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In a post to the IMG forums today, Brad Oliver of Westlake Interactive explained the delay in releasing Carbonized Mac OS X applications for Star Trek: Voyager—Elite Force: a combination of broken e-mail addresses and holiday vacations.

The hold-up is getting permission to distribute the Mac OS X icons from their creator. Oliver is now preparing to remove the icons in order to get the application out the door. He is also soliciting replacement icons from any willing parties. Here's his post in full:

It should have been released the Friday before Christmas, but I guess there were some problems contacting the guy who did the freely-available OS X EF icons on xicons.com to get permission (his email bounces). I went on vacation that same Friday, so now that I'm more or less back, I'll strip out the icons and get it ready for Aspyr to release again. Please accept our apologies for the delay. If anyone has any free OS X icons they'd like to donate, send 'em to me and I'll credit you in the readme and slap 'em on the app. :)

IMG Review: Star Trek: Voyager—Elite Force

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

Westlake Interactive

IMG Forum: Elite Force patch: When?

As Inside Mac Games won't be published on New Year's Day, all of us here at IMG would like to take this opportunity to wish you peace and happiness in the new year!

We'll see you again in 2002, on Wednesday, January 2nd.

A helpful reader pointed us to the harrowing story of Dave "Chia" Pindrys, a longtime member of the Myth community who was recently involved in a very serious auto accident. A report at Rampancy notes he was recently moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center. A web page has also been set up with more information about Pindrys and his current condition.

Here's an excerpt with more about Pindrys's involvement in the Myth community:

Dave was very involved in a particular area of the online world: gaming. Specifically a game called Myth. His talents as a web designer were put to good use as he helped create and maintain several web pages over the past few years for this specific group of players. As a member of this community, you can show your support by appending "~Chia" to your handle when online. Chia is David's online handle.

Help Dave Pindrys

Rampancy: Well Wishings for Chia

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Though Myth III: The Wolf Age only recently saw release on the PC, the Myth community is apparently already hard at work on expanding its capabilities. Vista recently released two Classic Map Packs that bring popular multiplayer maps from the first two games to Myth III's domain.

The map names should be quite familiar to hardcore Myth fans and include favorites such as "If I Had a Trow," "I'll Dance on Your Grave," and "Phoenix Rising." The maps are described as being faithful to the originals while offering some new features as well:

All of these maps have received loving care for their transition into the Myth III engine. As much as they are ports, and they play very similar to their... counterparts, they are just as much new maps. Enjoy and embrace the changes—in almost every case they are an improvement.

Those who wish to preview Myth III can download the free demo available at MacGameFiles. Both Classic Map Packs are available at the popular Myth fan site The Mill.

IMG Preview: Myth III

The Mill: Classic Map Pack (TFL)

The Mill: Classic Map Pack (SB)

MGF: Myth III Demo

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Strange Flavour, creators of the hit shareware title Airburst, recently updated their creation to version 1.03. The update is free and includes several new features:

• 3 New Game Types, Shootout, Pop! and Castles 2 (for registered users)
  
• Some iShock II controller support (analog and digital control)
  
• Tidier keysetup interface

For those unfamiliar with Airburst, it's a fast-paced arcade title in which up to 4 players must protect their floating bases while attempting to destroy their opponents'. More complete details can be found in IMG's review.

IMG Review: Airburst

Airburst

MGF: Airburst 1.03 Full Version and Update

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Early last week (and lost in the Christmas holiday rush here at IMG), Unreal Tournament fan site Mutation interviewed the team behind Marathon|Rampancy, one of two Marathon-style mods for UT currently in public beta (Marathon: Resurrection is the other).

The brief interview touches on the genesis of the idea for a Marathon-style mod, who contributed what, community reaction, and plans for future development. In this excerpt, Rhyn, Rampancy's programmer, answers a question about the next beta:

Aside from the tweaks that we've discussed in the forums, we have many plans for beta 2. We already have a new gametype made called Bob Hunt courtesy of Pfhoenix. You can guess the goal of that game. We also have two new maps for Rampancy courtesy of the Frogblast team and Pfhoenix. The next major release probably won't be beta2, but will be a "Humor Pack" addon which will include Bob Hunt, the new maps, and a few other gametype gems that we've thought up and really wanted to make. Rampancy has always intentionally had a humorous aspect to it and we want to focus on that and see where it goes.

MacSoft: Unreal Tournament

Marathon|Rampancy

Mutation: Rampancy Interview

CG Online recently posted a preview of Neverwinter Nights that talks about changes to the game's single-player mode. They talk with Bioware Director of Writing & Design James Ohlen and Senior Producer Trent Oster about why they decided recently to go back to the drawing board on some major issues.

Neverwinter Nights was originally expected to ship with a number of individual modules to make up its solo campaign. Unfortunately, playtesting revealed this strategy wasn't going to work well for how they wanted the massive 3D RPG to play. Straying from the Baldur's Gate-style linearity, they've adopted a new approach that should open up the world of Neverwinter Nights. References are even being made to the much-acclaimed Fallout. Here's an excerpt explaining more:

Here the game is less about triggering the next scripted piece of the story and more about making decisions. An evil non-player character has an item that you need; do you kill him and take it? Or do you offer to do a quest for him—perhaps murder a group of innocent people—in order to obtain the item? "If you're an evil character, you are always given the option to be evil," says Ohlen.

Choices that you make when you generate your character also have an impact on how the game plays, and not just during combat. "If you are playing a stupid character," says Ohlen, "it's going to show up in your dialog, much like it did in the Fallout series." If you are playing a wise character, then you might have little Wisdom insights that give you extra information. If you have a high Charisma and a high Persuasion skill, then you can persuade people to do things they wouldn't normally do. How the game reacts to you is completely dependent on the type of character that you build. One quest might only be available to fighters, or to characters with a high Charisma, or to elves.

IMG Preview: Neverwinter Nights

BioWare

CG Online: Neverwinter Nights Preview

Neverwinter Nights

Buy Neverwinter Nights

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