How to play Age of Empires 4 on Mac

Empire is a timeless classic. Although many real-time strategy (RTS) games have attempted to revolutionize the genre over the years, countless fans have found themselves returning to the genre. Empire‘re-release.

However, after 16 years, Empire series has welcomed a new edition to its main series. The title is only available on Windows machines at the moment, and if you’ve moved from the Windows ecosystem over the years, the game might make you consider investing in a new gaming PC.

While owning a gaming PC would still be the best idea for the smoothest gaming experience, it’s not necessarily a requirement. Empire IV may not be available on macOS, but players can try several methods to start playing the game on their Mac.

Boot Camp Method

The Boot Camp method only works for Macs with Intel chips. This method allows players to set up Windows on their Mac, allowing them to use Windows-specific programs in addition to playing games.

• Download the official Windows ISO file via Official Microsoft website
• You will need a USB stick with at least 5GB of free space. Plug in your USB and disconnect all other external storage devices, making the USB stick the only external storage solution connected to your Mac
• Launch “Boot Camp Assistant” via focus search or the utilities folder located in Applications
• Check the boxes that say “Download the latest Windows support software for Apple” and “Install Windows”.
• You will then be asked to locate your ISO file, which will be in your Downloads folder by default.
• Select the ISO file and then select your USB stick to start creating the bootable Windows drive.
• Select hard drive capacity /SSD the amount of space you want for Windows.
  • Considering you will be playing games on Windows, you may want to allocate more than 100GB to make sure you have enough space to download a few games.
  • You can always allocate more space for Windows later.
• You’ll then start choosing your system and user preferences while Windows 10 gets ready to boot in the background

Once Windows completes the installation, you’ll be able to download it Age of Empires IV from the platform of your choice. Your Mac will now practically be a Windows machine, which means you’ll have the option to play many other games that don’t have Mac support in addition to playing Empire IV.

Using virtual machine

Some players may be familiar with the Virtual Machine through a series of YouTube videos aimed at defeating online scammers/hackers. Virtual machines allow users to test software and the like without risking their own systems, and they can also be used to play games.

If you have a Mac with an M1 chip or later, you won’t be able to use the Boot Camp method to install Windows on your system. The alternatives are still good enough, but the process of setting them up is a bit different.

While the performance of the Virtual Machine will be debatable, it is better not to play at all. To follow this method, you will need third-party Virtual Machine software. There are several alternatives on the market, and finding the best can take a few tries. Regardless of their differences, all Virtual Machine software is intended to do the same, so almost all of them should do the trick here.

• Set up your Virtual Machine software.
• After launching the Virtual Machine, you will be asked to download and install Windows.
• After following the menus, your Virtual Machine will start downloading the Windows ISO file and this may take a while depending on your internet speed.
• The Windows Setup wizard will ask you many questions during this process. From time zone to language, you’ll need to make some adjustments before starting the installation.
• When you install Windows on your Virtual Machine, you will be able to download hosting platforms Age of Empires IV and download the game.

Every time you feel like playing Age of Empires IV, you’ll need to launch your Virtual Machine, and if you’re looking to spend a few hours playing the game, you might want to consider investing in cooling pad to make sure your Mac doesn’t overheat while gaming.

Adjust your in-game settings once loaded Age of Empires IV will also be the key to smooth gaming performance. While you can always crank games to maximum settings, we recommend keeping them on the lower end of the spectrum to average over 60 frames to keep your Mac cool.

Streaming method

If your Mac is your primary device for both gaming and all other purposes, then this method is not for you. You will need to have an additional Windows computer in addition to your Mac. If you have the necessary tools, the streaming method may be the easiest to set up as you only need the remote desktop software to start enjoying. Age of Empires IV.

• Download Age of Empires IV on your Windows computer
• Install remote desktop software like Teamviewer or Google Remote Desktop on both your Mac and Windows PC
• Debut Empire IV on your Windows computer
• Remotely connect to your Windows PC from your Mac and start playing Age of Empires IV

Age of Empires IV won’t run directly on your Mac, but you’ll stream to your Mac’s screen while your Windows PC does all the work. However, the quality of the game mainly depends on the quality of your network, as a decent amount of bandwidth is required to transmit a continuous high-quality feed. Both Macs and PCs that stream games need a good Internet connection to avoid lag and freezes.

Invest in a secondary system for gaming

In general, MacOS and Mac computers do a good job of handling everyday tasks. They tend to be powerful enough for work-related use cases, and they can even eliminate resource-intensive video editing.

However, gaming is a completely different field. With games getting more and more graphically enhanced each year, it’s becoming more and more difficult to play games without a dedicated graphics card. While you can upgrade your Mac with External GPU, invest in a gaming laptop could be a future-proof option.

You can switch to a gaming laptop from your Mac whenever you want to play games. While it might feel like a jumping ship, you can always revert back to your Mac for anything unrelated to the game. Not boosting your Mac’s hardware with graphically intensive games can even extend your Mac’s life, which tends to be pretty long regardless.

Mac compatibility tends to be at the bottom of developers’ lists when titles are released. This is mainly because the number of gamers using Mac devices is significantly lower than the total number of PC gamers.

As developers start pushing more content and fixing the majority of bugs post-release, the MacOS port could become a priority, meaning there’s an opportunity for Age of Empires IV to be available on Mac devices. However, nothing has been confirmed so far, but the fact is Age of Empires III already on macOS is enough hope for Mac gamers.