Spanish developers Moonbite has just launched its first-person-survival-horror-comedy-shooter (that’s a mouthful for a sub-genre) Zombeer, Zombies & Beers on Steam’s Greenlight. To celebrate the occasion, the folks at Moonbite shared with us a brand new video featuring the cruel (but funny) effects of zombification in Zombeer’s gameplay.

This is actually the second trailer given up by the team, and has new (and ugly) villains, the nailer weapon, and above all the famous zombification process that can only be controlled by the consumption of….. zomBeer of course! Drinking will prevent the virus from awakening the zombie inside you, but like in real life you will need to drink in moderation or risk losing control for another bad reason! The other way around, not drinking at all, will actually turn you into a zombie which is both good and bad news as you will probably discover soon enough.

Zombeer, Zombies & Beers® is planned to be released on consoles, PC and Mac later this year. For more details, stay tuned to Nineoverten.com

Have you tried out the new update for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive? The new update brings about a fun new map for the Classic mode, called Vertigo. Now, my experience with the old Counter-Strike 1.6 was limited to playing round after round of de_dust (and somehow, this behaviour, or tendency…was brought forward to Global Offensive), so I didn’t try the map in it’s 1.6 incarnation, but judging from the screenshots, it does look really ugly.

In any case, GO brings a totally updated de_vertigo, complete with glare (if you are starting off as part of the Counter-Terrorists) and busyness of a under construction skyscraper. And boy is this map a real joy to play with. Being a defusal map, playing as the Terrorists faction will lead you to some pitched battles (some where the CT have control of the higher ground) before you can get to the bomb sites.

I had a blast playing this map using either faction, that I totally forgot about Torchlight 2 over the weekend. The screenshot above was taken by a player of some folks doing the bungee jump (without the cord) off vertigo.

Speaking of Torchlight 2, the new update for the game has left me to fight in the desert all over again; pretty strange for a game that doesn’t respawn enemies in the first place.  Oh well, at least I can take advantage of this situation in 2 ways: grab more loot, and power-level, and my dear Outlander has leveled up twice before this and I’m still only halfway through the map.

So what did you get to play over the weekend? If you are on Steam, do look me up (jason.lee)

From the top of my head, I can name at least two game delivery platforms for the Mac, Apple’s very own Mac App Store (I don’t hang around there much) and Valve’s uber-popular Steam (I hang around there a lot, for games like Counter-Strike: GO, Torchlight, and a whole bunch of indie games that I bought via Humble Bundle that provided Steam keys).

With the saying “two’s a party, three’s a crowd”, the field is about to get a little more crowded with the introduction of MacGameStore Inc’s MacGameStore app. For those who are not familiar with the company, MacGameStore Inc is an online store for digital downloads of Mac Games and features an extensive library with new titles being added daily.

The new app will provide an even better and easier shopping experience to get the latest Mac games. The MacGameStore App is only available at MacGameStore online. This new app offers a greater insight to games by providing game screenshots, game trailers, community reviews, and game ratings. MacGameStore App utilizes the cloud so games are downloaded extremely quickly. In addition, the app allows the option for customers to store their games in the cloud.

“One of the distinct advantages of our App is its simplicity” says Tuncer Deniz, Founder and CEO of MacGameStore Inc. “Customers have been asking for a better way to search for games, so we built a powerful search engine that quickly discovers games the customer may like based on their selection criteria.” added Tuncer Deniz.

“We’re especially proud of our ground breaking MacGameStore Compatibility Checker, it will tell you instantly if the game can run on your Mac before you even download it.” says Tuncer Deniz. “We’ve made purchasing easier too, customers can buy, track and manage their transactions easily, everything is there.” added Tuncer Deniz.

To grab the app, check out this link: http://www.macgamestore.com/app/

It’s the time, of the season…to put your video games budget to good use in the form of contributing to charity and getting some exciting indie games at the same time. The Humble Indie Bundle 6 is now available on the Humble Bundle website. Spend any amount you wish in order to get 5 indie games and you get to allocate the ratio to which the money goes to (the developers, the charity Child’s Play and EFF, and the Humble Bundle guys).

