Making the rounds at MWSF, we happened to run into Mark Cottam and Henry Price of MacPlay. Not being ones to pass up a good opportunity, we immediately surrounded them and refused to let them go without answering our barrage of questions and demands.

Foremost in the docket are status reports on Aliens vs. Predator 2 and No One Lives Forever 2. AvP2 is making good headway, and MacPlay anticipates a release around the end of February. As for NOLF2, no definite release date is planned, though they're hoping for a Spring release.

Also in the queue is Global Operations. This title is currently undergoing full conversion, and we should get an update on this title by the end of the week.

For those that know that all 3 titles use the Lithtech engine and are wondering if this will speed up the development process, it was pointed out to us that even though the same engine is used, each title uses a different iteration of the engine, making the programming process longer.

As for NOLF2's predecessor, No One Lives Forever continues to sell well. Cottam added that international sales in particular have been surprisingly strong.

For fans of puzzle games, MacPlay is also publishing two Pop Cap titles - Mummy Maze and Big Money. Both titles, which were ported by OmniGroup are currently being offered at MWSF.

As for the far future, there's one more Crave title in the works, though it has yet to be announced. Cottam also notes that more "big secret stuff" is on the way, though he refused to divulge more details no matter how hard we squeezed him.

MacPlay (add to watch list)

Hyperion Entertainment (add to watch list)

Aliens vs. Predator 2 (add to watch list)

No One Lives Forever (add to watch list)

No One Lives Forever 2 (add to watch list)

Buy Aliens vs. Predator 2

Buy No One Lives Forever

Buy No One Lives Forever 2

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Didn't get a chance to make it to the show? Check out some photos from Macworld Expo San Francisco taken from the show floor by the crew at IMG. Included are photos of the new Powerbooks, Unreal Tournament 2003, Neverwinter Nights, and more...

MWSF 2003 Picture Gallery - Day One

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Peter Tamte of Destineer Studios talked with IMG this afternoon about his company's many upcoming titles. The biggest of these is likely Dungeon Siege, a massive action RPG being ported right now by Westlake Interactive.

Tamte pointed out his favorite features of the game are its use of 3D as a strategic element, the fast-paced action, and of course, the full co-operative play. While the PC version uses DirectPlay, there will be Mac-to-Mac co-op play, which Tamte describes as extremely fun.

While there are more optimizations to be done with the game, Tamte expects it to have slightly higher system requirements than a game like Jedi Knight II (which needs a 400MHz processor and Radeon/GeForce-class video card).

Halo is doing well, though still early in development at Westlake. Tamte noted they are on track for a summer release still, and that the Mac version will be compatible with the upcoming PC title as well.

As far as flight sim fans are concerned, those looking for Microsoft Flight Simulator aren't completely out of luck. While Tamte can't commit to any sort of timeline still, Destineer is still committed to bringing the series to the Mac at some point in the future.

Links Championship Edition seems to have a slightly slower start than expected, but has turned out to be a very consistent seller, according to Tamte. He also notes even older titles like Age of Empires 2 are doing well for the company over the holiday season.

Be on the lookout, as Desinteer has very big plans for 2003. While they will have a few more Microsoft titles to announce before the year is out, there should be even more news to bring to you in the near future, so stay tuned.

Destineer Studios (add to watch list)

IMG today chatted with Glenda Adams, Suellen Adams, and Duane Johnson of Westlake Interactive. This well-known Macintosh game porting house is staying extremely busy, and filled us in on their many projects (or at least those known to the public).

Tiger Woods 2003 is doing very well, and everyone trying out the beta in Aspyr Media's booth agrees this golf simulation looks excellent already. Testing for the game is underway, and so expect to hear more about it soon.

Harry Potter 2: The Chamber of Secret is also doing well. Glenda expects this game to do better than even the original, thanks to more robust gameplay features and of course more characters and locations from the second book/movie.

Halo is still in very early development, but Brad Oliver is underway with the port and expects to have more information soon.

Dungeon Siege is also being shown on the expo floor. This complex title is a huge port, and two developers working on it are making good progress, though more optimizations are expected down the road. Beta testing should begin very soon.

Everquest has a number of representatives from Sony at the show. The game looks good, and after a round of internal testing, they should be releasing a public beta test in a matter of months.

In terms of current game updates, Westlake can't speak to the delays behind the Return to Castle Wolfenstein 1.4 patch. Glenda did note that she hopes to see another update to the OS X port of Unreal Tournament, but her schedule with Harry Potter 2 and Everquest just don't leave any room for it at the moment. Hopefully once Harry Potter 2 ships, this situation may change.

Thanks to Suellen, Glenda, Duane, and the rest of the Westlake crew who couldn't attend the expo. We expect some great things from them in 2003.

