If you enjoy games that feature massive spaceships set against brightly lit planets in deep space, your Christmas wishes have come true. Virtual Programming has announced the release of X3: Albion Prelude. X3: Albion Prelude is the third installment in the epic X3 Universe series, following X3: Terran Conflict and X3: Reunion. Set in a time between the old and the new X Universe, it shows a universe in flux, and prepares players for things to come.

Elves. Always with the forbidden knowledge they have to protect so it’d not used to destroy their world. It’s a tough road, but thankfully we get to travel it for them thanks to Virtual Programming. The Mac game publisher has announced they’ve released the Mac version of Elven Legacy, a turn-based strategy game that features two campaigns: elves and human.

I’ll admit I thought Shaun the Sheep was quite cute when I first saw him Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave, but I wouldn’t have guessed he’d go on to get his show, let alone iPhone app. But here we are with Home Sheep Home, courtesy of Virtual Programming, Ltd. And although the game is just your basic physics puzzler, it manages to retain the gentle, comical charm that made Shaun so popular to begin with.

The American Civil War. Why anyone would want to relive it is beyond me, but if you do, you have two options. You can put on a heavy woolen uniform and go stink up the countryside in a reenactment, or you can play through AGEOD’s American Civil War, the latest in a long line of popular strategy games published for Mac OS X by Virtual Programming.

Virtual Programming has released Darkest of Days just days from the “day of days.” How’s that for timing? Described as “.. an intense ride through time” by GameShark, Darkest of Days is a first-person shooter thats puts you into the time-traveling shoes of Alexander Morris, who was plucked from the ranks of General Custer’s army during the Battle of Little Big Horn for an epic mission crucial to the integrity of the space-time continuum.

I’ll tell you one thing about those demons; when they wreak havoc in a kingdom, you can bet you’re not going to get things sorted out in just one game. As such, Virtual Programming has announced the release of Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim. As in its best-selling predecessor, Majesty 2 takes players to Ardania, where they will recruit heroes who help them complete a 16-mission campaign to restore Ardania to its former glory. But the heroes have minds of their own; they may be more interested in having a beer at a local tavern than fighting monsters.

Supreme Commander 2—developed by Gas Powered Games and released this March for PC and Xbox 360 from publisher Square Enix—will be storming its way onto the Mac later this year. The real-time strategy game involves the construction of gigantic mechanized armies with which you’ll wage war on land, in the sea, an in the air.

Virtual Programming continues to be one of the most prolific Mac game publishers, this time bringing us The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. This 11-hour chapter—which also includes an HD remastering of Escape from Butcher Bay—serves as a prequel to the movies “Pitch Black” and “The Chronicles of Riddick,” starring Vin Diesel as the anti-hero Richard B. Riddick.

Virtual Programming showed some guts by bringing X3: Terran Conflict to the Mac. Are there any Mac gamers left willing to give up the time required to get into a space combat sim? Aren’t we all playing Diner Dash or those hidden object games? I hope not. In fact, games like this give me further reason to quit covering the casual games, because I want to spend more time with this one. And so I shall.

It’s been a fairly encouraging week for Mac gamers. Yesterday, we saw the release of Bullet Candy Perfect and The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript. Today, Virtual Programming has announced X3: Terran Conflict for Mac OS X, the final chapter in the X Universe story. X3: Terran Conflict features “stunning graphics and spine-tingling audio that make players feel as if they’re really exploring deep space. They’ll undertake dangerous missions, become economic powerhouses, and engage in conflicts ranging from dogfights between small spacecraft to massive battles involving fleets of ships.”