The 2006 Independent Games Festival has announced the finalists in several categories to compete for this year's prizes honoring independent games. Among the finalists are several Macintosh games including Darwinia, Professor Fizzwizzle, Tribal Trouble, and Dofus.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize: Darwinia, Dofus, Professor Fizzwizzle, Weird Worlds: Return To Infinite Space, Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa.
Best Web Browser Game: Dodge That Anvil, Moleculous, Dad 'N Me.
Innovation In Game Design: Rumble Box, Strange Attractors, Braid, The Witch's Yarn, Darwinia.
Technical Excellence: Saints & Sinners Bowling, Tribal Trouble, Tube Twist, Darwinia, Crazy Ball.
Innovation In Visual Art: Dofus, Darwinia, Putt Nutz, Glow Worm, Thomas And The Magical Words
Innovation In Audio: Professor Fizzwizzle, Saints & Sinners Bowling, Dodge That Anvil, Glow Worm, Weird Worlds: Return To Infinite Space.

2006 Independent Games Festival

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Salvo!, a game published by Shrapnel Games and developed by Sprue Games tries hard to recreate the intensity of naval combat during the peak and dying days of the age of sail. However when it all comes down to it, Salvo! is a game that suffers from serious flaws.

To check out IMG's review of the game, follow the link below.

IMG Review: Salvo!

Shrapnel Games (add to watch list)

Salvo! (add to watch list)

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Icculus.org recently posted the Unreal Tournament 2004 3369.1 Hotfix Patch. The patch several Mac/Linux problems including better OpenAL support. From the Icculus.org website:

• Linux: Fixed large memory usage.
  
• x86 Linux: Reenabled Pixomatic renderer ("PixoDrv").
  
• Mac OS X: game will now run on Mac OS X 10.2.8 ("Jaguar") again.
  
• Mac OS X: 3D audio now correctly spatializes, other OpenAL fixes.

For more information on the patch or the Megapack, click the links below.

Digital Extremes (add to watch list)

MacSoft (add to watch list)

Epic Games (add to watch list)

Unreal Tournament 2004 (add to watch list)

UT 2004 Megapack

Icculus.org - 3369.1 HotFix Patch

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Chronic Ligc recently announced they will be hosting a free Bridge Construction Set contest. Bridge Construction Set (BCS) is a physics-based puzzle game that challenges players to build bridges with a set budget. The contest targets gamer's who haven't tried BCS and awards winning designs with a free copy of the game. From the Chronic Logic website:

Chronic Logic has released a FREE Contest Demo of the award winning game, Bridge Construction Set. Download the contest demo version for Windows and Linux and build a Bridge for a chance to win a free game from Chronic Logic. We hope the have an OSX version of the contest demo soon. Our Mac stopped working right before the start of the contest and we need it to build the contest demo for OSX. If you have the full version of Bridge Construction Set for OSX you can just download the contest level as described below. To participate in the Bridge Building contest download the Bridge Construction Set Contest Demo version and read the Contest Rules. All valid entries will have a chance to win a free Chronic Logic Game.

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Chronic Logic Website - BCS Contest

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Aspyr has announced that The Sims 2 University, the first expansion pack for The Sims 2, has gone golden master and is expected to begin shipping to retail and online stores tomorrow, December 14th.

The Sims 2 University allows players to explore a whole new stage of life as young adults and introduces college-related wants and fears that are
ultimately tied to their Sims’ social life and academic goals. The expansion also introduces influence gameplay allowing players to earn influence points to have other Sims do certain tasks for them such as homework, term papers, cleaning up the fraternity house or even pulling pranks on other Sims. Players will be able to choose from one of 11 majors and open up 4 new career paths as they make their way through University.

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Maxis (add to watch list)

The Sims 2: University (add to watch list)

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iDevGames sent out a reminder today that voting for the OMG Cup, sponsored by Freeverse Software and PureStatic, will be coming to an end on December 15th. The OMG (Original Mac Games) Cup is a new game programming contest established by iDevGames (www.idevgames.com) to encourage unique Mac game development.

"We're very pleased with the entries in our first ever OMG Cup", said Carlos Camacho, Editor-in-Chief of iDevGames. He adds, "The talent of independent Mac game developers in our community bodes extremely well for the future of Mac gaming as we move towards the Intel-based Mac era."

The public is encouraged to download and vote for the free contest entries. The finalists will be announced on January 12, 2006 at MacWorld 2006 by representatives of Freeverse Software. OMG Cup 2005 features a broad range of game genres including, side scrolling shooters, classic arcade and even some entries that have created entirely new ways of playing games.

Download Contest Entries

Vote for your favorite games

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In the company's most recent newsletter Running With Scissors officially announced work has begun on the third installment of the controversial Postal series. Currently under the working title Postal 3: Catharsis, the first person shooter will continue the destructive saga of The Dude.

It has been formally announced that the next milestone in the POSTAL saga is already in development. The game, under the working title, POSTAL 3: Catharsis and is headed directly down the throat of the XBox 360 and the PC. More details on what happens to a complex, multi-dimensional individual like The Dude after he has razed Paradise and left it a (radioactive) parking lot. Let the questions and suggestions pour forth.

To read the entire newsletter and learn more about the new download option click on the following links.

Running With Scissors December Newsletter

Postal Games Available For Download

Running With Scissors (add to watch list)

Postal 2 (add to watch list)

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Blizzard Entertainment has released a new update patch for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the expansion The Frozen Throne. The upgrade brings the game to version 1.20b and has been released to address a crash exploit which could occasionally occur in multiplayer games.

The update can be downloaded from Battle.net or as a standalone updater from Blizzard's support site. Follow the links below for more information.

Warcraft III Patch Information

Patch Download

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WarCraft III (add to watch list)

WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne (add to watch list)

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Buy WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne

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