Latest App Reviews

Well I sat on Top Eleven for a long time and loved it to bits, by the end however I started having grief with the way games were being decided.

Like most, we were left shaking our heads as a team in which we were massively overstocked against and far more superior on paper left us gobsmacked as they managed to either defeat us, or, score the equaliser.

So many theories showed on the Top Eleven Forum's on why this occurs, some suggest its the formation, others believe its how many friends are linked and watching - some also believe its a down right conspiracy.

Me - I'm just not sure, the last straw for me which broke the camels back was a team which i was approx 20 points better on average against. I had one 7 Star player, three 6 Star players and a handful of 5 Star players. Looking at the opposition they had one 5 Star player and the rest were 3's & 4's.

No friends of his were watching and he/she wasn't watching either, Personally, I was and had two friends watching also.

I then proceeded to watch as my team lost 4-1. To say I was filthy was an understatement, this was a game which I had been sucked into buying gold so I could buy high ranking players, I had a hugely stacked side compared to the opposition yet this lowly placed side beat me 4-1?!?!

I could find absolutely no logic in this occurring so decided enough's enough, my team should have finished top yet lost approx 5 or 6 games I should have won in the last 8 of the season and dropped to 3rd on the ladder.

Thats it - see you later!

So I decided to move onto some other games, love playing a few when I have some spare time. I moved onto the likes of Hay Day and Footy Coach. Hay Day was awesome for a while, but became really repetitive and Footy Coach became boring as you spent way too long waiting for health to rejuvenate so you could play against someone...

Whilst playing Hay Day one day I came across a video for Clash of Clans, thought i'd watch the video as i get free something for Hay Day if I do... It actually looked ok so thought i'll download and give it a go.

Clash of Clans is a fun game and very multiplayer friendly, but thats almost where it stops for me, yes once you've levelled up enough and save up your Gold & Elixir and build your Clan Castle you can Join or Create a Clan. Clans are handy as members will donate troops to store in your Clan Castle - if you are attacked or short on numbers you can use these troops.

But really this is where the multiplayer part of the game ends - My hope for Clash of Clans would be you work together to battle or rage war on other Clans, but nothing really happens for this side which is dissapointing.

Although, it still has that aspect of fun in it where you just can't give it up completely, its handy as you can instruct your builders for upgrades, collect some resources, attack some other players and then leave it for a few hours and return later. I think i'm really holding out for the upgrades and ability to buy the Tesla towers and Dark Elixir items such as the Barbarian King or Archer Queen.

Whilst playing this 2 other apps came across my screen when flicking through the App Store, one which i've held off playing due to the hype around it, Candy Crush, and the second was Airport City.

Candy Crush is one of those games which is so damn addictive yet it makes you wish you could poke out your eyes due to the increasing frustration that it provides due to a) running out of lives & b) sitting on one level for weeks on end...

There is the cheer and satisfaction though when you do finally pass a level, even better when you quickly follow up with multiple level movements...

Candy Crush is designed to test the mind, there is always those moves that you make that you wish had a undo button handy as you see another way which would have worked better - the other element also is linking via Facebook. Whilst linked you get the priviledge of knowing one or more of your friends are well passed you and some over level 350! All this while hanging on levels below 65...

After 3 and a half weeks of sitting on level 65 I finally passed it last night with 18 moves to go, the house shook and wife woke as I roared with relief as finally, I passed 65! All to then find out I have to wait a day to move to next level...

Airport City is a airport simulation game which allows you to build a city with an airport closeby then tempt you into sending flights and upgrading everything in the attempt to retrieve items from each collection of passengers, or, on planes returning from hour long flights to Bali!

This game has its moments too, it allows you to build up and own up to 3 or 4 planes early on but is limited on what you can do in terms of expanding your city unless you spend actual $$'s on cash to spend to do it..

Right now i'm stuck with no cash to expand my city and can't save $$'s up to buy the upgrade as i'm limited in the amount of buildings. The other issue I dislike also is the fact that part of your map is taken up by forrest's which can't be bulldosed or built on... Buildings also must have a road attached and cannot be built out the back of your car yard...

