the tip :)
5hRreDDyMar 24th 2011 8:55PM
@Sebastian Anthony Of course, but it doesn't currently stand for that since the idea of Windows becoming a generic term was "threatened" and also the fact that it would be more accurate to suggest that Wine is actually a software translation or compatibility layer rather than an emulator.
Wine doesn't naturally try to emulate a different hardware architecture, rather it provides a set of tools to allow translation of Windows function calls in its' programs to run on alternative OS.
http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#head-c9e6502ad636315e905d07f7e44594757a6738e3
I hate getting boiled into semantics. I think I may be a bit bored at the moment :P
Anyway, on topic. I quite like CrossOver in both the standard and games version on the Mac. Good to see an update on it. However, I do tend to find that the games version doesn't deliver on the promise of bleeding-edge Wine builds getting baked in as soon as they are available.
Sebastian AnthonyMar 25th 2011 7:35AM
@5hRreDDy As you say, at this point we're just arguing semantics :P
Emulating Windows is obviously different from emulating a console processor -- but emulating DirectX's abstraction layer is still emulating!
Or... translating. Whatever :)
Marty K.Mar 25th 2011 11:03AM
@andrewdotcom And for this very reason, WINE is primarily of interest to Linux users like myself, who don't have the benefit of Mac-compatible games. I don't know how big or necessary WINE is on Mac, but on Linux it's HUGE.