Why is gaming on Android still lacking and so bad?

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Eh, I got Majesty, Go, and Emulators on my thunderbolt and I don't want for a better experience. I've never had my battery run out on my thunderbolt over using it over the course of the day either.

 

[cheezy321]

Wow, it seems like Android fanboys have more in common with Apple fanboys than they would like to admit. "If my platform doesn't have it, then I don't want it and neither should anybody else."

So much this. Phandroids are the exact same as the apple fanboys they hate.

 

[MrX8503]

iPhone user here.

Have you guys actually played these poster boy games Infinity Blade and Rage? They look great, but the game play is so poor it's not even funny. It's ridiculously simple minded; I felt like I was playing a game designed around a 6 year old's capabilities. They are nothing more than fantastic looking tech demos.

It's not just limited to those games either, it's a running theme with a lot of mobile games. Fruit Ninja? Again, it looks and sounds nice, but even my 10 year old sister got bored of it pretty quick. Don't even get me started on all those racing games that either auto accelerate and/or turn for you...

Smartphone gaming is highly overrated, regardless of platform.

Have you played Dead Space or NBA Jam? They're FULL out games with incredible graphics too.

 

[gsaldivar]

So much this. Phandroids are the exact same as the apple fanboys they hate.

Meh. I'll be the first one to admit that there is a better selection of games on iOS than Android. Maybe I'm not Apple's target market or something, I really don't know anyone who uses their phone primarily for games.

That's not to say that because "I don't want it, neither should anyone else", it's just that playing games on my phone really isn't even on the list of priorities of anyone that I know... :sneaky:

 

[cheezy321]

Meh. I'll be the first one to admit that there is a better selection of games on iOS than Android. Maybe I'm not Apple's target market or something, I really don't know anyone who uses their phone primarily for games.

That's not to say that because "I don't want it, neither should anyone else", it's just that playing games on my phone really isn't even on the list of priorities of anyone that I know... :sneaky:

Nobody uses their phone primarily for games. To have a good selection of games when you do want to play one is always nice tho.

Besides, how many people use their phones primarily to make calls anymore?

 

[Ns1]

Besides, how many people use their phones primarily to make calls anymore?

6 anytime minutes used so far this billing period (14 days)

 

[zerocool84]

6 anytime minutes used so far this billing period (14 days)

WOW you never talk. I text a ton and email but I don't understand how people can still go without actually talking on a phone. I make business calls, family calls, late night lady calls, all that jazz. I use thousands of minutes a month.

 

[Ns1]

WOW you never talk. I text a ton and email but I don't understand how people can still go without actually talking on a phone. I make business calls, family calls, late night lady calls, all that jazz. I use thousands of minutes a month.

unlimited text + data

GF used a whopping 420 minutes this month. We have 4200 rollover minutes lol

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

First your iPod has a A4/Hummingbird processor which are faster clock for clock than generic Cortex A8 processors like the one found in the Droid. Also the iPod Touch has a PowerVR SGX 535 gpu which if I'm not mistaken is faster than the SGX 530 found in the Droid.

They're all Cortex A8 based. The TI OMAP and A4 processors duke it out pretty well if you look at say Droid X vs Samsung Galaxy S. It's the Snapdragon SOC that falls behind.

But honestly, most of this is based on graphics. The SGX 535 GPUs that came with the A4s are damn fast. The 530s that came with the Droid are slightly slower. And then the Adreno 200 that everyone cites as making the Snapdragon slow is what held it back. But all of this is mainly based on Quadrant scores. Today's non dual core phones are slightly faster mainly because of kernel and software optimizations... and to an extent GPU improvements. If you look at custom kernels, the CPU for the Droid 1 and Nexus 1 can be pretty much just as fast as the CPUs today. The reason those two fall behind on Quadrant is because the graphics score is holding it back. The new Snapdragon 1ghz phones like the Incredible S do fine in Quadrant because the Adreno 205 gives it a nice boost.

But honestly how much acceleration do you need in Angry Birds? We're talking ANGRY BIRDS. Not even the 600mb 3D games. The iPod Touch 4G may have an advantage compared to my Droid but the iPod Touch 3G or 2G or even 1G run Angry Birds fine. The latter 2 are based on ARM11 processors.

And does Angry Birds count as a 3D game? I mean it's like saying my computer can't run SC1 smoothly because I'm on a old nVidia TNT2, while it will run smooth as silk on my GeForce 580. The game is so simple you're not really GPU limited... or shouldn't be.... at least with Angry Birds...

Look. Whatever the excuse is (fragmentation, laziness, shitty coding, CPU/GPU overhead in Android)... games aren't running optimally compared to their iOS counterparts. Optimally isn't say 10% performance penalty or something trivial... it's pretty darn big.

