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Electronic Arts and TransGaming has announced the release of The Sims Medieval. The new standalone sim game for Mac and Windows gives players the tools to create heroes, take them on quests, build up their kingdom and "tell epic stories full of drama, romance, and comedy."

“Our community has wanted to be able to place their Sims in a different time period for years and now they can with The Sims Medieval,” said Scott Evans, General Manager of The Sims Studio. “The Sims Medieval is a new standalone game that keeps the core values of The Sims at its heart, but gives fans new gameplay elements to explore and allows them to tell epic Medieval tales.”

Set in the Middle Ages, players will find themselves faced with new ways to play with life like never before. As they build up their kingdom, players create Hero Sims in a range of professions including knight, bard, wizard, priest, blacksmith and spy. Playing each Hero Sim is different, as players control the Sim’s professional life as well as take on the varied adventures of the quests. Other new gameplay elements include diplomacy with neighboring territories, and of course medieval punishments.

The gameplay is framed by quests– each quest presents a new situation and a fresh opportunity to pick which Hero Sims to control during that adventure. After choosing a quest, players will pick their approach for solving it and choose which Hero Sim will lead the quest. For example, in the quest The Witch is Back, players could choose to have their monarch marry the witch who is visiting the kingdom. If they want to kill the witch, they would choose the wizard, spy or knight. And if they just want to debilitate the witch, they would choose to play a priest, physician, or wizard. With dozens of quests and with multiple approaches for completing them, players will find new ways to tell their favorite medieval legends and make them their own.

Everything in The Sims Medieval is crafted to create an immersive medieval world, from the quest-based gameplay, to the medieval objects such as swords and stocks and thrones, right down to the warm look of the characters and the painterly approach to the world itself. Players can choose to customize every new Hero Sim that comes to the kingdom, including selecting their traits and their fatal flaw. Players get close to their characters, not only sending them on epic quests, but also making sure they carry out their daily responsibilities such as healing the sick, trading for exotic goods, or forging armor.

Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard or higher
  
• Intel Core Duo Processor
  
• 2 GB RAM
  
• At least 5.3 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games
  
• ATI X1600 or Nvidia 8600 GT with 256 MB of Video RAM
  
• Keyboard and mouse
  
• NOTE: This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems, or the GMA class of integrated video cards.

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Destructoid has posted a new review of Dragon Age 2. Brought to Macs by TransGaming using the company's Cider Portability Engine, the game puts players in the role of Hawke and allows them to craft the story of the legend's rise to power. Destructoid gave the game a score of 7 out of 10.

From the review:

Hawke’s companions have their own lives and motivations and generally act independently of our hero. Each companion is relatively well-drawn, and Hawke is often left with the unenviable task of picking up the pieces and protecting her friends from their foibles and pitfalls. The companion quests are by far the most engaging of the game, in terms of both quest structure and their contribution to that character’s growth or the overall narrative. Merrill’s is particularly harrowing, the result of which is an act that, more than any other in Dragon Age II, will define my experience with it; Aveline’s, on the other hand, is heart-warming in equal measure.

It is unfortunate, then, that the game doesn’t allow for more interaction. The extensive back-and-forth conversations that so richly complimented Origins are only available during specific quests, the party’s camp having been replaced by individual houses and apartments scattered throughout Kirkwall. Fewer opportunities for interaction means that relationships are less subtle, less nuanced -- companions are drawn to overblown extremes in order to push their sub-plot forward. And that’s too bad: Hawke’s companions are weak, frail people with obvious moral blind spots and their own ways of coping with their lives in Kirkwall, and they are a joy to talk to. That I often sought out chances to excoriate Anders or protect Merrill are credit to David Gaider’s characterization and the role-playing he encourages; that I wasn’t allowed to do so is a black spot on Dragon Age II.

Destructoid: Dragon Age 2 Review

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Feral Interactive has announced it is now offering a selection of titles from its list of Macintosh games for immediate purchase and download online from the Feral website. The seven titles available at launch are Borderlands, BioShock, Rome: Total War Gold Edition, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Battlestations: Pacific, Brothers in Arms: Double Time and Puzzler World. More titles will be available in the future.

“The launch of a download service from our own web store at feralinteractive.com, is a milestone for us,” said David Stephen, Feral Interactive’s Managing Director. “Combining that with the availability of our titles on the Mac App Store, and through digital delivery partners worldwide we are on the way to realizing the goal of making Feral's Mac games more easily available at all times to all our customers.”

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Valve has released a new Portal 2 trailer promoting the upcoming release of the action puzzler. The video features Aperture Science CEO Cave Johnson and is the first of four "investment opportunity" trailers planned for release in the lead up to the April 19 debut of Portal 2.

"Portal 2 is the best documentary-style investment opportunity game we've ever contributed to," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve, "and we're confident that savvy investors will immediately see the value in these product demonstration videos."

The first video, titled "Panels", showcases one of the many lucrative products in development at the applied sciences company. Narrated by Aperture CEO and founder Cave Johnson, it offers a fascinating glimpse at the future of test environment construction.

YouTube: Portal 2 Trailer

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