iGame Radio

TransGaming has released the Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening DLC for the Mac. The Awakening expansion pack can be obtained as a digital download from Transgaming’s Mac games portal, GameTreeOnline.

Set after the events of Dragon Age: Origins in the land of Amaranthine, Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening places the player in the role of a Grey Warden trying to rebuild the order while also dealing with political matters as the Arl of Amaranthine. As the Warden Commander, the player travels to Vigil’s Keep to assume command of the Grey Wardens there. Throughout the game, the player journeys to several locations and recruits party members of whom may undergo the Joining ritual to become Grey Wardens.

This follows the release of previous DLC expansion packs Leliana’s Song, Dark Spawn Chronicles, and Return to Ostagar

“The Dragon Age franchise has been exceptionally well received by Mac gamers and we’re excited about continuing the saga through the release of this expansion pack and all DLC add-on game content for the Mac community”, commented Vikas Gupta, President and CEO of TransGaming.

This is really good news to hear, as Bioware is currently working on Dragon Age 2, and it would be really good to see this come to the Mac as well. I will be checking out DA2 at PAX this weekend and reporting back on what we will hopefully be in for.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is available now for $29.95.

ETA: After browsing through the iPhone app, I’ll add that the user interface is a bit confusing as well. It’s hard to figure out what is part of the app and what is part of the Disney website, and when you access premium content, it doesn’t tell you how much it costs.

Disney is releasing Toy Story 3, the next in the giant Toy Story series, on June 18th. With as big a media conglomerate as Disney is, it doesn’t come as a surprise that they are accessing every media market to stoke the marketing fires. Thus, they are releasing two Toy Story 3 games for Apple electronic devices…Toy Story 3 for the iPhone and Toy Story 3: The Video Game.
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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.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Omaha goes it alone this week as she previews Torchlight for the Mac. A game with the legacy of Diablo and no end of things to do. But better figure out what the tips really mean!
• And a review of Gold Strike for the iPhone by CleverMedia. Fling that axe and strike gold again and again and again…
• Plus, a review of Cro-Mag Rally for the iPad by Pangea Software. This racing game was made for the iPad and iPhone! Too bad you don’t even know how well you’ve been doing.

Show Notes:

• Omaha Sternberg talks about yesterday’s launch of Steam for the Mac. Valve included 64 games, a free copy of Portal, weekly updates, and the chance to connect to 1000s of other gamers. Hopefully they’ll also fix that page stuttering that also reminds one of slow running Flash…
• The Humble Indie Bundle breached the $1 million mark in less than 7 days. Then they gave back to the community.
• LOGIN was this week. Omaha didn’t attend, but did crash get invited to the Wednesday night party. Some interesting thoughts from that event about games and player loyalty…
• Feral Interactive announces Mini Ninjas…wait, what?
• Her Interactive announces Nancy Drew coming to Mac. Is she investigating why the Mac has no viruses?

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Michael Hu-wong for featuring music from Fizzball.
• Steven Johnson for featuring music from Escort Wing.

Transgaming announced today the immediate availability of Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom for download from it’s GameTreeOnline.com site. Settlers 7 is the long-awaited sequel to the award-winning strategy game, The Settlers: Rise of an Empire, both published for the PC by Ubisoft. The game was brought to the Mac using Transgaming’s Cider Portability Engine and is enjoying a simultaneous release with the PC version.

Settlers 7 follows similar gameplay as previous games in the series, utilizing RTS and city-building tools to develop an entire kingdom from a village. The player has the choice of utilizing one of three paths of development for victory: Military, Science, and Trade. The game includes more than twelve different AI profiles with unique behaviors. One can also utilize the new online multiplayer mode in which players can both compete and co-operate with one another. Players can also generate and share content throughout the game.

Settlers 7 is available for $49.99 via both download and retail chains. An exclusive Gold/Collector Edition that is only available via download can also be purchased for $59.99. In addition to the standard gameplay, the Gold edition includes exclusive unlockable content, including one exclusive map, the original soundtrack of the game and additional castle forge elements for city customization.

The minimum system requirements include Mac OS 10.6.3…which has not even been released yet (if you are amongst the “lucky” ones to be testing out the beta, you may, or may not, want to actually try the game right now). Apple has been working on 10.6.3 since November of 2009, and there is no date at this time for when the update will be released.

Minimum System Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.6.3 (Snow Leopard Only)
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor (or better)
• 2GB RAM or more
• 8GB HDD or more
• Video card: ATI Radeon 2600+, Nvidia GeForce 8600+ with 256 VRAM+
• Keyboard and mouse
• Cards not supported: Intel GMA series, Intel x3100 series, Nvidia GeForce 7×00 series, ATI Radeon 1×00, ATI Radeon 2400

This game also includes the Ubisoft DRM that requires a constant Internet connection. The Mac version also requires that you are always connected to the Internet, logged into your account, in order to play the game. Any interruption in the server, your Internet connection, etc, will pause the gameplay.

Star Trek: D-A-C is being ported to the Mac by Transgaming and should be available very soon on the GameTree Online site. The game is a fast-paced, top-down space shooter based on the most recent Star Trek film where up to twelve players can compete in intergalactic battles between Starfleet and the Romulan Empire. The game is available for pre-order right now at a reduced price for the holidays of $8.99.

The game was originally brought to PC and Xbox 360 by Paramount in November, so getting it in December should be a reasonably good turnaround. Then again, it’s a pretty short game, so content-wise there may not be a huge amount to be porting. And the D-A-C? Deathmatch, Assault, Conquest.

Just this morning, EA has announced that Dragon Age: Origins is coming to the Mac! The game will be released on December 21st as a standard or digital deluxe download version only. The game is being ported via Transgaming’s Cider technology. The download will include The Stone Prisoner and the Blood Dragon Armor DLC. The deluxe version includes a collection of wallpapers, in-game bonus items, the game’s soundtrack and the Warden’s Keep additional content.

In Dragon Age: Origins, players take on the role of a Grey Warden, one of the last of an ancient order of guardians. Now, as an evil blight threatens to destroy all life, it is up to players to unite the shattered lands and slay the corrupted dragon known as the Archdemon.

Minimum specs are already available on the Bioware website:

• Mac OS X 10.6.2 Snow Leopard or higher
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
• 2 GB RAM
• ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 or greater
• At least 17 GB of hard drive space for installation
• This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5)-based Mac systems, or Intel GMA class of video cards.

This game will run on an Nvidia 7300?? Um…I’m gonna have to see that to believe it.

From Inside Mac Games: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is now available for the Mac! Warhammer Online features Realm vs Realm gameplay , allowing you to choose which army to ally with. You can join in PvE public quests as a solo player as well. Explore the world, learn ancient lore, or fight alongside your friends. Advanced guild features give more control to leaders and their members, and make guilds and integral part of the war efforts.

System requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or higher
• Intel Core Duo Processor
• 2 GB RAM
• ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM
• At least 15 GB of hard drive space for installation
• This game will NOT run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac).
• This game will NOT run on the Intel GMA 950 or X3100 class of integrated video cards.

You can download the full client here if you already have a Warhammer account, or the trial client if you want to try it out first for 30 days. The game is $19.95 from GameTree Online.