[Game] Real Football 2012 / Real Soccer 2012

Note: There is already a Real Football 2013 / Real Soccer 2013 in Google Play. But since the concept of the 2012 version is almost totally different that of 2013 version, and both version are, at press time, still available for download, this post is dedicated to the 2012 version. Review of 2013 version will be up soon.

For some reason best known to Gameloft, they have two seemingly identical free apps on Google Play - Real Football 2012 and Real Soccer 2012. Perhaps Gameloft is afraid that those American do not know what is football and the rest of the world cannot recognise soccer.

Anyway, I am moving on the assumption that both are the same. But for the record, I have, for unknown reasons, downloaded and installed Real Soccer 2012.

Concept

For most football gamers, this game is fairly simple. You join a tournament (cup or league) and win it. In keeping with other apps in Google Play however, you have to play in a certain starter tournament to unlock other leagues and cups.

Getting Started

When you enter the game, you will be greeted by David Villa's face.

In a funny way, you start with the biggest football tournament - World Cup. Upon kicking asses in World Cup, you will unlock English League, so on and so forth.

You whole life would be revolving around winning more and more tournaments.

Control

Control in this game can be seen from the following picture:

You get an eight-point directional control, and separate buttons for pass and shoot when attacking. When defending, the pass and shoot will turned in "press" and "tackle".

There are also a few default special moves like step-over etc that you can pull.

The control will take some time to get used to, but is generally acceptable. There are however two major problems with the control:

1) Lag time

During defense, you have to wait for some time before you can use a selected player. By then, your player may not have been at the place you wanted him to be. It pissed me off quite a few times.

2) No header?

Until now, i still can't find the button to head a ball. Everytime i crossed, my player chest the ball down then kicked it goal-wards. Nevermind that i hit "shoot" before the ball even reaches his head.

The funny thing is, your opponent can use header. 

Stamina Points

Like any free apps, quite apart from irritating ads (which is acceptable), there are some built-in money grubbing mechanism.

RF2012's one and only trick is something called stamina. You need stamina to play. Each match costs you 50 stamina points, each stamina point costs you 10 minutes wait, and stamina points will be fully filled up at 100 points.

In short, if you refused to pay, you can play around 2 matches a day.

You may be wondering why the hell Gameloft didn't just allow you to buy the game outright. The answer, i think, lies here - consider its closest competititor, FIFA12. You may make a one-off purchase for FIFA 2012 which costs you $5.18. RF2012, however, will seduce you with its free game status and then seduce you to continuously pay them as long as you need the in-game stamina point.

No, that is not Messi!

One of the reason why you would spend some money and time to download a huge game (or pay for one) is to play your favorite team.

Naturally, that includes having the real-life players of your team in there.

RF2012 however was unable to provide this experience fully.

Unless the team name is the name of a place, they can offer your the name, so Arsenal became London, Manchester United became Manchester Red and Liverpool became Merseysides.

So far as players' names are concerned, they got all the correct names in English Premier League but messed up players' names in other league. I certainly have no idea why. Was it because there is no intellectual property rights for personal name in UK? Beats me.

So your Messi would be, surprise, Sairme!!
  

Strangely however, when you go into practice mode and use Argentina to practice, you get your Messi.

Final Verdict

Despite the above, i genuinely enjoyed the game. It is not perfect but hey, when do we ever get a perfect game?

If you are not preparing to play this game for a few hours in a trot, you should really consider installing this game. For a free game, this game is awesome.

[Game] Angry Birds Star Wars

After hearing the news about Disney taking over Star Wars and planning for Episode 7, 8 and 9, does it not trigger some fond memories lie sleeping deep inside you?

Do you need something to ease your itch for the galaxy far far away?

Look no further, for Rovio has finally released the long awaited Angry Birds Star Wars!

Brace yourself, Angry Birds will present you Star Wars in a way never seen before, with sheer and ultimate cuteness!!!!!

If you are familiar with Angry Birds, which you no doubt will be unless you were from the galaxy far far away, the latest incarnation of Angry Birds and Star Wars should be no stranger to you.

Noting that when thing is not broken, don't bother fixing it, Rovio applied the same gameplay engine that served them so well previously - you slingshot birds to kill pigs.

But that is not all. Angry Birds have now adopted the handsomeness and prettiness in the like of I'll-be-one-Can-not-be (Obi wan Kenobi), Princess Leia, Skywalkers etc. Now not only are they cute, they are also cool.


Angry Birds Stars Wars, as the name suggest, was set in the Star Wars universe. Your first mission would aptly be on Tatooine (for the uninitiated, this is where Jedi Knight Qui-gon Jinn found the chosen one, Anakin Skywalker, in the Star Wars universe).

Nothing is wasted. Even the score sheet is in Star Wars theme.

Rovio did a great job in combining their experience in Angry-birding on land and in space with this latest incarnation. Your mission now includes slinging birds on land and in space.

It would be a great waste if Rovio did not adopt some of the most memorable Star Wars characters and features in this game. Look at the two pictures below. Which character can you see and what skills it is using?

I am not going to spoil the joy for you. Install this app and see for yourself how Angry Birds reshape the world of Star Wars! Or Star Wars reshaping the world of Angry Birds!

My fellow Jedis, may the force be with you!

[Game] Plague Inc

Some of us wanted to kill zombies and nail the chicks.

Some of us wanted to drift around tight corners and nail the chicks.

Some of us wanted to slingshot some birds and nail the pigs.

But a minority of us just wanted to infect the whole world with plague and whip human beings off the face of earth.

If you are in the fourth category, I have a game just to cater to your noble mind. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you - Plague Inc

All you need to know

All you need to do is to create a plague, infect everyone, kill them off. Simple? You can't be more wrong.

Before you start the game, I would personally suggest you imagine yourself as the almighty God, who felt that human being have failed you. Now, you want to destroy them, not through natural disaster, but through some illness.

But since you, the awesome God, have given human beings the faculty to think for themselves, human beings will not just lie down and die. You will have to pit your almighty intelligence against the arrogant human beings who now think that they can play God.

Thus begin the tussle between you and the human beings.

On another note, if imagining yourself as the God offends you, why not imagine yourself as a terrorist with a remote control to control your biological weapon?


Game play

The game play is simple. You first chose a country to infect with your pathogen. Your pathogen will initially be weak and useless. You slowly evolve your pathogen to infect more people and kill more people.

But human beings will fight back, and start to create cure. You will have to have a battle of wits with them, outsmart them and stay ahead of them to ensure that your mission of human annihilation will succeed.

So that I don't kill the joy for you, no strategy will be discussed here.

Performance

So far, I have not experienced any glitches. The app runs well and smooth, no complaint.

Graphic

This is not a game where you have a character jumping around. It's a plain old click click read read kind of game. Be that as it may, the graphic here is fitting and excellent. It certainly looks gorgeous on my HD screen.

Audio

The dude who did the audio must be given a hand of applause and a few pats on his/her back. The music, sound effects, are eerie enough that you may not want to switch on the sound when you play this game at night. No, no sample here. Go play this game and experience it yourself.

Noteworthy Points

While this seems to be a dead serious game, it does not lack humour. Occasionally you will see message like below:

Winning the Game

And when you this message, you are half way to winning.

And when shits hit the fan, you win!

Final Verdict


This is a must play for all who wanted to be the ultimate badass. Remember, it is fun to be the bad guy. You can't save the world all the time.



And here is the promotional video by the developer.