Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

Remember Falcon 3.0, the harcore PC flight sim by Spectrum HoloByte? That game had a 250+ page manual and took a good hour to figure out how to take off without stalling and crashing several million dollars worth of virtual military technology. Namco's Ace Combat: Assault Horizon (AC:AH) is the polar opposite of that game. It's the 'Top Gun' of flight games - loud, dumb, and a ton of fun!!

AC:AH takes pretty much all of the complexity out of flying and focuses on providing as cinematic and action-packed experience as possible. The in-flight controls for planes are very basic - throttle with the triggers, the left stick is to pitch and roll, the bumbers control yaw. The physics are ludicrously loose - you can pull off any kind of harebrained maneuver without worry of blacking out and it takes an act of God to stall your plane. You also can't do a barrel roll for some reason.

Once you engage enemy fighters, you can use cannons and heat-seaking missiles to take down bogeys but the most fun comes when you get in close behind another plane and engage DFM ('Dog Fight Mode'.....yeah, I know...). You have to follow an enemy close for a few seconds before you can engage DFM but once you do (by pressing both bumpers together), the game basically takes control of 90% of the flying for you, zooms the camera close in and you're controlling a reticule to try and target your bogey. The combination of the visuals, sound design and controls makes this an incredibly thrilling experience. Because the computer is doing most of the flying for you (you're basically moving left or right to generally keep up with the fleeing target) it can create situations where you're occasionally flying between city buildings trying to shoot down another plane. When you do fire off the kill shot the camera dynamically follows the rocket in, shows your victim going up in flames and then cuts back. This never got old for me. The end of game stats showed I had shot down a couple of hundred planes by the end and I never once got bored of this mechanic.

The CPU pilots can also target you and if they close in behind you there's a neat feature where, while trying to evade/shake your tail, you can line up two markers and then perform 'a counter' whereby you flip your plane and instantly loop around behind your pursuer. It sounds dumb but it's incredibly cool to see/do and adds another demension to the dogflighting.

There's a similar mechanic for ground targeting that's just as fun called ASM (...ahem....'Air Strike Mode'....) where you have to line up with a designated entry point for a bombing run and once again the computer takes control of a large portion of the flying controls (you still can bank left or right) and you focus on raining hell on ground troops. 

Unlike previous Ace Combat games you also get to control helicopters. These missions are mostly support missions for ground troops in populated areas and have their own neat mechanics. You often have to use buildings for cover and with simplified controls it's easy to duck and weave between buildings. If someone fires a missile/rocket at you - no problem, just do a barrel roll to evade it....in a chopper (try not think about it too much).

Amazingly, for a Japanese game at least, AC:AH has a story penned by an actual 'writer' (we'll use that term lightly) - Jim DeFelice who's written a number of military thrillers. Unfortunately, though not unexpectedly, the the story is pretty rote and predictable but still a lot more involved than I thought it would be. The game takes place in 2015 where you play as Lt. Colonel William Bishop of the 108th Task Force (a multinational UN task force composed of NATO and Russian troops). You're leader of Warwolf Squadron and by the end of the game you have some semblance of attachment to the pilots in your squadron - contrast this to Ghost Recon: Future Soldier where you spend 10 hours with 3 other soldiers and I couldn't tell you their names to save my life.

The 108th Task Force is charged with stopping a Russian insurgent group, SRN, who are funded by the Russian mafia. This is all just an excuse for you to go flying missions around the world from East Africa, to Dubai, to Miami and a number of other locations. There are twists and turns in the story but you can see most of them coming a mile away. You also have a nemesis - Colonel Andrei Markov (you have to read that in a thick Russian accent) - who is the world's best fighter pilot or something. No prizes for guessing whom you fight near the end of the game. It's dumb, but it's dumb fun and I quite enjoyed the campyness of it all.

