(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

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

App Review: Settlers of Catan for iPhone

We have to admit, Verizon’s latest, Xmas-themed iPhone and AT&T attack ads bring the funny. Continuing the savvy “map for that” (rather than silly DroidDoes), the first shows the land of misfit toys where an iPhone-looking device is condemned for its poor AT&T 3G coverage.

After the break, we have elves giving Verizon devices, with robust 3G coverage, to nice children and an iPhone with poor AT&T coverage to the naughty. And, lastly, a father has a blue Xmas when his iPhone can’t reach his family (though a Verizon present awaits him when he finally gets home).

Attacking the iPhone on it’s major front-facing weakness, much-hyped consumer dissatisfaction with AT&T’s network is the kind of smart that is — and, given Verizon’s recent comments, may even be an attempt to show Apple the iPhone would be better off on a better network?

Of course, AT&T likely isn’t laughing at Verizon’s claims of 5x 3G coverage, given they’ve already filed a lawsuit…

[via Engadget]

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

Verizon Attacks iPhone and AT&T… with Toys, Elves, and Xmas Blues?!

I’m a big Facebook user, and I’m guessing many of you are as well, given the interest in our Facebook for iPhone posts. Well, I was able to spend a little time with the Droid in a Verizon store on launch day, and while I wouldn’t call this a full-blown comparison, it is a quick overview of some of the similarities and differences I noticed between their Facebook applications.

The setup is a little different than the iPhone. For starters, it was reminiscent of the Palm Pre; the Droid will sync your contacts to your address book. After the initial setup, I was eager to get started using the app.

At first facebook for droid looks like its iPhone cousin; very familiar news feed page. After that however, is where the similarities start to diverge. Let us take it back a step. The facebook app has a “launcher’ page with News Feed, Friends, etc. The Droid app is missing Inbox.Yup. You read right. There is no Inbox on the Droid app. Ok, moving on…

So, like on the iPhone, the Droid shows links in posts and status updates. So, I went to click on a link one of my friend’s posted web links and it took me directly to their profile. Odd. I then tried to click on the post again and it created a viscous circle. Conclusion with links? It appears you cannot launch them from the Droid app. Hard to believe, I am sure.

I was also unable to switch between News Feed, Pages, Status Updates and custom groups I created. I am not saying there is not a way to do this, but I could not figure it out and the Verizon representative was less than helpful. It displayed News Feed in the top-right corner, but it was tiny and I could not find a way to switch with the brief amount of time I had with the device.

Oh, and one more thing: the app seems to cache really well, but also does not seem to refresh on launch; there is no refresh button and shake to refresh does not work like on the iPhone. So, I walked away unimpressed, but I can’t believe the Droid suffers from all of these short comings. I am looking forward to clarification and inquiries in the comments!

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

Facebook App: An iPhone vs. Droid Quick Comparison

The Register is reporting that a lawsuit has been filed against an iPhone game developer for privacy violations:

The complaint claims best-selling games made by Storm8 contained secret code that bypassed safeguards built into the iPhone to prevent the unauthorized snooping of user information. [...] to access, collect, and transmit the wireless phone numbers of the iPhones on which its games are installed,” states the complaint, which was filed in US District Court in Northern California. “Storm8 does so or has done so in all of its games.” [...] [including] World War, iMobsters, Racing Live, Vampires Live, Kingdoms Live, Zombies Live, and Rockstars Live.

The complaint claims they’re violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and is seeking Class Action status. It’s not the first time we’ve heard about apps violating user privacy, hopefully Apple’s new iPhone security manager will first and foremost focus on these types of exploits. And, yeah, let the courts smite any abusive developers in the meantime…

[via Wabbit in the TiPb forums]

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

Lawsuit Claims Game Company Violating Privacy, Collecting iPhone Users’ Phone Numbers

It seems as if the previous threats of the iPhone coming to The Shack are finally about to come true. Granted it is more than a year later but it is indeed coming according to Engadget Mobile.

The iPhone 3G and 3GS rollout should begin by the end of this month at some Shack locations in the Dallas and New York City areas only. We can expect a full nationwide rollout sometime early in 2010.

It’s always good to have options… right?

[Via Engadget Mobile]

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

iPhone 3G/3GS to be Sold at The Shack

For iPhone Jailbreakers using SSH to access their devices — without changing the default password — getting Rickrolled by a worm may be annoying (no worse than getting held for ransom by a hacker) but it’s a sign that far more insidious and malicious attacks are possible — so change those passwords now!

Back to the Rickroll. TUAW reports:

A hacker, going by the name “ikee,” created a worm that changes the home screen background on jailbroken iPhones whose owners failed to change the default password after installing SSH.

And the new background is, of course, Rick Astley. While removal details are included in an interview with the hacker, it’s better to be safe than sorry. So, check our iMuggle’s tutorial on how to change your SSH password, and change it right away.

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

Jailbreakers Who Don’t Change SSH Password — There’s a Rickroll for That