Windows 7 with Parallels 8 for newer Windows games that require dual core CPU and are more demanding. This works great for older titles that do not run flawlessly with Wine. Windows XP with Parallels 8 for older games that run better on XP or don't run well on multicore systems. I am playing Halo Combat Evolved currently thanks to Wineskin without having to start a virtual machine or reboot. In most cases I did have to do some tweaking but I learned a lot about porting games using these tools in the process and enjoyed it actually. tips and whatnot for anything that didn't work out of the box. It only took me a couple days of reading the instructions, using Wineskin and Boxer depending on the game and looking up on AppDB, etc. I've had very good experience with both options, but it has been with older games so far. I enjoy doing them and get a certain feeling of getting away with something, running them on my iMac without reboots, etc. I was resistant to try this at first thinking it would be too much trouble but really it isn't, for me at least. Native ports (Feral, Aspyr, etc.), Blizzard, EA, etc. Personally, I prefer to game on my iMac with these options in this order: No problems whatsoever in my experience using both options. Windows updates work fine in either case.

The only issue with it, is that it requires that 'extra mile' as you have to reboot and leave the comfort of OS X, which usually means that I play those games less than the ones I can play in OS X. Personally, I'd love it if more games would work through WINE or virtualization, but in my experience it's rare to find a flawless experience, so I tend to go for the Bootcamp problem. Also a separate partition on your hard drive. Requires rebooting and a Windows license. Even more convenient than virtualization for the games that work. + Fiddly to get to work, but the games that do run, usually run very well. Low performance and then there's the problem with mouse movement and 3D games.

No rebooting, and you can even suspend sessions and restore in just seconds. Here's how I'd rate the 3 different alternatives for playing Windows games:

Which is better bootcamp or parallels