MacPlay today announced that the highly popular hit title Fallout 2 is now shipping. Fallout 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed RPG of the year Fallout. Fallout took RPG’ing out of the dungeons and into a dynamic, apocalyptic retro-future. Fallout 2 is badder than ever with bigger, smarter and nastier enemies. With improved combat AI, users will have to learn to kill smarter, not harder.

Here's more from the press release:

“We are very excited with the release of Fallout 2 on the Macintosh platform,” said Henry Price, Director of Sales and Marketing at MacPlay. “The community asked for it and we responded by bringing a truly great title to the Mac.”

In the continuation of the story, it has been 80 long years since your ancestors trod across the wastelands. As you search for the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, to save your primitive village, your path is strewn with crippling radiation, megalomaniac mutants, and a relentless stream of lies, deceit and treachery. As you master your character’s skills and traits for survival, Fallout 2 will challenge you to endure in a post-nuclear world whose future withers with every passing moment.

MacPlay

Omni Group

Fallout 2

Buy Fallout 2

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Aspyr has announced today that they will be releasing new and exclusive screenshots of their upcoming game, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Game of the Year Edition, in anticipation of its final release, every Friday prior to shipping time.

The first set of weekly screenshots arrived today, and are from the first mission of the game. Here is Aspyr's description:

These attached five shots are from Mission 1: Iron Dragon. In this mission, you have to lead your team into the enemy camp, take out all of there heavily armed guards, capture an enemy leader, and escape with your life still intact.

If you are interested in purchasing Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Game of the Year Edition for Mac, you can preorder it off of IMG's Store for $43. You must be a subscriber to the MacGames CD, while non-subscribers can still pick it up for $49.

Be sure to check in with us every Friday as Aspyr reveal more screenshots!

Screenshot 1

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Aspyr Media

Slope Rider, the first high quality snowboarding game for Mac OS X, is already receiving much speculation. Digital Game Developer (DGD) managed to catch up with Slope Rider creator, developer, and publisher Monte Boyd, in hopes of clearing up some questions fans have been asking, and perhaps even revealing information on Monte Boyd's feature titles.

Here's an excerpt from the full interview:

DGD: Slope Rider is a great and very addicting game. Even though I'm only working from the demo, I keep finding myself playing over and over again in trying to get more air and better tricks executed. What options are you considering for Slope Rider mass distribution? Would a packaging deal with Apple's iMac be of interest to you?

MB: A bundle with iMacs would be an incredible offer, I guess I have to wait for Apple on that one! It is relatively easy to get a game noticed on the Mac game websites, especially if it is an untapped genre. I will try to keep the game updated with new features which will hopefully keep the name in circulation so that anyone who misses it the first time round will notice it later.

Monte Boyd Interactive Interview

Download Slope Rider 1.0.1

Today, IMG has posted a look at Apple's latest OS offering, Mac OS X 10.2 (A.K.A. Jaguar). Written by Jason Sims, the article covers features such as, Quartz Extreme, OpenGL enhancements and more.

Here's a clip:

Jaguar's graphics technologies have been revamped on several fronts. Most notable is Quartz Extreme, the new fully-hardware accelerated Quartz (2D) engine. Quartz Extreme makes your entire 2D workspace an OpenGL scene, in which each window is a textured polygon. It supports FSAA (full scene anti-aliasing) and handles compositing of all 2D and 3D layers. With Quartz Extreme, DVD playback and 3D applications show through transparent windows, instead of a flat grey background. It also accelerates the Quartz effects, such as "genie" and "scale" which are used when minimizing windows to the Dock.

IMG: A Look At Mac OS X 10.2

Apple

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The upcoming The Sims expansion pack, The Sims Vacation from Aspyr Media is now available for pre-order at the IMG Web Store for just $29. It will begin shipping on August 30th.

Pack your bags because you're taking the Sims on the vacation of a lifetime. Better yet, the first Vacation of a lifetime. Enjoy beautiful, fully customizable destinations such as Vacation Island's serene tropical beach resort, rustic woodland hideaway or the cool winter wonderland. Whether they're embarking on a relaxing family adventure or hooking up on a romantic getaway, your Sims will discover that dull moments are as scarce as frowning faces.

Try your skill on the new Carnival games, conquer the radical Half Pipe or reel in that trophy fish you've always dreamed about. Sims of all ages can hit the beach for an 8-person volleyball game, get revenge in a full-on snowball war, ride the snow slide and much more. When you vacation with the Sims, a good time won't be the one that got away.

While on your vacation, the Sims can interact with over 125 new items including the Snowman and the Camping Tent. Along with fun things to do, meet new characters such as the Vacation Director, the Yeti, the Archer, and the Beach Shark! In case you thought you may get away with nothing but perfect memories, beware of prowling pickpockets, out-of-control children, a serious case of Montezuma's Revenge or some other unexpected surprises that can quickly ruin your dream vacation.

If you think you'll leave with only a sunburn and a head full of stories, your Sims can buy, win or dig up the ultimate vacation souvenir. The fertility god, penguin stuffed animal or the quartz skull are just a few of the memorable items you can score for the mantle back home.

So saddle up, get the neighbors to watch the house and take the Sims on a holiday getaway they'll never forget.

IMG Preview: The Sims: Vacation

Aspyr Media

Westlake Interactive

The Sims: Vacation

Buy The Sims: Vacation

Click to enlarge

As Blizzard's mega-hit RTS title Warcraft III continues to dominate both the sales charts and the fevered minds of gamers around the world, Vice President Bill Roper continues to cruise through a series of interviews that focus on his current success and future prognosis. His latest stop is with ZDNet Australia, and the ensuing interview covers not only WarCraft III, but Roper's intriguing thoughts on the future of gaming.

