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After nine months since the release of America's Army 2.1, the long-awaited and left-for-dead America's Army game is back on the Macintosh with the released of version 2.3 FireFight. Mac gamers who have been stuck at 2.1 since last June can once again enjoy the game along with their PC counterparts.

Those of you who missed out on the drama of America's Army Mac, here's a brief run down. Back in November programmer Ryan Gordon announced that the Mac version of the game would be delayed because GameSpy, which is used by America's Army for match making, raised their licensing fees for Mac publishers (according to some reports, as much as 10 times more). Since then Gordon has been working on a workaround to GameSpy, culminating with today's release.

Here's some highlights of America's Army 2.3 FireFight:

• 2 new multiplayer missions: Urban Assault and Woodland Outpost.

• All new Tournament Mode providing full support for America's Army competitive gaming.

• Many new security enhancements and protections integrated into the game (client, server, and back-end).

This version of ArmyOps doesn't use GameSpy; it's got a simple replacement system in place, but it's not very robust. We are aware of the issues with it. If the in-game browser can't find pings for any servers, please make sure UDP port 14200 is open on your firewall.

Now to the good stuff: downloading. Due to the tremendous size of the game (758 MB), America's Army 2.3 will be initially offered on Macgamefiles.com as a bittorrent download only. If you already have America's Army 2.1, a small 45 MB patch from version 2.1 to 2.3 is available for download through Macgamefiles.com. Lastly, if you are an IMG Pro user, conventional http downloads are being offered through your Hot Downloads link.

Be sure to stop by our forum and let us know your experiences with America's Army 2.3.

U.S Army

Epic Games

MGF: America's Army 2.3

IMG Pro: Hot Downloads

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