The force is strong with Star Wars: Trench Run [$4.99 - iTunes link] for iPhone and iPod touch, as it’s just hit the iTunes App Store.

Features include Force Powers, 3D trench flying, X-Wing style, easter eggs (you tease!), and did we say 3D Death Star trench flying?

If this is the iPhone Star Wars game you’ve been looking for, go get it and tell us what you think!

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Star Wars: Trench Run for iPhone Now in App Store

For those of us looking for that pinnacle action RPG for the iPhone, Ravensword: The Fallen King [$6.99 - iTunes]has been released. This game looks absolutely fantastic! I have only played this game for a few minutes (enough to leave the inn and wander the town. I will have a more thorough update later) but the controls are great and there are lots of options to tweak the performance based on your hardware.

The character and environment detail is some of the best I have seen on the iPhone. The game is similar to other games such as Oblivion in this genre. There are NPCs to interact with and several weapons and items to use. There has not been a game quite like this so far on the iPhone, so it will be exciting to see its reception in the App Store. I for one, know what I will be playing this weekend!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

FINALLY: Ravensword for iPhone Released!

Call of Duty is a huge franchise, and what better way to expand that franchise then to unleash it, World of War style, on the iPhone and iPod touch — and add Zombies. Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies [$9.99 - iTunes link] contains only one map right now, “Nacht der Untoten” (Night of the undead) but allows 4 player multiplay via WiFi and over the internet, or 2 over Bluetooth. There are three control schemes, achievements, leader-boards, and the promise of in-app purchases (map expansions?) later.

So, Call of Duty fans and Zombie fanatics, how’re you liking your first iPhone experience?

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Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies Unleashed for iPhone

Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chad’s Pick: Eliminate Pro

This week’s has to be Eliminate Pro by ngmoco:) The iPhone community has been yearning for a solid FPS for a while and ngmoco:) delivers. There is debate as to how the energy system works, but at the end of the day, Eliminate is free and you can frag with your friends over 3G and Wi-Fi. What more could you want? [Free + in-app purchase - iTunes link]

Chris’ Pick: iMac (Late 2009)

My pick of the week is the new iMac. We just got one for my wife, and the added functionality combined with the iPhone is great. Adding in the MobileMe account, my wife is ecstatic with the iMac/iPhone combo, and I have to admit I am more than a little jealous. [$1,999.00+ - Web link]

[I got one as well. Phenomenal. - RR]

James’ Pick: AppleTV 3.0

When Apple announced the iTunes LP and movies extras, I hoped the functionality would be rolled out to AppleTV and the iPhone. With AppleTV 3.0, it has. The previous 2.0 OS was getting a little long in the tooth, so having a fresh UI and some new features has breathed some new life in Apple’s “hobby”.

Leanna’s Pick: Touch Pets Dogs

Touch Pets Dogs is absolutely adorable and my new addiction. The idea behind this game is that you have one or more virtual puppies that you must take care of by feeding, playing, training, etc. Touch Pets Dogs is very creatively made and your puppies respond great to your gestures. Want to pet your puppy? No problem, just rub your finger on his little body and he’ll respond by pushing his neck toward you just like a real dog would. This game has a similar feel to The Sims in that your puppies have various attributes you must keep up or else your puppy will get sad. Touch Pets Dogs also runs live, so if you go too long without playing with your puppy, you will receive a push notification telling you that you have a sad puppy! Touch Pets Dogs also uses the Plus+ network to meet other puppies, go on play dates, and possibly find a love interest for you puppy! If you pick this one up, look up llofte and meet my puppies! [Free/1 bowl of food - iTunes link, $0.99/10 - iTunes link, $1.99/20 - iTunes link, $9.99/120 - iTunes link, $29.99/400 - iTunes links]

