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Aspyr this morning has announced the final system requirements for Stubbs The Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse for Macintosh. The game, which is being developed by Wideload Studios, is set for release in November, just in time for the busy Christmas season.

Here are the final system specs:

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, OS X 10.4.2 or later recommended
CPU Processor: PowerPC G4/G5
CPU Speed: 1.2 GHz or faster, 1.5 GHz or faster recommended
Memory: 256 MB or higher, 512 MB recommended
Hard Drive: 4 GB free disk space
Video Card (ATI): Radeon 9500 or better
Video Card (NVidia): GeForce FX5200 or better
Video Ram: 64 MB required
Disc Drive: DVD drive required to install and play

Stubbs The Zombie is available for pre-order through Macgamestore.com for $39.95.

Aspyr Media

Wideload

Stubbs the Zombie

Buy Stubbs the Zombie

Back in May, Macgamestore.com introduced a popular promotion where you can get a free copy of Jedi Academy when you order 3 other games. This promotion has been so popular, we've decided to offer a different game as well.

Buy any 3 games from Macgamestore.com, and get Aspyr's Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy or Homeworld 2 for free (a $39.95 dollar value). Use coupon code "jedi" for Jedi Academy or "homeworld2" for Homeworld 2.

Shoppers will need to add three games to their cart, then one of the "free games" to their cart, then apply the coupon code or else your order will not be processed.

Macgamestore.com

IMG has posted a review of Crusader Kings, the latest game from Virtual Programming. Crusader Kings is a strategy game in which the player manages a medieval dynasty, fulfilling obligations to their leige, vassals, and church while trying to keep their lineage intact and prosperous.

Here's a clip from the review:

The first and foremost problem and advantage with Crusader Kings is its sheer length. Even at its fastest speed, a year takes five to ten minutes, and the game can last almost four hundred years. This assumes that nothing happens and you do absolutely nothing. After a week and a half of play, I'd only advanced one century playing as the Byzantines, and there were two and a half centuries remaining. As an added feature, the saved game can be imported into EU II and from there into Victoria. In other words, with all three you could play the same world from 1066 to 1922. This functionally means that there can be three or four months of play starting with one session. This is good value, but it can get tedious, especially with the time that saving a game takes.

IMG Review: Crusader Kings

Virtual Programming

Crusader Kings

Buy Crusader Kings

J&R has great prices on top quality Mac products, including Vivendi's World of Warcraft, Canon Elura 90 Digital Camcorder, Fogware Elementary School Learning 2006 with $10 mail-in rebate, QuarkXPress 6, Riverdeep Kid Pix Deluxe 4 Home Edition, Aspyr Doom 3 for Mac, Brother MFC-3240c Multi-Function Machine,  and much more

CDW|MacWarehouse has great deals on cool Mac products, including LaCie 100GB Mobile USB Hard Drive, Microsoft Office 2004 Standard Edition, Fujitsu ScanSnap FI-5110EOXM Scanner, ViewSonic VE510 15" LCD Display, Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera, Kensington Saddlebag Ultra, Targus Podium CoolPad for Mac, and much more.

Publishing Perfection has great deals on a variety of design and print products for your Mac, including Electric Rain Swift 3D, Extensis Suitcase X1, Master Colors HVC Color Composer Standard, Totally Hip LiveStage 1.0, Otery Photosimile 100, e-Frontier Shade 7 Designer LE, Corel Painter IX, and much more.

Ramjet has super low prices on RAM upgrades for your Mac, including 2GB DDR Kit for Power Mac G5 for only $275, 512MB DDR for Power Mac G4 for only $49, 512MB PC-2700 for Aluminum PowerBook G4 for only $65, 1GB PC-2700 for Aluminum PowerBook G4 for only $189, 512MB DDR DIMM for iMac G5 for only $49, and much more.

O'Reilly has exclusively Hot Deals discounts for many of it's most popular Mac titles, including Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition, Podcasting Hacks, iWork '05: The Missing Manual, Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition, GarageBand 2: The Missing Manual, and much more.