Westlake Interactive (add to watch list)

A-OK, a game that simulates the Mercury Spacecraft, was recently updated to run natively in OS X. For those unfamiliar with A-OK, the game is a full-featured simulation, featuring 3D graphics, historically accurate controls and documentation, a Mission Profile editor, and much more.

Here's a snippet from the official press release:

A-OK! The Wings of Mercury simulates America's first spacecraft,
Project Mercury, and opens a new frontier in computer simulations. The operation of every gauge, light and switch in the spacecraft is simulated to a high degree of fidelity. So accurate are the spacecraft systems that users consult reproductions of the actual flight documentation used by the Mercury astronauts. The simulator can generate hundreds of failure scenarios that require split-second decisions to survive. A-OK! The Wings of Mercury ships with A-OK! Mission Control Center,
an application that simulates the consoles at Mercury mission control. A-OK! The Wings of Mercury also ships with a suite of tools that allows users to edit the launch and landing areas, calculate retrofire and ground station contact times and other mission-critical tasks.

For more information on A-OK, follow the link provided below.

A-OK

As reported by PC gaming website IGN, Ken Love, game producer at Activision, has recently posted a thread at Atari Fan Website AtariAge, suggesting that there is a good chance that his company's Activision Anthology might be ported to the Mac.

Here's a quote from the post:

Still a little uncertain as to whether or not Anthology will make it to X-Box or not. The outlook at the moment though, does look good. Whether it's published by Activision or not, I don't know. It's even looking better that it'll end-up on the PC and Mac platforms. If that happens, you can look for a "REMIX" version of the title. That meaning that you'll get a few more games, video footage, 'new' cartoons and maybe some extra perks that the PS2 version didn't quite get. "Better Controller Support." I'm actually looking forward to working on it, now that I don't have all the pressure on me like as I did with the first one. Same for the development schedule. I plan on fixing everything that went wrong with the PS2 version. I wasn't very happy with the final REWARDS system, but that was out of my hands.

Stay tuned to IMG for further news on the progress of this game to the Mac.

A post of interest was recently made on the forums for Teamspeak, an application which allows player to communicate with each through voice while playing multi-player games online. Teamspeak does this without using up too much bandwidth, so that it does not harm game performance. Although the program is currently only available for Linux and Windows, the post from one the developers states that Apple contacted them and offered to send the developers some Macs so they could port the application to OS X.

Here's the post:

Ok. It's time to break our silence since things are starting to really happen.

An employee of apple contacted us, if he could help us make a teamspeak port for the Mac. We said sure, we just need hardware and software to do it please.

So around Christmas, Santa Claus delivered 2 nice power Mac?s to Ralf and me. But the gringe made Santa forget to send some nice compatible monitors. Since we don't own any dvi monitors, or dvi -> vga adaptors, we currently can?t even look what's on the hardware. So apple is sending us some converters. I guess that will take a few weeks.

Then we must get familiar with Mac osX and it's programming tools. After we did that, and re released rc2 of teamspeak, we will start porting the client to Mac osX. Keep in mind that since we both have 0 experience in Macs this might take a long time.

Teamspeak Possibility?

Teamspeak

Aladdin Systems, popular Mac utility developer, and reponsible for such applications as Stuffit Deluxe and Ten for X, has announced a brand new product to their lineup, titled Ten for X: Games.

The new product speaks for itself, giving Mac gamers ten great Mac games at the very low price of just $50. Some of the games include such popular hits like Bugdom 2, Airburst, Wingnuts, GeneForge from companies like Freeverse, Pangea, Spiderweb and Strange Flavour. Below is a brief description of each game included in the pack:

3D Bridge Deluxe by Freeverse Software
An amazing Bridge game with a great tutorial mode.

Airburst by Freeverse Software
Protect the balloons keeping you aloft while trying to pop others.

Astrosquid by Lost Minds
Pilot your Squid-like ship to Earth through 16 levels of arcade action.

Bommo Sweeper X by Slovis Software
An addictive mine sweeping game.

Bugdom 2 by Pangea Software
The fantastic action adventure game with amazing 3D graphics.

Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab by Freeverse Software
Challenge yourself in this Tetris-like puzzler with single and multi-player modes.

Classic Cribbage by Freeverse Software
You'll need quick wits and a good memory to succeed at this classic card game.

Cro-Mag Rally by Pangea Software
3D racing action will have you on the edge of your stone seat!

Deep Trouble by Code Blender Software
Its the 22nd century. Aliens are polluting the oceans. Its up to you to stop them!

Geneforge by Spiderweb Software
Spend hours in pursuit of a quest in this top-rated role playing game.

Jinni Zeala Pinball by LittleWing Co. LTD
Relive pinball¹s Golden Age.

Video Poker 5000 by Slovis Software
The thrill of the casion in the privacy of one¹s home.

WingNuts: Temporal Navigator:
Stop the Baron and his zany flying machines in this challenging arcade thriller.

Ten for X

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