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Inside Mac Games has posted a new review of ZUXXEZ Entertainment's 3SwitcheD. The game features classic puzzle action in addition to support for 3D-ETTM technology, which utilizes cameras found in most laptops, desktops, and smartphones to give players 3D perspective control by tracking their eye and head movements.

Here's an excerpt:

Gravity Switch is a lot like Clearing clusters, except in this version, you control “gravity”, that is the direction that the free tiles “fall” to when they are free to move. For instance, you clear a set of tiles, leaving spaces to the left and the right. If the remaining tiles fall to the left to fill the empty squares, you see this will create a set of four green tiles, but if the tiles fall to the right, you create a set of eight red tiles, for more points. Once you change gravity, it stays that direction until you change it again. You continue until there are no more possible sets of two or more. If you remove all the tiles from the board, you can move onto a bonus board and start again.

IMG Review: 3SwitcheD

3SwitcheD

Buy 3SwitcheD

RPG Codex recently posted a new interview with Subset Games's Justin Ma and Matthew Davis about FTL: Faster Than Light. Described as a "spaceship simulation roguelike-like," the game gives players the chance to engage in exploration and combat in the vastness of outer space.

What do you feel are the greatest strengths of the roguelike genre, and how do they come into play in FTL?

While the more typical ‘pure’ roguelike games are a lot of fun, what excites us most is when developers take elements of roguelikes and combine them with other established game archetypes. This interest began after being moderately obsessed with Spelunky.

We tried to pull our favorite aspects from the roguelike genre and put them into FTL. This can be seen in the randomly generated galaxy, the way unexpected loot influences your strategy, how permadeath dramatically increases tension, and an end-state that seems just out of reach.

With its streamlined interface, FTL seems to be developed with a more casual audience in mind compared to "hardcore" roguelikes. What will the game have to offer to a veteran roguelike player? How do you ensure that such a player finds enough variety and depth in the game's mechanics to warrant multiple replays?

As much as we love classic sims, we hate the burden of over-complicated UI. We value simple controls and ease of use, but we are still hardcore gamers at heart and FTL was designed specifically for players like us. The game truly shines when players are faced with managing power issues, environmental hazards, boarding parties, injured crew, and an enemy ship... all at once.

Our ultimate goal is to have an intense and difficult game where each failure can be traced back to a decision the player has made; making them want jump back in with their knowledge and strategy refined.

RPG Codex: FTL Interview

FTL: Faster Than Light

Nuclear Nova Software has announced the release of Nova Golf, a follow up to GL Golf. The game features realistic physics, 3D graphics, course locations from around the world, customizable characters, and a career mode.

Welcome to Nova Golf, the finest golfing game on the Mac! A followup to the award winning game GL Golf, Nova Golf is sure to keep you entertained and immersed for countless hours. Redesigned from the ground up, Nova Golf has everything both casual/hardcore gamers and frequent/weekend golfers could want.

Features Include:

• Realistic ball physics - Everyone will enjoy the simple realism while avid golfers will be able to shape every shot and watch the ball react to all surfaces and lies
  
• Stunning 3D graphics - Nova Golf adapts to each computer for the best image quality while always maintaining a smooth framerate
  
• Unique courses - Locations from around the world feature distinct styles of both play and appearance. You'll know if you're in the Pennsylvania forest, Arizona desert, or on the Scottish coastline
  
• Customizable characters - Level up five playing statistics while managing each avatar's wardrobe and physical appearance
  
• Career mode - Play as both an amateur and professional and progress by winning the required qualifiers and tournaments
  
• Purchase custom clubs and golf balls using both virtual currency earned in game and through In-App Purchase
  
• High replay value - No hole is the same when varying the white/blue/green tees, five pin locations, and three environmental difficulty settings
  
• Custom music made specifically for Nova Golf
  
• Best rounds list for each course/difficulty setting

System Requirements:

• Mac OS 10.6.8+
  
• CPU Speed - 2.2 GHz
  
• Memory - 2GB+
  
• Video Ram - 256MB

Recommended Requirements:

• Mac OS 10.7+
  
• CPU Speed - 2.5 GHz
  
• Memory - 4GB+
  
• Video Ram - 512MB

Notice: The following integrated video chipsets are not supported - Intel GMA 950 and Intel GMA X3100. These are found in the Mac Mini(2006, 2007), iMac(2006), Macbook(2006, 2007, 2008), and Macbook Air(2008). The following video chipsets may require lower graphics setting and/or may run slower than anticipated in certain circumstances - ATI Radeon X1600, NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT, NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT. Experiment with the settings screen to find the best quality/speed balance for your individual system.

Nova Golf

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S2 Games has unveiled a new developer blog for Mid Wars, an upcoming game mode coming to its multiplayer action RPG, Heroes of Newerth, on May 11. Based on a popular custom game mode, Mid Wars is designed to give players a high action, low stress experience on a new map.

For those unfamiliar with this new game mode, allow us to explain. Historically speaking, the Mid Wars movement began with players hosting games of HoN on the Forests of Caldavar using only the middle lane (with the top and bottom lanes ignored) and all the action centralized at the middle of the map. What made Mid Wars such a compelling experience was that respawn times were turned off, meaning that once a player died, he or she was almost immediately thrust back into the action and lived to battle it out in teamfight, after teamfight. The result was high action, low stress gameplay that we aimed to capture and expand upon throughout the Mid Wars development process.

This excellent community-created idea was just dying to be made official with a standard rule-set, its very own Matchmaking system, and a change of pace from the normal HoN experience that people have enjoyed since HoN was released two years ago. Consider Mid Wars as a reprieve from the intensity that can arise from playing Forests of Caldavar time and time again or as a low pressure game mode designed to encourage you to try out new heroes you may be unfamiliar with. We have worked with the community to capture what made playing "All Mid" great and fun while taking it to the next level with creative and intelligent design decisions that improve on the current model.

Heroes of Newerth: Mid Wars Blog

S2Games

Heroes Of Newerth

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