Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, January of 2011, we awarded Dungeon Raid [$2.99] a stunning five stars in our review. I argued that we needed to embed a .JPEG of Eli doing a thumbs-up into the editorial as well, but those plans fell through. The point I’m making here is that Dungeon Raid is super awesome, and the new note I want to make with this post is that it’s going to get even better. A big update is being submitted.

What’s in this magical update? Well, according to a forum post by the devs, version 1.3 of Dungeon Raid will boast ten additional character classes, ten new skills, and five new monsters. “Lord Gek” on our forums elaborated on what’s being added in a later post. Races will, essentially, add in an advantage versus drawback element. Each race has a special bonus, but is also weak to a specific enemy type, so there’s an obvious strategic piece being added to the core game here, a perfect addition for those seeking more challenge.

As for the items, well, here’s what Gek had to say about the new “Arrows” variant. The picture he’s referencing is on the left:

“[Arrows] are essentially a new sword symbol variant with the special power of jumping over a space to keep the chain going,” he wrote. “If the player linked that arrow on the far left under Mr. Tosser they could continue the chain OVER the potion located NE of the arrow to link to the sword right under the sparkling dude.

“These arrows are spawned naturally with the Ranger class (5% any sword added to the grid will show up as an arrow) or all of the current swords in grid can be converted to arrows via one of the new skills,” he said.

Cool stuff, right? And there are more updates on the way, though in smaller, much more manageable forms. Frequent updates are always better than less frequent mega updates, right? Right!

One of the (many) cool things about PAX East is that it hasn't been entirely overrun by iOS-related things like GDC and WWDC. I'm not saying that's a bad thing by any means, but it is nice getting a chance to see what the rest of the industry is up to. Anyway, when the Mac App Store launched, we did some barebones coverage of some Mac games, and a few sales. We also made some suggestions that the Mac App Store could serve as a glimpse in to what could potentially be coming to the iOS App Store.

As it stands, that still hasn't really happened, but what has been curious to watch is how popular iOS apps trickle out to other App Stores. The App Store in this particular instance of note is Intel's initiative called "AppUp". Originally targeted at netbooks, AppUp is home to apps that basically run on almost any Windows-based PC with plans for supporting the MeeGo tablet platform.

It would be easy to write this off as yet another clone of the App Store, but consider this: AppUp likely has the absolute largest pool of potential customers out there. The apps they're selling are targeted at the meager system specifications of your typical netbook, which means most of them will also likely run on any reasonably recent PC. Also, they've managed to meet the benchmark of a legit App Store by offering Angry Birds as well and it's hard to deny the power of Intel as a company when it comes to shaping the world of computing.

I'm not sure where AppUp will go, but I have to admit I do find the whole thing oddly intriguing. If you're on a PC, give the client a download and check it out. I can't wait to see how all of these different markets settle out in the next 5-10 years and what effect they have on the App Store. AppUp seems to have a significant advantage due to the sheer number of capable hardware out there, Intel just has to make people aware of the service.

Just a quick heads-up to let folks know that Liqua Pop [link], which we saw demonstrated at the EA Mobile press event while out at GDC 2011, has recently gone live in the App Store.

A game that looks quite lickable (well, aside from the bugs…), EA Mobile's upcoming Liqua Pop is a color-matching puzzle game with lovely, fluid graphics and animation. Your task is to match like-color droplets by dragging and merging them together to form a large enough droplet to kick off its elimination timer. A shake to the iPhone will get that done earlier, but sometimes it's best to wait, as the larger a droplet the more points are awarded as it blinks out. Don't clear the droplets fast enough and the screen fills up and it's game over.

The real object of the game is to get your friend Toadie, who lives on the left side of the screen, to the top of his leaf by releasing bugs (seven types in all) from within certain of the aforementioned droplets. With the release of most bugs, Toadie inches upwards, but certain bugs leave behind obstacles that slow down your progress. When Toadie reaches the top, it's on to the next level.

Liqua Pop is certainly one of the most polished color-matching titles I've seen, with its colorful Retina-supporting visuals and convincing animation. Facebook integration allows scores to be shared with friends.

Let’s be real, here: Chair Entertainment could toss out a fart app on the App Store and make millions upon millions of dollars. Its previous game, Infinity Blade [$5.99] , is hot and people tend to flock to follow-up titles -- regardless if they’re good or not. Chair wouldn’t sink that kind of money grabbing, though. That’s not how the studio rolls. Good design is tops, which is why we probably won’t see a Shadow Complex for iOS.

