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Aspyr Media has announced that their upcoming space-themed management sim, Space Colony, has reached beta status. Space Colony allows players to combine all the intricacies of running a Space Colony with the most disfunctional crew ever assembled, while fighting off aliens and attempting to make a profit. Here's a brief bio of the game from Aspyr's website:

Save the Colony! Your staff are brawling, the Harvester Robot is chain sawing its way through the oxygen supply and small furry aliens have taken over the disco. This is home!

Each unique personality has a mind of its own so remember happy colonists make for productive colonists. Ignore them and they'll pick fights, argue, get depressed, and eventually go crazy. Nurture them and they will work hard for you, become friends and maybe even fall in love!

With over 100 buildings at your disposal, it's up to you to build a colony that meets all the colonists' needs and keeps them safe and happy. So before you shell out all your credits on iron extraction and space chicken productions to bring in the cash, remember, that without a gym, a sauna or a half decent restaurant, nobody's going to want to work for you!

Space Colony (add to watch list)

Aspyr Media (add to watch list)

Buy Space Colony

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In their latest Friday update, Mac game publishing powerhouse Feral Interactive have announced that they're now taking pre-orders for their upcoming release of Ubisoft's first person shooter, XIII.

Based on the popular Belgian comic book of the same name, the game puts players in the shoes of a man who wakes up having lost his memory, with swarms of armed killers chasing after him, and a strange new tattoo on his chest. The game immerses players in a highly-stylized, cell-shaded universe, on a perpetual search to discover the identity of your avatar – a highly-trained professional killer – and find out why so many people want him dead.

The game, whose minimum system requirements call for a 700 Mhz G3 or G4 running OS X 10.2 and a 32 Mb video card, is available for pre-order from the Feral website at the price of € 50, or $55 USD, including shipping.

Gamers wanting to pre-order the title might also want to check out Feral's new special offer, which bundles the upcoming shooter with another action-packed oldie-but-goodie, Max Payne. Similar in theme with the new title, the highly-stylized third person shooter, which uses comic book frames to propel the game's story, puts players in control of a distressed New York undercover cop seeking revenge of his wife and daughter's killer.

The XIII/Max Payne bundle, also available from the Feral website, is being offered for € 70 ($80 USD). Click on the links below to pre-order your copy.

XIII, Bundle Pre-Order

XIII (add to watch list)

Max Payne (add to watch list)

Feral Interactive (add to watch list)

Buy XIII

Buy Max Payne

Custer's Desktops is back this week with another new desktop featuring Pangea's Nanosaur 2: Hatchling. Here's what Custer had to say about his latest creation:

Nanosaur 2: Hatchling has been highly desired since its release. And if you're a regular viewer then you know how much I strive to honor all requests. In this week's wallpaper I wanted to highlight the great comic book art featured on the packaging. So, with the help of Brian Greenstone of Pangea Software and the internet, I was able to create this desktop. I simply entitled this feature, "Hatchling", and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it. :)

IMG: Custer's Desktops

id Software co-founder and master programmer John Carmack made his first public appearance earlier this week at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose. In the exclusive keynote, Carmack discussed the such hot topics as development on their upcoming Doom 3, as well as company's plans for the future. HomeLan Fed, a popular gaming community, has posted a recap of the keynote, available now on their website. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Carmack confirmed that id is already thinking about their next first person shooter project after Doom III is due. Unlike Doom III, which is in its fourth year of development, Carmack said their next game is only supposed to take a couple of years to make, mainly due to the fact that they don't plan to make a huge graphical leap as they did from Quake 3 Arena to Doom III.

Recap: John Carmack at GDC

id Software (add to watch list)

Buy DOOM 3

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