Matt’s Pick: Trip Cubby

I recently began a new job for a production company and found myself driving all over Texas for commercial shoots. I soon realized that I needed an app to keep track of my trips. While I sifted through several apps, I finally came across Trip Cubby and haven’t looked back. Trip Cubby has a nice and easy workflow for entering data. It remembers recent locations, your last mileage entry, displays graphs, exports as CSV attachment and even has an online sync. If you are one of those people that need to keep track of mileage for deduction reasons, then this app is for you! [$6.99 - iTunes link]

Rene’s Pick: Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic

Joss Whedon didn’t bring his A game to Dollhouse, not the way he did with Buffy, Angel, or Firefly. For Astonishing X-Men, assisted by the amazing art of John Cassaday and the gorgeous (and uncredited!) colors of Laura Martin, he brought the A+. It was simply the best X-Men I’ve read since the original Phoenix Saga (yes, I’m that old). If you didn’t catch the comics, trades, or omnibus, Neil Adams’ company and Marvel Studios have brought it — at least the first chapter of it, Gifted — to Motion Comics life. 2 episodes of 6 are available now. I hope they do all 24 + the Giant Sized conclusion. Grab it from iTunes, sync it to your iPhone. Watch it now. With beer. [$10.99 Season Pass - iTunes link]

Your Pick?

You’re part of team TiPb too, so what’s your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us — and everyone — know in the comments!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Eliminate Pro, iMac, Apple TV 3.0, Touch Pets Dogs, Trip Cubby, Astonishing X-Men – TiPb Picks of the Week

Oh yeah — Looks like in the near future that OnLive thing might just take off and lucky iPhone users will be able to play along with their PC gaming friends. However, many roadblocks still exist. Steve Pearlman OnLive’s CEO Says:

I’m afraid we are not announcing a date for availability of OnLive on particular cell phones just yet. We have further development to do, and we need approvals from some cell phone makers before we can release OnLive to the public. So, for now, OnLive on a cell phone is only a technology demo. But, for those of you who have been asking about OnLive on cell phones, the answer is yes, it is coming. And, it is REALLY cool.

The OnLive service will begin in Winter 2009, however they are currently looking for beta testers. You can sign up here.

[via Engadget Mobile]

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OnLive to Bring PC Gaming to Your iPhone?

It looks like Apple is using its rejection power for good this time — removing games built on the Unity engine which included private-API calls that could be used to steal private user information like your iPhone’s phone number.

Not all of the rejected/removed games were engaged in privacy violations (or even had the network capability to exploit it), but Apple isn’t taking any chances following the Storm8 lawsuit. Touch Arcade has the details:

The Unity engine currently uses the two private API calls that Storm8 allegedly exploited to steal user data, NSGetEnviron and excserver. Mantas Puida of Unity Technologies explains these two API’s utilized by the Unity engine serve the following functions:

_NSGetEnviron is used by Mono runtime to provide implementation of .NET core API method: Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable().

exc_server is also used by Mono runtime to provide graceful NULL reference exception handling.

The Unity engine, however, has been updated to remove the offending API calls, and the games are being recompiled and resubmitted to the App Store. Hopefully this will keep users’ data safe from unscrupulous developers, while the scrupulous ones continue to turn out great games.

[Touch Arcade via TUAW]

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Apple Rejects/Removes Unity-built Games to Protect User Privacy

Apple is looking to hire an experienced multimedia engineer for the iPhone and iPod touch, who’s a passionate gamer and has shipped at least one “AAA” game in the last few years.

While first-party titles are a mainstay, and main point of attraction for dedicated gaming platforms like Nintendo (Mario), Microsoft (Halo), and Sony (Little Big Planet), so far all Apple has offered its “funnest iPod ever” is Texas Hold’em [$4.99 - iTunes link] back in 2007.

Just what could Apple be brewing now? Anyone imagine what a first-party Apple gaming franchise could be?

