I miss the days when porting games to ios was still fascinating to comprehend. As our hardware gets better equipped to compete with PC/console gaming, the entire mobile gaming industry has unilaterally decided to go Freemium. Game launches nearly two years ago were more exciting than this lack-luster year. But why haven't they offered a choice? Either way, the developers win. A good example of this is "Coaster Crazy" (which I stopped playing a little ways in) and "Coaster Crazy Deluxe" (still play today). Freemium - for those not willing to pay-to-try (includes IAP) Premium - for everybody else who wants the true, original package. The upcoming "Godus" could be like this. A Freemium version, and a premium priced PC port. I was hoping for this RCT. RCT4? What a joke. The inclusion of 4, as if it were a real sequel, is ridiculous. But now, because it's iOS/mobile, they must implement the Freemium element, hoping to catch any unsuspecting player off-guard in a moment of weakness. iOS is quickly becoming the worst mobile gaming platform.
Fair enough thats your view but i think you're going over the top. Yes theres lots of freemium, but i simply dont buy them mostly (just one or two). Dungeon Quest was freemium but it was balanced so well, i actually bought an IAP to say 'thanks' as i've had so much gameplay out of it. Theres a lot of very good premier games out there and a lot of great ports, eg Star Wars lego which came out in December was brilliant. Theres been some great platformers recently (Kero Blaster, Astro Quest, 2 bit Cowboy) and of course Leos Fortune which is superb (Surprised you havent bought this or commented on it), Sky Force coming out soon looks a great shooter (hopefully not too many freemium/timer elements though), Wayward Souls and of course Monument Valley to name but a few. I've still got folders and folders of other great games, my 'best' folder is now huge as i've got so many favourites. If you dont like freemium then 'help', buy lots more games. Many devs go freemium as its proved to make a lot of money in many cases, i personally think if i buy premier priced games on launch (not waiting for sales at all) then that'll help the dev. If we all wait for price drops then that'll harm iOS gaming iOS quickly becoming the worst mobile platform ? Seriously ??? I've been gaming for 30 years and iOS is one of the best platforms i've ever come across. Got SOOO many great games on my device.
To piggyback on psj's comment, don't forgot the good ports: KOTOR FTL Limbo GTA 3/Vice City/San Andreas Max Payne Frozen Synapse XCom Kingdom of Dragon Pass Incredipede Stealth Inc Futuridium Thomas Was Alone Botanicula Gemini Rue Machinarium Bastion Any others?
iOS has many freemuim games, because it is the fastest growing AppStore for mobile games including android. You have the best both, great games and epic fails too.
Great Premiums with ZERO IAPs? Unmechanical The World Ends With You Chaos Rings series Anomaly Series Wayward Souls Bard's Tale Waking Mars Kinghunt Heroes of Loot Knightmare Tower Invader Hunter Indigo Lake Futuridium EP Star Horizon Shadow Blade The Room 1 & 2 Polara Boson X Sword and Sworcery Monster Hunter Portable 2G <--- Wait for this to go worldwide. There's a good chance Unite will be out before may ends.
These are nice and all, but uuuughh! Yeah, KOTOR and the GTA series were the exception, but most of the games on that list are "mobile-like" games. What about past console games like "Okami" and "Oblivion" (games worth porting to ios)? How about a proper 3rd person shooter, like the old "S.O.C.O.M." games for PS2? Back in 2009, the ganes were progressing so fast with the hardware that the quality of games increased substantially in every aspect. Ever since the iPhone 4S, game progress seems stale in comparison to the earlier years, when games went from junk to gems literally overnight. I like the developers that step it up, like the SkyGamblers series, Infinity Blade and earlier efforts by Gameloft. Please don't name alternative games, I own nearly every worthy game on the App Store including most on that list. There just seems to be no more "ooohhh" factor in mobile gaming anymore. Most new titles are really focusing on multiple currencies and timer implementation, as if that has become the new "mandatory".
At the end of the day we all have different opinions. You say 'dont name alternative games as you own nearly every worth game on the app store including most on that list'. But theres a helluva lot of great games on there. I think youre being over the top if you think most new titles focus on multiple currencies/timers. I stay away from those games and dont buy them (Apart from Dungeon Quest which is great), but over the last 3 months alone i've bought many games so i dont think most new titles are timers/multiple currencies. I would list them but no doubt you have them already !
