Batman learns the true meaning of “The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend” in Arkham City.
Feral Interactive has announced its next big release. Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition will be coming out for the Mac this November. This action/adventure game previously released for PC and consoles will have all of the previously released DLC, including the Harley Quinn’s Revenge pack.
Based upon the comic book mythos, Batmam: Arkham City takes you into a vast open world with a rich main plot and a huge number of side missions, secrets and puzzles to figure out. Batman has been dropped into Arkham City, a huge open-air prison that is a walled-off portion of Gotham City, and must survive not just the regular criminals but the notorious insane criminal masterminds that include The Riddler, Two-Face, Harley Quinn, The Penguin, and, of course, The Joker.
The DLCs provide a large amount of extra gameplay along the way. The Harley Quinn’s Revenge mission sends you back into Arkham City as both Batman and Robin two weeks after the main game. The Catwoman pack let’s you become Catwoman in a subplot occurring alongside the main story, and the Nightwing and Robin bundles let you become these characters to take on the game’s challenge mode.
Batman: Arkham City has received huge critical acclaim and quite a lot of awards, including Best Action Adventure Game for the Spike Video Game Awards and Action Game award at the BAFTA awards.
No pricing, system requirements, or dedicated site info have been released yet, but you can check out the trailer for the game below or on Feral’s YouTube Channel.
The last Call of Duty game that graced the Mac, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, was released in 2008. Since then, we Mac lovers of Call of Duty games have had to sit on the sidelines while watching game after game of CoD pass us by. Well, no more. On September 27, 2012, your Mac will have the honor to host space for Call of Duty: Black Ops…but the price tag may be more steep than many are willing to pay.
Aspyr Media has finally announced the release date for Call of Duty: Black Ops for the Mac and a pre-order special of 10% off the release price. On September 27, Aspyr will launch Call of Duty: Black Ops and the First Strike DLC (which includes 4 additional multiplayer maps and a zombie experience) for $49.99. Also available on the same date will be the Rezurrection Content Pack, merging zombies and space (because that just makes so much sense) for a mere $14.99. The other two Content Packs, Annihilation and Escalation, will be released as a bundle in November for an additional $24.99.
As awesome as it seems to finally get this game on the Mac, a total of $89.97 for game and content packs seems a little steep for a two year old game (the PC version was released in November 2010). So what do we get that makes up for this price?
After looking over the details, one might be tempted to ask “what don’t we get?” The first question many Mac gamers ask for a game with multiplayer features is will the game include Mac to PC crossover support in multiplayer. The answer is a decided no. Aspyr’s Russ Looney, who manages the GameAgent blog, stated that due to technical limitations, Aspyr was unable to include this feature.
The good news is that the game does include Mac-to-Mac multiplayer support. This might seem a no-brainer until you see how many diverse distribution sites Black Ops for the Mac is coming out on: Steam, GameAgent, and the Mac App Store just to name the biggest. Steam and the Mac App Store especially have specific requirements when it comes to multiplayer support, so it’s good to see that no matter where you get it, you’ll be able to play with other Mac gamers.
Steam will utilize Steamworks for achievements in-game but little else. And no SteamPlay, which means that if you purchased the game for the PC some time ago, assuming that you’d get the Mac version for free, you won’t. You’ll have to pay for the Mac version all over again. Interestingly, this will make CoD: Black Ops for the Mac the first stand-alone Mac game on Steam. Some may find that small comfort, though.
The Mac App Store version will be coming out an unspecified, though short, time after the release on other sites. Game Center support with achievements is there, and will thus make this the first Aspyr game to use Game Center. There are a number of other features not included in the Mac version, such as players can’t invite/join via request to a multiplayer server because public multiplayer is all that is offered; that also means no private matches and no remote console to host your own server. You can’t even create multiplayer movie files. Bummer!
Aspyr has created a way for folks to connect and set up matches, though. A new Facebook page, Black Ops Mac, has been created for just that purpose. There’s also a Black Ops FAQ that already exists to help answer your questions; Aspyr promises to update it over time.
