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iOS Gaming September 2015 | GOing back to school with a backlog

Matt Frost

Member
PixWing is gorgeous, damn it looks really good in movement and the gyroscope controls are fun, they make me move a lot, its like doing yoga lol. I recommend it to people who never does exercise. Also the touch controls are nice, have to move the thumb slower than usual but they work. Its like Retry but in 3D pixel art. So far... fun!

Can't say I'm overly excited about the new Apple TV.

I never watch TV, at all actually, just some FC Barcelona matches and mute it when they show the ads in between. Not sure I want to turn on the TV to play games either as I just sold my PS4 and haven't missed it at all. Not buying one.
 

Matt Frost

Member
I am also enjoying a game by Retro Dreamer (makers of the excellent Linkoidz and Velocispider) called Electro Ball. Is free with IAP to remove ads and is an arcade game with touch controls -works really well- where you have to collect dots and avoid zappers. I love how the zappers move, makes it really interesting.

screen322x572.jpeg


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/electro-ball-avoid-shocks!/id1028691871?mt=8
 

awp69

Member
I like Crossy Road but if multiplayer on that was the best they could do to make it appeal to gamers then...epic fail.

Support for Disney Infinity 3.0 support is ok and a weak attempt at Wii gaming with Beats Sports. They needed to really show off some "wow" like Infinity Blade did years ago. That didn't happen.

Not saying it'll be a bad product. Just don't see it lighting the world on fire.

And Android devices have at least had the capability to support pressure sensitive touch for years. Don't know specifically which devices use it, but it's not as revolutionary as they make it out to be.

Oh well. I'm fine with not craving any of today's product announcements. Maybe the Mini 4 whenever the Mini 2 begins to lose support, which I don't see coming too quickly. My wallet is safe from a big purchase for a while.
 
I like Crossy Road but if multiplayer on that was the best they could do to make it appeal to games then...epic fail.

Support for Disney Infinity 3.0 support is ok and a weak attempt at Wii gaming with Beats Sports. They needed to really show off some "wow" like Infinity Blade did years ago. That didn't happen.

Not saying it'll be a bad product. Just don't see it lighting the world on fire.

And Android devices have at least had the capability to support pressure sensitive touch for years. Don't know specifically which devices use it, but it's not as revolutionary as they make it out to be.

Oh well. I'm fine with not craving any of today's product announcements. Maybe the Mini 4 whenever the Mini 2 begins to lose support, which I don't see coming too quickly.
Really wish they had showed off things like a graphical showcase or some big PC ports or some games that use new features in an interesting way a la Device 6 or The Room.

Not a Wii clone or Crossy Road, of all games
 

killercow

Member
Really wish they had showed off things like a graphical showcase or some big PC ports or some games that use new features in an interesting way a la Device 6 or The Room.

Not a Wii clone or Crossy Road, of all games

Exactly. That new Galaxy on Fire for example sounded interesting and only got 2 seconds of screen time...
 

awp69

Member
I also think it's crappy that Apple still uses the "2-year contract" prices for their phones. Almost every carrier has or is in the process of dropping those plans.

I'm on AT&T and was "grandfathered" into being able to get 2-year contracts, but they have been dropping Apple products from those provisions.
 
is there any way to use AppZapp for something like Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies where the game is mainly sold through in-app purchases? Just want to know when the whole thing gets cheap but since the first episode is free (i believe) AppZapp doesnt seem to be useful in this case
 

awp69

Member
is there any way to use AppZapp for something like Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies where the game is mainly sold through in-app purchases? Just want to know when the whole thing gets cheap but since the first episode is free (i believe) AppZapp doesnt seem to be useful in this case

Not that I know of. It would be nice, though, because the only way you can find out about IAP discounts is through word of mouth or if there's a story on a gaming site.
 

Xenoflare

Member
There is no iPad mini 4 today :'( (Wait or is there?)

EDIT: NEVER MIND THE MINI 4 IS THERE AND IT AXED MINI 3 BUT NOT THE MINI 2

Also I really want to know more about the A9. A 90% GPU performance upgrade from the A8

Goddamn
 

awp69

Member
Nope a new Galaxy on Fire, which is why I was surprised, as I knew about Everspace.
Here are some screenshots of Galaxy on Fire: Manticore Rising:

That looks awesome!

And I can't seem to find a damn thing about it except on Apple's own page for Apple TV.
 
Played some Devastator. Main gripe is that it doesn't have an option for my preferred control scheme: floating joysticks. You can adjust the positions, but that's not exactly the same.

Besides that, it's classic Radiangames. Big swarms of enemies, frenetic combat, screenfuls of particles and bullets. You select a main ability at the start and then can collect power-ups like a shield or bouncing bullets.

