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Troubled 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' remake reportedly switches studios
'Bloomberg' says the project moved from Aspyr Media to Saber Interactive, which are both owned by Embracer.
'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II' heads to Nintendo Switch on June 8th
One of the best Star Wars games ever made is making its way to Switch.
'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' is getting a PS5 remake
The rumors were true, BioWare's classic Star Wars RPG Knights of the Old Republic is getting a remake.
Xbox classic 'Star Wars: Republic Commando' is coming to PS4 and Switch
Sixteen years after coming out on Xbox and PC, Star Wars: Republic Commando is heading to two new systems.
'Borderlands' developer Gearbox is merging with publishing giant Embracer
Embracer (aka THQ Nordic) is merging with 'Borderlands' creator Gearbox and buying the game port experts at Aspyr.
Classic Star Wars game 'Jedi Outcast' arrives on PS4 and Switch
Fans of Star Wars games just got a rare nostalgia trip on modern consoles. As teased during Nintendo's Direct earlier in the month, Aspyr has released Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast for the Switch and PS4 at a modest $10 price. The revived 2002 title puts you in the shoes of series hero Kyle Katarn after he cut links with the Jedi and the Force, only to realize he needs to return to the fold to fight off a growing menace. It's not a visual overhaul by any stretch (get ready for blocky characters and maps), but you will have modern controls. Switch owners, for example, can use motion to fine-tune their lightsaber swings and blaster shots.
BioWare's 'Jade Empire' gets another shot at life on iOS
BioWare is virtually synonymous with Mass Effect and Dragon Age these days, but it has had its share of experiments. Remember Jade Empire, its China-inspired (and critically well-received) action role-playing title? Aspyr does -- it just released versions of Jade Empire: Special Edition for the Mac and, crucially, iOS. You can now relive the story of a martial artist restoring balance to the world using your phone or tablet, not just your computer at home. There are simple controls in the iOS version if you're not comfortable with a touchscreen, but you can also switch to an expert mode when you're comfortable with using taps and swipes to defeat other warriors.
Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy remastered for Steam, iOS
The "definitive version" of Quantic Dream's Indigo Prophecy is now available on PC, Mac and Linux via Steam as well as iOS. Crafted by porting specialist Aspyr Media, the updated version of the "supernatural murder mystery game" goes by the name Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered as a nod to the 2005 adventure's European name. Players can download it for $9.99 (€8.99 / £6.99). Aspyr noted in its FAQ that there is "absolutely no cut or censored content in this version" of the game. Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered features updated graphics that can be toggled on and off on the fly and controller support across all platforms. While the Heavy Rain developer's original game was capped at a resolution of 1024 × 768, Aspyr said the remastered version supports native resolutions up to 2880 × 1800. Aspyr claimed it "gave every texture in the game a facelift," giving some elements four times the detail as the original game, but the 2 GB size limit on iOS forced remastered textures to only double in size in the mobile version. While it won't provide a release date just yet, the developer did add that an Android version of Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy is in the works. [Image: Aspyr Media]
KOTOR finds the Androids you've been looking for
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, BioWare's beloved RPG, is now available on Android devices. To mark the occasion, developer Aspyr Media has slashed the usual $10 price in half (with a lightsaber, presumably). You can snag it from Google Play right now, so long as your device is up to snuff, of course.
