Macworld Gaming: Day Two

Macworld Conference and Exposition; worth its price in T-shirts.

Never in my life have I had so many people hand me T-shirts. It's almost like Christmas here at the Javits Center in New York City, only it'd be a fairly bad one. Who wants nothing but T-shirts for Christmas, especially with all the Mac games that are being shown off here?

For instance, you've got Macsoft. As they drove me around midtown Manhattan in a stretch limosine, I was lucky to see early versions of two of their newly announced titles, Risk 2 and Wheel of Fortune. The limosine was a cool way to try to impress me, but it wasn't needed...the games look great enough.

The moment Al Schilling launched Risk 2 on his PowerBook I found myself scrawling "graphics are gorgeous" in my notebook. The world map where most of the strategy takes place is beautifully drawn, much like the type you see framed and hanging on library walls. But of course, that's not all you see. When you initiate a battle, the view swoops in to show the action. There, it's like watching tin soldiers go to war. But don't fear; if you're more into the strategy and gameplay than the graphics, this feature can be turned off. You can also view the map as a 3D globe which spins upon your command to show different areas. Not quite as functional as the flat map, of course, but it looks really, really cool.

They also showed off the first playable version of Wheel of Fortune, which Westlake Interactive (who are also working on Risk 2) just completed a few days before. The colors are bright and casino-like, just as you'd expect from the show, and the game even has different background settings. Want to have a Wheel of Fortune Hawaii week? No problem. Unfortunately, teen week, twin week, celebrity week, sick with the flu week and all those other ratings boosting shows are not supported. And here I was so looking forward to taking on Jon Lovitz. But hey, Vanna's here, although Pat's not, so fans of show will get all they want and more.

We also talked about the other games MacSoft will soon bring to the Mac, among them Jeopardy, the Mac Kids Pack, Rogue Spear, the RPG game Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption, and Beach Head 2000. Beach Head, which is currently playable although I didn't get to see it, is a level based action/arcade game developed by Digital Fashion. In it, players must defend the photo realistic beach from wave after wave of enemy attacks. It was described as the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, but played from the German's point of view.

I was also privileged to meet with Gareth Anderson and Colin and Ian Lynch Smith from Freeverse Software. Having just released Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab and 3D Hearts Deluxe for a total of seven Mac only games in the past year, the company will wrap up Bridge and then take a bit of rest. Not to worry, though. A rest for the gang at Freeverse means that we'll finally be getting more "toys," as they call them, along the lines of Virtual Viagra, Sim Stapler, Mr. Relaxer and the immortal Jared.

I'll post full reports on MacSoft and and Freeverse here at Applelinks within the next couple of weeks.

Things are looking just as good for gamers on the show floor. How good? Well, the full version, betas, or demos of the following games are running either at the 3dfx, Macsoft, GraphSim, Blizzard, Aspyr or United Developers Booths for all to see: Driver, 4x4 Evolution, Rune, Tropico, Oni, Unreal Tournament, The Sims, Tomb Raider 4, F/A 18 Korea: Gold, Descent 3, Deus Ex, Diablo II, Links LS, Monopoly, Scrabble, Asteroids, Baldur's Gate, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Majesty, Heavy Metal FAKK 2, Sin and Pop Pop. What's more, many of these games are available for purchase on the floor and have been shipped to retailers.

Gamers also have quite a bit to anticipate in the gaming device arena. Countour Design has released their Countour Mouse, a three-button mouse that actually comes in sizes; small, medium, large and extra large. Of course, a left-handed version is available as well. The Contour Mouse is available now for $99.95 and an Applelinks review will be posted soon.

But how about this? Macally was showing off their soon-to-be-released AirStick. N.E. Mac awarded this motion sensing mid-air joystick 13th place in the Best of Show Award, and for good reason. Completely chordless and baseless, players navigate games simply by tilting their wrist. On the stick are eleven programmable buttons and a trigger, offering the most freedom of any joystick on the market. Macally was showing it off with Star Wars: Episode One Racer, and those who tried it were amazed, if not very good at it. The response seemed a bit sluggish to me which inevitably led to overcompensation. But sometimes the cool factor justifies the time spent getting used to product. The AirStick, which is due to ship next month, will fully support sprockets and it compatible with Connectix's Virtual Game Station.

But now it's nearing the time when the show floors open, so it's back to work for me. Forgive the typos, but I have to get moving. Today I'll be meeting with ATI to check out the RADEON and will be looking at the new games in more detail, so be sure to check back tonight for my report on day three...and news of any new T-shirts, of course.

February 10, 2012