Anandtech did some digging and discovered that the GPU in the iPad Air 2 is a customized 8-core design, rather than the 6 core generally assumed.
Ryan Smith at Anandtech says:
Since publishing our initial iPad Air 2 review last week, a few new pieces of information have come in that have changed our perspective on Appleâs latest SoC. As it turns out I was wrong. Powered by what weâre going to call the GXA6850, the A8Xâs GPU is even better than I thought.
[…] By drawing outside of the lines and building an eight cluster GPU configuration where none previously existed, the A8X and its GXA6850 GPU are more powerful than even we first suspected. Apple traditionally aims high with its SoCs, but this ended up being higher still.
In a nutshell, the A8X features two of the GPUs used by the standard A8 chip in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Putting it another way, it features two GPUs that are noticeably better than the one GPU used in the first iPad Air, and all iPad Minis.
The screen on the iPad is about 3 megapixels, compared with 2 megapixels on the iPhone 6 Plus and 1 megapixel on the standard iPhone 6. This creates an interesting situation where games running at full resolution on the iPad Air 2 perform about 50% better than on the iPhone 6 Plus and about 50% worse than on the regular iPhone 6; I’ve gone into detail about how and why this is before, and will continue to examine gaming performance on Apple’s devices.
Stickman Ice Hockey, a new sports game in the long-running Stickman series, was just released with full MFi controller support.
The Stickman sports games combine casual, pick-up-and-play gameplay with excellent MFi controller integration. If that’s your thing, you should definitely give this Stickman Ice Hockey a download.
Monkey Racing enters an App Store which is absolutely loaded with racing games. Realistic simulators, casual drift racers, arcade combat racers, kart racers⦠no matter your preference, there is a racing game to fit it. Even better news for controller fans, a large selection of these games support game controllers. So against this landscape, where does Monkey Racing fit? Can it carve out enough of a niche for itself to justify a download, or is it destined to be lost behind a sea of Asphalts and Angry Birds?
Lets start with what this game is. Monkey Racing fits solidly in the causal racing department. The game auto-accelerates, braking doesnât really happen, forget about drifting and slipstreaming. Winning in Monkey Racing is about careful steering into pickup drops, intelligently timing attacks and abilities, executing pit-maneuver style takedowns of opponents, and making it through the end without letting your opponents do the same.
Use missiles, turbo, shields, and shocks to take down your opponents and reach the finish in first
To a hardcore racing gamer, this might seem a bit simplistic. Personally, Iâve always been a fan of this type of racer, though. Strip out all the gimmicks, licenses, and IAP of the modern racing game, and youâre left with gameplay that straightforward enough to pick up and play on the go, while offering a true âevery little bit countsâ challenge for those looking for perfection.
In a lot of ways, this stripping out of unnecessary gameplay complexity feels reminiscent to Angry Birds Go; Rovioâs MFi controller compatible casual kart racer. But Monkey Racing brings some significant differences to a similar foundation; some good, some not so good.
Graphically, Monkey Racing feels pretty much exactly like it is: an indie game. While thereâs nothing inherently bad with the graphics, itâs clear that graphic design isnât the strong suit of this developer. Textures are somewhat bland, environments lack distinction, the monkeys themselves feature some strange shaders that make them feel almost metallic or plastic. Itâs certainly serviceable, but it lacks personality. This is unfortunate, as personality is something the rest of the game oozes. With that said, on a technical level, there is nothing to complain about – everything flies at a solid 60fps at full resolution on any modern device. For a racing game, this is critical
The framerate is solid and the sky is nice, but there is general blandness to the textures which is disappointing
Sound design, much like the graphic design, is serviceable but lacking in personality. The monkeys make monkey noises, the cars make car noises. The soundtrack consists of one (admittedly good) rock style song, endlessly looping throughout every level. The monkeys make stereotypical monkey noises, but itâs a far cry from the personality imbued by the birds in Angry Birds – the benchmark in building a game with personality for a mobile audience.
While Monkey Racing may be lacking in personality in the graphics and sound department, one of Monkey Racingâs strongest suits is the the level of customization offered. Simply put, the options available are staggering. You can customize your vehicle with a variety of parts, each of which impart a different design to your vehicle. You can outfit your monkey with a variety of costumes and accessories. Everything can be painted to your liking. The extensive customization options available here allows you to imbue some personality of your own into the game, which goes a long ways towards making up for the lack of personality in the graphics and sound design.
Controller support is fully implemented, both in-game and in the menus, and all available MFi controllers are supported. The game automatically detects connected controllers, and the UI accommodates them both by removing virtual controls and by indicating which physical buttons to press to activate a given ability. Controls themselves are responsive and intelligently mapped – no complaints here. The only off note is the menus themselves, which feature a confusing highlight effect for where the cursor is located that is seemingly different than what the selected button is. But still, considering how many games donât feature menu control at all, I canât complain.
The customization options are impressive, though determining which icon is highlighted can be confusing
Ultimately, I find myself repeatedly comparing Monkey Racing with itâs closest competitor in the casual downhill racing front: Angry Birds Go. The two games are built upon similar mechanics, and feature similar gameplay. The points of divergence between the two enlighten much about who developed them: Angry Birds Go is an extremely polished, detailed, beautiful game with a catchy soundtrack, creative level design, and perfect texture work. It also full of spam ads, in-app purchases, wait timers, product placement⦠it even tries to make you buy physical toy racers to compete with. In every way, it is the work of a major game developer trying to squeeze out every inch of profit to placate VC investors.
