Despite health warnings urging you to step away from the screen every now and then, publishers don't want you to go far, and they certainly don't want you to leave their game. They want your attention everywhere. They want you on sofa or at a desk playing their game, and if you can't do that then they want you engaging with it elsewhere. Soon there will be a host of apps that will connect you to a larger game wherever you are, using a tablet or smartphone. Instead of flinging birds at pigs with suspect housing conditions, you'll be ordering guild members around in Guild Wars 2, or unlocking accessories in Far Cry 3.

With the Wii U and Smartglass officially rubber-stamping it, second screen gaming is probably 2013's biggest battleground. Here are eight of the best reasons for gamers to engage.

Watch Dogs

Ubisoft's mysterious hacker action game will use the iPad to support what's happening on the screen, whatever that turns out to be. At E3 they showed off their hackable version of Chicago on the tablet, enabling players to check out floor plans for buildings they'll later infiltrate, and shops where they can buy weapons. You'll even be able to follow friends in real-time as they attempt a mission. You'll also be able to interact with those friends, if they're comfortable allowing you into their game, asking you to use your city-wide view to reroute traffic and cause a pile-up as cover for their misadventures, much as the player does in the E3 demo.

PlanetSide 2

Sony's MMOFPS  is so big that a companion app that acts as a game-guide just makes a lot of sense, which is what the Mobile Uplink App will be. But on top of accessing your stats and showing off handy hints, it'll present a live view of the game that you can use to assist your team-mates. You'll have a dynamic view of the server's map, that you can use to pin-point sections that are vulnerable and in need of defence or attack. That's good, but it goes one step further and enables the person watching the map to dial into the game's VOIP, meaning you can hop on and tell your team what's going on. Or just chat to them while you're on the toilet*.

*Never do this.

Guild Wars 2

The Guild Wars 2 extended experience has a lot in common with Planetside 2's app. It will take the high-level approach, allowing you access to your character and stats. That is expected, but like Planetside 2 you'll be able to use your Android or iOS device to follow the in-game goings on. You'll be able to spot the dynamic events as they begin, and you can communicate that to people on your friends list. Or, if you fancy a touch of cyber-stalking, you can simply follow a player's progress on the gorgeous in-game map, just like God or the American military. Arenanet has been working on this in conjunction with the MMO itself, and on release it hopes to deliver "everything but the game".

Far Cry 3

This is the app most clearly designed for toilet time, giving players a way of unlocking items and swapping weapons in Far Cry 3's multiplayer. Bizarrely there's social network being built for Ubi's shooter that the app will hook into. You'll open packages that are dropped in the game in the hope that you'll unlock a good weapon. It takes time, asking you to track progress through the day, which doesn't sound all that much fun. But maybe another friend will have an unlock that speeds up the progress? Or maybe they'll just have the gun that you want and can send it to you using the app?

World of Warcraft

This is the old guard of second screen gaming. The WoW Armory on iPhone and Android makes so much sense for an all-consuming game like World of Warcraft. It's skewed towards guild members, enabling access to guild events and officer chat, but it also allows you to browse and bid in the auction house, check out your achievements, view game models, and calculate where best to spend your talent points. Picture the scene: the rain is beating down on the bus window, people are pressing in at you on all sides. Are you bothered, or are you too busy drooling over the Warglaive of Azzinoth?

Frozen Synapse

The holy grail of second-screen gaming is to enable the player to pick up on the tablet or phone where they left off on the console or PC. Unless the system has been built for it this is a tricky thing to pull off, but it can be done. Frozen Synapse is a top-down, turn-based strategy game, where all the moves can be pulled off using just the mouse and multiplayer games are saved on an external server and sent between players. As you'll see from the video below, it's the same game on both platforms, so the developers will allow you to pick up where you left off.