"I still cannot think of a way that we'd be able to bring over the precision controls [to touch screen devices] that Shadow Complex needs to be amazing," Mustard told Euro publication Eurogamer in a recent chat. "If you or any of your readers have some amazing control scheme idea that would work on a touch screen, let me know.

A few months back, Mustard kept the idea of Shadow Complex for the iOS open as a possibility in a conversation with us. If you read between the lines in the above, the man is still doing that. But, I think he’s becoming at least a little more frigid on the idea of a touch version of the Metroid-style action title, as he still hasn't figured out a way to translate the game to iOS.

"Shadow Complex is designed for a controller,” he told Eurogamer. “I'm not a fan of trying to shoehorn console controls onto touch screens. They don't feel right. You just lose so much precision." In his conversation with us, Mustard elaborated, “For me -- this is what it comes down to, if it can't be amazing, then I don't want to do it. I don't want to shoehorn controls in. I don't want to force it.”

So, will we see Shadow Complex on iOS? No, probably not. It was a game made for the controller and the iPad and iPoud Touch, as miraculous as they are, do not have on-board, physical means of tactile control. That doesn’t mean we won’t see a Shadow Complex runner or a turn-based RPG, though... Oh, crap, I just got myself excited!

[Via Eurogamer]

A game that has recently caught my eye in our forums is Great Little War Game from Rubicon Development. It’s a turn-based strategy game similar to Advance Wars or iOS’s own Mecho Wars [99¢], but with a few unique twists that the developers hope set it apart from the rest. As an example, line of sight and terrain will factor into the gameplay, so you’ll be able to hide behind barriers or use elevation to gain increased attack range.

What really stands out about Great Little War Game is the graphical style which has a cartoonish look and uses 3D models for characters and vehicles. You can get a great feel for the game by checking out the following trailer:

Great Little War Game is in the final stages of beta testing, and barring any sort of huge issue will be submitted to Apple sometime this week. There is an active thread in our forums with a lot of additional information, and Rubicon is actively discussing the game there with our members.

Great Little War Game will launch for 99¢ for 3rd generation and above iPhone and iPod touches, and $2.99 for the iPad version. It will contain a 20 mission campaign with an additional 10 mission level pack that can be purchased as a 99¢ IAP. Unfortunately no skirmish or multiplayer modes will make it into the initial release, though they remain options for future versions of the game if sales are strong enough. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for Great Little War Game to hit the App Store in the next several weeks.

Hey there, do you like over-the-top action movies from the 80s and early 90s? And do you like pinball? Have you always dreamed that both of these things could be magically fused together in a game for your favorite iOS device? Well Gameprom is ready to make your dreams come true with their upcoming game War Pinball HD.

Gameprom has been one of the preeminent pinball developers for iOS, with their Wild West [99¢], The Deep [99¢], Jungle Style [99¢], and Slayer Rocks [$2.99] pinball games all garnering huge download numbers and earning many fans. All of these games are available individually or in a single app called Pinball HD [99¢/HD]. Two hallmarks of Gameprom’s pinball games have been really solid physics behavior, which can often make or break a pinball video game, and impressive graphics which are rendered in full 3D.

War Pinball will retain these hallmarks, and I was able to play a preview build of the game at GDC a couple of weeks ago. If you’ve played any of Gameprom’s previous pinball games, War Pinball feels very in line with those experiences, which is to say it’s a lot of fun. What really surprised and delighted me was the theme of the game. War Pinball will contain 3 separate tables, each one crafted after a war-themed action movie. There’s one based on Platoon, one for Navy Seals, and one for Missing in Action which features prominent Chuck Norris decor.

The first trailer for War Pinball doesn’t show off a ton of gameplay, but in true action movie form it features a montage of all 3 tables:

War Pinball was looking great when I checked it out at GDC, and I’ve been enjoying a preview build on my iPhone ever since. The evolution of Gameprom’s pinball creating prowess is clear in each new game, as War Pinball is a much more complex and strategic game in comparison to the relatively simplistic Wild West Pinball. The game has already been finished and shipped off to Apple for review, complete with optimizations for the new iPad 2, so we’ll be keeping our eyes out for it to hit the App Store soon.

