Feral Interactive has released the Mac version of the fast-paced action adventure title LEGO Batman: The Videogame. Developed by TT Games, the game brings the world of DC Comics’ Caped Crusader to life in the form of LEGO blocks. Players can explore an interactive LEGO Gotham City as Batman and Robin, capturing infamous villains, and even taking control of the villains themselves.

LEGO® BATMAN™: The Videogame features a completely original storyline, encompassing the lighthearted charm of LEGO minifigures and the multifaceted lore of Gotham City. The story unfolds with Batman’s greatest foes escaping from Arkham Asylum and creating mayhem throughout Gotham City. Tracking criminals, including The Joker and The Penguin, players will utilize Batman’s gadgets as well as build and operate fantastic vehicles.
"LEGO BATMAN is a brilliantly realized game, an instant classic that we are sure will have a very warm reception on the Mac” said Feral Interactive’s David Stephen.
“We are thrilled with the playability and quality of the LEGO BATMAN game when it was released on other platforms, and we are delighted to be working with Feral again to bring it to life on the Mac,” said Garry Edwards, Business Development Director of TT Games.

• 1.8GHz Intel Mac only
• 512MB RAM
• 128MB graphics card
• DVD drive
• Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later.
• This game runs on all Macs with Intel processors including all Intel-based Mac minis and MacBook models.

It's sad but true that not everybody enjoys every game, but being generous bunnies we want everyone to have a demo this Easter.

Answer? 5 new demos!

We've added new demos for fans of action, strategy, simulation and racing. And for the racing fans, an extra treat – there's now a brand new demo of ToCA Race Driver 3 with multiplayer support, so you can race your friends over the Internet on GameRanger.

Feral Interactive

LEGO Batman

Feral Interactive Demo Downloads

Buy LEGO Batman

Nostalgic Software, creator of SteamTRAIN, has posted a second beta version of Flyghty, the company's new simple 2D flight simulator. The sim allows players to practice take offs, cruising, inversion, loops, stall recovery, dives, and landings.

Practice take offs, cruising, inversion, loops, stall recovery and dives. Landings offer particular challenges with no-flaps, stuck elevator, dead engine plus various head and tail winds. Control via keyboard, mouse or track pad. Choose between native versions for Intel Macs or PowerPC Macs.

Nostalgic Software

iDevGames recently posted a postmortem article examining work on Andy Korth's Reclaimed, an entry in the UDevGames 2008 competition. In the article the developer discusses the design of the game and what went right and wrong with the title's development.

Reclaimed is an multiplayer online roleplaying game which focuses on building and player interaction rather than combat. The sandbox style game gives players the chance to chat with friends, build buildings, tunnel into mountains, and kill the local wildlife.

The initial plan for Reclaimed was fairly ambitious. Since I was an army of one, I knew I had to limit the scope of the project carefully. The goal from my original design document stated that Reclaim would “create a basic persistent multi-player online top-down tile-based game.” All that, and have it at least moderately fun to play while falling into uDevGames’ three month development time limit.

For a handful of gamers, the design document’s goal was achieved. In fact, one gamer played 41 hours, and there were at least six that played for about 13 hours. On the other hand, of the 171 people who logged in, a lot of them didn’t spend more than a minute or two online. This includes a number of my contest peers — one notably spending only 95 seconds in game! It seems that while some players enjoyed Reclaimed, others definitely did not play long enough to receive a good sense of the game. The real question is why?

Overall, my inspriation for Reclaimed was based on Dwarf Fortress, A Tale in the Desert, and various MUDs(Multi-User Dungeon). I think Reclaimed has the same sort of feel or ‘je ne sais quoi’ you’d get from these games. I maintained a focus around invention, construction, and creativity in a sandbox environment.

iDevGames: Reclaimed Postmortem

Reclaimed

iDevGames

Freeverse has announced the release of BumperCar 2.2, the latest version of the child friendly web browser. 2.2 includes the latest version of Apple's WebKit engine and Flash 10 integration, as well as site filtering, profanity blockage, white and black listing capabilities, and time limit options.

Having to explain gesticulate to your precocious child? Easy. Having to explain the other adult-themed sonic cousin of that word? Not so easy. Avoiding such unfortunate occurrences is one of the many reasons Freeverse is proud to announce the release of the acclaimed BumperCar 2.2!

The newest release of the kid-centric Mac OS X web browser introduces the latest version of Apple's WebKit engine for enhanced performance and increased security. And what about the stuff you do want your kids to explore? Have them experience it in a now larger viewing window. And with seamless integration of Flash 10, everything that is meant to be seen will be seen in flawless form.