 

[BenSkywalker]

this is about the official games available. not "pirated" games for emulators

Sony has their own Playstation emulator for Android, the next gen PSP is also going to be running Android. You can stay away from the gray market and still have a lot more options then people seem to think. The problem is, this forum mainly has a lot of die hard HTC/Samsung fans and both of those companies are pretty bad when it comes to gaming.

apple reaches out to game devs. not sure about google and htc

In comparison to Google and HTC Apple does deal with game devs in a far superior fashion. That said, Apple can't compete with nVidia on that front and honestly neither one of them are remotely in the league of Sony.

Look. Whatever the excuse is (fragmentation, laziness, shitty coding, CPU/GPU overhead in Android)... games aren't running optimally compared to their iOS counterparts.

DD runs better on my Atrix then my iPhone, and it looks better. You can go game by game if you'd like, the fact is that you are running a phone with an utter POS for a GPU and it's holding it back, badly.

 

[erikistired]

Have you played Dead Space or NBA Jam? They're FULL out games with incredible graphics too.

i have tiger woods and madden for the ipad. they are quite impressive for running on a tablet. light years better than anything i've seen on the android so far.

 

[Bateluer]

They're all Cortex A8 based. The TI OMAP and A4 processors duke it out pretty well if you look at say Droid X vs Samsung Galaxy S. It's the Snapdragon SOC that falls behind.

But honestly, most of this is based on graphics. The SGX 535 GPUs that came with the A4s are damn fast. The 530s that came with the Droid are slightly slower. And then the Adreno 200 that everyone cites as making the Snapdragon slow is what held it back. But all of this is mainly based on Quadrant scores. Today's non dual core phones are slightly faster mainly because of kernel and software optimizations... and to an extent GPU improvements. If you look at custom kernels, the CPU for the Droid 1 and Nexus 1 can be pretty much just as fast as the CPUs today. The reason those two fall behind on Quadrant is because the graphics score is holding it back. The new Snapdragon 1ghz phones like the Incredible S do fine in Quadrant because the Adreno 205 gives it a nice boost.

AFAIK, the 205 is 2x-3x as fast as the Adreno 200. Its a huge jump. And Qualcomm is pretty public with their future Adreno 220 and 300 offerings too.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Well, I think some people here just aren't that much into gaming even though they have an iPhone, which pretty much supports my last statement that people with iPad and iPod Touch 4 do games more...

And I'm not sure why but people seem to just go back and forth between Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds when there are so many more worthy titles. Give these a try:

Plants vs Zombies (lawn defense)
Fieldrunners (tower defense)
Shadow Era (monster card battle)
Icarus-X (port but otherwise identical, and great!)
Real Racing (1 + 2)
Worms (1 + 2)
Samurai Vengeance (1 + 2, 2 is also available for Android Tegra if I'm not mistaken)
Mirror's Edge
Monopoly
Trainz (train simulator)
X-Plane (plane simulator)
World of Goo
Flight Control
Call of Duty Zombies
Superbrothers: Sword and Sorcery
Civilization Revolution
Tower Madness
Death Rally
LEGO Harry Potter
Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars
Cut The Rope
Back To The Future (Ep 1 + 2)
Sam and Max Adventure (Ep 1 + 2)

Those are just what I can remember (because I own them). There are far more in there if I have to pull them all out...

And one of the known fun facts is that games for iOS come almost every Wednesday/Thursday night. It's almost guaranteed that you'll see a new promising game out by those times. I think that speaks volumes about how frequent games are being pushed to iOS.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Sony has their own Playstation emulator for Android, the next gen PSP is also going to be running Android. You can stay away from the gray market and still have a lot more options then people seem to think. The problem is, this forum mainly has a lot of die hard HTC/Samsung fans and both of those companies are pretty bad when it comes to gaming.

Is it? :hmm:

 

[purbeast0]

Meh. I'll be the first one to admit that there is a better selection of games on iOS than Android. Maybe I'm not Apple's target market or something, I really don't know anyone who uses their phone primarily for games.

That's not to say that because "I don't want it, neither should anyone else", it's just that playing games on my phone really isn't even on the list of priorities of anyone that I know... :sneaky:

yes, but flash is 100% necessity, even for all iphone users ... :sneaky:

 

[AstroManLuca]

WOW you never talk. I text a ton and email but I don't understand how people can still go without actually talking on a phone. I make business calls, family calls, late night lady calls, all that jazz. I use thousands of minutes a month.

I don't make a ton of phone calls but even if I did I doubt I'd use a whole lot of anytime minutes. Since I'm on Sprint, the only ones I get charged for are calls to or from landlines before 7 PM on weekdays.