Roccat Power Grid

Peripheral makers Roccat are releasing their Power Grid App for all mobile OSes soon. Power Grid is a free app that will bridge the gap between your PC and your phone, giving you access to your PC's settings, allowing you to reply to application messages from the likes of Teamspeak and Skype, or control a media player without alt-tabbing out of the game. But it'll also give you a second screen to directly control in-game commands: you could strip WoW's buff bar from your screen and have it sat on your iPhone 5. An upcoming keyboard from Roccat will have a slot for your phone to sit in.

Xbox SmartGlass

Surprisingly Microsoft wants you to use a tablet or phone while you're engaged with your Xbox 360, and it doesn't matter if it's one of its own devices or a rival’s. Smart Glass has been released for Android, iOS and Windows devices, letting them hook into what your Xbox is up to, and enabling you to control your console from your device's screen. And while swiping through the menus from your phone is pretty cool, when it's connected to Windows 8 it does a lot more. Loading up Forza Horizon on the console and logging into the app will allow you to see a map on your PC or tablet. It acts as a GPS, updating live as the racing progresses, and showing you the world's more interesting elements. This is just the start: movies and TV can be passed back and forth between an MS tablet and the Xbox, and we’re promised that more and more games will have additional content.

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Troubled doesn’t begin to cover it. The journey that World War Z has made from book to script to screen has been dogged with disaster from the start. The Hollywood Reporter did a good job describing the scene back in June, but the potted version basically involves delays, rewrites, re-shoots, the departure of key crew members, and misery on set.

So with the trailer hitting today we ask if, following such monumental problems, the film has any chance of finding an audience next summer?

First things first, the book was always going to be tough source material to adapt. Written by Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War doesn’t have a simple narrative through-line, nor the kind of linear plot that a Hollywood movie demands.

Instead, it’s a sprawling account of the zombie outbreak, detailing the spread of the zombie infection through the likes of China, South Africa, Israel and the United States. And one that feels more like it should be turned into an ongoing TV series than a standalone movie.

And so screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski and latterly Matthew Michael Carnahan were charged with the task of turning what’s essentially an anecdotal historical tome into a movie for the multiplex masses.

The plot therefore now revolves around Gerald Lane, a United Nations researcher who is sent on a fact-finding mission to discover the origin of the outbreak and to figure out how to stop it.

But while the Hollywood Reporter’s source claimed that the film’s first 45 minutes were terrific, the second half was apparently problematic, with scribes Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard asked to help re-write the finale, leading to re-shoots and the release date being pushed back from December 2012 to June 2013.

Such a process is common practice in Hollywood however, and it's not always the disaster that commentators would have you believe. The Bourne Identity underwent both re-writes and re-shoots late in proceedings and that turned out okay. Same with The Amazing Spider-Man, which grossed more than $750m at the global box office this summer.

So what of the trailer that hit today? It certainly does a good job of building tension and once the zombie apocalypse does hit, it looks epic in terms of size and scale. But fans of the book have already taken to Twitter to not only complain that the story appears to bear only a passing resemblance to the source material, but also to bemoan the fact that the undead are slow shufflers in the book but have been transformed into speedy sprinters for the movie.

The film’s visual effects artist John Nelson told EW the reason for the change: “They are like predatory animals that can’t control themselves. I worked with tigers [while shooting Gladiator], and if you watch them when a horse goes by they go batty, even if they know they can’t reach it. When Zs see humans they do same thing, they activate. They launch themselves.

"There are a lot of things in nature we’re mining as references. They move like birds or school of fish, too, in reactive formations, and it’s not because they have a higher level of [shared] thinking or communication – it’s about their nature and the fact that their instinct to infect is so basic, efficient, and overpowering. They will go through anything. If they lose both legs, they will walk on their hands. They lock in and they’re like salmon going upstream or sperm swimming to be the first to egg.”

Speedy zombies didn’t do the likes of 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake any harm. But Shaun of the Dead himself – Simon Pegg – tweeted this morning, “Zombies everywhere are spinning in their graves,” adding that he’d be prepared to give the movie the benefit of the doubt, but that “Fast zombies are not my bag.”

