Click to enlarge

Following close on the heels of both the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King movie release and Aspyr's announcement of a game with the same name, IMG's own Brad Custer has unsheathed a new desktop to mark both occasions.

Here's what Custer had to say about his "precious:"

Of course I contributed to Wednesday's box office by seeing the movie so I jumped at a chance to make a wallpaper for the game. In this week's feature I wanted to recreate a scene from the movie using character models. So, with the help of Aspyr Media and Electronic Arts, I was able to create this desktop. I simply entitled it, "Fellowship", and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.

IMG Desktop: Fellowship

IMG News: Aspyr Announces LOTR: Return of the King

Aspyr Media

Buy LOTR: The Return of the King

The IMG Store today began shipping two new Aspyr titles, Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and Tom Clancy's Raven Shield.

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy allows players to immerse themselves in the classic Star Wars universe as they take on the role of a student eager to learn the ways of the Force from Master Luke Skywalker. Players will interact with famous classic Star Wars locations and characters while facing the ultimate choice: fight for good and freedom in the light side or follow the path of power and evil to the dark side. Jedi Academy is available for $48.99 (just $44.99 if you an IMG Pro/MacGames CD Subscriber).

In Raven Shield, you command an elite, multinational squad of special operatives against a hidden terrorist foe. In Raven Shield, the third installment to the wildly popular Rainbow Six series, RAINBOW races against time to stop terror and unravel a mystery. In locations around the world, from London to the Caribbean to Rio de Janeiro, lead team RAINBOW in a desperate effort to battle a madman and foil his doomsday plot. Raven Shield is available for $48.95 (just $43.95 if you an IMG Pro/MacGames CD Subscriber).

And don't forget that Halo is in stock and shipping. Order it today and you'll be sure to get it in time for Christmas!

IMG Store: Order Jedi Academy

IMG Store: Order Raven Shield

IMG Store: Order Halo: Combat Evolved

Click to enlarge

Aspyr Media today released a patch for Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. The patch includes a number of fixes to the just-released first-person shooter. They include:

• Fixed visual glitches with the About box.
• The game could randomly crash when switching between levels - this is now fixed.
• The background of the Mac console window in the MP app was drawing improperly in Panther.
• Fixed hitching/suttering framerates in the single-player app.
• Performance in the MP app has been improved.

Both files are currently available for download from Macgamefiles.com. IMG Pro users can download it from their Hot Downloads page.

LucasArts

Aspyr Media

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

MGF: Jedi Academy 1.01a

Jedi Academy Mac bonus multiplayer maps

Buy Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

Click to enlarge

Aspyr has sent along three new screenshots from the Mac version of the recently-announced Lord of the Rings: Return of the King game that is due to ship sometime in April. Based on the environments from the movie, The Return of the King's third person gameplay will include immersive action and adventure elements set in rich, interactive levels. A multiplayer co-op mode will let players form their own Fellowship before embarking on their journey through Middle-earth.

To check out the screenshots, check out the links below.

Aspyr Media

Screenshot 1

Screenshot 2

Screenshot 3

Buy LOTR: The Return of the King

Click to enlarge

European gamers hungering for a little multiplayer PvP should be pleased to hear that Ubisoft will be bringing Shadowbane to them early next year. Having acquired the distribution rights across Europe, Ubisoft plans on covering all the bases, including billing, networks, and customer support.

Ubisoft will continue to use its already renowned marketing and distribution network to distribute the boxed version of the game, while its online division will continue to host the intricate worlds of Shadowbane for both European and North American players combined.

Ubisoft - Ubisoft to Publish Shadowbane In Europe

Wolfpack Studios

Ubisoft

Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos

Click to enlarge

Ambrosia has posted an update for pop-pop, its Breakout-like action title. The update, which brings pop-pop up to version 1.0.3, contains a number of bug fixes, chief among which are fixes to OS 10.3 compatibility issues.

Some of the other fixes are as follows:

-- several tracker improvements and fixes
-- improvements to networking
-- Fixes an in-game logic flaw that could cause the game to hang during net play
-- Difficulty levels have been bumped up
-- fixes the bug where all blocks are sent to the left column
-- rendezvous browser now checks for compatible pop version
-- paddle/ball interaction better - ball should teleport to center less
-- no duplicate nicks in tracker
-- tracker games should have correct times and sort correctly
-- paddle speeds should be smoother on slow machines
-- flashing of displays in net sim fixed
-- net sim updated to deal with new way bricks are sent

Those interested in grabbing the latest update can download it from MacGameFiles, The update is sized at around 2 MB.

Ambrosia - pop-pop Change List

MGF - pop-pop 1.0.3 Update

Ambrosia Software

Pop-Pop

Everyone's favorite RPG developer, Bioware recently made a huge move to newer offices. Gamespot recently got to talk about the move with some of the folks about Bioware, and it appears the company's recent hits have allowed for the growth of the company. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Elaborating on the reasons behind the move, Ohle said, "BioWare is currently nearing the 170 employee mark, as opposed to around 130 at the start of the year, and our new office is about 60 percent larger than our current space. Now we have more space, a dedicated demo room, some focus-testing rooms, more meeting rooms, more coffee stations (very important), more lounge-type areas, a massive rec room, and a far more comfortable space for internal and external quality assurance staff."

Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuck, BioWare's joint CEOs, were reluctant to talk about the battle systems in the upcoming Xbox fighter Jade Empire, but that didn’t stop them from commenting on the move. "Everyone here at BioWare is really looking forward to moving to the new location--the extra space will accommodate our talented, creative, hardworking employees on the three BioWare-created intellectual properties we’re currently working on."

Bioware Expands to Bigger Offices

BioWare

Click to enlarge

Aspyr Media programmer Brad Oliver, responsible for the Mac port of the two latest Jedi Knight titles among other popular games, recently updated his web site revealing the status of several patches for various Aspyr products.

The patched titles range from the recently released Jedi Academy to the legendary Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, the latest beta patch of which adds no less than fully-working internet play through OpenPlay's NetSprocket.

Here is a brief excerpt from Brad Oliver's web site:

A patch for Jedi Academy (yeah, I know) is imminent, and it should be followed by patches for Alice (to fix sound issues), Jedi Knight 2 (to fix some issues I caught in Jedi Academy as well as the accursed level-loading crasher), and a patch of sorts for Galactic Battlegrounds and Clone Campaigns to fix saved-game compatibility.

You can actually fix SWGB now if you have the original CD. Just copy the "genie.dat" file from the "Data" folder on the CD to your SWGB "Data" folder on your hard drive, replacing the copy that's in there. This issue only affected people who installed Clone Campaigns - if you didn't ever install the expansion, you're already set. Of course, the downside to this patch is that if'll break saved games that you created since installing Clone Campaigns, so if that's more important than having saved-game compatibility with the PC version, then you don't want to do this.

For more information on this subject or to get some of the beta patches as they come, be sure to check Brad's home page through the link provided below.

Brad Oliver on Patches, SMAC Internet Play

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