Why does my late 2011 MBP fail to run games YEARS older than it?

Hi, I'm new here and this is going to be pretty long, but I'm really frustrated and feel mislead by Apple. In January of 2012, I paid $1000 bucks for my late 2011 13 in. MacBook Pro with the assumption that it would be able to play games. I don't know much about laptop graphics cards and all that but I do know that at the time of my purchase, apple.com was advertising this MPB's graphic card (intel 3000, i5 2.4ghz) as "able to play games" and, if I remember correctly, even had a picture of a video game ATV quad bursting from the laptop screen to show its capabilities. This led me to believe that what I was purchasing had at least moderate gaming capabilities. Well, now it's 2014 and I just installed Windows 7 for a program I need and thought that I would try Steam out because I wanted to try a couple of games I'd heard about. These games are anywhere from 1-4 years older than my Mac and NONE of them are playable:
- Just cause 2 (2010) Slow even on lowest settings.... unplayable
- Bioshock (2007!!!!) slow and jerky on lowest settings..... not fun
- Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 (2010) slow and ugly on lowest settings, jagged graphics... unplayable
- Batman Arkham Asylum (2009) slow, looked like it was chugging it's way through… unplayable..
I'm assuming the results will be the same regardless of what I try. These games are old and for $1000 and Apple's claim that I could play games, I expected them to work. Is there something I could do to my laptop's settings or have I been screwed over with what I'm now calling false advertising. Also, I just wanted to mention that I never expected this laptop to play games at top of the line graphics or anything like that... Just that it would have moderate ability. I tried to post a question about this in Apple's help community but it was deleted because Apple called it a "rant" and told me that I could contact them by leaving feedback…which they said they won't reply to. lol sorry this is so long, I just feel stuck.. what should I do?

You mentioned Windows. Are you running games on the Windows side? Are you running windows on a VM or Bootcamp? How much RAM do you have?

Tell us exactly how you are running Steam, native to OSX or under Windows.

Hey John. I'm running Steam on Windows 7 through Bootcamp with 4gb of RAM.

Wine may be the go rather than BootCamp:-

How To Run Almost Any Windows Game On Your Mac Without Boot Camp Or Parallels Using Wine [Feature] | Cult of Mac

Have you tried the Steam games under OSX? A lot of Steam titles can be played on the Mac side. Download your Steam client and see if your games are compatible there. My son plays under OSX all the time.

Yes, I've tried to play the game Borderlands 2 on OSX but I had the same issues. I'm going to try what harryb suggested and see if that makes a difference…

Using the WINE method of installing a Windows game is free but complex and certainly not fool proof. I've gotten some older Windows games to run rather easily but when it comes to the more modern games, getting them to work is hit and miss. You definitely should go to the WINE site first to see if your game is listed.

I've had much better luck with using CrossOver to install Windows games and other Windows programs. However, CrossOver is not free but it has the advantage of automating everything. As a matter of fact, the latest version is so sophisticated that it looks just like a real Windows install.

You can read up on and buy CrossOver here.

On those games you listed, does Steam say what the minimum system requirements is?

On Steam now, Just cause 2 wants a Minimum of a Discrete graphics card with 256 MB Memory. There is no mention of Intel Integrated graphics.

That's kind of my point, dtravis. At the time, Apple made it seem like I was going to be able to play at least some games on this Macbook. Maybe Just Cause 2 is a little intense, but Lego HP, Batman Arkham Asylum, and the first Bioshock are not too much to ask for… I tried Wine, but it doesn't work with Steam games. chscag, looks like Crossover has a free trial so I'll give it a try.

I don't know the specifics of your model but my 2009 MBP has a 256MB (that's MB, not a typo) discreet video card and plays a number of casual games very well (Braid, SuperMeatBoy and Peggle Nights as examples, I'm not much in the hard-core games thing ... too busy!).

Saying that a computer can "play games" is a bit of a wide path, don't you think? I mean, Solitaire is a game ... and it works fine on practically any Mac, but that doesn't make it a "gamer" machine. You have to check the system requirements of the games you're interested in and match that against what your machine has on board, as graphics *cannot* be upgraded.

If you're keen to play games and your current machine doesn't have the graphics firepower you're looking for, sell it and move on to something that does.

Mambo - Your view of Apple may soften a bit when you see how much value a late 2011 macbook still has if you decide to sell it. Coming from the PC world I'm shocked that there is such a huge market for 3 year old laptops on the Apple side.