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After nine months since the release of America's Army 2.1, the long-awaited and left-for-dead America's Army game is back on the Macintosh with the released of version 2.3 FireFight. Mac gamers who have been stuck at 2.1 since last June can once again enjoy the game along with their PC counterparts.

Those of you who missed out on the drama of America's Army Mac, here's a brief run down. Back in November programmer Ryan Gordon announced that the Mac version of the game would be delayed because GameSpy, which is used by America's Army for match making, raised their licensing fees for Mac publishers (according to some reports, as much as 10 times more). Since then Gordon has been working on a workaround to GameSpy, culminating with today's release.

Here's some highlights of America's Army 2.3 FireFight:

• 2 new multiplayer missions: Urban Assault and Woodland Outpost.

• All new Tournament Mode providing full support for America's Army competitive gaming.

• Many new security enhancements and protections integrated into the game (client, server, and back-end).

This version of ArmyOps doesn't use GameSpy; it's got a simple replacement system in place, but it's not very robust. We are aware of the issues with it. If the in-game browser can't find pings for any servers, please make sure UDP port 14200 is open on your firewall.

Now to the good stuff: downloading. Due to the tremendous size of the game (758 MB), America's Army 2.3 will be initially offered on Macgamefiles.com as a bittorrent download only. If you already have America's Army 2.1, a small 45 MB patch from version 2.1 to 2.3 is available for download through Macgamefiles.com. Lastly, if you are an IMG Pro user, conventional http downloads are being offered through your Hot Downloads link.

Be sure to stop by our forum and let us know your experiences with America's Army 2.3.

U.S Army

Epic Games

MGF: America's Army 2.3

IMG Pro: Hot Downloads

The folks at Blizzard Entertainment have released the latest in their series of bonus maps for the popular RTS game Warcraft III.

The map, entitled Full Scale Assault, uses the Lordaeron Winter tileset and is a large 3v3 or 4v4 player map.

In these eternally contested lands, war comes and goes leaving behind death and glory. Strike strategically and fight valiantly till your foes fall and you can hear the snowflakes land on the dead. Victory, at last.

WarCraft III - Bonus Maps

WarCraft III

Blizzard Entertainment

Buy WarCraft III

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BeyondUnreal has posted more information on the new Unreal Engine 3-based Unreal Tournament, code-named "Envy".

The new info, taken from the May 2005 issue of Computer Gaming World, includes info on new vehicles, weapons, and teams. New vehicles include a rocket powered Scorpion buggy equiped with a rocket launcher and ejector seat. New weapons include the Stinger from the original Unreal and the canister gun. New teams include the Egyptian Nakhti and the Iron Guard.

Here are some select quotes from the Computer Gaming World article:

• "Actually, we don't think 2K4 was very successful [...] It wasn't a bad game... I just wish it could have been a better game than it was." - Steve Polge

• "We've paid [...] a lot of attention to what the guys in the community are saying, and we take that feedback to heart." - Jim Brown

• "The original Unreal Tournament was on the threshold of being a great game. If we had done 2K4 without having to feel kind of in the box of what we had started in 2K3, I think it would have been a much better game than it was." - Steve Polge

• "[In UT2004] you miss the feeling you get from being in someone's face and fighting with them." - Jeff Morris

CGW: More UT "Envy" Details

Epic Games

Digital Extremes

MacSoft

Unreal Tournament 2004

Buy Unreal Tournament 2004

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