On Saturday (March 9th), my colleague Martin and I went together to do press coverage at Game in Scotland, an annual Scottish event where established local video game developers present and pitch themselves to the public. We interviewed four developers, all from different industry professions, perspectives and disciplines. We made impressions, shook hands and even had a laugh too.

One of those aforementioned interviews was with Nuvo Gadgets, a stall me and Martin pretty much chose randomly.

Nuvo Gadgets are an up-and-coming product developer, who came about out of a passion for gadgets, and a desire to bring new and innovative products to those who would appreciate them. Their criteria? They add products to their catalogue and sell said products only if they are fun to use, which is the central theme of any and all products they want to produce. This motif is even reflected in their catchphrase, too: “bringing back fun“. A cute sentiment, and so far with their latest and first product – the Nuvo Pro Game Grip – Nuvo Gadgets seem to certainly be delivering on their promise. Which, humorously, was sparked because an employee’s phone stopped working.

Nuvo Gadgets attended Game in Scotland in order to get known to the public. Hassan Ahmed (Nuvo’s Promotions Manager) took a moment of time (twice*) to talk to us about the Game Grip.

Basically, the Nuvo Game Grip is an “extension for the iPhone 4/4S, and also the iPod 4th generation.” What you do is unclip the Grip’s opening and slot in your iDevice, close the opening, and that’s it ready for use on the get-go. It’s honestly that simply, if a bit fiddly at first. No additional software is required to run the Grip; nothing needs to be installed to your device in order for the Grip to work. It is quite simply a peripheral that attaches to your device, which in turn enhances the mobile gaming experience.

Ahmed talked us through the different features of the Grip and how some of them worked. The Nuvo Pro Game Grip has two speakers directly behind the device, as well as an built-in vibration function. Music and other media can be played through the gadget, I was told. It also has it’s own battery life, which is represented by four small LED lights on the back. Additionally, it comes with four suction buttons – which I assume are to increase the player’s gaming experience.

Another feature – one which I find particularly interesting – is that the Grip can charge your iDevice whilst you’re on the move. It also has a mini-USB port to boot (a mini-USB cable is included in the box), as well as additions such as a headphone jack and volume controls.

The Grip is designed with user comfort in mind, because the overall shape of the gadget is rounded and ergonomic, being just the right dimensions to fit comfortably into one’s hands. It’s also quite lightweight, too, if a little too light for my preference.

Currently, the device itself only has one colour – matte red. When asked if they were planning for different colours, Ahmed said that when they head back to their drawing room they will look over what reviews they’ve received (as well as public feedback), and work on that feedback and bring different things to the public. I hope this might include different colours. Y’know, just for spice of choice.

Martin asked if the company had anything else going for it. Ahmed replied with that they do have different ideas, but they wanted to develop the idea of the Nuvo Pro Game Grip first, get it out and get it known to the public – as well as Nuvo Gagdets in the process – and then maybe bring out other products. The Grip is the only product Nuvo currently have on the market at the time of writing, but there’s an iPhone 5 version peaking over the horizon – the Nuvo Pro Game Grip Evolution.

Afterwards, I asked if one of those ideas would be the development of a tablet version. He responded with that during their development research, they found that Apple had the most mobile games on their devices, and since the iPhone 4/4S was the product of the time, Nuvo made the decision of developing the idea of the Grip around those iDevices. However, since Apple bring out a new iThingie every so often, and how Samsung (as an example) have their own Android phones, he said they will develop for other devices – iOS and Android alike – in the future. They even hope to incorporate different sizes of different devices, too: from smartphone sizes to tablet sizes, maybe. (My thoughts on that later). In short, they want to develop for smartphones, and then possibly branch out later.

Now, let me talk about what I think about the gadget itself. Because the iDevice is linked to the Grip via a built-in plug (much like any iDevice adapter) through the device’s socket, the two items virtually become one, with the Grip itself being flush with the iDevice.

It’s also because of this connection that the gadget is able to charge your iDevice. I speculate this is because it transfers battery charge from its onboard battery to your device, which, in turn, drains the Grip’s own battery in favour of keeping the iDevice’s alive. I don’t know what would happen if the Grip’s battery ran out mid-game, or at any time at all. I think it would just “disconnect” itself, so features such as vibration, or using the Grip to play music, would simply cease, until the Grip is charged again by connecting it to a PC via mini-USB, or by plugging it into your iDevice’s adapter. There isn’t a plug adapter included with the Grip because it can charge from a regular iPhone 4/4S charger via the provided mini-USB cable, as was comfirmed by Nuvo when I contacted them after GiS. Perhaps Nuvo may bring their own one out as an accessory later down the line.

Additionally, the connection allows for functionalities such as the vibration function to work, as well as music to play through the device’s speakers, because it directly links to the innards of the device, logically speaking. I cannot speak for the vibration function, other than Ahmed’s word. I’m curious to know how the vibration function works, though, and how it would feel whilst gaming.

