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Not on Steam Sale offers a huge discount on a ton of indie titles
Valve's Steam service runs sales on its plethora of titles quite frequently, but unfortunately not every game is available on Steam -- that's where the Not On Steam Sale comes in. Offering a total of 35 indie titles (many of them playable on Mac), the sale is a great way to stock up on a whole bunch of great games you may never have heard of. The Not On Steam Sale is being hosted by Flippfly, the same folks behind the indie title Race the Sun. The sale ends a week from today, so if you're in the market for some quirky gaming on the cheap, be sure to swipe your credit card before it ends. [via Joystiq]
Humble Indie Bundle 8 offers 7 indie Mac games for a great price
The Humble Indie Bundle is one of the higher-quality game bundles around (there are quite a few of them these days), and the eighth iteration, just announced this week, is one of the best deals we've seen in a while. The bundle features seven different games (all available on the Mac, along with Windows and Linux versions if you happen to OS that way) for a name-your-own price. You'll get Little Inferno (which began on iOS, but later arrived on PC), the excellent indie MOBA Awesomenauts, Capsized, heart-tugger Thomas Was Alone and the very atmospheric Dear Esther, along with two other titles if you pay higher than the average (currently about $5), the beautiful Proteus and the violent but very well-designed Hotline Miami. All of those games are excellent, and the fact that you can pay your own price (which you can then divvy up as you like to charity, the Humble Bundle folks or the developers) is just icing on the already sweet cake. And there's more, too: You get soundtracks for all of the games, not to mention that all of these titles are cross-platform and DRM free, so you can play them anywhere you want, too. This bundle will be available for a while, but it's definitely a great deal. If you need a few more games to play on your Mac, pick this one up for sure.
Steam's latest beta client enables remote installation of games, with emphasis on 'beta'
Considering it's supposed to be a democratic free-for-all, Steam has been running a tight ship lately. We've already seen a video of a forthcoming native client for Linux, and now there's a new beta client for Windows and Mac that also brings something different: remote game management. This can save you time by letting you trigger the download and installation of a title to your home computer while you're still in the office or on the move, via any web browser. That said, this type of thing was already possible using remote desktop apps, and so far the community response to the buggy beta has been decidedly mixed -- so make sure you read up on Valve's forum (at the source link) before you expect to find your slippers, Pinot Grigio and Sniper Elite V2 all lined-up and waiting when you get home. [Productive workplace photo via Shutterstock]
Razer promises Mac support for all upcoming products
Razer already provides full Mac support for a few of its gaming peripherals -- including the Naga and DeathAdder -- and basic support for others, but it's now taken avantage of GDC to "reaffirm" its commitment to Mac users. That apparently means that "all upcoming" Razer products -- including the company's line of StarCraft II peripherals -- will boast full Mac support out of the box, and that the company will be rolling out updates to some of its existing products "later this year," including the Orochi, Mamba, and Imperator gaming mice. First Steam, now Razer peripherals -- dare we say it's a good time to be a Mac gamer?
The Best of Big Download: September 22-28
Fall has arrived but don't let the leaves turning, the economy busting and the candidates feuding get you down. Big Download has been working hard to give its readers the best in PC game related news, features and downloads. Let's look at the highlights for the first week of autumn 2008.Exclusive Features Reviews: We give our verdict for the recent release of Introversion Software's multiplayer strategy game Multiwinia Previews: We go hands-on with Atari's upcoming revival, Deer Hunter Tournament. Black Ops PC Games: What major PC games are being developed that you might not know anything about? This feature article has the word on the super-secret games under development. Resurgence of Yesteryear: Classic PC games can be revived but which ones should get new versions using their original graphics and technology? We pick 10 PC games that we want to see come back in their original form. Big Iron: Our regular PC hardware column comes back with a look at how a recent message board discussion over FIFA 09 generated a look at console vs PC hardware. Boot Disk: Our new column on retro PC gaming takes a look at the classic adventure title Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father Mac Monday: Our look at the world of Macintosh gaming continues with examining the unusual action game Miriel the Magical Merchant. MODmonday: Our weekly mod feature continues to look at Max Payne mods; this time its a Max Payne 2 total conversion called Sketchbook Sam that turns the game into a 2D stick figure. Indie Showcase: Our weekly look at indie games continues with a look at titles from the recent Bootleg Demakes competition. Big Ideas: Our weekly look at the "big" game themes goes over a recent Gamasutra article about game journalism Alt-Tab: Our weekly op-ed talks about how "casual" gaming doesn't have to mean "simple" Freeware Friday: It's our weekly look at free games; this time around its for the action-adventure Eternal Daughter BigCast: Our weekly podcast is a special one as we chat with members of Mythic Entertainment to find out what's happening with Warhammer Online after its launch last week.
