In addition to games that have recently begun shipping, Mac game developers and publishers alike are working overtime in order to get the latest games on store shelves in time for the holidays, or shortly thereafter. id Software recently announced that its WWII-era, first-person shooter, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, is in the final stages of development for Mac OS X and expects to make it available by Christmas. Westlake Interactive, meanwhile, is hard at work on a variety of games for OS 8/9 and Mac OS X, including Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which has reached first playable status, and Civilization III, which is in the final stages of development, although work on the level editor is in early development and not expected to be included in the box. Westlake programmer Brad Oliver notes that the Mac OS X version of turn-based strategy game Civilization III will feature Quartz text rendering for easy reading, particularly on LCD displays. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is scheduled to be released in December by Aspyr Media, while Civilization III is scheduled to be released in February 2002 by MacSoft.
