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According to PC gaming website Gamespot, Blizzard Entertainment is planning to release a playable demo of its latest game WarCraft III in the near future. Blizzard will apparently also be distributing demo disks of the game at AMC theatres as a special promotion starting this weekend.

According to the article, the demo will be released in early December, and will include three new single player maps and three new multiplayer maps that can also be used with the full version of the game:

The new missions follow the events of the orcs' journey from Lordaeron to Kalimdor, which is only touched on in the game's original campaigns. The multiplayer maps can be played on Battle.net, and they allow for custom games (not ladder games) with teams of up to four players each.

Stay tuned to IMG as we receive further word on the status of the Mac demo version of this game.

Blizzard Entertainment

WarCraft III

Buy WarCraft III

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Today, IMG has posted an in-depth review of MacPlay's vintage third-person hackfest, Heretic II. Written by IMG's Richard Hallas, this review discusses all one needs to know about this classic title.

Here's a clip:

Heretic II makes a significant departure by being in the third person and putting a lot more emphasis on character control. It also has much better graphics than its predecessors, being based on the Quake II engine.

It's been over three years since Heretic II came out on the PC, so a Mac conversion hasn't exactly appeared in a rush. But now it's here, it works with both Mac OS X and Mac OS 8/9, and it has been issued at a budget price.

MacPlay

Heretic II

IMG Review: Heretic II

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As some of you may or may not know, popular game developers Presto Studios, creators of Myst III Exile and The Journeyman's Project series, recently called it quits and closed up shop. In an interview with gdxbox, an Xbox gaming fan site, Presto Studios' Dan Paladin shares some insight into the studio's demise:

Management continued to hire people with absolutely no experience, on top of giving them immense powers. Just reading the sentence alone, you wonder how they didn’t think this was a mistake.  

These guys were a huge part in deciding the company’s future, since they were deciding the company’s future projects. I guess I don’t have to say how great of a job they did since our company no longer exists. 

The entire production and programming staff were both yelling for help to management about these horrid decisions for about 5 months, but management did not listen, and kept these people on the same tasks until all of their project proposals were shot down by all publishers we showed them to and thus Presto was turned into a toasty little muffin about to be eaten. Goodbye, toasty little muffin.

Dan Paladin Interview

Presto Studios

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Battlefront sends word of the released of a patch for their popular 3D war strategy game, Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin. A very large list of modifications, bug fixes, and even corrections to the manual have been made in version 1.01. Here's a truncated clip from the ReadMe covering new and updated models:

MODELS:

New vehicle models: BT-5 M1933, BT-5A, BT-7 M1937, BT-7M, BT-7A, T-70 M1943, Toldi II, Zrinyi, TACAM R-2, Brummbaer (mid and late), Pz IVG (mid and late), Pz IVH, Pz IVJ, Pz M15/42 738(i), Semovente L40 da 47/32, Csaba, Nimrod, Ansaldo CV-35, R-35, R-1 Tankette.

Lowered crewman in Nimrod.

Small fix to 76mm Sherman.

Lowered crewman in PSW 222.

Download Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin 1.01 Patch

Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin 1.01 ReadME

Battlefront.com

Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

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