Enjoy Windows games natively on your Mac

One of the only bad things about switching to Mac from Windows is the loss of games. Despite everything, PCs are still more popular than Mac for gaming.

CrossOver Games comes from the same makers of CrossOver which allows you to run many Windows applications on your Mac in a virtual environment. Like CrossOver, CrossOver Games is designed for those with little technical knowledge and holds your hand throughout the setup process. However, unlike other CrossOver products, CrossOver Games squeezes every last drop out of the “Wine” platform in order to handle the demands of games.

CrossOver Games is a great alternative to gaming in Parallels (where games can be very hit and miss) and Boot Camp (which requires booting-up in Windows only). It won’t however work for all games and you’ll have to check the CrossOver Games games compatibility list to see if yours is supported. I really like the fact that it doesn’t require a Windows installation unlike gaming in Parallels and Boot Camp.

Overall, CrossOver Games is probably the best solution for hardcore gamers due to the super-fast Wine platform and it’s greater reliability/convenience for gaming over Parallels and Boot Camp.

Added a workaround for a bug in Mac OS X 10.7. Many games running in a virtual desktop cause a crash. This can be resolved by setting the CX_LEAK_XPLUGIN_SURFACES environment variable. Work around a bug in OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. 10.6.8 generated corrupt icon files which caused occasional Finder crashes. Now we use a different API to generate icon files which bypasses the issue. Changed behavior of group permissions on certain files. Resolves an issue with .docx files on certain file systems.

Changes

• Added a workaround for a bug in Mac OS X 10.7. Many games running in a virtual desktop cause a crash. This can be resolved by setting the CX_LEAK_XPLUGIN_SURFACES environment variable. Work around a bug in OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. 10.6.8 generated corrupt icon files which caused occasional Finder crashes. Now we use a different API to generate icon files which bypasses the issue. Changed behavior of group permissions on certain files. Resolves an issue with .docx files on certain file systems.