Graphically, this game is very, very pretty. There are a ton of different planes you can fly (and fly against) and there all modelled beautifully. Explosions are gorgeous as are the particle and smoke effects. Ground details, particularly around the cities are fantastic. Miami and Dubai are two particularly well presented cities with buildings galore to fly in and around.

Sound design is similarly impressive with immersive comms chatter and some very good use of surround sound with missiles and explosions all around. There is also a very rousing and grandiose orchestral score. The voice acting sits on the wrong side of the 'bad' vs. 'so bad it's good' line which is a shame because truly awful voice acting combined with the campy story would have made the narrative experience that much more fun. 

Regardless of the apathetic voice acting, AC:AH is a bucket-load of over-the-top fun. An average mission generally starts with an overly dramatic cut-scene furthering the silly story, then you're suddenly in the air and have to shoot down 20-30 planes in a single mission - don't worry, your plane can somehow carry 50-60 missiles! Throughout the dog-fighting you're routinely pulling 10G turns with the greatest of ease. Then at some point you're up against the opposition squadron's top dogfighter and on occasion you have to chase down an ICBM and shoot it out of mid-air. It' crazy, it's stupid and it's fun.

The game takes about 5-6 hours to finish which I felt was the perfect amount of time - any longer and I could see myself getting a bit bored but those 5-6 hours were an absolute blast. Best of all, the game can easily be bought new for $20-30 which is very reasonable and solid value for money.

If you're looking for anything approaching a flight sim I'd stay well clear, but if you're open to playing the the Air Force version of a Michael Bay summer blockbuster I think you'll have a blast.

Lavan

Syndicate (360)

My love of last year's Deus Ex: Human Revolution has got me back into digging the cyberpunk genre in a big way. I was impressed by Syndicate's Skrillex heavy announcement trailer last year and recently got my hands on the game.

First off, while the original Syndicate was a 3/4 view isometric real-time 'strategy' game, this reboot is a First Person Shooter. This would have prompted yawns except it was developed by Starbreeze who made the excellent Darkness and Chronicles of Riddick games. Both of those games excelled in creating an engrossing atmosphere and engaging game world. They also both had a component of open-world/free-form gameplay to them as well.

Syndicate starts in 2069 where the world is no longer controlled by governments but by large corporations known as 'Syndicates'. Their control is made possible by the DART chip - an implanted brain chip that allows users to access the internet and renders most other electronic devices obsolete. In classic cyberpunk style the world is divided into those who have the chip (living in wealth and prosperity) and those who do not (who live in the ghettos). The powerful Syndicates employ bio-engineered/augmented security officers called 'Agents' for both protection and to engage in corporate espionage.

You control an agent named Miles Kilo (awful name, I know) who works for the world's largest Syndicate, Eurocorp, and has had the newest prototype DART chip implanted into his brain. 

This DART chip allows for several gameplay abilities that somewhat differentiate the game from the FPS norms. Tapping the Right Bumper (RB) brings up the 'DART Overlay' which adds a Matrix-style overlay to the visuals, highlighting enemies, important objects in the environment and also slows time slightly. You have three different 'Breach' abilities that are activated by targeting an enemy and then holding down the Left Bumper (LB). The Breach abilities allow you to hack into an enemy's DART chip force them to either commit suicide ('Suicide'), turn upon their allies ('Persuade'), or force their gun to explode ('Backfire'). 

Both the DART Overlay and the Breach abilities use an energy bar that is only refilled by either hacking objects in the environment or by killing enemies. Furthermore, the Breach abilities only work on those enemies that have implanted chips - so when you encounter those members of society who do not have them (and it's not much of a spoiler to mention that you do) you can't use them.

The shooting and controls in Syndicate are solid and the special abilities add flavour to all the encounters. Some later groups of enemies will have soldiers who have jammers that stop you from using Breach abilities (so you have to take them out first). There are also a good number of enemy types from heavies, to those with shields, mini-mechs and, of course, other Agents. The other Agents are your boss battles and while I'm generally not a fan of boss encounters in first person shooters, I think they work pretty well here because they force you to use your abilities and/or the environment in different ways.

