Gaming for Mac users is getting better and better. Sure, we’re red headed step children in the gaming world, but at least we’re getting recognized. On Tuesday, things will get even better as Quake Live will be available for both Mac and Linux.
The announcement was made by id President Todd Hollenshead during the QuakeCon 2009 press conference and attendees will be able to play the new versions on the show floor. The rest of us will just have to wait a few days for the change to play the browser-based shooter. Free online gaming FTW.
[via 1up]
Well, maybe they don’t hate you as much. EA today announced that Warhammer Online is now available for the Mac. If you haven’t jumped into their online realm, you’ll be able to rock out a 10 day free trial to see if you want to pony up the cash.
As a Mac user myself, I really like seeing more games coming to Apple’s platform. If there’s one downfall to using a Mac, it’s gaming. Hopefully more publishers will bring their titles to Mac and in a more timely manner. I think it’s a pipe dream, but I’ll keep dreaming.
It takes a lot for a game to really steal my attention and makes hours disappear like they were minutes. Plants vs. Zombies easily fits into that category. Every time I sit down and say “I’ll play for a few minutes”, it turns into a few hours. The game takes the tower defense genre, flips it around a few times, adds a touch of humor, and makes you not want to walk away.
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Ubisoft has announced that it will be adding two more Mac titles to its line-up this year, Prince of Persia and Shaun White Snowboarding. Both games will be available through Ubisoft’s digital store, GameTree Online and at traditional retail locations in March 2009.
“The Mac community has responded very positively to our previous game offerings and we’re excited to provide Mac users with a new selection of games through our relationship with TransGaming,” said Andy Swanson, senior director of strategic sales and partnerships at Ubisoft.
TransGaming Inc. will be the developer porting the titles.
Mac versions of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Hard Evidence, Rayman Raving Rabbids and Petz Sports will also be released at select retail establishments for the first time in March 2009.
Mac gaming is still alive folks, get it while it’s hot.
It’s hard to believe that there are many of you left out there who haven’t experienced Bioshock on some gaming platform yet, but since you have waited this long why not wait just a little while longer?
Feral Interactive had a booth at this year’s Macworld Expo and the exhibitors were conveniently wearing shirts with the iconic Big Daddy on the back. Macworld’s Chris Holt decided to dig a little deeper and talked to some of the Feral Interactive representatives. He was able to confirm that Bioshock is indeed going to make it’s way to the Mac platform sometime in the first half of this year.
The game originally shipped in August of 2007 for the Xbox 360 and PC. It would be an understatement to say that Mac gamers have always had to wait longer than the rest of the gaming world to have games ported to their platform of choice, but just be grateful one of the greatest single player experiences of this decade is even being ported at all.
[Via Macworld]
I just heard back from EA with a functional workaround for installing the v1.1 patch for Spore on the Mac. I’m sure by now you’ve heard about all the wonderful issues with the patch. But after spending a few hours, I now have everything up and running with the newest patched version on my MacBook Pro.
Here’s the gist. You need to uninstall the game from your system. Don’t worry, your save data won’t get removed. Drag the SPORE folder from Applications to the trash. Then fire up Finder and go to “/Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/[Game Name] Preferences/p_drive” and delete all the files there as well. Once that’s done, reinstall the game and download the patch when prompted. Now, here’s where things get interesting. This is a line from the email I received from EA:
*Please Note: This process may take a considerable amount of time. The patch process may seem to stall, but the installation of the latest update could take up to 20 minutes. Please be patient.
I did that and, after 20 minutes, the patch completed the install and Spore booted up. The game ran fine and things worked as you would expect.
So there you have it. If you try to patch your game on your Mac and it freezes up, follow these directions and you’ll be off and running. Get some.
I’m not an angry person, but this is part one of what set me off last night. I bought myself a copy of Spore a little while ago and finally got down to start playing it Thursday night. I installed and fired up the game and was prompted to download a patch. Ok, seems normal. What PC/Mac game doesn’t have patches? What ensued started a fire-storm.
I sat there for literally an hour and a half as this patch downloaded and tried to install. Guess what? It froze up my entire MacBook Pro. Yep, good times. So, I restarted and fired up the game again. Not being prompted for the patch this time, it took (again, no exaggeration) ten minutes for me to get to a point where I could create a new game (I already have a Spore account, so all I had to do was login). After starting a new game, I entered the Cell stage. To my surprise, I had NO creature displayed on my screen. That’s right, I didn’t exist. Yay! Yet another broken piece of the puzzle.
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It seems the intarwebs are a bit pissed off at the SecuROM DRM scheme in Spore. You’re allowed 3 activations of the game before you have to call EA for help. When that happens, EA doesn’t even have to allow you any more activations. Sad. People have taken up arms on the Amazon reviews page. Check this one out:
First of all, the game incorporates a draconian DRM system that requires you to activate over the internet, and limits you to a grand total of 3 activations. If you reach that limit, then you’ll have to call EA in order to add one extra activation. That’s 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 (it has all happened before with another recent EA product, Mass Effect). EA, of course, is not obligated to grant you that extra activation or even provide that service. In a couple of years they might very well even shut down the general activation servers, because “it’s not financially feasible” to keep them running. What you will be left with is a nice, colorful $50 coaster. And you will be required to pay for another copy/license if you want to continue playing.
Many people are arguing that you’re essentially renting the game, and I can see their point. I hate being penalized for actually buying a PC/Mac game. You’d think game companies want to find ways to reward their paying customers. It’s things like this SecuROM crap that make people want to pirate games even more. I’m debating buying Spore and this fiasco is really leaning me towards not doing it. We’ll see what happens.
This is no bullshit. Christian Rock is a huge, huge market. So huge that this game may go frankincense. Hell, it may even go myrrh. Guitar Hero praise is a music rhythm game that is solely Christian Rock. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a religious person who was raised Irish Catholic. Yet, many people find these music zealouts to be batshit crazy. Grown men crying when a song comes on just doesn’t sit well with me. Remember that seen in Borat where the guy is speaking in tongues? Its coming out for PC and Mac. We are doing everything we can to get this game for review. No word on whether Faith + 1 will be making an appearance. Hit the jump for the complete set list. For those about to rock, we salute you.
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EA dropped a press release today dating Spore worldwide for the weekend of September 7th, 2008. The game will be available for PC, Mac, Nintendo DS, and Mobile Phones.
“The wait is almost over,” said Maxis Chief Designer Will Wright. “We’re in our final stages of testing and polish with Spore, and the team at Maxis can’t wait to see the cosmos of content created by the community later this year.”
I’m not too sure how the game will play out on mobile phones. Spore seems a bit too deep and complex for the platform. Either way, I can’t wait to get my hands on the final game this fall on my MacBook Pro.
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