iGame Radio

It’s Halloween, and any time there’s a holiday, it’s an excuse to part-ay! Thus sayeth a number of game developers and publishers, who have announced game sales or updates in line with the spooktacular holiday.

Valve has released a free Halloween themed update to Team Fortress 2 that they claim includes the first NPC in any TF game…the dreaded Headless Horsemann. Yeah, I’m sure the misspelling is intended. The Horesmann is a randomly generated boss monster that appears exclusively in the Mann Manor, a new attack/defend map that includes exploding pumpkins (yummy!). The update also includes new achievements, new community items from ten more contributors, the introduction of the Halloween Department of the Mann Co store, and more. You can get more info at the Team Fortress site.

Aspyr is hosting a Halloween sale of two of their creepier Mac games, Quake 4 and Doom 3. I mean, what could be better on Halloween than playing a sci-fi horror game where the gates of hell have inadvertently been opened, allowing a host of demons to come rampaging through?

Tale of Tales have created a pay what you want bundle of three of their creepiest games: The Graveyard, The Path, and Fatale. The Day of the Dead Bundle is available for purchase through All Souls Day, November 2, and proceeds will go towards completing their next project, codenamed The Book of 8.

G5 Entertainment has announced a sale of Paranormal Agency for both iPad and iPhone for $0.99 through October 31. Paranormal Agency is a hidden object game wherein your character uses powers of ESP to see ghosts and other entities of the other realm to solve puzzles.

PadWorx Digital Media is holding a contest in conjunction with the release of their interactive fiction iPad game Dracula: The Official Stoker Family Edition. Just become a fan of the PadWorx Facebook page by midnight on Halloween. Ten people will get free download codes to the game, while the grand prize winner will win a free iPad!

Just in time for Halloween, Valve has released Left 4 Dead for the Mac, as promised. In addition, Valve is hosting a Halloween sale with 50% off a selection of games.

Several weeks ago, Valve released Left 4 Dead 2 for the Mac, as well as the new add-on The Sacrifice, a DLC for both L4D and L4D2 via Steam, promising Left 4 Dead for the Mac by Halloween. Now Mac fans of the series have access to both games, along with The Sacrifice, which is available free of charge to all Steam gamers who own a copy of L4D or L4D2. Valve stresses that The Sacrifice DLC for L4D is a separate download than The Sacrifice for L4D2.

The Sacrifice is the prequel to The Passing, and takes place from the L4D Survivors’ perspective as they make their way South. In addition to advancing the story, The Sacrifice introduces a new style finale featuring “Sacrificial Gameplay” where players get to decide who will give their life so the others may live. In The Sacrifice for L4D, gamers receive the complete Sacrifice campaign with maps playable in Campaign, Versus, and Survival.

And for a limited time, L4D and L4D2 (as well as their respective Steam bundles) are available for 50% off the regular price. Other Mac games available during the 50% off sale are Team Fortress 2 and Plants vs. Zombies, GOTY Edition.

Blizzard has opened the doors for pre-ordering WoW: Cataclysm. However, unlike for previous versions of WoW, you can purchase the game as a digital download, available to play when servers go live.

Traditionally, to play most AAA titles, players had to stand in long lines to get their game. Often these sales started at midnight, and caused fanatical fans to camp out the day before. With the existence of digital downloads, this has begun to change. When Blizzard launched StarCraft II, fans could purchase both the digital and physical version of the game. However, those who purchased the digital version could not access the servers until 10 am the that morning, while those who purchased the physical disk could start playing at midnight as soon as they installed.

No more. Blizzard has announced that, regardless of what format you have purchased the game, you can start playing it as soon as the servers go live. Which will lead to the inevitable question of why anyone would stand in lines anymore. And whereas this would cause a great number of people relief at not having to stand in long lines, it also is one step closer to an isolated community that never actually physically spends time with each other.

And I think that’s a shame.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Peter Cohen of The Loop talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. Valve announced Dota 2 last week, but now they are seeking to trademark the word “Dota”. This has caused confusion to some, anger to others. Omaha and Peter discuss the ramifications of this move, and how it might end.
• Ten years ago, Bungie needed money. They asked Apple, but Microsoft bought them. Rumor has it that Steve Jobs got pissed. What would Apple have been like if they had not turned Bungie down? How will this inform any decision Apple makes for rumored company purchases now?
• The Independent Games Festival (IGF) has released their submission list, and it’s almost 400 games long! Omaha and Peter chat about some of the games in the list, and why you might want to take a look too.
• Wolfire Games gave a hint about another Humble Indie Bundle. Will there be a HIB2? How will the Mac App Store impact Indie sales events like this?
• Omaha announces the results of last week’s iGame Radio poll, and Omaha and Peter talk about games released, soon to be released, and that they’ve played.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Digital Droo for featuring music from Burning Monkey Solitaire.
• Rich Carlson for featuring music from Dr. Blob.

Developer Frozenbyte has decided to bring its physics-based action game Trine to the Mac. Frozenbyte is self-publishing the Mac version, which is scheduled for release sometime in November.