You also gain experience points from each kill/hack/encounter and can then use these to upgrade your abilities in a fairly intricate upgrade tree which adds an RPG-lite component to the gameplay. 

Graphically, Syndicate is solid. I like the art style and look of the world but I still think Deus Ex: HR wins out in terms of art design and also the intricacy and level of detail found in the stages. You travel around future New York, Los Angeles and a floating city in the Atlantic. While the futuristic architecture is very well thought out and logical, there is nothing as stunning as Lower and Upper Hengsha that you find in Deus Ex. 

The faces and animations are excellent but there is some slow-down in the 360 version when there's too much going on at once - it only happens a handful of times but it's enough to mention. The DART-overlay and menu graphics are really well stylized but I felt at times the font sizes were too small and when I was trying to read emails/journal entries I had to strain.

The narrative itself is decent with requisite twists, turns and a very nice reveal towards the end of the story but it doesn't feel as fleshed out as it could be. The narrative leaves things open for a sequel but still manages to feel complete.  Starbreeze decided to use real-life actors for the other main characters who are both voice and facial captured. Brian Cox plays the head of Eurocorp and he is, as always, absolutely awesome as a maniacal megalomaniac. He was previously in Manhunt and Killzone and was brilliant in those two as well. The only other notable actor would be Rosario Dawson who plays Eurocorp's head scientist. While she is undoubtedly gorgeous I don't think she adds much to her character and I think EA/Starbreeze could have saved some money by going with a lesser-known actress.    

Syndicate features a very rich background fiction which is told through diary/journal entries and news articles you pick up. Unfortunately, none of this is really essential to the central narrative which is a shame and feels like a missed opportunity. It's fascinating reading about the other corporations, industrial espionage and also a rising revolutionary movement among deposed non-chipped individuals. The latter is somewhat touched upon in the narrative but not in as much detail as it deserves. 

After you're done the 10 hour single player story, the excellent co-op mode provides further enjoyment. In co-op you play as a team of 4 human-controlled Agents who have to take on various missions against the AI. Like all good multiplayer games (i.e. Battlefield 3) Syndicate rewards players that work together and each co-op player can play a variety of different roles from the bog-standard 'healer' to someone who specializes in hacking. The missions themselves are also quite varied from simple assassinations to stealing something from a rival Syndicate's compound and making it back out alive. 

Best of all, this is one EA game that doesn't require an online pass so if you do buy the game used/preowned/whatever you can still play this mode. 

I quite enjoyed Syndicate. It didn't blow me away but I had a lot of fun playing through the single player and co-op was engaging enough for me to forgo Battlefield 3 for a while. I think the game-world could have been fleshed out a bit more and I wish there was a bit more open-ness to the game (like in the Darkness) as it's fairly linear. Right now you can get Syndicate new for $30 and used for even cheaper. At either price, I think it's a good deal.

Lavan   

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - Single Player Impressions

Ubisoft's Ghost Recon series has been around since 2001 with the original on the PC. I was first introduced to the series when it shifted from first person to third person view with 2006's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter on the 360. I last played that game around 5 years ago and have two enduring memories of it; it looked absolutely gorgeous and that I enjoyed the slow, methodical, tactical pacing of the action.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (GRFS) is the newest game in the series but I think Ubisoft, seeing the success of more arcadey shooters like Call of Duty, have decided to try to balance the tactical nature of earlier games in the Ghost Recon series with more run-and-gun style seen in arcadey shooters. Unfortunately, the result is a game that seems caught in limbo between the two doctrines.

GRFS has all the features you'd expect in a top tier 3rd person shooter - cover mechanics, tons of different weapons, a Gears of War-style recovery/bleed-out and more. The 'Future Soldier' aspect comes from the variety of different gadgets and technology your 4-man team has access to. You can use a robotic drone to fly/drive around the battlefield to scope out and mark targets. You can also use Predator-style active camouflage to sneak around undetected. You also have a 'futuristic' HUD that shows the location of enemies through cover.

