As you’ve all heard by now, Borderlands 2 arrived on the Mac November 20. This incredible sequel contains tons of loot and great content, but there are probably still some questions you have about the game before you’re willing to return to Pandora. That’s where GameAgent comes in! We got all the gritty details from Aspyr Media to come up with the FAQ below. (more…)
Get ready to return to Pandora Mac gamers! Aspyr Media, in partnership with 2K Games and Gearbox Software, announced today that Borderlands 2 will be released on the Mac November 20. Borderlands 2 is the sequel to Borderlands, the critically acclaimed four-player coop shooter-looter that combined intense first-person mayhem with role-playing gameplay.
Borderlands 2 lives up to the mantra “bigger, better and more badass,” featuring all-new characters and skills, as well as imaginative, diverse new environments with unique missions and enemies. There’s even more exciting and fun weapons, equipment and loot than ever before. All of these features come together in a story that returns players to the world of Pandora to take down the notorious Handsome Jack and his corrupt Hyperion Corporation as a solo campaign or with up to four cooperative players.
“Aspyr prides itself on bringing the best in gaming to the Mac audience,” said Ted Staloch, Vice President of Aspyr Media. “Borderlands 2 is definitely among the best. Most sequels have a hard time living up to the first, but Borderlands 2 manages to improve on every cool aspect of Borderlands, and still finds a way to wrap the player up in a new story with a new experience.”
Borderlands 2 will allow friends to play together online with drop-in-drop-out capabilities. Seamless cooperative gameplay and action makes Borderlands 2 extremely accessible for gamers and their friends to play alone or together.
The game will retail for $59.99 and be available on Steam on November 20. The Mac App Store version will arrive later this year. For those that love tangibles, a physical boxed format for the game will also be available later this holiday season. Visit the Borderlands 2 page at GameAgent.com to pre-order and use Mac Match to see if your Mac is supported!
BONUS: Pre-order now from GameAgent.com to get access to Premiere Club content, including Gearbox Gold Gun Pack, a Golden Key, the Vault Hunter’s Relic, and a fifth playable vault hunter, Gaige the Mechromancer, all for FREE!
Look for a Borderlands 2 Mac FAQs post dishing out even more vital info on this game later today (Update: Borderlands 2 Mac FAQs post is now live!). Keep your eyes glued to Aspyr‘s Twitter and Facebook accounts for the latest news and information on Borderlands 2.
Are you excited about this announcement? What aspects of the game are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments!
The leaves change colors, the wind blows colder and pumpkins litter the lawns of homes everywhere. Halloween is almost here and what better way to get into the spirit of the season than play some scary games? GameAgent brings you part 1 of a 2 part collection of gruesome games guaranteed to bring chills and thrills for the most frightening day of the year. Today’s list of 6 games certainly have some macabre elements, but even those faint of heart can enjoy this titles without too much fear. (more…)
With the year quickly coming to an end, Apple has released the list their favorite games and apps on the Mac App Store for 2011. The Mac App Store has blown up since its launch earlier this year and has made it easier than ever to purchase games and apps for Apple devices.
Among the games featured in the Best of Mac App Store 2011, Aspyr Media, Inc. and Feral Interactive led the pack with an array of strategy, puzzler and first-person shooter titles including the Mac App Game of the Year 2011 going to Aspyr Media’s empire-conquring Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Campaign Edition!
Aspyr Media is also the proud publisher of other games that made the list:
Not to go under the radar, Feral Interactive ranked an impressive number of titles on the Best of Mac App Store 2011 list, including the mutant-battling Bioshock, the role-playing shooter Borderlands, the off-road racing Colin McRae: Dirt 2 and the wizardly LEGO Harry Potter.
As the days barrel on into the New Year, Mac App Store is an easy way to finish your holiday shopping. With a wide selection of games, this year’s Best Mac App list is sure to have something for everyone. Head on over to the Mac App Store and check out the favorites today!
It’s “Back to School” week at the GameAgent Store, and we’ve got some great deals for students and non-students alike!
First up, the biggie: Civilization V (Mac) is on sale for an incredible 75% off!
We’re also discounting our the entire Feral Interactive catalog by 20%! This includes great games like Borderlands: Game of the Year (Mac) (with the recent announcement of Borderlands 2, there’s no better time to give it a go!), Sid Meier’s Pirates! (Mac), and Rome: Total War Gold Edition (Mac). You can also grab a collection of LEGO titles (featuring Batman, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and the entire cast of Star Wars) and the incomparable classic Bioshock (Mac), among others!
