iOS games beyond Final Fantasy IX?

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by Marco1, Feb 14, 2016.

  1. Marco1

    Marco1 Well-Known Member

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    As much as I love my iPhone and iPad Pro something I realised when FFIX just released is that if we have only gotten to the point were PlayStation one games cost over £10, we'll never have games such as GTA5 and Witcher3.
    I have come to realise the normal laws of physics apply and that the battery and heat of modern cpu and gpu will never allow this.
    I'm still waiting for sunless sea and prison architect and realised I made a huge mistake, I should've bought a Windows laptop and not an iPad Pro.
     
  2. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    Well, the Witness should be coming to iOS. GTA 3 is a PS2 game. And there are plenty of other modern ports like Lego, Telltale, Skylander, and Disney Infinity games. But as those names suggest, there are certain games that get ported to iOS, and it's usually not the GTA5 and Witcher 3s. I would guess that the indie games you mentioned haven't been ported for economic reasons, not technical ones.

    There's a question, too, about what kind of games are playable on a laptop that's comparable in price and size to an iPad Pro -- I'm almost certain that GTA 5 and Witcher 3 wouldn't.
     
  3. Dankrio

    Dankrio Well-Known Member
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    #3 Dankrio, Feb 14, 2016
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2016
    We never know what the future might bring to us. Who would've imagined on PS2 era that one would be playing GTA SA on a cellphone? I think mobile (at whatever form it presents) will be able to do better than the Witcher 3, at some point in time.

    However, we have many issues now that prevents mobile from full potential. For one, the big player (Apple) doesn't know what to do or simply doesn´t care, to the point that TA even can´t upgrade its app, which is beyond ridiculous. And I am not even going to get started on the constant (and somewhat forced) system updates breaking more and more games.

    Also, the market has changed and premium games are not sustainable anymore on most part. Just look at CM's post on the new Ravensword thread. And controls. If, and a big if, we had a lucrative market for premium games, developers would er... develop games on greater scope, fully optimized for touch controls. We wouldn't be having just ports but original big budgeted games developed with touch controls in mind. Imagine what we could have. But one can only hope...

    Maybe this changes, maybe not. But at some point I have no doubt that we gonna have the big games on the palm of our hands or even something cooler that, like VR. It is probably gonna take some time, though.
     
  4. fulcizombie

    fulcizombie Well-Known Member

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    Meh, current devices are more than powerful enough to run great looking games, it is just that major developers have stopped trying due to the freemium domination . When smaller teams can release games that look like dead effect 2 , implosion , dust an Elysian tale ,forgotten memories or the upcoming epic of kings , I can only imagine what would happen if companies like EA for example , that was releasing some fantastic looking iOS games when the iPad 2 was the high end iPad , had continued down this road .

    I believe that people shouldn't be supporting crap like FF IX or GTA Liberty stories but that's just me .
     
  5. fulcizombie

    fulcizombie Well-Known Member

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    What ? Are you saying that a 1000€+ laptop can't run Gta 5 and the witcher 3 ? You are dead wrong .
     
  6. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    In the US, you can get an iPad Pro for $800. Show me an $800 laptop that runs the Witcher 3 well and I'll accept that I'm wrong.
     
  7. fulcizombie

    fulcizombie Well-Known Member

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    #7 fulcizombie, Feb 15, 2016
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2016
    That's so easy . Here's one , without any deep search, del inspiration i7559-763blk . At 810$ with a 15.6 inches 1080p screen . Just check its specs, runs circles around games like gta5 and the witcher 3 and that's for the bottom of the barrel iPad pro model . If we go just a bit higher , let's say the price of the medium iPad pro , 950$ , you can get a beast of a laptop like Asus rog gl552vw-dh71 with 16 freakin gb of ram . If we go for the price of the top iPad pro model with a ....huge (lol) 128 gb drive you can get a godly laptop .

    The problem isn't even games like the witcher 3 on iOS, I would settle with shadowgun 2 , iOS dead space 2 , 2016 versions of gameloft's console clones of the past , mass effect inflitrator 2 e.t.c .

    Hardware capabilities of the mobile devices have moved way faster than what the big developers are making for these devices these days .
     
  8. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    Just checked the Dell you mentioned. It has a NV GTX 960M GPU, which according to this benchmark site, runs The Witcher 3, at full resolution, without frills, at about 27 FPS avg. That's not "well" in my book.

    Didn't bother to check your other suggestion. The laptops I've seen recommended online are ranging around $1200.
     
  9. fulcizombie

    fulcizombie Well-Known Member

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    If the witcher 3 at basically 30 fps at 1080p resolution , ps4 and Xbox one basically, for the price of the lowest price model iPad pro isn't your thing then...o.k I guess . I didn't know that you meant 1080p, 60 fps , ultra settings . Funny thing is that for around 950$ you can almost get that on a laptop ( you know the laptop that you didn't check ) .

    Just let it go, laptops costing the price of an iPad pro absolutely demolishes it when it comes to games ( and to basically everything else) .
     
  10. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    I never suggested otherwise. I was really making two points, which I seem to have articulated poorly: 1) an iPad Pro runs iOS games really, really well; 2) an equivalently-priced laptop does not run high-end PC games (like the Witcher 3 and GTA 5) all that well. I can guarantee you that anyone who is buying a laptop for gaming is not getting a $900 one with a 960M GPU.