Overall each app/game has its own unique way of drawing you into playing more, I love playing all three but as is the case with most apps, something will come along soon to take its place if its more appealing or offers more..

If I was to rate each App i'd give them the following:

Hay Day - 5 out of 10 (Too much repitition, game lacks extra things to do despite the recent addition of the fishing side)

Footy Coach - 4 out of 10 (Way too long waiting to play a game of football, very hard to start with as no real direction on how to play and in the end became boring waiting for games to play)
Clash of Clans - 7 out of 10 (Great game just lacking that whole Multiplayer Co-op mode)
Candy Crush - 7 out of 10 (Highly addictive and frustrating yet hard to turn your back on...)
Airport City - 5 & 1/2 out of 10 (Ok game but just lacks that ease to build your city to great lengths without spending real money on!)

So thats my review, hope its been useful but if I was to recommend anything it would be to try the above apps and decide for yourself, not everything I like will be the same as the next person...

Regards

Bo_Gas

Top Eleven - Soccer Manager (Game Review)

Here is a great game i've stumbled upon whilst on my return to app games via Facebook.

When I first joined Facebook years ago I was captivated by the ones everyone at the time were playing, Mafia Wars, Farmville, Cafe World etc.. These were ok games and very addictive...

Mafia Wars, like the rest of them, was fun at first but lacked that real ideal of playing it longer than a few months. Mafia Wars was getting annoying, you would build your Mafia and compete against others, was super hard when coming up against Mafia's with 100's of members against your 15...

Farmville, that was fun at first, just like the zombie version, but mundane and became very boring... you grew alot of stuff and collected money - thats about it...

Cafe World, same, you built up your cafe, put some neat stuff in there but after a while you think, What for....

Top Eleven is different, this allows you to control the team, friends and users don't affect your team other than playing against them. Level 1 you are given a team to control, depending on when you start your team could be anywhere, my first season my team was sitting around 12th I think. Ended up finishing 6th after buying a few players with little cash available.

Its taken me until now to realise some of my earlier mistakes, when I first started I played 3 or so friendlies a day, then had my team play their normal league games. Soon realised players fitness levels were way way down and lost alot to injury..

Friendlies are an annoying feature but I don't mind playing them every now and then, when it suits me... I usually will play them for example if I had a late game the night before scheduled and nothing til the next day. This allows ample time for my players to recoup fitness in time for the next game, but I don't play a heap of friendlies, just one or two. I then use the training feature to help raise the players skills and attributes.

So lets take a look at the app version for iphone, its a great version and the developers are putting time and effort into making it better and more like the PC version. It contains alot less options than the PC version has but, is still a great game.

So your given a squad of 22 players, this is made up of 11 starters, 7 subs and 4 reserves. You don't get alot to work with but you will get the odd 4 star and some 3 star players, rest will be mostly 2 star players.

To help also, Top Eleven have provided opportunities for you to earn extra cash through sponsorships, at level 1 you can earn $600k in Sponsorship through "Frontmen"... When you crunch it down, you can pick up some very handy 3 or 4 star players for that amount, possibly 3 or 4 players if done correctly...

One item that is worth the gold colour it represents is "Tokens". Tokens allow you to buy extra items and also to bid on players in the trade market, careful though - this is where alot of people waste their tokens while in bidding wars with other users. I once lost 20 tokens just on one 5 star player and still lost the auction...

As a nice bonus, along with Sponsorship $$ terms you can also obtain a Token Sponsor through the Finances section, here you can sign a TV Rights sponsor who will give you tokens on a daily basis, you can either receive one through Nordeus 1 daily regardless or the one I'm with now Speed who gives me bonus tokens if I login consistently each day...

Luck and Patience often gets the player, I've found that if I bid on players early in the morning I will come up against big users who have alot of tokens to use, either by earned through sponsorship or bought with actual $$'s... But i've had more luck getting players, good 5 star players, later in the arvo, the other day for example, I had 4 tokens... I put two dummy bids on two 5 star players finishing in 15 minutes, another one had someone bidding on.