These deals are good through end of the day (11:59pm CST) September 5, 2011. Head over to the GameAgent Store now and take advantage of this awesome sale before it’s over!
How does the saying go? “You can never be too rich, too good looking, or have too many games.”
Well, maybe that’s not the exact quote, but it’s a mantra we like to live by at the GameAgent Store. That’s why we’ve partnered up with Feral Interactive to bring you an even greater selection of top-tier Mac titles!
The GameAgent Store is now offering some of Feral’s top games, including:
FarmVille by Zynga
“Casual gamers are going to save the video game industry.”
I first suggested this idea to a hardcore gamer friend a few weeks ago. After snorting into his Coke, he quipped, “Right, Rachel. Your mom is going to save the industry.”
My mother actually doesn’t qualify as a “casual gamer,” despite her love for Angry Birds, World of Goo, and Solitaire. Casual gamers typically:
Mom enjoys her World of Warcraft raids and beating me at Civilization V far too much to be a “casual gamer.” However, my friend’s assumption was not entirely ungrounded: the average casual gamer is a woman in her 50’s. By 2013, casual gaming revenue will likely top $1 billion.
In short: yes. Just like almost every other industry, game companies are suffering in the recession. In fact, ex-Sony executive Chris Deering claims that 70% of all games lose money even though the gaming industry is growing at seven times the rate of the economy as a whole. Essentially, the production of “hardcore” or “core” games is not turning enough profit for the gaming industry. That’s where casual gaming comes in.
Last year, I was 11,000 miles away from home staring into a tiny Beijing shop with amaranth shelves and bright bubbled posters trying to attract female customers. Lining their walls were stacks of unplayed Bratz and Hannah Montana games for PC, Nintendo, and other console systems (which are, interestingly enough, banned in China).
At the time, I was working for a magazine called Time Out that ran reviews of the Beijing scene for expats. After hearing about this store, I jumped on the story. Once I was there, fixedly eyeing the “girl” games around the store, I wanted to leave. However, a redhead in Beijing does not go unnoticed for long. The shopkeeper saw me, rushed out, pulled me in, and said, “Pretty girl! Pretty girl!” She handed me the Chinese version of this game:
Smiling politely, I explained that I was a reporter. I got the facts about her store and left without impulse to purchase anything.
Why would a store targeting women and girls leave me, a female gamer, so disappointed? She offered many of the games available to us in the States, decorated the store with symbolic shades of pink, and greeted me warmly when she saw me looking into her store. Her problem: all that she offered were games made for girls 12 and under.
Here in the States, female gamers of all abilities and interests are faced with a similar predicament. There is plenty of media targeting grown women in other industries (think chick flicks, Oprah, and Cosmopolitan), why not in video games?
With women now taking up 38% of the video game market, why do the top games for women include Nintendogs, Farmville, and Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2010 when top books read by women include adventure (Corelli’s Mandolin), fantasy (Poison Study), and mystery (The Pact)? Omitting first-person shooters (a genre which women statistically do not enjoy, though that is changing), there is plenty of room to make action games targeted towards women. Look at what’s available now:
Samus’s feminine qualities are hidden by a ginormous, manly suit
Over-sexualized non-player female characters
Over-sexualized female children
Impossible body standards (and we thought Barbie was bad!)
These kinds of images scare away real-life women from playing video games! I refuse to believe that most women want to be constrained to their Farmville crops in lieu of rescuing the world.
I hear this argument a lot, and I am willing to offer an alternative. Yes, sex sells, but so does romance. Women pour their money into novels, magazines, and movies where the girl gets the guy (here’s an exercise: try to think about movies with female protagonists where the woman does not end up with a man). Romance is a key ingredient for getting the female market. Sex might sell to men, but romance will get female attention.
I also encourage more video game characters to look like Nathan Drake instead of Mario.
If the world were perfect, this would be an easy question in any context. All women are different and thus have different desires. As someone who enjoys more action games, my request would be as follows:
Women don’t want a pink video game store with titles targeted at little girls, and there are better games available than iPhone Tetris and Bubbleshooter. When developers start marketing towards women, they are going to tap into a gold mine of possibilities. This is not to say that women don’t already enjoy casual games, but when it comes to adventure, fantasy, and RPGs, we are settling for less.
Are you a female gamer? What kind of games do you play? What games do your girlfriend, sisters, or female friends play? Let us know in the comments!