Really challenging
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
So from a gaming perspective (since no new iPad Air was announced) an Air 2 provides the best gaming experience available right now?
 

awp69

Member
So from a gaming perspective (since no new iPad Air was announced) an Air 2 provides the best gaming experience available right now?

That and the new Mini, I suppose.

I guess the 6S has a new A9 chip, although I don't know how much better it is.

Edit: Looking at Apple's website, looks like the mini 4 will not be quite as powerful as the Air 2. It has an A8 (1.6 x graphics than the mini 2's A7) vs Air 2's A8X (2.5 x graphics vs the A7).

The iPad Pro will technically be the best with 5x graphics vs the A7. Have to wonder though if that's accurate in reality with the the huge screen it has to display on.

Oh, and the standard A9 in the 6S doesn't even give a comparison. Wonder if the additional power is just for things like the 3D Touch.
 
Nvm

From Kotaku's coverage
Not that Apple cares that much about making a video game console. Buried in the fine print of their developer hub is a caveat that the Apple TV won’t have local storage for apps, meaning you’ll have to store all of your save data in the cloud. On top of that, the maximum size of an Apple TV application will be 200MB—“Anything beyond this size needs to be packaged and loaded using on-demand resources,” Apple writes. (For reference: Hearthstone is 868MB on iOS. Fallout Shelter is 205MB.)
Well there goes the hope of more advanced games on that platform
 

PittaGAF

Member
So from a gaming perspective (since no new iPad Air was announced) an Air 2 provides the best gaming experience available right now?

The most powerful CPU goes to the iPad pro (A9X) which supposedly sports enhanced speed in read/write and maybe ram...but it must drive a ton of pixels.

Second are iPhone 6S/6S plus (A9) which overall will be the most powerful IMHO.
Actually, during the keynote, they showed the most impressive thing on an iPhone 6 (that mech WH40K game).

I think they will be equivalent, but only time will tell.
Also, it will be probably a year till engines will start to fully use it.
 

awp69

Member
Nvm

From Kotaku's coverage

Well there goes the hope of more advanced games on that platform

Reading TA's article on it, it sounds like it will have a max of 200 MB for the initial download, then allow the rest of the assets to be downloaded. Supposedly this is to help force "App Thinning" on iOS 9 where it will only download the assets it needs for that device.

But, a big question is how many devs will go back and update existing games just to meet the Apple TV's forced requirement? I seriously doubt many will because I still think Apple TV will be a small segment of iOS gaming.

New games, yeah, probably, but there are a lot of great games already that are way beyond the 200 MB limit. So unless Apple TV takes off, a lot of existing games probably won't be compatible.

One interesting side note, Josh from Crescent Moon says a lot of devs, including some they are publishing games for, haven't even starting using iOS 9. So games currently in development probably aren't using "app thinning" either.
 

heringer

Member
The most powerful CPU goes to the iPad pro (A9X) which supposedly sports enhanced speed in read/write and maybe ram...but it must drive a ton of pixels.

Second are iPhone 6S/6S plus (A9) which overall will be the most powerful IMHO.
Actually, during the keynote, they showed the most impressive thing on an iPhone 6 (that mech WH40K game).

I think they will be equivalent, but only time will tell.
Also, it will be probably a year till engines will start to fully use it.

That WH40K didn't look impressive at all. It looked like an early, low budget 360 title, imo.
 
Hyped for Apple TV. Day 1.

tvOS and iOS work together.
Empower customers to enjoy their favorite apps on both iOS and the new Apple TV with a single purchase by enabling universal purchase for your app on the App Store.


Hopefully devs do this. My library will be pretty nice.
 

awp69

Member
Hyped for Apple TV. Day 1.

tvOS and iOS work together.
Empower customers to enjoy their favorite apps on both iOS and the new Apple TV with a single purchase by enabling universal purchase for your app on the App Store.


Hopefully devs do this. My library will be pretty nice.

I'll be interested to see how many games will be compatible at launch with the iOS 9 / 200 MB limit thing. Maybe I'm wrong and perhaps Apple has something up its sleeve to make current games work with a split download.
 

PittaGAF

Member
That WH40K didn't look impressive at all. It looked like an early, low budget 360 title, imo.

True, but still it was the most impressive thing they showed during the keynote, highlighting metal api.
Second came the live demo of Crossy Road (LOL).

Really puzzling, they could have chosen many more impressive titles (but still way behind actual consoles).

Apple won't ever compete with real consoles, nor they will have ever a dedicated graphical processor...I think it's highly irrealistic to hope for that for the time being.
They can have other pluses, but cutting edge technology isn't one of them (plus, on AppleTV they lose the major one, portability).

If we judge it for 3D titles, they will be always years behind but some particular genres.
So far it seems to me more an Ouya or Wii competitor than anything else.