One interesting idea Roper brings forth is the concept of introducing emotional concepts into the AI of future NPCs:

Increasing not only the strategic, but also the cognitive and emotional AI of NPCs (non-player characters) would be a great place to grow. It is not beyond our abilities to start introducing concepts such as loyalty, fear, admiration, respect, hatred, and even love into the interactions between players and their computer-controlled encounters. Even simple things such as having a shopkeeper remember whether you are a polite or rude customer and whether or not you like to haggle could give one player a markedly different experience from another, making the same basic game special and unique to them both.

ZDNet Australia - Warcraft 3 Interview

Blizzard Entertainment

WarCraft III

Buy WarCraft III

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In an official press release issued yesterday afternoon, Battlefront.com, the company responsible for the real-time strategy WWII game, Combat Mission, has announced good news for fans of the series. A demo for Combat Mission's upcoming sequel Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin, will be available September 1st for both PC and Mac games to enjoy. Battlefront.com reports that the demo will feature 3 of the 60 scenarios included in the final game: two battle scenarios and a tutorial for players new to the series.

Here is a short description of what the game will have to offer:

Starting with the German invasion of Russia in 1941 through the 1945 storming of Berlin, the player is able to fight with historically accurate forces and equipment of 7 nations from the Black Sea in the South to the Arctic Circle in the north.

Experience combat in a full 3D battlefield as tracers arc overhead and exploding shells shake the earth! Feel the tremendous power of the feared Russian Katyusha rocket barrage! Order a tank hunter team to assault a heavy KV-1 with Panzerfausts and magnetic mines in the ruins of a shattered city! A modern hybrid turn-based/realtime system combines with 3D lines of sight, misidentification of targets, location by sound, advanced armor penetration systems, morale and leadership, fire and smoke, wind and weather – and much more to bring you unprecedented realism from the people who revolutionized the wargaming genre!

CMBB Press Release (8/22/02)

Battlefront.com

Combat Mission

Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

Shareware maker Forever Games has recently released version 1.01 of its 3D driving title Gravitass. The update takes into account feedback from early players, making things less confusing and no longer rearranging desktop icons when played in fullscreen mode.

For those unfamiliar with Gravitass, this title puts players in the interesting role of a time-traveling rescue pilot of sorts:

You are equiped with a mysterious alien time travelling device which allows you to send small vehicles back to a time immediately before the catastrophic explosions occurred, from there you must fly or drive through the cavernous, labyrinthine interiors of the stricken vessels picking up all the people living there, and then find your way back to the time machine before the explosions destroy them, you and everything else on board!

Forever Games - Gravitass

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The latest in the series of Shadowbane war reports has been posted on the game's official web site recently. These reports give a glimpse into the world of this massively multiplayer online role-playing game, and the how the gameplay is developing so far in the closed beta. Shadowbane hopes to be the next step in 3D MMO games by letting players form guilds, create cities, and wage wars against one another.

The latest war report talks of a rebellion against the powerful authoritarian rule of the city Zion, in the Burning Legion nation. While neither side has been significantly damaged in the latest round of skirmishes, the report concludes that, like any real-world scenario, an ongoing war takes it toll on the combatants over time:

Massive amounts of gold are needed to fund a war campaign or defend, and economies suffer when most of a city or nation's population is engaged in constant warfare. Population diversity, where you have a good balance of military and non-combatants, would probably help sustain a nation's economy during a long or drawn out war, and that strong economy would help to fuel the war effort. Otherwise, the soldiers will eventually have to put down their swords and plow the fields (or more rightly, plunder the wilds for gold held by monsters) lest their cities crumble around them while they are off fighting their enemies. Right now both nations have most of their populations serving in the military, so the first real casualty that could turn the tide of the war might be the economy of one of the warring sides.

Shadowbane War Report

Ubisoft

Wolfpack Studios

Shadowbane

Members of the indie (or individual) gaming community (both developers and fans) might be interested to know that GarageGames and CyPR Media have teamed up to host what they call the Indie Developer Roundtable, a monthly chat series with purposes of helping grow the Indie Game community. Here is GarageGames's official synopsis:

GarageGames, in cooperation with CyPR Media, is launching the "Indie Developer Roundtable," a series of monthly moderated chats designed to improve the visibility of the Indie community while giving Indie developers and leaders access to important topics. Roundtables will be hosted the last Thursday of each month on IRC (IRC server: Channel: #garagegames).

The chats start on Thursday, August 2th, at 2pm PST. For more information regarding the Indie Developer Roundtable, and the special guests, you can check out the official information page for more details.

Indie Game Developers Unite! - GG sponsors Indie Roundtable

GarageGames

German Mac gaming site Games4Mac wrote in this morning with word they has posted seven new screen shots of Feral's upcoming racer, F1 Championship. The shots were all taken on a Dual 1GHz G4 with OS X 10.1.5 on the highest settings.

In case you haven't heard about F1 Championship, the game has long been in development by Feral and they have high hopes for a Fall release this year. The title sports many features like an official Forumla 1 Driving School, weather conditions like rain, and a number of professional drivers. Here are a few more things to expect:

• Unprecedented realism levels with updated car models, dynamic texture shading, multiple rear wings reflecting car set-ups and improved force feedback.
  
• Graphical effects featuring a dynamic racing line driver assist, realistic tyre smoke and particle effects.
  
• Officially Licenced - 2000 Formula One season including up to date starting grids.
  
• Formula One Rules - stop-go penalties, pit lane speed limits and flags.
  
• Opponents with attitude - AI drivers with personalities that reflect the real-life drivers.
  
• Race Responsive Pit Crew - constant feedback on the radio on race situation from the team pit crew.
  

Games4Mac F1 Screen Shots

Feral Interactive

Electronic Arts

Buy F1 Championship Season 2000

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