Hi, my daughter just got a shiny new Macbook Pro for college and wants to install Oblivion. Unfortunately it doesn't include an optical drive so we will have to buy from Steam. Will she need to do anything special to install and play it?

Thanks in advance.

Hmmm... Oblivion is not going to run on Mac OSX. It requires Windows.

You'll have to create a Bootcamp partition and install Windows on it. I'm not sure how you're going to do that without at least temporary access to an optical drive. You might see if the people who sold you the Macbook can make the necessary upgrades to the system.

This is not a trivially simple installation. (But it is possible.)

Sounds like it's not worth the hassle. Can she play Skyrim?

Same problem. Requires Windows. Same solution.

It's not impossible. I have a Mac, with Bootcamp/Windows, and it works flawlessly with Windows software. But it is considerably more complicated to get set up than a single-operating-system computer. Once it's up and running, it's like having two different computers in one.

The only TES game that runs natively on a Mac is Elder Scrolls Online. It is a great game, but it is TES in an MMO setting. You can play a ton of the game single player if that is a concern.

Thanks for the reply guys. I could set up the Bootcamp partition. I am not unfamiliar with Windows machines but am a rookie with Macs. I'll look it up and see. She just wants to play Oblivion, maybe Skyrim. But may have to wait to play it when she's home on one of my machines.

Thanks again.