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SimCity Mac delayed until August
Originally scheduled to have its groundbreaking ceremony take place sometime in June, the Mac OSX version of SimCity won't be accepting new residents until August, Maxis has announced. "We have made this tough decision because we do not believe it is ready for primetime yet," senior producer Kip Katsarelis said in the announcement. "We want to ensure the Mac is a great experience for our players and that is why we are taking more time." As an expression of gratitude for their patience, Mac mayors will receive the "Launch Park" awarded to early adopters of the PC version in Update 4. Meanwhile, Update 5 for the PC version is expected to hit "in a couple weeks," patch notes for which can be uncovered by clickin' all up on the source link below.
Mac client in testing now for League of Legends
Although League of Legends sports a hefty player base, Mac users have been noticeably absent since the previous Apple-only beta shut down in September of 2011. Associate Producer Steve Mieczkowski has announced that a new Mac version is on its way. And once it goes live, both versions of the client will receive all content, features, and bug fixes simultaneously. The Mac client is currently playable on the game's Public Beta Environment, and it will enter an open beta phase when developers are confident with the results from the PBE test. However, players needn't wait for the open beta to try it out; in fact, Mieczkowski encourages folks to download the PBE from the official site now and help by offering feedback and finding bugs.
John Smedley on PlanetSide 2's strengths and three-year plan
"PlanetSide 2 -- what is it and why do I want to play it?," asks SOE President John Smedley in a recent LiveJournal post (yes, LiveJournal lives!). In a little over 3,000 words, Smedley attempts to make the case for why PlanetSide 2 is a genuine contender in both the MMO and FPS markets. "We're thinking about a game we plan to have running in 2025. Yeah. Really," he writes. John Smedley's selling points on PS2 are as follows: It has a "very deep" certification system, the deepest team-based gameplay of any FPS, an immersive world, no end, a huge community, resourced-based gameplay and territorial control, and familiar gameplay. And it's free-to-play. Smedley also opens up regarding SOE's three-year plan for PlanetSide 2, mentioning possible player-owned bases, harvestable resources, a seamless planet and water vehicles, NPC armies and enemies, e-sports support, and a Mac version.
EverQuest Mac fans fight for survival; SOE responds
While many players are celebrating the announcement of EverQuest's upcoming free-to-play transition, there is one EQ community that was crushed by the news. The small but dedicated fanbase of EverQuest: Macintosh Edition found out that with F2P, EQMac and its one server would be sunsetted on the same date. EQMac fans have begun to stage a campaign to save their favorite game, but it looks like there will be no budging SOE's mind on the matter. SOE President John Smedley took to the forums today to answer specific questions about the shutdown. "It breaks my heart to have to do this," he laments, before admitting that it's a done deal. Smedley cites the fact that the codebase is so ancient that only one SOE programmer knows how to work it, the player population is too small, and SOE was never that "proud" of the version. However, Smedley promised that he will run a poll to see if there's enough interest in a Mac port of the current version of EverQuest. If the response is big enough, he says, the company will consider doing it. Meanwhile, the game will be available for current players free of charge until the March 29th shutdown. SOE has a celebration planned for its final hurrah. EQMac came out in 2003 and was unique for remaining "frozen in time" in the years since, receiving no further active development or expansions. We will be covering this game and its shutdown more in-depth in a future Game Archaeologist column, so stay tuned.
The Game Archaeologist uncovers Shadowbane: The highlights
Way back when I used to haunt the corridors of Gamestop and not shun the place due to its stinky evil, I remember being enticed with these fancy-pantsy "MMORPG" boxes when I'd see them on the shelf. I must have picked up Shadowbane a dozen or so times to check out the blurbs on the back, mentally weighing whether or not this would be the one to introduce me to online gaming, but ultimately it was not to be. It's probably for the best, considering that Shadowbane was primarily PvP and I'm a PvE guy at heart. Plus, the title never really took off the way that publisher Ubisoft had hoped, spending most of its six years of operation lurking in the background of the MMO industry instead of sharing the spotlight. But still, six years! That's far longer than any of the titles we've been talking about these past couple months, and considering that Shadowbane won last week's poll to become this month's topic, there are obviously strong feelings lurking among you. What did Shadowbane try to do differently, how did it stay alive as long as it did, and what was its downfall? Hit the jump to find out!
iPhone 1.1.3 jailbreak now for Mac, that was quick
It has definitely been an iPhone-friendly day on the interwebs. It was just a few hours ago that the iPhone 1.1.3 jailbreak was released to the public by Nate True (from cre.ations.net). However, this was a Windows-only version of the jailbreak; but Nate was working on a Mac version and has just released it! You can download the Mac version of the software from the cre.ations.net website. Please note that this jailbreak might be hazardous to your iPhone's health. Before you jailbreak your iPhone, be sure to backup in iTunes -- and as always, hacking your iPhone is completely at your own risk.
