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Games did not have a strong presence at this year's Macworld Expo, but there were nonetheless several announcements and upcoming games on display by (most of) the usual suspects -- EA, Aspyr, CCP Games, Ambrosia, Freeverse, and Feral Interactive all had news for the Mac gaming faithful.

As we already reported last wednesday, EA officially announced that Will Wright's strange and wonderful new game Spore will be coming to the Mac later this year, thanks to TransGaming's Cider technology. The game is still under development; keep your eyes peeled for the IMG preview in the near future.

Most of Aspyr's booth was dedicated to their latest release, Guitar Hero 3, but they did have something new up their sleeves as well: The official announcement that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is heading to the Mac. This latest installment in the popular first-person war simulation series is targeted for release in May.

Iceland's CCP Games had a large and stylish booth, dedicated of course to their epic MMO game EVE Online, released for the Mac back in November. The news for EVE fans this time around: The premium version of EVE's new Trinity graphics engine has been confirmed for release sometime in Q1 for Mac users. The premium engine is required to see all the new breathtaking, redesigned ships in Trinity, the latest expansion pack for the game.

Not to be outdone by our viking friends from across the ocean, Ambrosia looked sharp in their modern white booth, though they had only one game on display this time: The forthcoming Aquaria, a new original title created by two very talented and passionate new independent game developers. We look forward to bringing you a preview of this unique, well-crafted underwater action/adventure game.

We sat down with Ian and Colin Lynch Smith, the founders and head honchos of Freeverse, to chat about what's new and cool, and what's on the horizon. Among several non-game-related products, they were showing the recently-released (and surprisingly addictive) tower defense game Hordes of Orcs, and Commander: Europe at War, a new turn-based strategy game centered around World War II.

Right around the corner is their next title, Neon Tango a fast-paced arcade-style game. Development is wrapping up, and the game should be out in February. We'll have a preview for you soon. Also in the pipeline for Freeverse is a new resource for game developers called Statsmith -- an online leaderboard for tracking high scores. It will be available for free to Mac game developers, who can incorporate it in their games to provide online high score lists.

On display at the Feral Interactive booth: Tomb Raider Anniversary, a new Tomb Raider title which should be shipping any day now.

MacSoft and ATI did not have booths at this year's Expo.

Aquaria

Call of Duty 4

Commander: Europe at War

EVE Online

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Hordes of Orcs

Neon Tango

Spore

Tomb Raider Anniversary

Buy Call of Duty 4

Buy Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Buy Spore

Buy Tomb Raider Anniversary

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