More practically, I’m curious how the Grip will know when to vibrate. My hypotheses were that the Grip vibrates for every game, interpreting electrical signals within the iDevice and extrapolating them into vibrations when appropriate, or that mobile game developers will have to incorporate this functionality into their games in order to advantage of this particular feature. As it turns out, I was right with the former; all the vibrations are calculated automatically, Nuvo comfirmed.

A couple more things before I wrap up. One of them being the four suction buttons. Inside the Grip’s package, amongst other things, are four buttons (which I assume are all re-attachable). These appendages tack onto your iDevice’s screen, and practically imitate something similar to a genuine console controller. I don’t know exactly how it works for sure, but, logically thinking, the buttons are essentially extensions of your fingers. When the the buttons exude pressure/heat onto the screen, the end result will be as similar as just using your fingers regularly, except with added tactile-ness of having the familiarity of using a regular console controller for increased accuracy and gameplay response. A simply, yet effective idea.

Lastly, possible future sizes. Honestly, my input to Nuvo would be to go no larger than a 7″ screen. Any bigger would just be too cumbersome, in my opinion. I image that, practically, a 7″ Game Grip would be the limit of the device in terms of practicality, portability and storage – because I think it would still be an acceptable size to game and travel with. A 10″ version, to me, would just be too large for either of those categories, and therefore not really function as a compact attachment anymore, and would just be unnecessary – because I think a 10″ is large enough to game without any sort of Grip gadget.

Nuvo, however, have reiterated that they aren’t making any commitments to any other versions, other than the iPhone 4/4S and 5. They’re currently just wanting concentrate on modern smartphones only. Even though they’re thinking of other ideas, I now know that it’s not probable that we’ll see any bigger versions in the near future.

Speaking with Hassan Ahmed was a charm. We enjoyed interviewing him on both occasions. Soon after the first interview, Martin went and bought his own at a reduced price – event-specific special offer. I’m jealous I don’t have my own, but I don’t have any of the required devices — as of yet. The Nuvo Pro Game Grip is an incredibly simple and innovative product, and seems to be quite a solid one at that. If you’re interested in buying your own, you may head on over to their site and (at the time of writing) buy it for 16.67% off. To watch a demo of the gadget, you may want to head on over to their YouTube channel.

I look forward in seeing where Nuvo Gadgets and their Game Grip go. I wish them the best, and I thank Hassan Ahmed for taking his time to speak to me and Martin. I hope to meet them again. Go check them out at nuvogadgets.com, and/or follow them on Twitter (@nuvogadgets).

This ends part one of a four-part series of articles, branching from my overview report my and my colleague Martin’s time at Game in Scotland. In part two, I detail our interview with Lost Zombie Studios. Stay tuned!

To stay updated with the current gaming and gaming culture news, follow us on Twitter (@ejectdiskmag) and/or like us on Facebook.

*We actually had to back to Nuvo because our recorded video footage was very poor in quality (an oversight on my part). I wanted to do video interviews, but my device was just not meant for that sort of job – setting was too dark, lights were too bright, video quality was poor, surrounding noise drowned the interview…you get the picture. We had to compromise with only audio recordings thereafter, using my device as a mic.

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Saturday opened up its doors for Game in Scotland, a Scottish annual event where established local developer studios take time out to present themselves to the public, of which yours truly personally attended, along with my colleague Martin “Shadow”.

What can I say about the event? Well, in a nutshell, both me and Martin had to (politely) shove our way through half of the time we were there, as the event was pretty crowded. We basically made our rounds of who was there, what was there, and what we could do for X amount of time.

We came away with four unique interviews, each from a developer/manager from different expertise and backgrounds. Which, upon reflection, covers a broad spectrum of our local gaming industry, both me and Martin believe. Everyone we spoke to, took our questions in stride, and were generally quite open to discuss their work with us, which we were particular thankful of.

We spoke to people, made impressions, did interviews, shook hands, and walked out feeling sore, yet satisfied with what content we came out with. All in all, as I’ve already said, it was a good day.

I will be briefly outlining how these interviews went as a whole, with individual, more in-depth reports on each interview following after this overview.

Our first interview was with Nuvo Gadgets, an up-and-coming gadget developer, with a mission of producing fun and innovative products. Hassan Ahmed (Nuvo’s Promotions Manager) made time for us (twice*) to speak to us about their first product: the Nuvo Pro Game Grip.

After Nuvo Gadgets, we interviewed Lost Zombie Studios (Lost Zombies for short). Jody Gallagher (CEO of Lost Zombies), with his company accomplice Matt Sharpe on standby, told us a brief history of his company, what they did, and what project they’re currently working on.

YoYo Games were next. Gavin Smart (Associate Producer) talked to us in a lengthy conversation about their game making software.

Once we were done with YoYo Games, another Gavin – Gavin Divers (Community Manager) – took a moment with us to discuss XBLGamerHub, a gaming comunity site affiliated with Xbox.

Me and Martin honestly had whale of a time during Game in Scotland, and we enjoyed interviewing every person who set aside time for us. We’ll certainly be going next year, I hope.

An upcoming four-part series of articles will follow this overview over the coming days – one for each interview – where I will go into detail of each interview we did. Stay tuned!

