iGame Radio

We’re getting close to that all important date: gift giving after maxing out our credit cards. How spiritual! Anyway, here are the latest listing of holiday sales. Remember, if you want to keep track of some great Mac and iOS game sales throughout the holiday, just look for the #holidaysale tag!
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Here are today’s listing of holiday sales. Remember, if you want to keep track of some great Mac and iOS game sales throughout the holiday, just look for the #holidaysale tag!
Read more

Everyone can use an occasional makeover. So Aspyr has decided to introduce their new ‘do to the public this week with a bang that includes the chance to win a new iPad 2 and 25% off all game titles in the GameAgent store.
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Aspyr has released a big patch for Duke Nukem for Mac. Included within the update is cross-platform multiplayer, so you can play with your PC friends.

Cross-platform multiplayer is a big request in most multiplayer games for the Mac, so it’s great to see it finally arrive for Duke Nukem. Other updates include the ability to carry 4 weapons during single player, the addition of blood effects on surfaces behind enemies when shot, and enabling a VAC anti-cheat system. Numerous bugs and exploits were also fixed, and you can find the full list here.

Aspyr says that the patch should automatically download and install upon launching the game via Steam.

In the wake of the evidence, Aspyr released the news that they are bringing Civilization V to the Mac. The fifth in the long-term Sid Meier’s Civilization strategy sim series will be out in time for the holidays.

Civilization V sports an all new graphics engine, a new combat system, deeper diplomatic interactions and a cavalcade of expanded features. Players build and defend their empire on their quest to become the greatest ruler the world has ever known, from the basest civilization to leaping into the stars.

New features include an hexagonal time layout that provides for deeper, more realistic gameplay and more organic landscapes. Ranged attack has been expanded to include weapons fired from behind the front lines, adding another dimension to strategy. The graphics engine includes fully animated leaders that interact with players during diplomatic scenes speaking in their native language.

I had the opportunity to see a short demo of the game at PAX, and it had to be one of the most beautiful and epic games, as well as one of the most detailed. The organic world actually changes as you play the game so that it seems as though the game is evolving around you. They’ve also added in a new feature called City States, which provides for a whole new type of diplomatic strategy in trade and war negotiations. And the combat is awesome. Just three words: Giant Death Robot.

Regarding the multiplayer mode, we’re not talking MMOG here. The maximum that was mentioned to me was 8 players, but the manual that has been released has the limit at 12 (for the Huge map size). There’s also LAN play, as well as Internet mode through Steam, though it should be interesting to see if Aspyr integrates Steamworks into the Mac version.

Civilization V is set to be released in time for the holidays, but no specs have been announced yet. Considering the hefty specs for the PC version, I’m thinking we’re going to see some tight ones for the Mac version at the least. Some of you might be wanting to upgrade that Mac in time for Christmas, too.

When you surf the web, you can find the most wonderful things. And the most wonderful people can sometimes do your work for you. Like the wonderful poster on InsideMacGames that posted this an image yesterday of an ESRB rating for Civilization V…for the Mac.

Aspyr has been hinting at a big announcement for a couple of weeks on their twitter feed. Now, combined with the ESRB rating that shows Civ V for the Mac published by Aspyr Media, we can pretty much conclude that Aspyr will be announcing very soon that they will be releasing Civilization V for the Mac.

At this time, I don’t have any details regarding release date, system requirements, or pricing. I’ve also contacted Aspyr for some feedback, and will let you know if they respond.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Corey Tamas of MacGamer gives a review of GodFinger for the iPhone by ngmoco. Use your finger to be god. I mean, what else would you use your finger for? Make charming critters worship you, then roast them when you had a bad day. All for free!
  

Show Notes:

• Omaha Sternberg and Corey Tamas of MacGamer talk about the iPhone 4 first impressions. Despite over 1.7 million iPhones sold in 1.5 weeks, only 48 apps have been updated for iOS4. What gives? Omaha and Corey talk about what that means. Also, what do people think about the gyroscope, multitasking, and retina display so far?
• OnLive is live. But Omaha can’t connect. Find out why.
• Feral Interactive has announced a teaser for their next game announcement, and Omaha thinks she knows what it is.
• Virtual Programming reissued X3: Reunion as a native Mac port because they didn’t feel the Cider was “good enough”. Omaha and Corey talk about what the means, and whether this is the start of a trend.
• Contests! More contests than you can shake a crashed iPhone at!

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Matt Jarvis for featuring music from Osmos.
• Bobby “Glorian” Slavov and Victor Stoyanov for featuring music from Eschalon: Book 1.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• A review of Tales of Monkey Island, part 1 for the Mac by TellTale Games. A point-and-click adventure game of swashbuckling fun, danger on the high seas, talking demonic skulls, and manatee bile. Wait…what? And more visual bugs than you can stick a cutlass through.
  

Show Notes:

• Omaha Sternberg and Corey Tamas of MacGamer talk about the WWDC, the imminent announcement of the iPhone 4G, and the potential new games we might see on the iPhone and iPad.
• Aspyr is looking for Mac game developers for a new AAA title that they are bringing to the Mac from the PC. No one knows what it is yet, but Omaha and Corey make their guesses. What’s yours?
• Hand of Greed released an HTML5 web demo for the touch screen of their game, first of it’s kind. Check it out!
• NPD reported that 4% of gamers play in the Extreme Gamer category…48 hours of gameplay a week. Can you work and play that much?
• Looking to buy an iPhone or iPad soon? If the FTC has it’s way, you might just be paying 5% extra…to save newspapers.
• Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software talks about the inspiration for his new game, Avadon the Black Fortress. One word. Psychosexual.

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.

…To give them some feedback. On the GameAgent NonBlog, Aspyr asks the following:

Friends, foes, followers – we come to you to find out more about your favorite Mac games. We often are asked “Where is ___ game? The last one is one of my favorites!” or “why aren’t you guys doing _____.” The truth is, we’re probably working very hard on getting ____ to our friends and followers. To help our cause tell us why a native Mac version of the latest game is ESSENTIAL for our partners to support. We want to hear what you [sic] thinking

So, how about it, peeps? Hop onto the site and let them know why it is that you want to see a particular game on the Mac. Like Modern Warfare 2!

Along with the announcement of Secret of Monkey Island: SE, Aspyr has also announced the immediate availability of classic Star Wars titles for both retail and digital download.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Empire at War, Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, and Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast have all been updated to the latest version of the game, and upgraded with bug fixes, support for 10.6, and to run natively on Intel Macs. In addition, multiplayer for all Jedi titles has been updated and will also run natively on Intel Macs.

Fans can pick up the games via digital download immediately. Alternatively, retail bundles of these games are also available. Star Wars: Jedi Knight Gold Pack includes both Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and its sequel Star Wars: Jedi Knight: II: Jedi Outcast available on one disc for $29.99. Star Wars Mac Pack includes the RPG game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the strategy title Star Wars: Empire at War for $49.99.

In addition, Aspyr is running a sale wherein if you purchase Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition for the Mac digitally, you’ll get an additional %20 off any other Star Wars game.

Minimum system requirements for all four games:

• Mac OS X 10.5 (10.6 support included)
• 1.8 GHz or faster Intel Mac
• 512 MB or higher
• 665 MB free disk space
• ATI Radeon X1600/NVidia GeForce 7300
• 128 MB VRAM

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars: Empire at War are each $29.99 for digital download. Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast cost $19.99 each.