Apple has today unveiled the second half of their portable line of Intel-based computers, the 13" MacBook. Sporting either white or black casings, the MacBook features a 13" screen with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels and either a 1.83 or 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo processor.

The MacBook seems to be a replacement for both the previous iBook line of computers as well as the 12" PowerBooks. Prices for a MacBook start at $1,100 for the base model and go up to $1,500 for a black case with 2.0GHz CPUs and SuperDrive.

Many of the same features of the higher-end MacBook Pro are included on the MacBook like the iSight camera, wireless connectivity, and the ability to span a secondary display. Unfortunately for gamers, it appears to share the graphics chipset with its Mac Mini brethren, a Intel GMA 950 chipset with a shared 64MB of RAM.

For much more information, head over to the Apple site now.

MacBook (13-inch)

Toybox Games has released the company's latest Mac game, Teddy Factory. Try your skills in the exciting new game play of Teddy Factory. In this cut throat Toy industry it's a wild mix of matching and precision aiming, all with the drive of constant orders, and Oh those demanding customers. How far can you climb the Corp ladder at the local Teddy Factory? Will you get that promotion? Try it out!

Features:

• 45 Twisting levels
• Survival Mode
• Quest mode
• 3 Difficulty Levels
• Collect Unique Prizes
• Full and Windowed mode

Teddy Factory is available at Macgamestore.com for $19.99 as a digital download. A free demo version of the game is available at the web page.

Macgamestore: Teddy Factory

If you fancy solitaire games, you'll want to check out IMG's review of Solavant, created by Smallware. Here's a clip from the review:

Solavant may not have the flashiest graphics around, but when you get past that, you will find a solitaire game for the true solitaire purist. This game is hard. And when I mean hard, I don't mean "sit down a win a game occasionally" hard. I mean "I've played 20 games and haven't won one yet" hard. Let's put it this way. Solavant organizes its solitaire variants with "Hard," "Harder," and "Hardest" categories. If that hasn't scared you away yet, then continue with me into the heart of a true solitaire game.

IMG Review: Solavant

Click to enlarge

Shane Neville recently interviewed Sillysoft's Dustin Sacks about American History Lux, the latest incarnation of the popular Risk style strategy game. The interview reveals Lux's history and delves into the elements which have made it a popular multiplayer title.

What did you do to build and grow the Sillysoft community? How do you promote your games?

I’ve been an active participant in the Sillysoft forums since I started them, and they’ve grown pretty consistently since then. The creation of the online rankings was a big point in bringing community members in to stay.

Word of mouth has played a big role in generating steady organic growth for Sillysoft. Lux was originally released only for Mac OS X, and it permeated through the applesphere and shareware networks. Google is also responsible for sending a serious amount of people our way.

American History Lux was designed to also be distributed through various casual games portals, and other 3rd party affiliate websites.

Shaneville.com: American History Lux Interview

Sillysoft

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Gaming Illustrated has posted a new review of the PC version of The Movies, the movie mogul sim from Lionhead Studios. The game allows players to take the helm of a studio and attempt to steer a course toward success. Gaming Illustrated gave The Movies a score of 90 percent.

From the review:

I've never played a sim game like this, and doubt I ever will again. The amount of detail, the deep level of play, the amazing amount of controls, and all the fun stuff to experience is something that no sim game has ever dug this deep for. This is the type of game we'll look back on in 5 years and realize just how great it was compared to anything that had been released up to this point. Tremendous originality for a genre that sorely needed it.

Clearly, The Movies is a big winner in our book and a great PC game that everyone in the entire family can enjoy and get a lot of entertainment out of. The level of detail that was given to the title is absolutely stunning, and overall made for a great gameplay experience. If there's a downside to the game, is that sometimes the game gets SO big that managing the studio seems like an impossible task (this happens around that 40 to 50 year mark). Too many stars to deal with, too many lot issues ... it'll sometimes drive you right up the wall and teach you amazing mouse dexterity (since you constantly have to click around at a second's notice). It's not a horrible experience, but one that I am sure some gamers will be turned off by. Nevertheless, there's so much that is good about the game, it's hard to pass up and comes highly recommended for purchase for PC gamers, movie buffs, and people that have always dreamed of making their own movies.

Gaming Illustrated: The Movies Review

Feral Interactive

The Movies

Buy The Movies

MacWorld has benchmarked Apple's new 17" MacBook Pro with the full review coming shortly. In this preliminary benchmark the only game that was used was Unreal Tournament 2004 and interestingly enough, the 17" MacBook Pro has the best results.

One application producing interesting results was Unreal Tournament, with the 17-inch laptop beating out all of the other models shown in the chart. It even managed to squeeze out 5.5 more frames per second than the 15-inch model, even though they have the same graphics processor and video memory configuration. We’ll run a few more game tests on these systems and see if the 17-inch MacBook Pro maintains its advantage across other applications.

MacWorld: Benchmarks: 17-inch MacBook Pro

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