To stay updated with the current gaming and gaming culture news, follow us on Twitter (@ejectdiskmag) and/or like us on Facebook.

*We actually had to back to Nuvo because our recorded video footage was very poor in quality (an oversight on my part). I wanted to do video interviews, but my device was just not meant for that sort of job – setting was too dark, lights were too bright, video quality was poor, surrounding noise drowned the interview…you get the picture. We had to compromise with only audio recordings thereafter, using my device as a mic.

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Leviathan: Warships is a turn-based strategy game with cross-platform and PvP gameplay, details the press release, and is said to launch Q2 this year (2013). All available media for the game (screenshots, etc.) can be found over on the game’s website. The dev diary can also be found here.

“In ‘Leviathan: Warships’, players will choose from a wide array of ship and weapon types to build a personalized fleet and fight battles in a unique blend of action and turn-based gameplay,” the press release reads.

“With ‘Leviathan: Warships’, Paradox puts the sea in the cloud, allowing players to start a session from their tablet and continue their cloud-saved skirmish from their computer, challenging foes on any available device.”

This whole cross-platform gimmick, to me, seems like a very intriguing convenience, and I mean that in a good sense. I think it’s a great idea: skirmishing on the computer, but then you need to go somewhere. Just take your mobile device and continue playing!

I’d love to see this sort of gimmick implemented into other games. Sure, the game might have to be small to take advantage of switching between platforms and their respective hardware, but that should just call for creative innovation, I feel.

Aside from that, it’s just a real convenience to keep playing your game if you so happen to be away from your rig for X amount of time.

For more information on Leviathan: Warships, you may visit its website here.

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This years event will take place this Saturday (March 9th) and yours truly will be attending, doing coverage for us here at Eject Disk Magazine.

As well as ordinary people attending, there will also might be aspiring developers just out of college /university coming to this event, who might be looking for experienced insight to the industry. The event in general is meant to encourage those who are interested in joining the game industry in any aspect (be it programmer, tester, artists, etc.) to have a chance of hearing first-hand experience and meeting local developers.

Some of the companies attending this year’s event include Codeplay, Ninja Kiwi, One Thumb Mobile and Tag Games – as listed on Develop.

If you’re Scottish, and you fancy going, you can find out more about this event on their website. Hurry, you’ll need to register your attendance, as there is limited space. Hope to see you there! (Just don’t disrupt my work).

Chirp to Develop.

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Hardlight Studios, Sonic Dash’s developer, designed the game with a fully realised 3D world, creating – admittedly – a visually competent mobile game. The gameplay appears to be like any other Sonic game I’ve played: run forward, collect rings and bash enemie, though that’s just my speculation. It is suggested in the press release that you will be to play as multiple characters (including Sonic himself) which all have their different playstyles and abilities. There’s even a micro-transaction system because it is stated that players can buy power-ups (or unlock them) in order to help them get further into the game.

“Run as Sonic or one of his friends to take on Seaside Hill. Use each characters abilities to dash, spin and jump your way through at high speeds. Various hazards, enemies and loop de loops await your speedy fingertips.

Unlock or buy power-ups to help you get further, including head starts, revives & ring magnets and defeat enemies using Sonic’s devastating spin and homing attack.”

Aside from going fast, players will also be able to stay socially connected with other Sonic Dash players, and possibly compete with them in leaderboard activities.

“Stay socially connected and compete with your friends in leaderboards to prove who really is the best speed runner. You might not be able to catch Sonic, but you can run with him into the hills!”

Sonic Dash is now available on the App Store for $1.99 (AUD $1.99/£1.49/€1.79), and you play it on iPod Touch, iPad ane iPhone devices.

To stay updated with the current gaming and gaming culture news, follow us on Twitter (@ejectdiskmag) and/or like us on Facebook.

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The game itself is pitched as a sci-fi survival game, which has a few RPG elements here and there and a fast-paced setting, with voice acting, too, and a bit of dark humour. Judging by the game’s trailer, however, the gameplay doesn’t really look all that fast-paced, at least not until the character is in a tight space and there are enemies inbound, or there are incoming asteroid fragments hurtling around them. I’ll brush on this later.

“Creashock Studios is proud to announce the first look of their game, Sector Zero for iOS, Android, PC (Windows,), Mac and OUYA. The game will be available to the public in late 2013, first for iOS, then on Android, PC and OUYA respectively. The story driven sci-fi survival game contains light RPG elements in a fast paced environment that’s out of this world!”

Sector Zero sets the player up with the character Alex, and through him they must investigate deep space and face off against a horde of enemies. There’s also boss fights, too, which apparently will require wit and quick reactions in order to beat them. However, since Alex can’t remember who he is, where he is or what he’s doing, the player will have to survive against the previously mentioned hordes and find out why Alex is in the predicament he’s in the first place — all whilst carrying no weapon at all. Ah, so that’s where the survival aspect comes in.

