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The iOS Gaming Thread January 2013: We beat the apocalypse without buttons!

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T

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
Gonna refresh the OP later today with recent releases and so forth. Have been mighty busy with real life shenanigans and console games (heresy!) recently, my apologies. :)
 
F

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
lol chickdigger can't catch a break, first juniorized now banned, but that was dumb of him in the anime thread.

By the way, how does juniorization work in these cases? Junior bans are always perma, but what about normal members that got junior status later?
 
T

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
He might be perma'd then. :/


Added to the OP:

--

GAF (IGN actually) announcement: Don't Buy Final Fantasy - All the Bravest
This game came out in January, but don't buy it.

--

ibtnIQPH46IEye.png

Infestor | $0.99, Universal

iS7amRdi0rSsa.png

Momonga Pinball Adventures | $0.99, Universal

inlie5baIdeSe.png

Temple Run 2 | Free, Universal
 
D

Dash Kappei

Not actually that important
Hi guys, I log back on GAF (well, the internet as a whole really) after a forced hiatus of five long months. There's plenty of reasons, definitely too personal to share on a message board and it's not like people would care anyway, but the gist of it is that I had health problems but now I'm (mostly) good and happy to be back.

Loving the new iOS GAF threads template! Tunesmith rocked hard with those banners and the monthly idea is brilliant, can't imagine how time consuming that must be! congrats :)

Anyway, during this time my iPad 3 was stolen and after that my iPad 1 broke (well it has huge annoying colored bars in the middle of the screen) so I was out of iOS basically from Sept till just a couple of days ago.

Bought an iPad Mini, and I can't say I'm happy with my decision as far as gaming is concerned, but everything else is fabulous for.

I mean, CAVE's HD apps are unplayable, 30fps with constant not-in-the-original slowdowns, I was so excited to play DDP:R HD on the Mini :/
Pinball Arcade (which I also play on X360) still has the same framerate problems it had with my iPad gen1, I seem to remember back in the day people used to say it was butter smooth with the old iPad 2 so I expected the same on the Mini... Arabian Nights table and every complex table (ST:TNG, MM, TZ...) has stuttering and disappointingly plays at 30fps with hiccups.
For reference, Zen Pinball (which I don't like as much) plays at rock solid 60 fps.

I should have probably bought an iPad 4 but it was too much money for the 64GB+4G, and the form factor (for gaming) and lightness of the Mini intrigued me, and to be fair those two have in fact been a big relief for my hands' problems.

And now for the meat of my post, I've been out of the Appstore and GAF for the last 5 months, what are the best games I've missed?
I play everything really, well besides boardgames (Carcassone and such) ;)

Thanks :)
 
GeekyDad

GeekyDad

Member
Dash Kappei said:
Hi guys, I log back on GAF (well, the internet as a whole really) after a forced hiatus of five long months. There's plenty of reasons, definitely too personal to share on a message board and it's not like people would care anyway, but the gist of it is that I had health problems but now I'm (mostly) good and happy to be back.

Loving the new iOS GAF threads template! Tunesmith rocked hard with those banners and the monthly idea is brilliant, can't imagine how time consuming that must be! congrats :)

Anyway, during this time my iPad 3 was stolen and after that my iPad 1 broke (well it has huge annoying colored bars in the middle of the screen) so I was out of iOS basically from Sept till just a couple of days ago.

Bought an iPad Mini, and I can't say I'm happy with my decision as far as gaming is concerned, but everything else is fabulous for.

I mean, CAVE's HD apps are unplayable, 30fps with constant not-in-the-original slowdowns, I was so excited to play DDP:R HD on the Mini :/
Pinball Arcade (which I also play on X360) still has the same framerate problems it had with my iPad gen1, I seem to remember back in the day people used to say it was butter smooth with the old iPad 2 so I expected the same on the Mini... Arabian Nights table and every complex table (ST:TNG, MM, TZ...) has stuttering and disappointingly plays at 30fps with hiccups.
For reference, Zen Pinball (which I don't like as much) plays at rock solid 60 fps.

