May the 4th is over, but why not keep the Star Wars love going all weekend? You’ve played the Star Wars games and celebrated May the 4th, so chances are you know plenty of fun facts about Star Wars. How about we put that knowledge to the test with some Star Wars trivia. Here’s questions of varying difficulty, with answers revealed if you highlight the black box. Remember, no peaking at holocubes for the answer!
General Questions for Scruffy-Looking Nerf Herders
What were the last words spoken in The Empire Strikes Back?
Today is Star Wars day for millions of people the world over and GameAgent is no exception. We love the Star Wars series and look forward to any chance to celebrate one of the most influential pieces of entertainment from the 20th century. But you may be wondering, just how did this day become associated with Star Wars? Thanks to the good folks and Lucasfilm and Disney, we’re going to provide with a history of a day that is sure to cause a disturbance in The Force.
Why is May the 4th Called Star Wars Day?
Say “May the 4th Be With You” out loud and you’ll hear the pun that Star Wars fans worldwide have turned into a rallying cry to proclaim their love of the saga. It’s the worldwide day to say “May the Force be with you” to all, and celebrate the beloved Star Wars story that binds our galaxy together. (more…)
In case you haven’t heard, recently screenshots surfaced that were allegedly from DOOM 4, accompanied by stories of troubled development for the game. You can read about it in full right here, but the gist is this: perhaps caught under the crushing weight of expectation, iD couldn’t agree on a direction to take the game, which eventually resulted in a complete reboot of their work on the game, scrapping three years of work. While the game is still in the works, nobody knows what the final product will be like.
The FPS genre has changed drastically even since DOOM 3; games like BioShock Infinite with its beautiful world and compelling story show us what the genre is capable of. Series creator John Carmack has been reported as telling his staff, “DOOM means two things: demons and shotguns.” That leaves the window of possibilities wide open. Since we don’t know anything about DOOM 4, we thought it would be fun to talk about what we want to see in the game.
Disclaimer: We have no affiliation with the development of this game, nor do we have any more information at this time than you. This is simply speculation and discussion of great ideas for the future of this beloved franchise.
We’ve discussed strategy game music, interviewed strategy game makers, and even given away store credit to play strategy games yourself. But which strategy games are worth playing for a strategy newcomer? If you dig strategy games, what’s some other game should play? Today we’ve compiled a list of seven of the greatest strategy games and tell you why we think each game is the cat’s pajamas. Did your favorite make the cut?
What person who’s seen the Star Wars movies hasn’t dreamt of controlling an Imperial Starfleet to crush the Rebels or wanted to devise attack patterns for a squadron of X-Wings to deliver a crippling blow to the Empire? This game took the familiar gameplay of war strategy games and put it in a galaxy far, far away. Strategy buffs got a rich game with complex battle system and Star Wars geeks got to play around in George Lucas’ sandbox, exploring locations mentioned or glimpsed briefly in the movies that could now be explored and conquered at your leisure. As an ultimate fan service, this game even includes locations and characters from the expanded universe novels, which is one of the only times this has happened in a Star Wars game. There’s even a multiplayer feature that allows you and a friend to battle against each other using entire star systems as your battleground. Now you can settle that bet and and see who truly has The Force with them.
“If you are a Star Wars fan and you like strategy games, Empire at War is the perfect combo. It has EVERYTHING…space combat with the Millennium Falcon, ground combat with AT-AT’s. Just think of your favorite Star Wars character to control or scenario to relive and you can play it out in real time in this game. Do you want to destroy the galaxy planet by planet with the Death Star? No problem. Do you dream of having Vader and Obi Wan rematches in any Star Wars local you choose? Done. I bet I have 300 hours in this game, and flying around with Boba Fett tossing out seismic charges at X-Wings NEVER gets old.” – Michael Blair (more…)
Strategy Week continues with this exclusive interview with Feral Interactive, a publisher that has brought plenty of great games to the Mac, including the Batman Arkham games as well as the first two BioShock titles. This week they release the Mac version of the fantastic and highly lauded XCOM: Enemy Unknown in a special Mac-only ‘Elite Edition.’ We discussed their new release, favorite strategy games and why sci-fi and the strategy genre enjoys enduring popularity.