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Blizzard Entertainment recently posted on their website that they will be hosting two Halloween contests this year. The first contest is a Blizzard pumpkin carving contest, which challanges players to carve a Blizzard themed pumpkin. The second contest is a World of Warcraft Halloween screenshot contest, which challanges players to take the best Halloween-themed World of Warcraft screenshot. From the Blizzard website:

October's longstanding tradition is upon us! Every year, Blizzard encourages legions of gamers to attack countless pumpkins with sharp utensils in the name of art, and this year is no exception. Take inspiration from any Blizzard game you like and carve your pumpkin in the theme of that game.

All Hallow's Eve is almost upon us, and the inhabitants of Azeroth are reveling in their own frightful festivities! It's time to polish the lens of your Super Snapper FX and capture those monstrous moments.

For full contest details, visit the Blizzard website by clicking the link below.

Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft

Blizzard Pumpkin Contest

WOW Halloween Screenshot Contest

Buy World of Warcraft

Bill Catambay of the Marathon Map Makers Guild sent us a note that their Marathon total conversion, Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge, is nearly finished being ported to the open-source AlephOne engine. Instead of just being a straight-forward port, MMMG is taking advantage of the opportunity to show off the advanced features of the AlephOne engine.

We are taking advantage of nearly every new feature introduced by AlephOne, from fog to hi-res texture, and over the past few months, we've been going head deep into the MML scripting and Lua programming waters. MML scripting lets you alter nearly everything on a level by level basis (hence, there will be over 15 weapons in EMR 3.0). Lua programming takes it even further, providing a programming language that scenario designers can use to alter behavior not just level by level, but action by action, tick by tick. The addition of Lua has really blown the lid off of what can be done with this engine.

EMR for AlephOne

The Entertainment Software Assocation has released its Essential Facts About The Computer And Video Game Industry for 2005. A compilation of sales figures, demographics, and usage data, the Essential Facts provide an interesting look at the changing profile of the average gamer.

Some information from the Essential Facts:

- 75% of heads of households play computer or video games.
- The average game player is age 30.
- Women over the age of 18 represent a greater portion of the gameplaying population (28%) than boys from ages 6 to 17 (21%).
- Gamers devote more than triple the amount of time
spent playing games each week to exercising or playing sports,
volunteering in the community, religious activities, creative
endeavors, cultural activities, and reading.

Essential Facts About Computer Gaming

Entertainment Software Association

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Continuing their efforts to improve stability and limit the time players spend in queues waiting to join World of Warcraft realms, Blizzard recently announced another series of realm to realm character transfers.

Here is the list of currently eligible realms:

Warsong to Gurubashi
Skullcrusher to Smolderthorn
Blackrock to Frostwolf

Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft

Buy World of Warcraft

iDevGames, working in conjunction with Freeverse Software, has announced the official start of the OMG Cup Contest. Open to any game developer, the contest seeks to help developers showcase and distribute their products as well as infuse the Mac gaming scene with new and original ideas.

Qualifications for entry include the following:

• The game must not have seen public release prior to the start of the contest.
  
• Must be Mac OS X native.
  
• Must not exceed 20MB in size after compression.

"This is an amazing opportunity for any Mac developer," states Carlos
Camacho, Editor-in-Chief of iDevGames. "It is difficult for both independent
and small developers to break into the world of high profile casual game
development. We have pulled together an amazing sponsor, Freeverse Software,
to make this dream accessible for any developer. Building on the success of
our annual uDevGames contest, we see this as a crucial evolutionary step in
our grass-root effort to energize gaming on the Mac platform."

The full set of rules and contest details can be found at iDevGames.

iDevGames - OMG Cup

Freeverse

iDevGames

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Apple has posted a feature examining the graphic adventure title Myst V: End of Ages. The apparent last chapter in the long-running series, Myst V continues the exploration and puzzle-solving gameplay that has become synonymous with the Myst titles.

Interestingly enough, when interviewed, creator Rand Miller casually adds that Myst V is the end of "this part of the story":

"This is where the Myst series has led to," explains Rand Miller, who co-created the original Myst game with his brother, Robyn, in 1993. "[This game] marks the end of this part of the story," he adds cryptically.

Apple - Myst V Feature

Cyan

Myst V: End of Ages

Buy Myst V: End of Ages

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