I ’ll happily admit it : I ’m a fan of Apple product . Ever since I got my hands on the original iPhone , I ’ve never strayed outside of the Apple geographical zone for my smartphone needs . antecedently , I was a Nokia humankind — I even have an N - Gage for a while , more fool me — but Apple ’s technical school blow everything away , even limited as it was in the very start .
Now we have theiPhone 4S — which , yes , I am now in possession of — and iOS 5 . A short while back , we had the iPad 2 . Between these three things , gambling is about to get a very big shake-up — Sony , Nintendo and Microsoft would do well to keep a near eye on how things are about to open .
One of the most significant developments to come out of Io 5 and Apple ’s two new machine is the wireless AirPlay readiness , allowing you to stream 720p video from an app to a TV without make to mess around with cable system . Okay , you still need an Apple television set hooked up to your TV to make this possible but , if I ’m not false , this sort of thing is exactly what the Wii U is predict , albeit with few buttons .
We ’re already starting to see game support this functionality — Firemint ’s Real Racing 2was one of the first . Even more impressively , though , Firemint ’s rubric feature the facility for one ( 4S or iPad 2 ) twist to dissemble as a “ host ” and then disseminate four instrumentalist stock split screen gameplay on to an HDTV . That ’s seriously telling , and the sorting of thing we ’re likely to see a fate more of in the do months . Not only that , but some of the less ostentatious characteristic in iOS 5 , like iCloud ’s ability to synchronise hold open game between devices , think of that gaming both on the go and at home — on the same biz — is a distinct possibility .
We ’re also starting to see developers drawing a agate line in the sand and say “ our game will only support these devices . ” Amanita ’s excellent item and click mystifier Machinarium is one — it’ll only run on an iPad 2 — and Rockstar has announced thatthis crepuscule ’s porthole of Grand Theft Auto IIIwill only crop on iPhone 4S and iPad 2 . This is a bold , brave step for developer to take as it lock out a potentially large proportion of the iOS food market who are still on iPhone 4 , 3GS or even 3 G in some showcase . To see at it from another slant , though , a peck of those multitude who do n’t desire ( or feel they “ need ” ) the later and not bad in engineering science will probably be playing less demanding secret plan like Angry Birds and Bejeweled . It ’ll become like the difference between those who pass over $ 1,000 on a game PC , and those who just play Facebook games on their netbook — not of necessity a risky move , but it somewhat diminishes the potential for the latter hearing to “ bleed ” into the former , which is a shame .
One bounteous affair is still deem iOS gaming back from unfeigned greatness , however , and I ’ve already affect on it ( no pun intended ) above . It ’s been said before and will doubtless be said again .
button .
tactual sensation and contention control are great for certain games , but there ’s a grade of haptic feedback you get from a push button which is impossible for a touch screen to emulate . Many iOS developers have struggled to get a console - style control scheme to influence effectively on the small screen door of the iPhone , which explains why so many new games acquire either a “ one clit ” approach , or go the whole other way into full - on tilt controls .
What Apple needs to do if it wants to really leverage the potentially powerful place iOS equipment hold in the gaming market is to come out with an official restrainer accoutrement . Sure , we have products like the iCade for the iPad and the iControlPad for the iPhone , but until we have an prescribed , standardized accessory that turn with all new games , we ’re kick the bucket to be stuck with the imprecise nature of touch controls — or shallower game with more simplistic control mechanism . And that , justly there , would be enough for Nintendo and/or Sony to move away with the “ core ” handheld gaming market — and , just as importantly , its developers and publishers — leaving only the Angry Birds thespian behind . This would be a missed opportunity for Apple to become a major player in the plain of games .
Is Apple a company too unregenerate to re - cover physical controls after glorify the virtue of mite for so long ? meter will tell , and the market will decide what the destruction result will be . I know I ’d rather have just one gimmick in my pouch rather than having to take around two or three handhelds .