A bigger worry may be the copious amounts of CGI featured in the trailer. Both fast and slow zombies can be made to look scary, but can you do the same with artificial-looking computer-generated zombies? The effects may not be finished yet at this early stage, but the early evidence isn’t good, particularly in the scenes where the hordes attack.

Indeed, the idea that zombies can scale huge buildings and walls by piling on top of each other is cool, but seeing it in practice as the trailer’s climactic money shot is not, the execution disappointing thanks to yet more ropey CGI.

Another question that has dogged the production from the start is whether or not director Marc Forster can handle the film’s action sequences. Forster is better known for dramas like Finding Neverland and The Kite Runner, and his one foray into the genre – Quantum of Solace – was the most underwhelming of Daniel Craig’s Bond movies, with the action a particular disappointment.

He’s got a fine actor to carry the film in the shape of Brad Pitt; one who can handle both action and drama, but will the actor’s talent and popularity be enough to tempt audiences into theatres next June?

That remains to be seen, but whatever the case, it’s clear that studio Paramount has a lot riding on World War Z, with the film’s budget reportedly approaching the $200m mark. It was also hoped that the film would be the first part in a proposed trilogy. But Hollywood is a fickle place, so if the film doesn’t hit big come the summer, expect Worlds War Z to be both the beginning and the end of this particular brand of big-budget horror.

Chris Tilly is Entertainment Editor for IGN and really hopes World War Z works. His idle chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

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STOP TAPPING, JUST FOR ONE SECOND! Yes, take a break from hammering on your mobile screen to take a listen to this week's IGN UK podcast, in which we cast our collective eyeballs over the week's news, Keza gushes about meeting her hero Shigeru Miyamoto and we ask what the hell is Peter Molyneux's latest venture, Curiosity, all about.

We also wax lyrical about Master Chief's return to form in Halo 4 and take a sneak peak at the teaser trailer for Brad Pitt's Hollywood interpretation of World War Z.

So get your ears around this:

IGN UK Podcast #160: Curiosity Killed the App – 50.5 MB

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Remember, if you've got something to say to the IGN UK team, grab us on Twitter page, our Facebook page, or via email at ignukfeedback@ign.com.

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On Thursday, November 29, at 7pm local time, Trekkers across the U.S. will have another chance to see Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew on the big screen with Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Celebration of Season 2, a one-night theatrical event showcasing the beloved series' ongoing restoration.

What's Star Trek: The Next Generation Like on the Big Screen? (Hint: Awesome.)

Presented by NCM Fathom Events, CBS Home Entertainment and IGN, this special event with feature two of the most popular episodes from TNG's second season: "Q Who?" and "Measure of a Man." As an added bonus, this version of "Measure of a Man" will be the first-ever extended cut of a Star Trek episode, and will boast an additional 12 minutes of never-before-seen footage. The event follows the great Fathom screening series that was held last summer to celebrate the release of TNG's first season on Blu-ray.

Not only that, but attendees will also be treated to a sneak preview of behind-the-scenes special features including a very special cast reunion, a documentary and an outtakes/bloopers reel.

Tickets are now available at FathomEvents.com, which also has a complete list of participating theaters. Additionally, the Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Two Blu-ray hits shelves on December 4.

(And make sure you also listen to IGN's Scott Collura on the Transporter Room 3 podcast!)

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love by following @Max_Nicholson on Twitter, or MaxNicholson on IGN.

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The lord of the jungle will return to the big screen courtesy of Warner Bros.

Harry Potter veteran David Yates committed to directing Tarzan on Monday, according to Vulture.

"Yates is meeting with up-and-coming actors like Man of Steel's Henry Cavill, Pacific Rim headliner Charlie Hunnam, and True Blood's Alexander Skarsgård," Vulture reports. "We also hear that the studio is keen to get a meeting with Tom Hardy, who has put in his time on Warner Bros. blockbusters like The Dark Knight Rises and Inception, but less clear is whether Hardy shares the studio’s enthusiasm for that part."

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