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Aspyr Media has updated their game status page to reflect the fact that Command & Conquer Generals Deluxe Edition has moved from final candidate to shipping status. This means those who have pre-ordered the compilation title should be receiving it very soon.

This Deluxe Edition combines the hit strategic game Command & Conquer Generals with its expansion pack, dubbed Zero Hour. All-in-all, this gives gamers a huge selection of units, upgrades and missions from which to choose. Here are the final system requirements for the title:

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later

CPU Processor: PowerPC G4 or later

CPU Speed: 1GHz or faster

Memory: 256 MB or higher

Hard Disk Space: 2.8GB free disk space

Video Card (ATI): Radeon 7500 or better

Video Card (NVidia): GeForce2 MX or better

Video Memory (VRam): 32 MB or higher

Media Required: DVD Drive

Aspyr Media

Pre-Order Command & Conquer Generals Deluxe Edition

Command & Conquer Generals Deluxe Edition

Buy Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour

Apple has announced the dates for this year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The event takes place in San Francisco from August 7-11. "WWDC 2006 is a perfect opportunity to take your work to the next level," notes Apple. "Discover tools and techniques for optimizing your code on Intel-based Macs, explore best practices for choosing and using the latest APIs, and learn how to make the most of the technologies and services built into Mac OS X."

For more Mac and Apple news, head over to MacMinute.

MacMinute: Apple announces dates for WWDC

Apple: WWDC 2006

Red Marble Games has released Loonyland 2.0, a Zelda-type game.

It is 1811, and Loony Lunatic is just a young boy, exploring the wilderness of Bulgaria. This is the tale of his first adventure, a trip to a little known land called Halloween Hill, where he learns of a great evil and with his trusty slingshot and whoopee cushions and a potted cactus or two... sets out to put a stop to it.

Explore this Zelda-type action/adventure, solving quests and battling the minions of evil. Can you find out what is unleashing all these monsters on Halloween Hill and put a stop to it?

Features:

• Battle over 60 different monsters!
• Explore over 50 different areas!
• Find, earn, and unlock over 30 secrets!!
• Wield 7 Special Weapons to help you overcome 10 huge (no, really, they're very large) boss monsters!
• Unlock 5 wild new game modes!

MGF:Loonyland 2.0

Barefeats has posted the latest benchmarks of the new Apple MacBook Pro. What is unique to this review is that Barefeats also was able to use a Powerbook G4 that has been upgraded to 2 GHz, which provides an interesting comparison.

Doom 3 and Unreal Tournament 2004 were used in the 3D tests in which the MacBook Pro faired well, but was beaten by the iMac CD.

The final results show that Universal Binary applications run extremely well on the new MacBook Pros and far better than the previous generation of Powerbook G4s.

See the full range of tests on Barefeats using the link below.

Barefeats:MacBook Pro benchmarks

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Pangea updated Enigmo 2 to version 1.0.2 to fix a problem when cancelling the 'Save Game' dialog.

Enigmo 2 is a 3D puzzle game where the player constructs mechanisms to direct flowing water, plasma and laser beams so that they can reach their final destination. Along the way, the player must toggle switches, deactivate force-fields, use magneto-spheres to attract charged particles, and perform many other feats of Newtonian physics.

You can download the update from Macgamefiles.com.

Pangea: Enigmo 2 1.0.2 update

IMG: Enigmo 2 First Look

Pangea Software

Enigmo 2

Buy Enigmo 2

Our buy three games promotion has been so popular with customers, we've decided to update it once again. 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. We then updated the offer to include Homeworld 2 back in September. Today we're updating the promotion again, replacing Homeworld 2 with Railroad Tycoon 3!

Buy any 3 games from Macgamestore.com, and get Aspyr's Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy or MacSoft's Railroad Tycoon 3 for free. Use coupon code "jedi" for Jedi Academy or "railroad" for Railroad Tycoon 3.

Shoppers will need to add three games plus their free game choice to their cart, then apply the coupon code or else your order will not be processed. If you want to get Jedi Academy or Railroad Tycoon 3 for free, you'll need to also add that item to your cart.

Macgamestore.com

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Macworld's Game Room recently posted a review of Kutoka Interactive's Creatures Village. Targetted at younger gamers, the game allows players to care for virtual pets called Norns. Teaching and caring for the virtual pets and their eventual offspring is the main focus of this non linear title. The Game Room gave Creatures Village 3 out of 5 mice.

