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Mac Game of the Week: Battle for Wesnoth is an open source classic
Battle for Wesnoth is one of my favorite Mac games of all time, and best of all, it's completely and totally free. It's an open source game back when creating open source games was the thing to do, but unlike most other open source games, it has endured and flourished, currently sitting at version 1.11.0. Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game, and it's really excellent -- it's based on a filled-out fantasy world, there are plenty of units to fight with and against, there's a full story mode to play, and there's a skirmish mode where you can just pit different factions against each other to your heart's content. And if that doesn't give you enough to do, there's also a ton of great user-made content campaigns, which bring all-new stories and content to the title. And since it's all open source, you can even jump in and create your own art, scenarios, units, or maps for the game. There's an unbelievable amount to do with this engine, and again, it's all for free. Battle for Wesnoth is a classic game (that's also available for iOS, by the way, thanks to a hardworking developer), and as far as I'm concerned, it's a must-install on every Mac I've ever owned. Definitely go grab it and play it -- it's available for download for free from the main website.
Feral Interactive bringing two Sega Sonic games to Mac
I can't say that I'm a huge fan of Feral Interactive: They're a company that specializes in porting games from other platforms over to the Mac, and I'm more interested in natively developed and published Mac games. But I have to respect them nevertheless: Feral picked up an Apple Design Award for their port of Deus Ex: Human Revolution at WWDC last week, so they must be doing something right. And now Sega has chosen them to bring Sonic the Hedgehog to the Mac platform for the first time. Feral is going to be bringing Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing and SEGA Superstars Tennis to the Mac App Store, with both games arriving later on this summer. In addition to porting the games, they'll also be Game Center-enabled, because Game Center will be used in Apple's next OS X update, Mountain Lion. It's also interesting that Sega has already released one of these games, All-Stars Racing, on the App Store. So Feral can probably thank the iOS platform for Sega's interest in Mac gaming. I wouldn't be surprised if it's because of Sega's success on iOS that the company is dipping its toe into the Mac App Store as well.
Mad Catz brings Mac support to R.A.T. gaming mice
Mac users certainly have quite a few more gaming options these days than they once did, and they can now also add Mad Catz's series of Cyborg R.A.T. gaming mice to that list. The company finally released some Mac drivers for the complete range of mice today, which will let you take advantage of all the advanced features Windows users are already accustomed to. Those still putting off that Snow Leopard update will have to take care of that first, however, as the drivers won't accept anything less.
Valve says Apple, NVIDIA and ATI are working to improve Mac gaming performance
We've already seen some evidence that Macs running Steam are generally more powerful than PCs running Steam, and it looks like Apple is busily working to make sure that all potential performance is put to good use. As Valve's Rob Barris has confirmed on the company's forums, Apple, ATI and NVIDIA are all "involved" in improving Mac gaming performance, and that "performance is going to improve as drivers are updated." Barris further went on to say that he expects "modest improvements in short term and larger ones in longer term," but wouldn't offer any specific dates as to when some of those updates might roll out.
Macs running Steam are more powerful than PCs, on average
No matter which three-legged sentry turret you pick, Steam games run fine if it houses a decent graphics card. That said, stick this in your breech and shoot it -- the latest edition of Valve's hardware survey shows the glossy white Apple models outgun Windows counterparts in a number of areas. Whereas the majority of Windows PCs have 2GB or 3GB of memory, 53 percent of Macs sport 4GB of RAM -- though that's likely attributable to the popularity of 32-bit OS. While 17 percent of Windows users are also stuck with a single CPU, over 90 percent of Macs running Steam have a dual-core... and internet connectivity's biased towards Mac gamers too, with 65 percent reporting download speeds over 2Mbit compared to under half of PCs. Of course, where it truly counts for games, Macs still sorely lag behind; the top six Windows GPUs reported are all capable performers, but only 32.5 percent of Macs surveyed had anything but a bottom-barrel graphics card. Get with the times, Apple -- even your mobile guys know gaming's not a niche anymore. [Thanks, Ryan B.]
