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After a slight delay, the demo of e.p.i.c. Interactive's strategy game, Northland, has been released today on Macgamefiles.com. Northland, which recently was published for the PC, tells the story of Bjarni the Viking. The story begins where the plot of "Cultures 2 - The Gates of Asgard" ended.

Here's a bit more info on the game's plot and features:

After perilous adventures our four heroes defeated the Midgard serpent and thus saved the world. A great celebration began and everyone was happy and content.

But only a very short time later the peace was disturbed by a call for help from their friend Hatschi. Hatschi's homeland was plagued by mysterious monstrous serpent creatures, which spread chaos and destruction through the country. Without hesitation Bjarni and Crya hurried to help him and stumbled right into a new adventure, in which the sly god Loki will play an important role...

Northland features:
• Stand-alone Adventure Strategy game.
• Single player campaign with 8 missions including several sub missions.
• The exciting plots tells the story of Viking God Loki who tried to take revenge on Godfather Odin for his banishment from Asgard to Earth. For that he abuses our four human heroes with his intrigues and traps.
• 8 additional free single player missions (non campaign).
• 3 difficulty levels to make the game fun for everybody from beginners to experts.
• Special effects like weather effects, fog, ghost units etc.
• Based on the enhanced technology of "Cultures 2 - The Gates of Asgard"; enhanced AI.

Macintosh System Requirements
• Min.: G3/350 Mhz, MacOS X or MacOS 9.x, 192 MB (OSX 128 MB) RAM
• Rec.: G4/700, MacOS 10.2.x, 256 MB RAM

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MGF: Northland Demo

From time to time we update the "free game" offer that comes with every subscription to the MacGames CD and IMG Pro. Today we've updated the free game offer with the addition of seven new games to the line-up:

• Enigmo
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
• Fallout 2
• No One Lives Forever
• Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
• Nascar Racing 2002
• 4x4 Evolution 2
• American McGee's Alice and Cliver Barker's Undying
• Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force and Elite Force Expansion Pack
• Soldier of Fortune 2

The MacGames CD is a CD-ROM subscription service featuring the best in Macintosh game demos, shareware, updates, add-ons, trailers, cheaters and much more. Get 8 issues per year (delivered about every 6 weeks) and save big bucks! For a limited time, when you subscribe to MacGames CD, you can get a full version of one of eight games; all you pay is the shipping ($5 USA, $7 Canada, $12 International). Each subscription or renewal also includes free registration of the shareware game guide Game Doctor, plus great discounts from Mac game stores and publishers.

IMG Pro is a new subscriber version of the Inside Mac Games website that allows you to turn off all advertisements, customize the homepage to show only the items you want, and set up a custom Watch List to notify you when new articles have been posted about items you're interested in. IMG Pro also features a choice of themes, and a new QuickSearch feature that lets you find what you're looking for, faster and easier. Best of all, an IMG Pro subscription gives you access to the same discounts as MacGames CD subscribers, and includes a free, full version of a game.

If you're already a MacGames CD subscriber or IMG Pro subscriber and would like to purchase some of these games, many of these games are also available for order seperately.

For more information, be sure to visit the IMG web store.

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IMG has posted a review of The Frozen Throne, the expansion pack to the award-winning strategy game from Blizzard Entertianment, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.

Here's a clip from the review:

The Frozen Throne opens with a gorgeous cinematic, in which we learn that, after the fall of Archimonde, the banished Night Elf Demon Hunter Illidan has raised an army of Naga (think aquatic Zerg) in order to exact revenge against his enemies. The Naga add a fifth race to the game and provide for a host of twists and turns in both the plot and the game play. See them as an indication of how serious this expansion is about adding as much to the game as possible. If only they’d been available as a new race for multiplayer.

The story is about what you’d expect from Blizzard. Better than a lot of games but not quite as interesting as the game play itself. I really think Starcraft was the peak of Blizzard story telling, and it’s one watermark I’d like to see them surpass.

IMG Review: Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

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Apple has posted a trailer of Aspyr Media's upcoming action game, James Bond 007: Nightfire. The game is currently in development and should be released in the coming month.

Here's a bit more info on the game:

The ultimate secret agent is back in his most dangerous adventure yet in James Bond 007: NightFire. Featuring Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, players operate in the snow capped Austrian Alps and outer space as well as underwater in the depths of the South Pacific to defeat the evil criminal mastermind Rafael Drake who is secretly bent on world domination.

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Feral Interactive will be announcing two new games for the Macintosh at Apple Expo, which begins tomorrow at in Paris, France. The company will also be showing playable version of two of their upcoming games, Ghost Master and Total Immersion Racing.

Feral also plans on showing off Warrior Kings, Championship Manager 4, F1 Championship, Worms Blast and Black & White Platinum Pack at the Feral booth. If you happen to be going to the Apple Expo, be sure to check out their booth.

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Our friends have MacGamer have posted a video feature of Westlake Interactive, the programming group currently porting titles such as Halo and Age of Mythology to the Mac. The video contains interviews with the various members of Westlake as well as video footage of both MacSoft's Halo and Age of Mythology.

To check out the video, head over to MacGamer.

MacGamer: Westlake Interactive Video Roundup

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Jadeware, makers of shareware titles such as Ultranium and Android, have recently released Grizzly for OS X. A platformer with over 30 levels, Grizzly pits bear against forest creatures maddened by an evil wizard in a fight for survival:

Follow Grizzly on his journey through 3 different worlds as he takes on enemies that are out to get him! Goblins, trolls and killer bees will be only some of the many obstacles that will come his way as he tries to reach his quest. Thankfully, mother nature is on his side, and Grizzly can count on a strong ally for food and hidden passageways to trick the beasts.

It should also be noted the title is among the first to be released using Phelios' game-creation API, called PTK. For details on it, check out the Phelios site below.

Jadeware

Phelios PTK

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Gearbox Software recently made a post in their forums suggesting that the PC version of Bungie's hit first-person shooter Halo, may be complete. The post indicates that an announcement giving the official release date for the game will come in the next few days. Here's the full post:

Expect an announcement about the release date of Halo PC sometime in the next 1 to 4 days.

gearboxsoftware.com will carry the announcement in the forums, on the main pages and will offer other fun materials related to the announcement.

The "Work Items" remaining ticker was removed because there are no remaining work items for the retail game.

The team is working on a number of other things including a demo and some bonus features to be released as an update on or about launch time.

We are having lots of fun at Gearbox playing "Assault" mode in Halo PC. We can't wait for you to be able to join us

Halo PC done?

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Following the release of Apple Java 1.4.1 Update 1, the coders currently working on porting Yo Ho Ho! Puzzle Pirates to OS X have posted their experiences with the update. While Puzzle Pirates currently requires Java 1.4.2, a modicum of success was reported:

With the latest Apple Java 1.4.1 Update 1, and using an internal yohoho build for 1.4.1 we get the following:

10.2 booched
10.3 Sort of playable if you can guess where certain interface elements are. The puzzles and island rendering seem much more reasonable. But there is some definite boochedness in the graphic rendering.

Puzzle Pirates is a MMORPG that allows players to sail the seas as pirates. Besides the usual social interactions, players will be challenged with various puzzles as they swordfight, navigate, and travel.

Puzzle Pirates - Mac OS X Support

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