One of the only major disadvantages of switching to Mac is that there are far fewer games available for OS X than Windows. For example, Steam is a hugely popular gaming application on Windows which allows users to download and update an array of great games from developers Valve - the makers of Second Life.

Sadly it’s not available on Macs and usually, the only way to use it on a Mac is to install a virtual environment such as Parallels, VMware or boot in Windows using Bootcamp.

However, the former is expensive and usually results in poor game performance and of course, both methods require purchasing Windows. It’s far better - and cheaper - to run games natively in OS X if possible. But how?

That’s where CrossOver Games comes-in. CrossOver Games is based on what’s known as the “Wine” platform which means it allows you to play Windows games on Mac (or Linux) computers without purchasing a copy of Windows. Best of all, it’s only around $40 which is a snip compared to buying a virtual environment or Windows. CrossOver Games comes from the same makers of CrossOver which allows you to run many Windows applications on your Mac in a virtual environment. The advantage of CrossOver Games however is that it squeezes every last drop out of the Wine platform in order to handle the demands of games.

The app is designed for those with little technical knowledge and holds your hand throughout the setup process. You should be up and running within a matter of minutes. It won’t work for all games but the good news is that all the major ones - such as World of Warcraft, Half Life and the Steam platform, work perfectly and have been awarded “platinum” status for their stability on the Wine platform. You can find a full list of the specific games that work within Steam (most of which have been awarded at least silver status) here.

If you’ve been disappointed by gaming using a virtual environment or with Boot Camp and only miss Windows for gaming, CrossOver Games is a great solution.

The 12th Annual Independent Games Festival is almost upon us, and has a huge selection of submissions to check out. There’s a record 306 entries, covering a huge range of genres. Lewie Procter at SavvyGames has completed part one of a ‘Pretend you are an IGF judge‘ series, which usefully brings together all the publicly available submitted games, so you can check them out yourself.

The sheer volume of games is pretty intimidating, but there’s sure to be tons of great stuff. I’ve already reviewed AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! — A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, which I love and Terry Cavanagh’s excellent Don’t Look Back is also there, alongside his upcoming and highly anticipated VVVVVV (no demo for this yet, sniff!).

While publishing giant Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 will break barriers by allowing you to be a brutal terrorist, these indie developers are proving that you don’t need to shock or ask ridiculous moral non-choices of your players to do something revolutionary with video games or story telling. There’s also a wealth of humor, weirdness and creative enthusiasm that I feel is lacking from many of the season’s big upcoming releases - which unless I’m forgetting something are all sequels. While there is certainly lots of good stuff to play, like Hollywood before it, the games industry seems stuck in a blockbuster-sequel cycle, making it seem difficult for genuinely new games to make their mark.

Windows: The quintessential optimization suite for Windows is back! The all-new TuneUp Utilities 2010 has a new redesigned interface and a bunch of new features and improvements that make it even better: Turbo mode, Live optimization, TuneUp desktop gadget, Optimization report and support for Windows 7 in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

iPhone: Aside from a jellyfish attack or a sudden downpour, another guaranteed thing to a ruin a day at the beach is an attack by the entire Japanese Imperial Navy. Blood Beach puts you in the unenviable position of a soldier who must take down the entire Japanese WWII fleet alone. You’re holed up on a thin stretch of beach in the Solomon Islands and must take down the waves of planes, boats and foot soldiers landing on the beach.

Mac: Renaming huge numbers of files can be a real pain, especially when you only need to make a few minor changes. Renamer (formerly known as Renamer4Mac) makes it easy to rename a huge number of files at once, in several different ways. One possibility is to search and replace certain components or words, much like using a word processor. Alternatively, you can simply insert or copy over a chunk of text to multiple files.

After waiting all day yesterday with no joy, finally this morning the Left 4 Dead 2 demo is available to download and play! The first game offered some of the best cooperative multiplayer gaming around, and on first impressions, that certainly hasn’t changed.

This demo lets you play one campaign, entitled “The Parish” either in one player mode (with three AI companions), or online with four players fighting to survive together. There’s plenty of high speed frights and thrills in both, but playing with bots just isn’t the same. Multiplayer games are much more dynamic, and there’s more emotional involvement - whether it’s anger at a selfish player, or pleasant surprise when people are working together!