Sims 4 hasn't made a home on OS X, and I'm OK with that
Today's big release of Sims 4 was not celebrated by OS X devotees thanks to EA's decision to make the game a Windows-only affair, at least for the time being. An FAQ posted on the Sims 4 website makes the potential future of a Mac edition unclear, noting only that there are "no updates on Mac at this time." You know what? Fine. It wasn't that long ago that we got to see exactly what EA is capable of with the refresh of SimCity. After a launch on PC that was plagued with a completely busted (yet mandatory) online component, the OS X version of the game similarly stumbled out of the gate when it was launched months later. EA's forums were overrun with gamers claiming that the Mac version froze upon launch, crashed randomly, and -- to sum it all up -- was completely unplayable. Aside from complaints that the game is too dumbed down or simply not as good as Sims 3, Sims 4's PC release seems to be faring better than SimCity's. That being said, many customers still have a horrible taste in their mouths from the SimCity disaster, and unless EA puts the Mac port of Sims 4 in the hands of Mac publisher Aspyr -- which has proven itself multiple times with iOS and OS X ports of games like KOTOR, BioShock Infinite, and even SimCity 4 and Sims 2 -- I'm perfectly fine with EA having no news about a Mac release of Sims 4. It's not that I don't want to play the new Sims title. In fact, it looks like it would be a blast to play... but only if it actually works. At the moment, I'm just not sure I trust EA to deliver a playable game on OS X, and I don't think I'm alone.
Titanfall developer wants to see game on OS X
Titanfall -- a first-person shooter from a team comprised of many former Call of Duty development veterans -- debuted this week for Windows and Xbox One. It's a massively popular game that has a good chance of becoming a franchise in short order, and according Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella's twitter account, the team is interested in seeing the game on Apple's hardware. When asked by a Twitter user if his company's new baby would appear on OS X, Zampella claimed that talks are already in the works about just such a thing. "We are talking to Aspyr," Zampella tweeted, "they should do it." "Aspyr" is Aspyr Games, a publisher that specializes in bringing beloved games to Apple's various platforms. In fact, Aspyr is the same company responsible for the Knights of the Old Republic on iOS, which I happen to love. The company's other work includes BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2, and several Call of Duty releases. If Titanfall were to appear alongside those titles on OS X, it would be a pretty big deal for Mac gamers, so keep your fingers crossed. [via Joystiq]
Respawn CEO: 'We are talking to Aspyr' about Titanfall on Mac
The giant, stompy robots and diminutive, squishy pilots of Titanfall may find a new battlefield on Apple's OS X. Vince Zampella, CEO and co-founder of Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment, was asked point-blank if the hit shooter would appear on Macs. "We are talking to Aspyr," Zampella tweeted, adding, "they should do it." Aspyr is a company that specializes in porting PC games to the Mac. Its most recent efforts include BioShock Infinite and Borderlands 2. Mac gamers should be pleased by this news, but shouldn't get their hopes up just yet. Zampella's tweet is far from a confirmation that the game is coming to Mac, and even if things pan out that way, it will take a while for Aspyr to bring Titanfall to Apple's hardware. Aspyr's Borderlands 2 port appeared four months after its PC incarnation, while BioShock Infinite lagged behind its counterpart by half a year. [Image: Respawn Entertainment]
Aspyr dropping game support for Snow Leopard
When OS X 10.9 launches this fall, Aspyr will begin dropping support for its games running on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, the company announced in a blog post this weekend. Aspyr notes that all future releases of its games, as well as any patches and updates for existing titles, won't be supported on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Additionally, older titles that receive updates or patches may cease to work on OS X 10.6 in some cases. Aspyr says that, in order to continue using its games, users should update to the latest OS X their Mac can handle. If users cannot update their OS, they should not update any Aspyr games bought through the Mac App Store or those games will cease to work on their systems. Likewise, users should turn off auto-updates in Steam or the games will become inoperable on OS X 10.6 with future updates. The company explained its reasoning for dropping support for Snow Leopard as follows: Each new version of an operating system that Apple releases contains significant changes that Mac developers must adapt to. Reacting to the quickly changing OS environment on the Mac requires non-trivial resources, meaning Mac developers must make decisions about how to invest these resources. Currently 8% of our existing audience is on Mac OS X 10.6, down from 16% in January. With the release of Mavericks we anticipate this reducing further, and therefore we believe our efforts should be focused on supporting the growing audience. Aspyr is one of the most popular game makers for the Mac. Its latest release is the critically acclaimed Bioshock Infinite.