The controls are solid, very responsive and mention must be made of the ingenious way you can move from cover to cover. Once you're behind cover, you can look to another area of cover, hold down A and then you automatically run to that area. It's a very simple system but it works brilliantly and is something that other 3rd person games need to borrow.

So far, so good but unfortunately, the single-player experience falls flat because of gameplay that is in limbo between being a tactical shooter like the older Ghost Recon games and a more arcadey shooter like Gears of War. It also doesn't help that the mission design is often atrocious and that your teammate's AI is utter garbage. It seems as though more than a third of the missions are stealth-only missions that result in a game-over message the moment you're detected. A lot of times I found trial and error was the only way to get through them. Other missions are the complete opposite with infantry coming from every angle and you're running around the battlefield like Captain Price and Soap, absorbing bullets and capping Russians left, right and center a la Call of Duty (only COD does it better). The last 10 minutes of the game have you literally running through the forest chasing someone while shooting enemy troops along the way. Absolutely no tactical thought needed.

You can't order your teammates to move to different positions (you could in previous games) but you can mark/designate opposing soldiers for them to take out. Unfortunately, AI path-finding is awful. Through the course of the overly-long 10+ hour single-player campaign I had FIVE different instances where I had to re-start from a checkpoint because one of my AI squad-mates got stuck trying to walk through a wall rather than go through a door. I would be at the next check-point, waiting for it to unlock only to see a message stating I had to wait for all of my squad. I'd run back and then see one of the 3 generic idiots you roll with literally banging his head into a wall. For a 'triple A' title in 2012 that's just unacceptable.

The game's narrative is also disappointing because while you can clearly see a ton of effort was put into it (it's more than 10 hours long and there are a lot of cut-scenes as well as in-mission dialogue) it just doesn't come together. There's something about a Russian coup and missing weapons but I couldn't follow and really didn't give a shit after the first 2 hours. At some point in the middle you're in Siberia controlling an indestructible mini-mech with infinite rockets and you wonder why the Ghosts just don't take this thing with them wherever they go...

Ubisoft also tried to ape Battlefield: Bad Company's foursome of characters but while I can easily ring off the names of Sweetwater, Marlowe, Haggard and Redford I couldn't begin to tell you the names of the guys in GRFS. I know there's a guy with a southern accent and the black guy is your squad leader (even though you spend the entirety of the game giving HIM orders). That's about it.

It's all a shame because there are some good ideas here and there are a few, albeit brief, moments where everything comes together nicely such as a part of the level in Zambia where a Sandstorm comes in and reduces visibility to zero. Or, my favourite part of the game, the first section of the final mission where you have to assassinate several targets. Unfortunately, these moments don't make up for the mediocrity you have to endure the other 90% of the time.

The single-player in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier isn't bad (except for those times when the AI renders the game broken) but it's not very good either. If you're a huge fan of tactical shooters like the previous Ghost Recon: Advance Warfighter games I'd steer well clear - it's nothing like the other games. If you're a fan of run-and-gun 3rd person shooters I'd probably wait for this one to go on sale.

Lavan

Homefront (360)

I had meant to check out Homefront when it first came out but I was so busy that it passed me by. The game’s mixed reception and purportedly short campaign length didn’t light much of a fire under my ass to buy it. I eventually did buy a used (er...I mean ‘pre-owned’) copy at my local independent videogame store for $7.50 few weeks ago.  After finishing the single player campaign ofthis first-person shooter I have to say I quite enjoyed it but I’m also glad I didn’t pay full price ($60) for it.

