Portal, Peggle Deluxe, World of Goo — those are just some of the titles that we purchased a while back on one of the PCs in the house. They are guaranteed to work with a new feature called “Steam Play.” If you purchase it on one platform it will be free for you on any other platform as long as the game is compatible. We picked up the Indie pack of games, a great buy for $20… we also picked up Braid (a completely unique platformer).

Things haven’t been completely smooth with the software: we have noticed a few weird glitches with overlays, some strange browser-like errors, a few crashes and a game install error that had us restarting our machine and trying again. Not too shabby for Valve’s very first release on the Mac. Most of it, we’re guessing, is the fact that Valve’s moved everything over to a webkit-based system… one that probably hasn’t been tested rigorously. Either way, it’s not stopping us from playing our games — the games have been completely flawless. We’ve spent several hours playing Braid, Portal, World of Goo, and Galcon Fusion… none of the games have glitched at all.

Each Wednesday, Valve will be releasing new games into the Mac-compatible section. If you don’t see something you want right away, give it a few days… it just might show up. We can’t wait to get some of the other Valve software ported over: the Half-Life series, Team Fortress… gaming on the Mac just took a u-turn on the road to perdition.

If you do end up playing Portal, just remember that the cake is a lie.

No, it’s not anything above PG… it’s the fact that Valve is officially bringing their Steam platform to the Mac in April (in beta). They’ve also acknowledged that every new Valve game will release simultaneously on the Mac and PC. We’ve already voiced our opinions about this transition in previous posts but here’s a quick recap.
• Steam will be the first major game distribution platform to come to the Mac.
• It currently dominates the PC gaming world.
• Games like Half Life, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Portal will all be making their way to the Mac.
• This opens up tremendous development opportunity for all of the companies who have been hesitant. Valve’s commitment to release cross platform will help convince other developers to do the same.
• This will finally bring mainstream quality games to the Mac… yes, there’s been some, but Mac gamers have had very limited choices in games for quite some time.

Thank you, Valve. Now we can use our 27 inch iMac screens for something besides creativity.

This. Is. Huge.

We talked about the possibility of a Mac version of Steam (Valve’s distribution platform) last week. We didn’t have much go on, just a few Mac user interface pictures within the latest beta version of Steam. Today, Valve threw caution to the wind and gave us all images to drool over. It appears as though the feud between Apple and Steam is over. Sweet.

Valve is coming to the Mac. There is not doubt about it. That means Steam is coming to the Mac. That’s the only way Valve distributes its software. No more World of Warcraft for us, we might actually see real gaming titles come to our platform of choice. We’re not say that WoW isn’t a real game, but we can only spend a certain amount of time playing the same game over and over again.

There is no estimated release date, but considering the effort poured into these images, we’d expect it to be soon. Very soon.

Source

I have a few of these apps, and I’ve really been impressed with Oceanhouse Media’s work. They aren’t just copying the original books from one medium to the next, they’re putting a tremendous amount of thought into the whole Dr. Seuss experience. Their holiday game “Grinchmas!” was a great success in the App Store and (I’m a little afraid to admit) wasted much of my time over holiday break. Realistically, these applications are not time wasters; they’re a great way to share the world of Dr. Seuss with your family and friends. We had the whole family throwing snowballs at one point.

The Dr. Seuss collection will be expanding as time allows. Oceanhouse Media is planning on bringing these applications to the iPad and introducing more titles in the future. It will be quite an effort to get all of the Doctor’s work brought to the Cocoa Touch platform, but we can’t wait for more. The introduction of the iPad and the new iBook Store will definitely bring new opportunities for interactive books that will increase a child’s desire to read and learn. With the direction education has gone recently, every little bit will help.

Head over to the App Store and grab these apps now. The 99 cent price is good for Tuesday only… they go back to normal on Wednesday (if that wasn’t obvious). If you have kids or grew up reading the works of Dr. Seuss, these are great apps that you’ll use time and time again. When I’m having a bad day, I swipe over to throw some snowballs at noisy houses or read the whimsical lyrics of my favorite children’s author. Snowballs or chuckles, this is definitely a CTA recommended buy.

Press Release

My gaming days are nearly behind me, but I still get caught up in a great game every now and then… and when I was a PC, Steam was my platform of choice. I grew up building, repairing and gaming on the PC… I eventually switched to Mac for my music endeavors about 6 years ago now. True gamers have always been disappointed with the gaming abilities of the Mac: unless you want to play older titles, World of Warcraft or niche games similar to PopCap’s offerings, there’s really nothing here for us. I’m the owner of a Mac repair shop (check it out in the sidebar) and I run a blog devoted to Apple products… but I still game on the PC, using Steam’s distribution platform.

Gizmodo reported this morning that a few members of the Steam forums found several references to OS X in the latest beta release of the software. They specifically found Mac icons related to the close, minimize, and maximize icons of OS X windows. There has also been discussion about the replacement of Valve’s web engine Trident with the very mac friendly WebKit. These two facts don’t mean that Steam is definitely coming to the Mac — WebKit can be used on any platform, and pictures are just pictures — but it’s still encouraging to deem it a possibility. Not too long ago, Steam and Apple discussed bringing their games to the Mac and it really wasn’t the result we were looking for… both parties went their different ways.

Even if we do see Steam come to the light, we probably won’t see the popular gaming titles follow suit right away. It is up to the developer to make their games OS-independent and not many of them have been so keen on that up to this point. Realistically, the Mac market share is still rather small compared to the PC counterpart… and the people who want to play these games know that the PC is the only way. We’re hoping that Steam’s inclusion of the Mac will give developers a better option for Mac distribution. In the end, gaming has never been a priority for the Mac. I’m sitting here with a brand new, awesome 27-inch iMac and it only has a 256MB video card. That’s pretty sad, and it definitely wouldn’t play Crysis at a decent FPS.

