video games

In Stray, you play as a cat wandering through a cyberpunk version of the Kowloon Walled City, the most densely populated city in the world (and a fascinating footnote of history). In this future, though, the city teems with robots who dream of visiting the outside world.

It’s been out for PC, Xbox and PlayStation for a while, but the Mac version is out now on the Mac App Store.

Stray is a gripping game in an exquisitely designed and immersive world that proves gaming on the Mac is on the rise once again.

The holiday season is finally upon us and you know what that means? Killer deals on all the tech gadgets you’ve been lusting after all year.

Cyber Monday deals for 2017 are already setting the internet into a tizzy of anticipation with big discounts on 4K TVs, smart speakers, drones, iPads, smartphones and much more. Cult of Mac will be rounding up the best deals right here so you can spend less time Cyber Monday shopping and get on with life.

Here are the best deals worth checking out:

The power to control the wind and create an ethereal flight of blowing flower petals is now possible with your iPhone or iPad.

An iOS version of Flower, a hit PlayStation game when it debuted in 2009, became available for purchase Thursday on the App Store.

The official Apple Park campus should open its doors to employees later this month, but if you can’t wait for Apple to take the wraps off its shiny new spaceship, the Minecraft replica is now complete.

We got our first look at the Minecraft version of Apple Park earlier this month and were blown away by the amount of detail creator Alex Westlund threw in. Now after 413 hours of work, you can fly through Apple’s new campus and gawk at the last Apple product Steve Jobs unveiled.

Check it out:

The entire U.S. has contracted a serious case of Pokémon Go fever, with millions of would-be Pokémon trainers hitting the streets in hopes of becoming the very best like no one ever was.

Becoming a Pokémon Master ain’t easy, but if you know what you’re doing you don’t even have to leave the house to do stuff like hatch eggs, lure in Pokémon and toss a wicked curve ball.

Here are the Pokémon Go tips you need to know to dominate the hottest game in the world.

Want to chow down at a five-star restaurant while luring Pokémon to your location and battling other trainers? Finding the perfect spot is about to get a lot easier thanks to Yelp.

The popular location reviews app is ready to capitalize on the Pokémon Go craze by adding new filters that show players whether a restaurant, store, bar or other venue has a PokéStop or gym nearby.

You won’t be forced to use Apple’s teeny tiny Siri Remote to play games on Apple TV much longer.

Apple is turning its little black box into a more serious gaming console with tvOS 10 by giving developers the ability to require a third-party controller for games.

Gamers who grew up in the 90’s may not have heard of the Canadian punk rock band PUP, but they will undoubtedly love the crews newest video for the song ‘DVP’ that combines some of the coolest retro games of the era into a lyric video that’s truly amazing.

Directed by Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux who has produced most of PUP’s other videos — which are also incredible — the new vid features everything from Earthworm Jim to Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles while ratcheting up the angst.

See how many of your favorite games you can spot:

Virtual Reality isn’t just going to change how we consume content. It’s going totally change how we make content for the digital world too.

Developers at Epic Games have already created a way to build VR games using the Unreal Editor in VR mode, and it’s unlike any software development tool you’ve ever seen. Rather than clicking around on a 2D screen, designers Tim Sweeney and Mike Fricker show how game makers can walk around inside levels to manipulate objects and get everything just right.

Take a look:

The demons are back. The first trailer for DOOM‘s campaign mode was revealed this morning by Bethesda, and it’s way more intense than the original version you fought through on your Mac back in the 90’s.

The game puts you in the boots of the iconic DOOM Marine who wakes up to find out the Union Aerospace Corporation’s facility on Mars has been decimated by Hell’s worst demons. You are humanity’s last hope armed with an array of unbelievably awesome weapons, but based on the new trailer humanity is, well, doomed.

Watch the gory action below:

If you’ve been itching to put a real-life Pip-Boy on your wrist via the $120 collector’s edition of Bethesda’s highly-anticipated role playing video game, Fallout 4, and you own an iPhone 6 Plus, you may be out of luck.

The larger handset will not be supported for the wristband, but you can still run the companion app when the console and PC game comes out later this year.

Get ready to watch the epic slow burn in the official trailer for the upcoming conclusion to Rocksteady’s Arkham video game series, Batman: Arkham Knight. Scarecrow is uniting all of Batman’s enemies — Penguin, Two-Face, the Riddler, Harley Quinn, Poison, Ivy, and the Arkham Knight — to take Gotham City and take down The Bat.

Sure, there’s a little bit of Bane-like incomprehensibility in the Scarecrow’s voice-over, and (barring a miracle) the Joker won’t be in town this time around, but this game is looking pretty amazing. The in-game shots of Batman plunging down the skyscrapers of Gotham City, the brutal combat animations, and the just plain high-resolution glory of the fictional city and it’s lone hero make us want to play Batman: Arkham Knight right now.

Check out the epic trailer for the June 2, 2015 game below.

Older games that we all loved and played relentlessly as kids tend to disappear as the old operating systems that we played them on are sent out to pasture.

The Internet Archive, a free library of millions of free books, movies, websites, and other media, has also archived thousands of older MS_DOS games, like Maniac Mansion, Prince of Persia, and–yes–Oregon Trail, and has given us all access to them for free.

Turns out, you can still get dysentery while traveling to Oregon, even if you haven’t kept your old PC or Mac to play the seminal educational game on.

