How Are You Guys Handling This?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/44cbb16a-3bac-44bd-ba08-6f26900ba7a6.jpeg

I upgraded from my 15 year old PC to one of the new Mac Minis at Xmas last year, thinking that I would be fine for gaming with my Xbox / Game Pass, and I would “skip a generation” on PC hardware. I have a small Steam / Epic library, but everything that didn’t work on MacOS, I had a Game Pass version of.

Fast forward a year. Xbox shit itself, RAM and GPU prices / 2026 outlook are dismal, etc etc

What’s my best option going forward for gaming? The only option I see right now is cloud gaming like GeForceNOW, but it seems like such a ripoff.

Any advice?

source

Comments

Sort:hotnew top

Brewchin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Game Pass sounds great, but the average game play time is ~2 weeks. You’re paying $240–480/year to skim the surface of multiple games.

That’s a lot for what is essentially a demo experience. There are better ways to approach gaming.

source
- msage@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Play for a week, refund on Steam.
  
  Free forever!
  
  source
  - kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I thought there was play time limits of like 2 hours for a refund
    
    source
- Butterpaderp@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  You could play full games, start to finish. I think it’s kinda unfair to compare them to demos. It was a pretty good deal at $10 a month.
  
  source
  - Lfrith@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I think money is better spent on Humble Choice since you can buy months that interest you and skip those that don’t, and the games stay in your library. I prefer to spend money to be able to keep games than pay to rent newer ones.
    
    source
  - Brewchin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Hence me mentioning the price. When does it stop being worth it? You were clearly happy with $120/year, but everyone has their own threshold.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
warm@kbin.earth ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Get a Steam Deck? You can hook it up like a PC, use it sat around. Though its not a powerhouse. Wait and see how the Steam Machine fairs? There's still a good second hand market for parts too.

Its a shitty time at the moment with scumbag companies and AI, so consumers are completely fucked.

Also: Fuck subscriptions.
Plus the game pass versions of games are complete dogshit compared to the Steam versions most of the time.

source
- artyom@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Steam Machine will be priced “like a PC” so, not really a solution either.
  
  source
CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Not sure what to tell you, but a Mac is the last platform to go to for gaming. Apple has zero interest in gaming and have made the platform virtually hostile to gaming development.

Steam regularly has sales (really good sales, like under $5) for fairly modern games (within the last 10 years).

Wait for a sale on something like an AMD Beelink and use that.

source
- AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Like I replied to another comment, the Mac was necessary for work (art and music) and was light years ahead of anything else that can be obtained at its price point ($575).
  
  Thanks for the Beelink rec, though.
  
  source
  - MSids@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I also switched my tower out for an M4 mini last year. It surprised me how much I fell in love with it and Mac OS. Retro game corps has a great emulation on Mac video, though I also ended up with a Beelink SER9 that I use exclusively for game streaming. I’m sure there is a substantial cost, but I wish more developers would release for Apple silicon. They’re truly excellent machines.
    
    source
jordanlund@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’ve consistently refused to buy in to Game Pass. I still buy physical games where available. If it’s only digital, I’ll get the Steam version for my Steam Deck.

source
- thenoirwolfess@lemmynsfw.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I wish I didn’t go all in on digital, but then the space not taken up by physical media (in my case, >1,000 games) is also valuable to me. I’ll have to settle for keeping copies of whatever isn’t DRM locked, and pirate whatever is.
  
  source
Codilingus@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The moment Game Pass wouldn’t let me cheese the system and get it for like $1-2 a month, I quit bothering with it. I knew they were trying to get people hooked and raise prices. It was only like a year later and then even my friends canceled theirs.

I buy games heavily on sale, or sail the seas.

Luckily my gaming PC is more than good enough to ride out the next 5 years. knocks on wood. 5800X3D + 6800 XT.

source
pyrinix@kbin.melroy.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I don't know what I can tell you.

I'm one of those patient gamers, where I'm just happy I finally have a machine that can play about 89% of the games I have to throw at it. Moreso happier that it can confidently run PS2 emulation, something I've been chasing for years to have a machine that can do, to own anyways.

I think you just need to sit down and contemplate to yourself what you want out of a machine. It's not a good healthy mindset to be fretting about upgrading all of the time. I mean, you made a huge leap already going from 15 years to what you have now.

Also consider that, there will still be games released that look graphically demanding and everything, but will require maybe a 1060 GPU, just as an example. Probably 8GB of RAM. It's only the AAA stuff that wants everything to be tip-top shape. Don't chase those.

source
- AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  This is honestly the healthiest take, there are just a lot of games currently out that I want to play but have no way to.
  
