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After a long wait, good news has been posted at the World War II Online site, announcing an open beta for the Mac version of this massively multiplayer online war simulator. Those Mac fans interested should head over now to the Playnet page, signup for an account, and begin making the large initial 98MB download. (For those users who don't have time to grab the client, rest assured it will be on the upcoming Mac Games CD.)

The Cornered Rat folk have set up a special Mac forum for users to post questions and comments on potential problems and bugs. The recommended system requirements for the Mac pre-release are also posted to see if your machine can make the cut:

OSX - G4 700mhz or better - 512Mb Memory
32Mb Video Card - 200Mb free disk space
56k or better net connection
*Joystick may be required for some vehicles*

If you've got the bandwidth and system to play the game, by all means head over to the site now and begin the login process. Be sure to check out our just-posted extensive preview of World War II Onlie.

IMG Preview: World War II Online

Mac World War II Online Pre-Release

Strategy First

Cornered Rat Software

World War II Online

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In commemoration of the summer season, TQWorld, makers of Tranquility, have announced their "Tranquility Summer Nights" special. For a limited time, The full version of Tranquility can be purchased for only $18, 25% off the usual price.

Tranquility is an incredibly unique game of hide and go seek, powered by the internet. From MacGameFiles's description:

Tranquility is a internet powered 3D computer game of hide and seek...

Tranquility has no weapons to acquire, no enemies to pursue you, no fuel supplies to monitor, no lives that are virtually won or lost. There are no complex series of mazes to commit to memory or puzzles to hold you back until solved. There are no time limits to tranquility.

Tranquility is a totally new gaming experience. It offers a world rich with sensory stimulation where everything moves, not just you.

Every tranquility player experiences personalized games created by the TQworld servers. Game levels consist of beautiful geometric shapes moving in intricate patterns. Game play involves floating around and through the patterns, and using them to locate the special spinners that take you to the next level and game.

TQworld

Tranquility

Download Tranquility 5.10

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Following the much anticipated release of Bioware's Dungeon & Dragons RPG, Neverwinter Nights, the folks at HomeLAN Fed managed to get another exclusive interview with Bioware CEOs Dr. Greg Zeschuk and Dr. Ray Muzyka, to talk about how NWN is doing. Zeschuk and Muzyka cover a wide-array of important topics, how the game is selling, what the users are thinking, and even future plans for the game (new patches, expansion packs, and more). The interview even covers other future titles from Bioware, such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Muzyka had this to say about the game's recent release:

HomeLAN - The game is now out and has gotten rave reviews for the most part. How does it feel to finally get the game out the door?

Dr. Ray Muzyka - It’s always a great feeling to see the product that you’ve worked on for many years see the light of day; it’s exciting to read reviews of Neverwinter Nights and to be able to go online and see fans playing the game multiplayer, and to be able to walk into a store and see consumers purchasing the game. The Neverwinter Nights team – like everyone else here at BioWare, all talented and creative folks - did a great job developing a huge game; NWN is really four games in one, what with the single player/multiplayer campaign, the multiplayer game, the dungeon master toolset, and the BioWare Aurora Toolset.

Neverwinter Nights Interview

BioWare

MacSoft

Neverwinter Nights

Buy Neverwinter Nights

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The Target Rabaul Development Team has posted an update on their one and only project, Target Rabaul. This update comes in response to a promotion, leaving Jim "Gunner" Chalmers as the new Information Officer.

The update discusses some of the changes to the gaming engine over the past few months:

Since the last dev update, the Targetware engine has been updated to version 0.37. Everyone is hard at work updating their projects to work with the new features of the engine. Version .37 brings with it improved terrain rendering, a powerful new animation system, and the long-awaited automatic Level of Detail (auto LOD) manager.

All planes are being upgraded for the new animation system of .37. The B5N2 external model is getting close to completion. We'll get you a pic of it sometime soon. The Ki-45 now has a nearly completed cockpit, we'll get some snaps out of that soon as well. We had news from an old friend recently, and the news is good: Work has recommenced on the PBY! This baby can carry a lot of ordnance, it's going to be a great anti-shipping weapon. Not the fastest plane in the universe though... slow as a...

Target Rabaul

Target Rabaul

TR Development Update

As many gamers know, Shadowbane, a MMORPG currently in development by Wolfpack Studios, promises to revolutionize the MMORPG world by offering solid guild-based play, the ability to lay siege to towns and cities with the participation of hundreds of players, and a world largely controlled by the players themselves. To give gamers a view of the events currently taking place in the closed beta, the official Shadowbane site has been publishing a series of War Reports that chronicle key events and workings that have taken place in the beta.

The more recent reports are quite interesting, and provide a look at the complex political and social dynamics that can occur in the world created by Shadowbane. One such event concerns a player who defected to a superior enemy, consequently gaining control of a city in the process. Denounced by his former allies, this player had a quick rebuttal in terms of his political game:

Some folks just don't seem to understand that Shadowbane isn't just about military might, it is also about economic might and political might.