In the second stage of bidding the other user failed to put a bid on and I put one on with 3 seconds to go, nailed a new 5 star midfielder.

Then to my amazement while on the bus heading home from work, the two dummy bids went through without opposition, so I scored a new 5 star GK and a 5 star DEF. In the end 3 5 star players and it only cost me 4 tokens...

If you play around with it you'll find the best time to bid and sell, for me its afternoons, by then most of Europe and US are in bed tucked away from robbing me of tokens and players...

If your lucky enough to finish within the top 7 teams in the league you qualify for the Cup, this is where you play against much harder opponents on the off chance you may beat them. Beauty of Cup is the prize money per game played is big, especially for a level 1 player,

The top 4 teams for each league move into the Champions League, prize money is much lower than Cup but still a great addition if you can reach it... So far this season I haven't done too well in either but the proze money made up for it as i've managed to sign 4 5 star players...

One of the other "nice" functions is the addition of upgrading your stadium and supports, I include this as a nice addition as some of it impacts your team like health and the ground however its just nice to upgrade stuff every 3 days - ie: we're not playing this game to upgrade stadiums so its just a nice compliment to the game.

Most of the upgrades take 3 days to complete however if you want to upgrade the size of your ground your looking around 15 days... You can use tokens to speed this up a bit however my advice would be to save those up and buy players...

As I mentioned previously theres two options, you can try your luck on the transfer market and try and snare a decent player, it definately can happen - you just need to find times best suited to your bidding so you don't get stuck in a bidding war... or, you can save your tokens and buy a 6 star player through the Scout.

The Scout offers you high quality 6 star players at a premium cost, minimum $1m signing fee and each player will set you back 50 tokens. Yep, 50, thats alot for a regular user that doesn't buy tokens with real money... Best advice is to save up your tokens, participate in as many free ways to receive tokens such as watching video's or going in surveys and then target your best player.

The Scout updates 6 times a season, if theres a particular player your keen on but not currently listed best to wait... I recently was looking for a midfielder but only ones on Scout were 28 years old and over, Ideally I wanted a youngy so I held off two days and the scout refreshed, luckily a 22 year old MC appeared with awesome stats, averaged 38 Defence, 39 Attack & 39 Health. Cost me $2.75m but was well worth it!

To compete at Champions League & Cup level you will need to consider stacking your squad, hence using the Scout function, lets be honest, there are players out there that frequently buy huge amounts of tokens with real money - prob nothing else better to spend it on... so if you have high ambitions of winning and taking big titles then you have to compete via tokens...

Training is another great function included, here you can chose to train or rest your players, the more game time and training they get the more they earn skill points to increase your players attributes.

I usually tend to have my starting 11 plus 2 or 3 reserves I keep resting unless no games are on, then the remaining reserves and substitutes I use as train hard. Now I'm definately no expert and I'm probably doing it wrong but this is the way I do it... Seems to work ok and my players not featured in games are still upping their attributes whilst the starting squad upgrade too by working hard in the game.

Careful though, injuries can strike at any time. For example, I signed a new 5 star striker, his states were in the 40's in attack and is not far off being a 6 star striker. Scored him at a bargain 2 tokens... First game he went out and played really well, didn't score like I hoped but assisted a few and rated highly, then late in the game he suffered a broken leg, prognosis, out for 16 days.... 16 days without a 5 star player is like an eternity... Injuries can also hit during training, so if your actively training players always try to have some that are left as reserves for the starting 11, just incase you lose players in the game and then also backups off your bench through training...

The Club shop is another "Nice" function added in by the games creators, here players can go nuts buying guernseys or patches of their favourite teams, sadly though it only has a handful of teams for you to choose from, so if your a Manchester United fan reading this, sadly you can't get a Man U strip just yet...

The shop is a place where you can send gifts to friends you have added either through the game or via facebook, you can send one gift daily of either a skill point, health pack, morale booster or a rest. These are very handy and you can receive one daily of the all four, so receive one each of the above but you can only send one to friends...

Well now a quick look at how i've gone since joining, i'm into my 4th season, my first I joined really late and won a few games but finished 6th overall.

