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The StarCraft II Beta Is Out For Mac

And it actually runs on a regular ol' MacBook. Who knew?

A bit later than expected, the Mac version of the StarCraft II beta has finally dropped today. If you're already in the beta, just go to your Battle.net account page to download it. If you aren't, uh, I guess you could go preorder the game or something? 
 
I'm shocked to report that this thing actually runs on my MacBook (late '08 unibody model) with a GeForce 9400M. I wouldn't say it runs well, or that it looks very good, but a fullscreen match against an AI was quite playable at around 30 frames per second. Here is the photographic evidence. Doesn't look great, but hey, that's gaming on a laptop. 
  

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SO CLOSE TO GOLD TIER ARGH. And just for laughs, here's a shot of the default settings the game recommended to me based on my laptop's specs. 
  

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Of course, any recent iMac or 15" or 17" MacBook will run this thing at normal pretty and performance levels. Anybody out there in the beta have one of those brand-spanking-new 13" models with the GeForce 340M? I'm curious how well that thing handles this game, and if it's much of an upgrade over my older model. (Come on, give me an excuse to upgrade.)
 
With StarCraft hitting the Mac and the OSX Steam beta coming soon, does anyone else feel like the Mac may actually become a viable gaming platform in the not-too-distant future?
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Crono

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Edited By Crono

I'm just glad I don't have to hear about how the mac client isn't out yet.

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CletusTheFoetus

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Edited By CletusTheFoetus

I've always had my beta profile settings on battle net set to my macbook pro in the hopes it would give me a better chance. My MBP is way better than the rust bucket PC I have and I guess they need to get more data anyway, so fingers crossed.

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delsaber

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Edited By delsaber

Whether or not the Mac finally becomes viable for gaming likely depends on just how many of us jump on Steam and start buying things once the Macintosh client is released - a lot of those things might just be Blizzard products. Valve's support is already a massive leap forward. If successful, and I honestly can't fathom any reason why it wouldn't be since any gamer who just happens to own a Mac will almost certainly be on Steam, I'm sure more than a few developers will consider putting resources into Mac-native versions of their games.

I'm curious: will non-Valve games that already have Mac ports (either native or Cider crap) also be on Steam from day one, or soon after? Civilization, for starters.

By the way, Valve just dated the release for the Mac version of Steam as May 12th, according to Mac Rumors. Usual disclaimer regarding Valve Time no doubt applies.

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sentientchimp

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Edited By sentientchimp

I'm on a unibody macbook (i think the 2009 version) with 2.25 gig processor, geforce 9400m, and 2 gigs of ram. Surprisingly, i'm running the game with medium settings and things are looking and performing pretty well. Additionally, I've heard that running the pc version in boot camp improves performance pretty significantly. Overall I'm pretty happy with how things have turned out, considering that I was not very optimistic about how the game would run on my humble laptop. 

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KaosAngel

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Edited By KaosAngel
@sentientchimp said:
" I'm on a unibody macbook (i think the 2009 version) with 2.25 gig processor, geforce 9400m, and 2 gigs of ram. Surprisingly, i'm running the game with medium settings and things are looking and performing pretty well. Additionally, I've heard that running the pc version in boot camp improves performance pretty significantly. Overall I'm pretty happy with how things have turned out, considering that I was not very optimistic about how the game would run on my humble laptop.  "
How?!  I have more ram and a faster CPU than you, and I can barely run this shit on low with OSX...on XP in Bootcamp I can run it all on mid without problems.
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Jekaboom

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Edited By Jekaboom
With StarCraft hitting the Mac and the OSX Steam beta coming soon, does anyone else feel like the Mac may actually become a viable gaming platform in the not-too-distant future?
 
I sure hope so!!