Click to enlarge

Following up on the news of Blizzard's recent update of its flagship RTS title Warcraft III to version 1.03, several forum goers reported their inability to access the update via Battle.net due to various connection issues.

Not one to leave loyal players out in the cold, Blizzard has kindly posted the 1.03 update as a standalone download. Those interested in downloading the Mac patch, which weighs in at around 3.25 MB, can find it at the provided link. A list of changes made in this and previous versions is also available.

Hopefully, this alternative solution will make the upgrade accessible to all, particularly since readers have reported performance increases following the patch.

On a related note, Rob Barris, of Blizzard Entertainment, recently posted in the IMG forums seeking help in trying to pin-point the problem some users are having connecting to Battle.Net through university connections.

Here's the post by Barris:

If you are experiencing a battle.net connect problem and would like to help, contact me at the email address below. This type of problem is happening at more than one school, the initial indication is that there is in fact a bug in some routers which affects TCP packets from OS9 and OSX and not Windows. In these cases even a simple telnet command to one of our servers will fail, with no game code involved.

If you have ever looked at the raw packet data coming out of an OSX machine (or even a PC running BSD UNIX) and a Windows machine, you'll notice that they do not speak precisely the same flavor of TCP/IP - TCP is a standard but one with many options. One of these subtle differences is causing connections to fail in the presence of the affected routers.

IMG Preview: WarCraft III

Blizzard Entertainment (add to watch list)

WarCraft III (add to watch list)

MGF: Download WarCraft III 1.0.3

IMG Forum: WC3 1.03 is out!!

Buy WarCraft III

Click to enlarge

On Tuesday MacPlay released a patch for Fallout 2, but a few hours later it was pulled due to technical issues with the patch. Today the company has re-released an updated version of the same patch. The 3.3 MB patch addresses the following issues:

Fixes hanging when exiting application

Fixes save and load crashes and errors during game

Fixes save function on pre-generated and modified characters

Fixes crash at end of game

IMG Review: Fallout 2

MacPlay (add to watch list)

Omni Group (add to watch list)

Fallout 2 (add to watch list)

MGF: Fallout 2 1.02a (3.3 MB)

Buy Fallout 2

Click to enlarge

Although this news isn't quite Mac-related, we thought we might ease everyone's fears by bringing this article to your attention.

Australian News website Australian IT posted an article on Thursday reporting on the results of a recent study conducted by Queensland University PhD student Sue Morris.

Ms Morris' study focused on the social aspects of playing online computer games, and her results fly in the face of current popular opinion about online gaming:

"The moral panic is based on this idea that people playing these types of games are just sitting at their computers for hours on end ... a really anti-social thing," Ms Morris said.

"But it's actually a very social world ... it's about challenge because people are playing these games like sport. These games are a very social realm rather than pure aggression or pure catharsis. The focus isn't about the violence, it's about challenge, it's about competition, it's about cooperation... A lot of people describe the pleasure of being part of a community or being part of a clan and working together just the same way as team sports has always been recognised as encouraging cooperation."

Thanks to IMG Forum participant monkeyphonix for the heads up on this article.

Multiplayer Game Study Results

IMG Forums

MacPlay today announced that it had reached an agreement with Feral Interactive to distribute the later company's Macintosh products in North America. According to the press relese, the agreement covers future releases as well as Feral’s existing line-up that include Black & White and Sheep.

Here's a snippet from the press release:

"We're very excited to enter into this relationship with MacPlay," said David Stephen of Feral Interactive. "This market is very important to our continued success and MacPlay’s knowledge of the retail channel will help us to position our products more effectively for our North American customers.”

"Feral Interactive is a very progressive company and we feel that this partnership will enable us to bring some of the best content to the North American marketplace," said Mark Cottam, President of MacPlay. "Black & White was one of the top releases in 2002 and we are therefore extremely excited about the pending release of Creature Isle.”

MacPlay (add to watch list)

Feral Interactive (add to watch list)

Inside Mac Games has posted the 12th part in an ongoing conversation between old friends Glenda Adams, Mac gaming goddess and president of Westlake Interactive, and Tuncer Deniz, publisher and editor-in-chief of IMG.

Here an excerpt to whet your palate:

Tuncer: What kind of things could be improved for Mac OS X, from a gaming standpoint?

