Comparing mobile to fixed-site gaming devices

Comparing mobile to fixed-site gaming devices

 

 

Mobile gaming and console gaming each have advantages and disadvantages over the other. These will be mentioned on this post.

In mobile gaming, unlike consoles, these games can be taken anywhere that a person pleases, whether it be in the living room, their bedroom, outside the house, out on the town, etc. Mobile games are not as long as console games, so people who just want a quick game to play while they're on their travels can do so. Also, provided the batteries are charged, you can play a handheld game even if the main household power is cut.

However, handheld devices do have a limited supply of power, and will run out, requiring the use of chargers to recharge the internal batteries (if the system uses them). Also, the graphical capabilities of a handheld device are inferior to consoles, as sacrifices had to be made to the graphical capabilities of a handheld to ensure that the battery life of a handheld doesn't drop like a stone. The amount of game data that can be stored in a handheld game is also significantly smaller than what you see in a console game, & certain games work better on a fixed-device than a handheld (RTS, FPS for example).

In fixed-site gaming, the graphical capabilities are much greater than on a handheld device, it does not require any batteries to be charged as it's powered by the mains. Also, while losing or breaking a handheld usually means that there's no other option but to pay a lot of money for a replacement if you have no warranty, if a controller for a console is lost or broken, it's much cheaper to buy a console controller replacement.

But, it is considerably hard to move around a fixed-site machine if you want to play on it somewhere else, fixed-site games (unless it's a powerful enough PC or a cartridge-based console) take a while to load, a fixed-site device cannot run off of anything other than the main power supply and certain genres of games work better on a handheld than they do a fixed device (casual platformers & RPG's for example).

How much are games reliant on platforms

How much are games reliant on platforms

 

Some games are made to play on all available platforms, while others are made to just be played on one specific platform.

 

For example, the Call of Duty games are made for different platforms (Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, PlayStation 4 & Xbox One) as Activision is not owned by any of the big three gaming console companies (Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo), whereas games like The Last of Us (Naughty Dog, the makers, are owned by Sony, who are behind the PlayStation), Zelda (Nintendo) and Halo (Microsoft, who are behind the Xbox) are made exclusively for one brand of console.

 

Also, depending on what the system is capable of and what development team is making the game, a game may be different depending on the platform is on. The first Star Wars Force Unleashed game, while each version has the same gameplay and story, has different execution depending on what platform you're playing the game on.

For example, the PS3/360 version has different maps compared to the PS2/Wii version, as well as different ways to use attacks (rather than pressing a button to use the lightsaber in the PS3/360 version, you can either use the buttons or flick the Wii Remote in the Wii version. And using Force powers works in the Wii version by doing a motion with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk).

The DS version of the game uses the touchscreen for using Force powers and using the lightsaber to block attacks (using the lightsaber to slash enemies is still used by pressing a physical button).

 

PS3/360

 

 

 

 

Wii/PS2

 

 

 

DS

 

 

 

 

 



 

Upgrades

Upgrades

 

 

 

PC's are the best systems to try and upgrade, mainly because almost anything in the PC can be taken out, and a new version of a piece of hardware and software can be put in its place.

 

An example of the software is the Operating System. When a user wants to upgrade their OS to a higher one, they either download it off the official site that sells the OS, or buy an upgrade disc and run it off there. An example of upgrading in this case is upgrading from Windows 7 to 8.

 

A straight upgrade from one OS to its immediate successor is the method of upgrading that is mostly used, and although an upgrade of one OS to an OS that is more than one generation old is possible, it usually requires an upgrade that loses all files on the PC.

 

It usually takes at least half an hour to upgrade from one Operating System to another, depending on how large or small the new OS is.

 

For hardware on the PC, it is usually very easy to upgrade, as it only requires the user to take out a piece of hardware, and put a new one in its place, provided that the new piece of hardware is compatible with both the PC software and whether or not the hardware can fit into the slot that it should go into.

 

For example, the RAM can be taken out of its small, thin slot and, provided the new RAM can fit into the slot, the new RAM card can be plugged in its place, with no CD required to install the hardware into the PC.

As for consoles, in both the current and next generation, there isn't as much that can be upgraded as a PC can. The only upgrades that can be done are upgrades to the software and firmware that are provided by the manufacturers, and, on the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 & Xbox One at least, you can change the Hard Drive to one that can hold more space.

From the IPhone generation onwards, phones were also able to upgrade, albeit only in terms of software and firmware. Usually, upgrades with these kinds of phones are just bug fixes and vulnerability patches, but sometimes, upgrades mean going up to the next version of whatever operating system your phone uses (iOS, Android, etc), which gives the phone new features or gives it a cosmetic change in terms of how the menu and applications look.