Aspyr Media's October newsletter features information about the company's recent website redesign as well news about the latest patches and upcoming releases.

Development of The Sims 2: Pets is complete and the game will soon be available to eager players. The expansion's quick move to the Mac is an example of Aspyr's commitment to release Mac versions of popular PC games as soon as possible.

Aspyr Studios recently wrapped up development of Sims 2 Pets for Mac, the latest Sims 2 expansion. Because of our familiarity with the Sims 2 code and close relationship with Electronic Arts and Maxis, we are proud to be able to ship the Mac version of Sims 2 within a couple weeks of the PC. It's been a focus for us over the past year to strive to ship our Mac games closer to the PC versions, and for all the Sims 2 Mac players out there, get ready- you'll be able to add pets to your Sims 2 family at the same time as your friends with PCs.

Work on this addition to the Civ IV franchise is also finishing up, it's a great expansion for what has been our best selling Mac game of 2006, Civilization IV. Warlords adds new scenarios, new civilizations and more to the game. We've also spent the time while working on Warlords to continue to polish the Civ IV Mac base game, and are working on future updates that will add optimizations to Civ IV.

Aspyr October Newsletter

Aspyr Media

Civilization IV: Warlords

Buy The Sims 2: Pets

Buy Civilization IV: Warlords

Masque Publishing's Cards, Mahjongg & Solitaire is now available for purchase through Macgamestore.com for $24.95. This Universal Binary game includes three all-time favorites. Enjoy hours of fun playing the best Card, Solitaire and Mahjongg games of all time. These games are great for kids, teens and adults. You'll find the quality of Masque games to be better than what you currently have!

For more information on Cards, Mahjongg & Solitaire, follow the link below.

Macgamestore: Cards, Mahjongg & Solitaire

Click to enlarge

Inside Mac Games has posted an article called iMod: Civilization IV. If you've played through Civilization IV and are looking for some more mods to play with, then you'll want to check out this article.

Here's a clip:

As if Civilization IV’s “one more turn” gameplay wasn’t enough to hook you, Fraxis built the game with limitless possibilities in mind. The game is the most moddable Civ IV ever, and there is a limitless array of mods already available, with effects ranging from simple graphics upgrades to completely redesigned worlds and rulesets. Are you ready to get addicted all over again?

iMod: Civilization IV

Aspyr Media

Civilization IV

Buy Civilization IV

The Torque Engine, created by GarageGames, which has been used in popular games such as Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa, Tube Twist, and Marble Blast, to name a few, has been updated to version 1.5. According to GarageGames, version 1.5 includes some big Macintosh specific updates that are newsworthy. They include the following:

• The Mac platform code has been almost totally rewritten. Much of the code now uses standard POSIX interfaces where they exist. The platform attempts to maintain support for versions 10.2 - 10.4(Universal) of Mac OS X.
• Event handling and windowing code is much, much cleaner.
• Code that uses deprecated APIs have been removed.
• Many niceties have been added to try to make Torque more Mac-like.
• The Mac platform is multithreaded, to take advantage of multiple processor hardware, including multiple core intel hardware.
• Debugging is easier, as many randomly placed globals have been snipped or reorganized into platState.
• Wide screen displays supported, and window resizing are supported.

GarageGames: Torque Game Engine

Planewalker Games has started a poll on the Inside Mac Games forums, looking for input from IMG readers. JCompton asks

We're interested to know how many Mac gamers either already have X11 installed on their gaming machine of choice, or would be willing to do so as a prerequisite for a new game.

Inside Mac Games Forum Poll

Apple X11 Home Page

Planeswalker Games

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Good news for Sims fans with musical talent. EARS and Nettwerk have announced a Sims Soundtrack Remix contest. Participants can submit their own remix for the chance to be the one lucky winner whose track will be included on the new Sims Soundtrack. To get the remixing started several downloadable MP3s featuring drums, piano, bass, xylo, and strings are provided on the contest website.

Here's a rundown of what you need to enter:

1. Download the mp3's
2. Transfer to your favorite audio software (we suggest: garageband. not on a mac? you can try finding a similar program at www.download.com)
3. Follow their directions for manipulating the song parts
4. GO NUTS!

To be Eligible:

1. Send your remix to Simspace@nettwerk.com with the subject heading "Sims Soundtrack Contest"

2. Include your full name, e-mail, and phone number so we can get in touch with you if you win

3. Contest deadline is: November 30, 2006

The Sims 2: Remix & Win Contest

Sims Soundtrack Myspace Page

Maxis

Aspyr Media

The Sims 2

Buy The Sims 2

Click to enlarge

RPG Vault has posted a new interview with Planewalker Games' producer Jason Compton about the company's upcoming RPG, The Broken Hourglass. Designed in the style of games like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, the 2D isometric viewpoint RPG will focus on delivering a classic party based adventure experience. The interview delivers an in-depth examination of the game including information about the setting, storyline, character development system, and design philosophy.

Jonric: How extensive a skill system are you implementing in The Broken Hourglass, and what effect will it have in terms of the potential for long-tern character differentiation?

Jason Compton: There are three dozen different skills, ranging from weapon proficiencies to tactical traits and diplomatic abilities. I believe players will find intriguing our slate of social and exploration skills, which allow you to directly tweak aspects such as diplomacy and haggling (which affects store prices in an automatic skill-contest with store owners - we do not make you play "guess the optimal price" input games). Exploration skills let you affect movement speed, comfortable carrying capacity, trap-finding and lock-picking abilities, and so forth.

We also offer as skills the concept of tactics and facing. Tactics provides a group offensive bonus - the better you know the art of war, the better you can communicate effective tactical decisions to your party. Facing, on the other hand, is a defensive ability that offsets the penalty you take when trying to defend against multiple antagonists.

Each skill is very unique - most of the secondary skills inherit a small bonus from a connected primary statistic, but beyond that, they operate on their own, so it is very easy to use skill-buying to construct very different types of characters, from stealthy mechanical experts to brute-force, bare-knuckle fighters.

There are also a wide variety of character traits on offer, both positive and negative. So really, character creation and development can vary wildly from one player to the next, or from one character in the game to the next.

RPG Vault: The Broken Hourglass Interview

The Broken Hourglass

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IMG's own desktop guru, Brad Custer, has updated his section at IMG today with a great new desktop of Vanbrio's recently released game, Bone: Out from Boneville.

Here's an excerpt from Brad's update with more on the game itself:

With the news that Bone: Out from Boneville from Vanbrio Entertainment is now available for purchase it seems a few of the comic fans have come out of hiding with a request or two for a desktop to honor this game. As always, I enjoy meeting your eye candy needs especially when it's for a game based on one of my favorite comic title of all times. I was able to make this wallpaper with the help of Telltale Games.

IMG Desktop: Bone

Bone Act 1: Out from Boneville

Vanbrio Entertainment

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