The week in games

Every weekday MacCentral brings readers news from the world of Mac gaming, but there are usually a few stories that don’t make it onto our regular news pages — that’s why we have this retrospective, called the Week in Games. We also use this as a chance to link to other Mac game-related content around the Web.

American McGee’s Alice v1.1.1 released

Aspyr Media has released an update to American McGee’s Alice, available for download from Macgamefiles.com. The new version adds support for texture compression, anisotropic filtering, widescreen resolutions, windowed mode and HID manager (some features work in OS X only).

Freeverse offers 3D Crazy Eights, Burning Monkey Casino pages

Freeverse Software has posted Web pages for two forthcoming games: 3D Crazy Eights and Burning Monkey Casino.

Ghost Recon 1.0.3 released

Aspyr Media has also released an update to Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, the squad-based tactical action/strategy game. The new version improves GameRanger support and adds voice communication, a new feature of GameRanger for its Premium service subscribers.

In Memoriam released

Ubi Soft has released In Memoriam on hybrid CD for Macs and PCs. Developed by Lexis Numerérique, it’s a murder mystery game in which you track as serial killer using e-mail, the Internet and movie footage. Sadly, it runs in Classic only on Mac OS X systems.

Red Orchestra UT 2K3 mod released

Want to add on to your Unreal Tournament 2003 installation for even more challenge and fun? Pre-release versions of the Red Orchestra total conversion are now available — this adds World War II-era eastern front action, recreating famous battles from 1941-1945 between the German Wehrmacht and the Red Army. A Mac installer is available (though it says “Unreal Tournament 2004,” this works with the currently in circulation 2003 as well) — hit the Downloads link at the Red Orchestra Web site for details.

RHEM goes OS X-native

Got Game Entertainment has released an OS X-native patch for its Myst-style 3D adventure/puzzle game RHEM. In RHEM, you land in a mysterious world by stolen rail car, and you have to find your way home. Its initial release last year only supported pre-OS X Mac operating systems.

Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, Clone Campaigns updated

Last in the Aspyr Media trifecta are updates to Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds and its accompanying add-on, Clone Campaigns. The v1.1.1 updates fix bugs, update code and make other changes to improve gameplay and performance.

Stratèges released

Cliché Software has released Stratèges, a strategy game that borrows from the classic board game Stratego. It’s US$9.95.

uDevGame 2003 sponsorship, games roster expand

iDevGames has announced the expansion of its uDevGame 2003 contest, in which game developers compete for more than $24,000 in prizes as they try to develop games for Mac OS X. Best of all, you get to play what they’re making and vote for who you think is best.

Elsewhere on the Web

MacGamer has posted a review of the Finding Nemo kids’ game. Inside Mac Games has posted a look at the Fluance AV-HTB speaker system. Apple’s Games site has posted a trailer of The Sims Superstar in action. It’s the latest expansion pack for The Sims to be released for the Mac, courtesy of Aspyr Media.

Closer to home

At MacCentral this week, readers learned of Feral’s release of a demo of Ghost Master. MumboJumbo has released Equilibria, a falling marble game with some unique twists. Pangea Software released the Pangea Super Pack, a value-priced collection of all their OS X-native games. Aspyr Media announced that Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer now has a demo available, and also indicated that The Sims Superstar is in duplication. The Mac-only game matching service GameRanger now offers voice support for in-game communications, to its Premium subscription service users.

As always, drop us a line if you have questions, comments or suggestions.