14 DAY TRIAL // Kicked off on Tuesday with a series of announcements from hot-shot companies like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has spawned a few Apple-related announcements, including the shipping date for Portal 2 for Mac, Capcom’s classic arcade shooter First Strike for the iPhone, and new Final Fantasy games from Square Enix.
As MacRumors points out, the E3 conference has never had much focus on the Mac, and other Apple platforms. In recent years, however, things have changed a bit. For once, Apple introduced the iPhone, which took quite a bite of the gaming market. As such, this year’s E3 saw a few iOS announcements from prominent game companies like Square-Enix, which announced that Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of Lions and Secret of Mana would be coming to the App Store later this year; Capcom, which is reviving arcade shooter 1942: First Strike for the iPhone; and the folks at SEGA, who are bringing Sonic 4 to the iPhone this year.
Thanks to Valve porting Steam to the Mac, new releases are to become available for both Windows PC and Mac at the same time. Portal 2 had been pushed to 2011, Valve said, but Mac gamers can bet their Magic Mouse that the first-person shooter action puzzle game will be delivered to everyone on the same day. The makers of Half Life even played a teaser trailer for fans of Portal at this year’s E3 (embedded below). Needless to point out, many of those who’ve downloaded Portal for Mac for free have now joined the game’s entire fan base in eagerly anticipating the sequel’s launch.
According to the trailer, parts of the Aperture Science lab have been reclaimed by nature over time. The facility still appears almost fully functional, although rather imperfect compared with that of Portal one. This particular aspect should provide a sense of randomness, and the possibility of error on many levels, including that of GlaDOS. Portal 2 takes place a few hundred years after the end of Half-Life 2. The two games share a somewhat common universe.