Innehållsförteckning för Vol 6 2023 från Mac & MacBook User

If you’re a Mac or MacBook user, you’ve come to the right place. In every issue, our team of experts bring you the best tips, tricks and tutorials for your Apple gear, as well as information-packed guides. In this sixth issue we are taking a long hard stare at macOS Ventura to ensure that you are getting the very best from the latest build of Apple’s current OS. We do all the heavy lifting on Cloud storage, Siri, iPad integration and so much more, so you don’t have to! We aren’t stopping there as we are also lifting the lid of our Mac first aid box to help you cure the ills of some of the common woes that befall users. If it’s games you’re looking for, our in-depth reviews…

Restoring a Mac from a Time Machine Backup If something has gone very wrong with your Mac, and you want to wipe your hard drive clean and reinstall from a Time Machine backup, this is what you should do. Naturally, to restore from a backup you need to actually have a backup, and anything you’ve done on your Mac between the last time you ran Time Machine and the time when you restore to your last backup, will be lost. That’s why you should back up on a regular basis. • First of all, make sure a notebook Mac is powered using the power adapter, and regardless of what Mac you have, make sure your Time Machine backup drive is connected. • Power down your Mac, count to ten. For…

Info// Plug In Digital https://unmemory.info £5.99, $5.99, 6,99 € What a lousy start to the day. You wake up in a strange apartment, stark naked and covered in blood with a wound to your ribs and a dead body in the bathtub. You have no idea where you are or how you got there. What are you to do? Unmemory, the first game from a small team in Barcelona, offers a great new take on the text and graphic adventure. There’s a lot of reading to do but don’t let that put you off. The story is well written and engaging; and really draws you into the strange world of the protagonist. Every few paragraphs, the text is interrupted by a graphic of something nearby. You can frequently interact with…

Info// Annapurna Interactive https://annapurnainteractive.com £4.99, $4.99, 5,49 € When attached to a game, the phrase ‘interactive visual novel’ often rings alarm bells. Too many titles of this ilk boast great storylines but no gameplay. Unfortunately, this is all too true here. If Found… gets off to a bad start. After a sequence involving a space ship flying past Jupiter and finding a black hole, there’s a barely-interactive trawl through the diary of the protagonist, Kasio, covering the whole month of December. You just read an entry, wipe it away by dragging your finger over the screen and then do the same on the next page, stopping just long enough to turn the volume down; the background music at this point sounds like a bad feedback loop. While the aesthetics soon…

Info// SEGA www.footballmanager.com £39.99, 54.99 € The football management simulation has been a huge part of the sport gaming genre since the early days of eight-bit computing; for a really simple reason. Being an armchair pundit, manager, player or anything really, just as long as you can work on your sofa’s butt groove at the same time, is the best job in the world. You answer to no one, you’re paid well in self-worth and, most importantly, you’re always right despite whatever you’re told to the contrary. Obviously, as armchair football managers go, I’m one of the best! Each week, I know better than the current gaffer of my beloved football team, be it squad, formation, transfers or even the away kit. Under my leadership, we wouldn’t be facing relegation…

Info// N3TWORK Inc.  n3twork.com Free (IAP) For a long time, I ignored the advice: "The app is best experienced via headphones." And that was silly of me. Audio hasn't played a huge role in my mobile gaming. Let me explain. The touchscreen of my tablet, or smartphone, activates an invisible barrier between myself and my wife’s inane droning, aka telling me about her day. The inclusion of sound would break the spell and alert her of my utter lack of interest and force me to pay attention. Having the realisation that sound – via headphones of course – plays such an important role in the immersion into my gaming has done little to improve communication with my spouse. Yet it’s a small price to pay to experience mobile games as…

Info// Feral Interactive www.feralinteractive.com £23.99, $24.99, 27,99 € Wow. Just… wow. Not only has the awesome turn-based tactical game XCOM 2 been released for the tablet and smartphone, but it’s a hugely impressive port with very few concessions made for the transition, and a huge amount of additional material included with no further purchases required. Along with the main XCOM 2 game, The XCOM 2 Collection gives you four DLC packs and the War of the Chosen expansion pack. At the price, that’s a bargain. Set in 2035, 20 years after XCOM – Enemy Unknown and XCOM – Enemy Within, this sequel assumes the humans lost the war. Aliens now rule the Earth through the puppet ADVENT Administration, and most XCOM members submitted to their rule. But not all. There’s…