Pay above the current average and you’ll get an additional game thrown in the mix. The games in the Indie Bundle 6 make it a pretty compelling purchase. The 5 games include Runic Games’ Torchlight. This excellent Diablo-clone is going for cheap probably due to the impending release of Torchlight 2 (which I’ll be getting as well ). The other 4 games are Rochard, Shatter, Space Pirates and Zombies, and Vessel. The bonus title is a beautiful looking platformer going by the title Dustforce.

Some of these indie games come with excellent pedigree, with at least one being available on the Sony PS3 platform. The current average price for the Indie Bundle 6 is nearing the 6-dollar mark at the time of writing, and to me that’s a steal. So what are you waiting for? The games are made available for Windows, Mac and Linux, and don’t forget you can download the soundtrack for each game as well.

Head over to: https://www.humblebundle.com

A friend of mine asked how well would Counter Strike: Global Offensive would perform on a MacBook Air with the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics. Now, the Intel HD 4000 has been touted as a significant over its much-maligned predecessor the HD 3000 and althought the HD 4000 doesn’t reach the lofty heights set by AMD’s Llano solution, benchmarks done by online publications such as Anandtech seem to prove that Intel is back in the ball game in the aspect of integrated graphics.

So in order to satisfy my friend’s curiousity, I set out to run Counter Strike: GO on a current generation MacBook Pro, equipped with an Intel Ivy Bridge i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and the Intel HD 4000. I set most of the graphical settings to high (I don’t usually do this, preferring performance rather than bells and whistles), and started a game with bots.

The game ran pretty well actually, at about 40 + to 50 + FPS and it looked beautiful, although I still think that the screenshots on Steam looked like they’ve been taken from another game .

On the the matter of Counter Strike: GO, I’m looking for an affordable gaming mouse that runs well on the Mac. I don’t think I’m doing myself a disservice playing the game with the Magic Mouse (it has a decent weight, and my stats are pretty decent…I think…against bots..) but all these weapons switching about due to brushing against the “invisible” scroll button has to stop before I embarrass myself. So suggestions people, or better still, a review unit or two .

Back in college, my brother and I would use cross cables to wire up our home desktop machine together with my dad’s first generation Centrino laptop. We went through all that trouble just to play one thing, Counter Strike. My gang of bots and myself (typically playing as one of the Counter Terrorist factions) will go up against my brother and his merry gang of Terrorists.

Fast forward a decade and we find ourselves playing a brand new version of Counter Strike, titled Counter Strike: Global Offensive, via Steam, over high-speed broadband, with him being at my parents’ place using a Sony Viao and with me being in my home using a MacBook Pro. The new game is really impressive, staying true to the original while bringing some new enhancements to play.

I must say that while I’m not a Counter Strike expert, but I certainly appreciate the additional guns and improved maps. Dust has additional nook and crannies while Aztec still gets the better of me in every single match. The game runs OK on an older MBP with a Core 2 Duo processor and an Nvidia 320M graphics processor and it’s smooth like silk when played on the current generation MBP with a Core i5 and Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics solution.

Unlike the much-maligned lag in Diablo III, I hardly detect any lag at all on Counter Strike: Global Offensive. This is a very impressive feat and one that I really appreciate as well. For 15 bucks, Counter Strike: Global Offensive does deliver A LOT of bang for your buck, with a competitive multiplayer experience and single-player gameplay with bots. I would rate it at an awesome 5 out of 5!

The game is available on Steam, so be sure to check it out over here. If you already own the game, do look me up: jason.lee

Remember the awesome iOS game Techno Kitten Adventure (think it was made during the crazy Nyan Cat phase) by 21st Street Games? The game turned out to be a hit on XBLA and on iOS devices. Now the team that created the game are set to create a new TKA game called ….Super Techno Kitten Adventure… and they need your help!

These guys are asking for the chance (and means) to dedicate the next several months of their lives solely to creating the biggest, shiniest, brightest, most kitteh-techno-rainbow-insanity-filled video game ever made (these are their own words…what can I say, cat-people are crazy in a good way)! The new game will feature awesome techno music, 10 new worlds with large fully 3D environments, a create-a-kitteh function, plenty of new characters, multiplayer & co-op action and will be available initially for both PC & Mac.

