Legos. Why’d it have to be Legos?
Feral Interactive, the same team that ported Lego Star Wars II to the Mac has now announced that they’ll be bringing Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures to the platform on November 28th. The game puts you in the fedora of noted archaeologist Dr. Henry Jones, Jr., seeker of rare antiquities, as you travel from South America to India to Europe on the hunt for such artifacts as the Ark of the Covenant, Sankara Stones, and the Holy Grail—no crystal whatsits here. Along the way, you’ll be joined by a variety of allies who will help you in your adventures.
You’ll need at least a 1.8GHz Intel Mac with 512MB of RAM and an GMA X3100 graphics chip to help Indy out on his adventures; the game will retail for $40, so choose—but choose wisely.
[via Macworld]
Some time ago, a friend turned me on to World of Warcraft. Despite being an uber Blizzard fan for the fact that their games are simultaneously released for Macs and PCs alone, I never even tried their MMO. I got sucked in. I started after they released their last expansion (The Burning Crusade), so Azeroth has seemed rather static.
Today, the second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, was released. This expansion adds another 10 levels your characters can achieve, a new continent, Northrend, and a new class, the Death Knight. While many WoW fans braved the elements last night to get their copy at midnight, I resisted the urge and will wait for Amazon to deliver my copy today. I got to hear the chatter last night as my guildies all set foot in the new continent.
Sadly, I won’t get a chance to check out all the new zones until later tonight after work. I’ll be concentrating on leveling my shaman and my hunter first. I started my hunter on my tiny Powerbook, which ironically enough, can’t handle the latest expansion, so my adventures will have to solely happen on my Mac Pro. Have any of you enterprising readers gotten their expansion yet? Am I going to like it as much as I hope?
As we enter into the holiday shopping season, Apple’s making a blitz into the world of gaming. We’ve all seen the commercials for the funnest iPod ever and have probably experienced the deluge of iPhone and iPod touch games first-hand. But Apple VP of iPod and iPhone product marketing Greg Joswiak has gone on a spree talking to the press about games—and he’s been talking smack.
“The PSP and DS represent the old school of gaming: big bulky devices with an old-fashioned distribution model.”
Them’s fightin’ words! And that was to the BBC, no less. Joz also spoke with British tech pub T3 along similar lines—he’s certainly not pulling punches.
Because again the computer power and the 3D graphic power here [iPod Touch] is significantly greater than what you have here [picks up Nintendo DS]. So this allows people to do significantly higher quality games. And the Touch is always in your pocket, whereas you can’t always carry some other games consoles.
The Wall Street Journal also has an interesting article up about the competition, with a particularly insightful quote from Nintendo USA’s President and COO Reggie Fils-Aimé: “Whether you chose to play on your DS or listen to music on your iPod, we’re already in the same competitive space for time.”
It’s kind of fascinating to watch the push into the gaming space, especially from Apple, who has not traditionally “gotten” gaming. Given the advertising angle that the company’s been taking with the iPod, it seems clear that they’re aiming directly at the likes of the PSP and DS. While they might not pick up much of the hardcore gaming market, there’s definitely room to convert more casual gamers, especially when considering the proposition of a device that also does email, web-surfing, and media playing.
And you can bet that there are a number of parents who see it as an attractive option for kids clamoring for high-tech gadgetry as well.
Call of Duty is one of the most successful series of FPS games. Call of Duty 4 is the latest and greatest of these games. While it has been out for quite a while on other platforms, it’s finally come to our favorite platform. David let us know previously about the opportunity to pre-order.
Oddly enough, even though the MacNN reports that the game is shipping, Amazon still doesn’t show it shipping until September 30th. In fact, Amazon is the only retailer listed on Aspyr’s website.
Hopefully it’s just a glitch in Amazon’s website. It’s time to go shoot some bad guys. That new cooperative mode looks pretty exciting.
Considering the massive hype that led up to the release of Spore, as well as the high ratings it's received by most publications, you would think EA, the game's publisher, would be in the money. They probably are, but not as much as they should be, due to a massive grassroots backlash against the DRM protection that comes with Spore.
To break it down, EA decided that the best way to keep people from pirating Spore would be to install a DRM system that only allows for three installations before requiring the legitimate buyer to phone into EA to order an extra activation. So in essence, you're not really buying the game, you're buying three installations of the game, after which, you must hope that EA will believe your story as to why you needed to install it more than 3 times. This is especially hurtful to PC users who upgrade their systems a lot, as this often tricks the DRM into thinking it is being installed on a new system.
As one unhappy customer put it, getting that 4th activation key is "not as simple as it sounds, since when you reach that point EA will assume that you, the paying customer, are a filthy pirating thief. You will need to provide proof of purchase, reasons why the limit was reached, etc, etc."
As some critics point out, EA, like most businesses, will eventually go under, or change ownership, or shut down their registration servers. It might not happen anytime soon, but it's pretty much inevitable in the long run. After this happens, all the legitimate Spore buyers will be stuck with a $50 coaster. Definitely not cool, especially considering that pirated, DRM-free versions of Spore have been making the rounds all over BitTorrent.