For those who aren’t familiar with the story, Homefront starts with a story montage that begins in 2010 with some real-life footage of Hilary Clinton speaking after the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan.The montage continues with the death of Kim Jong Ill in 2012, whose son then reunites North and South Korea to form the Greater Korean Republic (GKR). Over the next 10 years the GKR gains massive power, a bird flu epidemic and theglobal economic crisis cripple the United States, and in 2024 the GKR detonates an EMP over the US rendering electronics and much of the nation`s infrastructure in ruins. In the resulting chaos the GKR invade and occupy the United States.

Yes, it`s Red Dawn, the videogame. Except they’re Koreans, not Russians.

The game begins two years after Korean occupation of the US and you play as a former Marine helicopter pilot namedJacobs. Sleeping in your makeshift Colorado apartment you’re suddenly awoken by GKR troops and dragged onto a bus going to a ‘re-education camp’.  Fortunately, your bus is ambushed by American resistance fighters who rescue you for the sole purpose of helping them in their plan to recover jet fuel for scattered U.S. military forces.

I’m a big fan of atmosphere and sense of place in games and Homefront really excels in these areas.  I really liked the suburban sections in Modern Warfare 2 where you fought off Russian invasion - the idea of modern military warfare taking place in the North American suburbs (a place most of us are familiar with in our day to day lives) is something I find incredibly intriguing. So, to see this concept more fleshed out in Homefront is a big thrill.

The first half of the game takes place in dilapidated and destroyed suburban Colorado (2 years into Korean occupation) and the attention to detail is amazing. At one point you’re running through back yards and along with the expected household destruction you also see remnants of a crashed Boeing 747 scattered around the place. In one area you come across a garage that has a 747 engine smashed into the side of it, around the cornerhalf of the fuselage lies down an alleyway.

My favourite area in the game is when you come across ‘Oasis’ a tiny, hidden resistance outpost with civilians intermixed with resistance fighters. The attention to detail in this section is incredible. You see rows of potted plants and vegetables laid out in logical fashion, hydroponics and water filtration systems, a little classroom with a blackboard and tiny children’s chairs, car batteries and solar panels arrayed to collect power, even sections of camouflage tarp strewn over open areas to hide the outpostfrom detection by airborne GKR forces! It really feels like a place where desperate people are trying to carve out some semblance of a normal life amidst chaos.

Tonally, the game starts out with a metaphorical punch to the gut. As you’re driven by GKR forces in a converted school bus to a ‘re-education’ camp, you’re able to look out the windows and can see GKR troops rounding up American citizens like cattle. At one point a GKR soldier grabs a resisting civilian from behind, puts a plastic bag over his head and begins to suffocate him as you drive past! The most disturbing segment occurs as the bus rounds a corner you see (and hear) GKR soldiers lining up a man and a woman against a wall while their toddler looks on screaming. The mom tells the toddler not to worry and then the GKR soldiers gun her and her husband down. The resulting sequence of a wailing toddler running up to, and embracing, the bodies of his killed parents struck me in a way no game has been able to before.

Kaos Studios wants you to know that the Korean occupation of the United States is brutal and they definitely succeed in the opening few minutes of this game.

It’s a shame, then, that such excellent atmosphere and environments are held back by shoddy characterization and poor story telling. Your AI-controlled team of fellow resistance members is made up of 4 other characters; Boone (the African-American leader of the resistance cell), Connor (a former marine), Rianna (an African-American female...no really, that’s her name) and Hopper (an Asian-American engineer). Unfortunately, apart from one scene where Connor tells Hopper he should sit out a meeting with some other rebels because they ‘probably don’t like Asians’ there isn’t anything remotely interesting about them or their interactions. Half-way through one of the main characters dies and while we’re supposed to care I wasn’t really bothered.

