New MMO hits Macs with exclusive / bonus content

Dec 18, 2008 10:38 GMT  ·  By

NCSoft and TransGaming have kicked off the Open Beta for the Mac version of City of Heroes. Possible only through TransGaming's Cider technology, the Mac version of the MMO contains two exclusive in-game items. Mac owners can sign up for the City of Heroes beta from the Mac-beta website. The title is rated 16+.

Earlier this month, we reported that a deal struck by NCsoft and TransGaming would have Mac users joining a battle of good versus evil in the most popular comic book MMO available on PC and Mac, City of Heroes. NCsoft noted then that an open beta for the Mac version of City of Heroes was imminent. The beta is now live! Mac users can sign up here, providing the publisher with their e-mail address for access.

As noted above, two exclusive additions are to be found in the Mac beta, one of which is a Mission Teleporter – players teleport themselves right into the active mission. The other bonus is an Exclusive Valkyrie Costume Set. Costume Pieces include two varieties of wings, a cape, a skirt/kilt, pants, boots, shoulders, chest, gloves, belts, and helmet with multiple details, according to NCsoft. City of Heroes is rated 16+.

Minimum system requirements for City of Heroes are:

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard; CPU: Intel Core Duo Processor; HDD: 5 GB of free hard drive space; RAM: 1024MB; Graphics: 128MB video card; Internet Connection: 56K Modem.     According to the list of required specs, City of Heroes will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac), nor will it be supported by systems with the Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics chip. For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least the following: the Intel Integrated Chipset GMA X3100 and Dual 2.0GHz CPUs, or 1.7GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent.

Supported Video Cards include: - NVIDIA GeForce series 7300, 7600, 8600, 8800, 9400, 9600; - ATI Radeon series X1600, X1900, HD 2400, HD 2600; - Intel Extreme Graphics GMA X3100.

The City of Heroes Mac port was achieved with TransGaming's Cider Portability Engine, which acts as a “wrapper” around the game software, enabling it to run seamlessly on Intel-based Macs. TransGaming also offers an online portal for digital distribution, called GameTree Online.