MacPlay Strutting Their Stuff At MACWORLD

July 18th, 2001 at 3:00 PM - Games by Ricky Spero

Mac game publisher MacPlay is out in force here at the Macworld Expo. In addition to annoucning a deal with Activision to bring a slew of Classic titles to Mac OS X, the company is also trying to crank the hype machine for Balduris Gate II, Sacrifice, and Giants.

Balduris Gate II: Shadows of Amn, to be released in three weeks, was originally developed by BioWare and is being ported by MumboJumbo. A computer adventure in the Forgotten Realms world of Dungeons and Dragons, BGII strives to extend the story of the original Balduris Gate. We have already reported that MacPlay will carbonize the game for Mac OS X.

Sacrifice is a new twist on the old-fashioned Realtime Strategy game, where players control a single player in the midst of vast battles. In addition to controling the protagonist, the gamer can issue commands to the rest of his forces, though he does not control them directly (as in, say, the Myth or Command and Conquer franchises.)

Giants: Citizen Kabuto, set to ship in the fall, will have the distinction of being the first title to ship with support for the special features of NVIDIAis GeForce3 graphics card. (Hopefully Mac users will have access to the card by then.) Another realtime strategy and combat game, Giants features three types of creatures (including the Giant, Kabuto himself) and 30 separate islands.

Finally, MacPlay is strutting three Activision that it will port to the Mac. The company will publish Heretic II, Hexen II, and Zork Grand Inquisitor later this summer. According to MacPlay:

The winner of a PCGamer Editoris Choice award, Heretic II sets you upon an epic quest across an entire continent to find a means to cleanse a world infected with a deadly magical plague that has victimized the people of the realm. As Corvus Ð the character from Heretic who has been banished to the Outer Worlds by Disparil Ð you perform a variety of acrobatic, swimming and climbing maneuvers in order to penetrate the mystery of the plague. Exploring city, swamp, canyon and dungeon levels, you use a variety of offensive and defensive spells such as the Sphere of Annihilation, Repulsion and Fireball in conjunction with a magical bow and staff to defeat a multitude of insane plague-ridden denizens of Parthoris. The award-winning game will ship for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9.

An epic adventure set in the famed Zork universe created by the legendary game studio Infocom, Zork Grand Inquisitor centers around restoring magic to the ailing Great Underground Empire so its inhabitants may be freed from the Dark Ages of Zork. In an effort to maintain control of the citizens of the lands and because of his own weakness, the Grand Inquisitor of the Empire outlawed the practice of magic in the kingdom. As the "Adventurer," players must join forces with the magic resistance and the disembodied spirit of a Dungeon Master to battle the Grand Inquisitoris regime. Along the journey, players time-travel back to classic Zork eras to restore three enchanted treasures to Zork -- returning magic to the lands. The classic adventure game will ship for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9.

Hexen II transports players into four worlds - a medieval town and castle, a Roman villa, Egyptian Pyramids and Meso-American ruins. One of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse lies in wait at the conclusion of each world. Gamers must choose to battle as one of four classes in single-player mode, or fight against all four classes in multi-player death matches. Gamers inflict brutal pain and death on their enemies with swords, daggers, wands, staves and spells, and each class offers a choice of four weapons of destruction. The game will ship for Mac OS 9.

Stay tuned for our review of Balduris Gate II after its release in a few weeks! In the meantime, you can find more information about all of these products at the MacPlay Web site.