Apple eNews: Macworld Games



By Brad Cook As Apple CEO Steve Jobs highlighted in his Macworld New York keynote address, games will be a big part of the transition to Mac OS X, and several companies are ready with titles you can load on your Mac and play in either Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X. One of the most significant announcements from the game companies at the expo was MacPlay’s upcoming release of Giants: Citizen Kabuto, the first game to run exclusively in Mac OS X. A game that’s equal parts strategy, action, and off-the-wall humor, Giants takes place millions of years in the past on a planetoid—called “The Island”—that’s hurtling through the cosmos someplace far from the Milky Way. In Giants, you can choose to play one of three three races: Kabuto, an ill-tempered giant who’s the first and last of his kind; the Sea Reapers, who created Kabuto and regretted it after he turned on them; and the Meccaryns, who had been on a joy ride in space but were forced to land on The Island when they developed spaceship trouble. With 25 missions to play and the ability to frag your friends over the Internet or a LAN, Giants is not only the first game to be exclusive to Mac OS X, but is also one of the first optimized for NVIDIA’s new GeForce 3 graphics cards. Other games that will be on the way from MacPlay in the coming months are the role-playing game Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn, the strategy title Sacrifice, and the classics Heretic II and Zork Grand Inquisitor. All will be playable in Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X. Aspyr to New Gaming Heights If you watched Jobs’ keynote address, you saw Aspyr’s president Mike Rogers showing off the wicked skateboarding moves in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, another game that’s ready for Mac OS X. But that’s not the only game Aspyr tempted Macworld crowds with. Over in the Gaming Theater, Aspyr displayed Mac OS X versions of The Sims and its expansion pak House Party (both of which will be available soon). It also thrilled Expo attendees with Alice and Tomb Raider: Chronicles, both of which are playable in Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X now. Aspyr also announced that it will be distributing two new games—the 50s B-movie styled Otto Matic, from Pangea Software (the folks who brought you Cro-Mag Rally and Bugdom), and Freeverse Software’s iPuppet Classic cards.		Both titles—which are ready for Mac OS X—were on display in the Gaming Theater. In Otto Matic, you play a robot who travels from planet to planet to defeat the evil aliens who are abducting humans. Each level is reminiscent of a science-fiction movie from the 1950s, from the blob-like monsters in one level to the oversized insects in another. iPuppet Classic Cards allows you to upload a photo of yourself and play Hearts, Spades, Euchre, or Pitch against your friends over the Internet. You can even create your own playing areas. Fun For Everyone MacSoft also has a couple of upcoming titles you may enjoy. Take, for example, Wheel of Fortune 2 and Jeopardy 2, which include sample contestant exams, hidden interviews with stars Vanna White and Alex Trebek, and brand new puzzles and questions to wrack your brain. MacSoft also announced at Macworld that it’s now shipping its irreverent strategy game Tropico and that first-person shooters Duke Nukem Forever and Beach Head 2002 will be added to their line-up of upcoming titles. Time to Do Battle Also showcasing an upcoming game during the keynote was Blizzard Entertainment, whose fantasy strategy game Warcraft III will be available for Mac OS 9 and X. The story is set 15 years after the last Human-Orc war, during an uneasy peace that’s about to be shattered by the coming of the Burning Legion. You can choose to command either the Human or Orc armies; or, you can command one of two other forces: the Night Elves (a mysterious race with the capacity for magic) or the Scourge (a group of undead warriors who can add their slain enemies to their forces). When you pick up Warcraft III, you’ll probably want to play it online, and like previous Warcraft releases, this edition will be playable on Blizzard’s Battle.net. If you’re a fan of online gaming, there’s a good chance you’ll find some opponents on Game Ranger, where plenty of Mac gamers are currently going head-to-head in Unreal Tournament, Monopoly, Warcraft II, and other titles. The Macintosh-only online gaming service hosts over 70 games, and a Mac OS X version was just announced at Macworld.