Info// NAISU http://naisugames.com £7.19, $9.99, 8.19 € Remember Mokoko, the awesome Mac game that drew its inspiration from arcade classics such as Volfied, Qix and Gals Panic? Remember how you patrolled the perimeter of the gaming area, nibbling away at the central, silhouetted area until you’d captured a given percentage of the screen? Remember how the enemies would maraud around, causing you to die if they touched or shot your trail while you pressed on into enemy territory? If you completed the game but would welcome more of the same, developer NAISU has released a sequel; Mokoko X. The new game offers 32 levels in total, comprised of 24 levels with unique bosses and minions, and eight mega-levels where you fight three bosses from the previous levels at the same…

Info// Rockstar Games www.rockstargames.com/chinatownwars £4.49, $4.99, 4,99 € Major franchises tend to have an instalment that fans consider a misstep. A few (un) popular examples; Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier, Super Mario Sunshine, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, any Star Wars movies that don’t have Part 4, 5 or 6 in the subtitle… The list is endless and, of course, 100% personal. But what about those games or movies that were largely ignored or disdained despite being not bad at all? With that in mind, let’s head back to Liberty City, albeit in a way you’ve never seen before, or again. Launching with very little fanfare in 2009, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was the first original instalment in the monster franchise developed with the handheld market in mind.…

Info// Gameloft  https://www.gameloft.com Free (IAP) If you’re a fan of the Despicable Me/Minions movies, and also enjoy endless runners, you’ll love this. You play as one of the cute little minions from the movies, trying to become Employee of the Month by running as far as you possibly can. It’s not clear what the purpose of the run is, but unlike every other endless runner game, there is a storyline of sorts. Gameplay uses a three-lane system with swipes in four directions. As your minion charges forward, simply swipe Left or Right to dodge objects and avoid falling employees, cliffs and more. You swipe Up to jump over obstacles, and swipe Down to slide under laser beams and such. The game offers a few surprises that help distinguish Minion Rush…

What is macOS Ventura, and why should we be excited? macOS Ventura is the latest version of the operating system that runs on Apple’s Mac range. It’s packed with great new features and improvements to functions you already have, and like all recent versions of the Mac’s operating system, it’s free too! Ventura brings the Weather and Stocks app to the Mac, and adds some great new features to Mail and Messages. Stage Manager makes it easier to organise open windows on your Mac, and improvements to Spotlight include Quick Look in Spotlight search results and the ability to search your photos. Continuity Camera lets you use your iPhone as a webcam, Metal 3 makes the Mac more attractive to games developers and more. Is macOS Ventura safe to use?…

Sharing in iCloud…

Info// Feral Interactive feralinteractive.com £19.99, $19.99, 19.99 € Although Apple has constantly pushed and developed the Mac’s ability to deliver a gaming experience akin to their PC counterparts, when held in direct comparison, the software differences are crushing to all those that have chosen the Microsoft gaming route. At the FPS genre’s inception, PC gamers could immerse themselves in the depths of hell with Doom while we Mac owners tried to convince ourselves that Marathon was just as good. It wasn’t! The Mac has never been considered a gamer’s machine, yet over the years the blurring of the internal specs and the sheer horsepower of Apple’s machines has made bigger, better games possible. Why haven’t we seen a balance between big-name Mac and PC games? Take, for example, Feral Interactive’s…

Info// Fat Cigar Productions Ltd www.streetkart.me $1.99, £1.99, 2.29 €, with IAP This is more than just a racing game. It’s an entire online community. Three years in the making, the multiplayer-focused Street Kart Racing lets you race with other kart drivers from 60 different countries and keep up with the latest goings-on in a very well populated Facebook group dedicated to the game. Just the thing if you’re a competitive racer who likes going up against human beings rather than AI drivers. That’s not to say you can’t race computer-controlled opponents, though. You build your career by racing them in Cadet Karts. It’s not for the faint-hearted. Street Kart Racing is a serious simulation game designed with the help of professional kart racers to be as realistic as possible.…

Info// Annapurna Interactive/Giant Sparrow www.giantsparrow.com £4.99, $4.99, 5,49 € Remember the mazes in those old fashioned text adventures, where every location had the same text? Remember how you found your way around by dropping objects to mark your way, so you could map the maze and find your way out? The Unfinished Swan starts a little like this but with graphics. The first thing you see is a plain white screen. After experimenting with the controls for a while, you find you can fling black paintballs which spatter over the 3D environment, highlighting walls and openings. Soon you’re walking around first-person shooter-style as more and more of your surroundings are so marked. But why? You play Monroe, a ten-year-old orphan whose recently deceased mother painted a lot of pictures but…

