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According to an article in the January issue of Macworld Magazine entitled, "A Look At The Year Ahead", Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 is headed coming to a Mac near you.

Here's the snippet from Macworld:

Aspyr Media will keep bringing great games for sports enthusiasts. In 2003, Mac users will see the release of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, Nascar Racing Season 2002, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 brings golf on the PC to life and snaps it into 3D, letting you feel the pressure of taking on Tiger Woods at some of the world's top courses. With new PGA golfers, real world courses, and commentary by an all-star announcing team, EA Sports maximizes its long-standing exclusive partnership with the PGA Tour and continues its partnership with Tiger Woods. The result is a realistic and deep PC golf simulation that puts accurate shot-making at your figertips. With an exclusive license for Pebble Beach golf courses and PGA Tour golfers, this is authentic golf simulation at its best.

A brand-new course lineup features 12 different PGA Tour courses, including Pebble Beach Golf Links, Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, Princeville and more.

Get closer to the action with a 3D game engine that brings you inside the ropes of the PGA Tour.

New effects: The grass actually grows around your feet while you play, making the rough rougher. Weather effects let you "feel" the sun, the wind and the chill as the fog rolls in.

Compete as or against the most PGA Tours Pros to date, including Tiger Woods, Ty Tryon, Brad Faxon, Notah Begay III, Mark Calcavechia, and many more.

Live the rags-to-riches struggle to the top of the game in a new Career mode that lets you hone your skills, purchase equipment and lessons, and manage your career growth as you climb the professional ladder.

Play in game modes that deliver quick, short, and competitive situations and side games, including the new Skills competition, EA Sports Shoot-Out, Best-Ball, PGA Tour Season mode, and more.

Real-time swing with TrueSwing Technology delivers the feel of a true golf swing. Or swing away with two-click and three-click swings.

Golf commentators David Feherty and Bill Macatee highlight an improved audio presentation.

Get on the course in a flash with the player-friendly interace.

The Caddy Book option gives you all the information you need to make that great shot possible.

Course Architect is a course creation tool that lets you create your own library of courses.

Convert and play hundreds of existing courses with Course Utilities.

Aspyr Media

Buy Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003

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Today, IMG has posted a review of Aspyr Media's latest LucasArts title, Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Written by Christopher Morin, this review discusses the details of Jedi Outcast, including story aspects, eye candy and multiplayer gameplay.

Here's a clip:

My reaction times are those of a chronic allergy sufferer doped up on Benedryl. That being said, online play is a blast. It is incredible to see six or so players battling each other with various colored lightsabers. Needless to say, I was soundly thrashed as I flailed away; however, even as a Lightsaber tyro it was great fun. I am not too sure about some of those players on GameRanger, though. In one free-for-all game, I was in second place with five points. The person in first place, the guilty shall remain nameless, had thirty. Be that as it may, just the mere sight of Jedi battling for supremacy live on my computer screen brought a tear to this Star Wars uber-geek’s eye.

Aspyr Media

Westlake Interactive

Raven Software

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

IMG Review: Jedi Outcast

Buy Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

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As part of the uDevGames 2002 competition, the winning entrant, which was announced last Monday on The Gamesome Mac, is required to write a postmortem of the game. Today, iDevGames has posted the postmortem of Lars Gafvert's AstroSquid, winner of the runnerup for the competitions Polish category.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Leave the music to musicians
The third thing I can think that went wrong must have been the music. As I'm not good enough to do the music myself I asked a friend to do it. In doing this I was all too unclear on what I wanted, how much of it, and when I wanted it. This then stalled the progress as I felt I had to wait for the music to move on and then when I finally got something I just put it in, even though I wasn't really happy with it, just to get it over with. I should have been much more precise at what I wanted, and what the deadline was. However, it all worked out for the better as new and improved music was later made and included in the 1.1 release of the game, making me much more content with the game.

AstroSquid Postmortem

AstroSquid

iDevGames

In what should be the answer to any arcade gamer's prayers, XGaming, makers of the highly-acclaimed arcade-style joystick duo X-Arcade, have announced the availability of a new one-player model. Dubbed the X-Arcade Solo, this new peripheral matches the original X-Arcade in every way, but provides an easier-to-handle unit with only one set of controls.

Here's a clip from the press release:

 The X-Arcade Solo(TM) provides a life-like arcade experience at the touch of your fingers with hand constructed arcade design and indestructible arcade-grade parts. Developer and President, Shawn R. Walters of XGAMING, said: "With over 3 years of research and work in creating the best quality arcade joystick for gamers, our team is quite confident we have succeeded. The response in anticipation of availability has been staggering. We haven't been able to keep the two player units in stock at major retailers like Fry's Electronics(TM), and we expect even greater market acceptance with the Solo(TM)."

More information on the original X-Arcade can be found in IMG's review as well as XGaming's website.

XGAMING Makes Home Arcade Gaming Available For All Game Platforms; X-Arcade One Player Joystick Released

IMG - X-Arcade Review

XGaming

X-Arcade

Matt Loria of MacPlay's support team was kind enough to report in the IMG forums that a Soldier of Fortune 2 tweak guide has been posted to their website. The guide is designed to help Soldier of Fortune 2 players get the best performance out of the game, as well as explaining what the different graphics options do.

Loria also notes that a patch will soon be released for realMYST, correcting a number of issues in the game. Here is an excerpt from his forum post:

I know i've been promising [the tweak guide] forever... so here it is. For some of you this stuff will be nothing new... but hopefully this will bring a little more definition and understanding to the Graphics and Scalability menus.

[...]

Also, on a side note, we will be releasing a patch for realMyst later today or tomorrow that will resolve several issues with Dual Processor machines and also Radeon 9000 graphics cards (including the mobility). We have had great luck with this patch and it looks like we've found the glitches.

MacPlay SOF2 tweak guide

IMG Forums: SOF 2 Tweak Guide Posted

Omni Group

Raven Software

MacPlay

SoF II

Buy SoF II

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In a posting on the Freeverse forums, Jason Whong has revealed the third clue to the Arcane Arena iPod Giveaway Contest.

Players of the game are invited to find Freeverse President Ian Lynch Smith's 5 GB iPod, hidden away as a treasure object somewhere within the game's maps. The prize for finding the iPod is Ian's personal iPod, containing the "entire album" of Jared, Butcher of Song.

Here's the third hint:

The iPod exists, but where does it hide?
Don't think of the demon,
don't think of the tide--
think of the Phoenix, its wings spread wide.

Good luck...

The game, which was recently updated to version 1.0.5, is a free download from Freeverse's web site. Players can try the game for free with unlimited re-incarnations, however a registration fee of $29.95 US is required for players wanting to progress beyond the fourth level.

Freeverse

Arcane Arena

Freeverse Software: Forums

A new article has been posted at the Apple Games site, focusing on Knowledge Adventure. The company makes educational titles for children with a heavy emphasis on fun and adventure. The article looks at how Knowledge Adventure builds their games, including some of the philosophy used in their creation:

One example of this is the “multiple intelligences theory,” which is the educational concept behind the seven JumpStart All-Stars. These characters represent math, art, music, reading, physical athletics, science and leadership. The idea is that different children will benefit from different approaches to the educational content, especially in content retention. An example would be a boy that the software determines would learn best with the help of Casey, the athlete. For that child, the software will encourage him even more than other children to get up and do physical activities as he’s playing the computer game.

“Our new JumpStart Advanced line is based on two years of research and brainstorming around the multiple intelligences theory,” says House. “From that experience, we have created a product that brings some of the most powerful trends in education to the marketplace.”

Apple

Apple Games: Knowledge Adventure

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