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Epic Games’ Project Sword is Possibly the Best Looking Mobile Phone Game Ever

by Chance
on September 6, 20106:42 am

Overshadowed by the news coming out of Apple’s Special Event on September 1st about iTunes 10, Apple TV and the new lineup of iPods, Epic Games’ announcement of its upcoming title for the iPhone, iPad and iTouch quietly changed the way many people look at the games market for mobile phones. The game, tentatively called Project Sword, will at the very least feature a social gaming network, allowing you to challenge friends in online multiplayer, and third-person sword-based combat, controlled by making flicking and sliding movements across the screen in vertical or horizontal directions. All of this isn’t too groundbreaking, but the real star of the show was the graphics, which look they belong on a genuine mobile gaming platform like a Nintendo 3DS or a Sony PSP Go.

These graphics are stunning. A tech demo called Epic Citadel shows off a gorgeous fortified city, with well-rendered cobblestone streets and cathedrals, reminiscent of Stormwind in World of Warcraft. Epic Citadel, as well as Project Sword, run on Epic’s Unreal Engine, which looks to completely shatter expectations of how a game should look on a mobile phone. The lighting and texture effects are what I would have assumed to be impossible on a mobile phone before seeing this announcement. The tech demo is free to download, which allows you to run around this small world and look around from a first-person perspective at the wonders that surround you. Just one look at one of the screenshots above should tell you all you need to know about how big of a game-changer this game is going to be. Those screens are from a game on an iPhone 4!

Many people have been reluctant to accept the iPhone and other smartphones as legitimate mobile gaming platforms, often because of the simplicity of games released, in terms of gameplay and graphics. It was not thought proper to consider these smartphones to be in the same market as the 3DS or the PSP Go, but Project Sword looks like it might be changing a few minds. If the iPhone 4 has the chops to be able to run something like this, the bar has been raised for complexity in general on all mobile phone games. If Project Sword finds success, I would expect many big name publishers and developers to start taking a much more serious look at creating mobile phone games. I think this could usher in a mobile gaming renaissance.

Granted, from the video provided of the developer showing off the game, the gameplay itself looks fairly simple, as directional dragging and swiping have already become standard gameplay devices on mobile phones. Still, I think that if graphics this impressive can be made, more advanced gameplay can only be a few steps behind. It might even get Apple and other smartphone companies to start focusing more on gaming when developing new products.

My only concern as of now is battery power: app-based gaming on smartphones tends to drain the battery very, very quickly, and a game with graphics like this I can only assume will drain it even faster. If you need to constantly have a charger with you to play the game for an appreciable amount of time, it casts doubt on whether or not the game can even be considered “mobile.” We’ll find out for sure when Project Sword hits the iTunes store later this year.

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Toshiba’s Answer to the Apple iPad Coming Soon

by Chance
on August 30, 20109:19 am

Specs have been leaked for the tablet being developed by Toshiba, which will apparently launch under the handle of Folio 100. The Folio 100 will likely hit stores around the holiday season, and will be part of a larger movement by tech companies into the tablet market. The Folio 100, like most other in-production tablets, will run Android 2.2. The only piece of information that seems to be missing so far is arguably the most important one: price. That point could decide whether or not the Folio 100, or any other upcoming tablet, can compete with Apple’s iPad.

The Folio 100 will have a 10 inch screen with 16GB of internal memory, and will use the Opera mobile web browser. What makes the Folio 100 most intriguing is that it is bringing to the table several features absent in the iPad that many tech fans have been expecting from a tablet. As opposed to Apple’s unilateral port dedicated to iTunes syncing, the Folio 100 will have an HDMI port, a USB 2.0 port and a USB 2.0 mini port. It also features an SD card slot, which, along with the other new ports, will allow users much more flexibility in transferring files of all different kinds of formats from their tablet to their computers or mobile devices, which is becoming a must in the present on-the-go business world. The specs are rounded out by an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and up to 7 hours of battery life.

The presence of Flash support also gives Toshiba, and likely every other tech company preparing to churn out their own iteration of tablet technology, a leg up an Apple. Flash, which has become a staple of the web, has yet to see support from any of Apple’s mobile devices. No doubt many consumers will be drawn to the promise of virtually unrestricted web access promised by these new tablets. Also, word is that Toshiba is planning on unveiling its own app store, in addition to the already robust Android app store. If enough like what they see, Apple may need to step up their game, which could have terrific results for tech fanatics everywhere.

It might be that, even if Toshiba and other Android compatible machines find success, the entire tablet market will need to advance quickly, and by leaps and bounds, in the near future. As of now, many are questioning the usefulness of an iPad, or any tablet, for that matter. Some critics say that the tablet tries to fill a non-existent gap between mobile devices and laptops and desktop computers. Indeed, tablets are too big to be considered “mobile,” in the strictest sense of the word, any more than a laptop would be: neither are big enough to fit into a pocket. If a tablet owner is home, it is hard to argue that a tablet would be more useful than a laptop or desktop computer, both of which have larger screens and far more functionality.

The addition of USB ports is a good move toward making the tablet relevant for the long-term, after the novelty phase wears off; the Folio 100 could be a godsend for today’s business world, allowing for more mobility and quicker cooperation with fellow colleagues in the office. It is this short-distance mobility that must be taken advantage of, if the tablet is to continue as a successful retail product in the future.

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Sony and Google Making the Ultimate Gaming Phone

by Chance
on August 12, 20109:58 am

Regardless of whether or not it can approach giants like the iPhone or the Blackberry in overall functionality, it seems like the last word on gaming phones is coming, possibly as soon as this year. According to an engadget report, Sony Ericsson and Google are teaming up to create an Android based mobile phone/gaming platform that could be out in time for the Holidays, and threatens to blow away the gaming capabilities of every phone currently out on the market.

The unnamed device will be one of the first to run the as yet unreleased Google Android 3 (aka Gingerbread) operating system. It will be a slider, with PSP-like game controls (with a “long touch pad” instead of a joystick) in place of a standard keyboard. The display is rumored to be between 3.7 to 4.1 inches. The mystery phone will come with a 1GHz processor and a built-in camera, as well. With some of the first games rumored to be versions of existing PSP and PSX games, it sounds like a Playstation phone is on the way, along with a specialized section of the Android store dedicated to gaming.

If all the rumors are true, this phone might just prove to be a gold mine for the Android OS. Google, which at this point is known well by third-party developers for being much easier to work with and much less restrictive than Apple, could see a huge jump in profit off of app-based gaming. This can only mean good things for gamers everywhere down the road. Apple, on the other hand, has shown no signs of being willing to back off from its policy of requiring every app developed for its OS to go through a rigid, though poorly defined, approval process, an unpopular practice that could finally catch up to Steve Jobs’ burgeoning empire. If Sony and Google gain a decided tech advantage, the ball will be squarely in Apple’s court to figure out a way to keep up their market share among gamers and their business with third party app developers, especially if this new phone can offer 3D gaming, which it is rumored to do.

Personally, I can’t wait to get my hands on this device. A true gaming phone would be a dream come true for me and I’m sure a lot of gamers out there, as the mobile market continues to explode with newer and more innovative products. If this first iteration is a hit, which it by all means should be, I await with bated breath for what the next couple years will bring, now that a gauntlet of incredible proportions for mobile gaming has just been thrown down.

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