BioShock Infinite is the Mac game of the year
BioShock Infinite, one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time, has come to the Mac via the Mac App Store. Originally released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in March, its mix of jaw-dropping graphics, first-person shooter action, story and social commentary regarding racism, American exceptionalism and religious fundamentalism has led many to call it the best game of this decade so far and earned it over 85 prestigious awards. The game is the third installment in the BioShock series, but players don't need any knowledge of the first two installments as BioShock Infinite stands on its own with new characters and storyline. You play as Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt, who is sent to the floating city of Columbia to find a mysterious woman named Elizabeth who has quantum powers. Though the city of Columbia floats in the sky, the game takes place in 1912. Yet many critics have noted that the themes in the game reflect the political, religious, plutocratic and populist divides in America running up to the 2012 elections. Besides typical weapons like guns, other items include a hook that allows you to zip around and between buildings on Columbia's rail system known as the Skyline, telekinetic powers and gangs of murderous crows (trust me, it makes sense in the game). As for how the game runs on the Mac, it's not much different than playing it on a PlayStation or Xbox, provided you have a fast enough computer. Any iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air bought in the last few years should handle the game just fine. The official system requirements are a Mac running OS X 10.8.3 or later, 2.2 GHz CPU speed, 4 GB of RAM, 512 MB of video RAM and 30GB of free disk space. The game itself is a 17.9 GB download. The minimum video card requirements are a Radeon HD 3870 or a GeForce 640M graphics card. If your Mac meets the minimum requirements, buy this game. I'm not even a big first-person shooter fan, but I've been only playing the game for a day and its story is so compelling that it's sucked me right in. Aspyr has done an outstanding job porting BioShock Infinite to the Mac, which looks and runs beautifully on a machine like the latest MacBook Pro with Retina display. Best of all, like any game bought from the Mac App Store, no CD or authentication is required, so you can just download and launch and you're in the game with very little load time. The game is also Game Center-compatible. BioShock Infinite is US$39.99.
BioShock Infinite lands, landed, will land on Mac today
BioShock Infinite hit the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in March. Now, as if spurred on by the same Manifest Destiny it rails against, BioShock Infinite has come to conquer the Mac. Though BioShock Infinite was initially developed by Irrational Games, publisher 2K Games has tapped prominent Mac porting house Aspyr Media to handle the OS X incarnation. Apple devotees hoping to enjoy the adventure can now find BioShock Infinite on both Steam and in the OS X App Store with a price tag of $40. Alternately, Steam codes for BioShock Infinite are available at most Apple game retailers or through Aspyr's GameAgent website, the company says.
BioShock Infinite coming to the Mac later this month
BioShock Infinite will be available on Mac as of August 29th, some five months after it was first released on PC and consoles. That may sound like a long time for Mac gamers to wait, but that's much better than the more than two years after the official release date it took for BioShock 2 to arrive on Mac OS X. Ported by Aspyr, the same outfit that brought Borderlands, Civilization and Call of Duty to Mac gamers, BioShock Infinite will be available through the Mac App Store, Steam and Asypr's own GameAgent. The list price is US$59.99, though where you purchase could determine how much bang for the buck you get. Purchasing through Steam will get you Steam Play, meaning you get a copy for both Mac and PC, where as purchasing though GameAgent gets you the Columbia's Finest DLC and a voucher for 20 percent off the list price, which is quite a big incentive. Either way, Aspyr has stated the new Clash in the Clouds DLC will be available on or not long after the launch date, and the recently announced Burial at Sea two-part campaign add-on will follow thereafter. [Via The Verge]
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic arrives on the iPad, and the Force is with it
This is Portabliss, a column about downloadable games that can be played on the go. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic is the kind of game that's almost too big to be playing on the iPad. It's easily 30 hours long, with extensive attribute, skill, and combat systems, and it has some of the best storytelling BioWare's ever done, all set in the epic pre-film Star Wars universe. This is a monster of a classic game, and like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Baldur's Gate before it, it seems like cheating to play this game on Apple's touchscreen tablet, like you're somehow breaking the laws of mobile gaming physics, if such a school even exists. And yet, it works. Aspyr Media is the company responsible here. It's been porting games to the Mac for a long time, and with Knights of the Old Republic has decided to start bringing what it calls "catalog Mac experiences" to iOS. Presumably, the rights were snagged from BioWare and LucasArts, and now there's a very well-made $9.99 port of one of the best Star Wars games ever assembled, running on the iPad.
