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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Hardware, Software, Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

GDC09: iPhone gaming roundup

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Mar 25th, 2009

The Game Developers Conference is on in San Francisco, and game companies are starting to pull out the major announcements on what's coming to the iPhone in the next year. Here's a roundup of all the titles we've heard mentioned already.

EA announced a huge lineup of ports from their already popular games: everything from Command and Conquer: Red Alert to SSX to FIFA, Madden, and NBA are all coming in some form to the iPhone. They're also working on bringing over the Wolfenstein RPG and Spore Creatures (which was the DS port of Spore), as well as a big list of casual board games (Scrabble is only the beginning), and versions of Need for Speed: Undercover, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. And most amazing? All of these are due out before the end of the year. Someone's lighting a fire under iPhone developers at EA.
id software announced that they're bringing Wolfenstein 3D Classic to the iPhone in an official form -- that one's already been submitted to the store and should be out soon.

Click the link below to read on.

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Tags: command-and-conquer, depict, ea, fastfoot-challenge, fieldrunners, fifa, galcon, gdc, gdc-09, gdc-2009, gdc09, id-software, iphone, livefire, madden, NBA, ngmoco, picopoke, rolando, tiger-woods-pga-tour, wolfenstein, zen-bound

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software

Madden and the iMac: a story of woe

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Oct 20th, 2007

Mac | Life wasn't content to just read about Madden 08 on the Mac-- they tried to actually run it. And for all of us Mac gamers out there, I'm sorry to say the experience didn't go well.

Now, we already knew that neither Madden nor Tiger Woods would run on any Mac with the GMA950 graphics processors in it, so the Mac mini and the MacBook were already out of the question. The screenshot above came from an iMac, though. Clearly the text is bungled up beyond readability. The same problem appeared in the menus for the game, and even during play-- the scoreboard had overlapping graphics problems as well. Unbelievable. Did they (or Transgaming, whose Cider technology was supposed to be how EA ported these games) have their QA team play this thing even once on a Mac? This is what Apple was showing off at WWDC?

For their part, EA blames Apple's drivers, and says a driver update is coming "later this month" (M|L wisely suggests that means Leopard). Poor form, EA. Not that we expected much (EA games are often plagued with release problems, on any platform), but this is not how you bring gaming back to the Mac.

Tags: bugs, cider, ea, imac, madden, transgaming, unplayable

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software

Madden, Tiger Woods '08 now available on Apple Store

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Sep 19th, 2007

As a couple of you astute readers have noticed (thanks!), Madden NFL '08 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08 are now available on the Apple Store, just a little over a month after they were released for PC and consoles last August. A month isn't too bad for Mac ports-- at least the football season is still going on.

I haven't played this year's Madden yet, but I can wholeheartedly vouch for Tiger Woods-- I've been playing the Xbox 360 version of it, and it is some good (if sometimes very difficult, read: frustrating) golf. If you do pick up either game, however, make sure to check your innards first-- neither game will work on Intel's GMA950 graphics processors, found in the MacBook and the Mac mini. If you're boasting a MacBook Pro, a Mac Pro, or a new iMac, you're in the clear, as they use higher end video cards.

So there's what EA's got. id, you're next.

Tags: apple, applestore, electronicarts, gaming, graphics, madden, releases, tigerwoods

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, WWDC

EA officially backs off of Mac releases

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Aug 16th, 2007

Shame on you, EA! Shame! Back at WWDC, you promised to release four of your franchise games simultaneously on PC and Mac in July. But July came and went, and we saw (and played) nothing.

And now EA has told Apple Insider that Mac faithful shouldn't have held their breath on those promises-- Madden 08 was the big release on Tuesday, but while it did appear on PC, the Mac version has been officially delayed until "September or October" (which means late December, in videogame-release-speak). Additionally, even EA doesn't know what's going on with its own games-- they claim that Battlefield 2142, Command and Conquer 3, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and Need for Speed Carbon are all in stores, but when asked which stores they were actually in, EA didn't have an answer.

I can't say I'm surprised-- for all the talk at WWDC, the Mac isn't quite the platform of choice for most game makers, and who knows who would have actually bought any of those games on Mac if they had been released (I wouldn't have). But the fact is that EA stood on stage at WWDC, and got lauded for it. Don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk, Electronic Arts.

Tags: appleinsider, battlefield2, broken, commandandconquer, ea, gaming, harrypotter, mac releases, MacReleases, madden, needforspeed, promises

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