Click to enlarge

In a recent post to the IMG forums, Feral programmer Nick Shanks gave readers a quick update on the status of the helicopter sim Enemy Engaged: Comanche versus Hokum. The game features realistic flight dynamics, three different "real-world" missions, and impressive graphics that take advantage of hardware transform and lighting at high resolutions. It received quite an amount of critical acclaim on the PC side, and it should certainly appeal to more than just flight sim buffs on the Mac as well.

While the Feral web site still declares the game to be in an "early development" state, Shanks notes they are now further along. Here's his post:

This title has made significant progress over the last month. It's passed First Playable and is nearing Alpha. I just haven't updated the web site yet.

Feral Interactive

Take 2: Enemy Engaged

IMG Forum: Enemy Engaged

Buy Enemy Engaged: Comanche vs. Hokum

Click to enlarge

IMG has posted a review by Richard Hallas of Tomb Raider: The Trilogy, published for the Mac by the good folks at Aspyr Media. Here's an excerpt:

Lara Croft... love her or loathe her, there's no denying that she's made a huge impact over the last few years, from the computer screen to the cinema screen via TV Lucozade adverts. Comprising a total of five major adventures, the Tomb Raider series has proven that a popular game format need not always rely on fast action and big guns to appeal to the masses. Indeed, it has shown that an exploration-based game with an emphasis on dexterity and puzzle-solving can attract a significant following beyond the traditional games-playing audience of spotty teenage males... including (shock, horror!) even females!

Follow the link below for the full text of our review.

IMG Review: Tomb Raider: The Trilogy

Tomb Raider: The Trilogy

MonkeyByte.com announced yesterday afternoon that a multiplayer version of Galactica: anno Dominari has entered beta testing.

What's more, in connection with this new version, MonkeyByte.com and Sacred Tree Software, the developers of Galactica, have launched GalacticaOnline.net.

Nicolas Murphy, president of MonkeyByte.com, said:

We have seen an awesome amount of growth in Galactica over the past year. Sales of the game have been going through the roof and we are answering this public interest with new releases, continual updates, and very soon a real sweet multiplayer version of the game that will take all GAO players to the next level.

For more information on Galactica, visit GalacticaOnline.net, where it's mentioned that the multiplayer beta test—currently invitation-only—will be opened in the future to MonkeyByte's MBD Newsletter subscribers, and the Galactica web page at MonkeyByte.com, where you can order a copy of the game on CD with enhanced artwork. Alternatively, you can download the shareware version from our sister site, MacGameFiles.

Galactica A.D.

GalacticaOnline.net

MGF: Galactica 2.0.7 (33 MB)

Last week, IMG brought you news that Sony Online Entertainment has added Mac support to the web games at The Station. This week, the web site for Sovereign, Sony's massively-multiplayer real-time strategy game, is running a poll that asks the question:

When it comes to playing games, what operating system absolutely ROCKS?

If you'd like to make your preference known and voice your support for a possible Mac version of Sovereign, head over to their web site now.

Sovereign: Operating Systems and Games Poll

For Blizzard junkies that just can't get enough out of Battle.net, Nick Zitzmann has released a Mac OS X-only freeware program that may be of interest. Titled Battlegram, this program acts as a Battle.net chat client:

Although Chat connections are quite limited right now, the intent of the program is to allow Mac OS X users to stay in touch with Battle.net friends, clan members, trading partners, etc. while they're not playing a game that uses Battle.net.

VersionTracker: Battlegram 1.0

In what seems to be yet another title in a string of old-school arcade-style games that have recently been hitting the Mac platform, publisher Keith Wiley recently released his latest effort, Vertigo. This shooter is best described as Asteroids from a first person perspective. To make things even more exciting, players will simultaneously dogfight with enemy ships while dodging and shooting asteroids.

Taking the theme even further, Vertigo offers players a choice of three different ships that vary in terms of maneuverability, shields, and weapons. The weapons can include such high-tech toys as ion bolts, bombs, homing missiles, and lasers. For those that like to duke it out with friends, Vertigo is also networkable over AppleTalk and TCP/IP.

Those who wish to check out Vertigo for themselves can download the 3.1 MB shareware title from MacGameFiles. For more information and pics on Vertigo itself, be sure to check out the Vertigo web site.

Vertigo

MGF: Vertigo 1.0 (3.1 MB)

The Orion Sector, a fan site devoted to the Master of Orion series, recently published an article that breaks down the choices made for the graphical engines of Master of Orion III. Titled "Voxel Graphics in MOO3" and written mostly by Executive Producer Bill Fisher, the article is quite in-depth and contains a huge amount of tech speak.