  Space Marine 2, KCD2, Stalker 2, etc etc etc
  
  It’s just been a good year to be a single player gamer, and I wanna get in on it. 🤷‍♂️
  
  source
  - tal@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    The good news is that single-player games tend to age well. Down the line, the bugs are as fixed as they’re gonna be. Any expansions are done. Prices may be lower. Mods may have been created. Wikis may have been created. You have a pretty good picture of what the game looks like in its entirety. While there are rare cases that games are no longer available some reason or break on newer OSes with no way to make them run, that’s rare.
    
    With (non-local) multiplayer games, one has a lot less flexibility, since once the crowd has moved on, it’s moved on.
    
    source
- mohab@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I played +400 hours last year and most demanding game in my library has a GTX 1050 minimum requirement. There’s much more to gaming than yearly AAA releases.
  
  source
pory@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Never paid a subscription in the first place.

source
- AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  How shockingly good for you.
  
  I’m so happy you provided me this great advice in answer to my question.
  
  Maybe you should have subscribed to “How Not To Be a Huge Ass on the Internet Quarterly”. A lot of people like it for the pictures, but I read it for the articles.
  
  source
  - pory@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    You trusted your ability to play games to a subscription service that’s now a scam at $20/mo. The thing is, it was also a scam at $10, or $5, or “first three months free with Discord Nitro”. Your options post-Gamepass are to buy your games or pirate them. Being on a Mac exclusively, with no access to Windows/Linux based hardware complicates things further. This is the consequence that subscription services and proprietary vendor-locked software have on the hobby. It sucks that you’ve been personally enshittified on, but there’s no “answer to your question” other than “mac kinda sucks for native gaming, and cloud gaming is a scam”.
    
    source
nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
you are seriously limited on the games. you can play with the Apple silicon Mac

source
- Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Does Proton even work on Macs? It seems pretty clear at this point Linux is a far better gaming OS.
  
  source
  - spicehoarder@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Nope, that would be FEX. And support for Apple Silicon is currently on the roadmap. So maybe in a couple of years.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    no, it does not.
    
    a lot of mac games that came out before apple silicon simply will not run.
    
    ive had mostly poor results trying to run games with crossover and whisky.
    
    your best bet is to stick with the limited selection of games that have native apple silicon releases. with these and my m2 mac mini im still experiencing some pretty bad input lag. i am sticking to rimworld and stellaris.
    
    source
  - knolord@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    From an colleague of mine, who bought an M1 Macbook Pro when they were new; he told me that there was a Wine fork (don’t know the name sadly) for Apple silicon which kinda worked with most (older) Steam games, not as nice as Proton on x86-64 Linux, but good enough for his game tastes. Don’t know if it’s still maintained or not…
    
    source
Rumo161@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Switching to Bazzite (a Linux Distro, made for gaming). No Ragrets so far

source
- jacksilver@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I don’t think bazzite runs on ARM macs.
  
  source
  - tal@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It looks like it doesn’t support ARM architecture systems at all:
    
    docs.bazzite.gg/…/Hardware_compatibility_for_gami…
    
    Minimum System Requirements
    
    Architecture: x86_64
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
That’s the old price. GamePass Ultimate went up briefly from $14.99 to $19.99 then doubled (from its original price) to $29.99 per month.

I got locked in at the original price. Better yet, I got the GamePass All Access deal right before it went away. That gets you the $500 Xbox Series X and 2 years of GamePass Ultimate for about 35 bucks a month. If you consider GPU to be $15 a month, that pushes the Xbox down to $480. Not a bad deal at all! You get the Xbox and a 24-month code straight up and make payments (it’s a credit card with 0% interest for that purchase, so you have to qualify for it). That’s why I have an XSX and not a PS5 like I would have liked. I couldn’t come up with $500 straight up for a PS5, but I could make $35 a month for 2 years plus I got GamePass.

