Gameloft have got to be one of the biggest and most well-known developers for mobile gaming right now, as they’re constantly bringing out a variety of games spread throughout many different genres. For all you sports fans out there, Gameloft have now released the new Real Football 2013, which follows on from the 2012 version.

Team Management and Game Preparation

Team management is one of the most important feats in a decent football game, so important in fact, that Football Manager – a game just about managing a football team – has become an extremely successful series, proving that managing your team can be a whole game on its own.

Real Football 2013 isn’t top end when it comes to managing your team, but for a mobile game it’s acceptable. After you pick your team at the start of the game, your players will level up as you play more matches.

Before matches you’ll have a city screen which displays all the utilities available. You’ll be able to heal up and rest your players here, as well as train them for more skill on the field, and increase their income by upgrading buildings and searching for sponsors. This side of Real Football 2013 seems to rely heavily on in-app purchasable currency, with which you can speed up actions within the city utilities. Without the in-game currency you’ll have to wait a preset amount of time for the selected action to be completed, and the time won’t go down if the app is running in the background, which is painful for both you and your device’s battery.

The city utilities do give us a huge sense of progression though, and it’s from here that we can upgrade, buy and manage our player. This allows us to create a team that is personal to our own experiences. You may pick favorites and concentrate on maxing out their skills, or slowly build up the team together; it’s all up to you.

The Match

To be honest, I’ve never played many football games, but as soon as I picked Real Football up, I was reminded about how enjoyable football games can be. Real Football starts without much of an introduction, other than the voice of the commentator with an over exaggerated British accent, you haven’t got much information to go by.

Luckily the game is extremely easy to pick up. When in possession of the ball, you have a joystick for movement, and three helpfully labeled buttons; sprint, pass, and shoot. It’s pretty easy to control the character, and there are a few touch gestures to perform interesting moves, and these aren’t explained to you so you’ll have to experiment to find a good tactic for your time on the field.

When the other team is in possession of the ball the controls stay in the same position, but the three buttons are changed to sprint, tackle, and press. The controls are equally easy to use, although use tackle sparingly as it usually ends up with your selected player slide tackling another player and leaving the match with a red card. It took me till four players had been called off the match to realize that most of the tackling was done automatically when your player was close enough.

Overall, playing a match or two of Real Football 2013 is an enjoyable experience, and it’s something that would never have been possible on mobile devices a few years back, so a few bugs and limits due to the low spec hardware is understandable. That being said, I really hope that Gameloft finds a better method of player switching for Real Football 2014 because right now it becomes a very irritating aspect of the game.

You can either have the player switch mechanic set on automatic or manual, but both have their issues. On manual it becomes frustrating because it’ll often swap your players before you have enough time to react, causing you to swerve the newly selected player in the wrong direction. On automatic, it’s difficult to quickly switch players because you need to lift one of your hands off of the controls and double tap another player.

Gameloft could improve upon this by adding a control-lock for a second or two if you’re using automatic, which would let the CPU control the player for a second after switching so that you have enough time to react to the new change. Another possible method would be to add a player switch button that switches to the nearest player, which would be handy for manual mode.

RF 2013 vs RF 2012

What’s new, what’s old, and what’s missing?

The only real improvement to Real Football 2013 is the graphics, which will only be apparent if you have a higher-end handset or tablet. Other than that, there are a few additions to game mechanics, but Gameloft has disappointingly dropped a lot of features from 2012. There isn’t any way to play with a decent club team unlike RF 2012, and instead requires either a lot of time or a lot of money to upgrade your team within career mode. The current cool down time really needs to be fixed as well. On top of that, Real Football 2013 really needs to address the countdown timer issue which currently only depletes when the application is running on the screen. Previous Real Football player? You may be better sticking with 2012, but if you’ve got a decent device, then you may want to get it for the improved graphics.

Summary

Pros:

• Great graphics
• Decent team progression and management
• Easy to pick up and play
• Game is free

Cons:

• Game is missing features from previous year
• 2013 has become more ‘freemium heavy’ than the previous year
• Bad player switching controls
• No mode other than the main career

Download Real Football 2013 on Google Play

Download Real Football 2013 on iOS

The post Real Football 2013 – Android Review appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Leafs coach Ron Wilson has become an advocate for technology on the team. The iPad, when standing behind the bench, can be used to view replay footage and review other coaching-related items much more efficiently than the old dead-tree style playbooks. The video can be used to dissect his own players as well as their opponents.

Since the iPad has an Internet connection, he could very easily access real-time stas, replays, and other information that can aid him in coaching. You don’t coach based on yesterday’s news; you need the newest information right now. Despite this, Wilson is hesitant to bring the iPad to the bench during games.

“What we’re doing now is watching every power play and every penalty kill around the league and putting together what we think would be the best power play and what is the best penalty kill for our team,” said Wilson. “All players can pull up all shifts, instantly, at work stations we have set up around the ACC. It helps players scout themselves, like in football, and makes a coach’s job easier because we’re not always coming at them with something negative about the way they’re playing.”

With software coach Wilson developed on his Apple OSX computer, he intends to take his team to the next level. The Leafs are innovating the league once again, as did Roger Neilson, the coach who changed the NHL by bringing video replays to analyze opponents some 30 years ago.

[The Star]

The post Toronto Maple Leafs coach uses iPad for coaching appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

MLB at Bat 2010 on the iPhone

With baseball season just beginning, many MLB fans have been trying to find other ways to follow their favorite teams on a game by game basis. With the advent of MLB at Bat last year, iPhone and iPod Touch users gained the ability to listen to every single MLB game live on their device, which made the app a huge success. This year, a new MLB at Bat has been released that is a top app, and also the subject of controversy.

MLB at Bat 2010 contains all the features of the original and more. The ability to listen to every game live, choose your feed for each game, game cast, news, videos, and standings are all back. These features run well, with loud clear audio for the games.

New to this year is the ability to watch MLB games live. The video quality on these games are actually really good, and they run well with little lag. However, this is where the controversy begins. MLB at Bat gives you one free game per game, and not necessarily your home team’s game, I found one game to be completely garbage, and a game no one would want to watch. However, you can watch any MLB game on MLB at Bat by linking it up to your MLB.tv account, which costs $60 on top of the $15 your paying for the app. Needless to day, this app requires one lofty investment.

While MLB at Bat is an expensive app, it’s worth it if you’re a huge baseball fan. It gives you multiple feeds of every single radio broadcast and every single MLB game. It’s the perfect app for the baseball fan on the go, or for someone who wants to listen or watch baseball outside their home. I couldn’t justify buying the MLB.tv just because it’s so expensive, but if you already have it, then MLB at Bat is a must buy.  A lite version of the app is also available, but of course you won’t get the live streaming and several other key features.

Download MLB at Bat from iTunes ($14.99)

Download MLB at Bat Lite (Free)

Download At Bat 2010 for the iPad($14.99)

The post Review: MLB at Bat 2010 for iPhone and iPad, Watch live games and more appeared first on Mobile Magazine.