Windows Phone 7 user gets beta Rum Run, full review!

We recently got news of this game a few days ago, we signed upto the beta program and was one of the Lucky 100 to get to beta this awesome game!

The Game

If you watched the trailer to the game the concept is very simple, your are looking after an island of people for free. You need to provide them with bread to survive and you do this free of charge, you are also some sort of Ship trader, selling rum and bread to other islands in demand for a profit. The bread and rum from the wholesale market for a bigger margin for example, the bread is £1 and sell it for £3 to other islands in demand (who seem well off, stone houses instead of huts) Your island inhibitors are eating the bread you provide, and the health bar for them decreases over time. You need to keep them topped up with bread and rum, if you let the islands food supply run out you loose the game!

Notifications pop up for the traders and the buyers when they are ready to buy and trade, this is how the game is tied up, you need to keep your island going while making a profit to buy more rum and bread to meet the demands of the buyers and your island, you do get the option to buy bulk by the size of the create 1,2 and 3 at a time.

You send your ship to various islands by drawing the path through the sea, the game throws obsticles such as  storm clouds which destroy you ship if you draw a line through its path, you can stop the ship by drawing a line through the ships patern, you simply just move your finger on your screen to view the whole of the island  and pinch to zoom.

Upgrades can be purchased, Such as extra ships, being able to hold 4 creates instead of 3 maximum etc…

This gives the game fantastic game play I found myself on this for 1 hour before coming to create the review, its very addictive!

Performance

The game played fantastically well for a beta, I had no problems with my Nokia Lumia 710 and I could not believe the game was an actual beta, moving my finger around the screen was effortless and felt responsive and I never had to do things twice.

The menu system for navigating your way around the game and selecting maps on options is straight forward, I also love the fact when you tilt your screen during the options menu the cargo moves with the phones accelerometer!

The menu also gives you an xbox live like achievements list, which adds competitive game play amongst yor fellow friends and also challenges in the game.

What I would like to see in the game

• Post your scores to Facebook/Twitter
• Ability to add weapons to your ship and enemy ships
• Play online?
• Damage to your ship, slowly sinks if hit by a cannonball or rock and requires repairing?
• Crew mates, send small rafts out to the island to replace and gain new crew!

Verdict? 

One of the best games I have played on Windows Phone 7 and could be the Angry Birds of the Windows word if the developers keep up the fantastic work shown so far, and listen to the beta testers feedback and implement them into the game. I really enjoyed the game and I can’t keep my hands of it, its one of the few games on my phone which I have not played then unistalled within 10 minutes of playing the game

While in beta 8/10 and i can’t wait to see the final version and will be giving another review then!

What are your thoughts, comment below

Spotify for Windows Phone 7 Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No surprise to to see the music steaming giant try launch products across all platforms, but how well does the WP7 Varrient compare to the likes of its Android and iOS Devices?

General Overview

In terms of the general layout Spotify has gone with the WP7 theme and navigating through menus is clear, swipe to the right for new release, again for currently playing and again back to the home screen.

Searching for a playlist could not be made any simpler, just hit the search box and your results are listed, Artist, album and song, again swipe left or right to the corresponding tab.

Offline playlists are included in the release and again a quick swipe at the top of the screen to sync for offline mode

The Metro Tab of the Spotify app updates with current songs that you are playing, which serves as a nice extra and keeps things inline with the WP7 theme, also when the lock screen is active you can stop, skip and play songs directly, meaning you don’t need to open the app to skip a song or pause it, one last nice addition when the earphones or any device is removed from the headphone jack Spotify will automatically stop whatever you currently are playing.

 

The “People” sections gives you information for friends that are using Spotify and gives you access to their playlists and vice versa.

Negative Points

There are a number of small negative points within the Spotify app, but i am not sure if that is to do with the development of the app, or WP7 current build, for example, when minimising Spotify and for say you wanted to compose a text and then re-open Spotify, you would think you simply hold the back button and go instantly into Spotify. Not the case here, 8/10 times Spotify would re-load, like you were to open the app for the first time making the whole thing feel slow, we are talking 4 seconds or so just to go back into the app.

You cant half synq offline playlists, many of times I have made a playlist and just do not have time to finish downloading it, with Android or iOS you can stop halfway and what ever you managed to download is ready but with the WP7 version you cant.

Final Verdict

The Spotify app is a must have, I find the whole echo system of Spotify to be glorious, putting music on my phone through Zune is just plane hard work,  when I can have most of my music collection with me, online or offline a simple and intuitive app to acsess these and it feel in the same WP7 style i love, its no question for me that this is the music app I need!

Yes there are some quite annoying negative points, but when you look at the alternative Zune, I think its a small price to pay, what are your thoughts?