Latest Posts in Game Room

GDC Austin to feature iPhone Games Summit

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) Austin is set to return to the Austin Convention Center in Austin Texas in September. When it does, the even will include the inaugural iPhone Games Summit, offering a focus for iPhone and iPod touch game developers. GDC Austin takes place from September 15 - 18, 2009.

GDC Austin, presented by Think Services, is an offshoot of the “main” GDC that happens in San Francisco, Calif. It gathers together game developers who attend two day Game Writers and Game Audio summits. New to the track this year is iPhone games and the Independent Games Summit, a carryover from the San Francisco event. Three days of main conference content help developers share best practices and learn more about “connected” games, online games, virtual worlds and social networking game play.

The iPhone Games Summit highlights the business of iPhone game development, along with marketing and “key design tenets” behind successful iPhone games. Topics range from app optimization and touch interface lessons, iPhone OS 3.0 tips, Objective-C tips and other information — Think Services will announce sessions in early July.

The advisory board for the iPhone Games Summit include Brian Greenstone, president of Pangea Software, maker of Enigmo, Cro-Mag Rally and other popular iPhone games; Snappy Touch’s Noel Llopis, maker of Flower Garden; and Simon Carless, editorial director of Gamasutra.com and Game Developer magazine.

Blizzard kills StarCraft II LAN support

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from the Game On blog at PCWorld.com.

Upcoming real-time strategy Mac and Windows game StarCraft II will ship without Local Area Network multiplayer support in an effort to combat piracy, says Blizzard, in an official statement sure to annoy if not outright confound series fans the world round. Calling it a "difficult decision," Blizzard's Bob Colayco reportedly told Joystiq that "moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy."

Uh-oh, did someone just invoke the 'p' word? And is Blizzard serious? No more LAN parties? Every potential customer has internet as fast and dependable as they're apparently dishing out in Irvine, Calif.? Running crossover Ethernet cables between PCs is officially passé?

Hey Blizzard, what about those of us who still routinely take our gaming laptops with us on weekend trips to remote locales that lack internet access? Show of hands: Who wants to play head-to-head with friends or relatives in a low-speed internet setting? Even a high-speed internet setting prone to hiccups? And what about all the folks running brick and mortar game competitions, hosting tournaments with locally networked PCs, where fast and steady communication is essential?

According to Colayco, Battle.net features like "advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more" will require players to be connected to the service.

Okay. Fine. If we want those "advanced" options (whatever they are) or achievements or stat-tracking, then we'll go online. That's fair. That's what Battle.net offers. But if we're not interested, we shouldn't be penalized for preferring the speed and stability and locational flexibility of local peer-to-peer play, should we?

What do you think?

For more gaming news and opinion, point your tweet-readers at twitter.com/game_on.

New Harry Potter ships for Mac, other platforms

Electronic Arts (EA) on Tuesday announced the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a video game based on the upcoming movie. It debuts simultaneously on multiple platforms including the Mac. It costs $30.

Following the events in the sixth book of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter saga, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince returns players to Hogwarts, where Harry and friends are engaged in their sixth year studies.

Players will be able to cast spells and play Quidditch on the Gryffindor team, put potion-making skills to the test, get sidetracked by Ron Weasley's romantic entanglements and discover the identity of the Half-Blood Prince. Players can join the Gryffindor Dueling Club, explore magical places like the Horcrux Cave and The Burrow, and more.

The game is rated E 10+ for Everyone age 10 and older by the ESRB.

The Mac and Windows versions have been released on the same DVD. You can buy it directly from EA's Web site or at various retailers.

System requirements call for Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later, 1.8GHz Intel (Intel only, PowerPC not supported), 256MB RAM, 8x DVD-ROM or faster, 5GB hard disk space, ATI X1600 or Intel X3100 or better 3D graphics.