PopCap finally has brought its most recent popular title to the iPhone: Plants vs. Zombies. It’s not your mother’s tower defense strategy game; it’s a completely new variant of the style, which sends waves of zombies to your door — they want to eat your brains. Defend your home by placing 49 different plants. The game also boasts 29 different zombies. From pole vaulters to Michael Jackson, they can come at you fast or slow, so be ready. This game is probably one of the best iPhone ports we’ve seen and definitely matches the quality of other PopCap titles.

How does Cocoa Touch change the gameplay? To us, it seems easier. There’s no precise clicking as your finger is doing all the work. We’ve found ourselves tapping randomly at the screen in order to pick up all of the sun that comes our way. However, placing the plants can be somewhat difficult at times: we’re constantly putting the wrong plants in the wrong spot, but that’s probably because our fingers are somewhat large (they’re not huge and fat, just big).

Anyway, we’ve played both versions — iPhone and Desktop — and we’re excited to have it available in our pocket at any time. We’re thankful for that but still a little miffed that it’s not the full version. We can spend $2.99 for a pretty good port or pay $19.99 and buy the desktop version. At this point, we don’t see the survival mode, puzzles or the mini-games that we’ve come to love on the desktop version. Maybe they’ll appear in an update in the future, but we don’t see any way to enable them at this point. We’d seriously pay more to get that extra gameplay, as this could get old very quickly. Hopefully we’ll see them take advantage of the in-app purchases… or just give it to us for free.

The gameplay is great but the extras appear to be missing, so we’ll give it an 8 out of 10. Definitely worth the 3 bucks.

Full picture gallery after the break.

So yeah… remember our post about the game Mafia Live!?  I’ve been browsing around and it appears to be accepted practice to spread your family codes around online.  I’ve found lists and lists of them all over the place.  So, I thought I’d start one for all of the CTA readers that we have out there.

Here’s mine:   649-998-556

Feel free to add me to your family.  I’m at level 33 and growing.  Be sure to leave your family code in the comments so other people can add you too!

CTA RATING: 4 out of 10 stars

To be honest, I wish I could give the game a better rating, but I spent a whole 5 minutes playing the game and got ridiculously bored. Not my type of game, but let me explain a little bit more about it so that you can form your own opinion.

The gameplay is simple. You’re riding a bike that leaves a colored trail behind you everywhere you went. There are 3 opponents that also leave trails. You must avoid their trails and leave yours in places where they’ll be forced to run into it. 3 bikes must run into trails and then the fourth bike is declared the winner. It’s all done within a limited arena which makes it difficult to avoid the trails.

I find it to be quite similar to the old Snake game just without the apples and opponents that are devious. I couldn’t recommend this game because I was quite bored after the first few minutes… but it’s selling for $0.99 at the moment, so it might be worth checking out.

CTA RATING: 7 out of 10 stars

For all of the MMO players out there, I have a new app for you.  Aftershock innovations has a new game out call Mafia LIVE!  It has a limited story-line but I find the gameplay to be very addictive.  You start out the game without family, friends or any extras.  You have to complete jobs and compete with other mafia families to make money and advance through the levels.  If you have friends with iPhones, encouraging them to play will net you both some extra advantages.  Be sure you send them an invite from the app and that they redeem it through the attached link.

Let me break it down for you – the more jobs you complete, the more money you make.  The more money you make, the more equipment you can buy.  Purchasing new equipment will allow you to complete better and more rewarding jobs.  You can also buy real estate that will help you accrue money.  The more properties you have the richer you become.  The more people you have in your family, the stronger you all become.

I really recommend that you keep the money you make in the bank because each time you leave the app, it continues playing for you online.  You can lose health, money and mafia fights while you’re away so be careful to guard your assets.

Each level you advance, you’re able to use “Zen Points” that allow you to choose what skills you increase.  You can increase your overall health, energy, stamina, attack and defense capabilities.  Each job requires energy, each fight uses health and stamina.  It advantageous to increase all of these proportionally as you advance through the game.  I actually haven’t increased my health except for one point, because you can refill it by paying a healer.  Every level you advance, the healing increases in cost but is definitely worth it… but I’ll let you guys figure that out.

Be sure to check out the gallery for pictures of the app in progress.  The developers promise that new updates are coming soon with improved gameplay and a prettier user interface.  It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing application, but it works.  I say it’s definitely worth the $2.99 while it’s on sale.  The app information says that it’ll be going to $9.99 soon (02.08) so get it while you can!  If I have interested you, send me an email josh@cocoatouchapps.com – I’ll send you an invite and we’ll both profit from it.  If you already have the app, I’d be happy to add you to my family.  Have some fun and break some knee caps.

Fieldrunners – It’s a tower-based strategy game that we literally cannot stop playing.  The first update/bug fix for the app came out yesterday so check it out.  You’ll get addicted, so make sure you have time.

Frenzic – Anyone remember this from when it was a webapp?  We do.  It was great then and is even better now that it’s running on the Cocoa Touch platform natively.  Take a look.

Fastlane Street Racing – It’s the best racing game we’ve played on the CT platform yet!  Definitely can keep your interest with different game modes and plenty to do within each.  

None of these games are free… in fact they’re all $4.99 – $5.99 but we will definitely say that each and everyone one of them is worth the money.  Check back for full reviews soon!

As noted before, if you think you have the guts to write for us, just let us know.  All the information you need is on the contact page.