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Today IMG posted a review of Atomic Cannon by Isotope 244. Atomic Cannon puts a new spin on the classic formulas of Artillery and Worms by taking it one step further, with over 85 wepons and impressive graphical effects. From the IMG review:

While it may not be re-inventing the artillery genre, Atomic Cannon does give it a nice face lift, both graphically and in options. The vast amount of weapons available are both impressive and daunting, and it will keep you entertained for quite a while. I can definitely recommend checking this one out.

IMG Review: Atomic Cannon

Isotope 244

Atomic Cannon

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PlayFirst's Plantasia is now available at Macgamestore.com for $19.95. A free demo of the game is available on the web site. From the creators of Diner Dash comes Plantasia, a game of gardening delight. Enter your luscious gardens, where magical flowers and a fairy-in-training are waiting to show you the way. Plant seeds, harvest flowers, restore fountains, and watch as your gardens bloom. But beware! Weeds, rocks, insects and the clock are all waiting to make your game a fun-filled challenge.

Plantasia dreams up plants and flowers not seen since Alice fell down the rabbit hole. Restore one fantastical garden after the next, choose your flowers and gardening spells wisely, and discover how a fairy wish unfolds.

Features:
• 50 levels of lush gardening goodness
• Over 35 types of plants, each with different vibrant blooms
• 5 gardens, including Rose and Moon
• Multiple emotional states for each plant, from sad to joyous
• 2 modes: Holly’s Story or Garden Challenge
• Easier than your garden at home – no green thumb required!

To check out Plantasia, please follow the link below.

Plantasia

Buy Plantasia

Varied reactions have been popping up all over the net since the news of the merger between graphics chip maker ATI and processor developer AMD. Of particular note is an interview conducted by Firing Squad, which gets some reaction quotes from Derek Perez, Director of Public Relations for rival GPU maker nVidia.

Interestingly enough, Perez notes that nVidia sees the merger as a victory, touting nVidia as being the sole GPU maker to support both AMD and Intel chipsets. He even goes so far as to add that "ATI's thrown in the towel."

We look at today's news as a positive for the company and there’s a couple of reasons why. Ultimately this leaves us as the only GPU and platform company that will be able to support both AMD and Intel. That's huge. There’s no other GPU company, no other chipset company that’s going to come close to what we’re offering and that puts us in a really good position right off the bat. If you look at those two pieces of business, GPU and platform technology we’ve got four strong brands, SLI, GeForce, Quadro, and nForce which we’re all right now winning versus ATI everywhere across the board and I think you guys will agree with that.

Also contained in the interview are reactions from various developers, including Gearbox Software and Obsidian Entertainment. Reactions range from positive feedback regarding motherboards with powerful integrated GPUs to concern that the market may polarize into an ATI/AMD vs. Intel/nVidia battlefield.

Firing Squad - nVidia Response (AMD-ATI Acquisition Interview)

ATI

NVIDIA

Apple has announced the official release of their new wireless Mighty Mouse. The followup to the USB Mighty Mouse released last year, the wireless model adds Bluetooth 2.0 functionality to the device, allowing users to avoid cord clutter.

The wireless Mighty Mouse is a Bluetooth 2.0 based multi-button mouse that retains the simplicity of a single-button mouse, and can be used as a single- or multi-button mouse depending on the user’s preference. The wireless Mighty Mouse features a single seamless enclosure with programmable touch sensors that act as primary or secondary buttons. With a simple click on the upper right or left side of the mouse, users can instantly access features such as contextual menus found in Mac OS® X and other applications. The wireless Mighty Mouse’s two other buttons are activated by pressing its Scroll Ball and squeezing its sides, and can be easily programmed to give users one-click access to Mac OS X "Tiger" features such as Spotlight™, Dashboard and Exposé™, or to launch any application such as Safari™ or iChat.

Apple - Wireless Mighty Mouse

Apple

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Gamasutra had a chance to chat with former Wolfpack Studios developers on Shadowbane and on their newly formed Stray Bullet Games studio. They go back and examine Shadowbane's game cycle and expansion packs.

The decision to shutter Wolfpack Studios came as a surprise to most of those working there. When Ubisoft made the announcement on April 1 that the Austin, Texas-based developer of Shadowbane had six weeks of life left, community manager Sean Dahlberg said he wasn't sure right away if it was an April Fool's joke.

It wasn't. Just a month past Shadowbane's third birthday, and two years and change since Wolfpack's acquisition by Ubisoft in February 2004, the publisher had apparently decided to refocus on its console offerings. After a disappointing launch and two expansion packs, Shadowbane seemed like a low priority.

Gamasutra: Article

Ubisoft

Wolfpack Studios

Shadowbane

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In honor of Quake's recent tenth anniversary Quake Expo has posted an interview with legendary game designer John Romero. The in-depth Q&A delves into the game's past, discusses the impact of time and technology constraints on the final product, and finally examines the active modding community which has kept the game alive.

One interesting revelation in the interview is the difference between the original plan for Quake and the product eventually released under that name.

scar3crow: So would you call Quake an almagamation of ideas from different projects compressed into one title unduly brought about by the press and general community knowledge?

John Romero: Nope. Quake was one original idea that got changed 7 months before shipping to something totally different and the name remained because the world already knew what the game was called.

scar3crow: Only 7 months? Would you mind shedding some light on how it was changed so quickly? I know many people, including myself, had the impression that it went through varous stylistic changes, and believed that the texture set was evidence of such. Put that on top of the rumors one hears of it beginning as an RPG, to a hack and slash, up into a first person shooter, and one can construe many ideas as to what the designs were originally like.

John Romero: Originally the game was going to be much more like an adventure or experience - you traveled through a full 3D world with your massive hammer which increased in power as you defeated enemies, much like Link's sword in the Zelda series. That was the idea but there was never any game code to prove out the idea. So we reached a boiling point where some of the dev team was very worried that we wouldn't be able to release the game within a year after our first year of development and they started to freak out. We held a vote and the vote was to just slap in DOOM-style weapons and polish it off and get it out the door. So i rewrote the design, defined the weapons, level-order, etc and we just plowed through it and released it on June 22, 1996. We did have another texture set created for Aztec-style architecture but one of our level designers couldn't get any ideas or inspiration from it so we had to drop the entire texture set...

Quake Expo: John Romero On Quake's 10th Anniversary

id Software

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Blizzard Entertainment has released new screenshots of Blood Elf Paladins and Draenei Shamans, two new class and race combinations which will be available in The Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft's first expansion.

To check out the screenshots and learn more about the The Burning Crusade follow the links below.

Voodoo Extreme: WoW BC Screenshots

Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Buy World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

MacSoft has released a patch for Rise of Nations, fixing an issue between in-game sound and Quicktime 7.1.2.

Here's more from the read me:

In order to apply this update, it is best to be logged in as the user who originally installed the game.

If you're not logged in as the appropriate user, this updater will prompt you to enter an Administrator's user name and password. Should you receive an error during the updating process, your original software will remain unchanged. If necessary, quit this program now and re-log in as the appropriate user.

To perform the update, close this window and click the "Select Rise of Nations Gold" button. Then, navigate your way to your Rise of Nations Gold application file (usually found in the /Applications/Rise of Nations Gold/Game folder). Alternatively, you can just drag and drop your Rise of Nations Gold application file onto this updater.

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