22 replies to this topic

[VulcanFanatic]

Anyone pick up this game yesterday? Looks like it will be good. I preordered it the day before it came out because best buy had a deal where if you preordered the game you got extra DLC content and a free Bluray movie of the 2009 Star Trek. The game should show up in a day or two. The storyline in the game is actually considered canon from what i understand since Orci and Kurtzman wrote it as well as the Star Trek movies.

[Jay K]

Yeah man, from everyone I follow on line (and trust a lot), the game's a stinker - not quite as bad as Aliens: Colonial Marines, but not far off. Very, very glitchy. People on NeoGAF have been saying hold off buying it until it goes down in price if you're a fan. 

 

Jeff Gerstmann (big guy from Giantbomb) posted this on his twitter this evening just randomly (reviews go up tomorrow): 
https://vine.co/v/bP5DXWFT2TQ

 

EDIT: https://twitter.com/...813325075824640

[Qcjoe]

No matter how good a game is I wait.  40.00 is just around the corner.  I do hope its good.

[JonWes]

I'll get it eventually. I was all ready to get it the day it came out - pre-ordered and everything. But then I got a couple other games and they are in queue first. So I'll give this some time to come down in price, which will probably happen fast as it usually does for move-based games that aren't regarded well. Sad that it doesn't seem to be as impressive as they hoped it would be. I was optimistic about it, even though it was basically just a shooter. I'm sure I'll still have fun with it, but I was hoping for some crossover appeal to non-Trek fan gamers too.

[Jay K]

Jim Sterling's Super Best Guide for 'Star Trek'. No spoilers: 

 

I'll say, jokes aside, it's a shame that the game seems to have been severely rushed, as even I was looking forward to having a crack at this. I generally love co-op games, and even though it's not my first choice in terms of Star Trek, it was on my radar sensors. I'd say that if you're still interested in playing this, just wait a while for several reasons. First, it'll be cheaper, and secondly, there'll be patches. The game certainly looks the part graphically - bang-on with the films in the art department. 

 

EDIT: Random thing to add, people suspect the developers flooded metacritic with a ton of positive reviews in the user section, and it was even before the embargo on the official reviews was lifted. Unfortunately, this is common practise for games that are about to take a slating (I've seen it so many times over the years, even as recently as Colonial Marines). T'is sad as last year, the game really did seem like a re-skinned, co-op orientated Mass Effect clone (which would've been a damned good thing).  
http://www.metacriti...-the-video-game

[Qcjoe]

I read that the pc version is a mess.  Im still waiting on a review.

[malloc64]

Think about a Star Trek game with:
- Ship-based galactic exploration gameplay

- Ground-based conversation/exploration RPG with combat elements

- Interfacing with various alien races with distinct cultures, racial characteristics, and political agendas

- Build a team with diverse specialties and distinct personalities that over the course of a trilogy coalesces beyond professional relationships into deep friendships

- Race against the clock to uncover a threat against all races that draws them together into an alliance

- Explore the galaxy uncovering backstory to the various races in the canon

 

I just described Mass Effect.

 

They could pretty much skin Mass Effect into a JJ Abrams Star Trek 2009 theme and make a bundle of money from both longtime fans and the movie tie-in crowd.

 

Why are they trying to make it into a shooter?!

 

Final thought:

Really, I think setting it in a pre-Federation "Enterprise" style era where over the course of a trilogy the various races are drawn together in response to some threat and that culiminates in the final installment in the founding of the United Federation of Planets would be epic.  Such an ending would be both surprising and expected - these kinds of endings are the best.

Mass Effect with a rewarding ending.  Imagine that.

[Jay K]

I'd happily play any good Star Trek game (even a JJ-Universe one) so long as it had good ship combat. I've never played Bridge Commander (I'd love to, just haven't got a good PC), but for all its faults, I thoroughly enjoyed Star Trek: Legacy. The only thing that irks me about that game (other than the patch which broke the damage models, which they then never fixed) is that some of the ship-models aren't accurate at all. With people like Tobias Richter around, there's no excuse for that these days. 

There's a fan-made game called Excalibur, which might just be the best Trek-ship game we'll ever get - if they finish it. :/ 
(They need to update their Defiant model though, vile CG-version. lol) 

 

EDIT: Review from Polygon - 3/10. http://www.polygon.c.../star-trek/7743

[Baronvongunn]

I picked this game up, on the Tuesday at Bestbuy, I had points so I didn't pay the full 60.00 dollars. I'm glad I didn't. There's a split second where your like cool, it's Star Trek. Then you get into the game and its mechanics, and you quickly realize that Mass Effect does Star Trek better than this game does. Paramount should have looked to some one else other than Digital Extremes, their rep is not exactly stellar. But when you look at the kind of investment WB made with batman and RockSteady Studios for their Arkham verse, that's the kind of investment that should have been given to this Star Trek property. I think once you've played, you'll probably never put it back in again. It's too bad. It's just really pedestrian and forgettable.