Steam on Mac preview roundup: all but identical to PC
With that hotly-anticipated May 12th release date just around the corner, you might be wondering how Steam on Mac will perform. You're in luck, because some of our favorite Mac news sites have just finished testing the software's closed beta. The verdict? It's practically the exact same as the Windows version, except there's almost nothing to buy. Save for the Growl-like notifications at the top of the screen, the UI is all but indistinguishable, and as promised,data and purchases (if playable) automatically carry over in their entirety from your Windows Steam account. Team Fortress 2 even has cross-platform capability, allowing Mac users to play online with their Windows counterparts, though several journalists noted you might want to invest in a two-button wheel mouse if you don't want to be found out. Source Engine performance on Mac wasn't quite as good as on Windows in tests using the exact same hardware (thanks, Boot Camp), but admirably comes close nonetheless; Electronista was able to maintain a similar framerate in Portal just by disabling two levels of anti-aliasing. Not all Mac users will be able to partake in these games, however; though a MacBook Pro with a discrete 512MB GeForce 8600M card could run them well and a GeForce 9400M laptop managed on low settings, those with only integrated Intel graphics chips might find themselves in for a painful surprise. Read - Electronista Read - MacRumors Read - MacWorld Read - AppleInsider
Steam for Mac opens a portal to May 12, steps through
Valve promised that Steam on Mac would arrive in April. As you're no doubt aware, April is nearly over. Does that make Steam... vaporware? Not quite. Put away the Caruso sunglasses for two more weeks, because our friends at Joystiq just received a one-line email reading: "Valve today announced the public release of Steam for the Mac is May 12. Please stay tuned for more information." Oh well -- at least you're not waiting for Steam on Linux, and you can always stock up on Razer peripherals while you endure the delay.
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?
Valve confirms Steam for Mac, debuts in April
Eager gamers have no doubt already seen the teasers, but Valve has now finally confirmed that its Steam game distribution service and Source engine will at long last be headed to the Mac. According to Valve, the company's current line-up of games (including the Half-Life and Left 4 Dead series) will be available to Mac users in April, while Portal 2 will represent the company's first simultaneous release for PC and Mac later this year. Better still, Steamworks for Mac also boasts a new feature called "Steam Play," which will let you buy a game once and, for instance, start playing it on a PC at work and then pick up where you left off on your Mac at home (we'll give you a moment to let that sink in). Game publishers will have to enable that feature themselves, but Valve says it expects most to take advantage of it.
Mac Game 'Postal' in (very few) Theaters
Move over, Lara Croft -- it's time to go Postal!The (in)famous Mac video game from Running With Scissors is coming to the big screen today, albeit a small number of big screens. Postal first gained notoriety in 1997 as a Mac-only 2D shooter, and is famed for being banned in Australia for a few minor reasons -- things like using a cat as a gun silencer, gratuitous violence, and, in later versions, sexual themes and use of drugs and alcohol. Sounds like fun, eh?The Postal flick follows the story line and general bad taste of the old Mac game. Controversial director and Razzie Award Nominee (twice) Uwe Boll somehow bribed and wheedled his way into showings at a whopping 12 theaters nationwide. Be sure to go see this film tonight if you're a fan of Postal, since it will probably close at all 12 theaters today as well. Of course, that means it may be on DVD and in the iTunes Store next Tuesday.Me? I think I'll go see Indiana Jones instead.
MMOS X: Is CrossOver a solution?
MMOS X is a bi-weekly column dedicated solely to gaming on the Macintosh natively. "Running Boot Camp or Parallels" is not an option here. This column is for people who want to get the most out of their Mac gaming, as meager as it is. In the header blurb to this column, I state that "Running Boot Camp or Parallels is not an option here." I stand by that still. I don't think that dual-booting or loading XP within a virtual desktop is the solution any of us want. Dual booting takes up valuable hard drive space that I could use to store large media files of consenting adults. Running Parallels throws another layer of processor overhead when I run XP within Parallels within OS X. Not to mention Parallels' DirectX support is poor. Note: I haven't tried VMWare's Fusion, which is the competitor to Parallels.A week or so ago, our own Mike Schramm wrote up a little piece on TUAW about CrossOver Games. CrossOver Games lets you run some Windows games within an emulator. It's not a pure virtual environment like Parallels, so you don't have the overhead of running two OSs. When I read Mike's piece, my first thought was, "huh." My second thought was, "Huh, I wonder if there's a middle ground here somewhere." At the risk out sounding like I'm eating my own words, CrossOver might be enough of a compromise that doesn't involve buying a copy of Windows to game on a Mac.
Feral releases Tomb Raider Anniversary
Lara Croft is back on the Mac. Feral Interactive let us know that they have released Tomb Raider Anniversary for our favorite architecture.There are a few hitches-- it's Intel processors only at this point (though a Universal binary is due next year), and like most 3D games lately, GMA video cards are out. 10.4 is listed, there's no indication of whether the game works in Leopard or not. The good news is that while a lot of Tomb Raider games lately have been terrible, this one is supposed to be a nice return to the spelunking of old. The Windows version got reviewed favorably, but there's no word yet on exactly how the Mac version looks. We've heard good things about other Feral ports-- maybe this kind of release is just what Mac gaming needs a lot more of.