The minimum system requirements for the game are also pretty hefty:
- Mac OS X 10.7.4 (to use Game Center, must have 10.8 installed)
- 2.4 GHz CPU
- 4 GB RAM
- 15 GB free disk space
- Supported Video cards: NVIDIA GeForce 650M; ATI Radeon HD 3870, HD 4850, HD 5670, HD 5750, HD 5770, HD 5870, HD 6750M, HD 6770M, HD 6970M (The following graphics cards are not supported: HD3000 (2011 Mac Mini, 2011 MacBook Air, 2011 13” MacBook Pro); HD4000 (2012 13” MacBook Pro); ATI Radeon HD 2000 series, HD 4670, HD6630M; NVIDIA 8000 & 9000 series, GT100 series, 320M, 330M; Intel Integrated GMA950, x3100)
The stiff video card and OS requirements may limit the number of gamers willing to purchase the game. In fact, some have already started to complain about the lack of Snow Leopard (10.6) support, claiming that a lot of Mac users haven’t upgraded to 10.7, let alone 10.8 yet. Will the combination of stiff minimum requirements, lack of a number of expected features, and high price turn too many gamers off?
Whatever the future holds for Call of Duty: Black Ops for Mac, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. In response to a question I had about the PC-to-Mac multiplayer support, Elizabeth Howard, Director of Business Development at Aspyr, said, “It’s something we hope to include in future Call of Duty projects.” This is not only promising that they are hoping to include it, but that future Call of Duty projects seem to be on the table.
I wonder which one?
Happy Hills is a Mac game about the eternal struggle of good versus evil. The happy hills are oppressed by the evil blocks whose only goal in life is to spread misery to all. You, as the Campbellian Hero, must destroy these evil blocks by strategically locating bombs so that those blocks are blown off the hills or destroyed.
And as those blocks are roasting in the fires of hell, listen closely and you can hear the laughter of little children, taunting them in their agony:
Joyous!
Okay, so I watched the trailer and it twisted my mind. I mean, what developer thought blasting cute blocks into fiery pits accompanied to children laughing WASN’T insane?? Happy Hills developer Chimera Entertainment apparently did.
At least the rest of the game is your standard physics puzzler. Just drop the bombs, blast the blocks, and watch the hills smile. Um, then again…
Can’t wait to see the Boss Block levels.
Happy Hills requires OSX 10.6.6. However, if you want to take advantage of any of the in-app purchases, you actually have to have 10.7 to do it. So be forewarned, Snow Leopard users.
With Blizzard releasing Diablo III on Tuesday, the big issue on everyone’s minds, tongues, and keyboards has been server problems. The May 15th release brought with it such big problems in connectivity that a significant number of fans have downgraded Metacritic scores to reflect their anger. To fans the always-on requirement of Battle.net did not jive with servers that were up and down to begin with.
However, we wondered how the game itself was playing for fans, especially Mac fans, and spent some time perusing the Diablo III forums to find out. And from what we’ve discovered, their seems to be a big issue of gameplaying lag on many Macs. Some have described this lag as existing even during the public beta, when the resolution has been turned down, and for Macs only 2 years old. The problem is enough to make some declare the game unplayable on their Macs, others declare that they can only play the game on a Bootcamp partition, and still others decide that they have to send the game back (Torchlight 2, anyone?).
Blizzard has noted the issue, tucked away in a sticky on the Mac Technical Support Forum, but has provided little else…such as a time-frame for resolution.
With Diablo III just hours away from release or, in some cases, the ability for hot hands to play, we thought we’d review what is available to you to prep for this latest in the Diablo series by Blizzard. So, review the checklist below and make sure you are all set, because it’s likely to get rough out there, folks.
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As the Diablo III launch date looms ever nearer, Blizzard has created a Launch Day Preparation Guide. Because there’s ever so much for you to do to get ready for the Evil Hoards to invade, right? So Blizzard has provided this guide to help you know what to expect, how to prepare, and when you’ll be able to begin installing and playing. What…you thought you’d be able to play it the moment you got the game? Foolish you.
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LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 has been released by Feral Interactive, completing the teenage-angst ridden saga of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. Now you too can face the evil LEGO Voldemort as he plots to take over the world with his evil LEGO friends and his little stick.
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“It’s done when it’s done” is the Blizzard saying for their games. Apparently, for Diablo III, May 15 is when it’s done. Blizzard has set the final launch date with pre-orders starting now. And if you sacrifice the appropriate number of virgins, you can get the game for free, too!
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