Apple declares 'Day One' Mac App of the Year, 'Deus Ex' Game of the Year

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Alongside Apple's picks for the best iOS apps of 2012, the company on Thursday crowned the best apps for OS X, with cross-platform journaling software Day One taking the top spot while first-person shooter/role-playing game Deus Ex: Human Revolution was declared the Mac's best game.

App of the Year

Bloom Built's Day One is a full-featured journal that enables users to jot down quick notes about their day-to-day lives or go long form with integrated Markdown syntax support. With iCloud or Dropbox syncing to its complementary iPhone and iPad apps, which were previous Apps of the Week in January, Day One allows for journaling whenever the mood strikes.

Day One


In addition to the text editor, strong management features are included like a calendar view, Notifications alerts and support for location metadata generated by the iOS versions of the app.

Day One's Feature List:
  • ? iCloud or Dropbox sync to iPhone and iPad app
  • Photos
  • Quick Entry via the Menu Bar
  • Password Protection
  • Calendar View
  • Reminders System
  • Export
  • Inspirational Messages to encourage writing
  • Lion Full-screen
  • Search
  • System Hot-key Shortcut
  • Starred Entries List
  • Command Line Interface
Day One is a 9.2 MB download and can be purchased in the Mac App Store for $9.99.

Game of the Year

Apple awarded Mac Game of the Year to first-person shooter Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Ultimate Edition, giving the multi award-winning franchise yet another feather in its cap. Developed by the Montreal arm of legendary game studio Eidos in cooperation with Square Enix, the game is the third title in the Deus Ex series and is a prequel to the original released in 2000.

Deus Ex


Ported to the Mac by Feral Interactive, the Ultimate Edition includes all downloadable content released for the action-RPG/FPS.

As in all past Deus Ex titles, the plot revolves around the cybernetic augmentation, or the use of biomechanics to enhance a human's attributes. While addressing the moral issues surrounding augmentation, the storyline lets players choose their own path by selecting what to optimize depending on play style. For example, brain and eyes can be augmented for "sneaking" or covert operations, or limbs and lungs can be upgraded to suit a "run-and-gun" style of play.

The game's mechanics are similar to the past two Deus Ex titles, but vastly more refined with deeper upgrades and open-ended gameplay.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Ultimate Edition can be had for $39.99 in the Mac App Store as a 15.51 GB download.

Runners-Up

CameraBag 2

The updated version of the CameraBag photo editing app offers one of the easiest to use interfaces in the Mac App Store, offering users over 100 styles and filters and more than 25 manual tools to tweak their images.

CameraBag 2


Key features include batch saving, RAW format support, 32-bit color, adjustable filters and the "Remix slider," which transitions through a huge number of small film-like variations.

CameraBag 2 is a $14.99 purchase and weighs in at 26 MB.

Splice: Tree of Life

Named Apple's Game of the Year runner-up, Splice: Tree of Life is a puzzle game set in the world of microbes, with the player having to reach a target structure in a certain number of moves.

Splice


Gamers need to take into account how a "splice" will affect the microbial structure as cells react to each other in different ways and the only way to find out how is through experimentation. Prediction is key, and according to the app's description, a player will exercise their "ability to visualize sequential series of shapes over time."

Splice: Tree of Life is a 284 MB download priced at $9.99.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23


    What?! Not Google Maps?!....  Bwahahahahaha

     


    [yes... I realized later it was for OSX... oh well]

  • Reply 2 of 23
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    I guess I don't buy enough apps because I never hear about any of these winners or runners up until they are announced.
  • Reply 3 of 23


    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post

    I guess I don't buy enough apps because I never hear about any of these winners or runners up until they are announced.


     


    Same here.


     


    Heard about Splice, though. I adore how it looks, and I'd love to see a different type of game done with its art style. Never been big on that kind of puzzle game, though.

  • Reply 4 of 23
    daharderdaharder Posts: 1,580member
    That's all good and well, but there's little doubt that the REAL 'app of the year' will prove to be [B]Google Maps[/B].

    ... and it's only been out ([I]saving users from the justly lambasted Apple Maps[/I]) for a day!

    Anyway... Been using the [B]Day One[/B] (iPad version) for some time and it is excellent.

    Update: Just installed [B]Splice: Tree of Life[/B] and WOW - Very, very nice!
  • Reply 5 of 23
    Day One: does it also sync with any of the online journaling community sites? If not, why would any of their members want this app if it means maintaining separate journals?
  • Reply 6 of 23
    2oh12oh1 Posts: 503member
    Honestly, the whole maps thing for iOS was so overblown. Google Maps is out now and it's no better than Apple Maps. In fact, I don't prefer it over Apple Maps. It's good, but not better. The difference between Google Maps and Apple Maps is that Google calls theirs beta in order to not have to explain why it's often wrong.

    As for Day One, it looks very nice, but I'm really surprised by that choice as App Of The Year on the Mac App Store. Very surprised!
  • Reply 7 of 23
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    2oh1 wrote: »
    Honestly, the whole maps thing for iOS was so overblown. Google Maps is out now and it's no better than Apple Maps. In fact, I don't prefer it over Apple Maps. It's good, but not better. The difference between Google Maps and Apple Maps is that Google calls theirs beta in order to not have to explain why it's often wrong.
    As for Day One, it looks very nice, but I'm really surprised by that choice as App Of The Year on the Mac App Store. Very surprised!

    I agree that it was overblown (to put it lightly) and also prefer Apple's Maps app over the Google Maps app, but I don't think it can be stated that "it's no better."

