Spring is here, and what a better way to get you in the mood than a new game called Botanicula. Botanicula is a point’n'click exploration game created by the makers of award-winning Machinarium, development studio Amanita Design and Czech band DVA. Five friends, little tree creatures, set out on a journey to save the last seed from their home tree which is infested by evil parasites. Humble Bundle is debuting this game and offering more cross-platform titles (DRM free) to raise money for the habitat conservation charity World Land Trust. Donate for a great cause and get a bundle of excellent games in return. If you donate more than the average, you can acquire the bonus title Windosill, not otherwise available with the initial line up. If you bought these games separately, it would cost around $53, but they are letting you set the price. If you pay at least $5, you can optionally get a key to redeem the games on Steam (for Mac and Windows).
The Humble Botanicula Bundle includes lots of great titles such as Machinarium, Samorost 2, Windosill and the full-length feature film Kooky (with art direction by Amanita Design founder Jakub Dvorský), giving you plenty of unique Indie gaming to romp through this Spring. Soundtracks are also included with Botanicula, Machinarium, and Samorost 2. You can find links to all the great games below.
There’s fourteen days left to donate, so you have plenty of time to cash in your paycheck and donate to a worthy cause. Be sure to check out The Humble Botanicula official launch video after the break and get amped up!
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Back in March, we reported game developer Valve — best known for hits such as Half-Life and Portal — was “looking into” a Steam expansion for mobile devices. Today, we can see the results with the official Steam Mobile app for iPhone now live in the App Store for free. You can read more about Steam Mobile on Valve’s website, too.
With the free Steam app for iOS, you can participate in the Steam community wherever you go. Chat with your Steam friends, browse community groups and user profiles, read the latest gaming news and stay up to date on unbeatable Steam sales.
Steam Mobile for iPhone brings the Steam experience from the web to iOS, allowing users to check on their friends’ status, chat, browse the Steam game store and manage their wish list, and even add new items to the cart. Judging from the screenshots — we can’t try the app yet, as it’s in “closed beta” — it appears you can easily open a game’s page and check out its description, screenshots, add it to the wish list or your Steam cart; the Catalog section has tabs to browse Featured, New, Popular games and “Specials”, whereas other navigation options are located in a Facebook-like sidebar that contains links to Friends Activity, News Feeds, and more.
You can download Steam Mobile here, but it’s likely you won’t be able to use the app right away as you have to “express interest” in the beta first. Steam Mobile has also been released for Android today.
If you’re familiar with the PC and Mac gaming scene, then you have most definitely heard of Steam: a game distribution platform by Valve that collects thousands of games in a single marketplace that’s easy to use and aggregates users worldwide enabling them to communicate through the platform. Steam, first released on Windows PCs, came out on OS X last year after much anticipation, quickly becoming many users’ favorite way of discovering and downloading games for the Mac.
Member of Steam’s forums Political Gamer recently visited the Valve headquarters and reported an interesting tidbit from his visit and talk with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell: Valve is apparently “looking into” iOS and Android as possible platforms for Steam’s expansion in the future:
After waiting in the lobby for a few minutes it turned out Gabe was in the office and wanted to say hi. To my great delight he was playing DOTA 2 when we walked in and from what I can see the game already looks very promising. After a little “sneak peek” we sat down to talk about Steam and other goings on in Valve. During this chat he confirmed that Steam will get a video recorder very soon, also he said they were looking into the iOS/Android platform for possible expansions with Steam. He also siad that the Source film maker is in the pipeline for a public release. After the chat was over he happily signed my copy of the Orange box and sent me on my way to Robin Walker.
The report doesn’t provide any additional details on Valve’s plans for a mobile Steam, and we only speculate that the development studio might be considering an iPhone or iPad client to check on your online Steam account and friends. Certainly Apple would never approve an iOS Steam app that lets you download and play games out of the App Store, whilst on Android Valve could easily deploy and alternative store like Amazon did (and got sued for the name choice). On iOS, Steam as we know it would be a difficult goal to accomplish: Apple doesn’t allow the installation of apps from alternative sources (the so-called “side-loading”) and the possible implementation of in-app purchases wouldn’t fit Steam’s growing catalogue of games.
