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Mac Game of the Week: Borderlands 2 gets exclusive content for the Mac
Borderlands was sort of a surprise from Gearbox when it released a few years ago: It's an action RPG game, in the vein of popular titles like Diablo, but instead of the form that genre usually takes, an isometric fantasy RPG, Borderlands successfully placed loot grinding and RPG progression into an open-world first-person shooter. That first game was a bit unexpected for everyone (including the developers), but Gearbox was ready for the acclaim with Borderlands 2. The sequel is better, bigger, shinier and even more fun. And now Borderlands 2 has made its way over to the Mac App Store, courtesy of ubiquitous Mac publisher Aspyr. The biggest drawback with this release is that multiplayer isn't in yet -- this is a singleplayer version, so apparently Aspyr wanted to get it out before the holiday without nailing down the multiplayer code. That's a bummer, especially because Borderlands is most fun with friends. But Aspyr has made up for that bit of lateness in the code with lots of goodies. The first DLC for Borderlands 2 is also available right away on day one, and you can buy it separately or pick up a Borderlands season pass, which will eventually give you all of the DLC together in one package. And I'm glad to see that this version also includes some exclusive content: Some extra "Fired Up" skins come for free, and there's a Contraband Sky Rocket grenade mod included as well. So that's good to see. Plus, the game is 25 percent off throughout the holidays, for just US$44.99. Cheers to Aspyr for bringing us a Mac port like this -- it's not often that we see a port ready to go on the same year as the PC release, not to mention with some extra content. That lack of multiplayer isn't great, but it's forgivable. If you need a really fun shooter to explore over the holiday weekend (and of course have a Mac capable of running it), be sure to take a trip back to Pandora in Borderlands 2.
Alice now Universal Binary on Mac
American McGee's Alice has been updated into a Universal Binary, and the tens of Mac gamers who both use Intel Macs and enjoyed this title -- or at least its gnarled art direction -- can now run the game natively. (Okay, we jest; there must be at least hundreds of us, including this writer and other Joystiq contributors.)We salute Aspyr for offering a free update to this older title. This sort of support makes us want to keep playing Mac titles, even though the platform's gaming future is uncertain at best. Now excuse us while we dig up old copies of Alice and recite incantations for a Deus Ex update.