Monkey Racing is the anti Angry Birds Go. While itâs fundamental gameplay is solid, this is a game obviously made by an indie studio. This is reflected in the graphics, music, and sound, all of which are repetitive and uninspired. At the same time, you are NEVER pressured to buy anything, you are NEVER force-fed ads. There are no sponsored products from State Farm. There are no plastic monkey toys for you to buy at your local department store and scan into the game. What you see is what you get: a competent racing game at a fair price.
Whether or not you should buy Monkey Racing depends largely on how you feel about these differences. If you donât mind being âmonetizedâ by large corporations who view games as a way to build a user-base to sell to advertisers, youâll probably be better served by Angry Birds Go. If this sounds like hell to you, buy Monkey Racing, and enjoy launching rockets from a monkey-powered go-kart with your conscience intact. Personally, Iâll take an unpolished monkey over ads and timers any day.
After a relatively drawn out period of instability and incomplete availability, the PanGu iOS 8 jailbreak is finally available in a complete, stable, solid build. This version comes bundled with a fully supported version of Cydia, and includes installers for both Mac and Windows computers.
If you have any interest in jailbreaking iOS 8, now would be the time to do it. The upcoming 8.1.1 iOS release patches the exploit Pangu uses to enable their jailbreak, and it is doubtful another jailbreak will be released any time soon.
If you’re still running a jailbroken version of iOS 7, and you’d like to keep your jailbreak, now would be the time to upgrade. Once 8.1.1 is released, Apple will likely stop allowing 8.1 installs, meaning this upgrade window is rapidly closing.
Just a quick heads-up: after (very) spotty availability, the new Mad Catz MFi controllers seem to be in greater stock on Amazon. Ship times are now in days, rather than weeks – good news, considering that these are the only wireless controllers that work on iOS 8 right now.
Monkey Racing, a casual kart racer from Crescent Moon Games, was recently released with full MFi controller support.
I’ll have a full review coming in the next day or so, but casual racing will want to give this one a download. It’s similar to Angry Birds Go!, but without the horrible monetization and aggressive advertisement. Sounds good to me.
[…] Switch to the d-pad, however, and a big issue emerges: there’s a small, but noticeable dead zone when you lightly tap in certain directions. A subtle press right or down often doesn’t register at all in the game, which can decimate precision-focused genres.
This matches my findings pretty closely. D-pads on MFi controllers are generally terrible, with the only decent one belonging to the Junglecat, which is currently MIA. While the Mad Catz’ d-pad isn’t quite as bad as the one on the MOGA Ace Power or Logitech PowerShell, it is certainly an off note. Still waiting for one of the MFi controller manufacturers to get this aspect right, or at least as right as Apple allows them to with their circle-shaped d-pad requirement.
Apple will be getting a bunch of MFi-certified hardware makers together next week to talk about new technologies and iOS integration. With any luck, we’ll get a fix for the issues with the SteelSeries Stratus and MOGA Rebel before too long.
Full-size PlayStation style controller coming to Japan November 28th
Hori has finally, officially taken the wraps off their upcoming Horipad Wireless MFi controller for iOS – it launches in Japan on November 28th, apparently at a price of Â¥7,980 (about $75).
US launch information should be available in a few days – hopefully this one won’t be exclusive to Japan for too long!
The Horipad, head-on
To recap from previous articles, the Horipad was revealed during the launch of the Japanese version of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for iOS. Since then, it’s quickly been one of the most hotly anticipated of the upcoming controllers, especially among fans of the PlayStation controller layout.
The package we’ll soon be seeing in Apple Stores everywhere
Throughout the course of E3, TouchArcade managed to get a hands-on with the Horipad, and they were impressed with the build quality. That isn’t particularly surprising, as Hori is generally regarded as a quality brand, at least in terms of their fighting game joysticks and accessories.
Stand your iPhone or iPad up while you play
Hori has opted to include a stand with the Horipad, allowing players to mount their iPhones and iPads on a table or desk while playing. While perfectly suitable for iPad users, this is perhaps less useful for iPhone owners. Many controllers from other manufactures incorporate some form of clip on the controller itself, allowing the iPhone to be held in place during play, rather than requiring the player to stay close to a stationary table or surface.
The Horipad, in profile
The layout of the Horipad borrows heavily from the PlayStation Dual Shock design, with two analog sticks parallel to one another beneath a d-pad and face buttons on the home row. Notably, the actual design of the analog sticks is much closer to those of the Xbox 360 than of the Dual Shock, with the sticks featuring a concave center instead of a rubberized convex one. Also notable is the rear of the device, which eschews the modern practice of using triggers for the lower shoulder controls, instead opting for the PlayStation 2 style design of using buttons for the R2 and L2 controls.
The Horipad differentiates itself from the other MFi controllers by opting for a true full-size layout, without switching to the staggered analog stick layout of the Mad Catz and MOGA controllers.
The only potential issue is the crippling Bluetooth disconnects experienced by the MOGA and SteelSeries controllers – we don’t yet know if the Horipad suffers from something like this, and if it does, it could be a deal-killer. The good news is, if the Horipad does manage to avoid this problem, it could wind up being the controller of choice for side-scroller and FPS gamers.
