News - Tablets are now the most popular gaming device for UK children

[HEXUS]

Data shows that tablets have overtaken Nintendo's 3DS for the first time.

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[shaithis]

Very very good news. Maybe Nintendo will more seriously think about losing the hardware and concentrating on software for all platforms instead.

[Percy1983]

I will say its interesting as I own a 3DS and can play games on my phone and tablet, but for gaming the 3DS is so much better, don't get me wrong there is some great games to tap away on my phone but none compare to the games I have played on my 3DS.

With that I wouldn't bother with a 3DS/2DS for a young child where a £35 china tablet might get a look.

[Ttaskmaster]

Gaming on a touchscreen sucks. It just cannot keep up with my 'button'-presses and there's no physical feel of the controls. I hate it!
The only advantage to having a tablet for gaming is the additional functions inherrent in the device, although my phone usually does all that anyway.

Were I not so heavily invested in the Master Race, I would consider a mobile platform of some kind... every now and then I do look around at what cheap 3DS-type-things are selling for.

[Saracen]

Gaming on a touchscreen sucks. It just cannot keep up with my 'button'-presses and there's no physical feel of the controls. I hate it!
The only advantage to having a tablet for gaming is the additional functions inherrent in the device, although my phone usually does all that anyway.

Were I not so heavily invested in the Master Race, I would consider a mobile platform of some kind... every now and then I do look around at what cheap 3DS-type-things are selling for.

Depends on the game type. I play Sudoku on a tablet quite a bit.

But I guess that's not the game type you were getting at, and for action games, I'm inclined to agree. That said, it may depend on the tablet spec, too. This Tab 2 isn't exactly a muscle machine. It's fine for my needs, but overly powerful it ain't.

[Ttaskmaster]

Depends on the game type. I play Sudoku on a tablet quite a bit.

Ah... yeah, good point!
I was mainly thinking of those that would require the use of a controller layout. Anything outside of that I consider more 'puzzles' than 'games', I suppose... Touchscreen is fine for me on puzzles and in many cases better than any other system.

[crossy]

Gaming on a touchscreen sucks. It just cannot keep up with my 'button'-presses and there's no physical feel of the controls. I hate it!
The only advantage to having a tablet for gaming is the additional functions inherrent in the device, although my phone usually does all that anyway.

Game controller sounds like it might suit you - even a PS3 controller with "six axis" addon. Plus it really depends on the game - DeadTrigger and RipTide (FPS and driving respectively) are awful on a tablet, but PvZ2 and the like are pretty usable. Even Galaxy On Fire 2 - think Elite - is okay on a tablet.

My kids have tablets and DS's, and I'm very sure that the DS's haven't been switched on for weeks if not months. If they're typical then Nintendo are in real deep trouble. Part of the attraction is the wealth of free (genuine or in app purchase) games for tablets, plus the ability to view videos. DS video capabilities are poor to non-existent and when was the last time you saw a free DS game?

[DanceswithUnix]

It the PC old enough to count as a "Traditional Toy" yet?

[TooNice]

Not unexpected, but sad trend. Okay, so it's just one gaming medium being replaced by another, but so far I am *still* woefully underwhelmed by iOS/Android gaming. "Free" games are usually either ads supported or Freemium aka "Pay to win" or "Grind your life away". Now, I am not as bothered by ads supported games as I am by Freemium games, but the quality of those games simply do not compare with a *good* handheld game. Since I have limited gaming time anyway, I'd rather pay £40 for a quality game, over a collection of 100 grind-tastic freemium games.

The problem isn't really the hardware of tablets (which, I assume are more powerful than most handheld consoles, if not initially then certainly after a while). It's not even the OS. The controller is an issue for certain games (a PS3/360 controller is pretty much the size of a handheld console, and you need to take that on top of the tablet if you want to game on the go), but that's not even the biggest issue for me. I want games with a compelling story and gameplay that evolve as I progress, and I find those very lacking iOS/Android.

[Ttaskmaster]

Game controller sounds like it might suit you

I have personal issues with controllers, too, but that's more to do with having knackered hands.
Seems whichever kind I try, the only thing that ever really works for the sorts of games I want to play is my lovely M&KB.

[Saracen]

Not unexpected, but sad trend. Okay, so it's just one gaming medium being replaced by another, but so far I am *still* woefully underwhelmed by iOS/Android gaming. "Free" games are usually either ads supported or Freemium aka "Pay to win" or "Grind your life away". Now, I am not as bothered by ads supported games as I am by Freemium games, but the quality of those games simply do not compare with a *good* handheld game. Since I have limited gaming time anyway, I'd rather pay £40 for a quality game, over a collection of 100 grind-tastic freemium games.