Review: EVE Online: Apocrypha

First introduced to Mac gamers in the fall of 2007, EVE Online is a massive multiplayer online (MMO) game created by Icelandic developer CCP Games. Famous for being inhospitable to new players, EVE Online evolved in 2009 with the release of Apocrypha, a free expansion that seeks to right past wrongs by creating a new player experience and expanding the scope of the game dramatically.

Apocrypha definitely pushes EVE in the right direction, but this isn’t a complete metamorphosis of the EVE experience. If you’ve tried EVE and don’t like it, chances are Apocrypha won’t change your mind. If you’re new to EVE, however, now’s a great time to get started.

The story of EVE takes place eons in the future. Mankind has populated thousands of star systems in a distant galaxy and has aligned into four factions: the religious Amarr, the egalitarian Gallente, the corporatistic Caldari and the rogue Minmatar. (A fifth “race,” the Jovians, are enigmatic, mysterious and keep to themselves; part of the game’s mythology, they are not a playable race.) All of them are engaged in a cold war of sorts; a détente in which each of them occupies their own space and occasionally clash with one another or establish trade and diplomatic relations. And, as you can guess if you’ve ever played other online games, each of them has strengths and weaknesses, and CCP constantly works and reworks balancing between the four to make sure no player has an overwhelming advantage in PvP combat.

Unlike World of Warcraft or other similar fare, your interaction in EVE doesn’t take place face-to-face. Instead, you’re a Capsuleer, an elite pilot who commands a massive starship. All of your interactions in space in and stations takes place in your ship (a forthcoming expansion will let you leave).

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Call of Duty offered as download for PowerPC and Intel Macs

Aspyr Media has announced the release of Call of Duty Deluxe Edition, a $30 download available through its GameAgent online download service.

Call of Duty Deluxe Edition combines the original Call of Duty with its expansion pack, called United Offensive. Call of Duty is an award-winning first-person shooter that puts you in the front lines during World War II, in the European theater of operations.

Call of Duty lets you play through 24 single-player missions in four interconnected campaigns: playing through D-Day, the Russian charge at Stalingrad and the Battle for Berlin. You can also play online against other players, taking the sides of either the Axis or Allies. United Offensive adds 13 new single-player missions, 11 new multiplayer maps and three new modes.

When it was originally released for the Mac, Call of Duty was available only for PowerPC-based Macs, and it was only available for purchase on disc. This download release marks the first time the game has been developed to run natively on Intel-based Macs. Aspyr said it’s working on a Universal binary patch for the retail version of Call of Duty Deluxe as well.

Call of Duty Deluxe Edition is rated T for Teen by the ESRB.

System requirements call for Mac OS X 10.4.11 or Mac OS X 10.5.7, G5 or Intel 1.6GHz or faster, 256MB RAM, 2.5GB hard disk space, ATI Radeon 9800 or Nvidia GeForce 5200 or better 3D graphics (Intel integrated video chipsets not supported).

Playback turns Mac into media server for Xbox 360, PS3

Yazsoft on Thursday announced the release of Playback 1.0, an “Extreme Media Server” for Mac OS X. It costs $15.

Playback enables the Mac to share media with any Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360 or other device that supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP). It can share media stored in folders, or make entire disks available, and doesn’t require configuration, according to the developer.

Playback integrates with iTunes, iPhoto and Aperture, so users can share playlists and albums. An Access Control List (ACL) enables users to control what devices can access media on the Mac, and you also have control over bandwidth, enabling Playback to throttle the amount of bandwidth it uses in case the Mac needs to do other things on the network, such as surf the Web or check e-mail.

Yazsoft claims that Playback was designed for “extreme performance” and uses lighttpd, an open-source Web server designed for high performance environments, used by YouTube, Wikipedia and other sites. The software supports Growl, the popular system notification software, Spotlight-based searching, on-screen thumbnails powered by Mac OS X Leopard’s “QuickLook” feature, and other capabilities.

System requirements call for Mac OS X 10.5 or later, 47MB hard disk space, any PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 or other UPnP-compatible device, and a network connection. Gigabit Ethernet is recommended for serving HD content.

