Holiday 2006 best bets for Mac gamers

With Apple's transition to Intel processors completed earlier this year, and emerging technologies such as Cider promising full compatibility with Windows games, the Mac platform is seeing even fewer native releases these days. But there are still some gems for dedicated Mac gamers this holiday season:

• Age of Empires III

• Big Bang Brain Games

• Call of Duty 2

• Cars: The Videogame

• Civilization IV

• Dominions 3: The Awakening

• Quake 4

• Sims 2: Nightlife

• Spongebob Squarepants Diner Dash

• WingNuts 2: Raina's Revenge

• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (coming in Jan.)

• X-Plane 8.5

Apple's gaming page has additional information, and check out last year's holiday recommendations for a little more variety on your Mac.