NCsoft launches City of Heroes Mac Special Edition

NCsoft has launched City of Heroes for the Mac, a massive multiplayer online (MMO) game where users create either a villain or hero, and do battle against creatures, giant monsters, and other players inside player-versus-player zones. Previously only available as an open beta, players can now receive the full copy as a digital-only Mac Special Edition. With the edition, users can expect access to ...

Review: CrossOver Mac Professional 7

Codeweavers CrossOver Mac Professional 7.0.2 uses just the Windows application programming interface (API) to run Windows apps on your Mac, without the Windows OS. It's an ingenious idea for a program that can save time and costs less than buying a separate copy of Windows. But CrossOver supports only a handful of commercial applications.

Adventure returns to the Mac courtesy of Jack Keane

Section: Software + Apps, Games, Mac + Computers, Software Normally, an announcement such as this would go right to the daily Macintosh/iPhone software update round-up, but when it’s pirates and it’s adventure and it’s Freeverse, I have to make an exception. An article at Apple’s website offers details on Jack Keane, an adventure game developed by Deck13 Interactive and originally published for the PC by RuneSoft. Now, the fine folks at Freeverse will be bringing it to the Macintosh by the end of the month. In the distributor press release, Jack Keane is compared to the wonderfully inventive and sorely missed “Monkey Island” series, which hasn’t seen a Mac game since Escape from Monkey Island in 2001. If the screen captures are accurate, it seems to take its visual inspiration from Redjack: Revenge of the Brethren, which both pleases and frightens me. I mean, Redjack is one of my all-time favorite adventure games, but it was released in the late ‘90s. I’m not certain we need to be going back there for much when it comes to Macintosh gaming. Of course, the most important aspect of an adventure game (aside from the puzzles) is the story. Jack Keane’s looks to be exactly what you’d want out of a comedic pirate tale: Colonial England. Under a certain amount of…duress…Jack takes on a job which will not only cause him a great deal of trouble, but also bring to light the answer to a mystery out of his distant past. A lack of money leads Jack to accept a charter to take a British secret agent to mysterious Tooth Island. When Jack’s ship shatters on the mysterious island’s cliffs on arrival and the secret agent quickly becomes a meal for a monster in the jungle, Jack is soon left to cope with the situation on his own. So, we’ve got a stressed out pirate, a mysterious island, and a monster that eats British secret agents. Seems that covers everything, and yet, there’s more: 250 objects will need to be utilized to solve the game’s puzzles, dozens of off-beat characters will come into play, and you’ll get to play as both Jack and the lovely Amanda, who apparently has a habit of stealing Jack’s crew members from him. And if you need proof that Jack Keane will warm the heart of classic adventure gamers everywhere, just read this paragraph from Brad Cook’s article at Apple.com: Getting back to the story, Jack and Montgomery have arrived at Tooth Island and jumped across the precipice. A fallen column — the unfortunate result of a temple that collapsed when Montgomery fired his grappling hook up the cliff — blocks their way, but a plank from Jack’s shipwrecked vessel could help them past the obstacle, although not in the way you might expect. Jack needs to fish the plank out of the water, but maybe something left aboard The Charming Princess can assist with that task. The ship is currently inaccessible, however. With puzzles like that, who even needs graphics? Just catch that Babel Fish, adventure games. Catch that Babel Fish. Jack Keane is due for release September 29, 2008 for $39.95. It’ll require Mac OS X v10.3.9, a 1.4GHz PowerPC G4 or Intel processor, 512MB of RAM, 64MB video RAM (Intel GMA 950 chipset supported) and 1GB hard disk space. Via [Apple.com] Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Azada: Ancient Magic coming to the Mac soon

Big Fish Games has announced the release of Azada: Ancient Magic, currently only available on the PC, with a Mac edition in the works that should be released within the next month. Azada: Ancient Magic is the sequel to Azada, which was the first puzzle adventure game to be released through online digital distribution. The game allows players to interact with some of the most famous characters from...

Analysis: Will iPhone games lead to more on the Mac?

