It’s been a long, dull summer for fans of the beautiful game but, finally, the wait is over.
The top German and French leagues have already begun and this weekend the new football season also kicks off in the English Premier League and Spain’s La Liga.
What better way to get in the mood than playing a couple of the blockbuster football games on your Nokia Lumia smartphone? We have an exciting match-up between FIFA 13 and Real Soccer 2013.
Then, for your fix of football news, fixtures, results and gossip we take a look at the refreshed Goal.com app for Windows Phone 8.
FIFA 13 (£3.99)
[do action=”boxout”]Install FIFA 13
- Press the Search button and tap Vision
- Scan the QR code
- Tap on the link when it appears
- Install the app from the Windows Phone Store
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FIFA 13 is exclusive to Nokia Lumia smartphones on Windows Phone 8 and if you’d like to play as the team you support, or be your favourite players, then this is the game you need.
This is the only officially licensed football game so you can pick real teams from the world’s biggest leagues and ‘play’ in real stadiums.
Even the players resemble their true-life counterparts – right down to the names on the back of their shirts. You can even choose the match ball. How about that for attention to detail?
You can play one-off friendly matches, or enter a tournament if you want to be in it for the long haul.
The game controls are easy to master. There’s one dial for movement and some touch icons to select a pass, sprint, shot or a ‘skill’ move.
Just like the real thing then, FIFA 13 is easy to play, but difficult to master. For an authentic football experience, this is difficult to beat.
Real Football 2013 (free)
[do action=”boxout”]Install Real Football 2013
- Press the Search button and tap Vision
- Scan the QR code
- Tap on the link when it appears
- Install the app from the Windows Phone Store
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If FIFA 13 comes across as authentic and hyper-realistic, then Real Football 2013 has an altogether more arcade and fantasy feel to it. Younger, and perhaps more casual, football fans will love it.
There isn’t much to choose between the two games in terms of actually playing football – the controls are similar and both games look and sound brilliant.
I enjoyed the cheekiness of Real Football 2013. It’s FIFA rival has tied up the vast majority of the official licences, so instead of playing as Everton, you’re ‘Merseyside’ and Manchester City have become ‘Man. Blue.’
Real Football 2013 does have some star footballers signed up such as Radamel Falcao and Theo Walcott, but the players, as well as the clubs, are largely fictitious.
As well as being funny and charming, having imaginary clubs and players, has another big advantage because you can transfer players, hire staff and build up your clubs.
All football fans secretly think that they’re brilliant managers so they’ll love the off-the-field aspect of Real Football 2013.
Goal.com (free)
[do action=”boxout”]Install Goal.com
- Press the Search button and tap Vision
- Scan the QR code
- Tap on the link when it appears
- Install the app from the Windows Phone Store
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This app brings the comprehensive coverage of the popular goal.com website in a great package directly to your Lumia.
It offers exclusive interviews, the latest news, transfer gossip, fixtures, league tables and live scores with text commentary. In short, the Goal.com app has everything that a football fan needs.
To get started, you can select the national leagues and competitions (such as FA Cup and Champions League) that you are most interested in. You can change these in the app’s settings anytime you wish.
Your selected leagues and competitions can be pinned to your Start Screen and you’ll see the latest headlines on the Live Tile. Likewise, you can select and pin Live Tiles for your favourite teams.
As the new season begins, this is the ideal football companion for your Nokia Lumia smartphone.