“Software engineer Alex wakes up in a hostile and unfamiliar environment with no memory of how he got there. With aggressive creatures and terrifying threats behind every corner, Alex must find a way to survive without a weapon. Investigate deep space and the unknown, destroy hordes of different enemies and take down giant bosses on your wits and reaction alone. With a voice acted sci-fi story with a bit of dark humor, Sector Zero is a game unlike any other!”

Aside from not having a weapon (which just sounds insane!), I speculate why Sector Zero is a survival game could possibly be because it uses retro-style gameplay, such as having X amount of lives, insta-death and minimal checkpoints.

Though the trailer doesn’t really convey the fast-paced gameplay the game is said to have, it could be more apparent when actually playing the game under the pressure of being instantly killed when struck by an enemy or Alex-bound objects, thus possibly leading to erratic reaction and decision times. Which sounds intriguing on paper, but might probably be super annoying in practice.

The press release even detailed the game’s different features:

• Engaging story campaign
• Diversified gameplay with RPG elements
• Easy controls
• Unlockable survival mode
• Achievements and leaderboard
• True survival experience
• High quality soundtrack

For more information on Sector Zero or Creashock Studios, you may follow their Twitter or follow them on Facebook.

To stay updated with the current gaming and gaming culture news, follow us on Twitter (@ejectdiskmag) and/or like us on Facebook.

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Now that in itself isn’t all that interesting. The interesting bit comes just underneath where it states “Also coming to next-gen consoles”. Moreover, at the bottom, where it always shows the list of platforms a game will be available for, it shows the PlayStation 4, WiiU, current-gen consoles and the PC. No “Xbox Durango“, though this could just as easily be due to Microsoft not wanting Ubisoft to reveal their new console, and does not necessarily mean that the “Xbox Durango” won’t be out in that time frame too.

What does this mean? Well firstly, what do we know? We know that the PlayStation 4 is slated for a Holiday 2013 release. This would not put mid/late October out of contention in terms of potential release dates. Alongside this, we can also be almost certain that Microsoft will announce the “Xbox Durango” at E3, if not earlier. This would give Microsoft about four and a half months from their announcement to their release. The Xbox 360 was announced on MTV on May 12, 2005 and was put on sale November 16, 2005, so it is not completely unheard of.

Lastly, the leaked Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag trailer said that it was also being released on next-gen consoles. Consoles. Plural. Does this mean that both the PlayStation 4 and “Xbox Durango” will be out around October? That depends on your personal definition of the “next-gen consoles”, because does the WiiU count as proper next-gen? Personally I feel it has closer ties to the current gen that what we have seen from the PlayStation 4. Therefore I would class it as a 7.5 generation console. There are of course also those that label it as a true next-gen console, simply based on its release date being so close to the end of this generation of consoles.

Could all this mean that the next-gen officially hits in October? Only time will tell. We must also not forget that “Also coming to next-gen consoles” could potentially mean a later release for those versions, much like the PC version of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. So remember:

“Nothing is true, everything is speculation.”

To stay updated with the current gaming and gaming culture news, follow us on Twitter (@ejectdiskmag) and/or like us on Facebook.

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Speaking of Star Wars, a press release has recently detailed that Star Wars Pinball edition will be released as DLC to multiple Pinball games on mobile devices. The DLC will be dropping onto the digital market on February 27th, with standalone versions coming to both Android and iOS, courtesy of Zen Studios.

An earlier press release gave a rundown of what is to be expected for Star Wars Pinball. It will function like a regular pinball game, only the pinball table is replaced with iconic Star Wars scenes and characters. You will also be able to play as said characters.

Check out the announcement trailer below:

Each table features a different iconic moment from the Star Wars universe, with interactive 3D characters, and unique gameplay, the press release said.

With the first table release, players will take control of beloved characters such as Luke Skywalker, Boba Fett, Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano. Players will also be able to post their scores to global leaderboards, experience in-game friend challenges, local hotseat, online multiplayer, and a host of other features.

“It’s been over 30 years since Star Wars, videogames, and solid state pinball all burst onto the entertainment scene, and their popularity endures today. We’re excited to be combining all three for the very first time,” said Neil Sorens, Zen Studios’ Creative Director.

“Our designers are huge Star Wars fans, and you can expect every detail in every table to reflect their passion for the Star Wars universe.”

Below is list from said press release, detailing which games and platforms will get the DLC and when:

Pinball FX2™ on Xbox LIVE® Arcade – February 27th for 800 MSP

Zen Pinball 2™ on PlayStation®Network for PlayStation 3 & PlayStation Vita with Cross Buy entitlement! Purchase once and play on both systems – February 26th in North America for $9.99, February 27th in Europe for €9.99

Zen Pinball 2 on the Mac®App Store – February 27th for $2.99/table

Zen Pinball on the Apple®App Store – February 27th for $1.99/table

Zen Pinball HD Google Play™ – February 27th for $1.99/table

If you’re wanting more information on Star Wars Pinball, pop on over to www.starwarspinball.com or check out their blog.

To stay updated with the current gaming and gaming culture news, follow us on Twitter (@ejectdiskmag) and/or like us on. Facebook

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Remember in last review I said that in my efforts to find new games to pass the time with, I came across a few titles of interest? Well, this game of interest is another survival game from the apocalyptic production line of games that have been bestowed upon us recently, only this game adds and interesting twist on the “we must survive the plague” cliché and replaces it with “I am the plague. You will not survive“.

