Elven Legacy Collection

Turn-based strategy wargaming in a fantasy setting

October 31 2011

Back in 2009 Virtual Programming announced that they would be bringing the turn-based fantasy strategy game Elven Legacy to the Macintosh. It seems it ended up taking longer than expected but alas it has finally arrived in the form of Elven Legacy Collection. Elven Legacy was originally developed by the Russian development house 1C Company and three expansion packs for the game eventually followed. The Macintosh version includes all three of these expansion packs hence the name Elven Legacy Collection. The game is very reasonably priced at thirty dollars considering all the content that’s included but is it worth your time and will you be able to play it? Read on to find out! After playing Elven Legacy for a while two games come to mind for me – Panzer General and Heroes of Might and Magic. Elven Legacy is sort of a hybrid of both of these types of games. At its heart it’s a hex-based strategy wargame with a fantasy skin. But the story-based campaign and role-playing elements are vaguely reminiscent of Heroes of Might and Magic. Graphically it also looks similar to Heroes of Might and Magic and that’s a good thing as the graphics are colorful, detailed, and easy on the eyes. (...)

The popular franchise finally returns to computer screens with the famed Augusta National Golf Club at the forefront

September 29 2011

Golfing games have been around for personal computers about as long as personal computers have been sold. Back in the early days of Mac gaming I remember playing such titles as MacGolf and World Class Leaderboard. Then in the 1990s the Links series of golf games was the popular choice for most people including yours truly. But in 1998 Electronic Arts released the first Tiger Woods PGA Tour game and that series quickly evolved into the premier golfing simulation franchise on personal (...)

A true classic that’s accessible and still holds up well today

August 08 2011

Rome: Total War is an award-winning strategy game developed by The Creative Assembly. It was released for Windows PCs in September of 2004 and received an overwhelming amount of critical acclaim. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest computer games of all time. It was finally released for the Macintosh in February of 2010 by Feral Interactive under their “Legends” label. The Macintosh version is actually the “Gold” version of the game and includes the “Barbarian Invasion” expansion. Why (...)

World War 2 tactical wargaming at it’s accessible best

July 13 2011

Back in 2000 Battlefront released Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord to critical acclaim. Two excellent games in the series (Barbarossa to Berlin and Afrika Korps) followed in 2002 and 2004 respectively. These games have generally been regarded as some of the best tactical World War II games ever released for their realism and attention to detail. And better yet they were all available for the Mac (as well as the PC)! But Battlefront took a break from the Mac for a while and started production (...)

Good, mostly accessible, roleplaying fun but not the fantastic experience the first game was

April 01 2011

Late 2009 saw the release of Dragon Age: Origins. It won numerous awards and was incredibly popular. I spent the better part of 2010 playing Dragon Age: Origins, its expansion, and DLC (downloadable content). I was impressed as much as anybody with the game. But as good as it was (and still is) the thing that really set it apart was its accessibility. It’s difficult to find a modern role-playing game, with 3D graphics and all the bells and whistles, that isn’t hobbled by an overly complicated (...)