Short of actually buying a PC just to play games -- and it must be said that the cost of a decent PC has dropped dramatically over the past few years -- there are a few options available, and they all contain the crazy voodoo called virtualization. Bear in mind that these are only the applications that I've personally tried myself. Check 'em out after the jump!
Parallels
Parallels Desktop for the Mac is an application that allows a user to run Windows emulated within the Mac environment. It is now up to Version 5, and has been around since 2006, taking advantage of Macs that use Intel processors. Parallels works by providing a completely virtual PC -- all software, yet tied to the Mac's hardware to function. Not specifically meant to allow playing games, it rather offers the complete Windows platform. As such, you can install any Windows application and it should work just fine.
I have Parallels Desktop for Mac Version 4 on my 2.16 Intel Core Duo iMac, and I have to say that my experience has been somewhat uneven. I recently tried to play Torchlight, and was able to run the installer just fine. When it got to the point of actually executing the program, I was able to see the game's splash screen, then was shown an error message before Torchlight shut itself down. I have been unable to get the game to run.
I had also attempted to run Age of Empires 3 and found it fairly slow and unresponsive once too many units popped onscreen. However, I was able to install and play the latest Popcap game Amazing Adventures: The Caribbean Secret just fine. Admittedly, it might be that all these games run well in Parallels 5, so take this personal experience for what it's worth. Your mileage may vary, but at $79.95, you might ask yourself if it's worth the price to find out for sure how it will run your PC games.
CrossOver
The CrossOver suite of applications by CodeWeavers is another virtualization option for Mac users that operates in a slightly different fashion than Parallels does. Instead of the full Windows environment, each Windows application is self-contained -- you could run the PC version of Microsoft Office right in your Mac without having to fire up Windows at all. There are two applications for Mac users: CrossOver Mac, which includes support for Office, Internet Explorer 6, Quicken, and a few other PC apps; and CrossOver Games.
The Baconing (6/23/11)
X Rebirth Screenshots
Rise Of Immortals Nysuss Screenshots
The Witcher 2 Screenshots
Trackmania 2 Screenshots
Prey 2 Screenshots
Mass Effect 2 - Arrival Screenshots
Magicka Vietnam Screenshots
Choplifter HD Screenshots
With the lack of developer enthusiasm to port games to the Mac environment, a band of intrepid wine porters have taken it upon themselves to make it happen. Calling themselves "The Porting Team", using open source wine they have been able to get games like Fallout 3, Borderlands, Half Life, Left4Dead 1 & 2 and a whole host of others working smoothly as on a PC but without having to boot into windows.
www.theportingteam.comPosted at 2:17PM on Dec 7th 2009 by tcrowns