Notes on EA Play, So Far... (Codeweavers Crossover, Mac OS)
So
now, within Steam, there exists the option to subscribe to the
subscription service known as EA Play. What comes with the
subscription? Access to a library of games by electronic arts on Steam,
these include a number of games, both older and more recent, which you
can download and play on Steam. Is this a compatibility nightmare for
Mac OS Users? Not entirely, and the games I have tested have worked out
so well thus far. I don't run Steam in this case directly out of Mac
OS, but I do run it through Codeweavers Crossover, an emulator for Windows Operating Systems that runs a virtual windows machine on Mac OS.
From
there, I Installed a Steam App within the virtual machine emulated with
Crossover for testing some of these results. I have made a complete
video guide on how to setup Steam in Codeweavers Crossover,
which you can take a look at for reference. Starting this weekend, I
took a look at a number of games I acquired earlier through Origin to
see how well they ran on Steam through Codeweavers Crossover, and here
are the results.
Command & Conquer Generals and Zero Hour Expansion
This
game marked the transition of the Command & Conquer strategy games
from 2.5D into 3D, 3D being where you can rotate and orbit the camera
view to even zoom in on the battlefield, along with simulating different
elevations and sloped terrain. Also taking in the troop garrison
mechanics and extending them to all kinds of infantry, this game marked a
mechanical progression from the prior Red Alert 2. However, this game
and it's expansion proved to be a standalone with the development hell
and cancellation of a second Generals game. In this game, separate from
the Red Alert and Tiberium Series, one plays in a possible near future
as The militaries of the United States of America, The People's Republic
of China, or an insurgent faction spanning the Middle East and former
Soviet Republics known as the Global Liberation Army or GLA. The game
uses collecting of supply crates instead of the ore or tiberium
collection from the other Command & Conquer titles. So
how well does this game play? Quite well, in fact. The game runs
smoothly, but does not have any HD graphics in the gameplay without the
HD Mod for Generals.
I will need another guide on how to get this mod installed using the
Steam architecture. But nonetheless, Generals using the EA Play
subscription runs quite smoothly with the exceptions of some titles
being shown irregularly, possibly due to substitution of missing text
fonts. Overall, this game was a pleasant surprise to run on Steam
through the EA Play service, earning for itself a 4/5 compatibility
rating.
The following is an excerpt of the
original blog post on Radio Kaos
