Every week MacCentral brings readers the latest news and info from the world of Mac gaming. There are always stories that we can’t get to during the week, so that’s why we’ve come up with this retrospective, which we call The Week in Games.
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Blizzard on Diablo II, LoD for OS X
Blizzard Entertainment announced plans a while back to bring its popular action game Diablo II and its expansion pack, Lord of Destruction, to Mac OS X. Since then, gamers have wondered when. Recently Blizzard’s Rob Barris was provoked to post to the comp.sys.mac.games.action Usenet newsgroup with a reply. “… it takes until about month N+1 or so before everyone in QA smiles and goes ‘it’s solid,’ said Barris. “We like to see someone play all the acts without any anomalies before we can really give it the go-ahead, and it adds up.” Barris added in a later post that the game updates are still expected to ship by the end of the quarter, which wraps up at the end of this month.
Bungie denies Phoenix rumors
Rumors that Bungie was working on a new mecha-based action game codenamed “Phoenix” were laid to rest this week by Bungie’s Matt Soell, according to MacGamer.com. Soell didn’t deny Phoenix’s existence, but he said it’s in the fantasy genre, not mecha combat.
Captain Bumper 1.13 released
A new version of MacRun’s Captain Bumper — distributed in North America by Casady & Greene — has been released. The new version, 1.13, can be downloaded now. Captain Bumper is a family-friendly side scrolling arcade game reminiscent of the scrolling action shooters popularized by 16-bit video game consoles. 1.13 fully supports Mac OS X 10.1.3 and makes other minor enhancements and improvements.
Giants: Citizen Kabuto demo released
MacPlay this week released a demo version of its Mac OS X-only action/strategy game conversion, Giants: Citizen Kabuto. The playable demo gives you a taste of what the first version is like. At 120MB you better make sure you have a high-bandwidth connection to the ‘net before you get started, but it’s worth giving it a shot if you have a Mac that meets or exceeds the game’s system requirements.
Killing Time 1.3 released
As strange as it may seem, Contraband Entertainment has released an updated version [445K, .SIT] of Killing Time, a long-dormant action game once published by Logicware. The new build supports Mac OS X.
Lineage beta ends
This past week saw the ending of the free Mac beta test of Lineage, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game from NCSoft. Now the game is in release status for the Mac, and Mac users need to pay like everyone else. There’s a monthly subscription fee to play Lineage, but you get a discount buying in advance, and you can still try the game for free to see if you like it.
WarBirds III 3.20.02 released
iEntertainment Network has released another update to WarBirds III, the online World War II-era aircraft dogfighting game. The new build supports new art and features many new enhancements. The company recently added OS X support to WarBirds III as well. It’s pay-for-play service which has been around for years.
Elsewhere on the Web
MacGamer.com has posted a preview of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, the new World War II-era shooter that Aspyr Media announced will be coming to the Macintosh later this summer. Inside Mac Games has posted a review of Otto Matic, Pangea Software’s latest Mac-only 3D action game. And if you’re a bit uncertain about where to start in your foray into Mac gaming, a new guide from Apple can get you on your way.
Closer to home
e.p.i.c. interactive announced that Gorky 17 has gone gold master; it’s an action/strategy game set in a secret spy city in Russia that pits you and your team against menacing genetically engineered monsters. Graphics card and chip maker ATI Technologies Inc. reported improved revenues for the second quarter of its financial year, which ended in February. Ambrosia Software released Escape Velocity Nova, the latest edition of its epic space action/adventure game series. Graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp. was named the defendant in a class-action lawsuit. Essential Reality unveiled the final design of its P5 glove, a gaming peripheral developed for several platforms including Mac OS X. New Disney Interactive imprint Plaid Banana Software debuted two new kids games developed by Hulabee Entertainment; Hulabee was founded by the same two folks who started Humongous Entertainment.
As always, we encourage you to let us know if you have ideas for ways we can improve our Mac gaming coverage. And if you have a Mac game-related product or service you’d like to let our readers know about, please get in touch.