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

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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.

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

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/deus-ex-human-revolution-ultimate/id489813114?mt=12">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.

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.