Apple has turned its iOS and Mac App Stores into the perfect place for users to discover and buy games, and we don’t expect Steve Jobs to change his mind anytime soon about allowing other developers to “break the ecosystem” with unofficial app stores. So perhaps Steam for iOS will be a simple app to manage your online account? Or a “brand” for App Store developers to publish their games? We don’t know yet, but it’s interesting that Valve is at least looking at the possibilities offered by iOS. [via]
Well after some delays, Portal 2 is now finally available for pre-order for an expected release of April 18th. Mac users can pre-order the game for US$44.99 on Steam or at selected retail shops, some of which have special pre-order offers;
Special pre-order offers vary at participating outlets around the world and include a variety of dollars off and/or exclusive in-game content for those who reserve the game for purchase before it is released the week of April 18. These include $5 off the full price, exclusive in-game skins for the coop bots (Atlas and P-body), and more.
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Just as promised two days ago, Firemint released Flight Control HD for Mac today. The game is available at 3,99 Euros via Steam, and it’s been published under the SteamPlay label so you’ll be able to play it both on a Mac and a PC — without having to buy it twice.
You’re an air traffic controller at an increasingly busy airport; just point and drag aircraft to their landing zones with your mouse or trackpad. Sounds easy? It isn’t! You’ll need nerves of steel and smart strategy to keep the chaos under control. Flight Control HD has been especially redesigned for PC and Mac, with updated graphics and an even tougher new challenge – the Steam exclusive Stunt map where you can increase your score by flying through the gates before landing!
The Mac version of Flight Control comes with an exclusive map and also features Steam achievements and leaderboards. Flight Control HD is coming to the Mac App Store as well.
This summer, there was this friend of mine at the camping — Marco — who regularly came asking for my iPhone 4 to play one game: Zen Bound 2. He had become addicted to it since I first showed the app to him, and he turned out to be so good at covering creepy wood shapes with paint that I had to make him stop. Seriously, I uninstalled the app.
For those who of you unaware of the total awesomeness of Zen Bound 2, here’s the gist: in this game you have to wrap a rope around wood objects, the rope covers them with paint, you have to cover objects with a certain percentage of paint to complete a level. Absurd, simple. A must-have available at $2.99 for iPhone and iPad with Game Center support and Retina graphics. (more…)
Although Firemint already announced a Mac version of award-winning game Flight Control, dubbed Flight Control HD, will be released in the Mac App Store, Mac users will be able to download the game later this month via Steam.
From the official Firemint blog:
The Steam version of Flight Control HD will feature a brand-new, exclusive map. The new “Stunt Flying” map will introduce an exciting new gameplay element, where you can score extra points for flying through a course of stunt cones before landing. This adds a new challenge to the much-loved and insanely addictive gameplay first made famous by the worldwide iPhone hit that has now been downloaded more than 3 million times.
Flight Control HD for Steam will also feature Steam achievements and leaderboards, and will be available world-wide.
Mac gaming got a lot more interesting since the release of Steam, and it’s about to get even better with the Mac App Store. In case you haven’t yet, go check out Flight Control for iPhone and iPad here and here.
Mac gamers, rejoice: one of the most acclaimed games for iPhone and iPad, Plants vs. Zombies, is now available on Mac OS X via Steam. It’s the game you know and love, available on your desktop computer of choice.
This “Game of the Year” edition also includes support for Steamcloud and a new feature called “Zombatar” which allows you to incorporate your own custom zombies into the game.
Check out the full press release below. [Thanks, Jack]
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It seems like Steam for Mac doesn’t play well with Mac OS X 10.6.4. Valve itself has issued a warning to users who logged in during the weekend on Steam:
“The recent 10.6.4 update from Apple has noticeable performance issues for NVidia graphic chip owners running high performance games. If you wish to avoid this, you should consider waiting to install the 10.6.4 update until Apple has had the opportunity to address this issue. Full details of what is contained in the 10.6.4 update can be found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4150. If you have already installed this update and believe your graphic performance is affected, please contact Apple support (http://www.apple.com/support/) for details on what to do.”
If you’re a Steam user and care about your game performances, perhaps you should wait for Apple to fix these problems. Should happen soon.