I should have probably bought an iPad 4 but it was too much money for the 64GB+4G, and the form factor (for gaming) and lightness of the Mini intrigued me, and to be fair those two have in fact been a big relief for my hands' problems.

And now for the meat of my post, I've been out of the Appstore and GAF for the last 5 months, what are the best games I've missed?
I play everything really, well besides boardgames (Carcassone and such) ;)

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

LOL

Not much meat there. Anyway, welcome back. Glad you're doing well. Has it been five months? Time flies when you're old.

But to answer your question (kinda), the first post should list recent games that are "worth" checking out.
 
Lupin3

Lupin3

Targeting terrorists with a D-Pad
Penny Arcade: Gamers vs Evil is just so much fun! Highly recommended. And I knew nothing about deck building games before I tried this one.
 
L

Li Kao

Member
Welcome back, Dash ! Never had the pleasure of reading your posts but I can tell from my time here that you weren't forgotten and that many gaffers must be glad of this comeback.

Another topic but how do you guys do it ?
I thought buying a new ipad with more hdd space would be beneficial, and yes it is but I can't shake the feeling that the app store threw up on my screen... Do you use folders ? How do you order things up on your side ?
 
F

Flunkie

Banned
aneibfmakshdbwjajjzhcbdnsskxbrhe I emailed you dash asking if you were ok and no response forever I thought you were dead jdbrnsodhwbwisjabwodifjebs
 
lowrider007

lowrider007

Licorice-flavoured booze?
Dash Kappei said:
Hi guys, I log back on GAF (well, the internet as a whole really) after a forced hiatus of five long months. There's plenty of reasons, definitely too personal to share on a message board and it's not like people would care anyway, but the gist of it is that I had health problems but now I'm (mostly) good and happy to be back.

Loving the new iOS GAF threads template! Tunesmith rocked hard with those banners and the monthly idea is brilliant, can't imagine how time consuming that must be! congrats :)

Anyway, during this time my iPad 3 was stolen and after that my iPad 1 broke (well it has huge annoying colored bars in the middle of the screen) so I was out of iOS basically from Sept till just a couple of days ago.

Bought an iPad Mini, and I can't say I'm happy with my decision as far as gaming is concerned, but everything else is fabulous for.

I mean, CAVE's HD apps are unplayable, 30fps with constant not-in-the-original slowdowns, I was so excited to play DDP:R HD on the Mini :/
Pinball Arcade (which I also play on X360) still has the same framerate problems it had with my iPad gen1, I seem to remember back in the day people used to say it was butter smooth with the old iPad 2 so I expected the same on the Mini... Arabian Nights table and every complex table (ST:TNG, MM, TZ...) has stuttering and disappointingly plays at 30fps with hiccups.
For reference, Zen Pinball (which I don't like as much) plays at rock solid 60 fps.

I should have probably bought an iPad 4 but it was too much money for the 64GB+4G, and the form factor (for gaming) and lightness of the Mini intrigued me, and to be fair those two have in fact been a big relief for my hands' problems.

And now for the meat of my post, I've been out of the Appstore and GAF for the last 5 months, what are the best games I've missed?
I play everything really, well besides boardgames (Carcassone and such) ;)

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

Interesting comments regarding the iPad Mini as I've been trying to decide between the Mini and the 4th gen iPad for weeks now, it's been driving me crazy, form factor vs specs....., hard choice, I think after reading your post I'm veering more towards the 4th gen iPad now though.
 
W

whatevermort

Member
The Mini has the best form factor of any tablet I've ever used. For games playing, it's tremendous. (I haven't even noticed the slowdown on the Cave apps, but I'm obsessive about keeping no apps running in the background etc.)
 
K

kottila

Member
Not feeling momonga after playing "real" pinball (arcade) all day. Tried some of zens tables as well, but they felt somewhat off compared to the real thing (excalibur, epic quest and sorcerers(?))
 
