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Users can make in-app purchases to add more story modules. This game is epic and has a compelling story. Much like the AMC show, it has me on the edge of my seat. Being an interactive game, you can play it over and over, making different choices. This may be the future of media. Instead of just watching a movie, you can interact with it. There is also a sequel to this video game — The Walking Dead: The Game – Season 2.
price: The Walking Dead: The Game – free with in-app purchases; The Walking Dead: The Game Season 2 – $4.99;
tip: There’s a lot of The Walking Dead games and apps in the App Store. The games featured in this article were developed by Telltale Inc.
Zombie Gunship
If The Walking Dead hasn’t satiated your need to kill zombies, Zombie Gunship might help. This action game puts the player in the cockpit of an AC-130 military plane in a battle against zombies. It may seem like an unfair battle, but the waves of zombie attackers are relentless. The game features 3D night vision and a choice of weaponry, including a 25mm Gatling gun, a 40mm Bofors auto-cannon and a 105mm Howitzer. These weapons are upgradable as players earn virtual credit in the game.
The object of the game is to protect the bunker and rescue the humans. After all, zombies are on the ground, making it impossible for them to damage an AC-130. Once a zombie has breached the safety of the bunker, the game is over. This is a refreshing change from most games, where the player sustains damage or has a finite amount of lives. Players battle walking zombies and big zombies while attempting to rescue humans on the ground. Every rescued human yields 100 coins, which can be used to upgrade weapons.
The game features four different maps, offering different terrains. AirPlay Dual Screen mode beams gameplay onto your TV, with your iOS device acting as a controller. In Dual Screen mode, the iOS device features a unique “tactical view” as gameplay is beamed onto Apple TV.
price: $0.99
tip: Use iCloud to save game progress to the cloud. You can start a game on your iPad and resume it later on your iPhone or iPod touch.
Apple TV as a Gaming Platform
AirPlay Dual Screen mode opens up a whole new world of gaming for iOS users. The ten games featured in this article directly support Dual Screen AirPlay, but just about any game can be played using AirPlay Mirroring. Although the game will not have a dedicated controller screen, you can still play the game on your iOS device and watch the action on your TV. The Infinity Blade series of games works quite well with AirPlay Mirroring, even if this isn’t by design.
Many tech writers predict that Apple TV will evolve into a gaming platform. To some extent, this is true today. In the near future, it could be possible to play games on an Apple TV without an iOS device doing the heavy lifting. Apple TV features the same A4 or A5 processor as an iPhone 4 or iPad 2. It runs a special version of iOS. With an 8GB solid state drive, it is possible to store very complicated games. The most complicated game featured in this article, Real Racing 2, takes up 1.5 GB of space. Most games don’t even use 300MB. It’s possible to store quite a few games on existing Apple TV models, with plenty of room for buffering streaming video and downloading movies. Apple TV’s BlueTooth support could enable the use of third-party gaming controllers. As Apple TV evolves, I expect to see it directly support gaming.