Everything it's in the hands of devs, apple just provide a showcase and decent, not cutting edge, hardware.
 

heringer

Member
True, but still it was the most impressive thing they showed during the keynote, highlighting metal api.
Second came the live demo of Crossy Road (LOL).

Really puzzling, they could have chosen many more impressive titles (but still way behind actual consoles).

Apple won't ever compete with real consoles, nor they will have ever a dedicated graphical processor...I think it's highly irrealistic to hope for that for the time being.
They can have other pluses, but cutting edge technology isn't one of them (plus, on AppleTV they lose the major one, portability).

If we judge it for 3D titles, they will be always years behind but some particular genres.
So far it seems to me more an Ouya or Wii competitor than anything else.

Everything it's in the hands of devs, apple just provide a showcase and decent, not cutting edge, hardware.

Yeah, it was a terrible showing. Every year we hope they will focus more on gaming and every year we come out disappointed. Ugh. :/
 

PittaGAF

Member
Yeah, it was a terrible showing. Every year we hope they will focus more on gaming and every year we come out disappointed. Ugh. :/

I wasn't really disappointed by the keynote, even if the thing I look forward most is just iOS 9.
But gaming wise, especially compared to the rumors (which were false as always) there wasn't really anything notable.
Not saying it won't turn out great....but so far there is nothing new that we iOS already owners can't already experience.
 
Yeah, it was a terrible showing. Every year we hope they will focus more on gaming and every year we come out disappointed. Ugh. :/
They could have showed a game like Static Sky. That's from the co-founder of Unity and has some awesome visual effects like light reflection on wet surfaces and rain

But we got a Crossy Road demonstration instead

There's so much potential for a great game showing.
 
So the cats still in the bag whether the new iPhones and Mini have 2gb of RAM. If they do end up having 2gb of RAM, how long do you think devices that still have 1gb of RAM will hold?
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
The most powerful CPU goes to the iPad pro (A9X) which supposedly sports enhanced speed in read/write and maybe ram...but it must drive a ton of pixels.

Second are iPhone 6S/6S plus (A9) which overall will be the most powerful IMHO.
Actually, during the keynote, they showed the most impressive thing on an iPhone 6 (that mech WH40K game).

I think they will be equivalent, but only time will tell.
Also, it will be probably a year till engines will start to fully use it.

Pro is $800 and will be 2 months away. I'm also not eligible for a phone upgrade until May. I could sell my Note 4 and buy an off contract 6S+ but that would be expensive, haha.
 

PittaGAF

Member
Pro is $800 and will be 2 months away. I'm also not eligible for a phone upgrade until May. I could sell my Note 4 and buy an off contract 6S+ but that would be expensive, haha.

If you want it now, an iPad Air 2 or the new mini (supposedly a smaller air 2) will do just fine, especially for board games.
 

PittaGAF

Member
If I'm reading the documents well, two nice side effects of the AppleTV announcement are that if devs want their games there too...the games must be Universal and with iCloud save/sync.

About time.
 

Xenoflare

Member
So the cats still in the bag whether the new iPhones and Mini have 2gb of RAM. If they do end up having 2gb of RAM, how long do you think devices that still have 1gb of RAM will hold?

Yeah that's my question as well. 6 should have gotten the 2GB RAM the first place.
 
So the cats still in the bag whether the new iPhones and Mini have 2gb of RAM. If they do end up having 2gb of RAM, how long do you think devices that still have 1gb of RAM will hold?

If the 6/6+ situation is anything to go by, we won't know anything about RAM until the phone is actually out.
 

Lunar FC

Member
I saw this game called Puzzle Mayor in this thread probably over a month ago. It's still not on the app store, anybody know what happened to it? I thought it looked pretty cool.
 
Do we have any idea when Rayman Adventures will get a full launch as it was at the keynote last night?

Also I thought I might be disappointed about getting an air 2 so close to the conference but no announcement of a new one and the rumour of the new iPhone only have 1gb of ram should mean the iPad Air 2 will stay relevant for longer.

That iPad pro is massive. Looks way too big to be comfortable to hold for long periods but it seems they are going after the Surface crowd.
 

killercow

Member
Do we have any idea when Rayman Adventures will get a full launch as it was at the keynote last night?

Also I thought I might be disappointed about getting an air 2 so close to the conference but no announcement of a new one and the rumour of the new iPhone only have 1gb of ram should mean the iPad Air 2 will stay relevant for longer.

That iPad pro is massive. Looks way too big to be comfortable to hold for long periods but it seems they are going after the Surface crowd.

Rayman Adventure is supposed to launch Fall 2015. Although if you create a free New Zealand or Canadian itunes account, you can already play the game now.
 

SteveWD40

Member
I tried the new MC update but couldn't find any way of moving the Dpad / re-mapping the on screen controls, I read that was in the update, am I missing something?
 
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