Tag: Star trek »

Lovers of the Star Trek franchise will already be aware of the original release of this game, which has now been transformed with the release of a new version by Genera Games: Wrath of Gems.

Whilst previously, players could strive to attack foes in weekly battles only, this new update brings with it an exciting new social feature: Alliances. With this, players can form their own teams with allies across the globe, hunting down the strongest crews and fleets to complement their own. Ensuring that choices are well thought-out is paramount to success when it comes to this new version of the game.

Jump Into June With 148Apps

How do you know what apps are worth your time and money? Just look to the review team at 148Apps. We sort through the chaos and find the apps you're looking for. The ones we love become Editor’s Choice, standing out above the many good apps and games with something just a little bit more to offer. Take a look at what we've been up to this week, and find even more in our Reviews Archive.

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions

Oh Geometry Wars. Every time I think I’m done with you, you pull me right back in.As you’d expect, you can move your glowy little ship around by way of a lefthand virtual stick. You can also aim your guns by using another virtual stick on the right side of the screen. What’s neat is that you can also ignore aiming entirely and just focus on movement while the ship auto-targets enemies for you. It’s not a perfect system as some enemy types are easier to get rid of if you lead your targets a bit, but it’s a great option to have in a pinch when you can’t split your focus between moving and shooting.--Rob Rich

Coup

Games about bluffing are sometimes hard to pull-off, particularly when players aren't in the same room. When there's no way to read facial expressions or other tells, it's hard setup feigned reactions to situations or otherwise subvert others' expectations. With that being said, Coup is 100% about deception and it works remarkably well.In every game of Coup, players are dealt two cards that the others cannot see. These can be any one of five characters, all of whom have their own set of abilities geared toward forcing players to flip their cards over, and the whole thing plays a little bit like a more complicated version of Rock-Paper-Scissors. The goal of every game is for players to be the last one left. What makes it feel less about luck and more about skill is that players can lie about anything, and it's up to others to call them out.u can always start fro scratch. Or spend a precious continue token (I don’t know what their actual name is) to try a failed task again. --Campbell Bird

Sproggiwood

It’s the price tag for Sproggiwood that’s going to make you understandably a little uncertain. While that’s a great price for any PC game (which is where Sproggiwood started out), $9.99 can go much further on the App Store. However, try to look past that. This is a game worth your money and a sharp reminder that premium purchases can be worth making. Sproggiwood is a roguelike and a particularly well made one at that. Inspired by Finnish mythology, it certainly offers plenty of charm. You play a simple farmer as they find themselves lured away by a talking sheep and ending up a prisoner of Sproggi, a strange forest spirit. It’s as bizarre as it sounds, but it actually all seems quite cute. You work your way through various dungeons, improving upon your level and equipment, as well as developing a village of your own. --Jennifer Allen

Portal Pinball

In an unusual move, we soon learn that combining pinball with the great first-person puzzle series, Portal, is actually quite inspired. Portal Pinball captures the spirit of the games while also providing a decent pinball table with plenty of objectives to pursue.The idea is that you’re guiding Chell and Wheatley through test chambers, navigating portals and so forth. It’s certainly atmospheric, looking just how you would expect things to look, with the added bonus of snippets of audio from the cast of the games. You’ll still hear Stephen Merchant encouraging you, for instance. There’s a constant stream of background music adding to the urgency too.--Jennifer Allen

Fotograf

Offering good - if typical - photography features, Fotograf is worth checking out. But you might find yourself wondering if it’s worth paying up for when there are so many alternatives already out there.A choice of two primary features awaits you. You can opt to take photos from within the app, or import them via your camera roll. The former allows for you to use auto filtering methods but, more interestingly, it also gives you the chance to manually adjust exposure. That’s a handy feature that not every photography app offers, giving you the chance to create some interesting images through a quick adjustment of a slider. --Jennifer Allen

Simple Machines

Aimed at teaching kids how experimenting with different machines can be pretty fun, Simple Machines is a rather nice experience. Older kids are going to end up wishing there was a bit more of a structure to things, but the younger ones will like just messing around. Simple Machines is divided up into six simple machines to check out. They teach you things such as how lever and pulleys affect things, as well as the importance of inclined planes, wedges, wheels, and screws. What this really means is you can poke about with a lot of things. Simple Machines doesn’t offer much instruction, leaving you to figure things out. --Jennifer Allen