Trine will be available via Steam in November and will feature SteamPlay–giving users both the PC and Mac versions of the game with a single purchase. Frozenbyte promises that the Mac version will also be brought to other digital distributors later as well. Currently working on Trine 2, Frozenbyte also mentioned that if all went well with the Mac version of Trine, a Mac version of Trine 2 could also be in the works.

Aspyr Media has announced that RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum is coming to the Mac in time for the holiday season. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum will include for the first time on the Mac RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Wild.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Mac is the third installment of the popular tycoon sim game. Create 3D amusement parks and view them in the CoasterCam, which allows you to see your park from any angle and ride what you build. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Soaked! Mac allows you to select from more than 50 new rides and coasters, and use the Swimming Pool and Waterfall Designers to easily create water-based amusements.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Wild for the Mac gives you the ability to add animal exhibitions, enclosures and animal viewing galleries to your amusement parks. This game contains twelve Wild!-themed scenarios, two new wild design themes, dozens of additional rides and coasters, and the ability to create safari expeditions and train your animals to perform in choreographed shows. In addition, challenges and novel scenery elements have been added to the scenarios to increase the diversity of play.

There is no pricing information available at this time, but system requirements have been posted:

• Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
• CPU Processor: Intel chipset
• CPU Speed: 1.8 GHz or faster
• Memory: 512 MB or higher
• Hard Disk Space: 2GB free disk space
• Video Card: ATI Radeon X1600, NVidia GeForce 7300
• Video Memory (VRam): 128 MB
• Media Required: DVD Drive

Runic Games is celebrating their one year anniversary of the release of Torchlight with a big 50% off sale of Torchlight. Which would be great news, if you owned a PC. But we don’t…so we get to pay the entire 100%.

This is because the Mac version is distributed via Steam, and the rules for that version are different. I spoke to Wonder Russell, the PR guru for Runic Games, about how this all works. Though Runic Games sets the initial basic price for their game, Valve determines when sales, promotions, etc happens and discounts occur.

“However, Steam sales, promotions, giveaways, etc, or whether or not we’re on their front page, are entirely at their discretion,” said Russell. “We generally keep each other in the loop because it’s polite, good business, and the right thing to do, but a Torchlight anniversary sale is not really a Steam event as much as a Runic event.”

So even though Runic Games would love to offer the Mac version at 50% off to celebrate, they can’t because they don’t control the distribution of the Mac game beyond the basic price.

However, I will say that a little birdie twittered in my ear the other day something about a Thanksgiving sale on Steam, so maybe we’ll get a reprieve after all.

Aspyr warns that these system requirements are not final, but has released preliminary minimum system requirements for playing Civilization V for the Mac. The requirements are about what you might expect, although I was happy to see that it seems that Mac Pros from as early as 2006 will still be able to eke under the wire (if you update your graphics card from the default, that is).

Expected Minimum Product Spec Requirements:

• Operating System: 10.6.4 (Snow Leopard)
• CPU Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (Dual-Core)
• CPU Speed: 2.4 GHz
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 8 GB
• Video Card: ATI Radeon HD2600, NVidia Geforce 8600
• Video Memory (VRam): 256 MB
• Media Required: DVD-ROM
• Peripherals: Macintosh mouse and keyboard

 

What’s inside this episode:

• A review of Cannon Cadets, by XMG Studios. A fun version of the gravity launcher game that Angry Birds made popular. Being hampered with some tedious puzzles is remedied by the creative juices of a map-making community and their level builder.
  
• Also, a review of Atomic Ball, by Meritum Soft. A new twist on the traditional Breakout game style that merges cool physics with a unique strategy for an addictive play. You may need more screen space, though.
  
• And a review of Pig Shot by Nexx Studio. What you get when you let a tilt launch game mate with a fart app.
  

Telltale Games has released new information regarding the upcoming Back To The Future: The Game, including platforms the game will be released on, pre-order information, and more. Included are special “making of” videos featuring interviews with cast and developers of the game.

Back To The Future: The Game will be available on PC and Mac, with versions to be released later for PS3 and iPad. The PC/Mac version is available as a pre-order now for $24.95, and includes a copy of the critically acclaimed game Puzzle Agent, available for download immediately after placing the order. Also, the company will donate $1.00 from every pre-order to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Lastly, everyone who pre-orders gets access to an insider forum at Telltale site to chat with the team creating the game throughout the process.

Back To The Future: The Game is based on the original movie trilogy award-winning filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis. The game itself takes place about 6 months after the third movie, and deals with Marty McFly as he handles his new life with changed parents, then discovers that Doc Brown has vanished.

The story will unfold across five episodes, with a new installment releasing each month as is typical of Telltale’s games. Telltale is creating the game in collaboration with Universal Partnerships & Licensing and film series’ co-creator/co-writer Bob Gale. The games will release soon after the Blu-ray debut and DVD release of the Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Trilogy on October 26, featuring all-new restorations of the classic films.

Three “making of” videos have been posted at the Back To The Future: The Game site with Bob Gale and the game team sharing an inside-look at the production. The video also shows first footage of Christopher Lloyd returning to the role of Doc Brown in the recording studio and talking about his experiences making the game, as well as AJ Locascio, the new (and remarkably accurate) voice of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox was unable to return as Marty’s voice).