10 Great Strategy Games You Can Play On Your Mac

10 Great Strategy Games You Can Play On Your Mac:

Mac gaming can be frustrating at times. The problem is finding games that are available on the platform. Even today, after Steam’s adoption of the Mac, finding games to play can be difficult.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t some excellent games. You just have to do a little extra work to find them. Let’s have a look at ten strategy titles that are sure to please any fan of the genre.

Criteria

Mac games are relatively rare, and their scarcity increases as they age. The production runs are smaller, which results in fewer used copies, which results in higher prices.
I’m capping the price for games at $60. This leaves out games like Rise of Nations. It’s an excellent title, but the few new copies I could find are priced at over $100. All of the games found here are affordable, which means they are relatively recent releases and many of them are sold on Steam.

AI War: Fleet Command

If you’re a fan of the space-strategy genre and you don’t mind a steep learning curve you’ll love AI War.
This massive game offers players the chance to conquer the stars with gigantic fleets. Building them requires the management of complex resource system, though with that said, this is far from the most hardcore title you can buy.
AI War is available on Steam for $9.99. There’s also a demo available.

Civilization IV and Civilization V

The Civilization titles have supported Mac for some time. The newest version is Civilization V, but its focus on making the series more accessible has angered some gamers while pleasing others.
Fortunately, you have a choice. Civilization IV: The Complete Edition is also available for Mac and it still feels quite modern, so gamers who prefer more complex strategy can pick it up.
Civilization IV is about $40 on Amazon, while Civilization V sells for a tad over $20.

Darwinia

This unique title is story-driven, making it different from most strategy games. It places you in charge of saving a virtual world called Darwinia. A virus has assaulted it and its virtual citizens – and only you can stop it.
Darwinia’s lo-fi graphics style is beautiful but also makes the game easy to run on almost any Mac made in the last five years. The game is relatively simple to understand, so it’s a good choice for those unfamiliar with the genre.
You can buy Darwinia for $9.99 on Steam. There is a demo available.

Frozen Synapse

One of the newest games here, Frozen Synapse is a turn-based title focusing on squad combat. It’s one of the few games of its kind to be released in the last decade and it’s probably the best of the bunch.
There are only a few units, so understanding the basics isn’t difficult. However, the complex interactions between units, terrain and fog-of-war result in a deceptively challenging game. Units die quickly to gunfire, so a single round rarely lasts more than thirty minutes.
Frozen Synapse is $24.99 on Steam. There is a demo available.

Gratuitous Space Battles

As the name implies, this game is all about space battles. Fleets of 2D vessels are pitted against each other and attempt to achieve victory with beam weapons, torpedoes, missiles and rail guns. If you’ve ever found yourself re-watching the space battles in Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5 you’ll love what this game offers.
This game sets itself apart from others by taking away direct control of battles. Players are responsible for designing ships and determining deployment. This sounds unusual, but the design lets you focus on building ships and enjoying battles instead of worrying about split-second changes in starship tactics.
Gratuitous Space Battles is $19.99 on Steam. The Complete Pack, which includes a number of DLC expansions, is $39.99.

Hearts of Iron III

Hearts of Iron has been considered the definitive World War II strategy game since the release of the original in 2002. The game has never been accessible to strategy newcomers, but that’s sort of the point.
The latest edition refines the interface and updates the graphics, but it remains a hardcore title targeted at history buffs and World War II fanatics. The huge number of possible strategies and large number of playable countries makes this a title that you can play for hundreds of hours without exploring every possibility.
Hearts of Iron III is just $9.99 on Steam.

Rome: Total War

The Total War series is one of the best strategy franchises on the market, but the latest games have not come to the Mac. The most recent title you can purchase is Rome: Total War.
That’s not to imply the game is bad, however. Rome: Total War is about eight years old, which means the graphics aren’t the best, but the battles themselves are as enjoyable as any Total War title. Anyone who wants to enjoy real-time strategy with extreme tactical depth needs to pick this one up.
Rome: Total War is available through a number of major retailers for $29.99.

The Sims 3

Yes, the Sims is a strategy game.  It doesn’t involve killing or conquering – but it does require proper resource management if you want your Sims to be successful.
This is the most approachable game on our list. Strategy fans shouldn’t write it off automatically as too simple, however.  The Sims 3 is the most engaging game in the franchise from a strategy perspective. Managing day-to-day life of an entire family can become a serious challenge.
The Sims 3 is available for $27.99 on Amazon.

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

Blizzard’s long-awaited installment of the hugely popular Starcraft franchise was certain to make this list. It is the only strategy title on this list that was built for professional competitive play. This focus is evident in the game’s excellent balance and fast pace.
Gamers who are looking for an engaging single-player experience may need to look elsewhere. The multi-player, however, is enjoyable for both newbies and experienced gamers. Blizzard’s ladder does an excellent job of gauging skill levels and pitting players against others that are approximately as skilled.
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is available for $39.99 on Amazon.

Conclusion

All of the games listed here are enjoyable and affordable. Together, they represent hundreds of hours of gameplay. But if there a title that you enjoy which isn’t listed here let us know by leaving a comment.

