How to play Perfect Dark on Mac

Game summary

Perfect Dark is a remastered release of the first-person shooter video game by the same name. Developed by 4J Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios a decade after the original's 2000 release, the remaster features several technical improvements, including higher resolution textures and models, a higher frame rate, and a multiplayer mode that supports the Xbox Live online service. It was released for the Xbox 360 video game console in March 2010, through the Xbox Live Arcade download service. The story of the game follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute organization, as she attempts to stop a conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne. Perfect Dark was under development for nearly a year and its game engine was completely re-written from scratch to support several Xbox 360 features. Therefore, although the game plays exactly the same as the original, the code and renderer is different. The game received generally favorable reviews. Some critics considered the relatively unchanged game to be outdated, but most agreed that the title was a solid revival of a classic.
First released: Mar 2010

Play Perfect Dark on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Perfect Dark on a Mac is through Parallels, which allows you to virtualize a Windows machine on Macs. The setup is very easy and it works for Apple Silicon Macs as well as for older Intel-based Macs.

Parallels supports the latest version of DirectX and OpenGL, allowing you to play the latest PC games on any Mac. The latest version of DirectX is up to 20% faster.

Our favorite feature of Parallels Desktop is that when you turn off your virtual machine, all the unused disk space gets returned to your main OS, thus minimizing resource waste (which used to be a problem with virtualization).

Perfect Dark installation steps for Mac

Step 1
Go to Parallels.com and download the latest version of the software.
Step 2
Follow the installation process and make sure you allow Parallels in your Mac’s security preferences (it will prompt you to do so).
Step 3
When prompted, download and install Windows 10. The download is around 5.7GB. Make sure you give it all the permissions that it asks for.
Step 4
Once Windows is done installing, you are ready to go. All that’s left to do is install Perfect Dark like you would on any PC.
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