It looks like Left 4 Dead 2 is cementing its supremacy over the aged, lumbering Resident Evil series - these zombies are varied, fast moving and extremely vicious. There’s really nothing like the moment when a horde of zombies is rushing towards you: it’s one of the most visceral, adrenalin pumping creations in gaming history.

To play you’ll need the Steam client, and from there you can download the demo - but be warned, it’s not for the faint hearted.

Windows: Do you like Skype? Then you’re going to love Skype Portable! This is a special version of the popular VoIP client that doesn’t require installation and can be taken anywhere on a USB pendrive. Skype Portable works just like its desktop brother, features great audio and video quality, and has everything you need to keep in touch with your beloved ones!

iPhone: It’s been a long time coming but iPhone gamers at last got a decent driving sim. Firemint Real Racing GTI is a Volkswagen-sponsored racing game which makes wonderful use of the iPhone’s hardware to deliver a high-octane, realistic driving experience. The control system is probably the most refined, yet simple you’ll find anywhere on the iPhone platform.

Mac: The ability to run Windows on Macs has massively increased the reach and popularity of Apple computers. But you need a virtual environment to do so and the choice usually comes down to either Parallels or VMware Fusion. For developers this ability is absolutely essential, allowing you to run Ubuntu, WinXP and now even Windows 7 (in fact this latest release 3.0 has been optimized for it) all at the same time.

Like the idea of “Massively Multiplayer Online Games”, but put off by all those orcs and demons? Cryptic Studios are making their new comic book inspired Champions Online free this weekend. Boasting excellent character design, you can create your own super-hero and enter a colorful world where the Earth is of course in peril. Help save us all from Doctor Destroyer!

Like their City of Heroes before, this promises a much more light-hearted take on the role-playing genre. You can sign up here and download the client in preparation for 10am Friday (30th Oct) US Pacific time (5pm GMT).

[Via: Eurogamer]

iPhone: What do the three comedy greats Homer Simpson, Fred Flintstone and The Dude from The Big Lebowski have in common? The answer, of course, is that they all love bowling. Guys, if any of you are reading this and have an iPhone then make sure you check out iBowl. This game is perhaps the closest you’re going to get to bowling without actually getting out of the house and going to the lanes.

Windows: If you already have uTorrent as your favorite torrent client, wait until you see its portable version! uTorrent Portable features the same characteristics as its desktop counterpart (clean interface, fast connection, easy to use), only that it doesn’t require installation and you can take it anywhere with you on a USB memory device.

Mac: Grappling hooks have often played a big part in comic book fiction and games like Bionic Commando, but they have never caught on in real life. Grappling Hook is a novel 3D first person game where the excellent device is essential. It starts with little explanation, but a computer communicates to you along the way that you are in some kind of test, and all you have to do if find the right teleporter to finish.

Gretel and Hansel is a surprisingly macabre and grizzly take on the classic Brothers Grimm tale. You play Gretel, who becomes alarmed after overhearing her mother planning to send the children away into the dangerous forest!

Presented in really pretty water-colors, with a perfect soundtrack, Gretel and Hansel isn’t particularly complicated (and there’s a walkthrough linked on the game page if you get stuck). It does feature achievements, and some of them feature very dark humor! It’s not a cute kids game, this one.

Check out Gretel and Hansel here.

[Via: IndieGames.com]

Windows: It’s finally here. Windows 7 has hit shelves worldwide! Generally considered as the true heir to XP, Windows 7 brings many new features and enhancements to your computer that make it faster, more stable and easier to use. Take a look at our review and video, and follow our full coverage on the blog about Windows 7.

iPhone: Boulder Dash is one of the oldest franchises around, and surprisingly the basic format hasn’t changed for 25 years! Boulder Dash - ROCKS! is the latest addition to the family, this time on your iPhone. This Lite version only has 8 levels, but is fun never the less. You control Rockwell as always, and he’s trying to collect all the jewels he can find.

Mac: It’s no surprise then that Altitude has been developed by two self confessed nostalgics for the good old days of computer games when everything was so much simpler. Altitude is a beautifully put together shoot ‘em up where you take control of World War II biplanes and blow the enemy out of the skies. It’s a frenetic game with lots of levels and a breakneck pace.