G

Gamecocks625

Member
Dash Kappei said:
Hi guys, I log back on GAF (well, the internet as a whole really) after a forced hiatus of five long months. There's plenty of reasons, definitely too personal to share on a message board and it's not like people would care anyway, but the gist of it is that I had health problems but now I'm (mostly) good and happy to be back.

Loving the new iOS GAF threads template! Tunesmith rocked hard with those banners and the monthly idea is brilliant, can't imagine how time consuming that must be! congrats :)

Anyway, during this time my iPad 3 was stolen and after that my iPad 1 broke (well it has huge annoying colored bars in the middle of the screen) so I was out of iOS basically from Sept till just a couple of days ago.

Bought an iPad Mini, and I can't say I'm happy with my decision as far as gaming is concerned, but everything else is fabulous for.

I mean, CAVE's HD apps are unplayable, 30fps with constant not-in-the-original slowdowns, I was so excited to play DDP:R HD on the Mini :/
Pinball Arcade (which I also play on X360) still has the same framerate problems it had with my iPad gen1, I seem to remember back in the day people used to say it was butter smooth with the old iPad 2 so I expected the same on the Mini... Arabian Nights table and every complex table (ST:TNG, MM, TZ...) has stuttering and disappointingly plays at 30fps with hiccups.
For reference, Zen Pinball (which I don't like as much) plays at rock solid 60 fps.

I should have probably bought an iPad 4 but it was too much money for the 64GB+4G, and the form factor (for gaming) and lightness of the Mini intrigued me, and to be fair those two have in fact been a big relief for my hands' problems.

And now for the meat of my post, I've been out of the Appstore and GAF for the last 5 months, what are the best games I've missed?
I play everything really, well besides boardgames (Carcassone and such) ;)

Thanks :)
Click to expand...
Dash, you come back and you say something crazy like the iPad mini isn't good for games? What did they do to you while you were gone? JK, welcome back to the fold.
 
H

heringer

Member
So, apparently Heroes & Castles is a big hit.


Foursaken_Media said:
I don't want to give an exact date for the update, but we've got all the content in. We've got versus mode up and running (so fun :p), its just a matter of balancing and some more QA to make sure the update is as perfect as we can make it. We're also working hard to make sure there is no more data corruption, and are heavily investigating multiplayer in order to try and get it more stable.

That being said, we're probably looking at submitting in a week or so... maybe sooner!

As for the games' success... without getting into specific numbers, we're currently doing really, really well. Its really blown our minds actually - doesn't seem real :p NONE of us were expecting this game to do anywhere close to this well.But honestly, we're really more excited than anything else about the positive reactions here on TA, and the amazing iTunes ratings and reviews... While we obviously love Heroes and Castles, we didn't think that this type of mid/hard core game would be able to reach this big of an audience, especially since we're not a big time developer or using a publisher. More than anything else, the success of the game is just awesome because it means people are playing and loving the game!

And yes, what it all boils down to is, big updates will be coming! :D
Click to expand...
I'm glad. The game is really fun. Can't wait for versus mode.
 
D

dr3upmushroom

Banned
whatevermort said:
The Mini has the best form factor of any tablet I've ever used. For games playing, it's tremendous. (I haven't even noticed the slowdown on the Cave apps, but I'm obsessive about keeping no apps running in the background etc.)
Click to expand...

From what I understand it's a myth that games on your multitasking bar are actually using resources. Some may, but for the most part they're just saving where you were and not actively using memory or processing power.

rogue_pigeon said:
I actually spent my first 4-5 attempts using the touchscreen, given that the game itself offers absolutely no hint of how it should be played.
Click to expand...

Haha, me too. I was hoping that it was like that skateboard game that you control with your fingers, pretty disappointed when I figured out it was just tilt.



So what are the odds Capcom gets Phoenix Wright out by the end of the month? I was really looking forward to replaying it, hopefully it still makes it out. It's kind of worrying at this point that it's been delayed and then dropped off the map.
 