You're on Sprint too, right? Do you use a lot of minutes despite Any Mobile Anytime and 7 PM nights?

 

[akugami]

The new PSP phone, Xperia Play, is not officially the next iteration of the PSP. It's more of a side product. It's actually an interesting product if you go to the link and it is running on top of Android.

You have to buy Sony's Xperia Play branded phones for this functionality. I'm using plural because they'll likely update the hardware periodically. So the "PSP phone" does increase the prospect of gaming on a mobile phone, but only if you buy a Sony Xperia phone, and the form is very nice and looks highly functional. Certainly much better than what you can get on any "regular" smart phone because it has a slide out game pad as well as the touch screen controls.

As for the next real PSP being on Android, that's the rumors but who knows at this point. The only official info is encapsulated in this blog post. It shows no mention of Android although considering the hardware specs it would have been trivial for Sony to design it with Android in mind.

PlayStation®Suite (PS Suite), announced today, will also closely coordinate with NGP. The newly developed and released game content for Android™ based portable devices can also be enjoyed on NGP. As a result, users will have access to not only the most leading-edge content, but also some of the more casual experiences that typify the mobile market place.

This comment from a Sony press release is highly suggestive that the NGP, or PSP2, will be running on Android. However, it would be just as easy looking at the PSP2's hardware specs for Sony to create an emulator for those games that run on the PS Suite software which runs on the Xperia Play.

yes, but flash is 100% necessity, even for all iphone users ... :sneaky:

Thank you for speaking for all iPhone owners. As an iPhone 4 owner, I was happy to learn from you that I needed Flash. I will now pester Apple and rant and rave at them for not including Flash.

 

[runawayprisoner]

yes, but flash is 100% necessity, even for all iphone users ... :sneaky:

Well, use Skyfire or Splashtop Remote or Cloud Browse or anything along those lines.

The difference is that there are alternatives for missing bits and pieces, whereas you can't actually do anything about lack of actual gaming apps.

 

[alent1234]

at least this thread inspired me to sideload psx4droid on my Inspire without rooting it and now i can get a copy of FF7 and play it. played it years ago on PC and never finished it. was going to buy it for my PS3 but don't have time to play it at home

 

[purbeast0]

that totally whooshed over your guys head...

i own an iPhone 4 and have had 0 use for flash since i got it. i was simply pointing out how that is such a huge argument for the android camp, but in this thread when android does not have games on it, they turn to the "oh well it is a phone we don't need games anyways" as their answer, and yet it is okay for them to say this, but not for iphone users to say they are fine without flash.

 

[cheezy321]

that totally whooshed over your guys head...

i own an iPhone 4 and have had 0 use for flash since i got it. i was simply pointing out how that is such a huge argument for the android camp, but in this thread when android does not have games on it, they turn to the "oh well it is a phone we don't need games anyways" as their answer, and yet it is okay for them to say this, but not for iphone users to say they are fine without flash.

I understood what you meant.

 

[akugami]

that totally whooshed over your guys head...

i own an iPhone 4 and have had 0 use for flash since i got it. i was simply pointing out how that is such a huge argument for the android camp, but in this thread when android does not have games on it, they turn to the "oh well it is a phone we don't need games anyways" as their answer, and yet it is okay for them to say this, but not for iphone users to say they are fine without flash.

Actually I got the message. That's why my reply had a happy face on it at the end. Honestly, in my web browsing on my iPhone, I haven't missed Flash on the sites I regularly visit.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Wow, it seems like Android fanboys have more in common with Apple fanboys than they would like to admit. "If my platform doesn't have it, then I don't want it and neither should anybody else."

Heh, sort of like Mac users and gaming. Lots of parallels there.

The iPhone is unquestionably the superior platform for gaming. A few popular games make it to Android, like Angry Birds, and they're often brought up by Android fanboys. But iPhone gaming is just better.

Android users just have to get their gaming jollies elsewhere. I am not very big on portable gaming (rarely find myself in situations where it's appropriate). Similarly, Mac users get just a few good games for their platform and generally have to look to consoles if they want to do anything else.

 

[zerocool84]

I don't make a ton of phone calls but even if I did I doubt I'd use a whole lot of anytime minutes. Since I'm on Sprint, the only ones I get charged for are calls to or from landlines before 7 PM on weekdays.

You're on Sprint too, right? Do you use a lot of minutes despite Any Mobile Anytime and 7 PM nights?

I use around just 100 minutes a month since almost everyone I talk to for business and pleasure is all cellphones but I talk for thousands of minutes myself which is why I'm on Sprint. Any Mobile Anytime is great for me.

 

[Howard]

You don't like Angry Birds?