This game is much more CPU-heavy than most titles, especially as your city starts to reach end-game complexity, but even on a base model M1 Air, you’ll get playable frame rates. Seeing a gap in the market, other developers have moved into scratch this particular itch, and Cities: Skylines is perhaps the best pretender to the crown. SimCity is the greatest city-building game franchise in history, but it’s been many years since we’ve received a new title in the series. It’s also a criminally underrated title, so it’s worth playing to experience something very different from mainstream gaming.

Disco Elysium is a great example of a deep roleplaying game that’s received critical acclaim but might be overlooked as a title to load onto your MacBook for a rainy day or a trip.ĭisco Elysium runs perfectly on a base model M1 Mac and, even better, is a perfect game to play using nothing but the touchpad. There are many games that are played at a more sedate pace that you might overlook for your Apple Silicon system. Not every game has to be about fast frame rates or action. RELATED: How to Connect Any Console Game Controller to a Windows PC or Mac Disco Elysium Factor in the excellent controller support built into macOS, and you’re in for a great time. On a base M1 system, you can crank the visuals up and get a steady 30fps at high resolution or hit 60fps at medium-high settings.

Racing games tend to be more optimized than other genres, and that’s true for DiRT 4. DiRT 4ĭiRT Rally is one of the best mainstream rally racing games on the market, building on a strong legacy of accessible rally games that look and feel great to play. You can cap the framerate at 30 if you wish, but the game felt entirely playable for the sections we did try even if the frame rate fluctuates somewhat. We tried Rise of the Tomb Raider using the medium preset and the frame rate capped at 60, using the 1440×900 resolution setting. That’s right, yesterday’s blockbuster AAA gaming titles are now playable on a fanless ultrabook. M1 MacBook Air: What's the Difference? Rise of the Tomb Raider It runs great on the base model M1, and if you have an M2 or higher-end M1-variant, you can have plenty of extra eye candy to boot.

Still, if you want to lose hours of your life hacking, slashing, looting, and generally having a blast clicking on things until they die, Diablo 3 is an awesome choice. Sadly, Diablo, Diablo 2, and Diablo 2 Resurrected either don’t work on macOS Catalina and newer or, in the case of Resurrected, have no macOS version at all.

Games to play on mac free