D

dreamer3kx

Member
ToxicAdam said:
Pretty good. A simplified Zelda 2. Graphics are a bit rough, but have a certain aesthetic to them that works. The controls might be a problem if you hate virtual pads.
Click to expand...

Thanks, just got a mini and looking for some great music games also, I had groove coaster awhile back, not sure what's our there now.
 
C

colinp

Banned
dr3upmushroom said:
From what I understand it's a myth that games on your multitasking bar are actually using resources. Some may, but for the most part they're just saving where you were and not actively using memory or processing power.
Click to expand...

No, the Infinity Blade devs confirmed last year that they are using resources, even sometimes if just the icon in memory... How else do you think they save where you are? Everything costs something in processing power.
 
C

Charlatan

Neo Member
colinp said:
No, the Infinity Blade devs confirmed last year that they are using resources, even sometimes if just the icon in memory... How else do you think they save where you are? Everything costs something in processing power.
Click to expand...

When the app is swapped out it's suspended and that's when an app saves your state. So that happens as it goes to the background, and the backgrounded app isn't doing anything as far as that goes.

As for using processing power: not sure what those devs were referring to but a backgrounded app can only do a few well-defined things: GPS, VOIP, (some types of) network activity, and audio playback. So it's unlikely a backgrounded Infinity Blade was doing anything.

Backgrounded apps do have memory allocated to them, though. But if the iPad needs the memory that a background app is taking up, the background app is killed - it's just axed. No warning, no chance to save, just <poof> it's gone. So while it might have had some memory allocated to it, if that memory was needed, the system would kill the app and recover it. So IMHO the only reason to kill Infinity Blade would be if you suspected it had a ton of memory allocated to it. If that was the case perhaps killing it would gave helped.
 
P

PFD

Member
heringer said:
So, apparently Heroes & Castles is a big hit.



I'm glad. The game is really fun. Can't wait for versus mode.
Click to expand...

I'm so glad to see this. The devs have a great thing going here, and it's awesome to see a game with substance and challenging gameplay actually making a profit on the App Store.
 
C

colinp

Banned
Charlatan said:
When the app is swapped out it's suspended and that's when an app saves your state. So that happens as it goes to the background, and the backgrounded app isn't doing anything as far as that goes.

As for using processing power: not sure what those devs were referring to but a backgrounded app can only do a few well-defined things: GPS, VOIP, (some types of) network activity, and audio playback. So it's unlikely a backgrounded Infinity Blade was doing anything.

Backgrounded apps do have memory allocated to them, though. But if the iPad needs the memory that a background app is taking up, the background app is killed - it's just axed. No warning, no chance to save, just <poof> it's gone. So while it might have had some memory allocated to it, if that memory was needed, the system would kill the app and recover it. So IMHO the only reason to kill Infinity Blade would be if you suspected it had a ton of memory allocated to it. If that was the case perhaps killing it would gave helped.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm familiar with how it works and I might be missing some detail, but I know there was an acknowledgement that having things open does take up memory despite everything.
 
C

Clunker

Member
I bought Final Fantasy Dimensions while it's on sale (full unlock for $19.99 instead of the $26.99 or whatever it usually is) and I'm only just starting the first "real" chapter, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Reaffirming what other people said when the game launched: It doesn't look nearly as heinous as the screenshots may have led you to believe. If you're seeing the screenshots on a PC browser, it looks like a PC RPG Maker hellish nightmare, but on my iPhone screen itself while playing it looks really nice. I haven't even gotten to any real job unlocks yet, but so far it feels suitably old-school (and I don't mean that in a condescending way).
 
P

PFD

Member
SparksterMeta0 said:
Puzzle Quest 2 is on sale for $1.99 until tomorrow.
I only played the first on Xbox360. How is PQ2 fare on iOS?
Click to expand...

I loved it. Great blend of RPG and match-3, plus fun exploration between 'fights'. I believe they released a freemium version that you can try out.
 