My 2nd season was much better, I dominated the comp for the whole season, only losing once I think and took the League Title, With that I entered my first Champions League and Cup... I only won one game in Champions League and sadly missed out on progressing, Cup... well I was only really in it for the money haha - I lost both games and came away only with money...

My 3rd season was tougher, I started the season trying to juggle a team around my obligations to League, Champions League and Cup which would sometimes be played same day and I had issues that I would play a League game at 6am and then at 8am I would play a Champions League game... Players would be tired by second game and wouldn't play as well...

So I struggled in League early but fought back midway through, led the league until 4 rounds to go when I dropped the bundle and finished 2nd... Still shaking my head over that as not sure how I drew and lost games against players well under my team....

Anyway still finished second and entered my 2nd campaign for Champions League and Cup.

Cup I managed to win my first 2 games which blew me out of the water, haven't won a cup game before so was a pleasant change... Beauty of it was, $1.58m per game was mine. I lost in straight sets in the Qualifying stage but was happy with how the team performed only narrowly losing - more importantly i received $2.36m per game...

Champions League is still going as we speak, Lost my first two games 3-0 & 1-0, since then i drew my next game 1-1 and just then demolished a team 5-0. So now I'm sitting 2nd on the ladder with 2 rounds to go and a good chance to progress further. Prize money isn't huge for this but I'm just excited to get further considering i've only won 2 champions league games in the career haha.



League, well again I started very slow, had some issues with the formation I was using and found I constantly changed the formation which was impacting the players and how they performed. A friend guided me into using a much better formation and since then have only drawn a game but scored 21-0 in last 4 league games... I'm now sitting 3rd on the ladder and should be good to finish 2nd overall - doubt I can overtake the first placed team.



For me its a great game, very addictive, alot needs to be added to it though and more of the nice functions needed. Personally I'd like to see things like;

*Ability to update squads for each game, so nominate a squad for League, Champions League and Cup
*Extra tournaments where you can buy into and compete against players on your level
*Cheaper players placed on a "Buy" now function, similar to Scout.
*Staff Hiring - ie: Recruiter, Scout, Finance Manager etc.

These are a few of the idea's i've sent to the creators to see if they can add, each has its factor, the main one for me would be the first. What players tend to get stuck on is being asleep while your squads play... sometimes if you have League & Champions League playing close together players can get fatigued.

My idea is in the squad screen have extra menu's available called Champions League & Cup, this way you can nominate which players will play. Now, the onus is completely then on the player, if they don't nominate then you have the default team selected at league level but this could be good.

For example I use 2 DR & 2 DC players which I rotate every game, they're all too good to get rid of and all rate around 7-8 per game so I decided I'd play them every 2nd game. This morning I played League and Champions League within 1.5 hours of each other, would have loved to be able to set my squads the night before for both games rather than one default squad playing each game.

So, if your reading this game and considering playing this going forward I give this a 4 star rating (out of 5).

If the makers can add more nice features like some I mentioned above it would move my rating up to a 4.5 atleast and push hard towards a 5, its fun, addictive and keeps the player second guessing every game, especially when they draw or lose...

The other positive, you get to play against people from all over the world, and friend them too if they're nice.

Try it out and enjoy!


**Update 24/01/13:

One feature I forgot to mention was the fact you can watch and manage the game as it happens, one good thing about that is should an injury occur you can be there straight away to take the player off. You do have the extra option too if its playing while your away of having automatic players to be subbed on should this happen...



I like to jump in after each game and check out the stats.

Here you can see your substitutions, carded players and scorers.








You can also check the performance of your players and if lucky who from your player scored man of the match.

As well as check below how many supporters attended the game:

Round 6 - ETPBC - Div 5

Well yesterday was always going to be frustrating for me, the previous week whilst being subbed back in the game for Scoop who just did his hamstring - I also did mine whilst stealing 2nd...

So, hamstring feels ok however not wanting to risk it I let Robbo know just to keep me as an emergency should anyone else get injured.

Number 1 rule of me and sport, god I hate watching. Even though I was happy to sit and do the team thing - part of me wanted to jump out and get back in my old position..