    And I say to you -- just let it go. What you are arguing doesn't contradict either of these points.
     
  11. spader623

    spader623 Well-Known Member

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    The problem is, IMO, mostly Apple if we're talking about iOS. If they really want mobile gaming to take off, they need to do a hell of a lot better job then they are right now. Also, freemium, free to play and 99 cent apps are a big problem. The witness will be pricy on iOS if it ever comes out and the vast vast majority of iOS users hate that... So why bother?
     
  12. ackmondual

    ackmondual Well-Known Member

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    Link if you will?
     
  13. Taeles

    Taeles Well-Known Member
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    if they can get X on my vita, i don't see any reason why it shouldnt be able to do even better on my ipad/iphone
     
  14. fulcizombie

    fulcizombie Well-Known Member

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    This x1000 . The problem is Apple, if they don't care about gaming they should just shut up instead of creating false hype about it ( remember the hype about metal technology , lol still waiting for games like battlefield 4 to come out for iOS ##) .

    They should enforce publishers, at the very least the big ones, to follow their iOS updates so we don't have debacles like the bioshock and the monster hunter ones .They should also lead by creating or buying 1st party studios ( if Amazon can do it so should they) and making cutting edge games that take full advantage of their hardware . It pisses me off that the best looking 3rd person shooter, for example , on iOS is a ....2011 game ( shadowgun) that had iPad 2 as its maximum target hardware when it was released .

    The problem is that Apple wants to hype its devices as gaming devices without actually making any kind of effort to justify that .
     
  15. Dankrio

    Dankrio Well-Known Member
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    #15 Dankrio, Feb 15, 2016
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2016

    http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=281313

    "Another reason for doing the game like this is also budgetary. Getting high poly realistic models made is extremely expensive. Premium games just don't make what they used to, years ago."
     
  16. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    The reason Apple hypes their devices as gaming devices is because they are. More people game on mobile devices than on all consoles and PCs combined, and games are the leading category in the $100 billion app industry. The thing is, the games that most people play on their phones are not the kind of games you want to play. The great majority of people who play games (as opposed to "gamers") don't give a crap about 3rd person shooters; they are looking for a pleasant distraction that is accessible wherever they are.

    Now, that doesn't mean that there is no market for "mid-core" games, and even some games that can be considered hardcore. Here's what Apple does for that market: they make devices that are way, way overpowered for the needs of the typical consumer. They curate the App Store to highlight "best RPGs," and other premium games in their own game lists, and they created a set of API's that allow developers access to the guts of the system to improve performance (the "Metal" thing you keep complaining about). Apple could do none of this and still sell a bazillion phones.

    Clearly, though, iOS devices are not and will never be primary gaming devices for hardcore gamers. Why would Apple invest in a game studio (a la Microsoft) for a market that it will never capture? As is, there are more games that many of us want to play on iOS than in any other platform -- way more than we would ever get to play in one lifetime. Could Apple do more? Sure: I agree with you that they could be more supportive of developers as they upgrade their games to new iOS versions. They could also be a better, more responsive partner in the app review process, and be more swift to protect IPs and get rid of scam apps.

    BTW Amazon Games Studios is kind of a bust, which is why they've ended up releasing their "exclusive" games on iOS.
     
  17. Dankrio

    Dankrio Well-Known Member
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    #17 Dankrio, Feb 15, 2016
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    squarezero, you got good points, however I feel that Apple is doing way less than it can and it is probably going to backfire anytime soon, if not already.

    The major problem being the constant updates (mainly forcing to upgrade devices) breaking many and many more games.

    But time will tell.

    By the way, Apple is not being sloppy only on gaming aspects, lately.
     
  18. Montanx

    Montanx Well-Known Member

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    Your delusional if you think we won't have iPhones that can run witcher 3 eventually. The tech is already there probably but companies slow roll to make more profit. Combine that with clash of flappy candy birds making all the money and there's no point in making AAA games anyway.

    I'm playing clash royale and there's an Asian guy who spent over 20k to make 2 maxed accounts so he could face himself atop the leaderboard. Let that sink in. AAA Devs meanwhile have to scratch and claw for us to justify 60 bucks on their game that cost them 100mil.
     
  19. Dankrio

    Dankrio Well-Known Member
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    The problem is being economically interesting to port the game on the future. If the trouble is not worth ir, why care?

    I don't know if we have the tech yet, but it is going to come eventually. I don't mind waiting if I was gonna be able to play those games on future.
     
  20. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    I don't disagree in the upgrade issue, though I see it somehow differently. I'd rather have Apple break some games than make every new version of iOS a slight and/or incremental upgrade. Both the 3DS and Vita interfaces felt antiquated to me and very, very clunky -- something that a succession of annoying and mandatory updates never improved. Where Apple fails, IMHO, is in not making it easier for devs to keep up with the changes. Perhaps they should even make it part of the developer agreement, as fulcizombie suggests.

    As to overall sloppiness, I think there are a few real examples (the 1970 issue) and a bunch of stuff that is overblown by The Verge, Techcruch, etc. As a for instance, the Apple battery case got a drubbing in the press, but as someone who has owned a couple of Mophies and bought an inexpensive case from Toucharcade, I feel confident in calling the Apple Smart Battery Case one their best designed accessories and ridiculously better than its competitors -- I mean, it's not even close.

    Anyway -- sorry for the digression :).
     

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