Surf the net anonymously and go around firewalls and geo-restrictions with Ultrasurf

Surf the net anonymously and go around firewalls and geo-restrictions with Ultrasurf:

Ultrasurf is free, proxy-based ‘anti censorship’, ‘pro-privacy’ software. It tunnels through firewalls (whether at work or country-wide), encrypts online communications, hides your real IP from the websites that you are visiting, automatically deletes your browser history, and provides you with a US-based location so that you can access geographically restricted websites such as Hulu or Pandora.
Ultrasurf, which was originally created to enable internet users in China to surf freely, is also designed for portability. You can carry Ultrasurf on a USB stick and plug it into any internet terminal that you happen to have access to, instantly providing a secure, encrypted online experience on-the-go.
Possible uses:

1. Surfing (or downloading) privately and anonymously: your IP address is hidden from sites you surf, and your browsing history, cookies, and cache on your machine as instantly removed when you exit Ultrasurf.
2. Surfing restricted sites at work: or other locations (or countries) which have restrictions.
3. Accessing geo-restricted sites: or sites that are available in the US but may not be available in your country, from anywhere. E.g. Pandora, Hulu, Spotify, etc.
4. Anonymous downloading: from P2P, Torrent,  or other sites. See the comment re: internet speed in the ‘verdict’ section below.

How to use this program:

1. Download and extract into an appropriate location on your hard drive
2. Run the Ultrasurf executables.
3. Ultrasurf may run IE automatically (this can be switched off in the settings). If you don’t use IE then go ahead and close it and run the browser that you like.
4. Ultrasurf will automatically select the best available server for you, although you could actually choose a server manually from the UltraSurf dialog
5. You will see a ‘lock’ icon near your system tray indicating UltraSurf is running (see screenshot top right).

The verdict: this program is simply impressive. It has no restrictions on bandwidth, as free VPN (Virtual Private Networking) services have such  Tunnelbear and HotSpot Shield (note: UltraSurf is not a VPN service). It also does not involve the user in the process of finding and providing the internet proxy. It just works.
The main drawback when using programs like this one is a slower internet speed, and in my testing of this I did experience a lower speed, but only by about 20% or so that I could measure. I was still able simultaneously surf and to download torrent files in very good speed. However, this is not necessarily representative, your experience may vary.
The future of UltraSurf seems quite promising, with the addition of a VPN being promised, as well as support for Mac, Linux, and handheld devices.
Version tested: 11.04
Compatibility: WinAll. Mac, Linux, and device support is planned for the future.
Go to the program page to download the latest version (~1.32 megs).

Get A New Desktop Look With The Hope Theme [Linux]

Get A New Desktop Look With The Hope Theme [Linux]:
I simply love how customizable Linux really is. You can transform just about anything and get a completely different desktop while still running Linux. For a fanboy like me, it’s a thing of beauty.
Speaking of beauty, there are so many different Gnome Shell themes and GTK themes in existence, that it’s downright awesome. One of those themes is called Hope, an icy blue theme that is sure to make your boring desktop a lot more interesting.

Download & Installation

Ubuntu users can install it by adding a PPA repository and installing the package. Simply open a terminal window and run the following code:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kokoto-java/omgubuntu-stuff && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install hope-gtk-theme.
Everyone else can get the Hope GTK theme from here, and can be easily installed by extracting the contents of the download into your .themes folder inside your Home folder. If you use Nautilus, you can hit Ctrl + H inside your home folder and all hidden folders (those with a period in front of them, like .themes) will suddenly appear for you to see, making the extraction process a lot easier.
From there, you should probably use Gnome Tweak Tool to change your theme to Hope. That’s pretty much it! If you want, you can also choose to use a dark toolbar version, which will be appropriately named Hope-DT. This option should also show up in Gnome Tweak Tool.

Theme Features

This new feature brings a lot of nice changes when compared to the default Gnome 3 theme, named “Adwaita”. The title bars are now almost black, and give a nice contrast compared to the rest of the desktop. Hovering over the window control buttons will highlight them, so that there is emphasis on whichever button you’re hovering over. I’m not sure if this was a previous version of the GTK3 or if this originated in the GTK2 theme, but at one point the rest of the window control button turned into an icy blue.

Speaking of icy blue, other key areas are now that color. The buttons that follow the GTK styling are now softer and are surrounded by an icy blue glow. Anywhere you usually see orange in Ubuntu, you’ll see icy blue instead.

With the Dark Toolbar version, some toolbars will appear just as dark as the title bars. This may be a good change for some people, but not everyone. It really depends on your taste. This will be most notable in Nautilus and in a few other applications, but generally there won’t be much of a difference between the two for most applications.

Conclusion

Hope is a theme that I really like, and have liked since the Gnome 2 days. Its port for Gnome 3 is very well done, and has been my preferred theme for a few months now. Hopefully you well enjoy the clean look it brings as well. There is also a Hope Gnome Shell theme included within the download for this GTK3 theme that I may be reviewing soon, but until then, you can simply follow the instructions on the download page for proper extraction and enable it using Gnome Tweak Tool.
Do you like the Hope theme? What’s you’re favorite GTK3 theme? Let us know in the comments below!