The main gist of the article is that MOO3 will be using mainly a software rendering engine, rather than skewing towards hardware acceleration like most games tend to do these days. Part of the reason is that they want MOO3 to be able to run on three-year-old hardware, which could mean 233 MHz machines with no hardware acceleration. They also note that they expect half their audience to be European, and that the European market tends to upgrade more slowly than the U.S. market due to higher overall costs.

In this excerpt, Fisher describes some more of the thinking behind this decision:

We spent a long internally time discussing the technology for this game. Hardware acceleration would allow us to do some very fancy 3D combat graphics, but wouldn't do anything for the turn-based user interface that we couldn't do in software. It would also restrict the number of machines that could play our game. But it would be a cool bullet-point on the box—"optimized for 3D accelerators" or some such. We could, of course, write a software renderer as well, but that would take a lot of time that would be better spent on the gameplay, in our opinion.

The rest of the article covers a huge amount of graphical territory in regards to MOO3. Though it's heavy in the tech lingo, it's a worthy read for anyone interested in MOO3's development or in graphic development in general. Those interested can find it at The Orion Sector.

MacSoft

Quicksilver Software

The Orion Sector: Voxel Graphics in MOO3

Buy Master of Orion III

A quick new interview has been posted at Warcraft 3 Center, talking with Blizzard PR man Bill Roper about the current status of Warcraft 3. As you may remember, Blizzard recently held (PC-only) beta signups, and they plan to test the game with a limited number of players for a few months to hammer out its gameplay. In the Q&A, Roper is asked a number of fairly specific questions about certain units and details in the game.

With the move to a fully 3D game, Blizzard is forced to make some changes from the standard gameplay of the previous titles in the series. Your heroes will play a big part in your success, and Roper explains here the number each race will have:

Q: Currently how many different units has each race available to them?

A: Currently, each race has three Heroes and ten units. Some of the races also have creatures that can be summoned to bolster their forces. All of the races can also hire mercenaries to strengthen their numbers.

While no specifics about a Mac release have been nailed down yet, we do know Warcraft 3 will run on Mac OS X and it should be a nearly simultaneous release.

IMG Preview: WarCraft III

WarCraft III

Warcraft 3 Center: Bill Roper Interview

Buy WarCraft III

The folks at Computer and Video Games.com recently talked with Martyn Brown of the UK-based company Team 17 about their latest title, Worms Blast. The game is described as more of "a two-player attack game rather than a puzzle title," and it should be available for a number of consoles as well as the Mac thanks to Feral Interactive.

The interview talks with Brown about the game, why they have diverged from the standard Worms formula, and their choices for a number of consoles (though the Mac isn't mentioned). Here's an excerpt:

CVG: Worms Blast is very different from other titles in the series. Why did you choose to make the game part of the Worms franchise?

Brown: Worms has been going on for five or six years now. We took a long look at it and wanted to push it into different directions. It was fairly clear it had evolved into a brand, and that's what the industry is all about: we've been keen to take the series into a number of different areas and Worms Blast is the first example of this. We want to develop the characters and use them in different ways, but retain the elements of the original that were important to people—the humour and solid gameplay.

Computer and Video Games: Worms Blast Interview

Feral Interactive

Buy Worms Blast

Click to enlarge

Team Unpfhorgiven, the mod team that created Marathon: Resurrection, is hosting a tournament. Marathon: Resurrection recreates the Marathon environment using the capabilities of Unreal Tournament's graphics engine to the fullest, complete with a full 3D world and fully-animated 3D weapons. Marathon physics and gameplay have been recreated and enhanced where the team thought that the result would be improved gameplay.

Here are some details on the tournament:

Come one, frag all! Team Unpfhorgiven is pleased to announce the first ever Marathon: Resurrection Internet tournament. This event will mark the first ever Marathon-related tournament held over the Internet.

When and where do I sign up?

Entries will be taken starting from January 16th to the 29th. Tournament play will commence on February 6th. Games will be played on weekdays after 6 PM PST.

What do I get after my inevitable victory?

Fame, ascension to godliness and a nice boost in self esteem! You also get to go one-on-one with the winner of the internal development team tournament. The team is working on coming up with a small token to reward the winner with. Perhaps having your face pasted on a BOB or the opportunity to record a new BOB quote. We will know before the tournament ends. For now, it's all in good fun.

Marathon: Resurrection

Marathon: Resurrection Tournament

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.