The problem isn't really the hardware of tablets (which, I assume are more powerful than most handheld consoles, if not initially then certainly after a while). It's not even the OS. The controller is an issue for certain games (a PS3/360 controller is pretty much the size of a handheld console, and you need to take that on top of the tablet if you want to game on the go), but that's not even the biggest issue for me. I want games with a compelling story and gameplay that evolve as I progress, and I find those very lacking iOS/Android.

Indeed. One measure (to me, at least) of whether a game is any good is, after paying £40 and playing it, am I content with my money's worth. In fact, it's the main measure.

And it's the compelling gameplay and story that determine that.

Far too many modern games are undeniabilty pretty, graphically, but that on it's own is nowhere near enough. After all, it's minutes, hours of my life spent playing a game, and as I'll never get them back, I don't want them wasted by lousy, if free, games.

Just like books. I'd rather pay cover price for a good one than heavily cut rate for one not worth the effort.

[crossy]

Not unexpected, but sad trend. Okay, so it's just one gaming medium being replaced by another, but so far I am *still* woefully underwhelmed by iOS/Android gaming. "Free" games are usually either ads supported or Freemium aka "Pay to win" or "Grind your life away". Now, I am not as bothered by ads supported games as I am by Freemium games, but the quality of those games simply do not compare with a *good* handheld game. Since I have limited gaming time anyway, I'd rather pay £40 for a quality game, over a collection of 100 grind-tastic freemium games.

The problem isn't really the hardware of tablets (which, I assume are more powerful than most handheld consoles, if not initially then certainly after a while). It's not even the OS. The controller is an issue for certain games (a PS3/360 controller is pretty much the size of a handheld console, and you need to take that on top of the tablet if you want to game on the go), but that's not even the biggest issue for me. I want games with a compelling story and gameplay that evolve as I progress, and I find those very lacking iOS/Android.

I'm first going to agree with that comment about the desirability of paying your £40 for a "quality game" rather than a collection of in-app-purchase dross. Trouble is that there's quite a lot of £40 titles that aren't "quality games" - and yes, I do mean you CoD:Ghosts!

The rest I'm not so sure of. You talk about ad-supported and "freemium" (which I'm assuming means those "lovely" in-app-purchase ones), but you don't mention anything about paid-for games - cheapskate! <grin> From experience I know that there's a few of those paid-for titles that - while still being way under your £40 benchmark - are actually good value for money. I'm a fan of tower defence stuff, so maybe I'm easily pleased. There's a case for that old cliché about getting what you paid for perhaps? I'd recommend the Humble Bundle stuff - been some pretty good titles, perhaps something like Breach and Clear or Catan would appeal to you? Galaxy on Fire (HD)'s not bad for an Elite type experience, although it's quite a short campaign.

The "compelling story and gameplay that evolves as I progress" I'm also not so sure of. The "compelling story" is definitely do-able, and I've seen a couple of reviews stating that the game did try and ramp up difficulty. But are you perhaps trying to compare a tablet game to a full PC (/console?) one rather than to a "mere" handheld device? If so, then there's definitely a resource issue - that of storage. DS's etc have their cartridges, consoles have DVD's and PC's disks. The tablet on the other hand has very limited internal storage. Just spot checked a few PC games and typically you're looking at 30GB storage and above for a PC game. Now a tablet implementation won't be that "lardy", but even so if you assume a tablet edition was 1/3 the size then you're still at the point where two games has blown all the storage on that tablet.

Story also did say "UK children" and if my two are anything to go by then the gaming equivalent of War & Peace would leave them cold and have them going back to Candy Krush after a few minutes. Attention span of a gnat, and an impatient one at that.

I have personal issues with controllers, too, but that's more to do with having knackered hands.
Seems whichever kind I try, the only thing that ever really works for the sorts of games I want to play is my lovely M&KB.

Hmm, I wonder if there's a way to remap to keyboard and mouse on those tablets that support them (Microsoft Surface etc, Asus Transformer series).

It the PC old enough to count as a "Traditional Toy" yet?

You know you're not up with the "kidz" when someone looks at your desktop setup and on seeing your 23"+ monitor wonders out loud what possessed you to buy a tablet so large that you need a stand for it! (Overheard in PC World)

[DanceswithUnix]

You know you're not up with the "kidz" when someone looks at your desktop setup and on seeing your 23"+ monitor wonders out loud what possessed you to buy a tablet so large that you need a stand for it! (Overheard in PC World)

ROFL! I gather my kids use laptops at primary school, so I can imagine if it wasn't for home then they wouldn't be used to desktops.

There does seem to be a pecking order at primary school though, down to how good a platform is at playing Minecraft. Tablets are not as good as XBox/PS3, those are not as good as laptops which can play the full java version, and desktops that can play with a 16 chunk render distance is the top dog. If Minecraft went away, desktop machines would lose all meaning to them