Other 148Apps Network Sites

If you are looking for the best reviews of Android apps, just head right over to AndroidRundown. Here are just some of the reviews served up this week:

AndroidRundown

Star Trek Trexels

Star Trek Trexels is one of those games that, right off the bat, has something immense going for it: a backing franchise that almost demands one try out the game.We did.The game is a glorious ode to games past; graphically, it delights in its chunky looks, exuding a retro feel that mostly defines the game. It uses text bubbles as a means to convey dialogue, and the animations do what one would expect of them in a game that uses such a design scheme.--Tre Lawrence

Gravity Line

There are some serious games available to Android players, and they run the gamut; it’s easier to find a major PC game that doesn’t have an Android port than to list all the ones that do. As it stands, it’s easy to pick one’s poison, and the devices that are on the market are more than capable of carrying the loads.Still, there are times when folks just want simple; you know… a game that one can just get into and play. No campaigns. No levels. Just play.What Gravity Line does is to take the “simple” concept and runs with it. Fast and hard.--Tre Lawrence

Divoom Voombox Party Wireless Speaker

We love to check out wireless solutions, especially speakers. A tool that can enhance sound on the go? Let me loose!Well, here’s the Divoom Voombox-Party.The review package we were sent contains the speaker, power cable, audio cable and documentation. The unit looks like it means business; it looks like a solid brick of technology, with gently tapered angles and a defined rubberized finish. The control bank at the top is simple to navigate: power toggle, bluetooth pairing, phone answering and two buttons for volume. To the side, there are covered ports for power and audio cable. In hand, it is hefty piece, and it feels well crafted. Officially, it comes in at 9.17 x 2.13 x 4.06 inches and 2.4 lbs.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, previews, game guides and even more reviews than we can share here!

Any popular fictional universe has its fair share of fan fiction - where beloved characters might behave less like they're written and adhere more to personal head canon - and it's the sort of thing that there's no shortage of in Star Trek.

I'm dead serious. There are actually comic books and a novel that involve a Star Trek/X-Men crossover.

While Star Trek Timelines won't let you revel in a brawl between Wolverine and Worf, you will be able to play around with all sorts of alternate dimension and timeline stuff. If you want Locutus of Borg tending bar at Ten Forward, you can totally do that. If you want Captain Janeway to lead Bones and Sulu into battle, that can be arranged.

Of course this means you'll be gathering crew from all over the various Star Trek series. What's cool is that this isn't a typical card battler type thing like you might expect. Instead, when you take part in a mission there will be several branching paths that your team will follow depending on the outcome of each encounter or task. Characters are automatically matched to a task based on their stats and stills, and a random number roll (influenced even further by their skills) will determine the outcome. In a weird way it's kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure but without the choosing and more seeing what the outcome is.

There are some typical choose-your-own elements to it, however. Before and/or after some missions you might have a few dialog choices to pick from, and your approach to a given situation could have an effect on your future interactions. The game is really quite story-driven, with more of an emphasis on problem solving and talking things through over full on combat - which I'm totally okay with.

What's also pretty cool is that you'll be able to use all sorts of different recognizable ships, each of which can give your crew different passive stat bonuses. You can also assign different crew members to different room positions, which might increase those bonuses even further.

Star Trek Timelines will be coming out later this year as a free download, and will most likely use a F2P system similar to Game of Thrones Ascent.

Star Trek Trexels, by YesGnome, is hitting warp drive with this new update. Now players can play with the officers, missions, guest stars, and the ship hull from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

YesGnome has also redesigned some of their combat scenarios and now the Holodeck allows you to replay them in all their glory. Star Trek Trexels also now has social functions that let you invite your friends to join your crew and a gallery, which allows players to share images and unlock collectible scenes. Along with some bug fixes and doors that now go "Swoosh!," it looks like YesGnome has been working hard to give fans more of what they want.

You can pick up Star Trek Trexels for free on the App Store.

