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GarageGames today announced an Open Beta Program for its impressive looking Mech game, Dark Horizons: Lore. Created by MaxGaming Technologies, the Mac OS X beta weighs in at just under 86 MB and is available for download through the Dark Horizons: Lore web site.

Here's more from the official press release:

Dark Horizons: Lore is a fast action FPS style mecha game where the player’s stats will affect the outcome of the war and ultimately write the history of the Dark Horizons universe. This “backend” method of stat tracking will be the next element to be stress tested by the development team.

“Overall we've been very happy with the response we've gotten from our beta players to Lore,” explains Adrian Wright, President of Max Gaming Technologies, “once they understand this is a FPS with early mechanized assault vehicles, even the most hardcore of mecha sim players will enjoy the melee multiplayer action.”

“I have been playing, and modding, Starsiege and Tribes for five years in order to do my part to keep the games alive." comments Stephen Tungate, Beta Tester on Dark Horizons: Lore. "I never thought a game would come along with the features of both. Dark Horizons Lore will be the game to rekindle the fire of the mecha gaming community."

[Update:] It seems the crashes some people are experiencing have been acknowledged by the lead Mac developer on the Dark Horizons team. He says to be patient and that a patch is on its way soon.

Dark Horizons: Lore

Dark Horizons: Lore Open Beta Download

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Aspyr today launched a web page dedicated to their upcoming first-person shooter, Call of Duty. Developed by former members of the Medal of Honor team, the game features 24 epic single-player missions on four interconnected campaigns. The Aspyr web page includes information, screenshots, and system requirements for the game.

In a recent conversation with Aspyr's Glenda Adams, she mentioned to IMG that the game was ahead of development schedule and should be going beta soon. If all goes well the game might ship sooner rather than later, though the official release date is still scheduled for April.

Call of Duty is also available for pre-order through the Aspyr web site. It is also available for pre-order $48.99. If you are a MacGames CD subcriber/IMG Pro subscriber, you can pre-order it at a discounted price of $44.99

Aspyr Media

Call of Duty

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Feral Interactive, publishers of popular Macintosh games such as Rayman 3 and Total Immersion Racing, today unveiled a redesign of their web site. The new site includes a streamlined interface along with the use of flash graphics.

Here's what Feral had to say about the new site:

It's been about a year since the last serious upgrade of the Feral
website. In that time we have released six new games and have put a lot
more into development - so it seemed high time for a new lick of
digital paint. The intention, and our intentions are always honourable,
is to make this site both more attractive and easier to navigate - in
short, to make it more fun for you, the visitor, to get you to come
back more often and even buy our games...

Feral Interactive

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc

Empire Interactive

Total Immersion Racing

Buy Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc

Buy Total Immersion Racing

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Aspyr today released a demo of Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, the second sequel to the popular Jedi Knight series of first-person shooters set in the Star Wars genre. The demo, weighing in at 186 MB, allows you to play two single-player levels from the game. The demo is available for download from Macgamefiles.com. IMG Pro users are urged to use their speedy Hot Downloads link to download the demo.

In related news, IMG has posted a review of Star Wars: Jedi Academy. Be sure to follow the links below.

IMG Review: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

LucasArts

Aspyr Media

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

MGF: Jedi Academy Demo

IMG Pro: Hot Downloads

Buy Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

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World of Warcraft fansite WorldofWar.net is currently in the process of posting a series of articles on Blizzard's upcoming MMORPG. Based on a visit to Blizzard's Irvine, CA headquarters, the articles are being released one at a time, with the current available ones covering an introduction, reader questions, a blurb about Blizzard, and the current state of the alpha build.

The alpha build article should be of particular interest to readers, as it covers how far along WoW is, as well as some hypothetical target dates concerning the beta.

There is still a lot of work to do. Commonly people who have played the game have remarked how polished and finished the game looks. Sure enough, the areas they are seeing are polished and ready. But Blizzard can't possibly show you the whole of the game. Even at the beginning levels it could take over a week to see anything judging by what we saw and what they wanted us to see that we just couldn't get to due to time constraints.

WorldofWar.net - Irvine Visit Articles

Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft

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Fujeyla Studio has updated their shareware title Fakie Flair Challenge to version 1.2. The update brings with it a revamped control scheme as well as some new graphics and animations.:

• All game keys have changed, as well as some of their behaviours. So be sure to have a look at the help page or at the pdf manual.
  
• Now you can choose your OpenGL preferences. FFC can be played on a more important number of different graphic cards
  
• Lincoln Loop flips are now possible in the two sides
  
• Space now makes your rider crouch (when pressed) and jump (when released). The time you press space gives the jump amplitude
  
• You don't have to press simultaneously space and tricks keys to do tricks anymore. Tricks keys are enough.
  
• There's no spin cursor anymore. You don't have to press any key to stop spins/flips. You just have to release spin/flip keys.
  
• Landing validation has been refactored in order to be more correct.
  
• The way to switch to fakie has changed, it's now quicker, simpler and more stylie ;p
  
• Rider animation during turns has evolved to be more realistic
  
• After all those changes, I've decided to offer FFC a new look with some new colors, a new logo and some new riders
  
• Some other things have also changed but they're not important enough to speak about them here.

MGF - Fakie Flair Challenge 1.2

Fujeyla Studio

Fakie Flair Challenge

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