With both the iPhone and the Mac platforms united by OS X, could developers who build games for the mobile device be tempted into boosting their Mac efforts?

Appletell review - Battlestations: Midway

Section: Apple, Software + Apps, Games, Features, Review Genre: Action, real-time tactics Format: DVD Developer: Eidos Interactive Mac Port: Robosoft Technologies Mac Publisher: Feral Interactive System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.4, 1.83GHz Intel processor, 512 MB RAM, 128 MB VRam, DVD ROM. Review Computer: 17” iMac, 1.8 GHz Intel Core Duo, 2 GB RAM, 128MB ATI Radeon X1600 Network Feature: Yes Processor Compatibility: Intel Only Price: $50.00 ESRB Rating: T Availability: Out now Official Website: www.battlestations.net Whether you’re in a warship, aircraft or submarine, you control the battle and lead it every step of the mission. Battlestations: Midway allows you to choose a different path on which to play the game. U.S. Campaign, Naval Academy, Ship Challenge, Plane Challenge and the Submarine Challenge are the five different battles of which you can take control. So, if you’re playing the Ship Challenge and are really getting annoyed from the submarine shooting missiles at your cruiser, play as a submarine and demolish a ship. This fast, action-packed game has stunning graphics that make you wonder if they could get any better. Leading and controlling your ship, submarine, aircraft, shipyard or airfield requires more skill than pointing and shooting, such as creating tactics to avoid the emenies and complete your mission. Each unit has its own unique features which change gameplay and keeps it interesting. The graphics of all of the units are filled with incredible detail, whether it be a “Brewster F2A Buffalo” aircraft from the American fleet or a Japanese “Akagi” warship. Even when zooming in, the textures on all of units have great levels of detail. You don’t need a powerhouse Mac Pro to crank up the graphic settings. Some games require heavy processing power, but my two-year-old iMac (Specs above) handled it quite nicely. While I did see a slight increase in graphics quailty when I ran it on a newer iMac with twice the graphics memory, it isn’t CPU intensive. Robosoft Technologies did a great job porting the game to the Mac. I’ve played a bunch of games that are ported to the Mac poorly and they hog up your RAM and CPU usage. Some of those games are virtualized for the Mac, which gives you sluggish gameplay and doesn’t take full use of your computer. In addition, Robosoft gave the game some traditional Mac features, such as automatically pausing the current iTunes Song when launching the game. As for the action, I found it hard to hit opponents when moving fast, but slowing down makes you more vulnerable to being gunned down. But, what’s the fun when it’s too easy? The only thing I struggled with was my Mighty Mouse, which kept throwing me off the screen. It ended up having dirt in the clickwheel. Before playing, I’d suggest cleaning it out, if you’ve got one. On another side of controlling the game, each unit has a different method of controlling it. While they all may be reletaviely easy, it does take some time and would’ve been easier if they had standardized controls for all units. Let’s get a little deeper into the gameplay. When you initially choose a path to play, you’ll be asked to complete certain missions, such as travel to the US ship or “Bomb the Mini-Sub!” Some tasks take quite a while and require lots of planning and thought, while others can be simple and quick. In addition you’ll be switching to new units almost every task. As previously mentioned, you may feel the need to pause to the menu for a second to review the new controls for the unit. Since you switch units so often, you’ll eventually get used to it, but it does get annoying. Leading battles alone in a variety of units is plenty of fun, but multiplayer makes it all the better. The game uses GameRanger for online play, which allows up to 8 players to play together anywhere in the world. Online play can get fun with up to 100 different warships, aircrafts and subs all fighting it out. Multiplayer gameplay gets players to work together, where each player would control a different group of units. Loading screens are quick on just about every Intel Mac, so you can get in to the game fast after every mission. Whether you’re playing a sub, aircraft or one of the other 60 units, or leading massive battlefields you’re sure to have plenty of fun in the war. Appletell Rating: Buy Battlestations: Midway Full Story » | Written by Nicholas Montgomery for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »