Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Tablets, the new gaming console?

Now that tablets (and mobiles) are getting more and more powerful with multi-core CPUs in the gigahertz range and with really powerful GPUs like the Nvidia Tegra 3 more and more developers focus on console like games with 3D graphics, dynamic lightning and so on. All this is fine and dandy, but I'm getting a bit concerned when I see more and more first person shooters for these platforms. In my mind these games require very good controls to be truly playable, and I can't really see this happen on a tablet (I do admit that I have a hard time adjusting to the controls on a traditional XBox or PS3 as well). I want mouse and keyboard controls when I play an FPS!

Have a look at the following video of a Tegra 2/3 title called Shadowgun and see for yourself. Do you think the controls look good enough with that awkward screen swipe for looking around and the analog touch control circle for movement?


I agree with the guy demoing that the graphics is getting close to PC/console standards, but the controls ain't. Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of genres work really well on tablets/mobiles, but I don't think first person shooters is one of them...

As for having Android as a gaming console system it might actually work. Have a look at the following post on AndroidSpin about the EVO 2 Android Gaming Console. Look pretty neat!

2 comments:

  1. Japanese are one of the first buyers of Tablets which we could use for gaming, enjoy movie, song, wi-fi ,internet connection and more. I think that it is better to buy ipad than iphone.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really like the tech savvy bleeding edge mentality of people in Japan (and South Korea). There's a ton of cool products that never make it to Europe...

    ReplyDelete