Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition Hits iPad

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I've got to say, after struggling with the PC version for a few days now - Not Impressed.

I played every bit of BG back in the day, including all the add-ons, and this 'EE' version just doesn't seem to be adding much. The critical area where some extra work could have paid off handsomely - the graphics and UI in general - is a mess. According to the forums, this is beacause the 'PC' version is basically a port of where the developers spent all their real effort; tablets...
 

maddad

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[citation][nom]hiruu[/nom]So the PC version is subsidizing the iOS version...nice.[/citation]
No the PC version is not subsidizing the iOS version. iOS is on closed system hardware (ie all Ipads are exactly the same except for memory). There are an infinite number of variables in the PC world which makes it harder to code for, so of course it costs more. But 19.99 isn't a bad price in my opinion.
 

gloren

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If you read the fine print, the iPad $9.99 version doesn't include the new portraits, voices, or two of the three new characters. These are all included in the $19.99 PC version. That's why it's significantly cheaper on iPad, presumably.
 

blubbey

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[citation][nom]maddad[/nom]No the PC version is not subsidizing the iOS version. iOS is on closed system hardware (ie all Ipads are exactly the same except for memory). There are an infinite number of variables in the PC world which makes it harder to code for, so of course it costs more. But 19.99 isn't a bad price in my opinion.[/citation]
Then why do PC games cost less than console games on release?
 

ericburnby

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[citation][nom]Cats_Paw[/nom]Finally a reason to buy an iPad...Nah, i just wait for the android version .[/citation]
Gaming on Android when 98% of Android tablets have sub-par GPU's. That makes a lot of sense.

I know the Apple haters hate to admit it, but iPads totally dominate Android tablets where graphics performance is concerned.
 

assasin32

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[citation][nom]ericburnby[/nom]Gaming on Android when 98% of Android tablets have sub-par GPU's. That makes a lot of sense.I know the Apple haters hate to admit it, but iPads totally dominate Android tablets where graphics performance is concerned.[/citation]

Not everyone cares about having the best GPU/CPU/specs, as long as it runs good your good in my opinion. Plus iPads are expensive in comparison to a lot of Androids out there and some of us just plain old prefer Android OS over iOS. This isn't always an anti Apple or anti Android thing.

I know between an high end android tablet or iPad I take the android one every time. I am just not the biggest fan of iOS and a large majority of high end android tablets have microSD, hdmi, micro usb slots which make it far more useful to me than an iPad (I don't want proprietary cables, thats BS in my opinion, rather just use an HDMI for hooking up to TV's and mirco USB for hooking up to computers)
 

alextheblue

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[citation][nom]assasin32[/nom]a large majority of high end android tablets have microSD[/citation]Not if Google's Duarte and Brin have anything to do with it. They think you're too stupid to manage an SD card. Plus... lock yourselves into our cloud! Waste your bandwidth! Hurray we're like Apple now!
 

NuclearShadow

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[citation][nom]ericburnby[/nom]Gaming on Android when 98% of Android tablets have sub-par GPU's. That makes a lot of sense.I know the Apple haters hate to admit it, but iPads totally dominate Android tablets where graphics performance is concerned.[/citation]

In benchmarks there is a significant lead. The question is will anything be released within the tablets extremely short lifespan before a new one is released that actually utilized that extra graphical output? The answer is likely no. Obviously the main tax when it comes to graphics other than benchmarks is games. The game developers however realize that they have to be compatible with dated hardware as well. Just like this article pointing out that they tried to go as far back as the original iPad.

PC hardware is very similar to this as well. No developer would dare make a 690 or a 7990 the minimum requirement for a game released today. It would be the best looking game of all time but it would lose 99% of sales. With tablets also being treated this way and the fact that mid ranged tablets are coming out stronger than the last generations best. If we are going by the judgement purely on graphics it would only make sense to buy mid-ranged tablet for half the price.
 

s997863

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Big disapointment. Beamdog were sorely limited by Bioware in what they could change, so they've done little more than porting the BG1 game content into BG2 engine to make it run better on new computers, which has already been freely available from modders for years.

