Amy Torres of Aspyr Media sends word that Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast has reached the final candidate stages. This means that the game is essentially finished with porting and testing by Aspyr and Westlake Interactive, and they only need final approval before moving it into duplication and shipping. Aspyr hopes to have the title available sometime in October.

[Update] IMG has just confirmed with Torres they are also in the process of working on a demo for the game now. While they don't yet have a tentative release date for it, we'll keep you posted with any new information regarding the demo.

This is great news for the highly anticipated game, which gives you the ability to play again as Kyle Katam in the Star Wars universe. Along with the many standard weapons, the biggest feature of Jedi Knight II is the lightsaber and Force Powers. Jedi Knight also features a multiplayer with two modes, training and team-based play. Here are the final system requirements for the game in an accompanying September Aspyr newsletter:

• Mac OS 9.1 or later (with virtual memory on)
  
• Mac OS X compatible, version 10.1 or later
  
• G3 or G4 Processor at 400 MHz or faster
  
• 128 MB of Memory (256 MB recommended)
  
• 4X CD-ROM (16X recommended)
  
• Hard Drive, with 665 MB minimum free space
  
• Hardware 3D Acceleration required (ATI Radeon/NVidia GeForce card)
  

Elsewhere in the Aspyr newsletter, they recap some other recent good news, including the expansion for Star Wars Galactic Battlgrounds, called Clone Campaigns also reaching Final Candidate status. Another title currently in beta, but "rapidly approaching the FC" is Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon. Finally, The Sims Vacation is now in stores as well.

Be sure to sign up to the Aspyr newsletter for all the latest info about the company, as well as word on many contests and specials through the Aspyr store. If you haven't yet pre-ordered Jedi Knight II, Clone Campaigns, or Ghost Recon, be sure to do so now either at Aspyr or the IMG Store.

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (add to watch list)

IMG Preview: Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

Aspyr Media (add to watch list)

Westlake Interactive (add to watch list)

Raven Software (add to watch list)

Buy Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

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