April has been a busy month for the hard-working fellows at Aspyr Media, as their monthly newsletter proves. Besides revealing the winners of their past eNewsletter giveaways and announcing two new special offers at their online store, Aspyr notes updates on no less than eight of their upcoming titles.

Among such updates, both BloodRayne and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets are now shipping, and the long-awaited Spearhead expansion pack for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is currently in duplication and will be released shortly.

Here's the full list of updates in this issue of the Aspyr newsletter:

1. BloodRayne shipping!
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets shipping!
3. Medal of Honor Allied Assault? Spearhead Expansion Pack in duplication!.
4. Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2003 near Final Candidate!
5. SpyHunter so near to Final Candidate I can smell it!
6. NASCAR Racing 2003 Season at Final Candidate.
7. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 at Beta!
8. SimCity4 at Beta 2-Final Candidate Expected Soon!
9. March Giveaway!
10. February eNewsletter Winners!
11. Special Offers
12. Just a few words

For a full description of each of these updates, check Aspyr Media's April Newsletter through the link below.

Many of the titles announced are already available for pre-order at the Inside Mac Games store. Reserve your copy now and be among the first to enjoy these new titles.

Aspyr Media

Aspyr Media Newsletter

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The massive gaming and entertainment network IGN.com recently posted a preview of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4, the latest title of the popular skating game series.

Like the previous Tony Hawk games, Tony Hawk 4 puts the player into the baggy pants of a professional skater who earns money by performing all sorts of cunning stunts in a detailed urban environment.

Here's a snip from IGN.com's preview of this long-awaited title:

Every bit of gameplay from the others is being included. This is a port, so nothing will be missing. Conversely, this is a port, so little the way of additions should be expected. If you own a PC or a Macintosh and have no access to the game on other platforms, buy it. It's as simple as that. The question of quality is fairly irrelevant, since we know and love all other versions of the game. Anyway, maybe your console isn't plugged into the wall and thus not connected to the Internet, you'll also might want to consider checking this puppy out for its multiplayer component, which unlike a lot of other, lesser console to PC ports, is going to remain completely intact.

For more information on this title check Aspyr Media's web site through the link below.

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 is already available for preorder at both Aspyr's online store and the Inside Mac Games store.

Aspyr Media

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4

Tony Hawk 4 preview at IGN.com

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Inside Mac Games has posted a review of Feral's Worms Blast. The game is a full-on sea-borne adventure, with a quirky crew of all new Worms messing about in boats.

Here's a clip from the preview:

Once again, the Worms franchise commits some serious genre-bending. Worms Blast looks like a puzzle game and is structured like a puzzle game, but its emphasis is clearly still on the heavy artillery so it carries with it some serious shoot-'em-up and action elements. The basic premise is that your character, who could be a worm or another member of the animal kingdom chosen for their hardiness and proficiency with firearms (never let it be said that Team 17 are species snobs) such as sheep, skunks, roosters and frogs, race to complete various goals as outlined by the nature of the challenge by blasting at blocks or targets with any number of firearms or other explosives. This might sound simple enough, but the characters are all doing this on the open water, with a rising and dropping tide on a number of different types of watercraft. Consider that canoes don't have hand brakes or a reliable turning radius, and things get a lot harder.

IMG Review: Worms Blast

Feral Interactive

Worms Blast

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Game developer and porting house Contraband Entertainment, responsible for the port of several popular titles to the Macintosh platform, recently updated their project status page to reveal the progress made in the development of some of their upcoming games.

Worthy of note is the status update on the long-awaited hacker simulator Uplink, which is now listed as 'done' and expected to be released in May 26.

In Uplink, players take the role of a freelance hacker who performs covert jobs for major corporations. Such assignments range from breaking into rival computer systems to laundering money or framing innocent people.

Here's a snip from Uplink's official web site on the features this title will include:

You use the money you earn to upgrade your computer systems, and to buy new software and tools. As your experience level increases you find more dangerous and profitable missions become available. You can speculate on a fully working stock market (and even influence its outcome). You can modify peoples academic or criminal records. You can divert money from bank transfers into your own accounts. You can even take part in the construction of the most deadly computer virus ever designed.

For more information on this title, check Kit Pierce's preview here at Inside Mac Games through the link below.

Contraband Entertainment

Ambrosia Software

Uplink

IMG: Kit Pierce previews Uplink

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Shortly after the news that Aspyr would be bringing Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer to Mac and PC, the mini-site for the game went live. Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer pits players in role of one of 9 different pro surfers, as they compete in 30 different levels, featuring some of the most popular surfing spots in the world. Here's a full feature list:

• Rip with the skills of 6-time World Champion Kelly Slater or one of 8 other top pros.
  
• Surf a total of 30 levels featuring 15 of the most popular surf sports from around the globe.
  
• Ride an unlimited number of interactive, populated waves with plenty of obstacles to trick off.
  
• So many waves to choose from-you'll never surf the same wave twice.
  
• Pull off thousands of real and fantasy tricks including aerials, tube rides, snaps, cutbacks and floaters.

• Mac OS X 10.1.2 or later
  
• Power Mac G4, iMac G4, eMac, PowerBook G4, or iBook G4
  
• 733MHz G4 processor or faster
  
• 256MB of RAM
  
• 700MB hard drive space
  
• 3D Graphics Acceleration required (minimum of ATI Radeon or NVIDIA GeForce 2 series card)
  
• 32 MB of video memory (VRAM)

Aspyr Media

Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer

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Ritual Entertainment has added a new trailer for the upcoming title Star Trek: Elite Force II on the game's official website. The short trailer shows off the gameplay of the game that is set in the TV show's 'Next Generation' universe.

This trailer is the first one on the new site, but there is promise of more short trailers before the game is released for PC on June 24th. To watch it in full, head over to the download section on the Star Trek: Elite Force II site.

This much-anticipated first-person shooter is already announced for the Mac by publisher Aspyr Media, the company that also published its predecessor, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. The Macintosh port will be done by Westlake Interactive, who yesterday announced the game has reached first playable state. No release date is set for the Macintosh version of the game yet. We will keep you informed as more information about the game is revealed.

Ritual Entertainment

Aspyr Media

Star Trek Elite Force II

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It's Friday and that can only mean one thing: a new desktop from IMG's Brad Custer. This week Custer features Feral Interactive's Creature Isle expansion pack for the best-selling God-sim, Black & White. Here's what Brad had to say about his latest creation:

This past week amongst all my spam email I received a simple email that read, "Creature Isle please." Well, I just had to honor such a polite request. This title was released by Feral Interactive a few months ago and from what I hear it's quiet fun. So, I dug out a bunch of Godzilla movies, to help me with this week's selection from Black & White: Creature Isle. I had fun creating this desktop using art supplied by Feral Interactive. It's entitled "Return To Eden" and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.

Custer's Desktops

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