But I must be ageing because I was content not to be stupid and risk injuring further, earlier years I would have done just that...

Anyway, our Div 5 troops headed out for a rare away game out at Golden Grove, spirits earlier in the week were high as our form has been good however both Matt and Robbo could see the team that came today was not themselves mentally.

Raply started on the mound and to be honest I thought he pitched a bloody good game, the strike zone was extremely tough and not what we're used too. Errors played alot also with the mind of the team as Robbo pointed out after the game - Golden Grove took 6 runs by our fielding errors....

Our boys started with the bats quite confidently however were unable to capitalise and get some early runs on the board, something we have struggled with this year - get out and put a teams morale down early... We ended up leaving runners in scoring positions which would soon cost us.

Golden Grove came out and hit, although there weren't many impressive hits, mostly bloopers and bleeders, they still recorded hits and were able to get out to a massive lead in the first inning 7-0...

Ralphy, already getting frustrated by the small strike zone continued through for another inning. Like I said, he didn't pitch bad at all but was very frustrated he wasn't being rewarded with the strikes he was working hard for.

2nd Inning was similar to the first, Red Sox failed to get the hits that we needed and again leaving runners in scoring position, Golden Grove on the other hand came out and nailed another 3 or 4 on the scoreboard making it a 10-1 ball game..

Matty came in to take over from Ralphy and pitched well considering he hasn't pitched for some time and he's still not 100% after the calf injury. He too found the strike zone tough but worked hard to keep Glden Grove at check.

That was the majority of the runs we really saw of Golden Grove in the end as they comfortably ran out winners 13-3.

Unfortunately for positives, the boys will all agree there wasn't many yesterday, errors and not getting runs in cost us badly.

I felt for the boys and it was super hard being there and not helping out, best I could do was support from the bench and try and use as much voice as possible.

So, training Wednesday and we need to focus on a bit of fielding but also using the bat, might need to maybe thing of using runners to simulate runners in scoring position...

Next week is a big challenge, Glenelg at home, a very tough game.

Round 4 - ETPBC Div 5

We were expecting a much different Flinders side to what we faced last year and we were pleasantly suprised.

I think comparing the two sides they seemed to have lost alot of exchange students from previous year - bad for them, good for us!

Saturday we had Ralphy on the mound giving Robbo a rest, Ralphy pitched well all game only giving up I think 2 runs over 4-5 innings. I started calling him the 3 out specialist, as soon as Flinders were 2 out Ralphy would strike out the last batter to end the inning - happened in 4 straight innings!

Cummo came in (hahaha just re-read that) late in the game to test the arm and looked the goods holding Flinders to just the one hit. Like Ralphy he pulled out the 3rd out Strikeout to end the inning.

2 outs seemed to be when our team shined the most, if it wasn't the pitchers working hard and getting a strikeout it was our batters rallying. Most of our runs came whilst we had 2 out.

One batter really shined for us yesterday, Kym Ashworth, never met Kym before but he comes with a big reputation. I can see why, Kym hit 3 for 3 on the day which included a double, triple and a Grand Slam out to right field. After the game we tried to lure him into playing more, a big bat like that is exactly what we're looking for - an offer of a carton per game was tabled by the team...

I was pretty pleased with my fielding for the day - not one error which was good, usually at 3rd I have atleast one or two a game. Really enjoying my 2nd year at 3rd base, starting to get used to the groundballs and my arm is starting to really pump the ball over to 1st to get the runner out.

I think overall apart from Kym's standout batting, all played really well, errors were down, batting was up and all were really enjoying the game.

I've said it before but i'll say it again, the new group of Div 3 players which have come down to 5's this year have really breathed life into our team. Last year it was turn up play and get beaten, now, we train solidly on Wednesday nights, we get to the game and meet before we head out for warmups and we play as a proper professional team.

Like Matt often says, get out and have fun - no point playing if we're not enjoying it..

So a great win by the boys as we trumped Flinders, now we look to taking on Gawler at home 3pm. Gawler is another team struggling this year so we look to get out, have fun and improve our hitting for the coming games.