A 7-day demo version is available for download.

ZeniMax Media acquires Id Software

ZeniMax Media on Wednesday announced the acquisition of Id Software, the game developer behind titles like Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein and the upcoming game Rage. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

ZeniMax Media is the parent company of Bethesda Software, makers of Fallout 3, as well as The Elder Scrolls III and IV. Bethesda will publish Id Software titles going forward, beyond those that have already been promised to other publishers.

Id Software will continue to operate as a studio under the direction of John Carmack, the company’s founder and technical director. And there aren’t going to be any operational changes, according to the announcement — all the company’s principals have signed long-term employment contracts.

Id Software has supported the Mac over the years by offering Mac versions of many of its popular games, and has recently moved into the iPhone space, producing iPhone/iPod touch versions of Wolfenstein 3D and the upcoming Doom “Classic,” and has partnered with Escalation Studios to develop an original game for the iPhone and iPod touch called Doom Resurrection.

Review: The Sims 3

Hi, I’m Chris. I’m a Macworld editor. And a real person. For the last week, I’ve been controlling Chris the Sim in the interactive person-simulator The Sims 3. The Sims 3 is the latest edition of the wildly popular person simulator from the creators of SimCity and Spore (). The addictive, immersive, quirky and open-ended gameplay make this the best edition of The Sims to date. Pushing escapism to new heights, it’s an instant classic for anyone who as a kid played “house” or wanted to jump into someone else’s shoes for a little while. The game doesn’t just allow for creativity, but imagination—something that is rare and laudatory in any form of entertainment.

New to the universe of The Sims, I started by testing out the new character creator. You can start your Sim in different lifestages: toddler, child, teen, young adult, adult, or elder. You have initial options that will let you to set minute details of your Sim’s appearance like mouth size, clothing, and body weight.

You then can move onto one of the intriguing aspects of the game: your Sim’s personality traits. In the older life stages, each Sim starts with five personality traits. Some are mutually exclusive (you can’t be good and evil, for example), but all affect how your character interacts with the Sim world. Some are obviously useful (genius, artistic, good kisser) while others create stranger life goals (evil, never nude, antisocial).

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VP to bring Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena to Mac

Virtual Programming on Wednesday announced plans to release a Macintosh conversion of The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. A release date was not announced.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is based on the Vin Diesel sci-fi movies Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. It’s the sequel to an earlier game called Escape from Butcher Bay, which is also included. Assault on Dark Athena is a first-person stealth-oriented shooter.

The plot involves Riddick — Vin Diesel’s character, a dangerous criminal who can see in the dark. He finds himself on Dark Athena, a mercenary spaceship, and must find a way to escape, eventually squaring off against the evil captain.

Features include a multiplayer game with six different combat modes including “Pitch Black” mode, which emphasizes, Riddick’s special skills. The game is rated M for Mature.

Dark Athena was released earlier this year for PS3 and Xbox 360 and features an all-star voice cast including Vin Diesel, Lance Henriksen, Wade Williams, William Morgan Sheppard and Michelle Forbes.

GamersGate makes play for Mac gamers

GamersGate on Wednesday announced a new online store specifically for Mac-compatible games. The company has also announced a partnership with TransGaming.

GamersGate is a digital distribution platform — a way to help gamers find games they want, buy them and download them — that’s already being used by PC gamers. The company counts more than 1,100 titles in its library (the vast majority of which are, of course, for PC gamers). It’s signed on companies like Ubisoft, EA, THQ and others.

The initial launch of the GamersGate store for Mac users includes the independently developed and published game World of Goo, along with titles created for the Mac by Virtual Programming, such as the Hearts of Iron strategy game series, Europa Universalis, FlatOut 2, and others. The company plans to add new titles on a regular basis.

By joining TransGaming’s GameTree Network, GamersGate will also gain access to titles TransGaming offers. TransGaming publishes Mac versions of games from EA, such as The Sims 3, Spore and others.