Even with all the issues txa brought up, it still only takes a SINGLE fantastic complex/meaty CRPG that's fully unique to the iPad platform to turn things around.
That, my friends, is the heart of the issue. The PC is simply an infinitely superior platform for a game like that.
TOTALLY agree ... and you know I am a huge iOS fan. Real time controls on a touchscreen are non-deterministic, so at best they are 'not disappointing'. And they HAVE gotten better, but it is still a compromise.
iPad/iPhone fans need to wake up and realise the natural inferiority of the platform, if you ask me.
I would put a 'that depends' ... because there are several things at play here:
- the hardware in these things is actually pretty staggering. Definitely more powerful as a computer than eithr X360 or PS3. SO there is the one thing where there is a ton of computing capability to be utilized - but also that the OS will not allow for full utilization like devs can do on consoles.
BUT ...
- if all we are asking for is ports or 'just likes', we can NEVER get or expect a superior experience. It is impossible - at best we will get a 'wow, just like on PC, but I can carry it everywhere!'.
- Also, I among others have pointed out areas where the iPad is really a better experience - things like adventure games - but they are not RPGs!
- Others have talked about turn-based, and I agree to an extent - you can think about all of the mouse-driven stuff and see how well it would work on iPad/Android tablets. But then you think about the 27 keys you have on your favorite strategy game and realize how much you would have to adapt the interface. It would be compromise loaded - oh, sure I would LOVE playing Civilization IV on iPad, but let's be realistic.
- I think that if you look at the games that have really excelled, they all bring forward the unique interaction we have with a smartphone. We need something in a RPG that takes that same leap - in other words, something you CAN'T easily do on a PC.
And back to the hardware stuff - because we are anticipating yet ANOTHER leap in iPad hardware in the next couple of months ... what sense would it really make to optimize your code for one specific model? None. And that is a major issue - it is why weaker consoles can seem to perform better than beefy PCs ... because teams are squeezing every drop of performance out of them. For iPads, like PC, people just throw the code at the system and do a bit of general optimization.
I hope Ossian's The Shadow Sun is good (and arrives soon) ... but my expectations are based on the '... for an iPad game' model.
Finally ... why compare to the DS/PSP/ 3DS/Vita? No one here cares about those ... we are PC gamers, and because smartphones/tablets have taken over all growth in the computing space and most of us carry one or both ... we care about how oru preferred gaming can interact with these new technologies.