iPhone Game Center to arrive next week
Apple's iPhone Game Center will launch next week.
Game Center, which will launch alongsie iOS 4.1, is being billed as Apple's version of Xbox Live, Games for Windows Live or PSN. It's essentially a hub for multiplayer game activity that includes support for social networking, leaderboards and achievements features and can be integrated into all iPhone games.
As part of the announcement, Jobs claimed that the iPod Touch is the "number one portable games player in the world" and boasted that more than 1.5 billion games and entertainment titles had been sold via the App Store to date.
Apple also unveiled a number of other features, including new iPod Touch models that include Retina displays, front-facing cameras and HD video capture.
Epic Games was also involved in the event, unveiling new Unreal Engine 3 apps that work on iDevices. Epic's tech demo, Epic Citadel, is now available on the AppStore for free, but is not compatible with first or second gen iPod Touch devices.
Epic is also working on a new UE3 game for the iPhone, a Fable-esque RPG called Project Sword which should be released in time for Christmas.
Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyTrying to resist a smutty pork and apple joke.......
I love how they now class the portible iDevices as Gaming handsets instead of portable media devices.
It just wouldn't be Apple if you didn't have to routinely throw out your slightly older model for the new model which isn't noticeably quicker.
Now, please shoot me for defending Apple.
:D
Also, I game, I don't need a social life, GTFO with the social gaming, let me alone.
BTW I do have a social life, work, friends, girl, but don't see any reason to social gaming.
to be honest, the only reason Apple supports 3G in iOS 4 is due to their pricing model that sold 3G as cheap iPhone (and 3Gen ipod touch 8GB with same hardware as 2gen) if it wasn't for that, i highly doubt they will bother with a 3G/touch 2gen iOS4 release.
I for one will be shelving my 3GS for a WP7 when it comes out, quite looking forward to it. XBox Live integration, being able to play the same save between devices, and the push from Microsoft to get turn-based games on the platform (pleeeeeeease let there be Civilisation!)
i don't agree with the evolution of gaming by covering up most of the gaming screen with inept touchscreen controls as being an improvement at all...
I take it you speak from some basis of authority, having used both a 3G or iPod Touch and an iPhone 4, thus being able to make a reasonably objective comparison about their difference in speed.
I've used, and this list could get long:
iPod Classic/Video/Original
iPod Nano (1st generation, 2nd Generation)
iPod touch (1st generation, 2nd generation)
iPhone (All bar 3GS)
iBook (G3, G4)
Powerbook (G3, G4)
MacBook (Early C2D)
MacBookPro (Several versions, couldn't recite them all off the top of my head)
I've used my fair share of different versions, very often sequentially, to very often a very little appreciable notice in speed. The only time I genuinely said to myself "This is faster than what I've used before" was when I went iBook-Macbook Pro (For what it's worth, that list isn't perfectly sequential. Some were being used at the same time).
I base my dislike of Apples business plan on what I consider to be a fair experience with it :p
Edit: Oh, and there was supposed to be an air of "joke" in my original post, but hey :p
well, there's no better way around it.
currently, you carry a phone in your pocket, and when you want to game, you game on it. single device in the pocket.
if there were an attachable controller, that would be 2 devices in your pocket. then going for a dedicated gaming device (eg. PSP) to save battery on the phone makes a lot more sense.
what Epic has done is to say: right, we are not going to be making FPS with this engine, we'll make RPG-like stuff. thus no need for real virtual analogue sticks. in the tech demo, there is an alternative control scheme by tapping on where you want to go on the screen. much like Monkey Island 2. and i think this method works on the touch screen, for a RPG.
Hell, I can see that reliably moving to two laptops in the near future.
iphone in one pocket, wallet + keys in other pocket. has seen me through university without problem, no bags. occasionally take the netbook i throw into lab locker for some programming-in-lectures.
It's not a case of time to kill, it's just a personal preference. I know most of you would run a virtual machine, but I absolutely loathe 'em, and I need a linux box. I'd rather have a bit of extra weight than run a VM box. As insane as it sounds.
Oh, and this is work related rather than uni related. Uni saw me doing much the same as you - Taking the bare minimum to exist on a technical level.
The bag, despite my temptation towards Crumpler, will probably be a Slappa Mask K.O.A - As such, pretty beefy.
And same with my post. Perhaps we should use smileys more. :D Possibly a strategy for current Israel-Palestine peace talks too. :p
Perhaps you rag your iPhone more than I do, then :p
For me, the iPhone 4 hasn't offered a noticeable difference in anything other than a nicer display.
It doesn't compel us to buy it, no, and I've not paid for a Mac since the first MBP I used (the fourth Apple laptop I've paid for, and the last), but being "The Apple guy" for work tends to leave me with a pile of Apple hardware that our customers - Who are, apparently, mildly retarded - have asked to be "sorted out", which has left me with a fairly regular use of different spec machines, of all ages, and often ragging the hell out of them for the sake of thorough testing before they go back.
I can just imagine that - "And today, in the Palestine-Israel talks, they mastered the use of the :p emoticon."
Apple's strategy is sound business, release a little at a time and reap the profits. As I've seen in other articles, the problem is that Apple is so much the market leader and so much the innovator that there are iPod 'alternatives', but nothing else that leads the way.
I've had an iPhone since the 2G and they've all had decent improvements to them. The iPhone 4's screen is by far and away the best I've seen on a mobile device like that, nothing comes close. You can argue specs are short and things are missing, but it's a superbly capable device and does everything I want it to do: well and easily.
I'm no Apple fanboy and despite 'wanting' the gorgeous looking Macbooks and Mini's of this world, I'll stick with my ever-upgradeable watercooled PC with a superb Win 7 OS on it. The problem is though, the allure of those sexy macs is soo strong :p
I'm looking forward to some new games on the iPhone 4, but I'm not banking my hopes on replacing my MW2 fix ;)
Actually, Epic Citadel is a fully modelled citadel that you can walk around in... basically a tech demo of the UE3 port for iOS, and it's free