Aspyr delays Guitar Hero III, they are now dead to me
Man, remember how excited we were that Guitar Hero III was coming to the Mac at a reasonable time? Yeah, well, guess what. Aspyr has no love for Mac owners. Our friends at Joystiq say that while the PC version is sitting happily on shelves, we're still waiting on the Mac version. "Later this year," Aspyr says. I'll believe it when I see it.I don't want to get off on a rant here, but who the hell put Aspyr in charge of Mac gaming anyway? Their incompetence has reared its ugly head time and time again. They deliver late, buggy ports all the time, and yet game companies still seem to flock to them for development and publishing jobs.There is something rotten in the state of Mac gaming, and it is Aspyr Media. Have they ever kept a promise for release? Have they ever delivered a worthy, on-time port? Or have they continually and constantly profited off of placing junk on Apple Store shelves, forever confining Macs to the bottom of the list for gaming platforms? I won't tell you what to buy, but I'm done seeing Aspyr's name on Mac games. Until they show that they actually have the capacity to release a game that even slightly compares to the PC release version (or even shows up on time -- I'd settle for punctuality at this point), the Aspyr name is a complete dealbreaker for me in terms of both interest and purchases. As far as I'm concerned, they're out.
ChipWits lives on
Back in the days when Apple pretty much owned the educational market, the Mac was new and Oregon Trail was the pinnacle of edutainment, there existed a little program called ChipWits. I played on my Laser 128, but there were versions for the Commodore 64 and Macintosh. Now some 20-odd years later ChipWits makes a triumphant return as an Adobe AIR app, so you can get your robot on with a Windows machine or a Mac (and hopefully Linux someday).ChipWits is a programmable robot game. You build and program your little robot dude to travel through various environments (called rooms). Each one has specific rewards and risks, which makes programming the robot guy interesting. That may sound dry as toast, but your robot eats pie and drinks coffee. He can see, smell and touch. He can zap bugs but isn't too happy with bombs. The bit of whimsy thrown in with the robot-building makes for a really enjoyable game. Plus, it's surprising how fun debugging your robot can be. The big improvement in what the authors are calling ChipWits II is that you can now create your own missions. If something like Desktop Tower Defense is your bag, the Mission Editor will appeal to you. Currently you can try ChipWits 15 times and buy it for $14.95. The release price will be $19.95, and the authors are donating 10% of their profits to 3 non-profit organizations.
Bungie says Mac games are still a possibility
Macworld has a quick chat with Bungie after this morning's big announcement that the company is "evolving" away from Microsoft a bit, and the good news is that a new Mac release from our favorite game developer (before they were bought out by the Evil Empire, that is) is not out of the question.Spokeman Brian Jarrard plays pretty loose with the announcement, and says that while Bungie and Microsoft are going to retain their developer and publisher relationship, his company won't "rule out anything going forward." He says the move will let Bungie "[control] our destiny, and that puts us in a position where we could put ourselves back on the [Mac] platform definitively again."We can only hope. EA and id games made a big appearance at this years' WWDC, and I think I speak for many, many Mac gamers when I say we'd love to see Bungie announcing a brand new game at Macworld in a few months.
Mac gaming on the cheap: Our favorite low-cost Mac games
With the release of Myst Online for the Mac* (and our own nagging, monthly World of Warcraft bills), we TUAW bloggers got together to discuss our favorite low-cost Mac games. Sure, those MMORPGs are fun, but $14.99/month (Warcraft) and $6.95/month (Myst) isn't. So, in the name of gaming cheapskates everywhere, here's our list of great, inexpensive Mac games (in no particular order).SketchFighter 4000 Alpha by Ambrosia Software. Cost: $19US. Requirements: Mac OS 10.2 or later.By Ambrosia Software, this shoot-em-up game features upgradeable spaceships, mean bosses, challenging levels and even a level editor. But most of all, we love the dead-on, retro, "hand-sketched" graphics. SketchFighter was designed to look like the very images that young geeks like me spent all of Jr. high school scribbling on notebook paper, and the developers at Ambrosia really nailed it. As an 11 year old, I could only imagine my creations coming to life. Ambrosia made it actually happen, and as a result SketchFighter is wicked fun to play.More after the jump.
Macworld lists best games of 2006
Peter Cohen, the Macworld gaming guy, has compiled a list of the top Mac gaming gear of 2006. Now, I am not much of a gamer, but there are some interesting games on the list. I am sure you will be able to find the prefect holiday gift for any Mac gamer that is in your life on this list.Any Mac gaming list that has Freeverse on it is OK in my book.
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
Joystiq recommends Mac games for the holidays
Yes, I did just say that Mac gaming doesn't really matter anymore, but I am willing to believe that some people might not agree with me. If you're looking for some great games to play on your Mac, then Joystiq has you covered. They have a short round up of the best of the best Mac games on the market, just in time for the holidays.