From the review:

The game includes different environments, each with a myriad of 3-D objects that your Norn can interact with. For example, the game room offers a basketball hoop and ball, while the village features domestic animals. By successfully completing certain activities, you’ll win new toys or costumes for your Norns.

The game also features some realistic aspects of the life cycle of a pet. Two Norns can reproduce if they like each other (don’t worry—it’s all very chaste. A simple kiss is all Norns need to mate). The female Norn then lays an egg, producing a new Norn that combines the genetic traits of its parent. You’re then responsible for training that one, too. Norns also grow old and die, ultimately ending up in a graveyard for Norns that have passed on to the big village in the sky.

Macworld Game Room: Creatures Village Reviewed

Buy Creatures: Village

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Chinese players of Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft are threatening to boycott the game en masse if The9 Limited, the Chinese company responsible for operating WoW's servers, doesn't improve service. The call for boycott arose after user reports of delays longer than an hour when logging into the game and complete server outages, one of which disrupted the endgame of a large raid involving nearly 1,000 players.

The9, a Chinese MMORPG publisher, is charged with maintenance and operation of the game due to Blizzard's lack of a presence in China, but is hamstrung by having to rely on Blizzard to resolve technical issues. The game is a major part of the company's revenue, which increased 24 times to $25.3 million USD in the Q4 2005. Some users charge that the company is deliberately providing slow service, since The9 charges by the hour rather than the month, and billing begins once the user enters his or her login data.

Regarding the problems, the9 public relations assistant manager Zhang Heng said "We should first collect relevant data and evidence, and will work together with Blizzard to look into this accident and evaluate the loss," in a statement to Interfax. "We will provide compensation to those players involved based on the result of the investigation."

Gamasutra: Chinese WoW Boycott

Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft

Buy World of Warcraft

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Another preview of the upcoming Heroes of Might and Magic V has been released. Based on the PC beta, Primotech's preview details what the author sees as the current strengths and weaknesses of the turn based fantasy war game. The preview concludes with a list of "Necessary Improvements" before the game ships, including the need for a comprehensive tutorial.

I feel like even a 300 page color illustrated manual would merely scratch the surface of all of the options and strategies available. Just to give you an example, in addition to the standard gold and lumber, there are at least five other resources that are required. But don’t worry if you are missing one resource, since you can build a marketplace, complete with a Wall Street-like resource exchange system. Although, you probably need a degree in finance just to trade gold for ore. The game desperately needs a comprehensive tutorial, or it will alienate anyone who has not played the previous HOMM games.

To check out the preview click on the following link.

Primotech: HoMM V Preview

Freeverse

Ubisoft

Heroes of Might & Magic V

Buy Heroes of Might & Magic V

The third installment of MMORPG.com's Outside The Box editorial addresses the issue of permanent character death in massively multiplayer online games. While the author acknowledges "permadeath" wouldn't mesh well with current online games, he goes on to examine the possibility of introducing some form of permanent death in future titles to add variety to MMOs. A collection of potential uses of permadeath are explored including inheritance of items and stats by future characters.

As for attributes and skills, perhaps the subsequent character would only gain an aptitude for those that the former character had developed to high ranks, so that Son of Super Warrior gains strength a bit faster than he normally would because of his lineage. Maybe an heir has a talent for a skill in which the former character had reached high ranks, so that he not only advances faster, but tops out 5-10% higher than usual. If this bonus was cumulative, one could imagine people playing entire lineages of characters, each time producing an heir with a bit more potential. Suddenly there’s a bit of persistence to a permadeath system, and it’s not as bad, is it? You might play for six months and then voluntarily retire your character so you can start over with an heir to achieve even higher skills, but the second character dies in a castle siege after only one month. Never fear, for the family line lives on in a third heir with distant bonuses from the grandfather and somewhat fewer bonuses from the father.

MMORPG.com: Permadeath in MMORPGs

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Feral Interactive released a 1.0.1 patch to fix a few issues in Worms 3D. Worms 3D is a turn based strategy game renowned for the wide variety of weapons and humour.

What's new in this version:

• Fixed - Network game random landscapes sync issue
• Fixed - LAN games require Internet connection
• Fixed - Crash playing movies
• Fixed - Turn-End Validation Error

Feral: Worms 3D 1.0.1 Update

Feral Interactive

Feral Interactive

Worms 3D

Buy Worms 3D

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