D

dr3upmushroom

Banned
colinp said:
No, the Infinity Blade devs confirmed last year that they are using resources, even sometimes if just the icon in memory... How else do you think they save where you are? Everything costs something in processing power.
Click to expand...
If all it's saving is the icon I doubt it's eating any significant amount of resources. I guess I should say it may be true that they're eating resources, but not to the extent that you need to be vigilant about keeping the multitasking bar clear.

A lot of people seem to think that having an app on the multitask bar means the full app is running in the background.
 
Z

Zzoram

Member
B

bob page

Member
whatevermort said:
The Mini has the best form factor of any tablet I've ever used. For games playing, it's tremendous. (I haven't even noticed the slowdown on the Cave apps, but I'm obsessive about keeping no apps running in the background etc.)
Click to expand...

Yeah, Mini is by far the best tablet for gaming right now. Kinda weird hearing Dash state otherwise.
 
E

Emarv

Member
Lupin3 said:
Penny Arcade: Gamers vs Evil is just so much fun! Highly recommended. And I knew nothing about deck building games before I tried this one.
Click to expand...

It's great. Ascension is the other big deck builder on the App Store, but it's basically the exact same game without the boss cards or humor.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Emarv said:
It's great. Ascension is the other big deck builder on the App Store, but it's basically the exact same game without the boss cards or humor.
Click to expand...

I like Ascension better myself. More card variety and the mechanics are actually quite different (five random cards in the middle instead of set piles) and deeper (constructs, events).

I like them both though. If you like one, I'd say the other is worth it.
 
C

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
Kunan said:
Looks neat! DLing now


It makes me sad to know the answer is no. Even just a good port of Sim City 2000 would be perfect! So many hundreds of hours playing that game back in the day.
Click to expand...
I'm kinda serious when I say my next game project should be a simcity-esqe game. I just poured through a bunch of city games on the App Store and almost all of them have you building the city itself instead of zoning. Yuck.
 
M

mrkgoo

Member
Welcome back, dash!

I feel I was one of the early exclusive iOS gamers, pretty much being only iOS from about 2008. Had some good times with many players here back then. I got left behind somewhat when I couldn't keep up with all the releases myself and with an agony iPhone 3G and iPad 1, neither which really cut it with modern iOS software.

But now I have an iPhone 5 and am enjoying glorious instant-opening apps and snappiness. Strangely enough, I've mostly been playing a lot of my old favourites...

Have an immense backlogue to get through, including kingdom rush and sword and sworcery.

I've now also picked up a 3ds, and picked up a bunch of $5 games like Tetris and res evil, plus working on some old DS games like Picross 3D.

So many games.
 
M

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Clunker said:
I bought Final Fantasy Dimensions while it's on sale (full unlock for $19.99 instead of the $26.99 or whatever it usually is) and I'm only just starting the first "real" chapter, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Reaffirming what other people said when the game launched: It doesn't look nearly as heinous as the screenshots may have led you to believe. If you're seeing the screenshots on a PC browser, it looks like a PC RPG Maker hellish nightmare, but on my iPhone screen itself while playing it looks really nice. I haven't even gotten to any real job unlocks yet, but so far it feels suitably old-school (and I don't mean that in a condescending way).
Click to expand...
Anyone who likes old FF battles and job systems should get this. And the auto battle option makes grinding so easy...it carries over through multiple battles till you cancel it, probably my favorite feature.
 
Jedeye Sniv

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
lowrider007 said:
Interesting comments regarding the iPad Mini as I've been trying to decide between the Mini and the 4th gen iPad for weeks now, it's been driving me crazy, form factor vs specs....., hard choice, I think after reading your post I'm veering more towards the 4th gen iPad now though.
Click to expand...

I don't even see how it's a question, really. The mini is a smaller iPad 2, end of story. The 4 not only has the retina screen but is also a full proper-generation more powerful (because the 3 was a fudge that was probably less powerful than the 2 when you consider the screen).

I'm pretty biased though, I really can't see any reason in the mini at all. My phone is my mini iPad :p

And welcome back Dash! Check the OPs for the previous few threads for some good new games. Next thread's on you, yeah? :D
 
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