On Thursday, prior to the launch of the iPad 2, we posted a look at some early numbers from a suite of benchmarks run on a pre-launch iPad 2 media unit. These included a custom benchmark written by Guy English to gauge the graphics performance of an iOS device, which showed Apple's new tablet to boast a dramatically improved fill-rate as compared to the original iPad.

For example, on my original iPad, with 200 on-screen sprites, the framerate dropped to 45 fps. On the iPad 2, with 400 on-screen sprites, the framerate remained at 65 fps. On the iPad 1, Guy’s demo app dropped below 60 fps with about 100 animated sprites; on the iPad 2, it didn’t drop below 60 fps until there were over 750 animated sprites.

Since then, we've seen the iPad 2 land in stores and additional performance reports start to surface, now that folks can get their hands on one. One such report was posted by AnandTech who has put the iPad 2's graphics processor through its paces using GLBenchmark 2.0, an application written to gauge OpenGL ES 2.0 performance. They are also indicating that Apple's new A5 system-on-a-chip contains a dual-core configuration of Imagination Technologies' graphics processor, the PowerVR SGX543MP2, which comes as no surprise.

Architecturally the 543MP2 has more than twice the compute horsepower of the SGX 535 used in Apple's A4. Each shader pipeline can execute twice the number of instructions per clock as the SGX 535, and then there are four times as many pipes in an SGX 543MP2 as there are in a 535.

The full report of the benchmark results can be seen over at AnandTech, but I've compiled the key numbers for quick review, below.

As you can see by the results, the iPad 2 markedly outperforms both the original iPad as well as Motorola's new Android-based Xoom tablet with its Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset. GLBenchmark shows it moving nearly 5x the number of triangles per second as the iPad and fetching textures nearly 7x faster than the Xoom. Truly impressive results.

Coinciding with the launch of the iPad 2, we've seen a number of developers release updates to their titles that take advantage of the new device's muscle. (And, most every existing title is benefitting from the extra horsepower as well, we're seeing.) But, really, it's going to take some time before we see the power of the iPad 2's A5 truly exploited, as developers have a chance to really test the limits of the new hardware and craft titles that are dramatically more complex than anything we've yet seen in the App Store.

And, of course, we'll keep you posted.

While we were out in San Francisco at GDC 2011, I had a chance to sit down with Xavier Liard of DotEmu to catch up on the latest from their studio. Part of the news gathered in that meeting we passed along last week in our story covering the upcoming arrival of Another World for iOS -- DotEmu is the developer on that project. But there's more to tell from this retro revival studio.

The third release in DotEmu's Jaleco arcade series, an iPhone port of 64th Street: A Detective Story [link], has recently gone live in the App Store. The game is a Double Dragon-style beat 'em up arcade fighter that was originally released back in 1991. The iOS version of 64th Street is wrapped in an emulator, providing the original graphics and an authentic game experience as compared to the arcade release, but with customizations that make it appropriate for the iOS platform.

The next title slated for release as part of the Jaleco series is P47: The Freedom Fighter, an arcade side shooter released in 1988 that also saw release on the Amiga, C64 and various other platforms. The coming iOS version of P47 is delivered via emulation of the original arcade version.

Another item worth mentioning from DotEmu is the v2.0 update to their iPhone port of the MSX / Sega Master System RPG Golvellius - The Valley of Doom [link]. New in this release are a redone interface, adjustments to the control system, Game Center intregration bringing around 30 achievements, as well as optimizations to the code for smoother gameplay.

On a gloomy and rainy day in Boston, I stood around with hundreds of other people to secure myself an iPad 2. It had potential to be miserable, but thankfully Apple provided some really awesome umbrellas in addition to the normal array of beverages and snacks they usually give to people standing in launch day lines. There have been a number of review on the device already, so I'll just focus on how the device works in games. (Although, I will say you must get a smart cover, they're awesome.)

Unsurprisingly, everything I've tried seems to run substantially better across the board. Games that previously chugged on the iPad now run at or near a solid 60 FPS. In fact, I've yet to play a single iPad game on my iPad 2 that didn't perform phenomenally. It's fantastic, as over the last year of talking to developers I've heard many tales of woe regarding the poor graphical performance of the original iPad.

If you just got an iPad 2 and are looking to stretch its legs, the device launched with four games that have been "optimized" for the device. Only one of them is even a new game, the rest of them all had free updates land today to beef up the graphics (and the file size, unfortunately) for the iPad 2.

Real Racing 2 HD, $9.99 - There's not a whole lot to say about this game that we haven't already other than it runs on the iPad and looks fantastic on the iPad 2. We loved the iPhone version in our review, and RR2 HD almost feels even more immersive because of the increase of screen size. One thing though, with the bigger screen, just how flat the cockpits of the cars look is much more noticeable. I'd love to see some bump mapping or other depth given to them, as once you notice it, it's kind of hard to un-see. Obviously, it runs much better on the iPad 2 than the original iPad as well.

Dead Space for iPad, $6.99 - We reviewed this game when it was first released and liked it then, and now it's even better with some heavy anti-aliasing. Check out the crisp border of the sign in the above screenshot, on the original iPad that's jaggy as all get-out. This new iPad 2 version of the game looks good enough that it's worth re-playing the whole game over again just to see it.

Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD, $6.99 - This is the most underwhelming of all the "optimized" games. It runs great on the device, and the draw distance is crazy, but after playing Dead Space or Real Racing 2 HD, the lack of anti-aliasing really sticks out. Also, while the draw distance is far enough out to completely eliminate pop-in, power-ups and other cars still seem to pop-in even though the scenery doesn't. It's a good effort I suppose, but if you're only going to pick up one of these iPad 2 games, don't let it be this one unless you're just crazy about Burnout-style games.

Infinity Blade, $5.99 - As we said in our initial review, "It doesn't get much more 'must-have' than this." That goes double if you've got an iPad 2. This gesture-based sword-fighter looks nuts. So nuts I posted a completely separate comparison post between the iPad and iPad 2. Infinity Blade is such an impressive display of what the iPad 2 is capable of that it should have come preloaded on the device.

These four launch day games are very impressive, and I doubt I'm alone when I say that I can't wait to see what developers come up with on this substantially faster device.

After spending hours in line today, I managed to get my greasy sausage fingers on a brand new iPad 2. I'll be doing a first impressions post shortly, but the insane differences between Infinity Blade [$5.99] running on the original iPad when compared to the iPad 2 seemed too substantial to not immediately write about. Some things to look for in these screen shots include how smooth the edges are on the iPad 2, as well as how high resolution the textures are in comparison. We have this kind of image quality, while everything runs at a much higher frame rate.

The best way to view these comparisons is to click on one to load up the light box image viewer, then click through the screenshots one by one, going back and forth to compare them. The differences are obvious.

iPad 2 on left, iPad on right:

If this is what the iPad 2 can do with existing games that got a quick update to take advantage of the new horsepower, I can't wait to see what games are going to look like that are built from the ground up for the device.

With the iPad 2 launching today, many developers are trying to catch the wave of new customers who will be looking for things to try on their shiny new device by putting their iPad games on sale, which is typical of any iOS product launch, holiday, or really any other reason they can think up to throw a sale party. The usual suspects are here, with big sales from both EA Mobile and Gameloft, and there's a number of other enticing sales on miscellaneous titles from big and small developers alike.

EA Sales:

• Dead Space for iPad, $9.99 → $6.99
• Reckless Racing HD, $4.99 → $2.99
• Need For Speed Shift for iPad, $9.99 → $6.99
• Need For Speed Hot Pursuit for iPad, $9.99 → $6.99
• Mirror's Edge for iPad, $9.99 → $2.99
• Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for iPad, $4.99 → $2.99
• Rock Band Reloaded for iPad, $9.99 → $4.99
• Command & Conquer Red Alert for iPad, $4.99 → $2.99
• Madden NFL 11 for iPad, $12.99 → $4.99
• Fifa 11 for iPad, $9.99 → $6.99
• Tetris for iPad, $7.99 → $5.99
• SimCity Deluxe for iPad, $6.99 → $4.99
• Monopoly for iPad, $9.99 → $6.99
• Yahtzee HD, $4.99 → $2.99
• The Game of Life for iPad, $6.99 → $4.99
• Scrabble for iPad, $9.99 → $6.99
• Risk: The Official Game for iPad, $6.99 → $4.99
• Pictureka! for iPad, $4.99 → $2.99
• Snood for iPad, $4.99 → $2.99
• Clue: Secrets & Spies, $4.99 → $2.99

