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Feral Interactive has announced that the Mac version of Lionhead Studios' The Movies is nearly finished, with a demo to be released "very soon." A new mini-site filled with information about the game and downloadable content will be released this week to mark the occasion. The Movies allows players to take the role of a movie mogul as they attempt to build a successful studio.

Mac gamers, film fans and wannabe starlets - brace yourselves! Lionhead Studios' The Movies is practically in the can and you can expect a teaser (also known as a demo) very soon.

To mark the release of this blockbuster, The Movies mini-site will be launched next week, chock full of Oscar-worthy info and a few reels of downloadable content — it will be the place to get familiar with all things The Movies on the Mac. Think of it as an Ain't It Cool News, minus the ginger beardedness.

So keep your gofer busy and check back next week. I'm ready for my close-up now Mr. DeMille…

Feral: The Movies Coming Soon

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IMG has posted a review of Ricochet: Lost Worlds. Here's a clip from the review:

I've long been a fan of ball and paddle games, ever since I bought Arkanoid II for my Commodore 64, but I haven't had much luck in finding anything on the Mac that quite lived up to the standard set by Arkanoid. That is, until now. Ricochet: Lost Worlds is by far the best game in the genre to come along in a while.

IMG Review: Ricochet: Lost Worlds

Rake In Grass, makers of the wildly popular Jets'n'Guns arcade shooter, have released their second game for the Macintosh, Styrateg. The game is new and challenging turn-based strategy game with strong RPG features from a fantasy medieval world.

The heavy clouds on the horizon gather as there are troubled times to come. The kingdom of a wise king is in danger. Legions of unearthly adversaries come from the unknown to spread the plague and disease across the ancient kingdom.

Your investigation and actions will take you through many adventurous quests in deep forests, hot deserts and frozen icebergs. You and your party will look for the clues to solve the mystery in ancient monasteries, countryside villages and blood bathed battlefields.

Adventure awaits those who hear the calling. Lost treasures wait to be found.

Styrateg is available as a Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel Macs and is available through Macgamestore.com for $19.95. A free downloadable demo is available on the web page.

Macgamestore: Styrateg

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Blue Alien has posted a review of Heroes of Might and Magic V. Developed by Nival, HoMM V brings a fresh new look to the Heroes franchise with a fully 3D gaming world, enhanced combat system, and features that were popular in the previous Heroes games.

The graphics in this game are very good. I have played all of the Heroes games since they were called King’s Bounty so the adjustment was a little difficult at first. The biggest complaint I have is that many features of the map are now hidden unless you inspect the map from every possible angle. This caused me some frustration a number of times as brush, shadow, trees or other objects obscured important landmarks. Aside from the difficulties in interfacing, however, this iteration of HoMM is the prettiest to date. Trees blow in the wind and their shadows follow while the terrain slowly fades from one type to another. Locations in the game are all lovingly animated: leprechauns dance at the magic spring while wheels turn at the mill and carts leave the mines. The Silent Storm engine really shines here. The sound in HoMMV is very good. The game has an original score composed by Rob King and Paul Romero. The soundtrack itself changes depending on your environment and always contributes positively to the game as any good soundtrack should.

Blue Alien: HoMM V Review

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Bill Catambay of the Marathon Map Maker's Guild sent an email letting us know that their Marathon total conversion project, Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge is nearing completion. The current release, 3b8, has been setup for download from their website so that people can keep track of the project as it nears the finish line.

From the website:

Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge is a first-person action shooter game that combines time travel to take the player through the jurassic period, camelot period, and into the future chasing down Morgana.

Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge on SourceForge.net

Much has been said about the recently released Boot Camp and its ability to allow Intel Mac users to boot into Windows XP, but is every new Mac up to the challenge of Windows gaming? A recent Macworld article examines the MacBook's gaming muscle, and finds that while the computer isn't suited for games laden with the latest in 3D graphics it can run some of yesterday's games without difficulty.

The article discusses a variety of titles including those based on the Quake 3 engine, and offers a frame rate comparison breakdown to show how well the MacBook stacks up against other Apple computers. A MacBook with 2 GB of RAM nearly doubled the framerate performance of an identical computer with only 512 MB.

Games based on the Quake 3 engine will work quite well, with or without Universal versions. I tested Jedi Knight II and Jedi Academy, and both were playable in Rosetta. Using betas of the Universal versions, both games were quite fast, easily outpacing my PowerBook. The Universal version of X-Plane works well, too, returning around 25fps at 1,024-by-768 resolution, with lots of nice visuals. Railroad Tycoon 3 (in Rosetta) seemed to play fine, though I didn’t have the 200 hours necessary for a full test!

Going back before Quake3, there’s a new Universal version of Quake II that plays really well—note that you’ll need the full retail version of Quake II to use the Universal version.

As mentioned, anything demanding accelerated 3-D graphics is going to be out, even if the application is Universal. Beyond that, I found that Rosetta wasn’t kind to many older games. Leading off in the unplayable category, Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer under Rosetta was basically glacial—it might have been getting around two frames a second, even at 640-by-480 (there’s no frame rate display available). I had similar results with MTX Mototrax (Rosetta), though it was a bit faster, but still not playable.

Macworld: MacBook Gaming, A Graphics Concern?

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RPG Vault is the latest site to offer a preview of the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade. This short preview covers the addition of the Draenei race, the Jewelcrafting profession, and the level cap increase from 60 to 70.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is Blizzard's initial expansion pack for its monster hit persistent state game. The subtitle refers to the Burning Legion's continuing desire to eradicate all other forms of life. In the face of this threat, the denizens of Azeroth, both Alliance and Horde, will be able to pass through the Dark Portal to battle their mutual enemy in the strange lands that lie beyond.

RPG Vault: Burning Crusade Preview

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The PC version of AGON: The Mysterious Codex was recently reviewed by Game Chronicles. A compilation of the first three chapters in the AGON saga, The Mysterious Codex chronicles the adventures of Samuel Hunt as he point and clicks his way through a quest to find the Ancient Games of Nations. Game Chronicles gave AGON a score of 7.8 out of 10.

From the review:

The Mysterious Codex puts you in search of people that guard the Ancient Games of Nations that they have held for generations as their protectors. These games are merely board type games that you get to play against the keepers until you win and then move on to the next set of puzzles toward the next game keeper.

You have an inventory page to store items you pick up and some you combine to use for various parts of your adventure. In other adventure games I have played you are lead in silly hunts that have nothing to do with the puzzle at hand or the whole adventure. AGON does not lead you on silly side trips or down paths already too well traveled. A few times during the puzzle hunting and clue finding you will backtrack but this makes perfect sense when it does happen.

Game Chronicles: AGON Review

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Blizzard Entertainment has released another edition of its weekly compilation of forum topics offering World of Warcraft commentary from Blizzard employees. The collection of discussions include information on the upcoming 1.11 patch, realm population issues, and the character transfer service.

To check out the topics head over to the WoW forums at the link below.

WoW: Forum Posts

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