[Qcjoe]

I picked this game up, on the Tuesday at Bestbuy, I had points so I didn't pay the full 60.00 dollars. I'm glad I didn't. There's a split second where your like cool, it's Star Trek. Then you get into the game and its mechanics, and you quickly realize that Mass Effect does Star Trek better than this game does. Paramount should have looked to some one else other than Digital Extremes, their rep is not exactly stellar. But when you look at the kind of investment WB made with batman and RockSteady Studios for their Arkham verse, that's the kind of investment that should have been given to this Star Trek property. I think once you've played, you'll probably never put it back in again. It's too bad. It's just really pedestrian and forgettable.

Well aint that some shit.  Well my spider sense was going off on it.  I cant find any reviews at all,but I do see alot of complaints on it.

[Jay K]

Quick question, and hopefully not too off-topic. This game is considered official canon for this universe, correct? If that's the case, I wonder what you guys think of this: 

 

Only one thing came into my mind after seeing that, and it summed up all my thoughts on it in one. Play the following video from time index 2:00 to 2:05: 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz-MepaJCM4&t=120

 

lol 

 

Seriously though, I doubt anyone working on the film has okayed that (unless it appears at some point in the new film...), but honestly, what's a forklift doing there? Without delving too much into the whole 'it has to be grounded in reality' aspect too much, the ship's travel at superluminal speeds - yet they're still using Forklift Trucks?

[Qcjoe]

Wow that took some imagination huh?  All I can say is wow.

[malloc64]

You do realize that there were forklifts in the 2009 movie also? 

 

The only error they made was that the video game forklift has normal wheels and so is not an omni-directional one like the one used in the 2009 film.  This is likely their way of avoiding paying to resolve a licensing/trademark issue with the Airtrax/Sidewinder brand.

 

I took a snapshot from the 2009 Blu Ray:

 

 

This is a commercial for the sidewinder forklift used in the film.

 

I'm sure it was selected because of its futuristic look and functioning that most of the audience would not be familiar with.

 

The odd thing is that they didn't even remove the branding on the back (note the Airtrax logo).

 

Make of it what you will.  Either its acceptable artistic license or its another "Abrams is ruining star Trek!" moment.

 

p.s.  This lamp bothers me more than that forklift:

 

 

 

 

 

It is in SOOO many sci fi shows and movies that it needs to be credited as a full SAG member.  Once you know this lamp you will see it everywhere.  It's in several Star Trek episodes across the various series (example: "Angel One" TNG 1x14 in the quarters of the woman leader as Riker is being seduced in his infamous mankini) as well as the movies.

[malloc64]

The one that JUMPED out at me during my original viewing of an episode was way back in 1988 when I saw TNG 1x25 "Conspiracy" on TV where a children's plastic 1980's "Trapper Keeper" binder is used as a prop to house the parasitic aliens.

 

It was hard to suspend disbelief when I'd seen these things at school previously.

 

I screenshotted the following from the Season 1 TNG Blu-ray.

 

 

 

You can see they just removed the brand sticker in the oval on the left:

 

[Qcjoe]

I had that trapper keeper.  I didnt notice it till I watched the season one blu ray.  

[savage1]

I have been playing the game on PC today. I don't mind it. It's not the best game ever made but it is fun, and have the case do the voice overs is a nice touch.

[Jay K]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that a forklift being present ruins Star Trek (I don't care for the new Universe anyway), but it shocks me a little bit that they are from the film! Anti-gravity, teleporters, tractor beams - it'd be like seeing our modern day Navies using horse-drawn carts.

[malloc64]

I found the commercial for that binder on youtube!  Awww yeah baby.  That infiltrated Starfleet Admiral knows whats up!

 

[Jay K]

That binder thing's hilarious, but hey - it made for a good prop! 

 

1701, my problem with the forklift is just that it goes against everything I know about Star Trek. If we were talking about Aliens/Prometheus, or even Star Wars, then I'd accept it without question as it'd either be a perfect fit for those universes, or be a quirky gimmick (as in, "hey, a forklift!"). But here, in a universe where in previous films/TV shows, we've seen tractor beams and anti-gravity trolleys/carts/medical beds, it stands out to me. They're trying to put across that the area they're in is a 'loading bay', and obviously a forklift helps that along to no end. The only thing is, in previous Star Trek's, that would've been a guy using Star Trek's technology to move those cargo containers, and even if it was just a background scene, it would've been a stand-out little moment of "Whoa, a tractor beam placing a container onto a floating thingy so that guy can push it - cool!"

Forget all my criticism of the new films generally, as that's not influencing me here (honestly). This is a bit of an error in my opinion - a small one, but still just plain odd. Also, regards your why fix it comment, I'd argue against that is this is Star Trek - the show where the technology is as-big a character as any of the crew. And they don't use money, so there's no excuse not to use the tech (which is much safer than a forklift).