The Goalkeeper: Every position will be famous for 15 minutes
Dateline, Macworld SF 2007: Mac game publishers have jumped on the SPSG bandwagon with a slew of Single Position Sports Games sure to thrill fans. We now have Placekicker, full of the excitement of the point-after conversion; Power Forward II Gold for hoops enthusiasts who need that extra bit of muscle; and the long-awaited but controversial split-screen title, Pitchers & Catchers: Spring Training. Who could ask for anything more?OK, those titles are all fictional (or possibly just wishful thinking). But this one isn't: The Goalkeeper, new from Winterwolves. This strangely specific soccer-sim is the perfect game for anyone who doesn't have enough fast-moving objects flying towards their head. You can build up your own 'keeper' character, with a mix of skills including Handling, Reflexes, Jumping and Charisma (the same set, oddly enough, used in the upcoming Tom & Katie: The Sims expansion pack :-). Once you get comfortable with the whole goaltending thing, you can jump up a simulation level and tweak your attitude towards your team -- useful in ANY workplace. You can even argue with your own coach if he decides to bench you, probably as a result of your lousy attitude toward your team. Slacker!I'm guessing that the market for this title may lie largely outside the ol' U.S. of A. Then again, I have colleagues who were so World Cup-mad that we ended up rigging QuickTime Streaming Server to pointcast the games on our LAN and avoid productivity losses lest people disappear to nearby taverns. Perhaps I'll pick up a couple of copies of The Goalkeeper as athletic-stocking-stuffers. Goooooooooaaaalllll!!![via MacNN]
Empire at War coming to the Mac
The Mac version of Star Wars: Empire at War won't be ready for Santa's sleigh, but Aspyr Media reports they've entered the testing phase, and the Petroglyph strategy port should be available in February. MacBook and Mini owners with integrated graphics won't have to worry about the game's performance, either. According to lead programmer Brad Oliver, Aspyr's goal is to make sure Empire plays well on ALL Macs. That is, until the expansion pack is ported and Tyber Zann assumes control of your hard disk.See also: Holiday 2006 best bets for Mac gamers KotOR franchise to continue, says LucasArts Star Wars PC collection ships
Holiday 2006 best bets for Mac gamers
With Apple's transition to Intel processors completed earlier this year, and emerging technologies such as Cider promising full compatibility with Windows games, the Mac platform is seeing even fewer native releases these days. But there are still some gems for dedicated Mac gamers this holiday season: Age of Empires III Big Bang Brain Games Call of Duty 2 Cars: The Videogame Civilization IV Dominions 3: The Awakening Quake 4 Sims 2: Nightlife Spongebob Squarepants Diner Dash WingNuts 2: Raina's Revenge World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (coming in Jan.) X-Plane 8.5 Apple's gaming page has additional information, and check out last year's holiday recommendations for a little more variety on your Mac.
Sims 2 wins best Mac game award
Aspyr Media's latest newsletter features a summary of the company's participation at last month's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, where they took home the Best Mac OS X Game award for The Sims 2. Also recognized in the Apple Design Awards was runner-up Wing Nuts 2: Raina's Revenge from Freeverse. While Apple isn't doing much for Mac gaming on the hardware front, Aspyr discusses their plans for using OS X Leopard's XCode developer toolset in future Mac game releases. You can download the Universal Binary update for The Sims 2 here.
Wingnuts 2, an original Mac game, takes off
Freeverse has announced that Wingnuts 2, a top-down aerial arcade shooter game, is now available for online purchase and download. The title benefits from being an original and exclusive Mac game, developed and playable exclusively on the Mac. Freeverse co-founder Colin Lynch Smith mentions the advantages of developing games solely for the Mac over on Inside Mac Games:"This is the biggest game to be written specifically for the Mac in years. Targeting just the Mac means no performance compromises (and lower system requirements)-- and we can design in cool OS X specific technologies like CoreImage and iSight integration."It's about time that game developers woke up to the benefits of creating games specifically for the Mac platform. Hopefully this will be the first title of many in a resurgence of big name Mac-exclusive titles.You can grab a demo of the game at this link and a video of the game (complete with an example of the fancy CoreImage effects) is available here. A DVD boxset of the game will ship in early July, but if you can't wait that long the game is available as a whopping 550MB download for $29.95 over on the Wingnuts 2 site.[Via Joystiq]
