Remember how it was said that the shareware version of Doom was installed in more PCs than Windows 3.1? (this was before Windows 95 of course)? Well Electronic Arts wants to make a deal that will apparently make the recent Spore Creature Creature editor demo available on a lot of new PCs

This revelation came in the middle of a New York Times story on E3 2008 where EA Games president Frank Gibeau mentioned their talks with several PC companies in an interview. Specific PC makers were not make but the article said that Dell, Apple and HP are likely targets

Ever since the Diablo 3 announcement, we've hosted a ton of downloads for Diablo 2, for both Mac and PC. However, if you're running the latest and greatest Mac hardware, you're likely shut out of reliving your D2 days of glory, unless you run it in Boot Camp. It's clear that the gameplay of D2 holds a special place in our hearts. So much so, in fact, that any game featuring similar gameplay is usually warmly received, if not continued to be played once the initial romance wears off.

Such a game is Depths of Peril, a top-down isometric RPG in the style of Diablo, Ultima VIII, etc. There are many qualities unique to this title that makes it stand out from the pack, including some of the most complex and vast histories in any game I've ever played, and gameplay which does a great job of simulating the MMO experience, even though Depths of Peril is a single-player game. We take a look after the jump.

For decades, Mac owners have had to sigh dispiritedly when assessing their gaming options compared to what has been available for the PC. Development studios like Bungie and Blizzard aside, most gaming houses have always decided to create their games for the larger market share, which have always been PC-based. While there have been successful ports of PC games from studios like Aspyr, these have always arrived much later than the launch of the original versions.

Later, a slew of Mac-dedicated studios appeared on the scene (see last week's MacMonday, which focused on Freeverse) and have proven that not only is it possible to create great games for the Mac, but to be successful at the task. This has helped energize the Mac gaming community and is undoubtedly a good thing, but a recent arrival to the Mac lineup of products has added a new element that ought to be considered. In this post we'll talk about how the iPhone could affect developing games for the Mac.

Two Blizzard bigwigs -- SVP Rob Pardo and COO Paul Sams -- criticized Microsoft for not doing enough to support and propagate PC gaming in Windows, according to Gamasutra. At GDC Paris, Pardo said: "With Microsoft, I think they have a bit of lip service with PC gaming. They have their own game system now, so I don't think it's really in their best interest to support [PC]." He also suggested that Apple might step up to the plate that Microsoft has allegedly abandoned.

In a yet-to-be-published interview with Gamasutra, Sams continued where Pardo left off. "I kind of look at it and say to myself, and I think similarly to Rob, is that it would be great if they put more emphasis on the Windows operating system, certainly probably the most prominent operating system in the world. Even more so than console boxes," he said. "I think that there's more that can be done."

So add their voices to the increasingly discordant choir of developers simultaneously singing about the life and death of PC gaming. It should be no surprise that Blizzard is committed to the platform, though. Its recently-announced-megaton-of-a game Diablo III will be exclusive to Windows and Mac computers.

"If Chuck Norris had his action removed and hot-glued onto Jack Bauer, and then Mr. Bauer was blended into a protein shake, it would be called "The Neon Tango" and ... it would be Delicious!!!" It would also be extremely difficult to come up with a greater summary for any game than this one, posted on the homepage of Freeverse Software's Neon Tango.

An homage to the great vector games of the heyday of video game arcades like Asteroids, Space Duel, and particularly Omega Race, Neon Tango is that rarest of beasts: a game developed and released exclusively for the Mac platform. More on this game and its developers after the jump!

Welcome to MacMonday, a weekly column where we'll talk about issues related to gaming on Apple's platform beyond "Why isn't PC Game X coming out on the Mac?" In this inaugural edition, let's discuss Spore, Will Wright's latest masterpiece.

At this point in time, the closest we can get to playing Spore properly (until its release in September) is to download the Creature Creator demo. Like any downloadable, the first thing you'll want to do is check the required specs to make sure your box can run the game properly. When you come to that, however, you'll see that the specs make two requirements upfront: an Intel Core Duo Processor, leaving PowerPC Macs out of the loop, and OS X 10.5.3 Leopard. Let's take a look at what this means for Mac gamers.

If you are a Mac user who needs some new RTS game action, MacSoft has your back later this year with the release of Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties. The expansion to Ensemble Studios' historical RTS game was released for the PC last fall but now MacSoft's version will be in stores in July.

This looks to be a straight port of the expansion that was originally developed by Big Huge Games. You can play three new Asian based civilizations along with a new single player campaign, new gameplay modes and maps and other new content. By the way, the original Mac version of Age of Empires III was apparently one of the best selling games in MacSoft's history.

Mac-sters busily fragging in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars should take a time-out to download the newest patch, which upgrades the game to version 1.5. All updates from previous patches are included in the download, as well as fixes for crashes that occurred when clicking on the server launcher's pull-down menu, and missing server launcher page tabs.