Great moments I remember thought the years: 1.When games like Rolando, Hero of Sparta, TapTap Revolution , MegaMan 2, Ranch rush, let's Golf came out. Some of these games were $10, which was the standard price for gamelofts "most recents". Demo versions were all over the App Store. *Smartphone games were real games now, not the home made experiments or point and drag junk that first flooded the App Store with the iphone 3G. 2. Then came Sandbox/pinball/strategy/dss games like Aircoaster 3d, Sim City, pocket God, deep pinball, civilization revolution,and countless side scroll shooters and dual-stick shooters. Every iphone out there probably had a Chillingo game on it. Those games started gaining popularity. Some games were also experimenting with stereoscopic/anaglyph 3d as well as social networking and online multiplayer (a real move forward with ios gaming). Even Gameloft released the PS2 versions of prince of Persia and Rayman (the 3d gameplay version) 3. Now ios was really showing its power with racing games and flight sims like X-plane, air navy fighters, Real Racing, NFS and one of my all time favorites "skies of glory" (first online MP dogfight). Complex bullet hell shooters started to show up from Cave. Generic fighting games like Blades of Fury were precursors to Street fighter volt and mortal combat, and even Sega wanted you to have a Genesis in your pocket with some of their most popular releases for under $5. 4. What about Doom (on rails)? It wasn't call of duty, but the graphics were starting to look "post 2000 PC".Then Gameloft nailed the controls with Modern Combat. Everyone was blown away by that. There were a few miserable failed attempts at FPS games but after MC1, Activision took notice and came out with Zombies WAW. Then a sequel to Modern Combat (that is still arguably the best SP campaign in the series) as well as NOVA and rare touch-based gems like infinity blade really shot iOS to a true portable gaming system. We started to see some real console-quality potential. 5. Iphone 4. Games are now HD and Freemium became a very seldom experimental form of anti-pirating. ***please remember that was the original excuse for the Freemium model being implemented in games. Social games like "little pirates" and "tiny towers" were becoming all the rage for their scientifically-created addictiveness rather than game related enjoyment. -----------Where it really peaked and started to fall.------------------------- 6. IPhone 4S sealed shut the inevitable coffin of a dedicated portable gaming system and was helping show the age of the all mighty PSP. While new portables like the 3ds and PS-vita have great games. They just aren't really buttering the bread well for either Nintendo or Sony, nor the developers. Most people adopt "casual" portable gaming habits on their smartphones with quick 45 second bites of gameplay being the goal for a non-gaming audience. Still experimental Freemium becomes the new money-grabbing model for pre-teens with parents who were oblivious to ios gaming trends. Major developers see new demographic, "casual gamers" that will download anything free, and like gambling, once they're hooked,,,????? Need I say more. 7. 2013 iphone games finally get a few decent games like minecraft (and many other crafts) and the gta series, but the progression has turned away. We aren't getting the full fledged "PC + more" in our pockets. Now we have ads, IAP, a majority of the games are bite sized niblets of B.S., and a gaming culture that is so bored, that it gets obsessed with really bad anomalies like Crappy Bird. *** So.......is it wrong to wonder WTF happened over the past few years? Why doesn't anyone else feel a little pissed about this? Does it really only take a few years of getting stiffed to become complacent?
Its what you make of it. Granted i think theres more rubbish around and 'thankfully' the terrible 10000's of Flappy Bird clones are dying down a bit. I still get great value for money with a lot of games i'm loving, eg Leos Fortune/Monument Valley and many others. Admit you have to wade through a lot of very poor/average games now but theres still quality out there. Just with everything there'll be cycles of what type of games/payment system there'll be. Been gaming for 30 years and i think iOS is still one of the best by far. Freemium makes a ton of money so thats going to carry on a while but i dont dismiss every freemium game (Dungeon Quest is the main one i'm talking about). Still amazing the games you get coming out weekly. Again for me personally theres way more positives than negatives. In an ideal world Gameloft would create a new Dungeon Hunter (my old favourite series) at a premium price Edit - Just looking at the game releases today, for me personally i think theres 4 or 5 i'll be getting at midnight. Another reason why i love iOS, every week theres potentially a handful of games i'll be downloading. Amazing how many you get, yeah theres freemium ones out there, just avoid them. Plenty of great titles out there