Not quite the “late summer 2009″ we were promised earlier this year, but at least it’s coming. And, according to an update from Paramount, the late ports will be even better.

Star Trek D-A-C for the PlayStation Network and PC will offer patient Star Trek space combat fans two new ship classes, a new game mode, new pick-ups, a new map for Assault Mode and “more.” PC fans have it even better, as the top-down shooter will offer a 3D stereoscopic viewing option, should they have Nvidia 3D Vision compatible hardware.

The DVD and Blu-ray release of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek also hits in November, so you’ll probably have ample reminder that D-A-C is coming back around.

Lacking the time to create a full-fledged movie tie-in for the new Star Trek film, Naked Sky Entertainment instead decided to create a quick and dirty online shooter set in the Star Trek universe, much like Auran did when they created the Live Arcade version of Battlestar Galactica. D-A-C stands for the game’s three modes – Deathmatch, Assault, and Conquest – each of which is playable either offline using artificially intelligent bots or online with real human beings of varying levels of intelligence.

Is Star Trek D-A-C enough to keep fans entertained long after the movie credits have finished rolling, or is it a Star Trek game in name alone?

Loved
Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad: While the straight player-versus-player gameplay in Star Trek D-A-C is relatively bland, things get a bit spicier in the title’s slightly more involved modes, Conquest and Assault. Capturing and defending points can be a great deal of fun, adding a bit of strategy and depth to an otherwise shallow experience, provided you can find enough players online to get a match going.

Hated
There Isn’t Much Here: Star Trek D-A-C doesn’t have a whole lot of substance to it. It features two factions – Romulans and Federation – each with three ships to choose from. Bombers, fighters, and flagships handle exactly the same for both sides, and without any sort of story or plot there’s really no reason to chose one faction over another aside from personal preference. A handful of maps are shared between each of the game’s three modes, and while they certainly are lovely to look at, the lovely soon fades when the overall lack of variety sets in.

An Overall Lack Of Star Trek: I debated whether or not to list the abuse of the Star Trek licence in the hated column, ultimately determining that in this day and age, fans have a right to expect more when a beloved licence is attached to a video game. Slapping the Star Trek name on a generic shooter might have passed the muster back in the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System, but not today. The game comes across as a generic space shooter with Star Trek trappings tacked on in order to make a quick buck. Whether or not this was the developer’s intention is a moot point; it’s how the game feels.

Take away the licence and Star Trek D-A-C presents gamers with an ultimately forgettable top-down space shooter, good for a couple of hours worth of entertainment before it begins to wear thin. Figure in the licence and now you have a bland space shooter that seems to be attempting to hide its obvious shortcomings behind a Star Trek movie poster. It’s quite reminiscent of Auran’s Xbox Live Arcade game Battlestar Galactica, though that game might have had a better chance of standing on its own two feet once the licence crutch was kicked out from under it.

I understand that Naked Sky Entertainment didn’t have time to create a full-fledged tie-in with the new movie, but that’s no reason to deliver a sub-par game with only the loosest of connections to the forty-three year-old science fiction franchise.

Star Trek D-A-C! was developed by Naked Sky Entertainment in conjunction with Bad Robot Interactive and published by Paramount Digital Entertainment for Xbox Live Arcade. Coming soon for PC and PlayStation Network. Released on May 13th. Retails for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Played multiple rounds of each of the three game modes both online and offline in single player mode.

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Rather than licensing a full-blown movie tie-in game for Star Trek’s upcoming “reboot” film, publisher Paramount is pushing for a decent game with a smaller scope. Pretty much the only thing D-A-C the game has to do with the movie is music from the film’s original score. Other than that, everything is pure top-down shooter tradition and familiar Star Trek franchise naming conventions.

What Is It?
Star Trek D-A-C is a top down space shooter made up of various online multiplayer modes that can be played alternately offline with AI. Players choose either the Star Fleet faction or the Romulan Empire faction and then pick one of three types of starship to control. The various game modes allow for up to six players per faction with AI-controlled units to flesh out the ranks. The different modes are team deathmatch, conquest and assault and each have a versus, co-op or solo variants. It’s coming out for XBLA, PSN and later on for PC.

What We Saw
I sat in a room in the Westin St. Francis hotel for about 20 minutes, watching Producer Tarik Soliman play through quickmatch rounds of deathmatch and conquest against the AI on the XBLA version. Then I took a turn with assault mode for about 25 minutes before I lost and had to pass the controller to the next journalist.

