iPad 4 doubles the power, but what developers will use it?

Alongside the much-touted iPad mini, Apple dropped a new iPad 4 on the world. A device no one needs, is ready for, and certainly no games developers will  be working toward. The power of the iPad 3 means games developers wanting to take advantage of that power (for intense graphics, deeper AI, better physics and so on) will be on quite long development cycles for those games.

Dropping the iPad 4 on them and going "hey, have twice as much power" will be welcome, if they were anywhere near maxing out the iPad 3 (of which there is little evidence). But that raw iPad 4 power will sit dormant for at least a generation of games, if not two, untapped and unloved.

The extra CPU and GPU horsepower from the A6X processor might be a call to arms to more mainstream developers (with 100 million iPads now sold, that's a tempting market) but without a proper controller there is still no sign of the iPad become a mainstream game device.

Apple may well reveal a controller alongside the Apple HDTV models next year, which makes more sense, but until then this looks like a big fat waste of processor cycles with no apparent benefit to anyone. As for the iPad mini (pictured), that rates between and iPad 2 and 3 on the power scale, so will be fine for casual gaming, but will disappoint anyone who think they can play the cutting edge titles, or enjoy retina-level gaming as it only has a 1024x768 resolution.

Hunters 2 to sate your tactical iPad gaming lust

Hunters was awesome, so there's every reason to expect the sequel to offer even better tactical turn-based strategy. With a new hardcore mode and perma-death, as if the first one wasn't tough enough, a huge array of new weapons and enemies plus more campaigns, its the modern home for X-Com fans until the real remake turns up.




The new game is having a launch sale at only £2.99/$4.99 so get going for some serious gaming, there's no mention of a hi-res mode for iPad 3 owners, but the original looked pretty decent on my 4S.

Ironworm and Joining Hands get iPad 3 retina support

A couple of cutesy games have received the retina treatment with updates, hardly the core stuff the iPad 3 needs to shine, but developer 10tons gets kudos being early out of the blocks with an update. The titles are Ironworm and Joining Hands, a bug-unfriendly platformer and a puzzle game.

Both are pretty cheap, with some in-app purchases, but the Finnish developer has a decent range of games which may also get the treatment.

Infinity Blade II gets new iPad update

To show of the power of your shiny new iPad 3, a new update is out for the best looking iOS game out there, Infinity Blade II. Improving the resolution of the textures, its a 791Mb upload for that lovely hi-res screen. Expect more games to follow suit.

Mass Effect Infiltrator blazes onto iPad

To support the console release of Mass Effect 3, EA brings a cover-based shooter with some practical benefits for the Bioware's epic space action/RPG tile. Info and assets you find in this game are uploaded to the EA servers and can help you in the climactic scenes of the real deal.



The game is £4.99 or $6.99 and lets you play as a rogue Cerberus agent, Randall Ezno, with a bunch of armour and weaponry upgrades to get you past some hulking bosses.

A first look at Sky Gamblers on the iPad 3

No proper videos for this yet, but take a look at Sky Gamblers from Namco being played on the third-generation iPad. It does look horribly simplistic, but for a first step in the right direction, does a good job of showing off the iPad's new power.



Having Namco at the launch is symbolic of Apple's efforts in the gaming market, it could have easily put up another Angry Birds like game, but both titles on show were pretty core-market games.

Check out Infinity Blade: Dungeons on iPad

Shown off at Apple's launch event, Epic's new game moves from the open air and castles of the first two games and takes a more Diabloeqsue or Ruin-based approach to the action.



Yes, its beautiful and yes it should be okay to control via touch, but will the finesse be there that core gamers are used to? Looking forward to finding out.

Welcome to iPad Roundup, the core games blog

This blog is dedicated to all things core gaming on the iPad. With the third-generation model just launched, I believe that Apple has big things in mind for the gaming market, and now has the quad-core-powered tablet to do it with.



Sure, the first advert doesn't really mention the gaming aspect, but two games were demoed at the launch event and Apple has been hiring gaming talent across the board recently. Expect big scary gaming things from the iPad in 2012.