I grow weary of people constantly slamming me for playing the political game. Which other ex-Council of Swords guild has a city owned in totality by them? C'mon, name one? You see, I only have 8 solid members from my guild, Redemption. We are not a large group, we are not a strong group, but we are a good group.

As the guild leader of Redemption I had a choice to make when entering this land:

Leave my guild behind and join Burning Legion (pre-existing offer)
Stay with my guild and become our own power
Find the best method of insuring the survival of my guild

Elghin the Mad, a long time supporter of the Burning Legion had also been placed on the Almecka Inner Council to ensure that the city remained under Burning Legion control. However, Elghin had been supposedly a former member of Vengeance Agenda, and when his former guild rebelled, he was placed in an awkward position. He could man the battle stations and prepare Almecka for the inevitable attack from his former comrades, or he could strike a quick blow and make good his escape so he wouldn’t have to fight his former friends on the battlefield. Using his position as a ruling member of the city, Elghin quickly robbed all vendors and building strong boxes of excess gold, then made a hasty exit out of the back gate of the city to join his brothers of Vengeance Agenda.

In related news, the Shadowbane team will be demoing their title at the upcoming RPG convention Gen Con on both Macs and PCs. Activities will include character creation, screenshots, and PvP tournaments with pre-buffed characters, with prizes to include free beta accounts and T-shirts.

Shadowbane - The Shackles of Conquest

Shadowbane - Breaking News: The Vengeance Uprising

Shadowbane - Shadowbane Lays Siege to Gen Con

Ubisoft

Wolfpack Studios

Shadowbane

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Ambrosia Software has released updates to several of their titles, including Deimos Rising, Pillars of Garendall, and the Coldstone engine. Each update brings with it a wealth of enhancements, bug fixes, and OS X-related tweaks.

Deimos Rising, an arcade-style shooter, has been updated to 1.0.2 and includes the following fixes:

- improved window handling,
- fixed game drawing in windowed mode,
- application behaves properly when mimimised,
- windowed mode is centered on-screen,
- improved cursor handling,
- HID no longer crashes on controller configuration,
- added fades and dissolves when in windowed mode,
- video interlacing no longer conflicts with fades in Mac OS X,
- faster high scores display

- Fix the dual processor sound bug
- Include the latest Ambrosia library with additional stability, speed, and new registration system
- Include latest registration application
- Updated to include the latest modifications, bug fixes, and features of Coldstone 1.0.1
- Improved overall stability under latest version of OSX
- The Windows and Macintosh version are now both at version 1.0.2

- OSX: Overall polishing of the Coldstone editor interface to look better on OSX (font anti-aliasing) plus other interface tweaks as well
- OSX: Tips of the day now recognized
- OSX: Map tools now recognized properly
- Fixed a bug in the Windows compiler that was causing the default game (created with the wizard and the "Medieval" template) to crash sometimes
- Fixed several problems regarding pictures associated with dialogs (placement, memory leak, and others)
- The tool "Generate Map previews" is now a modal dialog as it should be
- Change Map Cell parameter dialog: Unexpected error when in plugin mode, when referencing a picture from the original game and pressing OK, fixed. The preview now also update correctly.
- Map position: coordinates fields now accept tag values, tag popup controls added

Ambrosia - Deimos Rising Downloads

Ambrosia - Pillars of Garendall Downloads

Ambrosia - Coldstone Downloads

Ambrosia Software

Beenox

Coldstone

Pillars of Garendall

Deimos Rising

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In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, Activision has announced that the upcoming expansion pack for Return to Castle Wolfenstein will be a stand alone product; gamers will not need Return to Castle Wolfenstein in order to play it. What's more, Computer and Video Games.com has managed to have a little chat with Activision's Jonathan Moses and Todd Hollenshead about the expansion pack itself, and what gamers can look forward to at its release.

Hollenshead had this to say about the change in plans:

What were your reasons for making Enemy Territory stand-alone?

Hollenshead: Well, I think the big thing was that we didn't want to have ownership of Return To Castle Wolfenstein to be a factor in the purchase of it. If you really liked the things in Enemy Territory, or you really were a hardcore multiplayer fan and you wanted to do the cool stuff in the multiplayer, you didn't have to buy Return To Castle Wolfenstein first. And then from a content standpoint, I think that a lot of the stuff we wanted to do really lent itself to shipping an executable with the game.

The game sees you reprise the role of Nazi-basher BJ Blazkowicz, thrown behind enemy lines and up against the toughest of the Reich's troops. However this time you're not alone: Wolfenstein has gone squad-based. "We're taking the team based/squad-based gameplay that you have in multiplayer and bringing it to single player game," says Activision's Jonathan Moses as he introduces us to Enemy Territory. "You have a squad of US Rangers and Special Forces guys to help you meet your objectives and [these bots] fill in the roles of the Engineer, the Lieutenant, the Medic and Soldiers, and play alongside you and follow your orders to help you meet your objectives and finish off the mission." The singleplayer missions play much like more complex versions of the multiplayer from the previous game, with you barking orders at your troops such as "Follow me" or "Medic!", rather than at a player thousands of miles away at the other end of a modem. They'll play as a team, follow your orders and once obstacles in your way have been taken care of, such as gaining entry into enemy bunkers or breaching enemy lines of defence, they'll go on to carry out the mission's primary objective.