Aspyr brings the Bioware classic Knights of the Old Republic to iPad
When I spoke with them at Macworld | iWorld earlier this year, Aspyr Media (a company that has brought a lot of games to the Mac platform) promised some interesting "catalog Mac experiences" would be released on iOS, and they've outdone themselves with the first title. Bioware's classic Knights of the Old Republic RPG, based in the Star Wars universe, is available for the iPad right now, at a premium price of $9.99. Aspyr has done an incredible job with this one, and it probably didn't hurt that Bioware's original was designed so well. The game works very well on a touchscreen, as most of the menus made very good use of buttons and easily accessible screen areas. Combat is essentially turn-based (it's real-time, but you can pause it to change your actions at any time) and works great on the iPad. You can fix any small mistakes you make in giving orders easily and quickly. Aspyr also wasn't afraid to step in when necessary. The game's dialog options are just too small to be navigated with fingers, so Aspyr added option buttons on the side of the screen that are easy to choose as you chat with the game's many, many characters. The game's graphics are showing their age, and optimizing them for the iPad probably didn't help the fidelity at all. But that's not a major concern, considering the game was first released in 2003. The real strength of this game is how it puts you smack dab in the middle of a great Star Wars story, and the graphics are good enough that they don't get in the way. The voice acting enhances the experience, too. Knights of the Old Republic's original voice acting was stellar, and it's back here in all of the great stories and dialog lines that Bioware originally put together. HK-47 is a fan-favorite character from Knights of the Old Republic, and while I haven't reached his part in the story on my iPad yet, I am sure that he's just as hilariously evil as always. In short, Aspyr has delivered a classic game in an expertly ported form. If you've never played Knights of the Old Republic, you're in for a treat, but realize that you're getting into a major RPG campaign. This title will likely have way more depth and story than your average Jetpack Joyride or Angry Birds games. And if you have played Knights of the Old Republic once or even twice in the past, you'll probably appreciate another playthrough even more on Apple's excellent touchscreen platform. I had no inkling at all that this was what Aspyr was thinking of when they mentioned earlier this year that they were planning on porting some classic titles to iOS, but I'm glad this is what they started with. I can't wait to see more classic and revered games make their way from the Mac platform over to the iOS App Store with Aspyr in the captain's seat.
Borderlands 2 straps in for a big 'ol Mac update today
Borderlands 2 secured a hefty update on Mac today, adding leaderboards, achievements and multiplayer co-op, Mac-to-Mac style. Let's keep it in the family, guys.The update brings five DLC packs available via in-app purchases, including Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt, Captain Scarlett and her Pirate's Booty, Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage and the Mechromancer, a fifth playable vault hunter. PC and Xbox 360 players got the Mechromancer in October 2012, with PS3 not far behind.Borderlands 2 is on sale for half off, at $30, for a limited time on the Mac App Store.
BioShock Infinite soars onto Mac this summer
BioShock Infinite is heading to Mac this summer, courtesy of Mac publisher extraordinaire Aspyr. It's due out for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on March 26 (Yes, the March 26 that's less than a week away. Deep breaths.).For those Mac gamers not opposed to cheesy Facebook marketing tactics, you can enter to win a free copy of Infinite here, by signing up for things you may or may not ever have actual use for again.