Can you give us a brief introduction of yourself and the game for those that are unfamiliar?
I’m Mary Goodden and I’m the Writer at Feral Interactive, who bring triple-A games to the Mac. As the name suggests, I “write” most of Feral’s web content, from news posts and minisite text to support site FAQs.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown – Elite Edition is a strategy game about an alien invasion. It’s set in the near future and puts you in charge of the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit (XCOM), tasked with defending Earth from the invaders.
Gameplay is a mix of turn-based combat and long-term strategy; you get to command a squad of elite soldiers in tactical battles against the aliens before returning to XCOM’s underground headquarters to build new facilities, train up your squad and keep the worldwide panic level to a minimum. That last bit’s crucial–if every member nation panics, they’ll lose faith in the XCOM project and withdraw their funding!
Welcome to Strategy Week, Mac gamers! All week we’re going to be discussing various strategy games and the aspects that make them great. Since it’s Monday, you know of course that means it’s time to focus on the music. We’ve previously discussed the incredible music of Civilization IV on Music Monday, and while there’s no Yo-Yo Ma or award-winning songs like “Baba Yetu,” the soundtrack to Civilization V is as equally rich, complex, and satisfying as that of its predecessor. Listen to the entire soundtrack here, presented as an embedded YouTube playlist, 35 tracks longs.
So far in our Indie Week coverage, we’ve discussed the music of Braid, talked about the defining characteristics of great indie games, and even interviewed Bastion creators Supergiant Games. But you may be asking yourself, what are OUR favorite indie games? Well wonder no longer as we talked to several employees of Aspyr Media, asking them to pick 7 of their favorite indie games and what makes them so great. Read on to find which games they think are a cut above the rest. (more…)
Indie Week continues with an exclusive interview with Supergiant Games, creators of Bastion. It’s no secret that here at GameAgent we love this title and were thrilled to be able to discuss their upcoming projects, our favorite indie games and the Mac gaming community. Read below to take a peak into the mind of an indie developer!
Can you give us a brief intro about yourself, your company, and any games of yours available on the Mac?
My name’s Greg Kasavin and I’m one of ten people working at Supergiant Games, the studio that made Bastion. I’ve been in the game industry for a while, first in the gaming press then at a couple of large publishers before joining my friends at Supergiant. Bastion was our first game, which debuted on Xbox LIVE Arcade though we subsequently brought it to the Mac and other platforms.
What games/ideas are you working on right now? Are Mac versions in the works?
We’re in the midst of working on our next project, a game called Transistor, which is set in a great big futuristic city and has a bunch of unusual stuff going on in it…! We recently debuted it at PAX East and have a trailer up on YouTube and whatnot. We don’t yet know which platforms it’ll end up on since it’s still relatively early in development.
In earlier days of gaming, creating a game and putting it out on PC/Mac or console took massive amounts of technology and money. As technological progress marches forward, the affordability and access to this technology increases, creating a brand new category of game creators never possible before: independent developers. These “indie devs” can be two guys in an apartment or a full-fledged studio with hundreds of employees.
Without the pressures of astronomical sales or keeping pace with bleeding edge technology, they’ve let their creativity wander to places rarely explored by AAA developers. It’s led to a large schism between what the big guys like EA and Activision produce and what smaller, more niche companies like Double Fine and Frozenbyte create.
You probably feel like you can point out indie games when you see them, but just what is it that makes an indie title, well, an indie title? Obviously no two titles or developers are alike, and each brings a unique voice to the industry, but there are a few commonalities between them that inform what is more or less the “indie aesthetic.” Here are a few of the noticeable and important qualities that make a great indie game: (more…)
Tally-ho Vault Hunters! With the release of a big software update today, Aspyr has integrated Apple’s Game Center into Borderlands 2 for the Mac App Store! That means that you can now finally experience some co-op excitement and take down Handsome Jack with a friend or two. Game Center is a very different beast than Steam, as we explained in last week’s Game Center article. This means grabbing friends to play Borderlands 2 with you is a different process than what you’re used to with Steam or even for other Game Center games for that matter.
To make sure you’re able to get started looting Pandora with friends as quickly as possible, we’ve assembled this article to explain the Game Center features now built into the game and how to use them to invite friends for a co-op brouhaha. (more…)