Gameloft Sales (All Games 99¢):

• Star Battalion HD
• Prince of Persia: Warrior Within HD
• Spider-Man: Total Mayhem HD
• Dungeon Hunter HD
• Brothers In Arms 2: Global Front HD
• Iron Man 2 for iPad
• Shrek Kart HD
• Real Golf 2011 HD
• Real Tennis HD
• UNO HD
• The Settlers HD
• Brain Challenge HD

Miscellaneous:

• Spider: Bryce Manor HD, $4.99 → 99¢
• Pix'n Love Rush DX, $1.99 → 99¢
• Meow Meow Happy Fight HD, $2.99 → 99¢
• Pro Zombie Soccer Apocalypse Edition, $1.99 → 99¢
• Babylonian Twins HD Premium, $4.99 → 99¢
• Psychoban HD, $2.99 → FREE
• Worms HD, $2.99 → 99¢
• Homerun Battle 3D for iPad, $4.99 → 99¢
• Enigmo 2, $2.99 → FREE
• Pocket God: Journey to Uranus, $4.99 → 99¢
• TowerMadness HD, $7.99 → FREE
• Inotia 3: Children of Carnia, $4.99 → 99¢
• The 7th Guest for iPad, $5.99 → $1.99
• Speedball 2 Evolution, $3.99 → 99¢

As with all sales on the App Store, these prices are good as of this writing but are subject to change at any time. Your best bet to keep up with the constant price fluctuations in the App Store is to download the universal AppShopper app which allows you to maintain a wish list of games and notifies you of price changes or updates with push notifications. You can also just use the plain old AppShopper.com website or our price drops and freebies forum where our members do an excellent job of keeping on top of the latest discounts.

Whether you're upgrading to an iPad 2 today or just hanging on to your last year's model, definitely take advantage of all these great sales going on for some excellent iPad titles.

As of a few minutes ago, PAX East is underway at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston, MA. Passes are completely sold out, but if you're resourceful you might be able to dig one up on the PAX East forums. Penny Arcade's PAX is an interesting spin on gaming conventions as instead of being marketing and business focused, it's an entire event put on by gamers for gamers.

Because of this shift in focus, iPhone coverage can be entirely hit or miss. I've got some promising meetings lined up, but it's nothing like GDC 2011 mania (thankfully, for the sake of my sanity). If you're around PAX East (or the Boston area) and want to meet up, feel free to send me an IM via AOL Instant Messenger. My screen name is ioburn [Status: ]. If you don't have an AIM account, signing up is easy and only takes a second. Alternatively, AIM is even connected to Facebook and Google Talk, if you would rather use that. AIM forwards to my phone, so I should be reasonably responsive when it comes to meeting requests.

Of course you can always email at tips@toucharcade.com just make sure to include "PAX East 2011" in the subject somewhere for the sake of my inbox.

With the iPad 2 slated to hit consumers’ hands later today, developer’s are already beginning to release updates to their games that take advantage of the extra graphical processing power that we talked about in-depth yesterday.

Dead Space™ for iPad, $9.99 - First out of the gate is an update for Dead Space for iPad that features enhanced graphics and a couple of other user requested improvements. You can now freely adjust the look sensitivity, which was a sticking point in our review, and can also invert the Y-axis for gamers who prefer to play with that option. These latter two control options are also included in an update for the iPhone version of Dead Space [$6.99].

Check out these newly release screens for Dead Space for iPad that show off the improved iPad 2 visuals:

This update is already out and ready to go, and in addition Dead Space for iPad is currently on sale for $6.99 down from the original price of $9.99.

Infinity Blade, $5.99 - Also getting updated today is Chair’s epic sword battling game Infinity Blade. It was just last week during GDC that Infinity Blade received a huge update that practically doubled the content in the game, adding a new dungeon; new enemies, arenas, and items; and the ability to start a new game+ and continue leveling up to your heart’s content. Now Chair is already at it again with an update that optimizes Infinity Blade for the beefier hardware of the iPad 2.

The update for Infinity Blade is just starting to go live, so you may not see it in your updates tab right away as it's still propagating through Apple's servers, but keep checking as it should be available for you sometime today. Along with this Infinity Blade update, the update for Dead Space for iPad, and the just released Real Racing 2 HD [$9.99], there should be more than enough visual stimulation to show off to your friends if you're planning on picking up an iPad 2 today.