Glenda: Support for force feedback will be a good next step for HID, and I've already talked to Apple about that. Continuing extensions to OpenGL are also important, like the texture compression additions we're using for EverQuest. And as an end user, I would love to continue to see speed and interface optimizations, just to keep making the OS X experience better and better.

One on One With Glenda Adams

Click to enlarge

IMG resident desktop guru, Brad Custer, as is customary on Friday, has posted a new desktop to his section. This week's desktop features Destineer's recently announced fantasy role-playing game, Dungeon Siege, due out in early 2003.

Here's what Brad had to say about his latest creation:

Dungeon Seige is an action fantasy role playing game that takes place in a continuous and gigantic fully 3D world. This was a late request that showed up in my inbox Wednesday. It peaked my interest so I decided to feature it as this week's desktop. Using my elite internet skills I was able to come up with the art to create this one. ;) I entitled it "The Adventurer" and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.

Custer's Desktops

Bold (add to watch list)

Westlake Interactive (add to watch list)

Buy Dungeon Siege

Click to enlarge

Users currently enjoing Apple's .Mac service may have noticed some new welcome gifts, both free and discounted, waiting in their iDisks. As noted by MacDailyNews, full members can access a free copy of PopCap Games' puzzle title Alchemy Deluxe, which gives players the task of arranging magic runes in order to turn stone into gold.

Also offered is a $5 discount off of Bejeweled Deluxe, another title by PopCap. Dubbed "Game of the Year" by Handheld Computing and Computer Gaming World, Bejeweled is a grid-based puzzle game featuring a strong soundtrack and some graphical enhancements from the original.

For those without a .Mac account, both titles are also downloadable from PopCap's website. Those interested in more information can also check out our review of both titles.

PopCap Games

MacDailyNews - Apple gives .Mac members free copy of Alchemy Deluxe; discounted Bejeweled game

IMG - Bejeweled & Alchemy Review

MacPlay (add to watch list)

Bejeweled & Alchemy (add to watch list)

Worth Playing has just posted up a new interview with Dragon's Lair 3D creator, Don Bluth. It's been a long time in the making, but it's first release for PC and X-Box are scheduled for November. The game is scheduled for release on all console systems, PC and Mac.

Here's a snippet of the interview:

WP: The gaming industry has grown tremendously in the past 20 years to even surpass the movie industry. What are the biggest similarities and differences in the game creating process compared the animated movie creating process?

Bluth: The problem that animators have - which is similar to what actors have - is (that) before they pick up a pencil and draw a character, either his design or draw him moving, they have to figure out what’s going on in his head. Whether it is a game or a movie, I think the first place you go is you have to find the character. With Dirk, that’s what it was all about. We wanted to find out what was going on inside this guy’s head. We used this same approach in creating Dragon’s Lair 3D.

Don Bluth Interview at Worth Playing

Blue Byte (add to watch list)

Dragon's Lair 3D (add to watch list)

Battlefront, responsible for such hit tactical combat sims as the original Combat Mission and Combat Mission II: Barbarossa to Berlin has opened up the website for their newest online, turn-based mini game, Mini Combat II.

This sequel to the original, Mini Combat is a web and turn-based strategy game that runs on Macromedia Flash, and was designed to promote the Combat Mission series.

Mini Combat II is completely free, and all that is required is an internet connection and the latest Macromedia flash plugin (download link provided). If you'd like to give Mini Combat II a try, you can register at its official website.

Mini Combat II

Register an MCII Account

Download Flash Player Plugin

Click to enlarge

On Thursday, Guild Software released a test version 3.0.7 of their space combat game Vendetta.

The Vendetta Test is a Deathmatch and Capture The Flag game created using Guild's very own WGAF engine. The game is unique in that rather than running around on foot armed to the teeth with flak cannons and sniper rifles, Vendetta's action takes place in space using a variety of differently-equipped ships.

Version 3.0.7 improves the CTF aspect of the game by tweaking gameplay issues and adding economic incentives to the game:

A 4000-credit bonus (goes to) to the user who captures an enemy flag, 2000 credits for the rest of the nation (only people who are online at the time). Additionally, there's a bonus for nation who's flag has been stolen but recovered.

If you're interested in participating in the test, you'll need to create an account and download their client software. System requirements are currently listed as any G3 or G4 based Mac equipped with 128 megs of RAM, a 16 MB 3D-accelerated video card, and Mac OS X.

Stay tuned to IMG for news on the game's progress.

Vendetta Central

Guild Software (add to watch list)

Vendetta Online (add to watch list)

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.