[via AppleInsider]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Hiring Gaming Engineer for iPhone Team

Today’s TiPb Top 5 will be directed towards our iPhone and iPod touch wielding readers who love racing games, and It’s a follow up to last years TiPb Grand Prix. Just like our other TiPb’s top 5 must-have posts, all of these applications are available in the App Store. For the full overview, follow us after the break!

Real Racing

I am biased, this is without a doubt, my favorite iPhone racing game. If you like simulation-style handling in your racing games, you will love this game. There are no real cars (other than the Volkswagon GTI) or courses. However, the attention to detail in-car and on the track is the best you will see on the iPhone. Now, with a new lower price [$4.99 - iTunes Link], you can’t go wrong with Real Racing!

• 4 classes
• 12 tracks
• Local Multiplayer
• Video replays on YouTube

Asphalt 5

Looking for a deep arcade racer on the iPhone? Look no further than Asphalt 5! There are plenty of “real” cars to choose from and lots of tracks. You can earn the ability to customize the look of your car too. The action is fast and pure arcade. The graphics have a “glow” to them, literally but are still good. Looking for an adrenalin rush, this is it! [$6.99 - iTunes Link]

• Over 30 real-world cars
• 12 tracks
• 8 different racing events
• Local Multiplayer

Rally Master Pro 3D

If you like the challenge of rally racing, then this is the only rally game to get in the app store! Plenty of cars and over 27 varied tracks! The controls seemed a little sluggish to be using the accelerometer, but I got used to them. Your car takes real-world damage as you drive (in one instance my hood flew off!) and you can repair your car in-between races. The weather simulation is great in the game too; rain and snow, and a voice navigator, it’s all there! [$4.99 - iTunes Link]

• Variety of game modes
• 27 varied tracks
• Weather enhancements
• Online leaderboards

Need for Speed Undercover

NFSU was one of the first games to have “next-gen”graphics on the iPhone. These graphics still hold true today! There are some fun innovations to like a slo-mo bullet time and auto-acceleration. You have some nice customization features for your car from spoilers to ground effects, not to mention color and vinyl. There is also a storyline to keep things interesting! $4.99 – [iTunes Link]

• 20 real cars
• 8 race modes
• Performance upgrades
• Slow-motion effects

2XL ATV Offroad

Looking for something different? ATV Offroad might be for you! smooth framerate and killer graphics make this one a keeper! The standout feature in this racing game is the ability to do tricks and achievements! Tricks can be done by tilting the device forward and backward while combining 6 preset stunt moves accessible on the screen. Couple this with some local Wi-Fi multiplayer and let the good times role! [$7.99 - iTunes Link]

• 16 tracks
• Career mode with achievements
• 8 opponents on screen
• Local Multiplayer

Conclusion

All of these game are great and well worth the price of admission. However, for what it has to offer, I have to go with Real Racing as my winner this year. I prefer the “real” style of racing. Though, it is not Gran Turismo, for a mobile game it is close enough for me. If this game was not available, second place would go to Asphalt 5. NFSU is close, but Asphalt ups the anti with its Burnout-like gameplay.

Winner: Real Racing

There you have it, TiPb’s Top 5 Racing Games and our 2009 Grand Prix Winner. Did we miss any of your favorites? Overlook any killer racers? Drop us a comment and let us know your list, and your winner!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb’s Top 5 iPhone Racing Games — Second Annual Grand Prix!

Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata loves his MacBook and his iPhone, and firmly believes Nintendo and Apple aren’t competitors (they appeal to different customers), and any talk of it makes him uncomfortable.

Yet Apple is most assuredly aiming at gaming (even if John Carmack thinks it’s between clenched teeth), especially with the funner iPod touch ever, and its game-heavy marketing.

With Nintendo profits down 52% for the first half of the year, and Apple selling record numbers of iPhones and reporting 100,000 apps and 2,000,000,000 downloads (with games weighed heavily among them).