EA, the RIAA is calling. They want their ridiculous customer-abusing business plan back.
The outcome of this decision is turning ugly for EA, as frustrated gamers have overwhelmed Amazon with 1 star reviews for Spore. As of now, a whopping 748 out of 812 customer reviews are one star reviews, bringing the average customer review for Spore to one star. This, obviously, is very bad for EA, since the casual gamer may not necessarily look at the reason behind the poor rating and just assume that it's a terrible game.
EA is going to have to address this situation. They're keeping themselves from thousands of potential sales, and encouraging would-be legitimate buyers to turn to illegal downloads to avoid the crippling DRM inherent in the legit version. Hopefully they'll release a patch that will stop this madness. Nobody wants to pay $50 for a rental.
The reviews are pouring out for Spore, recently released in Australia, and soon-to-be-released on Mac and PC in the States. Not surprisingly, considering the creators behind the game (Maxis), and the insane amount of hype behind it, Spore has received unanimously favorable reviews from the major gaming publications.
IGN Australia gave it 9.2 out of 10, saying that the game will "make you acknowledge just how far we've come, and just how far we have to go, and Spore will change the way you think about the universe we live in."
Eurogamer gave it 9/10, and GameSpy gave it a flattering 4.5/5 review.
We've covered the development of Spore before, but as a quick recap, it's a multi-genre "massively single-player online game" created by the brains behind the crazy-popular Sims series (and all the other Sim games as well). You control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a single-cell organism, all the way through to a space-exploring civilization. Each stage of evolution is represented as a different "phase", or type of game. Due to the wide-open, non-linear nature of the game, no two games will be the same. Even the music, written by Brian Eno, evolves and changes according to decisions the player makes.
Basically, this is must-play stuff for casual and serious gamers alike. I happen to fall into the third category, "non-gamer", or more accurately, "retired gamer". My lack of a graphics card will also force me sit this one out. Maybe StarCraft 2 will reinvigorate my long-dormant gaming passion. Dear God I hope it doesn't. I'm disorganized enough without games to eat up even more of my time!
So gaming on the iPod Touch and iPhone is supposed to be top notch as far as handheld devices go (we've all seen that Quake 3 video), but without a physical controller to give your little gaming hands tactile feedback, the thought of throwing repeated hadoukens or multiple killer c-c-c-combos becomes troubling at best.
Let's face it, as cool as an entirely touch screen device may be, ↓↘→P just doesn't feel the same without a Dpad.
Enter the iControlPad, a brilliant little gaming device that latches onto your iPod Touch and blesses it with a real life Dpad, ABXY Action Buttons, and even a Start and Select button. It's like turning your iPod into a Game Gear, but without the half hour battery life and annoying little cartridges!
It's not out just yet, but iControlPad is aiming for a $30 pricetag, which is pretty darn reasonable in my book. One stumbling block for such a product will be that any app that wishes to support it will have to have special code to make it work, but as the iPod Touch and iPhone continue to be recognized as capable gaming machines, I'm pretty confident that controllers like iControlPad will become common amongst the gaming crowd, as will apps that support them.
Bungie, formerly a Mac community favorite company, was building towards a new product announcement this year at E3. The 14th was teased to be the day something was to be revealed, but that wasn’t to be.
According to the game developer, their publisher pulled the plug on the announcement. While that’s certainly true, it’s upsetting for fans of the company.
It’s probably the Mac fanboy in me, but Bungie just hasn’t been the same since it got bought up by Microsoft. They’re independent once again from a business perspective, but their business seems to still be tied to the company. Indeed, Microsoft’s E3 press briefing was scheduled for the same day. They made no announcement either, forcing me to wonder if Microsoft was the one that pulled the plug.
I remember when Bungie made Marathon. I can still hear the cheesy screams of “they’re everywhere”.
As we scour the web for Mac and Apple news day in and day out, we come across a number of very odd things. Among the weirdest I’ve encountered recently is Square Enix’s new RPG, Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes (iTunes link). Square Enix is best known for its Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest (aka Dragon Warrior) series of role-playing games dating back to the original Nintendo.
So it’s kind of a surprise to see that Song Summoner is an RPG for the iPod. And no, we’re not talking the fancy-schmancy iPod touch or the iPhone—we’re talking the iPod classic, 3G iPod nano, and fifth-generation iPod with video. Surely you remember those.
Even stranger, the conceit of the game itself, which sees you transforming your music tracks into Tune Troopers to fight with you against the evil Mechanical Militia in an attempt to save your brother. That’s right, in this battle “Back in Black” or “Highway Star” just may be your best hope. You can even level up your characters just by listening to the track that they have been created from.
It’s original, we’ll give them that, though we are a bit skeptical about how well an RPG plays on the iPod’s Click Wheel. Still, the whole game can be yours for a meager $5 on the iTunes Store. Get it before the barrage of iPhone and iPod touch games descend upon us all.