How Far Along Is It?
The build looked pretty final. D-A-C will come out “around the same time” as the movie, Soliman, so start looking for it on XBLA and PSN the week of May 8.

What Needs Improvement?
Tutorial – What Tutorial?: Perhaps this is something Soliman skipped in during the demo in his rush to show off the game, but I didn’t see a tutorial mode or any real expository text telling you how to play the game. Not that D-A-C is complicated – but in a game so focused on multiplayer, it might be nice to keep the learning curve shallow with a decent tutorial so you don’t spend the first half our of your D-A-C experience getting slaughtered online.

Can’t Control The AI: Soliman said the developer felt it would be too hectic in solo mode to give the lone human player control over all of the friendly AI units. Normally, I’d be okay with leaving the battle plans up to the AI – it’s a computer, so it should be smarter than me, right? – but I found that the AI units on my team weren’t team players… at least not where I was concerned. I had to tap Y to go into the map view just to find them whenever I respawned and unless I guessed what their tactic was, I couldn’t really participate in whatever plan they’d cooked up. Solo feels particularly lonely when even the AI ditches you.

Limited Scope: Because this game relies on multiplayer (and is better played with more human than AI players), it’s pretty limited for long term playability. Soliman said there would potentially be DLC for the title; but unless they add a compelling story-based singleplayer mode or some hot, new multiplayer mode, D-A-C might lose its appeal overtime instead of gaining a steady following – like a stick of gum losing its flavor instead of a fine wine aging.

What Should Stay The Same?
Shield/Boost System: Your primary controls in the game are shoot and boost – pull the trigger for the former and press X for the latter. Both eat up an energy meter displayed at the bottom of the screen which regenerates slowly overtime or gets replenished through white orb pickups you can find on the map or score from blown-up enemy units. This, combined with a shield that also requires time to regenerate if it gets shot up, adds a nice layer of strategy to the gameplay that sets D-A-C.

Escape Pod Deaths: In D-A-C, you take damage from other ships shooting at you, enemy mines or enemy turrets (not from crashing into stuff). When your shields are gone, your ship can either take a few more hits before it explodes, or you can eject an escape pod. The escape pod can’t shoot and has no shield to defend itself, but if you can steer it away from danger ‘til a timer runs out, the game rewards you with a quicker respawn time and by letting you keep a higher percentage of items you picked up before you got shot down.

Different Things Actually Feel Different: Three game modes and three ship classes doesn’t sound like a lot in the way of gameplay, but each mode and each ship feels different enough to create a sense of depth. The ship classes work like rock-paper-scissors: speedy fighters can’t last long against bombs, the slow flagships pack a wallop and take forever to get anywhere, while the bombers can’t last long against a barrage of lasers. The strategies you develop around the different fighters then adapt depending on which mode you play: for conquest, you’re better off with a bomber-flagship mix – but for assault mode (which sounds similar to conquest because it’s about capturing points on the map), you need to switch it up between bombers and fighters depending on how far through the map you’ve progressed.

It’s Fun: I didn’t even notice 25 minutes had passed during my assault match. I must’ve died at least half a dozen times, but rather than being frustrated, I was always eager to get back to the game.

Final Thoughts
Only one thing bugs me about D-A-C: nobody will tell me what the acronym stands for. My best guess is that it stands for Deathmatch-Assault-Conquest, but Soliman was hinting at movie spoilers or something. Whatever; I had fun playing it, so what difference does the acronym make? They could have called it Obligatory Star Trek Tie-In and it’d still be a fun game to play.

If you’re not convinced, just sit tight for the demo that’s due out the same day as the game; it’ll include multiplayer (because it kind of has to) and give you a good idea of what you’ll be getting for $US10. All in all, for me D-A-C sounds like it’s exactly what an XBLA/PSN game should be: quick and pretty with a healthy shot of multiplayer.

The official announcement for Star Trek D-A-C doesn’t really offering anything new in the way of game information. From McWhertor’s report at GDC we learned that it was a top-down shooter with a strong emphasis on online multiplayer, with single player, online co-op, and online competitive modes. We also knew it was coming in May, though now we know that the Xbox 360 version drops that month, with the PlayStation Network and PC versions coming soon after.