I still game on my Xbox (I’m a Mac user on computers — we got Cyberpunk and Blue Prince last year, and I own both on Steam, but they play better on my Xbox). I just buy games on sale. I got the Mass Effect Legendary Edition (remaster of the Shepard trilogy) for $6. That sale is still on. They also have Mass Effect 4 for $3 (or $4 for Deluxe) and the first one (OG 360 version) for $5. Bought all of it. Love those games. I got Hogwarts Legacy for $10. That nasty trans-hating Harry Potter author didn’t have any input in the game and in fact it has a bunch of gay couples and a trans character to spite her. I really don’t like her views and avoided the game for a couple years, but I’m hooked. I love flying around and exploring the castle. I also play Switch games. Those tend to last longer than PC/Xbox games. My wife got Animal Crossing last year and burned out after a couple weeks. I still check in on my island a few times a week. It’s honestly a lovely game.

source
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Steam Deck is the answer for now. You may still be able to get one of the discontinued LCD models on the cheap, but GamePass is now as expensive as buying a game every month, so it’s better to buy than subscribe. They also make excellent PCs and homelab devices. We bought several LCD versions for the lab instead of Pi 5s, because they are such a good deal.

source
- AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Really interesting take, especially on the home lab front. I had honestly never considered a steam deck over a pi5, and I’m looking at also building a MESHnet system and stuff that I would need a Pi for.
  
  source
  - BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I love Pi, but the price of the 5 is unreasonable. Since RPF spun hardware into publicly traded a for-profit business, I expect it will only continue to get worse.
    
    source
  - Jarix@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Humble bundles and GOG also things to keep an eye on.
    
    source
Lfrith@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Cloud gaming is financially rewarding to end goal of turning hardware ownership into a rental service, so I’m staying away from that.

I think the way forward is to just be fine with older hardware and getting less demanding newer titles. There’s those who only game on a Steam Deck, and been happy with it.

source
Aielman15@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I don’t know you, but I have more games in my library than gaming hours in a month. I haven’t touched anything released in the past three years, and mostly replay older games and emulators. The entire PS1 and PS2 library, as well as Nintendo 64, GBA, DS, etc… can be played on your fridge, and you can pirate those games for free, or buy their remasters (if they’s any) for cheap.

source
BigTuffAl@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I turned 360 degrees around and installed bazzite

source
unmagical@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Check Craigslist, FB Marketplace, Letgo–just general classifieds. Can generally find decent deals on 1 to 2 generation old PCs, especially if you’re near a US Military installation or college.

source
SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Here’s an idea that won’t cost anything: Browser games! There are tons of great Incremental games playable for free on a browser, and plenty of other games too.

source
caseyweederman@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Some friends at work started up a patient-gamer-style Pokémon book club. It’s been four months and we’re almost done Pokémon Black/White (which may sound impressive except that we started with Pokémon Black/White)

source
- Hazzard@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Not an unreasonable suggestion, the list of Mac compatible emulators is really impressive. Pretty much everything supports M1 Macs, even cutting edge emulators like ShadPS4 and Ryubing (PS4 + Switch emulators)
  
  source
lath@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Take a break. Go outside. Enjoy nature.

source
B0NK3RS@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Have a look at the Heroic Launcher. I remember reading it included a feature to play some Windows games in compatibility mode or something?

Apart from that I guess it’s Geforce Now, Amazon Luna etc…

source
- thenoirwolfess@lemmynsfw.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Can confirm.
  
  Most games I run on Heroic are free giveaways from Epic. Those are, to the best of my knowledge, all Windows. Heroic handles the compatibility with Proton, similar to how Steam does it. With a fancypants workaround you can even install Sims 4 as a direct game exe
  
  source
  - Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I’ve used it for Epic and GOG, Lutris for Ubi/EA, but can either play MS UWP games? That seemed to be the one huge hurdle for any third party launcher in general.
    
    source
locahosr443@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Probably a steam deck as they are yet to be hit by the mega price hikes.

Once they are, abandon any thoughts of gaming for a while I guess.

source
artyom@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

What’s my best option going forward for gaming?

Probably the same as always: look for a good deal on a used PC. Or buy all the used components and slot them together. The former is usually a better value.

source
thenoirwolfess@lemmynsfw.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’m not. You can still buy valid 12 month Xbox Live Gold subscriptions for under £40, close to the £36 before Game Pass took over. Fuck the new price. The Gold codes translate to Game Pass Core. But if you want Ultimate, well don’t let me get between your lips and Microsoft’s expensive arsehole

source
msokiovt@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Um… you need to sell that Mac and build a computer with DDR4 and maybe a 40 Series NVIDIA GPU (so as to not pay the high prices on both fronts), slap Linux on it (I’d recommend Mint or Pop_OS!), and learn how to set it up for gaming. That’s stupid otherwise.

source
- AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Sorry, but the Mac is for art and music. I make money with it, its non-negotiable.
  