    If we look at just the app itself, not the data it's pulling, then I cold point out many ways in way I prefer Maps in iOS 6 over Maps before iOS 6 and over Google Maps for iOS. I could also point out how Google Maps for iOS is much better than Google Maps for Android. I think that is the only part that can truly be compared overall.

    I also like that they made it a beta.
  • Reply 8 of 23
    Gee, I wonder if Human Revolution was named GOTY by Apple because Feral and Apple made a deal to give the App Store exclusive digital distribution rights? The OSX version is currently blocked from being sold on Steam even though the PC version is.
  • Reply 9 of 23
    "a full-featured journal that enables users to jot down quick notes about their day-to-day lives"

    And share it all, no doubt.

    Narcissist 2.0 - now with extra added self involvement! The unshakeable conviction that others do or should care what you ate, drank, or copulated in the last 24 hours is one of the great mysteries of life.
  • Reply 10 of 23
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member


    Are these winners different in the different nations? Lego Batman 2 got game of the year in Australia. Day One was still top app.

  • Reply 11 of 23
    A simple journal app is app of the year? Truly sad.
  • Reply 12 of 23


    It's not even a real Journal app - it actually saves all "journal" entries as Plain Text, totally unencrypted so anyone with access to your computer or phone can read everything without any problems. I'm actually looking for a good journal app that is cross-platform and with full integration with WordPress/Facebook/etc, but judging by user reviews, they've been promising encrypted entries for months but nothing has happened.


     


    As it stands, Day One is basically just a text editor with dropbox and facebook integration....

  • Reply 13 of 23
    clemynxclemynx Posts: 1,552member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post



    I guess I don't buy enough apps because I never hear about any of these winners or runners up until they are announced.




    Deux Ex is one of the best games of 2012 on any platform. It's extremely popular.


     


    And day one is a great app.

  • Reply 14 of 23
    alexnalexn Posts: 119member
    A simple journal app is app of the year? Truly sad.

    I wonder who it was who made the final choice - or was it based purely on number of downloads?
  • Reply 15 of 23
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member


    This article mentions the best list for Mac was released alongside the best list for iOS. Did I miss AI's article with the iOS listings somewhere here? What an odd omission.


     


    Anyway, Apple says the Best iPhone/iPad apps for 2012 are:


     


     "Action Movie FX [iTunes link] as its iPhone App of the Year, while Paper[iTunes link] is the iPad App of the Year.


    The Room [iTunes link] took honors as the Best iPad Game of 2012, with Rayman Jungle Run[iTunes link] taking the iPhone honors.


    Propellerhead and Letterpress took runner-up honors on iPhone. Action Movie FX and Walking Mars took second position for iPad.


    Apple also selected its pick of apps in various categories for the iPhone and iPad. Six apps were chosen for each category in areas such as "Post-PC Creation," "Hidden Gems," "Disruptive Services" and "Intuitive Touch."


    The company also revealed the most popular paid and free apps for 2012. On the iPhone, the new YouTube was the most popular free app for iPhone -- outpacing Instagram, Draw Something and even Facebook. Meanwhile, Angry Birds Space was the most popular paid app for iPhone.


    On the iPad side, Angry Bids Space HD was the most popular paid app of the year and Skype for iPad took top honors for most popular free app."


    http://mashable.com/2012/12/13/apple-app-store-best-2012/


    https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewFeature?id=573332557&mt=8

  • Reply 16 of 23
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member


    Deus Ex was pretty good but there's better Mac games on Steam.

  • Reply 17 of 23
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    solipsismx wrote: »
    I guess I don't buy enough apps because I never hear about any of these winners or runners up until they are announced.

    Mostly ditto, but sometimes I see them discussed. I usually don't go looking for apps unless I'm looking to solve a problem.

    clemynx wrote: »

    Deux Ex is one of the best games of 2012 on any platform. It's extremely popular.

    And day one is a great app.

    Which strikes me as odd as it's a twelve year old game.
  • Reply 18 of 23
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post



    Which strikes me as odd as it's a twelve year old game.


     


    The original Deus Ex is 12 years old. Deus Ex: Human Revolution was originally released in 2011 on PC and 2012 on Mac.

  • Reply 19 of 23

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Superbass View Post



    Gee, I wonder if Human Revolution was named GOTY by Apple because Feral and Apple made a deal to give the App Store exclusive digital distribution rights? The OSX version is currently blocked from being sold on Steam even though the PC version is.


     


    As a Feral employee I can call that suggestion completely false in so many ways. :-)


     


    1. No Feral games are in Steam. This might change as Steam have updated their licensing rules but right now no Feral games are on Steam.


    2. DeusEx is not a Mac AppStore exclusive, far from it! In fact it is on pretty much every reputable digital download store on the Mac from Amazon to MacGameStore.


    3. The Mac version (Ultimate Edition) does not exist on the PC yet (you can manually buy all the DLC manually), it's a Mac exclusive at this time. If the PC version is released then perhaps the Mac version will appear on Steam.


    4. Just worth noting but the Mac Version is cheaper than the PC version (with all DLC) on Steam. Just mentioning this as usually people complain about price!

  • Reply 20 of 23

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post





    Mostly ditto, but sometimes I see them discussed. I usually don't go looking for apps unless I'm looking to solve a problem.

    Which strikes me as odd as it's a twelve year old game.


     


    Nope, you are thinking of Deus Ex not Deus Ex HUman Revolution. One shipped in 2011/12 the other 12 years ago!

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