Ganked from GamePolitics: The Lt. Governor of the Great State of Washington (I live there, I don’t suppose you would have guessed ;), has called for a summit this week to study the economic impact of games. According to the press release, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen will take a look at the economic impact of the cyber and video game industry within Washington at a 9 a.m. meeting Nov. 19 at Bellevue City Hall Council chambers.

During the meeting, the committee will hear from reps at Bungie, the University of Washington, and the DigiPen Institute of Technology (check out their podcast…yeah, that’s my voice). Apparently, Owen’s interest in the whole gaming thing was piqued when he was asked last year to give a welcoming speech at the World Cyber Games which was held in Seattle then.

The meeting will air both on Bellevue TV 21 and TVW in the days following the event.

UPDATE: Just saw through Inside Mac Games that the game is scheduled for release on 11/28, and will be available in the US for $39.95.

Feral Interactive just announced that they are delivering LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures for the Mac. The PC version was just released in June. According to the site, you’ll have to have a 1.8 GHz processor running at least 10.4.10, and it’s only for Intel Macs (sorry PPC Macs). Input is mouse, but they recommend a gamepad.

If you haven’t ever played a LEGO game, or taken a look at the PC version of this yet, check out the trailers. There’s nothing like watching a LEGO dancer struttin’ her stuff. Bwahaha!

Well, I be a mite bit busy today. So, let’s say hello to a new site, the Mac Games Arcade. This is a digital download application for OS X allowing users to download, purchase and manage their Mac games all through one Mac interface. Kind of reminds me of Aspyr’s Game Agent, only you’re not just downloading the games of one publisher.

Other features include:

1. Easy browsing through hundreds of Mac games in either icon or list view.
2. Quickly download demos and full games with a single click.
3. Purchase Mac games fast and securely. Just add games to your cart, then checkout and start playing.
4. Digital maintenance of your games. Mac Games Arcade keeps a complete history of all your purchases. You can re-download and reinstall your purchased games any time you want, forever.

Mac Games Arcade is currently in beta testing and will be released in December. You can join the beta, though. by visiting the website and submitting an application. When released, Mac Games Arcade will require Mac OS X 10.4 or better.

Freeverse has released their unique casino game, Burning Monkey Casino, for the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can play stylish versions of Video Poker, Blackjack, or Slots with an their updated interface that takes advantage of the swipe and tilt that you can only find on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Alas, there are no monkey’s to burn. You can pick it up at the App Store for a mere $0.99.

Also, The Wrath of the Lich King has been unleashed upon the WoW masses. According to this Gamespot article, the sales were so strong that the GameStop credit card network was reportedly overloaded, and they had to go to manual swipe machines.

Ambrosia Software has released Aquaria for the Mac. This game has been in development for, like, ages. Well, since May of 2007. That’s when Ambrosia first announced the game for the Mac. This game was the 2007 IGF Seumas McNally Award winner and was released for the PC in December of that year. But Ambrosia had adopted the philosophy that “it’s not done until it’s done.” I just wish “done” was much earlier!

The last time I looked at the game, which was at Macworld of this year I believe (I don’t remember them having it at NME 2008), it looked awesome. Let me know what you think. I’m downloading my copy now.

ETA 2: Psychedelic beach ball of doom has gone off to join Xtreme Beach Volleyball, and I have a complete Spore again. So far, I haven’t seen any problems associated with the patch that are similar to what others have reported. However, I’ve only been playing for, like, 25 minutes.

ETA: So, I’m now being subjected to the psychedelic beach ball of doom, and I can’t tell whether the iPatcher is actually hosed and I need to force a quite or every Mac Spore geek in the country is currently getting their rocks off with this patch. The iPatcher froze earlier, then started up again earlier, so I’m tempted to think the latter rather than the former. Although thinking the latter makes me want to pour gasoline on my eyes and set them on fire….

Yuppers, the Mac update has arrived. You get it by just starting the game (while online). I iz downloading it as I type. Download iz slow. Want my update nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I’ve been playing around with Spore now for the past week, letting my kids help me with my creatures, control what my creatures do, where they do, which other creatures they have contact with. I say “letting” because not “letting” would result in the horrible whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine that I just don’t want to deal with right now. So, we’ll use “letting” for the time being. And I do have this to say…DRM or not, the game is fabu. Which isn’t to say that I haven’t found some problems…. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s my update on that Spore install. I’ll be honest and say that I really don’t know whether I needed to update Leopard, or whether it was because unlike everyone else, EA chose to place the “agree” and “disagree” buttons for the EULA exactly the opposite of most everyone else…but this morning I had no problem installing Spore. And I found out a few very interesting things for us Mac gamers. Read the rest of this entry »

I have opened my copy of Spore, and am in the process of installing it. Or rather, I should say I have been in the process of installing it for the past hour. Big sharp pointy teeth doesn’t begin to describe the “fun” I’ve been having already. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve not yet received my copy of Spore, but though Spore has only just been released in the States as of the 7th, there are already a ton of reviews littering Amazon regarding the DRM method that EA has chosen to use and how angry everyone is about it. Quite a few are letting this alone decide whether they should purchase the game. If you’ve played The Sims or Mass Effect, you are already familiar with the DRM. SecuRom. And yes, it does have a Mac version.

Read the rest of this entry »