Junior Footy

As you may have read from an earlier blog i'm a football coach of an Under 9's football team.

Great job and i do enjoy it, my son plays so i get the best of both worlds.

As much as it is a great thing coaching man it has its downsides, i won't name names and stuff or go into the club i'm from as i'm sure i'd get into trouble.

One thing that erks me and i know associations around the place are trying to stamp this out is what we're here for.

As far as i'm concerned, my job is to develop, encourage and give everyone a fair go. Lets look at this again:

Develop: Each and every child needs development, regardless of skill level.

Encourage: Every player needs encouragement, good morale means players keep coming back wanting to play.

Fair go: We're not playing for sheep stations, at Under 9 level, gametime and development should be equal.

Funny as i say the above and believe i am doing the above to the best of my ability, one of the parents of one of our best players believes at this age group we should be playing the best and only the best, others should be on the bench...

I have a golden rule in under 9's, doesn't matter who you are you have equal bench ownership. It's only Under 9's, we don't see premiership points or finals until Under 11's, so for now it should be all about development and encouraging players to want to play this great game.

So this mornings game I've set up my team, staggered most of the best throughout the field so to try and spread as best we can and encourage more to get involved. I try to have atleast one of the best off on the bench each quarter to try and not be too undermanned.

One of the dads comes up and questions why his son is on the best and starts harping on about why the best only should be fielded... Wow, at Under 9's level we have parents putting all of their eggs and hopes on an 8 year old boy. Yes he is a good player but you know what, if half the time he turned up to football training and gameday, listen to the coach and conform into our TEAM aspect we are trying to encourage, as well as listen to our criticism and advice rather than the parents only advice then we may have a great little player.

Instead I have a player who distances himself away from the group, gets over worked by the dad who makes him train equivilent of a SANFL or higher player, yet wonders why the boy often looks flat and not himself...

Ah the joys of coaching, never going to impress everyone but i guess if you have a list of 19 and each week majority train and each week 19 all want to play then we must be doing something right.

Just wish some parents just were'n't so full on and putting their kids under such immense pressure, the idea of this great sport is to nurture the early, keep them interested and involved then as the grades start getting more full on then we train them for the future, not start at such an early age and burn them out before they can make big leagues!

One golden rule parents should realise also, Just because a child dominates at junior level it doesn't guarantee that child will make the AFL when older.

When i played junior footy i played alongside and agains the likes of Michael Doughty (Crows), Nathan Eagleton (Bulldogs), Jason Bevan (Pies).

I never would have thought Mick Doughty would have made AFL, at school he was small and not a prolific ball getter. He worked hard at Reynella, built his game, muscled up and moved to South Adelaide, then was recognised by the Crows. Imagine if every coach that had a player not getting much of the ball turned players like this early on away....

Mick's now a fantastic player, wish he was at the Tigers!

The other thing is also, there were 100's of players i imagined would make AFL and never did... I always thought Nathan Eagleton would, always been a gun... but others, well how they didn't go on i'll never know.

My Point is, If your not playing for premiership points at junior level, don't lower your eyes to the rest of your list, develop them, enjoy coaching and watch with admiration and pride as they develop into players who love the game. Better they stay in AFL loving the sport then hating it, not watch then turn to Soccer....

What makes me tick...

Not sure if you've noticed, i started my previous blogs with Ok... whoops..

Anyhow, as i said, i'm 33, married to my darling wife of 3 years and have two wonderful children aged 8 & 5.

My oldest is in year 3 and doing really well, part of the gifted program at his school. Loves his sports and currently plays Football, Soccer, Baseball and Swimming.

My youngest has just started her first term of school and is loving the transition from kindergarten, not apart of the gifted program yet but pretty sure she will follow in her brothers footsteps. She's currently just getting into her sport and is doing Calisthenics and Swimming but wants to join us at baseball soon too.

Me I coach my boys Under 9's footy team and Little League Minors Baseball team, i play also.

My wife so far has managed to put up with my footy obsession, god help her if we ever win a flag! She drowns out the weekly football drama's with her love of reading, god knows how she reads with us loud children in the house...