Last December, Firemint wowed everybody by releasing Real Racing 2 [$6.99], the sequel to their popular racing sim that originally hit in Summer of 2009. We had no problem awarding Real Racing 2 5 stars in our review, calling it the “king of iOS racing games”. One thing we weren’t sure of, however, and something that many players in our forums and elsewhere had been wondering about, was if there would be a Real Racing 2 for the iPad.

Firemint since confirmed that it was in the works, and part of the hold up was seeing what Apple’s plans were for the iPad 2 which was announced last week and is available starting today.

Well, just like clockwork, and echoing the original iPad’s release, Real Racing 2 HD [$9.99] has launched just in time to be one of the flagship titles for the new iPad 2. Firemint claims that Real Racing 2 HD is optimized for both the original iPad and the extra performance muscle of the iPad 2, so should serve as a great title to show off your shiny new toy should you be picking up an iPad 2 later today.

We're just one day away from the iPad 2 launch, as every schoolchild knows, but early reviews of the unit have already begun to appear, and they all indicate that the iPad 2 is notably faster than its predecessor. No surprise there, given Apple's claims that the iPad 2 features "up to 2x faster CPU" and "up to 9x faster graphics," as compared to the original iPad.

But, how fast is it, really?

As gamers, we're quite anxious to see just how well Apple's new tablet can push the pixels and polygons with its A5 processor. This new system-on-a-chip features 512MB of RAM, two (dynamic-stepping) 1GHz CPU cores -- ARM Cortex A9-based -- and a new graphics subsystem, which almost certainly utilizes at least one Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX543 core, the same GPU used in Sony's upcoming NGP (in quad-core GPU configuration).

Until game developers widely get their hands on the new device, we can only look to early benchmarks taken on the few press evaluation units Apple has provided to key media, in order to try and glean a feel for the iPad 2's performance as a game platform. Happily, developers will be able to grab their iPad 2 just over 24 hours from now, but as those are going to be a long and painful 24 hours, let's take a look at some benchmark data.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball has posted one of the aforementioned iPad 2 reviews, in which he shares his reactions to the device as well as some benchmark numbers. And, Gruber's suite of benchmarks is a little more interesting than most that we've seen so far.

He posts the results of the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark that everybody with an iPad 2 has been running, for both the iPad and iPad 2, showing the latter to come out on top due both to improved hardware and, more directly, iOS 4.3's bundling of Apple's Nitro JavaScript engine into the iOS 4.3 version of Mobile Safari. He posts Geekbench results, as well, which show the iPad 2 performing 159% faster than the original iPad, overall. But, what's rather more interesting are the results of a benchmark custom-coded by Guy English of Kickingbear (who did some work on Tap Tap Revenge), written to measure specifically the graphics capabilities of the iPad 2, from a developer's perspective.

The custom benchmark in question renders thousands of sprites moving about the screen, with gravity, while tracking up to three touch points. The results show the iPad 2's graphics improvements to go well beyond simply those of the dual-core CPU.

For example, on my original iPad, with 200 on-screen sprites, the framerate dropped to 45 fps. On the iPad 2, with 400 on-screen sprites, the framerate remained at 65 fps. On the iPad 1, Guy’s demo app dropped below 60 fps with about 100 animated sprites; on the iPad 2, it didn’t drop below 60 fps until there were over 750 animated sprites.

After I showed him the results, Guy told me, “The results show that the iPad 2 is easily about twice as powerful as the original and that this speed gain is a freebie — you don’t need to change your code structure in order to see significant gains. The differences in the amount of time spent rendering indicates that the GPU is really much faster than the original."

English indicates that the original iPad has a comparatively weak fill-rate and that the new device's much more powerful graphics subsystem should allow for some really incredible visuals in games and applications written (or updated) to take advantage of the native hardware.

"Up to 9x faster graphics"? Based on what these benchmarks are showing, it doesn't seem that Apple's claim is too wide of the mark. And, I'm guessing that there's more than one PowerVR core in that A5. (I tried, but was unable to squeeze any clarifying info out of the Imagination Technologies folks on the GDC expo floor.) We'll find out soon enough. But, whatever the case, it's clear that the iPad 2 is going to be an iOS gaming powerhouse. Developers, your work is cut out for you.