Download the Mac Enemy Territory: Quake Wars 1.5 patch from Big Download.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	In-Depth: GRID GRID sets up a great mood for racing from the moment you set up your profile and put in an audio name. From that point on, the game greets you by name each time you load it up and refers to you personally with race updates. It seems like a minor addition, but it provides a strong sense of engagement with the game world as you build up your racing reputation, rake in the prize money, and race go on racing tours across the USA, Europe and Japan. The PC version sports great performance and fantastic graphics, but it's worthwhile to purchase a gamepad to play this one in order to get the best experience. More after the jump.
	Big Versus: GRID This week in Big Versus we're tackling Codemasters' latest entry in the Race Driver series, GRID, which hits retail for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 today. Shying away from its more realistic racers like other TOCA racing games and the recently released Dirt, Codemasters hopes to capture some of the underground scene with their latest arcade style racing title.
	Two very different Alone in the Dark trailers emerge We have two new trailers for Eden Games and Atari's upcoming reboot of the Alone in the Dark franchise. The videos couldn't be more different. One features gameplay footage and commentary by producer Nora Paloni about the various enemies, weapons, and combat strategies in the game. It's a continuation of an earlier video that focused on fire.
	LEGO Indiana Jones now available in stores As of today, you can go out, buy LEGO Indiana Jones, and re-experience the original trilogy, thereby pushing Crystal Skull's awfulness out of your mind. According to a LucasArts press release Big Download received earlier today via email, "LEGO Indiana Jones presents a tongue-in-cheek take on the first three cinematic adventures of pop culture's most iconic archaeologist."
	Unreal Tournament III 1.3 patch details The 1.3 patch for Unreal Tournament III hasn't been released quite yet, but that didn't stop PlanetUnreal from digging for concrete details. Among the substantial list of fixes and additions are numerous bot improvements, several mod-specific collision detection issues, increased Aegia support, and cut/copy/paste functionality for the game's console.
	Fallout 3 Collector's Edition finally visualized We have reported in the past on Bethesda Softworks' plans to release a collector's edition of their highly anticipated RPG Fallout 3 but today the developer's official blog site has finally given us a visual of what that special edition of the game will actually look like. As promised the Collector's Edition will be housed in a metal Vault TEC lunch box with some great looking artwork (we would love to see the reaction if a kid took that lunch box to school).

To those Mac users waiting diligently for a great first-person shooter that isn't Marathon, you'll have to wait a little longer. Call of Duty 4's Mac port has been pushed from it's original release date to Q3 2008. Thankfully, this isn't much of a move for the release date, and Mac users will soon be able to kill terrorists as morally questionable SAS thugs (you know, just like real life). There's no word on whether the bonus maps (pictured above) will make it into the port, be available for download, or neither.

According to Telltale Games' Emily Morganti, Sam & Max would love to find a home on Mac but porting the series proves to be a problem.

"Porting any of our other games to the Mac would have required starting again from scratch," Morganti told the BBPS when responding to Telltale's Mac absence since the release of Bone: Out of Boneville. Developer Vanbrio was brought on to port the Bone series to the Mac platform but found the process problematic because updating could not be done using Telltale's own development tools.

"I'm not going to say we'll never do Mac games," Morganti assured Mac fans. "We do want to get our games out on as many platforms as possible, but getting onto the consoles has been a bigger priority."

In the interview Morganti confirmed Sam & Max: Season 3 is set for release in early 2009, likely due to the developers current work on the PC/Wii episodic series, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People.

[via Joystiq]

It's finally here. After what seems like years of waiting the first chapter in the planned episodic RPG-adventure game series Penny Arcade Adventures is finally available for download and purchase. The first episode, titled On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, is available in PC, Mac and even Linux flavors (there's also a version for Xbox 360 owners to download via Xbox Live Arcade if you swing that way).

Big Download has all three demos of the Hothead Games developed title for you to download which gives you a taste of the full "M"-rated title. While the game has all of the comic book style art of the Penny Arcade web comic strip it's definately not for the kids as "Tycho" and "Gabe" are involved in a mysterious detective agency who deal with H.P. Lovecraft style horrors. The full game can be purchased at the Greenhouse web site for $19.95.

Download the PC demo of Penny Arcade Adventures Episode One at Big Download now.

Download the Mac demo of Penny Arcade Adventures Episode One at Big Download now.

Download the Linux demo of Penny Arcade Adventures Episode One at Big Download now.

Eidos' 2007 released WWII naval action-strategy game Battlestations: Midway was a surprise critical and sales success. Eidos is already preparing a sequel to the game, Battlestations: Pacific, but before that happens Macintosh owners will be able to play the original game in a direct port.

The Macintosh version is being handled by UK based Feral Interactive and is due for release June 27 worldwide with the US price coming in at $49.95. You can pre-order the game via Feral's online store. There's no word yet on any plans for a Mac demo for the game

World of Warcraft's Arena Tournament launched on March 31, 2008, letting players immediately create level 70 characters and equip them with high level skills and epic armor. Competitors from around the world battle for up to $200,000 in cash prizes. At the same time, the Arena Tournament underscores Blizzard's intentions of using WoW's PvP gameplay as a type of eSport. WoW rose to become the most popular MMO in the world primarily because of its PvE content, and using its PvP for eSports marked a sharp turn in the game's focus. We catch up with WoW's Lead Designer, Tom Chilton, Paul Della Bitta (Senior Manager, Global Community and eSports) and Joong Kim (eSports Manager) to get the inside story about balancing PvP and PvE gameplay and what players can expect to from the future of Azeroth.

Austin based game developer and publisher Aspyr is apparently planning to enter the highly competitive game download businesses. According to a press release issued by e-commerce company Digital River, Aspyr will launch a digital store for select Macintosh and PC titles later this summer (Digital River will host and manage the service).

For Macintosh owners this could be a welcome change since Aspyr is one of the leading developers and publishers of Mac games, especially for ports of popular PC and console games like Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Guitar Hero III, and the upcoming Call of Duty 4. Since most game download sites and services are just for PC games this move could open up a new audience of folks eager to play Mac games (especially since finding a Macintosh game title in stores is next to impossible these days).