The Unity plug-in has produced some impressive browser games, but maybe Lego Star Wars the Quest for R2D2 is the best so far.  It’s basically a 3D hack and slash adventure, but has great graphics, is really smooth and of course has everyone’s favorite Star Wars sound effects. Pressing F puts you in full screen mode, and then you won’t even notice it’s a browser based game. Not so long ago, a game like this would have been perfectly acceptable on a home console, and it’s incredible to see this for free running in Firefox! Play Lego Star Wars the Quest for R2D2 here. The Unity plug-in is available for Windows and Mac.

Windows: Are you the kind of person who has a shortcut-ridden Windows desktop? Then you need an app like Stardock Fences. This handy icon organizer creates customizable areas on your desktop to store and categorize folders, files and icons. The program just hit version 1.0, so it’s time for you to try it out!

Mac: CoverFlow is great for browsing and playing back music in iTunes, but CoverSutra might just change your musical habits. First of all, it serves as a player for your iTunes library, with your list appearing in a sleek dark interface and playback buttons present in a floating dark window. Secondly, every time you play a track from a new album, the cover will discreetly appear on your desktop, with its rating.

iPhone: Reckon you’ve got a steady hand? Well you’re about to find out if you install Marine Sharpshooter on your iPhone. This popular game sees you assume the role of a sniper who is part of an elite American military force. Your objective is to abate a global war of terror by going in behind enemy lines and taking down terrorists from a distance.

It’s been a long time coming, but finally there’s now a clutch of decent soccer games to choose from on the iPhone. I recently tested FIFA 10, which brings the realism of the console game to the small screen with some aplomb. The great thing about the title is undoubtedly its vast licensing agreements, meaning you can play as real players in real teams in real leagues across the World. There’s even a management option that lets you take command of a team and guide them to success.

While FIFA 10 has the plush presentation and full licenses, X2 Soccer 2009 has arguably the better gameplay. You could almost describe X2 as the Pro Evolution Soccer of the iPhone world. The game isn’t packaged quite as neatly but boy does it play well. The graphics and animation feel more fluid than FIFA, and the fact that there are three action buttons rather than two makes it feel like you have more control over the players. The sound effects and the commentary are also something to be admired in X2 Soccerl 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Friday again and we’re celebrating it with our traditional time-waster. CycloManiacs is a fun bicycle racing game with an easy gameplay and many elements to make races more challenging and competitive.

You start off by riding with a cute robot on a shabby bike, but as you progress through the game (and you have quite a handful of levels to beat) you can obtain new drivers, better bikes and hidden tracks. Each race charges you with a series of challenges – such as finishing in the top five places or gathering a minimum number of items – and if you complete them you’ll be rewarded with new unlockable stuff. Jumping is also important, because it’ll give you points to boost up your bike’s speed and overtake any other competitors.

CycloManiacs is controlled with the usual WASD or cursor keys combinations (plus the spacebar or X key to jump). The game is complemented by a nice background soundtrack.

If you’ve ever been to Finland then you’ll know how cold it can get - especially if you’re walking around naked. Sweaty Boy finds himself in this predicament every day and in order to keep him from turning into an icicle he needs regular visits to the sauna. The trouble is, he’s too cold to even walk. This is where you come in. You need to get Sweaty Boy to the sauna by rolling him along the floor using a elaborate system of seesaws, ramps and falling blocks. Tap the white objects to remove them and watch what happens.

The presentation of Sweaty Boy has a decidedly menacing feel with bizarre graphics, dirty sound loops and some warped sound effects that combine to make you feel decidedly uneasy. Riveting logic problem-solving fun.

Windows: Forget about spending two hours in front of your computer to rename a hundred files. Batch File Rename Utility can do the job for you in a much faster, more comfortable way. All you have to do is select the files and folders you want to rename, apply as many custom renaming rules as you need and you’re good to go!

iPhone: Looking at the screenshots you’re probably thinking that Parachute Panic Lite is an 11-year-old’s homework assignment. In actual fact, it’s an entertaining and engrossing iPhone game. The object of Parachute Panic Lite is to guide the falling stickmen parachutists onto the boats. You do this by tapping on them as they fall in order to open their chutes.

Mac: Not satisfied with your download manager? Then try Folx which can handle any file size and will download via HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. It supports auto-resuming and most importantly, offers high-speed downloads thanks to ‘multi-threading’, which seeks more than one source for a file. Even better though is that Folx allows you to manage torrents too.