Likewise, the plot is paper-thin and the only twist/surprise can be seen a mile away. The plot and some mechanics also do a disservice to the excellent atmosphere created by the game. At one point you come across mass graves of American civilians, it’s a chilling moment – ruined by Connor suddenly screaming ‘motherfuckers’, shooting at the patrolling guards and then prompting a 10 minute cover-based firefight that culminates in you having hide under dead bodies with the on screen button prompt of, and I kid you not;

“Press X to Hide in Mass Grave”

*sigh*

The ending of the game is also somewhat bewildering. Not because it leaves things open – this was clearly intended to be the first game in a series and the story of how the resistance to GKR occupation took it’s first steps towards reclaiming America – but because in the space of about 3 seconds a main character decides to sacrifice himself to save the mission. I don’t want to give away too many details but you spend the prior 30 minutes fighting improbable odds, then you get a quick cut away to somereinforcements – you’re thinking, alright, I guess we have to kill them too – but then your squad-mate decides he’ll just off himself to save the day.There’s zero build up to what should be a very dramatic moment -  he just sees the bad guys and then he’s off toget himself killed and I’m left there with the controller thinking;

i.                    Wait...what just happened? Did he just kill himself? Did the game just end?

And

ii.                  He really didn’t need to do that. At all. Particularly since we spent the rest of the game fighting similarly bleak odds.

                      

It would be like an alternate cut of Return of the Jedi where, when Lando Calrissian is flying deep in the bowels of the Death Star, lines up to shoot the reactor core and then at the last minute decides to fly the Millennium Falcon into it killing himself and poor Nien Nub – roll credits. What. The. Fuck?

Gameplay-wise I think Homefront got a bad rep from a lot of mainstream reviewers as it’s a perfectly serviceables hooter. The aiming and movement mechanics are generally tight and there’s a nice weapon selection. It’s completely linear and scripted but so are the single player experiences of most first person shooters. It doesn’t have the sharpness of the CoD engine and it doesn’t have the destruction found inB attlefield but it’s still fun to aim down the sights and take out bad guys.

The biggest shortcoming of the single-player is the length. I am not particularly great at shooters but I finished this game on the default (Normal) difficulty setting in three and a half hours! While I don’t expect shooters to have 20+ hours of gameplay, three and a bit hours is frankly ridiculous. I’m not particularly upset since I bought this game used for less than ten dollars but if I picked it up for full price I would have been pissed.

There is a very robust multiplayer component to the game but since I bought it used I’d have to pay $10 for an online pass to be able to play beyond the first 5 levels (of player progression). I hit level 5 in about 40 minutes and while it’s a fun experience with some neat ideas (you use points you get from killing enemies/achieving objectives to purchase in-match vehicles, weapons, etc) I would still rather play Battlefield 3 or even CoD.

Despite some pretty poor scores from high-profile gaming sites (Gamespot gave it a 4/10) Homefront still managed to sell around a million copies – largely in part to some very aggressive (and undoubtedly expensive) marketing. Unfortunately, expectations from publisher THQ were much higher and this resulted in the closure of the developer Kaos Studios.  It’s a shame because there are some very neat ideas here. Fortunately, Crytek Nottingham have been tasked with making a sequel which makes me quite excited. I really loved Crysis 2 and hope Crytek’s Nottingham studio is as talented as their Frankfurt one.

Lavan

Super Soccer Champs (iOS)

Uprising Games’ newest iOS game isa solid re-creation of the 2D top-down soccer action found in Kick Off 2 and SensibleWorld of Soccer. To make things a bit easier for today’s audience the gamefeatures two action buttons (shoot and pass) and an easy dribble mode (wherethe ball sticks to your feet).  The gamespeed, despite being adjustable, is also significantly slower than thoseaforementioned 16-bit games but that’s likely a good thing because of the smallscreen size of the iPhone and iPad. 

Friendly

2010 World Cup

Euro 2012

EPL

1990 World Cup

Euro 1996

1986 World Cup

1966 World Cup

J-League

Chinese Club League

Team Editor

None of the leagues or players arelicensed but Uprising Games get around this by just including the last name ofplayers and/or pseudo-names. The classic tournaments also feature accuraterosters so I could re-create the 1990 World Cup using an England side that hasBarnes, Gascoigne, Lineker, Beardsley and Waddle!

