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In a post in the Ritualistic forum, Activision's Doug Pearson, producer for Star Trek: Elite Force II, confirmed that development of a Mac version of the game is well under way and will be published by Aspyr Media. According to Pearson, a simultaneous release is possible (the release is scheduled for June 2003).

Here's the post from Ritualistic's forum:

There will be a Macintosh version of the game. It is being done by Aspyr. They are already working on it and plan to release the Macintosh version very near the release timing of the PC version if not the same time.

The exact timing of the Mac launch won't be known for a while, but they are working towards releasing the Mac version as close to the PC launch as possible.

In this sequel to the critically acclaimed first person action game, players resume the role of Alexander Munro, chief of the Hazard Team, Starfleet’s elite security unit. Now assigned to the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-E, players will explore strange new worlds, battle against both new and familiar civilizations and go on the most dangerous assignments in the galaxy. Star Trek Elite Force II is being developed by Ritual Entertainment.

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Inside Mac Games has posted a review of Freedom Force. Developed by Irrational Games, ported to the Macintosh by Omni Group and published by MacPlay, Freedom Force is the first super hero RPG for the Macintosh.

Here's a clip from the review:

From a graphical perspective, Freedom Force excels. Stylish graphics and terrain solidify the comic book style, the settings and scenarios seeming to have been ported over from the collective conscious of the silver age writers and artists that established the genre in the first place. The colors, textures and gradients are as close to "comic book" as anything and with a few exceptions of selected enemies or characters looking a tad blocky, overdone or cheesy, everything is where it's meant to be, in order to establish the look and feel of things to come.

IMG Review: Freedom Force

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A Tale in the Desert, a new Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (commonly refered to as MMORPGs) launched its servers last Saturday, and is currently available as a free download for PC and Linux users.

The game features a nonviolent storyline that emphasizes exploration and character-building rather than combat. Below is the official news post from the game's website:

It's release day! At noon today, eastern standard time, the game opens. There's no registration webpage. All you have to do is download the game, run it, and follow the onscreen instructions.

Couple of things to note, SDL is NOT used for sound, however the sound engine is known to support OSX, most of the GUI should be a "fairly" (Unknown, for sure but the code is fairly portable) easy. The REAL PITA that I expect will be the the internal game structures and network protocols which are tied the byte ordering used by the servers. That will take a fair amount of careful planning to ensure that the changes dont impact other ports as well.

For those that dont know the x86 platform and the Mac PowerPC platforms store data diferently in memory. This difference will cause issues that need to be resolved before any Mac version can be released.

It IS being considered, but eGenesis really needs to see how this release goes to gauge the amount of resources that they can allocate to doing a port vs. the realistic revenue potential.

A Tale in the Desert

ATITD.net Forum: What about Mac OS X?

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Video gaming website Ritualistic has posted an exclusive interview with Star Trek: Elite Force II's lead programmer Steven Peeler and lead level designer Jerry Keehan, focusing on the game's multiplayer aspects. Covered is the multiplayer version's progress, what type of gameplay is to be expected, what sort of modes and modifications players will be able to use, and more. Below is an excerpt from the interview:

What general feel are you going for? Fast-paced a la Quake III Arena or realistic like Medal of Honor: Allied Assault?

The pace of Elite Force II multiplayer is more comparable to the Quake 3 style of play. With that said, Elite Force II gameplay has its own unique feel, thanks in part to the wide variety of weaponry available to the player.

Star Trek Elite Force II Multiplayer Interview

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Game developer Bioware brought good news to gamers last Friday concerning the upcoming Mac release of Neverwinter Nights with a news update on their Mac status page. The Mac code is currently synchronized with the PC code, both running the latest version of Neverwinter Nights, version 1.28. This quick turn-around is good to see, as the PC patch was just released last week as well.

In addition, Bioware has also added an abundance of new screenshots of the NWN Mac client in action. Here's the official word:

The code has been brought up to speed with the 1.28 update. Included below are some shots of the Gnolls invading the Mac client.