Face to Face: Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

Return to Castle Wolfenstein Review

Westlake Interactive

Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Buy Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Developer Bioware, responsible for such games as Baldur's Gate, and the Neverwinter Nights, has announced today that they will be working on two, brand new games.

Today, Bioware has announced that they have signed a publishing partnership with Microsoft Game Studios, and will be developing a game for Microsoft's gaming console, the Xbox:

"The partnership with Microsoft Game Studios is a perfect fit. They clearly share BioWare's vision and commitment to quality. To be publishing BioWare's first intellectual property - an all-new, epic Xbox roleplaying game - is a great opportunity for us. Of course, we also intend to continue our existing publisher relationships developing selected licenses", said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Joint CEO of BioWare Corp.

Be sure to read the full press release for more information regarding Bioware's future plans.

Bioware Corp. to Develop Two New Original Games

BioWare

Microsoft

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After a recent announcement that the popular MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) Everquest will be coming to the Mac, SonyOnline has posted an official FAQ regarding questions many Mac gamers have been asking. Such questions include pricing, release dates, system requirements, what will be included in the finished product, and of course, PC compatability. SonyOnline has explained their reason(s) to exclude Mac users from PC servers:

Mac users will play on servers expressly created for the Mac community. There are several reasons for this, but the most compelling are game play related. Since most of the Mac users will be first-time customers of EQ, they will receive the best value and enjoyment out of the game by starting on an “even playing field”, and not having to compete with PC users who have a substantial head start in time.

Also, over time we have continually made refinements to the play characteristics of the game, the rarity or abundance of certain items, etc. In deference to players who may have legitimately obtained an item before we considered it fully tuned, we often leave these in play on existing servers, even if they are slightly unbalanced. A fresh server set with existing rules provides the most balanced environment we can establish; and we feel the gains in enjoyment of playability outweigh the potential negatives.

We do understand there are a few Mac owners who also own PCs and are currently playing EverQuest, who would like to keep their PC characters and move them to Mac servers. Unfortunately for the reasons discussed here that would not seem to be fair to new Mac users playing for the first time.

EverQuest for Mac FAQ

Sony Online

Buy EverQuest

Fans of car racing sims, especially the 4x4 Evolution series may be pleased to hear that a posting on the macsport.com forum has revealed that a Mac version of Jeep 4x4 EVO2 will be coming in the next few weeks. Here is the posting:

Hello. My apologies for the long delay in returning to the board. I chose not to post until I had more solid information from my sources. I can say with great certainty that the mac version is going to be posted to the jeep.com/adventure website very soon (within the next 2 or 3 weeks). Please do not be angered if I am wrong because I want the game too. It all takes time and depends on how long it takes TR to get their final version to Jeep. Maybe someone here can start an email petition to TR to release it since it's already finished. ( ; jeepinsider

macsport.com forum posting on Jeep 4x4 EVO2 release

Jeep 4x4 Evo Website

Aspyr Media

Terminal Reality

4x4 Evolution 2

Buy 4x4 Evolution 2

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In a recent announcement that popular FPS Quake 3: Arena will include support for the anti-cheating system, PunkBuster in an upcoming patch, many fans have been pondering how this new system will affect the way they play the game. Cached.net has posted an exclusive interview with Robert A. Duffy, programmer for id Software, regarding the upcoming release.

I think the community’s main concern for the new PR is to combat the cheating that’s taking place in Quake 3 and perhaps RTCW. Since PunkBuster has been mentioned as part of the new point release can you give us a little overview on how id is implementing this and how will it affect some of the settings players are accustomed to.

We are working with Even Balance ( Tony ) in almost the exactly same way we worked with Tony and his crew for RTCW. They are responsible for the primary work as far as PB integration. Timothee is handling things on our end for the most part and works with Tony, Graeme, myself, etc.. to get things integrated in. As far as the impact on players, I think the major impact will be there will not be any cheating. The implementation as stated by Tony in a recent interview is very similar to RTCW’s implementation.

Idsoftware's Robert Duffy - Cleaning Up!

id Software

Quake III Arena

In a recent Infogrames press event, the latest version of Unreal II: The Awakening was revealed, and GameSpot has posted its impressions on the most recent build.

Unreal II is the highly anticipated sequel to Unreal. Unlike the popular Unreal Tournament, Unreal II will feature a single-player only campaign, with a detailed story.

As many who've been following the game's development already know, the game will put you the role of a Terran Colony Authority marshal aboard the spaceship Atlantis. You and your crew are after seven relics that have been strewn across the galaxy. These mysterious artifacts hold a powerful secret, and many other forces and races are scrambling to possess them. You'll have to ensure that the artifacts don't fall into the wrong hands by getting to them first and fending off the armies of aliens in your way.

Unreal II updated impressions

Epic Games

Unreal II

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