iGame Radio

Riot Games has announced a collaboration with Transgaming to bring League of Legends, a fast-paced strategy-action MMOG, to the Mac. Launched in October 2009, League of Legends is a session-based fighting game with no persistent world to explore. Combat occurs in the Fields of Justice, where you can choose from a variety of Summoners to do combat with. In a way, it reminds me of Pokemon, to be honest. However, there are RPG elements to the game as well, in that you can level up your Summoners over time.

The game will be free to download, but here’s where I ran into a bit of a confusion. The developer’s gotta make money somehow, right? So how does Riot games do that? Apparently, this is not so clear cut, as they launched the game a bit early, and some features of the game have since been removed and placed into a premium game pack available for purchase for $29.99.

There is also a game store, but unless you have registered with the developer (which is free) you have no idea how much items are in the store, or what impact those items have on gameplay. You can get an idea through the support section of the site…there is a PVP.net store FAQ, and there is an indication that the store sells Riot Points which I would assume can be used to purchase faster upgrades, etc. Riot points, based on other FAQs I’ve read, also show up in regular gameplay.

There are no system requirements as yet, but the game is set to release for the Mac later this summer.

The next expansion in the Sims series by EA, Sims 3: Ambitions, lets you control the career path of your Sims. Will they be heroes, fighting fires or policing the riff-raff? Will they become bumbling mad scientists or ghost hunters? Or maybe they’ll live on the edge as tattoo artists…wait, what? A tattoo artist is “living on the edge”?

Well, be that as it may, for the first time, you get to put your Sims to work making money. Your Sims can find jobs through the job and opportunity tracker, fill their experience bar, then get better jobs as they climb to the top of their career. They can even find jobs the traditional way, through the newspaper or locations around town. Keep track of your Sims professional progress under their Career tab, and even check their mailbox for articles on clothing and work related to their profession.

Sim career choices can also affect their town and other Sims. And your Sims can earn Simoleons to buy that perfect house, car, or outfit they’ve been wanting.

There are 16 careers to choose from, including firefighter, ghost hunter, tattoo artist, and owning a junkyard. You can even be self-employed, cause your Sim doesn’t let anyone tell her what to do (well, except you).

The Sims 3: Ambitions for Mac is available by Transgaming for pre-order for $39.95, and will launch as a digital download on June 1st.

System requirements:

• Mac OS X v10.5.7 Leopard or higher
• Intel Core Duo Processor
• 2GB RAM
• At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games.
• ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100 (This game will not run on the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards)
• The SIMS 3 for Mac required

 

What’s inside this episode:

• A review of Dragon Age: Origins for the Mac by Bioware. Published by Transgaming using Cider technology. A single-player RPG whose plot and content rival fantasy sagas, with first rate combat, immersive sound and stellar graphics, and more choice than you can shake a stick at. And you can have sex!
  

Show Notes:

• Omaha Sternberg and Peter Cohen of The Loop talk about the SCOTUS hearing ESA vs Schwarzenegger. Along with flying acronyms, they discuss why SCOTUS will likely rule in ESA’s favor.
• 73 Congressional Democrats sign on to a letter pleading for the FCC Chairman to halt his efforts towards Net Neutrality. An attempt to save investment and jobs? Well, lobbyist jobs at least.
• How will the Humble Indie Bundle event affect marketing for games, especially Indie games? Well, nothing, if Peter and Omaha can’t figure out how to pronounce “Humble Indie Bundle” properly…
• Is the Blizzard DRM way the way to go? You decide. Vote with your wallet.
• And Omaha whines about her antiquated 2006 Mac Pro not being able to run a game originally published in 2004.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Zach Young for featuring music from The Great Tree.
• Tomas Dvorak for featuring music from Machinarium.

As teased yesterday, Valve released today the second game in their repertoire…Half-Life 2. The sci-fi FPS sequel to Half-Life, HF2 continues the saga of Gordon Freeman as he battles the Combine which took over after Half-Life ended.

Valve has released not just Half-Life 2, though. They’ve also released Half-Life 2: Episode 1, and Half-Life 2: Episode 2, all at a 30% discount. Finally, they’ve released the Orange Box, which includes all previously mentioned Half-Life 2 games, as well as Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. Neither Half-Life 2: Lost Coast or Team Fortress 2 are yet available on the Mac, but promise soon to be. The Orange Box is also available at a 30% discount.

A whole lot of Half-Life 2 goodness!

Received some new screens for GameHouse’s upcoming iPhone game, MTV Star Factory. It’s a time management game I posted about earlier around building your band. Manage your bands, down to selecting the members and their music, then manage studio sessions, live gigs, and even parties. The game is set to release June 14th.

The website has some fun stuff to play with in the lounge, including listening to sample music from the game. Music runs the gamut of sound, including rock, jazz, and even a piece with a Spanish guitar (probably the best piece I heard, actually).

CCP has launched the 13th expansion to EVE Online. Tyrannis opens up new avenues of player control within the MMOG with Planetary Interaction, which allows players to scan the surfaces of planets and place structures on them to develop planetary resources and profit from what they reap. EVE Online promises well over 65,000 planets for discovery. On June 8th, seeding of planetary command centers will commence, which will allow players to gather, process, and export natural resources and refined goods.

EVE Gate is the new web frontend and social networking platform for EVE Online, allowing access to in-game mail and other features. Available through any web browser, EVE Gate will give players the ability to manage their mail, calendar, contacts, corporations, and alliances without having to enter the game.

Both EVE Gate and Planetary Interaction are seen by CCP as the first step of a process to encourage players into greater interaction and community building, especially from outside the game client itself. CCP intends to provide more options for accessing the game API, for example, so players can continue to develop EVE-related programs.

Thanks to a helpful iGame Radio listener (thanks, Sargiel!) I discovered that iGame Radio fans weren’t able to download their Episode 101 from iTunes. I discovered where the error was, and have since fixed it. You should have no problems downloading that episode now!

In a post on the official Sega blogs, Sonic 4 for the iPhone and iPod Touch was confirmed. Earlier in the year, Sega had announced the game, a return to the series’ 2D sidescroller roots, for summer this year on PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare, and another platform that Sega wasn’t ready to release info about yet. Hints came out soon afterward that this unknown platform would be the iPhone/iPod Touch, but only now has this been confirmed.

Unfortunately, in the same post, it was also revealed that the game has been delayed till later this year. Sega is mixing “internal suggestions alongside fan feedback to make some new, positive changes to the game”, and felt that this addition would make more effort in game development.

The good news is that Sega Digital’s Ken Balagh, during an episode of Gamespot On The Spot, outed two levels that will be exclusive to the iPhone version. The levels are intended to take full advantage of the tilt and touch mechanisms on the iPhone merged with the core gameplay of the game.

via Gamezebo

Valve has announced their second release for the Mac platform through Steam via a teaser trailer. Half-Life 2 for the Mac will be making an appearance for one and all tomorrow.

Yesterday, Virtual Programming announced the release of Heir to the Throne, the third expansion to Europa Universalis 3. Today I have some system requirements info for you about the game.

VP notes that the latest version of EU III Complete is required to play the expansion. Anyone who needs that can download the latest version (from the same location where they originally made their purchase), then perform the migration process at this location. You can get more information about the migration here

System requirements for the game include:

• Mac OS X version 10.5.8
• An Intel processor
• 512MB RAM
• a 128MB video card (GeForce 7300, Radeon X1600 or newer)
• 700MB of hard disk space