The first week of October brought no macOS updates and no new Mac ports of the big releases. What it did bring was a heavy run of Windows launches, a remaster of a game plenty of Mac owners already play through CrossOver, and firmer signs that new Macs are coming before the month is out.
The short version: Gears of War: E-Day, Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Ace Combat 8 all launched on Windows only, and for the first two, cloud streaming is how you play them on a Mac today. If you run The Witcher 3 through CrossOver, be careful with the new remaster until community reports catch up. And if you are about to buy a Mac for gaming, wait until the end of the month.
New Macs look likely in late October
MacRumors reported on 5 October that Apple is planning two sets of launches this month. The first, on 13 October according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, covers a new home hub, a new HomePod mini and a new Apple TV 4K. None of that is Mac hardware.
The second set is expected in the final week of October, and that is the one to watch. Apple has already said the Mac Studio with M5 Ultra and up to 512GB of memory arrives in late October. MacRumors lists a base 14 inch MacBook Pro and an iMac with M6 chips, plus the rumoured OLED "MacBook Ultra" models, as the likeliest companions. Those are reports rather than announcements, so treat them as possible, not certain.
For gaming the reason to care is simple. A new base chip means a new GPU generation at the cheapest price point, and it usually pushes down the price of the outgoing models too. If you are close to buying, waiting three weeks costs you nothing. In the meantime, our Mac comparison tool shows how the current line up handles the games you play, and My Mac gives a verdict for every game in the database against the machine you already own.
Gears of War: E-Day launches, and Mac players stream it
Gears of War: E-Day launched on 6 October on PC and Xbox Series X|S, after Premium Edition owners got in from 1 October. There is no Mac version. GeForce NOW added it on launch day, which makes streaming the obvious route.
E-Day is not in our database yet, so we do not have a verdict on local play. The rest of the series gives a fair idea of what to expect. Gears of War 4 cannot run locally on Apple Silicon at all, and Gears of War 2 and Gears of War: Judgment are streaming only, through Xbox Cloud Gaming. E-Day is a much newer game with hardware ray traced lighting, reflections and shadows, so I would not plan on CrossOver for it at launch. Stream it, and we will update the game page once there is real evidence either way.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Ace Combat 8
Star Wars: Galactic Racer arrived on 6 October on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and it joined GeForce NOW the same day. If you want to race this week on a Mac, that is your option.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve launched on Steam on 1 October, also with no Mac version. This one is harder. It is not on GeForce NOW's October list, so there is no easy cloud route yet. Its predecessor, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, is one of the better CrossOver experiences we track: it runs very well on M1 Pro and M4 Pro chips thanks to recent D3DMetal improvements. That tells you the series can work under translation, but it is no promise for a newer and heavier sequel. If you try Ace Combat 8 in CrossOver, buy it on Steam so the refund window covers you if it does not run.
The Witcher 3 remaster is out
CD Projekt Red released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered on 29 September as a free upgrade for owners on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with a native Switch 2 version alongside. The update reworks combat, movement, monster behaviour, horse handling and the skill tree, and adds transmog, an expanded photo mode, better quest tracking and cross platform mod support. There is still no Mac version.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been one of the most reliable CrossOver games on Apple Silicon, with community reports rating it good to excellent on most M-series chips, including after the earlier next generation update. Our verdict was built on that version. A remaster with upgraded visuals could move performance in either direction, and there are not enough reports yet to say which. If your copy has not updated yet, duplicate your CrossOver bottle first so you have something to fall back to.
GeForce NOW added the remaster in its 1 October update, so streaming is the safe choice while the CrossOver picture settles.
Minecraft Dungeons II
Minecraft Dungeons II launched on 29 September across PC and consoles, including Game Pass, and GeForce NOW picked it up in the same 1 October update. There is no Mac version.
The first game is a useful warning. Minecraft Dungeons has a launcher that breaks under CrossOver and it fails in Parallels, so we list it as a streaming game, with Xbox Cloud Gaming as the best route. I would go straight to the cloud for the sequel rather than spend an evening fighting a bottle.
Updates to games you might already play
A few live games had updates this week. Deadlock's City Never Sleeps hero update arrived on 2 October. Deadlock runs through CrossOver with D3DMetal, but you need a recent M-series chip to hold a competitive frame rate in late game team fights. Big patches are when translation layers most often trip up, so launch it once after updating before you queue with friends.
ARC Raiders gets its Frozen Trail update on 8 October. Nothing changes for Mac players. Its anti-cheat is incompatible with local play on macOS, and GeForce NOW is the only way in.
Neon Abyss 2 reaches version 1.0 on 8 October. It has no Mac build, and Boosteroid is our recommended way to play it.
GeForce NOW's October list
NVIDIA's October line up is long. Beyond Gears and Galactic Racer, Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival, Order of the Sinking Star and Silver Pines arrive on 8 October, with Permafrost on 9 October. Next week brings Planet Zoo 2, Total War: SHOGUN 2 Complete Edition and Valor Mortis on 13 October, then Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 on 14 October. Graveyard Keeper 2 and Solasta II are also due this month without firm dates.
Boltgun 2 is the one to flag. The original Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun runs well through CrossOver on most Apple Silicon Macs because it uses a well supported version of Unreal Engine 4. We do not know yet whether the sequel follows suit, so GeForce NOW is the safe day one route. If you are choosing a streaming service, our GeForce NOW vs Boosteroid comparison sets out price, image quality and library side by side.
Apple Arcade
The five Apple Arcade games announced in September landed on 1 October: Terraria+, Touchgrind BMX 2+, River City Survivors, Pusheen's Place and 4 Pics 1 Word+. Terraria+ is the pick of the batch. Not every Arcade game supports the Mac, so check the App Store listing before you plan to play on your laptop.
What I would do this week
If you want one of this week's big launches, a month of GeForce NOW covers Gears of War: E-Day, Galactic Racer and The Witcher 3 remaster without touching CrossOver at all, and it works on any Mac with a good connection. Leave Ace Combat 8 until there are CrossOver reports. And if a new Mac is on your list, hold your money until Apple's late October launches, then check the new chips against your games on compare before you buy.