I definitely had a lot of fun withSuper Soccer Champs but I acknowledge that the top-down 2D soccer gameplay maynot be for everyone (particularly if you didn’t grow up playing Kick Off or SWOS) but if you have an interest in soccer games I definitely think it’sworth a try.

Lavan

New Star Soccer (iOS)

After 5 games and numerous iterations it’s often easy toforget that the New Star Soccer series is basically made by a single person;Simon Read. For those who haven’t heard of the series, it’s a top-down soccergame in the vein of Kick Off and Sensible Soccer. The hook is that you controla single player through the course of his career from a young nobody warmingthe bench at a non-league team to, hopefully, an international super starplaying for a top club team and also your national team. You improve yourskills and attributes by playing more games and by completing trainingchallenges (which take the form of numerous tiers of mini-games such asdribbling through cones, heading in crosses, etc).

What really draws you into the game is are the numerousoff-field activities which are just as important as the on-field ones. Theoff-field activities can be divided into financial and inter-personal.Depending upon the level you’re playing at, and your negotiating skill, you geta per-game salary. This can be supplemented, once you become more successfuland well-known, by various sponsorship deals. The money you earn can then beused to buy things such as property, vehicles and various other goods andservices. These things aren’t just for show – they have a direct effect uponyour match performance! The more nice things you have the higher your happinessrating and this acts as bonus for your attributes. Furthermore, differentproperties have varying bonuses upon your ability to recover from fatigue aftermatches!

Interpersonal relationships are also very important. As aplayer you have relationships with your teammates, your boss/manager,  the fans and (if you get one) yourgirlfriend. The more you improve these relationships (by selecting to spendtime with each and then playing a match-three mini game) the better you do onthe field. For example, the better your relationship with your teammates, themore likely they are to pass to you! You have a finite amount of time betweenmatches to for interpersonal activities and the more you spend doing these themore it fatigues you prior to a match so it’s a balancing act between somethinglike spending time with the fans at a photo-shoot to butter them up but notfatiguing yourself so much that you end up playing poorly in the next match andthen having the fans on your back!

I’m a huge fan of the PC NSS games – the sense of immersionand pure addictiveness is incredible – but I was wary as to how Simon Readwould bring the top-down action to an iOS device as I’m not a big fan ofvirtual thumb-sticks. The solution is ingenious and absolutely perfect for bite-sized, on-the-gomobile gaming. Instead of letting you control the moment to moment action, yousee Football Manager-style text commentary and interspersed are certain keymoments where you take control via little mini-games for passing, shooting, setpieces and tackling/intercepting passes. The passing and shooting mini-gamesare simple (move an arrow, touch a moving/bouncing/still ball where you’d liketo strike it) but have quite a bit of depth under the surface. Importantly,there’s a good balance between user skill and also an accurate reflection ofyour avatar’s abilities.

I’ve played close to a 75 different iOS games but New StarSoccer is easily the most addictive.  Thecombination of addictive gameplay, quick matches, and the RPG aspect of carvingout the individual career of your player. My player started off in the BlueSquare South division playing for Boreham Wood before moving to AccringtonStanley, then Brighton, before moving to France with Evian in the French seconddivision. After successfully winning promotion with Evian I earned a move toLille and ended up winning the league in my second season there – scoring theleague title clinching goal with a thunderous 30 yard volley in the 89^thminute against Marseille! I had also helped Canada qualify through CONCACAF tothe 2014 World Cup Finals! My third season with Lille didn’t result in a titlebut ‘we’ did manage to get to the Champions League semi-finals before losing toBarcelona.  The following season I earnedmy dream move to Liverpool and I find myself fighting for the EPL title goinginto the last few weeks (I didn’t say the game was necessarily realistic)! 

If you’re a fan of football/soccer I think you owe it toyourself to check out NSS. You can play a limited trial for free but can unlockthe game for just 99 cents. It’s a no-brainer and easily my favourite iOS game.

Lavan