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The Games section of Apple.com has posted a trailer of the upcoming online-based mech combat game, Dark Horizons: Lore. The video shows off just a few of the game's features, including its high-intensity battle sequences.

Dark Horizons: Lore is currently in open beta status for Mac, PC, and coming soon for Linux. Check out the links below for more information.

Dark Horizons: Lore Trailer

Dark Horizons: Lore

iPod users looking for something extra to put on their players may want to check out XO Play's newly released Bum: Rags to Riches, a text-based iPod game which uses the device's built in notes system. The game puts you in the shoes of Rufus T. Pilkington, a homeless man whom you must guide back to success. Here's a short description from the game's website:

The box that once housed a refrigerator, you now call home. It’s been five long years since that fateful day you lost your job and your whole world turned upside down, leaving you broke and homeless. You are Rufus T. Pilkington, a homeless guy looking to get his life back on track. You’ll do anything you can for a meal and a dollar to get you through the day. You search through trash cans, you stand on street corners with your cardboard sign, dreaming that one day you will hit the big time. The choices you make will decide your fate whether you remain a Bum or become a Millionaire.

Bum: Rags to Riches

At the Game Developer's Conference last week, Apple announced that it would officially endorse OpenAL, a cross-platform 3D API that is used in popular Macintosh games such as Unreal Tournament 2004 and Jedi Academy. Apple has provided a new branch of Mac OS X code which is now in CVS (install Apple's latest CoreAudio SDK before compiling).

For you programmers, Core Audio SDK 1.3.1 is available on Apple's Audio Developer website, linked below.

Apple

Apple: Audio Developer Web Site

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IMG has posted a hands-on preview of Aspyr's The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, based on a recent beta. In the final installment of the blockbuster movie trilogy, players must destroy the One Ring by casting it into the Crack of Doom, freeing Middle-earth from the clutches of the Dark Lord Sauron.

Here's a clip from the preview:

The Return of the King is a third-person hack-and-slash that recapitulates the events and settings of the last of the three Lord of the Rings films. Players have the option of playing any of several characters: Aragorn, the ranger-king, Gandalf, the wizard, and Sam, the hobbit, well as Legolas the elf and Gimli the dwarf. Each character has his own set of levels to experience. For instance, choosing Gandalf’s path will require you to fight through hordes of uruk-hai in Fangorn Forest and defend Minas Tirith’s walls from legions of orcs. Aragorn, fighting alongside Legolas and Gimli, must brave the subterranean Paths of the Dead, while Sam must lead Frodo (and that slimy freak Gollum) through the ruins of Osgiliath, dodging the notice of the Nazgul, and then into Shelob’s lair. All of their destinies converge at Mount Doom in the game’s final levels.

IMG Preview: The Lords of the Rings: Return of the King

Aspyr Media

LOTR: The Return of the King

Buy LOTR: The Return of the King

On tonight’s second anniversary broadcast of The Gamesome Mac, the Mac gaming radio program, hosts Sean Smith and Omaha Sternberg talk with Glenda Adams, Director of Mac and PC Development at Aspyr Media, about the publisher’s many projects, including Battlefield 1942.

Sean and Omaha will also offer Mac gaming news, reviews, and commentary, and together with their guest will take questions live from listeners in The Gamesome Mac’s chat room and give away some Aspyr games.

The Gamesome Mac can be heard live on MacRadio from 6 to 8 pm Pacific Time, 9 to 11 pm Eastern (Tuesday from 0200 to 0400 UTC), and on demand thereafter. You can tune in at The Gamesome Mac’s web page, where you’ll also find archives of past broadcasts. QuickTime 5 or 6 and a 28 kbps or faster Internet connection are required.

The Gamesome Mac

Aspyr Media

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CodeBlender Software today released version 1.1 for Rally Shift, its fast-paced rally driving game. The update adds several new features such as night driving, rain and fog, 3D trees, and more. An exciting new car is also included together with many other improvements.

Here's a list of changes in version 1.1

• Evening and night time driving conditions.
• 3D trees.
• Rain and fog weather conditions.
• Includes a new car.
• AI difficulty setting.
• Fixed crasher when ending a race and sound effects were turned off.
• Gas pedal also on mouse button when using the mouse.
• Fixed compatibility with some wheel controllers reporting negative values.
• A number of other tweaks and improvements.

CodeBlender

Rally Shift

MGF: Rally Shift 1.1

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e.p.i.c interactive has recently announced that it will be bringing Alida to Mac gamers in Europe. A graphical adventure along the same lines as Myst, Alida allows players to explore a theme park constructed by a band bearing the name of the game title.

Alida is really an unusual place, shaped like a 330 metre long guitar. As Alida was nearing completion things got complicated, the Bands popularity was waning and money stopped coming in. Distrust set in. Each of the band members claimed different areas of Alida for themselves where they devised weird and elaborate systems to protect their wealth. They retracted from each other finally leaving Alida uninhabited. Fifteen years later one of the guys is missing on Alida...

epic interactie - News

IMG - Alida Publishing Details Announced

Dejavu Worlds

Alida

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Aspyr today announced that its upcoming WW II first-person shooter, Call of Duty, has reached the beta phase of development. In Call of Duty you play through 24 epic single-player missions on four interconnected campaigns, or you can go online for Axis versus Allies team-based multiplayer action.

Here's what Aspyr's Amity Lesko had to say about Call of Duty:

I have some exciting news this lovely Monday morning, Call of Duty has hit beta. Aspyr development is moving along nicely on this one, and we are on track for a release in May.

In the meantime, be sure to place your pre-order for Call of Duty thorugh the IMG store. It is available for $48.99 and only $44.99 if you are an IMG Pro or MacGames DVD subscriber.

Aspyr Media

Call of Duty

Buy Call of Duty

Freeverse Software announced today that X-Words Deluxe has begun shipping to retail outlets in North America. Long popular in its downloadable form, this new OS X version brings all of the word-buliding fun right to your local Mac shop. As a bonus, the box also includes a copy of CrossCards, the addictive mixture of poker and X-Words.Here's more from the official press release:

Similar in style to Scrabble? or Upwords?, X-Words Deluxe allows 1-4 players to take turns creating words on a board with special multiplier squares. Classic gameplay and the innovative ability to design your own boards, makes X-Words Deluxe a "must-have" for all word game aficionados.

With X-Words Deluxe you can play against the colorful computer characters using the game's 170,000 word lexicon, or hop online with GameSmith to challenge other Mac users from around the globe.

Ian Lynch Smith, president of Freeverse has said, "We're excited that this new version of X-Words Deluxe will now be available in stores. It's a terrific game for the whole family, and one of our long-time favorites".

Freeverse

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