Sid Meier's Starships launches on Mac and iPad, Wunderlist gets major Mac and iOS updates

Posted:
in iPhone edited March 2015
Firaxis has released Mac and iPad versions of Sid Meier's Starships, an anticipated turn-based strategy game, while 6 Wunderkinder has updated the Mac and iOS editions of its popular to-do list app, Wunderlist, with folders and a revised design.

Sid Meier's Starships




Set in the same universe as Civilization: Beyond Earth, Starships has players assemble a fleet of customized spacecraft as they look to explore and expand their federation. Expansion requires diplomacy and exploiting planetary resources, as well as combat against threats such as pirates and rogue artificial intelligences. Victory can be achieved through diplomacy, combat, or science.

The game is separate from Beyond Earth and deliberately faster-paced, but Firaxis promises unspecified connectivity between the two titles.

Both the Mac and iPad versions cost $15. The former is available through Steam, and requires at least OS X 10.9. The iPad edition runs on iOS 7.0 or later.

Wunderlist gets folders, new design




With folders, users can now gather lists together, decluttering the main menu and making it easier to find related items. Along these lines, a general design change involves color-coded pictograms, making it simpler to differentiate between folders, lists, smart lists, and the inbox.

One iOS-only improvement is Quick Add. Tapping a blue circle makes it easier to add a new reminder or due date, particularly through support for natural language recognition that detects details as a person types or speaks.

All editions of Wunderlist are free to download, though pay subscriptions are available for extra features. The Mac client requires OS X 10.9, while iOS users must have an iPhone or iPad running iOS 7.0.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    I was thrilled to see Starships on the Mac App Store so quickly. A definite buy for me.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    Bought to play on my iPad. So far I like it a lot. If I would have bought it for my Mac I would have been disappointed. Just does not seem "deep" enough for Mac/PC...perfect for iPad. Very tough to find quality games for iPad. I have found when you pay $2.99-$20.00 for a game it is much better than the get for free and pay out your nose to continue to play a shallow game model.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,258member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TechProd1gy View Post



    Bought to play on my iPad. So far I like it a lot. If I would have bought it for my Mac I would have been disappointed. Just does not seem "deep" enough for Mac/PC...perfect for iPad. Very tough to find quality games for iPad. I have found when you pay $2.99-$20.00 for a game it is much better than the get for free and pay out your nose to continue to play a shallow game model.



    Does anybody know if is it almost exactly the same game on both platforms (aside from necessary UI differences)? Are there any noticeable graphical differences?

  • Reply 4 of 12

    I saw something online that said it was near identical...I would wait until you have a user confirm this though.

  • Reply 5 of 12
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    It's a shame that Apple doesn't offer something similar to SteamPlay for dual iOS/OS X releases.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,258member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RichL View Post



    It's a shame that Apple doesn't offer something similar to SteamPlay for dual iOS/OS X releases.



    Maybe I'm out of "touch" (har har), but my impression it's a pretty small set of apps that are nearly identical between iOS and OS X. 

  • Reply 7 of 12
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Blastdoor View Post

     



    Maybe I'm out of "touch" (har har), but my impression it's a pretty small set of apps that are nearly identical between iOS and OS X. 


     

    Perhaps but there must be plenty of OSX apps with iOS companion apps.

  • Reply 8 of 12
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    I find games like this are so out dated. That said, I can see the appeal to those that remember games being so primitive for nostalgic reasons I guess. Kind of why I like Pinball games on the Mac and iPad.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    I find games like this are so out dated. That said, I can see the appeal to those that remember games being so primitive for nostalgic reasons I guess. Kind of why I like Pinball games on the Mac and iPad.

    I do too but it's surprising how much money some of them make. People play real-time strategy games for way longer than typical games (100 hours+ vs under 20 hours) and with the right payment model, they can make billions. Some of the highest earning games of all-time are RTS games. There's even games where people just trade cards:


    [VIDEO]


    They have millions of players - that card game has 6 million players worldwide, although it has physical cards as well as online. I don't understand the appeal but then I don't understand the appeal of Minecraft either and that made the developer a billionaire too.

    RTS games to me are like playing a spreadsheet game but each to their own I suppose. Touch devices are more suited for these type of games because of the touch interaction as you can tap on any number of items very quickly, which is slow with a controller.

    Now that the iOS GPUs are at console quality, I'd like to see more AAA action titles. XCOM ported over one of their higher-end games completely and they have an action title:


    [VIDEO]


    The XBox 360 version is about 9GB so they should be able to compress it down to within their 4GB limit, even if they have to split it into two episodes or free-to-play the first level and DLC the rest.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    I dropped Wunderlist because over a year after iOS7, they still didn't update their app with the new UI design and even wrote on their website that they have no intentions to. Their app just looked so dated and stale, so I finally switched to something else.

    I'm glad they eventually pulled their heads out of their bums and are keeping the app fresh now.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Marvin wrote: »
    I do too but it's surprising how much money some of them make. People play real-time strategy games for way longer than typical games (100 hours+ vs under 20 hours) and with the right payment model, they can make billions. Some of the highest earning games of all-time are RTS games. There's even games where people just trade cards:


    [VIDEO]


    They have millions of players - that card game has 6 million players worldwide, although it has physical cards as well as online. I don't understand the appeal but then I don't understand the appeal of Minecraft either and that made the developer a billionaire too.

    RTS games to me are like playing a spreadsheet game but each to their own I suppose. Touch devices are more suited for these type of games because of the touch interaction as you can tap on any number of items very quickly, which is slow with a controller.

    Now that the iOS GPUs are at console quality, I'd like to see more AAA action titles. XCOM ported over one of their higher-end games completely and they have an action title:


    [VIDEO]


    The XBox 360 version is about 9GB so they should be able to compress it down to within their 4GB limit, even if they have to split it into two episodes or free-to-play the first level and DLC the rest.

    Now that's what I call graphics. Not that I play shoot em style games anymore, I started to worry I enjoyed it too much. I rescue spiders and start to enjoy shooting people ... what's wrong with that picture? I do like the latest Tomb Raiders graphics I can't wait till you can't tell the graphics from Angelina Jolie ... BeoWulf anyone? ????
  • Reply 12 of 12
    Sid Meier's Gettysburg would be perfect for iPad.
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