The week in games

Each week MacCentral brings readers the latest game news, but there is often some news that doesn’t make it onto our regular pages. That’s why we have this feature, a retrospective called the Week in Games.

Brickles Pro 1.0.5 released

Ken Winograd and Space-Time Associates have released Brickles v1.0.5, a new version of the classic brickbashing game. This release features a quick cosmetic fix for paddle artifacts.

Call of Duty 1.4b2 patch released

Aspyr Media has released Call of Duty 1.4b2, an updated version of the recently released beta patch for the World War II-themed action game that allows Mac players to play on PC servers updated to the Windows 1.4 version of the game. It fixes ATI Radeon-related graphics performance issues also. The updated version corrects a problem with the previously released beta’s installer by allowing users to drag and drop files instead.

Cosmic Encounter Online ‘Summer Slam League’ commences

Cosmic Encounter Online — the online version of the legendary card and board game — has begun a “Summer Slam League” in which only solo player victories are allowed; each league session produces a weekly winner. Summer Slam games are Wednesdays at 9PM ET.

Excalibur: Morgana’s Revenge OS X beta 0.5 released

The Marathon Map Makers Guild has released a beta version of Excalibur: Morgana’s Revenge, the legendary expansion pack for Marathon, for Mac OS X. Unlike the original, you don’t need a copy of Marathon or Marathon Infinity to get the expansion pack to work — all you need is the Aleph One engine, which is why it works natively in Mac OS X.

James Bond 007: Nightfire is in stores

Aspyr Media Inc. has announced that its Mac conversion of James Bond 007: Nightfire is on store shelves. Look for at it Apple Stores and CompUSA for $30.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong online game works on Macs, PCs

Nintendo of America and Martini Design collaborated on a new Flash-based Web site to promote Nintendo’s new Mario vs. Donkey Kong Game Boy Advance title. The site includes a mini-game you can play online, and it works on Macs and PCs.

Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield 1.0.1 patch released

Aspyr Media has released its 1.0.1 patch for Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. This patch brings the Mac version in line with the PC version’s 1.4.1 release.

Squabble challenge at Freeverse

Freeverse Software is promoting their new multiplayer word game Squabble with a new challenge contest that will award prizes to winners including an AirPort Express hub.

XIII demo, retail game updated

Feral Interactive has released an updated demo (and an updated retail version) of its XIII first person shooter. The update fixes a rendering problem that’s manifested itself on Power Mac G5 systems with Nvidia GeForce 5200 graphics cards.

‘X-Grid’ board game makers seek public opinion

The Oloid Gmbh and Danholt Design have created The X-Grid Game, a physical board game designed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Mac. They’re thinking about producing the game in quantity and are seeking public opinion.

Elsewhere on the Web

Inside Mac Games has posted a review of The Emperor’s Mahjong from MacPlay. MacGamer has posted a review of Dominions 2: The Ascension Wars. Apple’s Web site has posted a new trailer for Massive Assault, the upcoming strategy game from Virtual Programming Ltd.

Closer to home

On MacCentral this week readers learned that Homeworld 2 has gone beta, readying for an August release. Aspyr also said that CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has gone beta. Sony Computer Entertainment of America’s boss told congressional staffers that broadband prices in the US need to drop to see further adoption of the technology as an entertainment medium. Graphics card and chip maker ATI Technologies saw record revenue for its latest reported financial quarter.

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