That leaves these new screenshots, though looking through them we managed to find at least two we’ve already seen. It’s just one of the perils of working with a 43-year-old science fiction franchise. It’s all been done before.

Top Gun for the iPhone remembers the glory days of the Cold War – a time when men wore leather jackets, women (apparently) didn’t wear bras and the B2 Spirit was next-gen. Developed by Freeverse – same guys who did Days of Thunder for the iPhone – the game harkens back both to the 80s hit film and to old school arcade shooters that we used to feed quarters to. But even if you can’t remember who said the famous line, “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” Top Gun iPhone might still take your breath away.

What Is It?
Top Gun for the iPhone is flight simulator/3D shooter. Players control both the plane and the targeting reticule with the accelerometer while two onscreen buttons control the Vulcan cannon and the missile launcher. The plot of the game takes place after the film – Maverick and Iceman are now teachers of your generic sassy character at the Navy Fighter Weapons School.

What We Saw
I spent 15 minutes with the game in a hotel room where publisher Paramount was also showing Star Trek to other journalists. It was kind of hard to hear the audio as a result and because I had a limited time with the game, I didn’t get to soak up the story cut scenes.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is pretty much done and due out in May, but an exact date and price haven’t been set yet.

What Needs Improvement?
Cluttered Screen: The scoring system in Top Gun makes for a messy display. Besides the buttons, the health meter and other heads-up display icons, you’ve also have to look at “danger zone” boxes that pop up on screen in a 3×3 grid. Danger zones usually indicate an incoming missle or a building you’re about to fly into – the longer you stay in a danger zone, the more points you rack up. The box starts out flashing yellow and then turns red when impact is imminent. It’s a helpful visual indicator of impending doom, I suppose, but when you’ve got all nine danger zones flashing at once, it stops being useful and starts being cluttered.

Auto-Calibration: Unlike Days of Thunder, in Top Gun you can change the calibration of the motion controls at any point in any level. However, at the beginning of each mission, the game auto-calibrates based on how it thinks you’re holding the phone. For me, this resulted in a totally screwed up calibration that had to be reset right at the beginning of the mission, which totally slowed down the action.

No multiplayer: Boo.

What Should Stay The Same?
Effective Calibration: As many times as I had to recalibrate, I was always amazed at how perceptive and effective the calibration system was. All you have to do is pause, press one button, title how you want the phone to be when your aircraft is in a neutral position, then press a button and off you go. It’s effective, if a little tedious to have to redo it at the start of each mission.

Replay Possibilities: The game awards achievements and medals for satisfying certain conditions on missions. I applaud this game extension tactic in lieu of anything like iPhone Achievements comparable to Xbox Live.

Plays Decently: The developer is keenly aware that this is meant to be a portable experience and they’ve gone the extra mile to make you enjoy whatever brief amount of time you get to play the game. You’ve got infinite ammo, simple instructions and uncomplicated menu options that are easily accessible – so you can pick this game up and put it down without ever feeling lost, confused or frustrated with the enemy AI.

Pretty Visuals Overall: The mountain levels looked a little bland, but the planes looked decent, the cut scenes had a mature cartoon style that appealed to me and the water was very pretty.

Final Thoughts
Two things bother me about this game. The first is wondering if Top Gun is going to fall victim to the price wars that currently rage on the iPhone App store. Given how short the missions were and how limited the scope of combat, I could see paying up to $US1.50 for this game. If Paramount asks for $US5, no way.

The second thing that’s bugging me is the age gap. I heart Top Gun, but then I was just old enough to catch the tail end of 80s pop culture. Anyone younger than me that owns an iPhone just might not get this game; and they will be totally confused by the joke in my second paragraph, having never danced to “Take My Breath Away” at prom.

TimeGate filed the lawsuit earlier this month, after Paramount sent out a press release announcing an interactive web series called Section 8, days after cancelling a meeting with TimeGate regarding their game. According to an official statement released today, Paramount has agreed to not use the name for their web series, and TimeGate has agreed to drop the lawsuit without prejudice.

As mentioned in our original post on the lawsuit, this marks the second time that TimeGate has had to protect their trademark from big media companies, settling out of court last year with ABC over a proposed Section 8 television series.

I just hope the game turns out well, because Section 8 would have been a great name for a TV series. Just saying.