Neverwinter Nights: Mac Version

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Following the release of Mac OS X v10.2.4, two of the Mac gaming industry's top names, Westlake's Brad Oliver and Macplay's Matt Loria popped in to our very own forums to give users the lowdown of how the newest OS update has affected some of their products.

Brad Oliver of Westlake brings good news for owners of Aspyr Media's Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, stating that the 10.2.4 update fixes many video problems that JK2 had had before:

Also, it's worth pointing out that 10.2.4 does fix a number of issues that affected JK2, like the goofy texturing when FSAA is enabled on nVidia cards. It may also fix the crashing during level loading, but I don't have enough feedback to know if that is the case or not.

Loria also notes that the Mac 1.03 patch for SOFII, currently being sent to Activision for approval, should fix the problems upon release sometime soon. For more information about each game's changes, you can check out each thread at the IMG forums.

IMG Forums: Jedi Knight II keeps crashing??!!

IMG Forums: SOF2 Texture Compression Bug Fixed in 10.2.4?

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Leivoia of Master of Orion fansite The Orion Sector has posted an interesting "journal" of a typical game of Master of Orion 3 through the eyes of an ordinary gamer. The article gives readers a good idea of what playing Master of Orion 3 is like, and includes a detailed synopsis of what's going on while the game is being played, with accompanying screenshots.

Below is an excerpt from the full article:

The Humans have colonized one of my core systems which stands at the junction point between our two empires. I cannot work with them diplomatically and they are blockading my planet and my people are starving. I sent a 3-ship task force of low-tech patrols to scare them away. That did not work, so I have decided to raid the colony they have established (two I find out). I destroy their 3-ship fleet and knock away at the planet, but I don't have the power to take out their fighter base at this point and they cannot shoot me down in time; the battle ends in a draw. The good news is that they have no more ships blockading my system, but I do :-) The tables have turned, now they can starve for a while.

A Typical Game of MoO3

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Ambrosia Software recently updated the progress log for their upcoming game, Redline. Redline is an all-new 3D racing game being developed by Ambrosia, which features accurate physics, impressive graphics, and online multiplayer. The latest progress update notes some of the new features currently being added in, including drafting and force-feedback support (for users of Mac OS X 10.2.3 or higher).

Here's the full update:

• menu interface input handling rewritten to be much more responsive.
• implemented drafting. you can hear the when you are riding another cars slip stream, as the wind noises won't be as loud.
• force feedback support - yes it's there! - you can feel the traction on the steering wheels, and the smoothness of the surface you are driving on. However, I have never actually had a chance to try any other ffb-enabled racing game with a wheel, so I cannot tell how well redline's ffb implementation compares

Redline Update

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In a thorough Q&A session about Epic's new game Unreal II, the folks over at 4Unrealers have interviewed project leader on Unreal II Glen Dahlgren about most everything in his new game. Covering a bit of the story, weapons, alien races and all sorts of nuances, Glen gives 4Unrealers a complete runthrough of Unreal II. He also explains a few omissions, future third party mods, and where the Epic team is headed in the near future.

MooN: Tell us something about the characters. How many races or species can we find in the game and could you shortly describe them?

Glen Dahlgren: I’ll give you a small sampling. There are a number of factions vying for the artifacts. The Skaarj, of course, return from Unreal 1 to put their bid in, and there are three different types of Skaarj to contend with. The Liandri Angels are genetically enhanced female mercenaries, and the Izanagi Ghost warriors are skilled soliders, both of which come in three different types. Beyond that, the Izarians are a slave race to the Skaarj, and they like to attack in groups, given that they can’t very well fall back on their intelligence. And not much is known about the Drakk, a race of mechanical beings who long ago eliminated their biological creators. The rest I’ll leave for the player to discover.

MooN: Any plans for a linux or macintosh version?

Glen Dahlgren: Although there are no current plans for linux and macintosh versions, both are topics that we are discussing.

4Unrealers Q&A

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