Mac game publisher Aspyr Media announced today plans to bring the most recent expansion pack of the popular The Sims franchise, The Sims: Unleashed to the Mac. With Unleashed, a player's Sims can finally own pets, anything from a dog to a lizard. The game also includes 5 new career tracks (totaling to 50 new jobs), 40 new residential lots, improved gardening options, and more than 125 new objects. Here's a short description from Aspyr's website:

As fans of The Sims know, there has always been something missing from their virtual neighborhoods... pets! In The Sims Unleashed, players can now add furry friends to their Sims' families. Teach Fido some cool tricks or hire an efficient Pet Trainer to do all of the work. Let your kitties and canines strut their stuff in the local Pet Show.

Visit a pet store and bring home a variety of creatures, from dogs to lizards, your choices are endless. To make room for these furry additions, the Sims community will be equipped with bigger neighborhoods. Forty all-new residential and community lots featuring new homes, lush parks, a hip new café, cool shops and a farmer's market are available for Sims to explore. Visit the local garden store and grow a variety of vegetables in their own garden plots.

Time for a career change? Send your Sims down five new career tracks with 50 new jobs. Enter the world of fashion, take care of the neighborhood's pets, or run away and join the circus. With 125 new objects, redecorate your Sims' home for the new pet's arrival. Are you ready?

MacOS 8.6, 9, 10.1 or later.

G3 processor at 233 MHz or faster (450 MHz recommended)

192 MB of Memory (additional 128M recommended if running OSX)

2 MB VRAM (8 MB recommended)

Hard drive, with 750 MB of additional free space

Quicktime 4.1.2

The Sims Unleashed

The Sims: Unleashed

Buy The Sims: Unleashed

The hard-working crew at IMG will be taking Thursday and Friday off to celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States. We'll be back on Monday after stuffing our faces with lots of Turkey.

Our store will continue to be open and we will be processing and shipping orders on Friday and through the weekend.

Be sure to stop by our forums to chat with fellow Mac gamers!

Inside Mac Games

IMG Forum

Mac game programmers Sillysoft have just released their Risk-inspired world domination game Lux.

Taking place on an alien world remarkably similar to Earth, Lux randomly generates maps for each match, ranging map sizes from "Tiny" to "Huge". The game also offers up to ten AI-controlled opponents who can prove to be remarkably crafty:

Ever wanted to take over the world?

Lux gives you the chance to put your strategies to the test. Play the game of world domination on your choice of over a billion different planets.

It comes with ten motley enemies ranging from easy to hard. And unless you're a pro the hard will beat the pants off you.

So come and join the never ending battle for world domination.
If you can handle it...

Sillysoft: Download Lux

Last week we brought readers news of the uDevGame annual contest designed to promote the Mac gaming scene. Well, as they say, all good things must come to an end: yesterday marked the last day of public voting for the contest.

This year's contest has been the most successful yet, with forty entries submitted for judging. With games ranging from simple puzzles to elaborate first person shooters, just about every genre of gaming is represented in this year's contest.

Tabulating of the votes will take place over the next few days, with the awards ceremony taking place next Monday on Sean Smith's weekly internet radio show The Gamesome Mac. Shortly after, the IMG News team will announce their favorite games from this year's crop.

While the contest may be over, the games are still available to be enjoyed - jump to Macintosh gaming resource center iDevGames to download.

iDevGames: 2002 Contest Entries

The Gamesome Mac

Phelios, makers of such games as Android and Bongo Boogie, recently released a Mac version of their kids game, LuaLua. LuaLua is actually four different mini-games for kids to play, ranging from a puzzle-game to a memory game. The games are all non-violent and use OpenGL accelerated graphics.

Here's the description from Phelios' website:

Prepare your little ones to feel like the VIPs they are, when playing Lua Lua games! It’s a particularly pleasing pack of 4 games for kids ages 3 to 7. Designed for easy play using a “win win” concept, Lua Lua includes cute and cuddly animals that playfully invite your kids to take part in 4 fun-filled games: “Soopa Koopa,” a puzzle; “Thinky Thinky,” a memory game; “Catch-a-Match,” a matching pairs game; and, “La La Land,” a musical phrase game.