The funding goal here is USD 100,000 , with two stretch goals of USD 250,000 and USD 500,00 which will see the iOS and Android release of the game, as well as additional bells and whistles in the form of extra levels, more kittehs and accessories. There are plenty of backing tiers available on the Super Techno Kitten Adventure’s Kickstarter page and for a minimum of USD 15, you’ll get the game and if you were to pledge USD 10,000 or more, you get to watch Yankees ball game with the team (among other things).

So whatcha waiting for, let’s get the ball rolling and the funds coming in to make 21st Street Games’ Super Techno Kitten Adventure dreams come through: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/w21/super-techno-kitten-adventure

I walked past an internet cafe last night and I saw through the glass walls (legit Internet Cafes in Malaysia are not allowed to tint the glass walls/doors at the front of the shop) two chaps playing Diablo III. They weren’t in not just any level, they were playing in Whimsyshire! I thought the level look pretty cute and pairing up probably made that difficult level a bit more fun to endure.

On to other video game related musings/news, some chaps are embarking on a project to create a new kind of video games console, one that runs on Android, comes with a controller (with support for more) and has industrial design that would make you proud of showcasing it in your living room. It’s name: “OUYA” (think “oh yeahhh!”). The Kickstarter page is over here, with folks pledging over a million dollars to make this happen.

I don’t know whether it would be successful or not, but it would be a “disruptive” element, eschewing triple-A titles and going with contributions from the indie development scene. Bold? Yes! Cool? Yes! Do I want one? DEFINITELY…. you hear me OUYA guys?

OK, now that the Sphero is available in Brookstones and Apple Stores (States-side), the guys who came up with it have decided to reward some lucky Sphero enthusiasts with an iPad 3 and several Sphero gear such as the Sphero ramps and t-shirts. All you need to do is take a picture in the store with your brand new Sphero and upload it to Twitter/FB/Google+ (and of course tagging the necessary official Sphero social media accounts), and you are in it to win it!

For more details, check out the contest page over here: http://www.gosphero.com/sphero-giveaway-win-an-ipad3-and-sphero-accessorie. For those of you who are new to the Sphero, it’s a robot ball which you can control using your iOS or Android device.

I wish I found out about this sooner but Jamestown is an awesome indie shmup and an excellent lunch-time gameplay experience. I actually bought the game some time ago during one of the Humble Bundle events, but left it idle in my Steam account until recently. It turned out that the retro-graphics and the bullet hell gameplay are pretty much up my alley.

I would go as far as to say that this is one of the best shmups I’ve experienced on a PC since Tyrian and Raptor: Call of the Shadows. The backstory is a quirky one as well, set in 17th century colonial Mars (yup, somewhere out there a fictional alternate universe laughs at our backwater-ness) with players fighting through waves of Spaniards and Martians.

Levels are unlocked as you progress, some needing you to complete prior levels at higher difficulty levels before proceeding. This is crazy fun as the A.I and the bullet hell effect it employs simply sucks you in. The ships that you are using have two fire modes and a special vaunt mode which absorbs enemy fire and awards score multipliers when in effect.

Jamestown’s other claim to fame would be its multiplayer mode whereby players can choose between using the keyboard, mouse or two Xbox controllers to combine forces to up to four players on the same machine! Yup, who needs multiplayer over Ethernet/Internet while you can have a get together in this manner.

I came away from the entire experience utterly impressed and I’m gonna check out the rest of the Humble Bundle games that I’ve bought. In the mean time, Jamestown gets a 4.5 out of 5! Highly Recommended. The game is available on Steam for USD 9.99, check it out over here: http://www.finalformgames.com/jamestown/

For all you Android fans out there, fancy getting married in a Android suit? Check out the following picture:

I actually got the picture from a press release: Award-winning mobile games developer HandyGames™ and its technology partner BlueStacks bring Android gaming to the Apple Mac platform via BlueStacks’ revolutionary Android App Player for Mac. Currently available as public alpha version, the Android App Player features several popular HandyGames™ game titles, all of which are available for free

“In collaboration with our technology partner BlueStacks we’re moving full steam ahead in our strategy to bring our games to as many platforms as possible”, comments Markus Kassulke, CEO of HandyGames™. “We’re extremely excited that we have been given the opportunity to extend the reach of our games to the traditionally closed Apple ecosystem.”

To check out the games, head over here: http://www.handy-games.com/public/landing/