The simulation game Plague Inc. promptly steps into the spotlight to fulfill this role, and coughs up its deadly viruses – with the intent of utterly annihilating humanity in a Black Plague-like kind of way – on to Android and iOS devices.

Developed and by one-man show Ndemic Creations, Plague Inc. is an interesting concept where I had to find and exploit creative ways to wipe out humanity. Instead of embodying a scared, lonely sod whose family had been consumed by the Plague, and must get over their survivor’s guilt and help the other survivors find a cure, I take control of the Plague itself – be it from bacterial strains or an all-out bioweapon (and everything in between) – and adapt it to the world and humanities response to it, eventually killing every living thing.

Patience and strategy are needed for this game. Otherwise, people will take notice to the circulation of a potentially deadly disease and word will spread around the globe like wild-fire, coaxing brave countries to try to develop a cure (as well as governments invoking certain in-game events to try slow down the spread of the Plague). If you play your cards right, you might be able to infect humanity without being noticed – making the job a lot easier.

My Experience

I remember kicking up the game after watching a rather intriguing trailer (which, incidentally is included in-game) and I remember thinking, “huh. Well this is an interesting twist.” After opening up my first game I was brought to a selection screen where all the plague-spreading tools of destruction were waiting to be picked for setting loose. Unfortunately, since I didn’t make the in-app purchase to buy all of the Plague Types at the time of writing, there was only one Type out of seven I could use. Thankfully, though, each different one can be unlocked by beating the game with the previous Type in order to unlock the next one, or buy the ones you want as you go, through Accelerated Unlock feature.

So, after I picked my Type, selected the difficulty level, and entered my plague’s name (LR-47 – though, the canon name is PAX-12), boom, I was off into the world with my soon-to-be deadly bacteria.

After I infected my first country, I spent the most part of the beginning of my playthrough nurturing and adapting my bacterial pet with various traits and aspects to better increase the chances of infection, and ultimately — death. Eventually, I had infected the better part Asia, soon after the Middle East, later Africa, and then South America.

Humanity, however, wasn’t keen to the idea of simply ignoring an ever-growing deadly disease, so the savvy sods started developing ways to counteract my killer bacteria, and despite their rapid decline in numbers, they were pretty darn tenacious. Eventually, some brave risk takers started spreading test samples to infected countries, to try to further develop a cure.

It was during this storm after the calm, when I saw countries banding together and working desperately to find a cure, that I felt a bit of moral dilemma seed itself into my mind. I was on the verge of wiping out humanity. The very thing I was intending on destroying wasn’t dying out, despite billions already succumbing to my pet’s infectious death grip. Honestly, I felt humbled. So much so, I felt sorry for them. So, being the softy that I am, I let them develop their cure; I let them have a fighting chance. Ultimately, I lost; without my supervision, my bacteria didn’t kill enough people to slow down the production of the cure, and subsequently was eradicated by the remainder of humanity.

It was many a game until I finally snuffed out the world’s population (all near seven-billion odd of them), to which, curiously enough, I didn’t feel the, “yeah! I finally beat the game!” sensation I expected. Instead, I genuinely felt a pang of guilt. To watch humanity rapidly die out without any hope of developing a cure in time invoked a sort of “oh, God…what have I done?” feeling in me.

I’ll certainty hand it to Ndemic Creations for making quite the simulation game. I expected to just open the game up and have my way with obliterating humanity. Instead, I walked away with a weird combination of slight emptiness and a sense of humility.

Gameplay

When the new game was finished loading, I was then presented with a Map of world, which included all of the continents and most of the countries. The GUI of said atlas is sparse, yet sleek. There was only three things I needed to worry about – the Disease Stats, the World/Country Stats, and the Cure Stats – which all snugly fitted on the bottom of the screen.

The Disease Stats is where you’ll find your plague’s daily statistics (obviously) and where you can upgrade and evolve the pathogen to be more infectious, severe, or deadly – or all of the above – through different Transmissions, Symptoms or Abilities.

The World/Country Stats changes depending on what you’ve selected (either by tapping on a country to bring its individual stats, or tapping on the sea for the statistics of the world). In this menu you’ll find trending information on either the world as a whole or an individual country, information like population health, climates, current state of affairs, what countries are currently infected, etc. Exploiting these different statistics to help evolve your disease increases the chances of more people getting infected.

Additionally, there’s also a Data menu inside the World/Country Stats, where the graphs of your different statistics are stored, which includes the disease’s, cure’s, and world’s progression, as well as inflection summary.

As a word of caution: don’t use the Android’s Back command on the taskbar when in this menu, because it bugs it out the next time you go into it for some strange reason. As a consequence, it also stops registering any taps in the nearly of lower hemisphere, and some of the upper hemisphere, amongst a couple of other things. Use the X command in the top-right corner instead to avoid this.

Lastly, the Cure Stats indicates the cure development progress and how long it will take, as well as tracking the leading countries working on it, and how much money has been thrown into it.