-Mac OS X
-OpenGL accelerator 16 MB Video Memory
-640x480x16 display

For more information on LuaLua and Phelios, follow the links below.

LuaLua Released for Mac

Phelios

New Mac shareware developer, CodeBlender Software, has released its first game, entitled Deep Trouble. True to its name, the game is an action game that takes place deep under the sea. The game features OpenGL rendered 3D graphics and is fully compatible with both OS X and OS 9.

Here's the description from the Game's website:

DeepTrouble is a new original game for the Macintosh. It's a fast paced 3D action game that takes place under water where you are fighting against alien colonies. The game consists of 10 levels with different challenges and types of aliens to overcome. Throughout your mission you collect energy and better weapons that will help you stay alive.

-MacOS 9.x (with OpenGL 1.2.1 and CarbonLib 1.6)
-MacOS X 10.1 and up
-G3/333, iMac DV 400 MHz or better, 128 MM RAM
-Rage 128 with 8 MB VRAM or better graphics card

To download Deep Trouble, follow the link provided below. Also be sure to download the 1.01 update, which is also now available.

Deep Trouble Released

CodeBlender Software

Popular Mac developer/publisher Freeverse Software has just released the latest version of their popular puzzle game, Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab 2.0. The update adds many new features to the already popular puzzle game, including OS X support, four different modes of play, internet play over Freeverse's online gaming service GameSmith, and more.

Here's what Freeverse president Ian Lynch Smith had to say about the update:

"It's an exciting time to be a puzzle gamer using Mac OS X," said Ian Lynch Smith, President of Freeverse. "We're proud to offer one of our best-selling puzzle games for Apple's best-of-breed operating system."

[Update]: Freeverse's Jason Whong writes in with word that upgrade pricing is available for owners of the original Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab:

Upgrade pricing is available for $9.95. If you want to get the e-coupon for the upgrade, contact support@freeverse.com with the information you used when you bought BMPL the first time around.

Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab 2.0 Released

Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab

Download Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab 2.0 Demo

Click to enlarge

In a recent press release, Mac game publishers Feral Interactive and Macplay have announced that the upcoming racing sim for the Mac, F1 Championship Season 2000 has begun shipping and will be available shortly to Mac gamers everywhere.

F1 Championship is the only racing game officially endorsed by Formula 1 to come to the Mac. Some of its key features include authentic tracks and car designs, a built in driving school, environmental effects, car set-up, player statistics, and more. Here's a short description from the official website:

F1 2000 is the only officially endorsed F1 game to feature the 2000 teams, liveries and driver line-ups and enabling the player to customize the grids to match the actual races. Detailed set-up options and a realistic physics engine will please the purists, while many of these options can be turned off to appeal to arcade racers. F1 2000 leaves all previous F1 games on the starting grid with its realistic, adrenaline-pumping interpretation of the world's greatest motorsport.

The recreation of the tracks is remarkably accurate. The additional detail in the mid and far horizon adds much more starch than gamers have seen in previous F1 titles. Tracks like Monza, Spa and Monaco look much more detailed. The sound in this game is incredible too - the engine sounds are truly… realistic.

The game is chock-full of modes and options, ranging from a full season run in which you hope to capture the championship, to a single race for fun, as well as a time trial and two-player modes. If you are a beginner you should consider the Driver's Training course. Just about every mode other than the quick start lets you customize all of the rules and settings to your preference. In addition, F1 2000 lets you pick from all of the real drivers, cars and tracks featured in the actual real-life F1 2000 racing-season schedule. While all these added bells and whistles are certainly nice to have, F1 2000's performance on the track is really what the game is all about.

F1 Championship Season 2000 Now Shipping for Macintosh

MacPlay

Feral Interactive

Download F1 Championship Season 2000 Demo 1.0

Buy F1 Championship Season 2000

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