IOS/ Android gaming- Getting close to serious gaming?

I found San Andreas, a shockingly awesome version of Dead Space, Modern Combat 4, Max Payne 1 to be quite playable on ipad. 8-bit and 16-bit classics were always there but it wont be long we find a scaled down version of Far Cry making it's way into the phones.

Also more yesteryear blockbusters are making their way into IOS/Android platforms (Baldurs Gate anyone?)

Now how many of you guys are into gaming on your cellphones? And how seriously do you take it?

Meh, so rarely am I in the position to game on my phone/tablet that its not really worthwhile to me. Tried Football manager on the ipad and it was AWFUL but I hear that XCOM and BG did a decent job. Realistically mobile gaming just isn't powerful yet to interest me as a serious platform beyond a killer for a few minutes here and there.

And most of the time i cannot stand the control schemes.

I really enjoyed the Rayman games as well as some puzzle games so there's definitely some potential, but to be 100% honest the best thing (IMO) mobile has going for it is emulating PS1/N64 games. Being able to play SotN, then switch over to some OoT or Mario 64 is just awesome. I use a PS3 controller when I do that.

Controls and power are definitely what hold it back. I don't think most serious gamers wouldn't consider gaming on a mobile device other than handhelds.

Plus, mobile gaming is more for the "flavor of the week" type of experience i.e. Angry Birds, Temple Run and Candy Crush.

has it got a bit better, sure i guess. But will it reach PC or Console level gaming anytime soon? HELL NO.

Gaming is pretty good on an iPad Mini Retina. Very high resolution, lots of screen real estate, weighs as much as a 3DS XL but is more powerful than a Vita. Obviously, the lack of physical controls is the biggest downpoint. Nonetheless, games are cheap, digital, plentiful and some are actually good (the vast majority aren't).

Overall, it's a fun on-the-go diversion. Which is pretty much what handheld games are supposed to be to me - when it comes time to serious gaming, I prefer to sit down with my PC or home console. While I'm glad the 3DS still exists and provides compelling experiences on handhelds, if handhelds were to disappear I could adapt to a world where on the go gaming is done on my iPad or smartphone.

nah i'm just not into that. i'd rather read ebooks on my phone, and do all my gaming on 'something proper'.

hope that doesn't sound too elitist.

The only game I really like to play on my phone and tablet is Minecraft.. everything else is just mediocre.

No. It used to, but for the last two years it;s been getting worse and worse. F2P completely took over and even for premium games it became extremely hard to convince people to pay more than 99 cents

No, the inconsistency between different phones/tablets, the control scheme, and the huge amount shovelware still hurt the platform greatly. It still not worth the risk for a lot of developers to make quality content for mobile platforms when crap will do just as well.

Here are some of the launch titles for NVIDIA's Shield Tablet:

These games have been optimized for Tegra K1 and make use of OpenGL 4.x.

Other games coming at launch or at a later date include:

• Serious Sam 3
• Pure Chess
• Rochard
• Anomaly 2
• Flyhunter: Origins
• Dungeon Defenders Eternity
• Chuck's Challenge 3D: Reloaded

Tablet controllers, such as Gamevice, will be launching before the end of the year:

I'm not into mobile gaming but it's already more serious then handheld gaming.. Most people here don't want to admit it, though

So most amongst us seem to be using it for casual to light gaming it seems. But point is phones are getting powerful by the day. And it is not like a Vita or a 3DS which maintains same hardware for 4-5 years. Phones are hardware upgraded within less than a year. (Reminds me of PC vs console scenario, LOL)

But yeah lack of physical controllers is gripe (thanks for the input @NVIDIATI , seems a cool idea to Vita-fy the iphone).

So true that F2P sucks @AdrianWerner!! BIG TIME!! (Once I remember playing a Brother in Arms F2P title on my i-pad, out of nowhere and they asked me to buy bullets/grenades, when i ran out of them after barely starting to play. At that rate i would spend more in that title than i would spend on an upcoming PS4 title, should i even consider finishing BIA on I-pad!!)

There have been "serious" games available on mobile devices for years. If a gamer is willing to put in the effort, there are many titles across genres every bit as deep and challenging as titles on more traditional platforms.

