Gaming on the Apple Watch - First impressions By Pocket Gamer

So the Apple Watch is here: it's a device, that's good at a lot of things. It's a fine watch, it's a nice fitness tracker, and it's good at dealing with notifications, but playing video games on it. Now, there's a very different subject: a number of games are available for the Apple Watch, and we've played pretty much all of them. So here's what we think about gaming on your wrist. This is rune blade, which is a stripped back RPG you can play without ever opening its accompanying iPhone app. You can go through dungeons and upgrade your hero all from the watch itself.

The game is staggeringly simple. You come across monsters and tap on a button to do damage for a few seconds. Then you tap again and again and again beating a monster earns you money which you can use to make your taps more powerful. Eventually, you'll get a magic spell that lets. You attack enemies automatically, meaning the game will play itself even when you lower your arm and go about your day.

So it's not going to win any points for depth, then, but there's something quite addictive about seeing numbers go up and rats go down, and I'm looking forward to unlocking the next upgrade. This is cupcake dungeon, and it's another RPG that plays itself and encourages you to just check in once in a while to see how things are going and to spend your in-game funds again. The action takes place entirely on the watch, with menus full of swords and upgrades and stats that you can scurry through with the digital crown. So while this is largely the same game as rune blade I, think I prefer the donuts and Sentinel blobs of chocolate to the rats and snakes, but we'll have to see which one if either holds my attention for the long list. Now this is gravity Mike and it kinda sucks.

It's the sort of game that people think of when they're scoffing at the very idea of Smartwatch gaming, a platformer on a watch, they say: it'll be rubbish, and they're pretty much right. It's got the frame rate of a PowerPoint presentation, unresponsive buttons, such a small screen size that you can't see dangerous before you fly straight into them, and it's really uncomfortable to play. I'm, not normally one to put a stop to progress, but maybe anyone who wants to make a traditional action game for Apple Watch should be forced to complete gravity Mike now, spy watch from Boss studios is much more interesting. You play as the boss of a spy agency and the handler for an agent in the field, Hills and messages to your watch asking how to overcome various obstacles, and you get right back with advice well by picking one of two responses. It's almost entirely played through notifications and plays out in real time with long stretches of time between alerts, so it ends up feeling like you're having a normal conversation with this chap, rather than playing a video game.

This has some potency. You might tell your agent to do something risky, and then you don't get a notification for half an hour, and you're thinking. What's he doing? Is he okay sets up a nice relationship? Basically, it just fits the watch. Well, it focuses on quick notifications. You play it in 4 seconds sessions, and you almost forget you're playing at all until the next buzz comes in I, quite like this one, but I think I like lifeline even more.

It's got some of the same ideas: real-time responses, notification, LED design and binary choice responses, but the sci-fi setting and the potential for unexpected turns in the narratives. Has me more intrigued. I look forward to playing both of these games and seeing these intimate conversation like games grow as a viable Apple Watch John rah, a number of big iOS games have been updated with companion apps that let you do simple actions on your watch to communicate with the main game back on your iPhone I tested, modern, combat, 5 apps, which lets you fuss about with your character's loadout, picking grenade and hats and customizing weapons. All from your wrist. To be honest, it seems a little perfunctory.

The sort of pointless product will exist simply because some executives said it should also modern, combat 5, now crashes, every time, I load it on my iPhone, so good job lads keep up the good work. Trivia crack is pretty well done. You need to have started a game on your iPhone, which is a bit annoying, but once that's done, you can pick up any in progress game from your watch. You'll get questions, and can see the available answers with a scroll or a tweak of the digital crown. It's all very clear and easy to read with vivid colors and great animations.

It brings the whole experience of the iPhone game to your watch. So I guess, if you play a lot of trivia crack, this is quite a fast way to play your go when you're out and about snappy word is basically a clone of pick pox for letters. You get four letters on the screen and must make a word. It's simple, it's quick. It's pretty addictive.

The game itself is a bit crap. It has a rubbish dictionary and some annoying oversights. Like most clones. It's not a patch on the original. It also reveals a bit of an issue with the Apple Watch itself.

Third-Party apps seem to have a lot of latency. So when you try and smash out four letters in quick succession, there'll be quite a long delay feel very good. It just feels a bit rubbish, especially as responsiveness has always been such an important factor on the iPhone in the iPad and finally there's watch quest. This was one of my most anticipated Apple Watch games because from a great developer called way forward, and it has an innovative system that spills a game between both your iPhone and your watch. Basically, you use your phone to send a hero off on a mission that might take 30 minutes or so, and you can check in every now and again to feed them an apple open, a treasure chest or play a simple mini-game, but it doesn't have notifications, or at least I, couldn't figure out how to turn them on.

So you basically forget all about the game and then suddenly remember you're playing it load it up and see your hero died in the field. So there we have it some disappointing experiences, some utter rubbish and also some intriguing games. That give me slim hope for this thing. As a gaming platform games like cookie dungeon offer you a quick bit of gameplay when you're bored, lifeline and spy watch feel more intimate on the watch than they put on the phone, and they play to the devices strengths I'm not going to call this an essential gaming platform, yet not by a bloody large margin, but maybe there's something to it. Maybe we'll keep you posted.

Source : Pocket Gamer