Info// Superstar Games www.superstargames.co.uk  Free (ad supported) When you’re sick of blasting aliens, dismembering enemy combatants and generally leaving a blood-soaked pathway in your mobile gaming wake, try Puppoz. It’s free and it involves nothing more violent than dogs popping balloons. The aim of the game is to use the on-screen virtual joystick to guide your puppy through a timed course, bursting balloons on the way. Complete a level by popping every balloon to open the next one (there are 15 in total) and earn money to buy faster puppies. There’s three to unlock. Features include bonus levels, a skateboard to improve your speed and ‘mazes’, where you place your dog on one of four paths in the hope it will find a treasure chest at the end. Time limits…

Info// New Star Games  namestargames.com Free (IAP) Clearly inspired by the much-loved Nintendo Entertainment System’s Tecmo Bowl, UK-based developers New Star Games’ Retro Bowl take on the NFL. returns to Tecmo’s staple of gaming. Much like soccer, with the development and advancement of the hardware on which we play, the pick-up-and-play fun has been diluted by realism. This is certainly not the case here. The casual style is a perfect fit for iOS. Gameplay is split into two genres; Roster management features press duties and maintaining the egos and fitness of your players (try to keep them fit, as an injury lasts forever!) The second is based on the playing field. Although featuring a full roster of teams, players and tactics, the gameplay and the plays themselves are limited but…

Info// Feral Interactive  www.feralinteractive.com £12.99, $14.99, 14,99 € Feral Interactive’s Mac and Apple mobile conversions of SEGA’s Total War strategy games have quite a following. Fans of the franchise have long lauded Medieval II as one of the best, perhaps the best game in the series; and it’s now available on the iPad and iPhone as a universal app. We wouldn’t recommend playing it on a regular-sized iPhone, though. It’s far too fiddly on the small screen. Set in the Middle Ages, the action takes place across three continents – Europe, North Africa and the Middle East – as 17 playable factions vie for supremacy. Six factions are available at the start; England, France, Venice, The Holy Roman Empire, Spain and The Moors. The other 11 must be unlocked by…

Info// 11bit studios s.a www.anomalythegame.com £3.49, $3.99, 3,99 € The tower defence game is a staple of the App Store. The real-time weapons placement and short gameplay bursts seem perfect for a portable touchscreen device. While we’re big fans of this genre, we’ve found ourselves getting a little tired of the predictable gameplay. The setting and plot may change, but the concept of defending your base using various static weapons from waves of approaching enemies has remained the same. However, just as fatigue appeared to have set in, Anomaly Warzone Earth has blasted onto iOS and iPadOS and flipped the tower defence genre on its head. This time you take control of the attacking craft as they battle through the landscape, avoiding or destroying the enemy’s defences. Role reversal This…

Info// Dragon’s Lair LLC www.digitalleisure.com £4.49, $4.99, 4,99 € As a retro gamer I love the fact that Apple’s mobile gear is creating a new platform for classic games, and Dragon’s Lair 30th Anniversary (a subtitle which I will now ignore as it essentially screaming “YOU ARE SO OLD” in my face!) is one of the best to join this trend. In the arcades, the game used a laser disc at the core of its technology. You had to press the joystick or the button at the correct time to cause the disc to skip to the next section. Press the wrong direction or take too long and the disc skipped to one of the many comic-book death sequences. This version of the game is just like the original, but…

Info// Feral Interactive www.feralinteractive.com £32.45, $39,95, 39,95 € If you've played the original Life is Strange, you'll be instantly at home with this sequel. The game mechanic hasn't changed; it’s still a narrative-driven graphic adventure with the story interrupted – and guided – by regular multiple-choice options. These choices define the path the storyline takes and directly affect how it plays out. Like the first game, it’s episodic, with the story split into five, self-contained chapters. However, this Mac version bundles all five together; we don't have to keep waiting for the next one to be released, as did console and PC gamers when it came out on those formats. It features a protagonist with a supernatural ability too. But for all its similarities, there’s plenty that’s new here too.…

Info// David Wehle http://www.thefirsttree.com £4.99, $4.99, 5,49 € The First Tree had an unusual inspiration. Its developer, David Wehle, used it as a ‘creative outlet’ to deal with his becoming a father for the first time; and also losing his own dad. So naturally, family ties play a large part in this third-party exploration game. It centres around two parallel stories; a fox (the playable character) trying to find her missing family, and through narration, a son reconnecting with his estranged father in Alaska. Along the way, you uncover artefacts and stories from the son’s life as he becomes intertwined in the fox’s journey towards The First Tree. Graphics are simple but enchanting, giving a real sense of being there when combined with the melancholy music. As you run through…