  Please point me to a comparable PC build that can be had for a total price tag of $575, since that’s what I shelled out for the Mac.
  
  source
  - jordanlund@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    With current pricing, it’s going to be tough and that’s no joke.
    
    Even the new Steam Machine is being predicted to be around $1,000.
    
    indy100.com/…/steam-machine-price-cost-release-da…
    
    The era of $600 gaming PCs is 1-3 years ago now.
    
    (NGL - I still want a Steam Machine. :)
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Mac user as well. I have an M2 Pro mini on my desk, and a base M2 MacBook Air.
    
    To be fair, you didn’t specify in the OP why you bought the Mac. Their comment is fair, and this is coming from a guy who doesn’t like Windows. It’s also a bad recommendation: you’re not gonna get a good deal on the Mac that would get you a comparative PC. Your best bet would either be a used Switch or a used Xbox Series S, or maybe a PS4 (Xb1 sucks).
    
    That said, you can get a comparable PC for $575, but you won’t get $575 for a $575 Mac selling it secondhand. The fallacy with that suggestion is you’ll get about 2/3 what you paid at best and that’ll put you in a much worse spot. Now you might be able to get a Chinese PC with everything on the chip like the Mac mini is, with 16GB DDR4 and something like an i3 dual core that will do some of the things the Mac will do, but it won’t have a Windows license, you’ll need to pay for that or get Linux. Still a bad idea if your new Mac works and you’re happy with it.
    
    I made my comment entirely based on the picture, which is kinda my bad but I’m leaving it. I read the text after. I blame my autism.
    
    That being said, you didn’t buy the Mac for gaming. If you did that’s on you. Heroic is good for some Steam games. M2 Pro isn’t great for gaming. I suspect you have an M4 base with 16 or 24GB of RAM (doesn’t matter in most cases). That’s a more capable machine. Still not great. Macs are not gaming machines. GeForce Now is a decent way to go if you have Steam games. You only need to pay the $10/month price to get decent game streaming, but only if the latency is good enough based on your location. If it’s not, the $20/month tier isn’t going to help. It’s just better graphics.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - squaresinger@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    If you are buying new, $575 isn’t going to get you a lot.
    
    But if you buy used and don’t mind lurking on second-hand platforms for a while to find a good deal, you should be able to get something decent for that amount.
    
    source
Psythik@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Wasn’t Game Pass like $6/mo on PC not too long ago? Who’s paying $20 for this crap? The game selection isn’t even that good.

source
Sharkticon@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
By not?

source
Bluefruit@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Older and or used hardware is gonna be a place to start for CPU and GPU. Used dell optiplex can get you most of the way there, then buy a decent GPU when you can. Just make sure it fits in the case and the PSU that comes with the optiplex can handle the power draw. I’d recommend a new PSU though. Dont buy used for PSU or storage is the best advice I can give.

Optiplex are not gonna get you top of the line performance or anything but it’ll be a lot better than nothing and you can always use it for something else later like a nas, a server, home theater PC, etc.

source
Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Check craig’s list and FB market place for used parts and hardware. Did you save your old PC? You could still play older titles with it as well as some newer indie games that don’t need lots of processing power. If a new PC is a must, purchase the parts as you can afford them then assemble the machine once you have what you need.

source
djdarren@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
As you already have a Mac, have you looked into Crossover?

So far as I understand, the work that CodeWeavers do with it is the basis for what Valve have done with Proton, so it’s the closest you’ll get to Proton on macOS. I’ve seen people running RDR2 on Macs with it. It’s a reasonable outlay, but it could be a useful tool for running a whole bunch of Windows-only titles via Steam.

There is also Whisky, which is to all intents and purposes, a free version of Crossover, albeit (intentionally) a couple of Wine versions behind so as to not detract from what Crossover does. I’ve used Whisky a bunch to play Windows games on my M2 Macbook, and while it’s not been perfect, and will likely struggle with brand new, AAA games, older titles should work nicely.

source
- djdarren@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Ultimately, I don’t really use my Mac for gaming these days because it’s a bit of a headache compared to just firing up my wife’s old PC that I’ve put Linux on. But I recognise I’m lucky enough to have that option.
  
  source
TORFdot0@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Play old games, I guess? Arc Raiders is one of the only new games I’ve played in a long time. Recently got an Xbox one to play the golden age cod games.

source
IEatDaFeesh@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Maybe wait for the Steam Machine

source
- Lootboblin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  And how is the Steam Machine safe from the high prices?
  
  source

-> View More Comments