There are some people who just like to casually watch the Star Trek movies, and then there are those who film their own fan movies and travel far and wide to go to conventions. These costumed crusaders can now use the iPhone 4 as their very own Starfleet communicator.

"Using the Captain's Log communicator, users can capture voice recordings, text entries, take photos and map GPS locations of their voyages as they travel planet Earth. Officers can select their preferred Enterprise class level, whether taking the role of Captain, Engineering, Science/Medical, Enterprise, or assuming the identity an enemy Romulan or Klingon officer."

Now you can track your perilous mission to the vast reaches of the galaxy shopping mall with GPS precision, and leave behind voice memo's for your fellow captains to aid their own journeys. Share your findings on the vast networks of Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, or just send the data along to other users of the app.

Pick the app up today for $1.99... and don't hurt yourself.

The original Star Trek (for those of you who have been living on Venus for the past 40+ years) is one of TV's best loved franchises. Its recent film reinvention by J.J. Abrams (better known as the creator of Lost) has given EA an excellent excuse to release this new mobile game tie-in.

Star Trek is a top down shoot 'em up in the style of Galaga or R-Type, and is full of bright, spangly graphics, executed with the usual flair and slickness customary to EA titles.

You command the iconic ship the USS Enterprise, and are attacked by wave after wave of ever deadlier enemies. In campaign mode there are a total of 12 missions, consisting of 4 sectors against 3 well known adversaries of the Federation: Klingons, Cardassians, and Romulans.

You get to play with many of the Star Trek universe's weapons and gadgets. Phasers and photon torpedoes are your main weapons of choice, although occasionally you can pick up other useful weaponry (EMP, Phase Cannon, Disruptor), which will help you complete the more difficult missions.

As enemy ships are destroyed you can manoeuvre the Enterprise to pick up dropped goodies, such as shield replenishment and temporary weapon upgrades. You will definitely want to grab those shield enhancements because your shields can soon become depleted, and cause the Enterprise to be destroyed. All is not lost, though - you can restart the mission close to where you left off.

As the Enterprise warps onward through the missions, you are rewarded with stars which you use to upgrade the ship. Choose carefully when upgrading, between either Torpedoes, Phasers, Tractor Beams or Shields.

A nice addition to the game are the Achievements you can complete. These range from Honorable Survivor, where you need to complete the Klingon missions in order, without failing, to Starfleet Admiral where you need to achieve a 100x chain kill in any mission. These Achievements add to the game's limited replay value.

Star Trek is full of eye candy. Even on the relatively small iPhone screen the Enterprise looks cool. The spot effects combine nicely with audio, and, at times, the play area can be filled with enemy ships, phaser blasts, torpedoes, tractor beams, mines, upgrade icons, and shield enhancers. The action gets very frantic, which adds to the game's immediacy and fun factor.

With this game you get to choose between three control systems. You can tilt the iPhone to control the Enterprise; use a finger to take direct control of the ship or; use an on screen joystick. I tried all three and found the first two control methods to be excellent, but the joystick method was too imprecise and fiddly, and I wouldn't recommend its use unless you want to make the game harder!

You can turn on auto fire too, or, if you think that's too simple, you can tap the screen to fire your weapons manually.

All in all, I did get a great sense of occasion from this game - it definitely did its job in making me want to go out and see the new movie! I felt immersed within the Star Trek universe, but I think more could have been done to enhance this feeling. Instead of just the pictures of Spock, Uhura or Chekov popping up with some cursory text, how about a cut scene, or some footage from the new film? This would have added to the immersion factor and rewarded your purchase with a teaser for the film.

Despite the polish EA have administered to Star Trek, the game is somewhat shallow. It was a blast to begin with, but it did get a little repetitive by the end of the twelfth mission. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but Star Trek's replay value is limited.

If you are a Trekkie completist, it's a game you'll want on your iPhone. If you aren't a Star Trek fan you will still enjoy this game, but the atmosphere and the sense of being a part of the Star Trek universe may be lost on you.

That said, I would recommend this game as a fun, frantic, short and sweet journey through the Star Trek universe. Just don't expect the game to boldly go any further than that.