Info// Mixtvision Games www.far-game.com tablet and iPhone: £3.99, $3.99, 4.99 € Mac (Steam): £11.39, $14.99, 14,99 € This sort of game could only happen in the digital delivery era. Can you imagine such a quirky and unique title, that takes only three or four hours to complete, appearing on a Nintendo cartridge? Or even a PlayStation CD? Yet as an inexpensive digital download for computers, consoles and mobile devices, it’s perfectly placed. FAR: Lone Sails is described as ‘a zombie-free post-apocalypse’ game. Civilisation has crumbled but there are no hordes of undead roaming the wastelands. Nor indeed hordes of anything else. Aside from yourself, there are next to no life signs at all; just dried-up seas and the ruins of civilisation. What caused the apocalypse is only ever hinted at and…

Info// Mojang  www.minecraft.net £6.99, $6.99, 6,49 € Building and world-creation games have always had a uniquely addictive quality that other genres can’t quite replicate. Sim City first showed gamers it could be fun to build as well as destroy, then the legendary Peter Molyneux came along and took things a step further with the equally legendary Populous. Minecraft has built up a dedicated following on every platform possible, with its mix of puzzles, survival and building. Yet it has never felt more at home, to this reviewer at least, then on the smartphone and tablet. The concept is – at first – very simple. The game throws you into a randomly generated, geometric world made up of cuboid blocks. There are trees, rocks, grass and water but all are created…

Info// Good Job Games  goodjobgames.com Free As a film bore, I take huge joy in spotting onscreen references to other flicks or catching the unofficial inspirations for those 'mockbusters' that litter the darker recesses of Netflix. Good Job Games' Epic Race 3D doesn't look to the silver screen for its obvious and COMPLETELY unlicensed inspiration. Instead, it turns to the TV. Epic Race 3D takes its inspiration from Ninja Warrior, or American Ninja Warrior, or Sasuke in Japan; a gameshow that pits contestants against a huge and increasingly tough series of obstacle courses, with more than a dash of parkour and insanity. In any of its guises and locational re-brands, it’s brilliantly fun and unmissably entertaining. The game follows the basics of the TV show, albeit in smaller, bite-sized chunks…

Info// SKYWALK www.skywalkgames.com Free (IAP) Do you remember a little green monster who lived at the bottom of your iPhone’s screen? He was just about the cutest little monster ever. Om Nom was his name, and he was rather hungry; famished, in fact, and if you didn’t feed him up pronto he might just waste away. You didn’t want that on your conscience, right? I certainly didn’t, and I wasn’t alone. Om Nom and his Cut the Rope series went from strength to strength, not only on the App Store. Cartoons, toys and the usual merchandise turned heads for a while until the series’ mainstream appeal waned, returning the series to its gaming origins. Fortunately, the game itself was brilliant! It was 250 levels of rope-swingy, physics-based puzzle gameplay that…

Info// DotEmu www.dotemu.com £3.49, $3.99, 3,99 € Part game, part interactive movie, when Another World was first released for the Amiga it was more than just another game. It was a real interactive experience. Rather than falling into one of the established genres of the time, Another World was neither a puzzle game, a shoot-’em-up nor a platformer, but it was all of these and more. Playing it now it’s easy to forget how revolutionary it was at the time. The spookily realistic sprite animation still looks very nice, but it was gob-smacking in 1991. The game begins with a scientific experiment gone wrong, which transports the main character to a strange, dream-like world and so begins the adventure where you take on challenge after challenge as you try to…

Info// ZA/UM https://discoelysium.com £34.99, $39.99, 39,99 € Wow, that was some night. Or at least you think it was. You’re dirty, (almost) naked and your head is pounding, but you can’t remember the drinking session that caused your predicament. In fact, you can’t remember much of anything at all. Who are you? What are you doing here? Why is there a dead body hanging from a tree around the back of the flea-pit hostel you currently reside in? These are the questions you must answer as you solve the murder, and also sort out your personal issues as you go. Disco Elysium is a fusion of point-and-click adventuring and RPG-style character building. To begin with, you choose an ‘archetype’ for your booze-impaired detective. At your choice, he can be a…

Info// Warner Bros. Entertainment https://videogames.lego.com Free (IAP) A long time ago, on a console far, far away (probably in the attic?), the LEGO Star Wars saga was unleashed. Despite having a bad feeling about it due to the child-friendly visuals, the comedic leanings of the cut scenes and the general sense of this being a ‘kid’s game’, it proved to be absolutely fantastic. It reached across age demographics by delivering an experience that was accessible enough for younger players but challenging enough for the more mature gamer. Plus the seemingly endless self-referential nods to the fan base were whoop-inducingly brilliant. All bases were covered. This was not only the Star Wars prequels in Lego form, but unlike their big-screen counterparts, it was fun and a pleasure to immerse yourself in.…