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Runesoft, in cooperation with Epyx Deutschland, has announced the release of Winter Games for Macs. The classic remake includes both modern and retro looks as well as the chance to play against the computer or up to 3 friends in 10 different olympic events.

"Winter Games" offers a modern look as well as a classic retro look of the 80ies. Play alone against the computer or with up to three friends in multiplayer. You may pick between countries, starters, difficulty levels and the controls are freely configurable for each player, it doesn’t matter if you prefer to play with keyboard, with mouse, joystick or a gamepad.
Get into your snow boots, grab a joystick and break all records and go for gold!

Features:

• 10 different kinds of sports
  
• Play against the computer or against friends
  
• Single and team competitions
  
• Retro or modern visuals
  
• Adjustable controls with up to 4 players at one Mac

System Requirements:

• MacOS 10.5.8
  
• PPC/Intel CPU at 1.5 GHz
  
• 256 MB RAM
  
• ATI Radeon9600/NVidea7300/Intel GMA950 or better

Runesoft

Winter Games

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Macgamestore.com has announced the release of Jewel Quest 4: Heritage for the Macintosh. Developed and published by iWin, the game is the fourth in the popular match-3 series. Players solve over 175 Jewel Quest Heritage boards and one puzzling family mystery on a quest through Europe's ancient hot spots.

Hit the trail with Rupert on a journey through the shrines and castles of Hernan Cortes' lore. Swap jewels and collect puzzle pieces to unravel a perplexing web of Jewel Quest family history. With over 175 new Jewel Quest Heritage boards, including 3 jewel-swapping modes, new surprises await in every level.

Features:

• 35 stunning around-the-world scenes
• Over 175 unique Jewel Quest boards, each with its own challenges
• 3 modes of play in Jewel Quest Heritage
• Puzzle pieces and a family tree, with new portraits unlocked as you progress
• The suspense and intrigue Jewel Quest fans have come to expect
• Double the gameplay with an all new Expert Mode, unlocked after the mystery is solved

Jewel Quest 4: Heritage

Buy Jewel Quest 4: Heritage

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Critical Gamer recently published a new preview of Two Worlds II, the upcoming fantasy RPG from TopWare Interactive and Reality Pump. The game will send players to the unexplored land of Eastern Antaloor and will feature detailed graphics, an active combat system, and a complex storyline.

Two Worlds II wouldn’t be much of an RPG without the storytelling to back up all the combat and customisation. This was a major issue in the original game – it languished in stiff, awkward dialogue and cutscenes. But both Seaman and Kobylinski assured me that this was one of the major things they are addressing. “We just finished our first round of voice-over in Toronto last week and we’re in the process of implementing that, lip-synching and everything like that.”

TopWare has also completely reworked how conversations are presented. “In a lot of classic, open-world RPGs you enter a conversation and it becomes the camera flip thing,” Kobylinski explains. “It’s this exercise where he says this, he says that, he says this. And while it reads very well in a lot of these games, we wanted to do something a little more unique in this game, a little more flavourful. So what we did was actually allow the player to move around within the conversation environment, pan the camera, pull the camera forward and back to make the characters themselves pop.” The closest comparison would be the original Assassin’s Creed, where players could wander around the room throughout the conversation. “It makes it feel more like the conversation is a natural part of the game world as opposed to being this separate mechanic,” he adds.

Further enforcing the emphasis on storytelling, Kobylinski showed us one of the game’s many collectible books. Typically only a handful of pages, books can sometimes be as long as 40 pages and feature story details that work their way back into the main game. “Some of [the books] will lead players to alternate quest-lines and conversations you may not have had the option of engaging in before.”

Critical Gamer: Two Worlds II Preview

Two Worlds II

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Worthplaying has posted a new collection of screenshots showcasing the upcoming The Sims 3: Ambitions expansion pack scheduled to launch in June 2010. The second expansion pack to The Sims 3 will allow players to pursue a variety of paths and careers in their Sims’ lives that in turn affect their overall gameplay experience and neighborhood. While on the job, the players will have direct control over their Sims’ work and can choose how to spend their days.

Opt to make house calls and save lives as a doctor or choose the devious route and test experimental medicine on patients; be the hero firefighter tackling raging infernos or smashing everything in sight at the victim’s home with an axe; or take a shot at solving cases as an investigator, nicely convincing sources to divulge secrets or roughing up perpetrators in a dark alley to get information.

Players can now experience some of the most exciting and varied jobs. In The Sims 3 Ambitions, players can choose to hunt down vengeful spirits as the ghost hunter, invent brilliant and potentially destructive gadgets as an inventor, craft glorious masterpieces as a sculptor, and solve riveting cases by any means necessary as an investigator with dozens of cases to solve and numerous clues to find. Additionally, players will be able to change the look and feel of their town by becoming an architect and directly affecting the neighbourhood around them leveraging Build and Buy mode. The stylist career and new tattoo system allow players to make over their Sim neighbours in fashionable or catastrophic ways. For the first time, players will be in charge of how their Sims’ career progresses and decide if they will work for good or evil, pursue creative endeavours or technical affairs, climb to the top quickly, or be a slacker. The future of a Sims’ success or failure is entirely in the hands of the player.

Worthplaying: Sims 3 Ambitions Screens

Electronic Arts

The Sims 3

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