“The collection includes action, strategy, adventure and other unique genres of game and entertainment software,” writes Jason Scott, the Software Librarian for the Internet Archive. “Through the use of the EM-DOSBOX in-browser emulator, these programs are bootable and playable.”

In George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, anyone can play the Game of Thrones, including little-known House Forrester.

Telltale Games, the house behind video gaming hits like The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead, have brought this more obscure Westeros family to the forefront of a brand-new game set in Martin’s Game of Thrones universe, and it looks delightfully dramatic.

Check out the trailer below, which includes some fine voicework from Natalie Dormer and Peter Dinklage as their respective characters from the show, wily Margaery Tyrell and diminutive Tyrion Lannister.

If you’ve been alive in the past fifty years or so, you’ve played a video game. It’s a primarily visual art form that uses current-day technologies to provide ever-evolving gaming experiences across generations.

This new series of short, ten-minute videos written and produced by Stuart Brown aim to take a closer look at the evolution of video game graphics, from the simple monochromatic lines of Pong to the incredibly rich and detailed photo realism of today’s games like Crysis, Destiny, and Far Cry 4.

“Graphics are absolutely important,” says Brown in the fifth and final video. “They are an essential part of video games. A window into another world and a prime indicator of the technology that powers it.”

Check out the first two installments below.

SEATTLE, Washington – Walk into a comic shop, and you’ll probably see titles from publisher Dark Horse Comics. Known for its creator-owned series like Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and Sergio Aragonés’ Groo the Wanderer as well as television and movie adaptations like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or 300, the comic book publisher has a booth at the Penny Arcade Expo this weekend in Seattle to show off a different genre of comic.

The booth at the Washington State Convention Center in is full of video game-themed books of all stripe, from Mass Effect and Tomb Raider single-issue comics to larger, coffee table volumes like Hyrule Historia, which is chock full of the lore of The Legend of Zelda, and The Art of Naughty Dog, an art book that focuses on the popular game developer’s artistic output.

Dave Marshall says that video game books are the third pillar in the Dark Horse publishing strategy, and have become just as valuable a content stream as the creator-owned or media-based titles.

“We get the original writers and artists from the video games themselves to actually write or consult on these books,” he told us at the Dark Horse booth Saturday morning, “so we can come to the fans at a deeper level than just a crummy tie-in or cash grab.”

SEATTLE, Washington – Together: Amna & Saif puts you and another player on the same screen, controlling a mother and son duo of characters to solve various environmental puzzles. It’s a “couch co-op adventure puzzle game” that requires you to talk, interact, and think with another human being.

Lead designer Lyle Cox told us that he’s always wanted to make a game that benefits society in some way. “My hope is that people who play the game,” he said, “get some benefit to their relationship for having done so.”

We’ve all heard it: “Turn that TV off or I’m gonna take it and toss it out the g*dd*mn window.” Chances are, if you’re a parent, you’ve even said such a thing (I know I have).

That’s why after repeated watchings we just had to share this viral video from YouTuber McJuggerNuggets about a crazy family with a dad that resorts to mowing down his layabout son’s video game collection to intimidate the kid into getting a job.

Check out this NSFW video (F-bombs galore) below and you’ll be as hooked on the uncomfortable family drama as we are.

Robert Pfaff is a young illustrator living in Michigan. He’s also a hard-core gamer with a love for all things pixellated, so he decided to combine both passions together and create this amazingly evocative set of digital artwork.

We found his work to be compelling, so asked Pfaff to choose his favorites and tell us a little about what they meant to him.

Pfaff is thinking about printing and selling his work on posters; if you’d like to encourage him, be sure to visit his artist page on Adobe’s portfolio site, Behance.

Source: Robert Pfaff

For you gamers out there that aren’t looking to spend an arm and a leg for Call of Duty: Ghosts you can now experience this award-winning title for pennies on the dollar … thanks to Cult of Mac Deals!

Fighting as both a U.S Marine and British S.A.S. soldier, in Call of Duty 4 you will utilize sophisticated technology and weaponry to take control of the battlefield and to lead your squad to victory. You’ll get hours of action packed, gun wielding fun with one of the best FPS franchises out there. And all for just $9.99!

We all love our music and MixTape is all about that elusive perfect mix.

MixTape Pro will help you create, experiment, and publish the results onto the web or directly into iTunes. You can share your pro creations with friends or jam out by yourself. And right now you can save a bunch of money on MixTape Pro because Cult of Mac Deals has this simple and elegant app available for 50% off during this limited time offer. That’s right – you can get MixTape Pro for just $24.99!

This time on The CultCast: iBras make the world a better place; Apple TV is your tele’s next gaming console; iPhone 6’s get huger screens; Net Neutrality and why you should care; and Erfon pitches the best Fave N Rave pick EVER…

Chuckle your way through this week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the audio adventure begin.

Thanks to Ting for sponsoring this episode! Ahh, Ting, the straight forward wireless carrier who doesn’t overcharge. With Ting, you only pay for the data, minutes, and text messages you use. Plus, no contracts! See how much could be saving on your wireless bill at cultcast.ting.com.

Don’t Starve’s intuitive nature from beginning to end makes it a highly addictive and enjoyable game to play, and almost perfectly teeters the edge of becoming a major time drain…without going quite that far. The combination of that well balanced gameplay and it’s super cool overall design makes it one of the best of the year.

And you can get Don’t Starve for 33% off – only $9.99 – courtesy of Cult of Mac Deals.