Aside from the Stats, there’s also the Options, the News, and Time and Date interactions, which sit on the top left, centre, and right sides of the screen respectively. The Options are actually quite limited, but in context of the game it’s all it needs to be – functional. The News highlights the various things that are happening in the world, heading certain headlines will greatly increase the chances of the Plague being spread. The Time and Date is pretty self-explanatory – it keeps track of the time and date. Within this function is also the Play Bar, which allows you to pause or play the game – or speed it up if you buy the full version.

During the process of my plague starting to spread, little coloured bubbles appeared over the countries that were infected, or going to be infected (yellow for already infected countries, red for newly infected countries). Popping these bubbles was essential because they gave me DNA points to spend on evolving my plague. Evolving the Plague in itself is essential to beating the game because it allows the pathogen to better adapt the world and the things living in it, making it more infectious.

Eventually, like I mentioned earlier, test samples were being distributed around to infected countries. When this happened, little blue bubbles appeared over said infected countries, and I had to smash it so the test samples wouldn’t actually help the development of a cure – and it also revoked the chance of that country being less susceptible to the Plague.

Visuals

Visually, the general aesthetic is spartan and simplistic. As a whole, the main look of the game is red, with tones of pinks and purples, and it works well, and compliments the context of the game. Plus, a biohazard symbol is featured throughout the general aesthetic, which I think is quite a nice touch.

During gameplay, little pop-ups come up everyone now and again with various help tips and information, as well as some facts compared to your plague, too (which I find quite interesting and useful). These can be a bit annoying popping up all the time, but there’s an option to switch the extra ones off, so I can’t hold that against the game.

When it comes to anything Disease related (including the Disease Stats), the overall look follows the red aesthetic. As a nice addition, the different upgrades you can evolve are represented by hexagonal shapes that have icons in them. The Infectivity, Severity, and Lethality bars are coloured magenta, yellow, and purple respectively.

When something is infected – be it a country, plane, or boat – it will show up red. If a country is infected, red spots will continually blot it out until it is completely red. If a plane or boat is infected, the red trails of said infected carrier will permanently shows their pathway on the Map, so you’re able to see how and where the Plague has traveled.

The World/Countries Stats and the Cure Stats are cleaner in contrast of the Disease Stats, with the majority of the look being sterile white, with sky blue. The cure progression bar is also coloured blue.

As for the Map, it is honestly quite highly textured and detailed – green grass, white snow, and yellow desert are all included. It even includes geological features such as underwater ridges and canyons, which I think is quite a nice detail, even if it isn’t necessary.

Sounds

Plague Inc. doesn’t have much when it comes to its audio. What it does have is enough for what the game is, though.

You get the standard “taps” of interaction and such the like, but there’s also the addition of sound effects and occasional vocals (which feedback the current state of the world, be it flight boarding, children playing, mosquitoes, coughing…), as well as the pops for the bubbles appearing and absorbing/smashes of them disappearing. Aside from all that, though, there isn’t really much else – and that’s okay.

Speaking of occasional vocals, whenever my plague infected enough people, sometimes school girls would spontaneously start singing a verse from the Ringa Ringa Roses nursery rhyme. Which, in all honesty, was completely unexpected the first time I heard it, and quite eerie, too.

Micro-Transactions

I mentioned earlier something about the Accelerated Unlock feature. Well, allow me to branch on that with the micro-transaction system in this game. The in-app purchasing is quite fair, I will say. You’re free to unlock all the Plague Types on your own, or you can use the Accelerated Unlock function and buy your next Type, or buy them all at once. You can do the same for different Genes Modifications, too. Or – get this – you can buy all the cheats available in the game to use during your infecting (something I’ve not seen included in a game for a fair while). Unsurprisingly, the cheats cost more in the Accelerated Unlock than buying all the Plague Types, but that’s understandable since they’re basically game breaking.

Alternatively, if you head over to the Special Plague Types you can buy them individually, or unlock yourself by completing the game with all the standard Plague Types on the highest difficulty. As well as cheats, there’s also four DLC slots for special Plague Types, though, at the time of writing, there’s currently only one available.

Overall, the micro-transactions don’t exclude the free player to a great extent since the majority of the game’s content can be unlocked through play. Even though there are certain features that require full purchase of the game regardless, for the most part the player is free to play the game at their own pace, and purchase what the want when they want it.

Critique

Honestly, I don’t have much else to say about Plague Inc. The only thing about this game that bugs me is the issue that happens with using the Android’s Back taskbar command when navigating the Data. For the longest time, that was all that I used to – purely out of force of habit – until I discovered that the X command did the same job without bugging out the game.

If Ndemic Creations could come up with a patch to fix this issue I would greatly appreciate it. Until then, however, I will have to keep reminding myself to use the X command in the meantime.

The pop-ups are interesting and informative, but can be a bit annoying with popping up all the time. However, having already said, switching off the extra pop-up options avoids this issue.

