First, a Recap

This was a great week, for many reasons.  For one thing, it was my first full week with the new iPhone 4S.  I managed to eke out a quick review within hours of its unboxing, then went on to review the Splash Masque screen protectors I decided to use on it, which I snagged for a real bargain at Amazon.com. I also recovered rather rapidly from what I thought was going to be one of the worst colds I’d ever come down with, and lived to see my 43rd birthday on Thursday.

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the 8gb memory upgrade I put into my mid-2009 Macbook Pro (Unibody 15″, 2.53ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, 250 gb Fujitsu SATA disk) — still a formidable machine by all current standards.  Save one.

Enter: The Elder Scrolls V, Skyrim

It was also Skyrim week, for those of us of the gamer persuasion.  I used to have a really nice, top of the line HP notebook that I’d bought during a feverish bout of curiosity about Windows Vista, and shortly thereafter, Windows 7.  I’m an old school geek who used to work on the bench putting systems together, so it’s understandable that even though every product in my house is “Made by Apple in California” (as Siri likes to say when I ask her where she’s from,) anytime something new comes out on the other side, including new Linux distros that have managed to get much attention, I get an almost physically painful urge to test it out.  Plus, there were a few games I wanted to try: notably, the Elder Scrolls series.  My HP was easily able to handle them at the time, although if I still had it today it would fail miserably at Skyrim;  it had trouble with Oblivion.

After I’d had my fun with Windows and Ubuntu Linux, and the HP had outlived its usefulness for my gaming needs (I was still playing World of Warcraft, which does perfectly well on a Mac) I passed it to a relative who still adores it. There are no more non-Apple computers in this house.

Now, before you suggest I run out and buy an XBox or PS3, don’t.  The only console game system I ever got into was Nintendo, because I loved The Legend of Zelda series and the Mario Brothers games, and you couldn’t really get those anywhere else.  I prefer PC gaming.  I need the keyboard controls, the editor tools, and that up close and personal feeling you get from hacking .ini files when the situation calls for it.  To me, the idea of playing a game as noble as Skyrim on any console is heretical.  Also, I don’t have a TV in my game cave, and the one in the family room is strictly off limits for anything but Wii Fit.

My Options

So this leaves me in a bit of a situation.  First, my Macbook Pro, for all its power and speed, simply does not meet the recommended requirements for this game.

• Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
• Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU
• 4GB System RAM
• 6GB free HDD space
• DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with 1GB of RAM (Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or higher (i.e GTX550Ti); ATI Radeon 4890 or higher).
• DirectX compatible sound card
• Internet access for Steam activation

It doesn’t have a graphics card that could pull it off. And even if I used a Wineskin or Cider wrapper (IF there were currently a port available, which there isn’t) DirectX 9 kills it for me.  It just isn’t going to happen, and Bethesda has no plans of bringing this to the Mac, and I have to accept that.

My only option would be to buy a Windows laptop that meets those specs.  I can’t buy a desktop unit because honestly, I have no room for something like that in my personal space.  I’m an aesthetic minimalist, and the idea of a big black box with wires is about as appealing to my soul as day old oatmeal on a stick.  But wow, doling out bucks for a Windows machine — JUST (and let’s be honest, it really would be JUST) so that I could play a video game seems excessive.  Granted, laptops meeting the above specs can be found fairly inexpensively (I saw one for less than $600 at BestBuy) but still, ya know?

So, what would you do in my situation?  Just not play Skyrim?  Maybe accept Blizzard’s invitation to return to Azeroth for a while?  Or, I could try getting into the Dragon Age series, which I’ve heard is pretty good but never messed with. Seriously, what would you do?  I want your opinion.

 UPDATE:  a Wineskin wrapper was made available this evening (after I had purchased Windows 7 from Best Buy but not yet opened it) so I gave it a try and here is a video of Skyrim running on my MBP