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You’ll need to manage your resources, such as weapons and food, if you want to be successful while you figure out how to defeat your two enemies. There are also a variety of other creatures that are indigenous to The Island, such as Verms and Rippers, that can cause trouble for you if you don’t account for them. (See the sidebar for more information.)
“My favorite thing to do is play as Kabuto so I can grab little victims and toss them out to sea,” Williams says gleefully. “Loads of fun!”
Fluid game play makes for realism.A Fantastic Gaming System
If you really want the best experience possible while playing Giants, be sure to follow Wood’s recommendation and take a look at the new Power Mac G4s equipped with NVIDIA’s GeForce 2 and 3 graphics acceleration cards. Not only will Giants take full advantage of multiprocessing, but the graphics are astounding, thanks to OpenGL, an amazing technology in the core of the Mac OS that helps deliver those rich, 3D images.
 OpenGL: Leveraged with the power of the Mac, a graphics accelerator card, and Mac OS X, games can achieve blazing fast,
beautifully rendered 3D graphics using OpenGL.
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“Games that leverage the tremendous processing power of [the GeForce 3’s] GPUs can begin to approach the visual complexity of Hollywood cinematic productions,” says Jim Black of NVIDIA. “For example, it’s possible to create realistic surface detail such as ripples on water or creases in skin. You can see these effects in Giants.”
Life-like fog and water effects await you.According to Black, the combination of a Power Mac G4 equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce 3 graphics card running Mac OS X is the way to go for graphics-intensive games. Black says, “The Macintosh is a fantastic gaming system. Apple’s games strategy is paying off and this year we will see more games on Macintosh than ever before.”
If you’d like to see Giants on your Mac, please make Kabuto happy and head over to your local Apple retail store, the online Apple Store, or an Apple authorized reseller. If you don’t, you might make him angry, and we’ve almost run out of Vimps to feed him.
Nice Kabuto. Good boy… Go chase the Vimp, Kabuto!… Quick, someone shut the door!
You even get to pilot vehicles!
Characters and Races The Beast: Citizen Kabuto:  900 tons of raw muscle with a love for stomping and eating everything he comes across, Kabuto was created by the Sea Reapers before he turned on them. In his spare time, he enjoys perfecting his wrestling moves and eating Vimps in a variety of tasty dishes, such as stews, casseroles, and sandwiches. He’s not completely infallible, though: the Reapers gave him a weak spot right around his belly.
But why is he called “Citizen” Kabuto? Well, according to Williams, it just popped into his head while frustrated with his efforts to come up with a name for the monster he wanted to feature in Giants. He says he likes it because “it’s a cryptic name, which I wanted because it can mean different things to different people. “For me, I liked the idea that Kabuto has given himself the title of Citizen, even though he is the only giant of his kind on The Island. It alludes to how he wants to belong. The trouble is, whenever I give this explanation, I find people pointing and laughing at me, which is very upsetting.” The Sea Reapers:  Exotic and beautiful, the Sea Reapers were forced into the sea when Kabuto turned on them. They have magical abilities that allow them to cast spells and control the elements, so they weren’t too concerned about handling Kabuto. But now the Meccaryns have arrived, and that makes their goal of taking back control of The Island a little tougher to attain.
The Reapers are a severe group, but one, Delphi the daughter of Queen Sappho, believes that by putting an end to her mother’s reign all the races will have a chance to peacefully co-exist on The Island. She’s young right now, but is gaining greater command over her powers every day, thanks to the help of her tutor, Yan the Samurai Smartie. The Meccaryns:  Baz, Tel, Reg, Gordon, and Bennett didn’t ask to wind up on The Island. It just happened that way. And now they’ve found themselves in the middle of a spectacular battle between Kabuto and the Sea Reapers, when all they wanted to do was lounge around with some drinks and finally get around to repairing their ship. Baz, the leader, is the most driven of the group.
As far as they’re concerned, they’re going to make it to their intended vacation spot, Planet Majorca, even if they have to kill every living thing on The Island. Which shouldn’t be too difficult, considering the amount of firepower they have with them. Other Creatures: Smarties: As mentioned in the article, Smarties can help the Meccaryns and the Sea Reapers by building bases and weapons for them, while Kabuto can create offspring for himself by eating them. The Smarties can also create shops, vehicles, spells, and pubs (the Meccs’ favorite). Henchmen: These guys are the Reapers’ bodyguards and are used to hunt for enemies in packs or guard the Reaper villages. Sonak: This lumbering beast sends out shockwaves of sound every time he takes a step. The Henchmen ride them around The Island. Vimps: These little creatures are a major food source on The Island, especially for Kabuto. Collect them and use them to placate the Smarties, who will be more inclined to build stuff for you. Verms: These are bat-like creatures that shoot fireballs and like to harass the Meccs for reasons known only to them. Sea Creatures: The Reapers can summon these beasts and send them to the shore to shoot projectiles at a specified target. Chargers: These are bull-like creatures with tough skin; your only hope of stopping one is to shoot it in the mouth. Rippers: The Island’s native insects, rippers protect the Reapers and hunt in packs. While not the toughest creatures, their sheer numbers can overwhelm their enemies (who are everyone except the Reapers). |
 Mac OS X 10.0.4 or Later 3D Video Card with 16 MB Memory 128 MB RAM
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