Lastly, the game’s micro-transaction definitely earns my approval. The freedom of unlocking all of the content (minus DLC and paid-for exclusives) for yourself without paying for anything is, in my opinion, how micro-transactions for singleplayer games should be implemented.

Conclusion

Quite frankly, I enjoyed my experience with Plague Inc. It was a new concept I hadn’t played before, and this game has made – and left – quite the impression.

Of course, the Data menu issue is a bit of a bummer, but aside from that this game is really competent. I even applaud Ndemic Creations‘s fair micro-transaction system (something I hope future games I review will have). I can’t wait to unlock and try out the different Plague Types, and to see if the game can conjure up a simulation that makes me count my blessings after playing again.

If you want to see if the world will survive your plague simulation, then head over to the Play Store and download Plague Inc. for free!

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Price: Free, with micro-transactions

Tool of Destruction: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, 7.0

System: Android 4.1.2, Jellybean

In my efforts of aimlessly sifting through the Play Store to try to find different games for me to pass the time, I accidentally came across a few titles of interest, one of which is called Dead Trigger.

Award winner of Unity Awards 2012, Dead Trigger is a free zombie first-person Shoot ‘Em Up developed and published by Czech Republican development studio MADFINGER Games. Built using the Unity engine, the game is delivered with typical graphics of the modern gaming age. There’s also a very cool soundtrack to boot, too.

The games’ s in-game shop was simple and easy to use, but the unlocking weapons/items was a bit of a grind to begin with in my experience.

Dead Trigger is pretty much your bog standard zombie shooter, but with an arcade-y, Painkiller sort of vibe — which is all sorts of therapeutic, zombie gibbing fun.

Story

So, like how you’d expect a zombie game to start off, I was flung into a present day setting, and I am one of few who have survived the zombie plague.

Set in whatever-city, I had to shoot my way through the main quest line, or earn more kills/potential loot by doing side quests. Alternatively, I could blow off steam in the Arena.

Along the way, I met a variety of interesting characters. It then became my job to go collect items/survive X amount of time killing zombies/go on a zombie killing spree for said characters. I didn’t have a choice of avoiding the main quests given by the characters, other than to do replenishing side quests, the Arena, or the Casino, amongst other distractions.

Together, me and the characters had to work to save and rescue other survivors, and find faster ways to kill zombies — because there is no cure, right? Hopefully there is.

Gameplay

With surprising ease, I was able to get to grips with the game quite quickly. Dead Trigger figuratively splits the screen in half. On the left you have the Radar, Health Bar and the Pause functions (all of which are very much self-explanatory) and at the bottom is the Movement Control. The Movement Control functions how you would expect it to, and it responds quite accurately to touch.

On the right-side, curiously enough, in its near entirety functions as the Looking Control. By that, I mean that there is no separate interaction like the Movement Control. Instead (to save space I assume) the game was designed around the idea that the player would have to thumb the right-side of the screen in order to look around. It’s quite a clever design decision, if you ask me.

Along with being the Looking Control, the right-side also includes your:

• Weapon Meter, which displays the ammo count of the arsenal of weapons you have equipped
• Item Quick-slots, which displays the amount of items (bandages, turrets, to name a few) you currently have on your person.
• Aim Control, which brings up your weapon’s ironsights — if they have any
• Reload Control, which speaks for itself
• and lastly the Shooting Control, which makes the living undead into to the dead undead (provided your aim is good)

Taking part (not necessarily surviving) in zombie skirmish rewards you with experience and in-game currency, as well as Tokens/Gold or even items if it’s a daily quest – or an “extra reward” quest. You can use these rewards, as well as using the game’s micro-transaction system, to buy new weapons and items. You can also try to get free stuff or Gold from the Casino.

Characters

Like I said earlier, there are quite some interesting characters that the player meets during the course of the story. The ones I interacted with in my experience each had their own personality, of some description. No matter which character I spoke to, however, they pretty much always sent me off on a fetch quest for the most part — because I’m the only one who’s good at it, apparently.

Perhaps the most interesting character out of the ones I’ve interacted with so far is the actual protagonist himself, the one I controlled. I think he’s interesting mostly because of the one-liners he tends to confidently quip. The cool tone in his voice suggests to me that throughout each zombie encounter he’s got a big grin on his face, and a flippant mindset about the whole affair.

However, as much as I do like his quips, unfortunately there isn’t much of them. when I first heard this character’s witty remarks I was anticipating to hear a mile-long scroll of one-liners to be said. Instead, there are probably less than 10, from what I’ve heard during my playthrough. A bit of a let down in my eyes, an expansion to the protagonist’s soundboard would do well to make the character more interesting, and even more fun to listen to as well.

Visuals

Graphically, Dead trigger is pretty standard to what I’m used to — nothing too impressive. The textures, I believe, are done to quite a high quality; the shadows are dark and sharp, which work well in context of the game; and the reflections are believable to an extent. However, I noticed during my playthrough that reflections appeared where the shouldn’t — like my “skin”. Also, when I turned down the graphics to its lowest, reflections wouldn’t render properly in some cases. Nothing more than a hiccup, really, but it was quite jarring when I first noticed it.

