The iOS gaming thread

[Massive Invisible Dog]

Whaaaat?!

It's one of the best draggy abouty interfaces I've used. You can drag and fire, drag and fire, in a really nice rhythm, and once you get used to the best order in which to unload the guns the variable zoom becomes second nature. For instance, when the bigger zombies appear (which I guess you might not have seen yet), it's best to unload a full clip of the chaingun into them, and then you're only one weapon cycle away from the Howitzer to clear the mob. Then it's straight back to the Bofors, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, move, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, move, and so on.

It's lovely.

I gave it two bus journeys. That's all it gets.

[Avuncular]

Is the new version of Tetris any good?

Some user reviews are positive but there's a lot of people moaning about the IAPs.

[Davros sock drawer]

I gave it two bus journeys. That's all it gets.

Booooo!

[Herbalizer]

Anyone got the new Football Manager? The developer is listing all the new features on Twitter and it sounds better than previous efforts. I'm still a little reluctant to buy it incase its the shallow piece of crap the previous iterations have been.

[Padlocked]

Is the new version of Tetris any good?

Some user reviews are positive but there's a lot of people moaning about the IAPs.

It's Tetris and the IAPs are anything but required. Classic mode works well as the additions are welcome. If you fancy Tetris (and you know what you're getting), it's 69p well spent.

[Avuncular]

It's Tetris and the IAPs are anything but required. Classic mode works well as the additions are welcome. If you fancy Tetris (and you know what you're getting), it's 69p well spent.

Thanks. It'd be rude not to at that price.

[Stig]

Anyone got the new Football Manager? The developer is listing all the new features on Twitter and it sounds better than previous efforts. I'm still a little reluctant to buy it incase its the shallow piece of crap the previous iterations have been.

I'm more worried about it taking over my life again. Wasn't the best version but I was always playing it.

Anyway. Batman Arkham City: Lockdown is out and currently downloading on my iphone.

[The Mighty Ash]

That trailer makes Batman look really good, but its VERY limited.

This Kotaku article is spot on:

http://kotaku.com/5866177/batmans-return-to-arkham-city-is-triumphant-but-short-lived

[ph0rce]

I was interested it because I enjoyed the AC-130 bits in Modern Warfare, but the annoyance of how you drag the crosshair around and switch between weapons/zoom levels just killed it for me.

I couldn't agree more with this post, I read all the fuss about the game in this thread but never picked it up at the time & I honestly can't believe how bad the controls are. The biggest problem is that it just doesn't FEEL right, there's nothing particularly wrong with it & I couldn't really suggest how it should be done but the feel is all wrong. Games like this live & die on the first five minutes given the nature of platform & this falls flat on its well designed arse.

I'm only annoyed because I'm disappointed, I might give it a couple more plays but I can't see my opinion changing.

[Cheeko]

jAggy Race is free today and meant to be pretty good. Haven't tried it yet, but certainly will be.

Decent game let down by a horrendous camera.

[RadgyAdgy]

Chrono Trigger is out, its £6.99. Think I'm going to wait for some reviews before I buy, I want to know how good or bad a job they have done with it.

[rumblecat]

I honestly can't believe how bad the controls are. The biggest problem is that it just doesn't FEEL right, there's nothing particularly wrong with it & I couldn't really suggest how it should be done but the feel is all wrong. Games like this live & die on the first five minutes given the nature of platform & this falls flat on its well designed arse.

Have to say I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum on this one. I held off for a bit but picked it up last week and controls really smoothly for me. Honestly can't think of what they could have done to make it control better because it does everything you want it to do. Controls are tight, the zoom-in, zoom-out works great... I know you say you can't suggest how it should be done, but I can't think of anyway they could have made the controls better. It does exactly what it's meant to do. Not trying to be a dick, but what made you think that it doesn't 'feel' right? Genuine question, not some deadly neg trap.

[Massive Invisible Dog]

There's just something wrong about the movement of the crosshair in relation to what you do on the touch screen, like it should move further than it does or something.

I don't know, I don't really care enough to work it out. Even without that issue it seems like it's just another time sink grinding game.