We can tell you what Paramount and Bad Robot’s new downloadable Star Trek game for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network is—it’s a top-down, space combat arcade title—but we can’t tell you what that “DAC” means.

Star Trek: DAC is “focused on fun, not a retelling of the story” of JJ Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek reboot, according to Ben Hoyt, senior producer at Paramount Games. Hoyt namechecked games like Subspace and Geometry Wars when describing the game, due to be released in May alongside the film, but also adding that the game has “strategic depth.”

And David Baranoff, associate producer on Abrams’ Star Trek and Bad Robot GDC representation, says that the game offers “no barriers to entry” nor is it “steeped in Star Trek canon,” opting for arcade-style multiplayer action. But he wouldn’t explain the DAC acronym, saying only that Trekkers will find out during the course of the game. That’s the Abrams style, I suppose…

Developed by Roboblitz creators Naked Sky Entertainment, Star Trek: DAC will support 12-person multiplayer, with two teams of six. AI bots will fill in the blanks, should your federation of online friends be unavailable.

Three modes, including solo play, cooperative play and a versus mode

To hear Paramount and Bad Robot folks tell it, Naked Sky was on a very short list of developers the film’s producers were interested in bringing on board to work on Star Trek: DAC. The Los Angeles-based dev team has had full access to the film’s art assets, sound effects and even Michael Giacchino’s musical score, with Bad Robot folks checking in throughout the development cycle.

The game design, however, was born of the Naked Sky team, who presented Paramount and Bad Robot with a handful of options, ultimately settling on the tried and true space combat. Like the film, Star Trek: DAC will be packed with shorter session Romulans versus Federation battles, giving players command of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Star Trek: DAC is due to hit Xbox Live Arcade in May, on or near the release of the movie. The PlayStation Network version is due later, “for a couple of reasons,” according to Hoyt, but not necessarily for adhering to platform exclusivity. Both the XBLA and PSN versions will get demos, so you can see if the full version is something worth… beaming down.

Paramount Pictures is readying a major marketing push into Sony’s PlayStation Home service for the upcoming film Watchmen, with exclusive footage, a filmmaker Q&A session, and of course, Watchmen costumes for your avatar.

The film adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic comic book series The Watchmen is a major deal for Paramount, and no on is safe from their relentless marketing campaign; not even the residents of Sony’s PlayStation Home. With exclusive clips of the film already available for viewing, the PlayStation Home Watchmen invasion escalates on February 27th, when players can purchase exclusive clothing and items for their avatar, including clothing, a doomsday clock, and a couple of fine-looking costumes of characters Nite Owl and Rorschach. >

Then on March 6th, Paramount is hosting the first-ever filmmaker Q&A session in PlayStation Home, featuring the movie’s director Zack Snyder (of 300 fame) along with graphic novel artist Dave Gibbons. While the Q&A is an invitation-only event limited to 10 guests, it will be streamed majestically across the internet, eventually incorporated into a full Watchmen webcast that includes footage from the film and clips from the UK premiere .

The PlayStation Home push is being orchestrated by the fine folks at specialist film marketing agency Picture Production Company and Deluxe Corporation, who previously worked on one hell of an amazing Second Life campaign for the Transformers movie, complete with custom transforming robot avatars. You know, for the kids.

While I’ve not spent too much time in PlayStation Home at this point, I might have to log in long enough to pick up a sweet Nite Owl costume. Wake me up on the 27th please.

Paramount and the estate of “The Godfather” author Mario Puzo settled their $1 million dustup over how much was owed to whom over sales and rentals of the 2006 game.

The estate of Puzo, who died in 1999, sued Paramount Pictures Corp., which licensed the game to Electronic Arts. The two sides appeared headed for trial until the agreement late Friday. Its terms were not disclosed.

“We think it’s a terrific settlement,” said Bert Fields, the lawyer for the Puzo estate, Bert Fields. “This involved one of the most admired films of all time.”

EA was not involved in the lawsuit. The litigation has nothing to do with the game’s delayed release into April. EA moved it out to make sure its release wasn’t going up against the likes of Killzone 2, Halo Wars and Street Fighter IV.

Godfather Estate Settles Video Game Lawsuit [Agence France-Presse at Yahoo! via VE3D]

Universal gets into games with Wanted, Paramount making Pretty in Pink videogame [Variety]