Triple A Games on the Mac have been few and far between but things seem to be picking up with the current release and expected 2016 games for the Mac. Here’s a quick look at the most noteworthy gaming releases of 2016 so far.

XCom 2 – Welcome back commander

Unlike like the 2012 reboot for the franchise there’s no waiting for the next installment of the series as it’s dropped on launch day.

We were lead to believe that we won the last war, that turned out to be lies and now the world is under alien rule. With the odds stacked against you from both aliens and humans, it’s up to you commander to rebuild Xcom in a whole new way, make contact with the resistance, save the world and humanity. There is that much to the game along with a huge amount of replay ability.

Taking much from the first game XCom 2 looks and plays better and even somewhat harder but those types streaming on Twitch seem to have already beaten the game. With graphics that float between stylish and hokey retro you are going to need a mac with some serious chops to play this adventure but it’s worth it.

With new classes of soldiers, new breeds of enemies and even more stuff to Research, develop and upgrade there’s plenty of reasons to grab a copy. Each mission is unique as landscapes are now all dynamically generated so there is no getting familiar with maps as in the first game.

Online players are catered for with cross-platform multiplayer on Steam: Mix-and-match squads of humans and aliens and battle head-to-head on randomly generated maps across Mac, Linux and Windows.

See the XCOM 2 minisite or you can download either from Steam.

GRID Autosport™ available on Mac App Store.

If a turn based tactical combat simulator isn’t your thing you can always blast around the tracks in Grid Autosport and the graphics look awesome.

If you’re a seasoned veteran of the racing genre or wanting to dip your toes into the casual seas of full on, high powered octane racing GRID Autosport will cater for you. So if you’ve dreamed of taking on the classic Indy 500 or racing around the spectacular city streets of Barcelona, Paris and San Francisco with tightened up ai, GRID should be on your shortlist.

One criticism levelled at the previous games in the series was the bland, incredibly generic and predictable AI. This has been addressed along with some fine tweaking of the graphics which pop and move along at a great frame rate.

GRID Autosport™ available from the Mac App Store.

Company of Heroes 2 – The Western Front Armies

The most release in the 2016 big line up of games dropped early February, Change the course of multiplayer warfare in the Mac port of Company Of Heroes.

Engage in heavy combat on the Western Front with the US Forces and the German Oberkommando West, bringing an unprecedented level of realism to multiplayer on Mac and Linux. This one is for the die-hard gamers who have a solid understanding of multiplayer real-time combat games like this. Think DOTA but with a WW2 feel.

Available for Mac Via Steam

Finally, if all this proves to be too much like hard-core gaming then perhaps an online casino like Casino.com might be your thing. ” It is releasing new games to mac each year (via its software). With over 16 games to drop straight into and some nice tie in to famous movies like Rocky, Hulk and the Avengers you can play for free without having to pay a single thing.

Gaming for the Mac in 2016 is off to a great start so far. Now I’m off to lose a significant part of time to Xcom.