My list of the most essential games to make your Mac more awesome. You have a very cool computer... enjoy it!

Shooters

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

An intense first-person shooter with fantastic multiplayer.
Download Page

Cube 2: Sauerbraten

A single-player or multiplayer shooter that's free and open source.
Download Page

Freedoom

A version of the classic first-person shooter Doom that's free and open source.
Download Page

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

A free first-person shooter set in the world of Castle Wolfenstein.
Download Page

Puzzles

Portal

An action/puzzle game of teleportation.
Download Page

Classic

Quinn

A free Tetris-style game.
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Bolo

An old-school tactical tank game, originally written in 1987!
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Mone Swept

A free minesweeper game for the Mac.
Download Page

Strategy

Starcraft

A science fiction strategy game in which 3 alien races battle for dominance.
Download Page

Freeciv.net

A multiplayer strategy game that's free and open source.
Download Page

Age of Empires III

A real-time strategy game about the colonization of the New World.
Download Page

Glest

Magic and Tech battle in this real-time strategy game that's free and open source.
Download Page

Civilization IV

Build your own empire in this turn-based strategy game.
Download Page

The Battle for Wesnoth

A turn-based strategy wargame of humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and trolls that's free and open source.
Download Page

MMORPG

World of Warcraft

The world's most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
Free Trial

PlaneShift

Adventure through a giant stalactite in this massively multiplayer online role-playing game that's free and open source.
Download Page

Various

Dragon Age: Origins

Battle evil and unite the kingdom.
Download Page

Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse

A hilarious graphic adventure game split into "episodes." Check out Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak.
Download Page

Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition

A series of missions in the Star Wars universe.
Download Page

Neverball

A 3-D ball game that's free and open-source.
Download Page

Chopper 1.2.4

An action-packed side-scrolling helecopter game.
Download Page

Scorched 3D

A turn-based artillery game that's free and open source.
Download Page

Lugaru

You're a rabbit seeking vengeance agains the wolves in this free and open source action game.
Download Page

About this Site

BestMacGames.org is a simple list of games that will make almost every Mac user really, really happy. We made this page to be a handy reference for all the folks who are buying new Macs and don't know about all the great stuff that doesn't come pre-installed. Most of all this is a work in progress. If you think we're missing any totally clutch Mac games, let us know: info@bestfreesoftwarelist.com

Note to software creators: first of all, thanks so much for making totally rad mac games.

Second, if we linked to macupdate or versiontracker as the download page, it's because we think your download page is too confusing for new users. It's usually very easy to improve-- just add a big 'Download Now' link towards the top of the page, without too much clutter around it (use mozilla.org or adiumx.com or bittorrent.com for inspiration).

Here's some more unsolicited advice for getting more people to download your software:

if you have a nice icon, show it off prominently.
put a download link and a screenshot on your front page.
if you use mirrors, use a script to pick a random mirror and just give people one link that says 'download now'
if there's any way you can avoid sending people to the sourceforge download mirror page, you should (we know it's not your fault, but it baffles lots of folks).
if you really want to make things easy for people, and you have a cross-platform app, detect what OS they are on and give them the correct link.
test your page on a novice! See if they can understand what the software does and how to get it.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email us: info@bestfreesoftwarelist.com

And here's a similar site dedicated to the best open source software on the mac: OpenSourceMac

A project of Worcester, LLC