Who cares about a little bit of new, mod-quality content? There's plenty of that free from the mod community. Bioware should've just fixed the BG1 engine issues so we could play the game on modern computers as it was originally. (it runs but stutters in graphics & doesn't play the continuous music).

Due to this, the BG1 game-engine related graphics (character sprites & animations & effects, character paperdolls, inventory screens & items, interface & buttons ... etc) are not there in EE. (BG2 is an excellent game and has much much more quantity, but it's quality: art/graphcis are %#$% ugly compared to BG1).
 

ericburnby

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[citation][nom]assasin32[/nom]Not everyone cares about having the best GPU/CPU/specs, as long as it runs good your good in my opinion. Plus iPads are expensive in comparison to a lot of Androids out there and some of us just plain old prefer Android OS over iOS. This isn't always an anti Apple or anti Android thing.I know between an high end android tablet or iPad I take the android one every time. I am just not the biggest fan of iOS and a large majority of high end android tablets have microSD, hdmi, micro usb slots which make it far more useful to me than an iPad (I don't want proprietary cables, thats BS in my opinion, rather just use an HDMI for hooking up to TV's and mirco USB for hooking up to computers)[/citation]
Bull.

This is Tom's (which I've been reading since the beginning). Everyone cares about specs, which is why Tom's has spent so much time over the years doing detailed tests of CPU's, video cards and hard drives. The only reason people "don't care" about specs for mobile is because Apple is in the lead and their hatred for Apple trumps performance. Really quite pathetic.

Enjoy those 10 Android Apps you have that are actually optimized for your tablet. And enjoy running an OS version that's always 1-2 years behind. Oh wait, you probably root. That's the only option if you actually want a newer version like JB. Just hope that your particular device is actually supported by the custom ROM community (or that it actually works properly without introducing several new bugs or losing features).
 

ericburnby

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[citation][nom]nuclearshadow[/nom]In benchmarks there is a significant lead. The question is will anything be released within the tablets extremely short lifespan before a new one is released that actually utilized that extra graphical output? The answer is likely no.[/citation]

There are a lot of iOS titles that take advantage nf the newest hardware. This is the benefit of the iOS eco-system - better developer support than Android. Developers know there will be a certain number of devices with specific processors and OS version and they can target that.

iOS 6 hit 60% usage within the first month. After 5 months Jelly Bean has barely passed 6% and Gingerbread (two versions old) is still dominant with 50% of the market (ICS at around 28%).

If I was a developer would I write for a couple of tablet models that have over 50% of the entire market, or try and write for the other 200+ tablets that all have a small slice of the remaining 50% and all use different combinations of processor, GPU, OS version and screen resolution?

And people wonder why iOS totally dominates Android when it comes to tablet optimized Apps. /s
 

madjimms

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[citation][nom]ericburnby[/nom]There are a lot of iOS titles that take advantage nf the newest hardware. This is the benefit of the iOS eco-system - better developer support than Android. Developers know there will be a certain number of devices with specific processors and OS version and they can target that.iOS 6 hit 60% usage within the first month. After 5 months Jelly Bean has barely passed 6% and Gingerbread (two versions old) is still dominant with 50% of the market (ICS at around 28%).If I was a developer would I write for a couple of tablet models that have over 50% of the entire market, or try and write for the other 200+ tablets that all have a small slice of the remaining 50% and all use different combinations of processor, GPU, OS version and screen resolution?And people wonder why iOS totally dominates Android when it comes to tablet optimized Apps. /s[/citation]
I just read on another Toms article how Android is now dominating the market...
 
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The cult of Apple astonishes me. The fact that people are actually defend Apple for throwing iPad 1 owners under the bus by not supporting a device you could buy brand new less than two years ago, a device they billed as the "device that makes PCs obsolete" shows you just how brainwashed some Apple cultists can be. This is the kind of thing you guys used to blast MS for. You can upgrade the 3GS to iOS 6 for crying out loud. Now you are actually attacking early adopters for complaining about the snub. I bought two (my wife wanted one after playing on mine) and I am pissed about it. I have many Apple products and am a general fan of the quality of their products, but this move feels like the want to force any "old" iPad users into upgrading. It feels like a move designed to keep their stock prices high and it reeks of corporate greed. I'm shocked to see so many fanboys blasting others for objecting.
 
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