These new features, in addition to the award-winning site filtering, profanity blockage, white- and black-listing capabilities and time limit options create the safest web browsing tool available for your Mac. With the fun and supportive kid-friendly interface, it fulfills your child's number one priorities as well. So let them explore, and rest assured those words that rhyme with their more salacious counterparts won't come up at the dinner table.

BumperCar 2.2

Freeverse

Virtual Programming has announced two new titles on the way for Mac owners in 2009. The first new game, Hearts of Iron 3, is the third installment in the World War II strategy series and will include a large new map and more than 10,000 provinces. The second game is The Elven Legacy, a fantasy strategy game featuring more than 100 units, five heroes, five playable factions, multiplayer combat, multiple game endings, and a game editor for players who want to create their own missions.

Hearts of Iron 3:

The next Grand Strategy title to be released from the Paradox Interactive development team is the third instalment in the critically acclaimed Hearts of Iron series. The Hearts of Iron series has become renowned for being the biggest, most detailed and complete strategic game series on World War 2 ever made. Hearts of Iron 3 will follow that tradition closely while focusing on satisfying veteran players through a multitude of brand new features and systems, including a huge map with more than 10,000 provinces.

The shadows of destruction begin to loom on the horizon once a human mage uncovers a dark and powerful secret dating back to the remote past of the Elven race. However, the Elves cannot allow this forbidden knowledge to fall into the hands of others and thus imperil the world. For the first time in countless years, this ancient race must venture forth and interfere with events transpiring in the lands of man. With the renegade mage in their sights, the sorceress Gilwen and ranger-lord Seagate set off together, unaware that beliefs and friendships alike will soon be tested…

Elven Legacy delivers a world filled with magic and a thrilling storyline with multiple endings. Through an epic quest to restore the former glory of the Elven race, this fantasy strategy game offers both depth and scope, all in colourful and inspirational settings. With the accompanying tools, players can also create their own missions and campaigns, and share them through multiplayer.

Features:
•More than 100 various units in nine arms and five powerful heroes
•Five playable factions, available for multiplayer combat in 16 scenarios
•Various game endings which depend on the player’s choices
•Powerful built-in game editor

The Elven Legacy

Virtual Programming

Click to enlarge

NCsoft has announced the launch of the Mission Architect system in its comic-book inspired MMO, City of Heroes. Free to current PC and Macintosh subscribers, the release of Issue 14: Architect gives players the power to create and share their own custom missions and story arcs, thus generating a growing amount of user-generated content for the City of Heroes community.

In addition to allowing players to create their own missions using thousands of existing assets from the game, players may also use the Mission Architect system to personalise their stories by building their own characters and enemy groups using City of Heroes’ Character Creator system. Players will be able to publish up to three story arcs per account which will be displayed to all players across all servers in the Mission Architect system. Each user-created story can have up to five missions containing up to twenty-five individual objectives. Players will even be able to write custom dialogue for their missions, offering true flexibility in dynamic story telling.

“We are very excited for City of Heroes to be the first-ever MMO to offer this revolutionary new system to our players,” said Brian Clayton, general manager and executive producer of the franchise. “Within two weeks of opening the beta version of Mission Architect to our community, players published an astounding 5,000 custom stories, representing up to 25,000 user-created missions. Such a steady in-flux of fresh content offers the capacity for endless adventures to City of Heroes subscribers."

Not only will players be able to share and search the content they upload to the game, but the Mission Architect system allows players to play and rate each other’s story arcs as well. The highest rated missions will be prominently displayed earning those players in-game rewards for creating excellent content. Additionally, the best of these submitted story arcs will be hand-chosen by the City of Heroes development team and deemed as “Dev Choice” missions. Receiving either of these prestigious designations will reward the author with an additional slot to create even more quality custom stories.

NCsoft

TransGaming

City of Heroes

Buy City of Heroes

Ambrosia Software, has announced the simultaneous release of WireTap Studio 1.0.10, WireTap Anywhere 1.0.3, and Snapz Pro X 2.1.4. These updates prepare Ambrosia's productivity tools for the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5.7, as well as improve compatibility with Apple’s latest hardware.

These applications share a common framework, which required an update to maintain compatibility with Apple’s most recent hardware and upcoming Mac OS X update, 10.5.7.

-- Updated WireTap Studio to the latest version of LAME (3.98-2)
-- Updated AmbrosiaAudioSupport library to improve compatibility with new Apple hardware and Mac OS X 10.5.7
-- Snapz Pro X now offers improved reliability and flexibility when saving and converting video files

WireTap Studio

WireTap Anywhere

Snapz Pro X

Ambrosia Software

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