Upload your audio files with Scup, a SoundCloud desktop uploader

Upload your audio files with Scup, a SoundCloud desktop uploader:

You may have heard of SoundCloud, a free ‘audio locker’ type service that will let you upload your audio files and then access them from anywhere. You may even have seen its distinctive player embedded in blogs and other sites, with it’s distinctive displayed waveform that users can insert comments into (see screenshot). If you would like to add your own audio files to SoundCloud, and specifically if you are looking for a quick and convenient way to upload said audio files via drag and drop right from your desktop, then check out free Adobe Air app Scup. (Multiplatoform: Windows, Mac, Linux).
This one is pretty self explanatory drag and drop. Two notable things, however:

1. SoundCloud Auto-detects copyrighted material. This is the message I got when I was attempting to  upload a random mp3 file to test this service, which was in fact a copyrighted song “Our automatic content protection system has detected that your upload “Rhubard Mustard” may contain content that is copyrighted. As a result, we have paused the upload of your audio for the time being.” This, of course, has nothing to do with Scup.
2. Scup is quite flexible when it comes to adding additional metadata : above and beyond the usual MP3 tags. Note that this is important insofar as placing your file, especially public files, in a way that makes them more readily identifiable and/or searchable (see screenshot below).

The verdict: if you use SoundCloud, you will love Scup.
[Thanks go to reader Panzer for tipping us off about this software].
Version tested: 1.1.0.2
Compatibility: Windows, Linux, Mac. Requires Adobe Air.
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (~2.3 megs).

Make Your Photos Into Fun Works Of Art With Pixel Mixer For Android

Make Your Photos Into Fun Works Of Art With Pixel Mixer For Android:

You know what’s really fun? Taking photos with your phone, applying effects on the go, and then sharing them with friends. Camera app makers know this, and many camera apps let you take a picture and then apply effects to it: Look at Camera360 and Vignette to see what I mean.
But sometimes separating the camera from the effects can be a good thing. An application that has a wonderful camera interface (Vignette) may not provide the most visual way to apply effects (Vignette, yet again). So, in the spirit of separation and specialization, I wanted to show you Pixel Mixer, a great (and free) application for visually applying effects and frames to your photos.

Picking An Image

The first thing Pixel Mixer asks you to do is pick an image, of course. The camera icon just launches your favorite camera app (in my case, I launched the one built into Resurrection Remix, the Ice Cream Sandwich ROM I’ve been using recently). I then did the obvious thing and took a picture of my cat:

And that’s what we’ll be using for applying effects.

Layering and Applying Effects

To apply an effect, just scroll to it on the horizontal list, and tap it. Pretty simple – but what’s cool is that you can apply up to three effects, or filters, at the same time. Above you can see my cat after I’ve applied Violet, Cartoon 3, and Mosaic 1, in that order. If I want to get rid of one of these, I just need to tap it:

That’s pretty neat, but I wish I could change the order of the filters by just dragging them around. Let’s say I deleted Cartoon 3 and then decide I did want it after all:

If you look closely, you will see that this image is different than the other one which had the exact same three filters, because their order is different. I hope future versions would let us rearrange filters by dragging, but still, even being possible to layer filters in the first place and selectively remove them from the stack is pretty powerful.
Not all filters are on/off affairs: Some filters can be applied with different levels of intensity:

Here you can see the Lomo 2 filter applied at intensity level 2 (out of three possible levels). The list of color effects is long, and applying effects is fun and fast.

Applying Texture Effects

The next tab is used for applying global texture effects, such as film grain, ink spots, and other types of retro-looking effects that can help make your photo feel a bit more organic, and not like it was taken with the cold and flawless gaze of a smartphone. Layering these effects doesn’t make much sense, and indeed, here you can pick just one effect. The list isn’t as long as the color effects, too, but then again – there are only so many texture effects.

Picking a Frame And Reviewing Your Image

Once you’re happy with the color effect and texture you picked, it’s time to pick a frame, which is exactly what you do in this next tab. There are about fifteen different frames from which you can pick and choose.
At any point when you want to see your work without all of the distracting interface elements, just tap the image once:

The interface will fall away, leaving you with just your image. Another tap will bring everything right back.

Randomizing

You may not always have the time to painstakingly go over effects and pick the combination that’s just right. Thankfully, you can always just tap the thunderbolt icon in the bottom-right corner, and Pixel Mixer would randomly apply one or two effects at random. Sometimes, the result may even be beautiful.

Saving Your Work

Once you’re done, tap the Plus icon on the top-right corner. A horizontal menu will pop open, and you can choose to save your work or share it. This is what the final image looks like after I’ve picked a random effect:

The image is not high-res, but it should be fine for most sharing needs.

Is It Too Much Hassle?

This is where I want to hear what you think: Do you prefer your photo effects baked into your camera app? Or is it better to use a dedicated camera app and a separate, dedicated effects app?