Photographers (pro or amateur) will usually favor a reflex camera over a smartphone. By no means this means there are some situations where the phone is better or perfectly capable.
In this regard, gaming isn't that different.
There's always a balance between 'better' and 'slightly worse but more convenient'. The console/PC thing sits in that slot for me rather than the 'completely different controls and games' divide between consoles and mobile.But PCs are better at gaming than dedicated consoles
No buttons and whenever I have tried mobile gaming, after 5 - 10 mins I am done.
Seen them around campus quite a bit. It's a little funny that you cite the Vita as a sign that handhelds are dying but immediately go on to say "WELL THE 3DS IS ONLY POPULAR BECAUSE KIDS."Your phone has more powerful hardware than your 3DS, PSP, and if it's a recent phone, even your Vita.
The lack of buttons is a problem for more traditional gaming experiences, but there are plenty of game genres (RPGs and racing games spring to mind instantly) which control fine without buttons. The others, well, I guess that's what your 3DS is for.
Portable gaming is dying pretty fast though, and phones are a big reason why. The Vita would have been successful if it were a phone with additional proprietary game function, as a pure gaming device it's DOA and nothing can save it. The 3DS is still successful because every 5-year old kid still has one, but when's the last time you saw a teen or adult with a 3DS?
Crap analogy but you know why I mean- specs aren't everything unless you are really, really into your tech- show it to most of your mates and they will squint a bit and not be able to see much of a difference. But if it makes you happy knowing that you have the fastest machine this side of NASA, then knock yourself out, that's what hobbies are for
no buttons
No. The vita is built specifically for gaming, from the inside and out. Remember that Carmack quote about consoles and PC's? The same thing applies here.[/quote]Your phone has more powerful hardware than your 3DS, PSP, and if it's a recent phone, even your Vita.
Racing games are somewhat playable without buttons but i still prefer them. Compare NFS most wanted vita to any ios racer and you'll see what I'm talking about.The lack of buttons is a problem for more traditional gaming experiences, but there are plenty of game genres (RPGs and racing games spring to mind instantly) which control fine without buttons. The others, well, I guess that's what your 3DS is for.
No it wouldn't have been successful. Why did the xperia play flop? It flopped because of price, marketing and lack of killer app games. And lol@ your 3ds criticism.Portable gaming is dying pretty fast though, and phones are a big reason why. The Vita would have been successful if it were a phone with additional proprietary game function, as a pure gaming device it's DOA and nothing can save it. The 3DS is still successful because every 5-year old kid still has one, but when's the last time you saw a teen or adult with a 3DS?
I'm holding my iPhone in my hand as I type this. If Apple added a little A and B button to the right of the screen (in portrait mode) and a little Dpad to the left, and maybe L and R buttons, I would be all over mobile gaming. I just can't stand those capacitive screen controls. So inaccurate. So useless for many genres.
no buttons
Deeper gaming experiences.
First couple of posts just about sum things up for me!
Yeah I know what you mean, I have a gaming PC but spend a lot of time playing on my PS3 and handhelds for a lot of different reasons, even if a game has a PC port.
To me though that same argument can be reversed to apply to iPhone gaming... it's not the BEST thing ever, sure, but I have it in my pocket at all times. Can I emulate FFV on my desktop PC and play it? Sure, but if I have it on my phone I am way more likely to pop it out every once in a while for a quick fix.
Mobile gaming has a LOT of crap, for sure. Then again, the DS had a similar amount of crap and you had to spend $30 to find out, but the DS is still one of my favorite systems of all time.
iOS has a lot of good games that were made from the ground up with touch controls in mind, and a lot of decent ports that use touch controls adequately but were obviously not made with it in mind. There are deep RPGs that were ported over from other systems. They don't sell well, so you don't see many get ported these days. I played through all of Ghost Trick on iOS, it was entirely touch based on the DS anyway.
You can make a game work for touch, it doesn't make touch inherently shit. There are a lot of amazing DS games that proved that already.
-Lack of quality control
-Bad touch controls - tends to restrict genres
-A lot of them being focused on nickle and diming you (freeimum model)
-Lack of depth
Battery life is the biggest factor for me. I have some awesome games and emulators for my Android phone, but they wreak havoc on my charge level. It's not worth sacrificing phone calls, text messages, and email in order to enjoy a game for 30 minutes.
I also need buttons. I bought an iControlpad and I have dabbled with other "clip on" controllers, but I would rather have something that is built into the system as standard. I liked the idea of the original Xperia Play, but it still didn't solve the problem with needing a longer battery life. I can tolerate the Vita and 3DS not having a good battery, mainly because I don't rely on it to make phone calls and to send messages. One of these days someone will give us the best of both worlds, but there needs to be either stronger batteries or less power-hungry hardware to make it worthwhile.
There also needs to be better quality control with software. Browsing for quality games on iPhone and Android is similar to browsing for quality videos on YouTube. It requires too much work to figure out what isn't bad or a complete scam. The ratio of bad games to great ones is so uneven, it's like swimming in a pool of shit to find a bar of chocolate.