However, that's not the focus of mobile gaming, and mobile really isn't moving in that direction. As the number of mobile titles continues to explode, the number of full titles will rise as well. But it's still going to be a minor part of the market.

There's some legit srs games on the platforms already. It's just discoverability with Google Play and the Appstore is really awful.

I just don't find many games that I'd want to play. They aren't on the level exclusive wise with my 3DS and for any other portable gaming I'd use my laptop.

No, not even close.

Sure, if you compare the biggest mobile devs with small console and PC ones.

I've had a really really great time playing on my phone this year. In fact I think an iOS/Android game might just break my top 10 for 2014. If I had played Ridiculous Fishing in 2013 it surely would have booted off one of the games from the top 10 last year.

LOL mobile gaming

Serious enough to be destroying the vita, & 3ds.

Until it stops being flooded with fee to pay crap, no. It's not taking itself seriously and neither will I.

I don't consider playing Angry Birds, Candy Crush or Words with Friends on your phone or iPad to be "serious" gaming.

no...nothing there of worth really and the hardware is not suited to the types of games being made for them. they have plenty of horsepower (the top of the range phones today make the 3DS and vita look like decrepid old tat horespower wise).

the shield is interesting but too big as a handheld and too small for a tablet. a proper gaming phone (not something like the ngage) would also be very nice to have but would be a hard sell with the current slate design being the standard.

You'll always have a second grade gaming experience. Bad controls, bad games. You could get these peripherals to get a controller like experience, I'd say have fun playing SNES and PS1 games.

IOS has been going down hill for awhile now. Nearly everything is free to play. I don't know a single person that even bothers looking at what is available now. As for android I don't know. I am thinking about getting the Nvidia Tablet but I've read that there are lag issues that are inherent to the android os?

That's likely referring to Android's Dalvik runtime, something that's being replaced in Android L (next major Android version coming this fall). NVIDIA will update the Shield tablet to Android L when the code becomes available. The new runtime is called ART and the pre-release version has already shown a reasonable performance increase on the Nexus 5.

In many points, Google has delivered its “Performance boosting thing” and addressed much of the shortcomings that have plagued Android for years.

ART patches up many of the Achilles’ heels that comes with running non-native applications and having an automatic memory management system. As a developer, I couldn’t have asked for more, and most performance issues that I needed to work around with clever programming no longer pose such a drastic problem anymore.

This also means that Android is finally able to compete with iOS in terms of application fluidity and performance, a big win for the consumer.

Google still promises to evolve ART in the future and its current state is definitely not what it was 6 months ago, and definitely not what it will be once the L release is made available in its final form in devices. The future looks bright and I can’t wait to see what Google will do with its new runtime.

Credit Andrei Frumusanu - Anandtech

@NVIDIATI: @NVIDIATI:

Thanks for posting that. The Shield Tablet is what I think Vita should have been. I'm very close to sold on it for reasons we cannot discuss really. What are your thoughts on it? You are more tech savvy than myself it seems.

As long as developers on the platform keep choosing to design games around a revenue stream instead of solid game mechanics, mobile can go **** itself.

It is truly in a horrible, horrible place.

If you're not going to use the GameStream feature, and you're set on the 8" form factor, I would hold off for a Windows tablet using Intel's 14 nm Cherry Trail (replacing Bay Trail in Q4 of 2014). You can do a lot more with full x86 Windows than you can with Android. A Windows / Cherry Trail device should also do a better job at "that".

I don't think we should settle for "quite playable".

Especially when we have so many controllers and keyboard and mice that work perfectly for so many games.

Why would I play SA on a less accurate and comfortable touch screen when I can play it with a controller and keyboard and mouse ?

interesting. So why do you think nvidia went with android?

Because it's cheap. Mobile is still terribly underpowered, but the hardware is dirty cheap, especially gaming hardware.

Shield tablet is like 300 bucks. A similiar gaming-centric Razer Edge PC tablet is 700

Been playing XCOM on my phone that I purchased for 100USD without contract a while back. (LG Optimus G LS970)

The game is great and runs fine maxed out.

I wouldn't compare a phone to a console or PC but it can have some nice games.

Plus emulation is always there.

There are plenty of games to keep me busy but I find myself drawn more to the simplistic games like Smash Hit since I don't really have long gaming sessions on my phone that often.