Click to enlarge

TransGaming has announced the release of Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, the first expansion for Bioware's popular fantasy role playing game. In the add-on players take on the role of Grey Warden Commander as they rebuild the order, resolve conflicts with "The Architect", and decide the fate of the darkspawn. Awakenings features an expanded world, five new potential party members, and a range of new creatures to battle.

From the Makers of the 2009 RPG of the Year, Dragon Age: Origins, comes the first official expansion pack.

For centuries, the Grey Wardens - the ancient order of guardians, sworn to unite and defend the lands - have been battling the darkspawn forces. Legend spoke that slaying the Archdemon would have put an end to the darkspawn threat for centuries to come, but somehow they remain.

You are the Grey Warden Commander and have been entrusted with the duty of rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens and uncovering the secrets of the darkspawn and how they managed to remain.

How you choose to rebuild your order, how you resolve the conflict with "The Architect", and how you determine the fate of the darkspawn will be but some of the many complex choices that await and shape your journey as you venture to the new land of Amaranthine.

A Stunning World Expanded:
BioWare's deepest universe to date just got bigger with an all new area of the world to explore, Amaranthine
Unlock the secrets of the Darkspawn and their true motivations - Rebuild the Grey Warden order and establish their base of operations at Vigil's Keep

All-new Complex Moral Choices:
Embark on an epic story that is completely defined and reactive to your play style
Shape your entire experience based on the choices you make and how your handle complex situations

New Ways to Customize your Hero:
Experience additional spells, abilities, specializations, and items to further personalize and customize your hero and party
Import your character from Dragon Age: Origins or start anew as a Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais
Encounter five all-new party members and an old favorite from Dragon Age: Origins

Even more Bone-Crushing, Visceral Combat:
Battle against a new range of horrific and terrifying creatures
Put your skills to the test against an evolved, intelligent breed of Darkspawn and other menacing creatures including the Inferno Golem and Spectral Dragon!

Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
  
• 2GB RAM
  
• 3.5GB HD
  
• ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 or higher. This game will NOT run on the Intel GMA (950 or X3100) class of integrated video cards.
  
• Keyboard and mouse
  
• requires Dragon Age: Origins Standard Edition (Mac) or Dragon Age: Origins Deluxe Edition (Mac)

TransGaming

Dragon Age: Awakening

Click to enlarge

Inside Mac Games has posted a new review of Toy Story 3. The title allows players to take control of Woody, Buzz, and Jessie as they experience adventures from the film and also enjoy the "open-world" gameplay of toybox mode.

Here's an excerpt from the review:

The free roaming section of the game is almost certainly the better half of the game. Whilst a great deal of time is spent performing fairly repetitive and meaningless tasks, like hunting out outfits for the ‘townspeople’ or even for their buildings, there are some really good bits, like the hot-wheels inspired car levels or the way you can ride around on Bullseye to survey your land. It is effectively a toy version of Grand Theft Auto – you perform missions to earn cash, use cash to buy new toys and use the new toys to get more missions. For children it hints at what a Toy Story game should be – it is a chance to roam about doing whatever you like, dressing up aliens as barbers and then kicking them across the map, throwing around paratroopers, climbing up stuff and jumping off and so on.

IMG Reviews Toy Story 3

TransGaming

Toy Story 3

Click to enlarge

In a post on the official forums Blizzard Entertainment has announced it will soon no longer support the PowerPC processor in its popular MMO, World of Warcraft. The change will occur in an upcoming patch scheduled for release before the debut of the Cataclysm expansion.

Shortly before the release of Cataclysm a patch will be released in which PowerPC processor based Macs will no longer be supported. This update indicates the removal of PowerPC support from World of Warcraft. Attempting to run the game after the update will bring up a message stating the hardware is no longer supported, and the game will not run.

Blizzard Forums: PPC Support Dropped

Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft

Buy World of Warcraft

Click to enlarge

Basilisk Games, developer of the Eschalon old school RPG series, has announced the end of support for PowerPC Macs. Version 1.05 of Book I, and version 1.04 of Book II will be the last Universal Binary releases of the games. The change will mean that PPC users will not have access to the upcoming free Eschalon: Book II expansion.

Supporting a discontinued piece of hardware is difficult.

Earlier we posted a question regarding whether or not we should continue to support the PowerPC Macintosh platform, and the overwhelming response from our customers so far has been that it is now okay to discontinue this support. Two years ago we asked the same question and the response was far different.

We asked this question because while we want to cater to as many platforms as possible, it is becoming impossible to compile our games on the PowerPC Mac due to lack of support from other software providers. Technology marches on and the sun has set on the Macintosh PowerPC architecture, at least for us.

And so, it is with no great sadness we officially drop PowerPC Mactinosh support from all future games, including future versions of Book I and Book II. Versions 1.05 of Book I and 1.04 of Book II will be the last that contain a Universal Binary application.

If you are one of the few Mac gamers who will be negatively affected by this decision, we sincerely apologize. And to the PowerPC processor that made the Mac what it is today, we salute you!

Basilisk: Farewell, PowerPC Macs

Basilisk Games

Eschalon: Book I

Eschalon: Book II

Buy Eschalon: Book I

Buy Eschalon: Book II

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.