A nice addition that MADFINGER implemented is a water droplet feature, which ran down my “face” whenever I passed under something that was spilling water. It was quite a nice touch for immersion, but it was a little annoying whenever I was avoiding zombies or trying to navigate through different areas.

Aesthetically, the layout of the game is presented quite nicely. One in particular is light sources coming from the zombies’ eyes, which blink out once a zombie is killed — quite an effective use of visual feedback. Another is the cross hairs, they change from different shades of red to visually tell the ranged effectiveness of a weapon – bright red, super effective; deep scarlet, least effective.

The design of the GUI works and looks well in companionship with game as well.  The different menu screens are very well laid out, too. Both features are simple, tidy, and easy to navigate.

Sounds

The audio in Dead Trigger isn’t as “fight for survival” so much as it is “let’s kill us some zombies”. Yes, you get your groans and your squeals and your cries of pain — that’s to be expected — but it’s a bit difficult to think that the end is nigh when you have rock music accompanying your cheesy one-liners whilst you bury bullet after bullet into a zombie’s sternum.

The audio is actually quite extensive in that respect. There’s always a sound going on, be it ambience, footsteps, gunfire…there’s always something, which is quite a nice touch.

The gunfire can vary from a pitiful rata-tat-tat to an almighty bang. In some cases, by sound alone, I got the impression that certain weapons sounded more powerful than others. This meant that certain weapons sounded quite underpowered for what they were, which lead to a bit of an ego-burst when I got my first explosive weapon.

The backing music very much turns a survival situation into an all-out bullet frenzy. With the Horde bearing down on you, there’s nothing quite as encouraging as rock music churning out melodic tunes to your zombie slaughter. The addition of rock music brought a sense of flippancy to the game, which I found to be quite enjoyable.

Micro-transaction

Something bugged me about Dead Trigger’s micro-transaction system to begin with. I decided to experience of the game as possible before actually buying anything. Doing so limited me to a very small pool of weapons and items — though, the items weren’t too much of a concern.

Since you have to level up to unlock more weapons and items, the cheapest way to buy things was to just kill zombies and save up money. The better I did during a zombie skirmish, the more money and XP I got. However, because I was earning so little to begin with, it took me close to under two hours in order to get $2,000 – about a 1/4 of the amount needed to get the closest free weapon in the list.

Between me and said weapon were a good handful of weapons, available for purchase via Gold currency. This seemed very unfair because I had to grind my way in order to get the weapon I wanted, which was pretty expensive by in-game dollars. The cheapest weapon I could get, which was later down the list, was a mêlée weapon (something I wasn’t really looking for).

Eventually I got around to buying some Gold, and I was genuinely surprised about how cheap it was to buy the lowest amount (200). Surely enough, I went and bought my first Gold-bought weapon. It was during this process that I noticed a couple of extremely powerful weapons were cheap — for the amount of Gold I bought was just under the price tag of one. Said weapon doesn’t require a high level to unlock either, so its low value, to me, makes it too obtainable for the power it has.

Critique

There’s a couple of things I’d like to comment on further. The witty remarks from the protagonist could certainly do with some add-on. More quips and satire sarcasms would be a gem, honestly; adding more things for him to say, I believe, will make zombie killing that little more comedic.

Some balancing in the micro-transaction system would also be good, too. Being able to buy such powerful weapons for cheap (even with being a high level) just kind of rubs me the wrong way. With that, having weapons be more accessible instead of a big gap between free weapons with paid ones would feel less like a grind to get what little free weapons you can get.

Having said that, MADFINGER does throw a bone because there is a chance of buying weapons without spending real-life money — through gambling at the Casino. So, Dead Trigger is actually quite fair in that respect, which earns a nod from me.

Further more, some tweaking could be done to the attack reach of zombies. I experienced many times when I was well enough out of arms reach of a zombie that when it took a swing, it hit me. Realistically, the distance I was from the zombie should have avoided me damage, yet it still managed to get me. This is a bit unfair when you’ve run out of bandages and have only 10 seconds left on the clock, and you avoid zombies with a wide berth, yet one still manages to clip you, killing you.

Conclusion

Playing Dead Trigger was honestly quite some fun to bury some hours into. The characters and the protagonist are quite loveable, and the game has a sense of humour in some places. Additionally, expansion of the protagonist’s one-liners would certainly add to the game’s comedic value.

The sounds and the music are overall quite good, likewise the graphics (even if it’s shiny in places). However, some work might be needed to fix reflection rendering in the low graphics setting.

The inclusion of extra activities (such as the Casino and the Arena) adds something else to do instead of doing quests, and offers up the potential of gaining more XP and money, and even Gold.

Lastly, the micro-transaction, personally, needs additional free weapons in between the paid ones so that working up to buy a new weapon doesn’t feel like a grind. As well as that, making powerful weapons less cheap to buy with Gold would balance out their value-to-power ratio, and make it more awarding when eventually bought.

Overall, Dead Trigger is a quite very much a fun game to blow off some steam in, and with Dead Trigger 2 on the horizon it appears that MADFINGER is still in works for this franchise.

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