Click to enlarge

Aspyr Media recently began shipping Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization to Mac gamers. Released in partnership with 2K Games, Colonization is the fifth addition from Aspyr to the popular Civlization IV franchise and challenges players to lead one of four European nations on a quest to colonize the New World.

Developed by Firaxis Games, creators of the award-winning Civilization franchise, Colonization adds an entirely new scenario to the ever-evolving world of Civilization. In Colonization, players lead one of four European nations on a quest to colonize and thrive in the New World. Players are challenged to guide their people from the oppressive motherland; discover the New World; and negotiate, trade and fight as they acquire power and battle for their freedom and independence. Usher forth a new generation of Sid Meier’s Colonization with gameplay built on the award-winning Civilization IV engine, providing the beautiful visuals, famously addictive gameplay and endless fun that are synonymous with Sid Meier strategy games.

Features:

• Improved Diplomacy: Sustain peace and support your followers as you engage in advanced negotiations with natives, other colonists and the hostile homeland—Trade resources, gold and land as you build the foundation for a self sufficient and powerful colony.
• Brand New Interface: Both Civilization IV fans and players new to the series will feel right at home with an interface that Firaxis has built to be accessible and easy to navigate.
• ultiplayer Offers Endless Replay Value: Compete with friends from all over the world via the Internet and LAN modes, offering endless ways to conquer the New World.
• Detailed Tutorial Guides Players In Their Conquest: Civilization IV: Colonization will provide an enhanced tutorial that will help both fans of the game and brand new players on their way to ruling the New World.

• Mac OS X 10.5.8 or 10.6.1 or later
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo processor operating at 1.83GHz or faster
  
• 1GB RAM
  
• 1GB free hard disk space
  
• ATI Radeon X1600 or Nvidia GeForce 8600 or better 3D graphics with 128MB VRAM
  
• DVD-ROM drive

Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization costs $40 and does not require the original Civilization IV to play. It is rated “E10+” by the ESRB for Everyone 10 and older. For more information please visit the links below.

Aspyr Media (add to watch list)

Firaxis Games (add to watch list)

Civilization IV: Colonization (add to watch list)

The Loop: Civ IV Colonization Now Shipping

Buy Civilization IV: Colonization

Click to enlarge

Soldak Entertainment, developer of Depths of Peril and Kivi's Underworld, has released more new information about the upcoming action RPG, Din's Curse. The latest update features three new additions to the creature list with the unveiling of the Frenzy Targ, the Fury, and the Sentinel.

Frenzy Targ
This armor plated reptile is named after its behavior when it's scared. It will go into a frenzy that makes it more powerful and dangerous while frightening nearby monsters, even its own kind. A pack of these monsters is especially deadly because they'll scare each other until they're all in a crazed frenzy.

Fury
Most creatures die before coming close to molten lava, but not the Fury. They were born from it. These four-armed, red giants have pushed deeper into the underworld, perhaps from war or overpopulation. It is unknown. They are a danger to dark elf and lumen alike.

Din's Curse Monsters

Soldak Entertainment (add to watch list)

Din's Curse (add to watch list)

Buy Din's Curse

Click to enlarge

Independent developer Simone Bevilacqua has announced the release of a new theme for BOH as well as the Instant Reward Initiative, a chance for graphics artists to receive a free copy of the game. The retro action game of exploration challenges players to travel through trap filled corridors, solve puzzles, and defeat enemies as they quest to find and defeat the Evil Masters. BOH features 25 missions and 5 difficulty levels.

To celebrate the end of the year that has seen the birth of BOH, the collection of expansions grows with a brand-new, claustrophobically oppressive theme: "underground". The theme can be downloaded for free from the DOWNLOADS page of the official website

If you are a graphic artist - and, even better, a pixeller - here is a chance for you to get a free copy of BOH! You just have to prove to be very motivated and capable of producing the graphics of a theme for BOH itself: if you are assigned the task, you immediately get a full digital copy of the game. And, as if that were not enough, if you manage to create particularly brilliant graphics, you will be rewarded also with a physical copy.

BOH Downloads

BOH Instant Rewards Initiative

BOH (add to watch list)

Ayalogic has announced the release of an alpha build for the Mac version of imVOX, a new voice communication service designed "to broaden the use of voice in games." The free imVOX service allows up to 30 gamers to join a voice chat for free, or up to 250 for the paid premium service.

The software runs in the background while a user plays a multiplayer game like World of Warcraft to provide users with better communication with teammates. Premium services will be available for $24.99 USD per year, and will provide users with the ability to connect up to 250 users to a single server and expanded in-client features such as text-to-voice and a customizable client.

We've actually released an early release Mac version finally after much work. Currently it is still being worked on, and we'll admit that its got some room to grow (doesn't look/act Mac-like yet), but we're on it!

Hot off the press is the imVOX Mac client. This thing is so hot off the press I'd say its radioactive, as in not fully stable. Call it an alpha, call it a nightly build. Call it what you will. It works (mostly, or at least most of the time) and its available for you to try out. Just don't cry to me if it goes down when you're facing off with the Lich King. Don't say I didn't warn you!

The download is somewhat bigger than the PC version due to the fact that it includes the Mono Framework that we're using instead of Microsoft's .NET for Windows.

Go ahead- download it. Mount the image, and give it a shot. You'll have to install Mono before running it, but doing so is quick and painless. Then just drag imVOX to your Applications folder and you're good to go.

imVOX Mac Client Download

imVOX

Ayalogic

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