[Cheeko]

I think its a tough balance between initially not knowing what the fuck is going on and where, but eventually you get a feel for where the action is an what's coming. Then you end up fighting a battle within a small range beyond the escape zone and suddenly you don't want to be flying all over the play area, you want to be able to pick off small pairings of zombies and avoid any human casualties.

The controls are tailored for the latter.

[Dandy_Sephy]

Chrono Trigger is out, its £6.99. Think I'm going to wait for some reviews before I buy, I want to know how good or bad a job they have done with it.

How on earth is it almost 600mb!

[deerokus]

Have they added the cutscenes from the PS1 version?

[SaintM]

How did you manage to double post, quoting yourself?

I fully expect Chrono Trigger to:

* be way overpriced

* have poor controls

* to have slowdown/framerate issues

* to never get updated to fix them

* to never be on sale (at least in a meaningful way)

That seems to the norm for Japanese console game developers on the app store.

[deerokus]

I don't know how I did that! :S

Yeah, Square in particular are bad for those traits. I've been waiting for FF Tactics to be reduced to an acceptable price, doesn't look likely to ever happen.

[ComradeTrotskii]

Dizzy Prince of the Yolkfolk is out for £1.49.

[Davros sock drawer]

Baffled at these control gripes for ZG. They work so well I don't think I ever gave them a second thought.

I am playing it on a propped up iPad though. Right hand scrolls and changes weapons, left hand fires. Maybe it's less good on a phone?

And of course it's a timesink, but only because it's so addictive!

[Davros sock drawer]

Just had a quick blast. 1004 kills. Could have done much better but I was a bit lax with friendly fire. Much easier now you can kill 6 civilians before it's game over.

[Massive Invisible Dog]

Oh, I know what it is - it needs a virtual analogue stick, not swiping. The constant 'swipe, lift, swipe, lift' that you need on an iPhone (less so on an iPad because you can do bigger swipes) is what I find so grating, and a virtual stick would fix that completely.

Maybe this is just one of those 'the bad movement controls in RE4 were better because they made the game more tense!' disagreements.

[Chooch]

Oh, I know what it is - it needs a virtual analogue stick, not swiping. The constant 'swipe, lift, swipe, lift' that you need on an iPhone (less so on an iPad because you can do bigger swipes) is what I find so grating, and a virtual stick would fix that completely.

Maybe this is just one of those 'the bad movement controls in RE4 were better because they made the game more tense!' disagreements.

Nothing is better with a virtual stick, nothing.

[Mafro]

Have they added the cutscenes from the PS1 version?

Apparently it's a port of the DS version.

[superquake]

So, has anyone got Dizzy Prince of the Yolkfolk? How does it control/play?

[The Mighty Ash]

Mirrors Edge is free at the moment for both versions.

[Slartibartfast]

How on earth is it almost 600mb!

Apparently, the music is uncompressed lossless, or at least that's what I read elsewhere.

[Davros sock drawer]

Oh, I know what it is - it needs a virtual analogue stick, not swiping. The constant 'swipe, lift, swipe, lift' that you need on an iPhone (less so on an iPad because you can do bigger swipes) is what I find so grating, and a virtual stick would fix that completely.

Maybe this is just one of those 'the bad movement controls in RE4 were better because they made the game more tense!' disagreements.

It's definitely not one of those disagreements. I think it's an "It's fine on the iPad" non-disagreement.

Why do you need to lift? Is it simply because you're doing swipe, fire and weapon select with one hand, and holding the phone with the other?

[Massive Invisible Dog]

It's definitely not one of those disagreements. I think it's an "It's fine on the iPad" non-disagreement.

Why do you need to lift? Is it simply because you're doing swipe, fire and weapon select with one hand, and holding the phone with the other?

You need to lift because on a lot of occasions there's not enough room on the screen to make move the reticule with one swipe.

I tried the iPad version this morning and to be honest I found it just as annoying. I just don't see the control advantage it has over a virtual stick.

[Davros sock drawer]

Genuinely perplexing. I wish I could video myself playing it or something, it just works so perfectly for me. I think it would be horrible with a virtual stick.