Even with a dedicated gaming device like the DS (and perhaps a new platform on the way next year?), and a high-profile set of first-party properties like Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Pokémon, etc. those are tough numbers to look at. And Nintendo isn’t kidding themselves about that:

“If we can’t make clear why customers pay a lot of money to play games on Nintendo hardware and Nintendo software and differentiate ourselves from games on the mobile phone or iPhone, then our future is dark.”

Still, there are no plans for a WiiPhone (no matter how cool that might sound to us!), though an Amazon Kindle-like model, where the end-user doesn’t see any of the cell network bills, does appeal to Iwata.

Likewise, we can’t hold our breath for even older 1st party GameBoy titles to show up on the iPhone either. At least not anytime soon.

[Wall Street Journal -- thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

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Nintendo Sees no Rivalry with iPhone, but “Future is Dark” if They Can’t Differentiate

(Settlers of Catan Forum Review by cjvitek. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

Settlers of Catan [$4.99 - iTunes link] for the iPhone. The long awaited game has made it’s debut…so how does it stack up?

Well, first off, for Settlers fans (like myself) who have been eagerly awaiting the game, it’s great to finally see it. This style of game lends itself to the iPhone IMO, and I am very happy to see on the quintessential “nerd” games on the iPhone. But having said that, this game is not a home run. It’s better than nothing, but there are some areas where I find that game lacking.

For a quick review (for anyone who doesn’t know what Settlers of Catan is, is a strategy board game where you goal is to amass a certain amount of points by building cities, roads, trading with colleagues, and using the games resources to your advantage. The game combines both skill and luck, and can be quite engrossing. I have played the online version (Java Settlers of Catan Ladder) many times, so I am sort of using that as my basis for comparison.

The games graphics are very nice. The board has a nice visual appeal, all the features of the game (the cards, resources, even the robber!) are rendered very nicely. However, it almost seems to much emphasis is placed on the visual elements, and the game play itself (both in terms of the iPhone speed, as well as the ease of accessing controls) seems very slow to me. You can control settings to turn animation off (for example) but it doesn’t seem to impact the overall game speed.

When it is your turn, the game uses a hexagonal grid system for your player controls – but this means that you have to navigate a couple of menus to get to some more common controls and features (like building a road). These controls are not customizable, so you can’t put frequently used features in the front. I would like to see some sort of shortcut system or method of speeding up access to some controls.

The game AI is interesting. I am still figuring out if the AI strategies that are employed are good – but I guess that means that they aren’t horrendously bad! Each computer player has different strategies, so playing against different opponents will result in different kinds of games.

One of the key features of the game is trading. I am not sure what causes an opponent to accept or reject a trade, but I haven’t gotten any of my suggested trades accepted….ever. Maybe I am always asking for too much, but it seems as if when I am offering a lot, someone would accept a trade I am suggesting!

There is an indirect multiplayer mode – multiple people using the same iPhone. This is okay, if you have some friends sitting around and have the inclination to pass the iPhone around. There are no options for playing over bluetooth, wifi, or the internet – hopefully at least the latter will be added in some future update.

You do have the option of modifying some game settings, such as victory points needed to win. A variety of other options (which I have never heard of) can be set – things like friendly robber, resource bonus, stacked dice, etc. There also is a nice tutorial for people who don’t know how to play. I would love to see the ability to set up different kinds of maps, and i hope to see some of the expansion sets available as well!

Conclusion

All in all, it’s great to see Settler’s of Catan make its way to the iPhone. While the game comes off as very polished, there are some areas I could see some improvement – most notably in speed of game play and the ability of wifi or internet multiplayer. It still is fun, however, and will remain on my iPhone for the foreseeable future. At $4.99, it’s not as cheap as some games, but for people who have been waiting for a while, the price is probably not a concern.

Pros

• Well, it’s Settlers of Catan!
• Nice graphics
• Multiplayer by “hotseat”
• Can modify game settings

Cons

• Slow gameplay
• No wifi/bluetooth/internet play
• Tedious to get to some of the controls

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: Settlers of Catan for iPhone